I am past the half-way point.
Today is the first day of debrief before we start month 7 in Rwanda.
I finally have time to sit down, breath, and ask myself:
What does the last 6 months mean to me?
What have I learned and how have I changed?
What crazy things have I experienced?
Here are a few things that summarize what happened each month:
Month 1-El Salvador (San Vicente)
- Visited a waterfall, beach, and camped on a mountain
- Learned how to choose to love someone
- Learned the meaning of giving grace to a person
- Led worship in Spanish
- Learned how to pray for people's hearts to change, rather than calling them out
- Ate donutwaffles and papusas
- Had 7 hr. bed of the truck rides and 4 hr. revival services
Month 2-Honduras (Tegucilopa)
- Led worship with a guitar and led worship in Spanish
- Taught music classes in Spanish to 1st and 4th grade
- Gave up make up and learned how to define my beauty in Christ (1 Peter 3:3-4)
- Ate on the floor, washed my clothes by hand, and slept in a tent for a month
- Learned how to make fried plantain
- Met an elderly lady on fire for God at a nursing home and rubbed her feet
- Saw kids living in the trash dumps
- Gave a Bible to a girl at INFA
- Lived in community with 45 people for a month
- Read the book "radical" and learned the meaning of the Great Commission
Month 3-Nicaragua (Diriamba)
- Learned about leadership
- Read the Circle Maker and started prayingcircles around things in my life
- Experienced 24 people in a 15 passenger van
- Rod horseback at the beach
- Had 2 bats fall on top of me at 4am
- Shared a Bible study in Spanish
- Taught 3 teenagers how to play guitar and piano
- Learned how to accept God's love completely
Month 4-Thailand (Chiang Mai)
- Team changes to an all girl team
- Sang at an open mic night
- Experienced "Song Kron" Thai New Years
- Rode an elephant and visited a waterfall
- Befriended prostitutes and worked in human trafficking
- Learned how to trust God with my burdens
- Fasted Sundays for my family
- Learned the importance of planting, watering, and harvesting (1 Corinth. 3:7-11)
- Laid on a tiger and danced in the rain
Month 5-Cambodia (Kampong Cham)
- Saw monkeys
- Visited the beach and went on a boat where everyone puked
- Visited the Vietnamese floating village and Muslim village
- Went to jail and preached the gospel to where 30 prisoners got saved
- Went to a church in Khmer
- Visited girl/boy mountain and the temples
- Visited the genocide museum and killing fields
- Taught guitar and music theory
- Learned the Filipino dance
- Experienced no electricity
- Saw fried tarantulas and insects
Month 6-Malaysia (Kuala Krai)
- Saw the petronas towers (2nd largest in the world)
- Learned how to make spring rolls
- Tried soy milk, snake fruit, fried bananas, chicken foot/heart, curry, Indian tea, and fish eye ball
- First time I ate with my hands
- Went to the beach and rode on a banana boat
- Played hymns for a Chinese church
- Sang in Tamil at the Indian Church
- Learned about prayer, patience, and being ready (2 Timothy 4:2)
- Went to Singapore and went to the beach
Each month has been different and I have learned something different. But overall the biggest change is in who I was and who I am now.
I now realize how consumed I was with myself before the race. I thought I knew God's heart but I am beginning to realize that I was so far from Him.
God is bigger than I imaged. His love and heart for the lost has changed me from the inside out. I had plans before the race, I had desires for my life.
But I now see them as nothing compared to the calling God has on my life. I could go home after these 6 months and ignore the truth that I have so evidently seen.
God desires for us to go to the lost, dying, and poor of this earth and give them the only hope that remains. Jesus Christ!
I can no longer ignore the fact that God has placed me on this earth for a reason and a purpose and that is to bring Him glory and share the truth of who He is with the nations.
My prayer for you is that God will begin to show you His heart for the lost and that you will be compelled to do something about it. That you will commit your life to bringing Him glory and proclaiming who He is!
