Thank the Lord I am fully funded! If you’d still like to donate money, please donate to my teammates!
Rosie: https://rosieferris.theworldrace.org
Zoe: https://zoerowland.theworldrace.org
Thank you!
‘Sup? It’s been a long and mentally draining week this week! Woohoo (not really).
One super good thing this week is that it was my teammate’s Claire’s birthday! We held a super obvious surprise party for her with karaoke or “Claireoke”! Happy birthday girl!! <3
The rest of the week has been a whirlwind of emotions, crying, goodbyes, and apologies.
I gave my testimony to my team on the second. A testimony is when we tell how we first came into our faith and how God worked on our faith in us, usually through difficult events in our lives.
I gave mine in the format of my family and how they helped shaped me into the person I am, a few of the pivotal points in my life that strengthened my faith, and issues that God is currently helping me through. A lot of the current issues are things that I’ve struggled with for years: feeling ignored and forgotten, feeling like a burden, and not fitting in.
Recently, as in two days ago, I realized that I had been crumbling under the weight of these. They were cropping up in my life in Thailand, but since I’ve lived with them so long, I hadn’t realized how much worse they were. On the second, I told my team about that.
It was freeing. I have more issues that I didn’t mention here, and several of those were things that I had never voiced out loud.
They are all lies. I am loved, I am cared for, I am a child of God. And God is working on reassuring me of all of those things.
The next day, I lost my bag. Currently, I don’t have any money and have been relying on others to pay for my meals and other essential things. No groceries for me in the near future 😉 I’ve been praying to the Lord that He will just make my bag appear. So far it hasn’t happened, and it really hit me yesterday.
It’s been extremely difficult, but I think God is teaching me to depend on others through this. I was talking with one of my squadmates yesterday, Lily, after a slight breakdown. I was refusing her offer to buy dinner for me because I really don’t want to be a burden and I feel like I’m essentially taking her money. She put a new perspective on the issue though: by doing this, she’s serving me.
As disciples of Christ, we are called to serve others, which is what I try to do. This’s partially where the burden mindset comes from, because I don’t want others to have to look after me. But after Lily told me that, I had realized that that was a good view to have. She was offering, willingly and out of her own money, to buy dinner for me – the best way to serve me at that moment.
In the end, I accepted and Lily, Heather (another squadmate of mine), and I walked to Butter is Better Bakery, a little bakery with American-style food and about a seven minute walk from the hostel. It was delicious!
I haven’t been sleeping well- as in, I stay up too late reading :/ I’ve been working on adding better habits to my repertoire, and weeding out bad ones. We have devotions in the morning at seven, and I wake up at six. Now, once I get ready for the day, I go downstairs to the common area and journal. I used to get up and just read on my phone.
Reading the Bible and journaling has become much more relaxing in the mornings. Now I’m trying to go to bed earlier- I’ve told my teammates to call me out if they don’t see me sleeping when it’s late. It’s a work in progress for all of us.
Otherwise, it’s the end of first month ministry at Wildflower Home. Our team and Team Ahava were working together there- unfortunately, our team will be moving to a different ministry in two weeks. Team Ahava will stay at Wildflower Home.
Yesterday was our last day of ministry and it was so bittersweet. Usually, we did manual labor underneath the blazing hot sun. Instead, some of the team modeled dresses and merchandise for Wildflower Home (including yours truly!) We made soap and danced to music. We sang over the new house for the mothers there, asking God to bless it, and ended in this AMAZING room they have there.
The acoustics are fantastic. So we sang our hearts out and it was glorious! I got chills from almost every song and the pure emotions as we sang about God’s goodness. Afterwards, Sister Anurak had us sing one last song (You’re A Good, Good Father) in front of Wildflower Home and everyone. In that moment, nervousness didn’t exist. It was just the goodness of the Lord being proclaimed.
At the end of the day, the ladies at Wildflower Home provided snacks and drinks for us and we all danced to Katie’s Spotify. It was so bittersweet leaving the Home. We waved goodbye to all the ladies and all the children.
Next week, we’ll be going on debrief! A week of rest and relaxation from ministry, sprinkled with teachings and sessions. I can’t wait!!
So.
The Lord has a plan for every situation. He may not play His hand right away, or in a way that we can see it. At Wildflower Home, the Lord has been showing me the value of physical labor (I am not strong in the slightest), and working on little things that I’ve had issues with that I didn’t even realize were blocking my way to Him! I’m eager to grow at our next ministry, and mournful for the loss of Team Ahava.
I’m gonna ask for some prayer here. Please pray for Team Ahava (Link here to one of the girls, Adriana Churness: https://adrianachurness.theworldrace.org) and for their continued work at Wildflower Home, as well as for Wildflower Home itself. Please pray for my squad, Squad Y- Satan is going after us all, and right now it’s in the form of sickness. Thank you all.
Taking it all to the Lord, Cheyenne
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. ~Acts 2:42-47 NIV
