“over and over again, you’re love and your mercy begin. no matter how far you find me where i am” -i am they (song)
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
hello wonderful friends and fam!! i hope you are all doing well and have been filled with the peace that surpasses all understanding!! peace has been something that i have struggled with over the past few months but our wonderful God has walked with me every step of the way!!!
so graduating high school….it was definitely the biggest life adjustment i’ve ever experienced! i’ve been at the same school for my whole life and it just seemed like out of the blue everything was changing and i had no plans for college and no plans for my next year. after months and months of prayer i was able to see Gods faithfulness as he literally opened every single door for world race and it was when i committed to it that i found peace. but that didn’t mean that everything stayed that way forever and i had no more struggles.
i committed to world race knowing absolutely no one except for one girl who i knew of… didn’t actually know her. i’m a person that always likes to be around ppl and have close friendships with so not having those best friends that i can always call at any minute (bc i don’t have wifi) was a super scary thought!! but through the whole experience i jut felt God saying “don’t worry lean into me and i will give you peace”
so come training camp i finally meet my team-LOVE THEM- and everything finally started to feel like i could have a little more control and it was then that i became super nervous for the steps ahead-you know moving to a different country and all bc i was relying on myself. but then they did a prayer tunnel during training camp and without fail EVERY SINGLE LEADER (there was abt 12) prayed something along the lines of peace, rest, or embrace from the Lord. and throughout those whole 5ish days i was again reminded to lean wholeheartedly into God because people fail but God is constant and he is the one in control not me and not anyone else!! and when i did that i felt so much PEACE!
we have an amazing God that meets us where we are over and over again and never fails to show me his faithfulness!! and no matter how many times he had to remind me he is faithful through it all.
ecuador: so once we finally got to the country it was again-a big adjustment! its like a college student moving away from home except there’s also a lil bit of a language barrier (thank goodness for dr king and spanish 3 to help me understand a lil hehe) and the fact that at home (even though i can be directionally challenged at times) i can still find where most things are, but here….i don’t know where anything is and on top of that i can’t rely on google maps or even phone calls to get around!! it was intimidating to say the least but once again i saw Gods faithfulness through a local man named mariano.
mariano is a local coffee shop owner. if you know me you know this is right up my ally because the coffee addiction is REAL! but the place is 2 mins walking away from the house and they have $1.60 huge plantains (my luv) and $0.75 COFFEE!! a true blessing. AND they blast mamma mia!! i’ve been a lil sick so it’s been a place where i can feel a lil bit of normalcy among this crazy cool adventure!! and mariano talks with us and helps us practice out spanish and it’s been amazing to get to know this sweet older gentleman! and we’ve only been here for like 4 days!!! one day when we went in he didn’t have change so he just said “come back tm and pay me then” this community is so trusting and built on relationships which has been amazing to take part in and to build! i’m super excited to see how we get to know people like mariano more and more and to show them the love of our amazing Lord Jesus Christ and hopefully welcome them into the family of believers!!!
another story of our awesome God!!! so we work with this ministry called “pan de vida” (“bread of life”) we have just began the ministry and have been working on cleaning up the facilities, painting, and preparing for the outreach worship, message, and meal on sunday!! but yesterday we started with worship just within my team and the people who work there! only one speaks english so it sometimes creates a barrier of not being able to understand. however as we were worshipping together we sang “reckless love” and the one who could speak english sang along while the other workers prayed and worshiped as well! it was a cool reminder that even though we exist in different “worlds” between culture and language and everything else we are still UNITED under a God who is above all of that and that we are serving him!!
i am super thankful for all of you and your prayers and support that allowed me to go!! please continue to pray for the team as we journey through this crazy amazing experience!! pls pray for unity, compassion, hearts like Jesus, peace, understanding, and most of all that God receives all the glory forever and ever!!
