Sometimes things don't go as you planned, and sometimes that's a good thing.
I thought that my team would always stay together, but last week we were asked to send two of us to a retreat somewhere for four days to help with a kids camp. We didn't have any other information, but we decided that Austin and I would go. After committing to this, we found out that we were running the whole kids program, not just helping. So after visiting a church on sunday morning and helping with their service, the two of us were taken to another church and left to be picked up by somebody else (we didn't really know whom). Our new friends brought us about an hour away through the beautiful countryside (or bush) of Australia to a place that I am pretty sure I have had dreams about.
Orchard Glory is a fully operating farm with animals and orchards of over a dozen different kinds of fruit trees set in the sprawling hills that seem to go on forever. My favorite scent in the world is the smell of citris blossoms, and I was now in an orchard of all of these while they were blooming. I love the countryside and being away from civilization where it is quiet and peaceful and you can see all the stars at night. Watching the night sky is when I have had some of my best and longest conversations with God. I love cool evenings when you can hear the wind blowing through the fields and watching the sun set unabstructed by buildings. This was the ideal setting that my heart longs for. A scenario set up by God in more ways than I could have guessed. When I arrived I found out that one of the pastor's had known I was coming. More specifically, God had been showing her things about Maine (of all places) and told her to be ready. She already knew where I was from before I introduced myself. She wasn't sure what all this meant, and it wasn't until the next day that she had it sorted out. It didn't all make sense to her, but she went on to share with me a lot of things that God had shown her about me and things that I have struggled with. She spoke life into me with words that would have only resonated like that with me specifically. She cut straight to core issues and spoke words of hope and healing over me. She took a risk sounding foolish, and blessed me incredibly. This is the second time that this has happened to me since I left home. It will never cease to blow my mind.
Besides being incredibly blessed by our surroundings and the beauty of His creation, Austin and I also got to devote our time and energy to twelve awesome kids. Ages three to thirteen. We played tons of games, ran around, did Bible studies (I got to have the little guys), they helped us do our own worship times, and we just had a blast getting to know them and spend time with them. Of course it was crazy at times. Lots of yelling and screaming and tripping and falling, but it's all part of the territory of giving it all you've got when you're playing. I know the adults at the retreat had an incredible time during their sessions, but I feel like my time with the kids was equally as blessed. Being able to watch their personalities forming, get to know their frustrations, what thrills them and hurts their feelings, how they feel valued, and especially, when you would see their integrity, respect, and care for each other coming out…that's what I like being able to witness.
The church family at Zion Fellowship welcomed us into their family so completely that week, and we were so blessed by their hospitality and the care that they showed us. I know we came to help them, but God used so many facets of being there to grow me and bless me at the same time. It was a wonderfully exhausting few days.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11
