Hello! Wow, it’s been quite awhile since I last posted on here. And A LOT has happened since then.
I know many of you have heard already, but in case you haven’t I wanted to give you a short update on the current situation my squad and I are in.
We are actually back in America!!! Wild, I know.
Adventures in Missions made the decision to bring home all 500+ world race, gap year, and semesters participants from overseas in seeing how rapidly COVID-19 was escalating in an effort to take precautionary measures to keep all of us healthy and safe. And since we have returned to America, borders all across the world are closing and our ministry partners overseas are also taking precautionary measures against this virus in their own countries as well.
So as difficult and painful as it was hearing we were being brought home, I am grateful for it now. I am grateful to be safe and healthy here in my home country. I am grateful for the 2 months I had overseas and everything God taught me through that time. I am grateful that my race is not over and that this is still just the beginning. I am grateful that God’s not done with me yet and that I can stand confident knowing that there is deep purpose in this time of being stateside. I am grateful that since training camp, the phrase “life is ministry and ministry is life” has gone from being a simple phrase to being the line for which I hope to continue living by for as long as I’m here on this earth.
We have been back in the US for one week now. Which is very surreal. It’s strange thinking about how I was just in Fang, Thailand, ready to jump into ministry with our new host we had just met, excited and expectant to see what God had in store for us there, to now… spending my days in an apartment in Dallas, TX where i’m quarantining with some of my squadmates, grieving the loss of what I had thought these next 9 months of my life were going to look like.
Amongst the change and amongst the whirlwind of emotions i’ve been walking through over this past week, one thing I am sure of is that the more I have expressed my gratitude to God, the more peace I have experienced. The more I praise Him, the more He fills me with joy. The more times I say THANKS GOD, the more my focus is shifted from myself and my circumstances, back onto the One who deserves all the glory and all of my attention. The more I press into His love, the more the fears and anxieties of this world seem to fade away.
One of favorite passages of Scripture and one I have been clinging onto lately in the midst of all of this change and transition is Matthew 6:25-34.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I believe that gratefulness and peace go hand in hand. I saw it many, many times over these past couple of months in Indonesia and Malaysia when my team and I would express thankfulness and praise to God, in the midst of challenging circumstances, the entire atmosphere around us and within us would shift from being anxious-filled to peace-filled.
So today, as I was on a run, I found myself thanking God for all the ways I felt His love and was experiencing His presence right here, right now, in my current location. Some of my praises were –
“Thanks God for…..”
- The sunshine that brought an actual lightness to my spirit after a couple days of feeling the heaviness of anxiety over what’s next
- The wind that carried the leaves through the air, reminding me of a sweet dream I had recently where the Holy Spirit spoke to me about letting God lead me without resisting where He’s taking me
- The bright pink flowers that put a really big smile on my face and made me think of my little sisters and how thankful I am to be able to see them much sooner than I had anticipated
- The way my breath sounds and the way my chest moves as my lungs fill with air as the air flows in and out, with every inhale and exhale – reminding me how its His breath in my lungs
- The physical strength & stamina of my body and the way that with every step further that I take, I am reminded of the intentionality and love that went into God creating me
- The way that the roots along the bottom of every oak tree I passed by remind me of my desire to be deeply rooted in Christ
- The many smiles and waves I received and gave today as I past the families who were out riding bikes together, the kids laughing at one another in their front yard, the man who was playing with his dog in the river, the group of women sitting on blankets at their neighborhood book club all spread out across the lawn enjoying one another’s company (they were all sitting 6 feet apart, of course)
- The streets I was running on and the homes I was passing by and the opportunity this run was to intercede for the families inside those homes and pray for them as I ran by. prayers that they would feel His presence today
- The freedom of religion we have in this country, in America. what a gift that is!
So even when it could be easy to shut down, to feel hopeless, to let the fears or anxieties of this world’s circumstances grow louder and louder, & even when it doesn’t necessarily feel all that easy to praise Him… He is still SO worthy of our praise.
So I’ll continue to say “THANKS, GOD for each day you give me on this earth & for every breath you place in my lungs.”
He is sovereign y’all, and He’s so so good! He is our hope in the mystery!
Also – here’s a little video from AIM explaining the WHY for why we were brought back if you want to check it out!
As far as what’s next, I really don’t know much at this point. What I do know is that the race is not over. My route just changed. I’m not in Thailand this month, I’m in Texas instead. My squad might be able to get back overseas at some point or we might not, but you better believe I’m still treating this time in America, like I am on the race… because if life is ministry and ministry is life, then is the race really ever over? I don’t think so!
Sending you my love & prayers from a little closet inside our quarantine apartment that we turned into our prayer room! I hope you’re having a great day & I hope you too, can choose to be grateful in times like this 🙂
