Throughout the race, many people have encouraged me to speak up and use my voice. They have stressed the value and weight of my words. During the trip, I was able to put this into practice not only with my teammates but in sharing messages/sermons with different groups of people and speaking to elementary, high school, and college classes about the our trip and what we were doing. It’s not something I find enjoyable, but it has definitely become easier for me to speak in front of people. Now that I am back in the States, many different people want me to share about my experiences; so, I will be speaking. I will be sharing with the rotary, speaking in youth groups and church groups, and I have even been asked to speak in social work classes at my college.
During the race, we were asked to write a blog so that all of you would know what I was up to in ministry and what God was teaching me along the way. When I found out about having to do the blog, I did not want to do it. It was the thing I was dreading the most about our trip. I hated writing because it takes me forever to process and think of what I want to write and then figure out how to write it. At first, blogging felt like I was back in school with homework and I’m sure that my teammates can attest to the fact that I would sit there a long time working on the blogs, but with time it came a little bit easier. I knew the importance of you having the information and I, again, have learned that I need to share things. Returning to the States, I thought that my blogging days were over. Some of my teammates have created new blogs and seeing them I thought to myself, “I’m not doing that.” Well, a couple nights ago, God told me otherwise. As I’ve learned, I have a different perspective than others, it is important for me to offer my insights and share my perspective. So I am going to do just that instead of keeping my thoughts to myself. I plan to share what God is teaching me and different thoughts that I have while pursuing God’s truth in life. Since it is more of my thoughts and not necessarily related to my ministry or the WR, I created a new blog to fit that. If you are interested, feel free to check it out at http://www.truthsnipermusings.blogspot.com/. Besides blogging, I feel like God is telling me that I need to raise awareness of what is going on around the world to the social work profession. So I may also be writing some articles for social work magazines/ journals. I have been looking into that, exploring my options, and having to remember how to write professionally. I will also need to have more of a focus so I need to figure out how to approach that. If you could be praying about that for me, I would appreciate it!
The thing I have been focused on most though is that God has told me to run. I started running with my teammates in Malaysia (you may have read my blog about it) and since then that has been the word God is continually telling me. As some of my teammates started to worry about needing to know what was next, all I could think about was “What do I do about Ch***?” My month in Ch*** was my hardest month and it impacted me the most. It is the place that broke me and a place I cannot forget or ignore. (If you haven’t heard about my experience, you can read about it in my Behind the Wall blog). I don’t know that it means going back there (although it might at some point) but I knew that I needed to do something. In Malaysia and back in the States, I kept asking God… “What about Ch***?” And all I kept hearing Him say was, “Run.” Ch*** is not a place that I would chose to go but if that is where God wants me, I will go. So I kept asking God… “What about Ch***? Do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?” And again, all I heard was “Run.” And so I ran thinking that God would tell me what to do about Ch*** when I needed to know…. Sometimes I can be a little slow when it comes to figuring out what God is trying to tell me but in many different ways of God telling me, I finally connected the dots. God wasn’t just telling me to run but he was answering my question. I found out that the organization that we worked with has an annual 10k walk/run around the world to raise money to be able to help get more kids out of the government run welfare centers. And so, I intend to run. However being back in the States and talking with some of you guys, I realized that this not only affected me but many of you. So with that knowledge, I wanted to give you guys an opportunity to get involved and join me in fighting for these children. I am planning to lead my own walk in my hometown. I am organizing the 10k walk/run for September 24th. If you are in the area, please prayerfully consider joining me! You can walk or run to raise awareness of what is going on and have your friends and family financially support you. If you are not in the area, you can look for a location near you or please consider financially supporting me in this. My kids NEED you! To sign up visit www.walkthewall.org or click here or to support me you can also visit the website or click here.
