I
met this girl and I knew she was special, what I didn’t know was that she would
be one of the most influential people I met on this trip. I didn’t meet her
around the world. I met her in Gainesville, Georgia at training camp.
At
first she intimidated me, she had blogged already like 700 times and I had no
idea what blogging was. She was one of the most prepared people I’d met at
camp, and I was pretty much sure that she knew everything about everything.
Then
came Ireland. She captured my heart. I had the privilege of praying for her
during a night of worship and spoke life and truth into her. I literally
watched freedom come and life pour back into her soul. I was honored to have
the chance just to show her love. I’d also like to add that I was and I am
currently obsessed with her beautiful skin, so I would have her pray over my
pimples. She thought I was weird, and rightly so but I had do it anyway, and
she did. My pimples didn’t clear up but we formed a friendship that sticks
today.
I’ve
seen her grow leaps in bounds. I can never forget just listening to her preach
it to us during worship nights. She spoke with such conviction, and boldness.
I’m looking at her like, what? Who is this? A woman of God that loves others,
and the coolest thing is, is that the freedom she embraced was the freedom of
letting God love her. She not only pressed into that month 3 in Hungary when I
was with her, but that hunger to be loved by God grew and poured out onto us. I
watched her as she got baptized in the sink at the church we were staying at.
Ashley Higgins baptized her speaking more life and encouragement into her sweet
soul. I watched, cried and worshipped God thinking “how blessed I am to have
shared this experience, and I kind of want 100 more just like this.” I giggled
the day she let me cut her hair into a fohawk. She trusted me enough to touch
her lovely locks, and use a pair of clippers for the first time let alone
cutting a fohawk for the first time ever. I ended up cutting her hair another
time in Turkey at the hostel and maybe one more time, before she decided to let
her hair grow out.
I
have to say the last couple months, especially being with her in Thailand and
sharing Jesus with the bar girls was so memorable. Seeing her just love those
women and love us women at the house was a gift everyday. Speaking of gifts,
this woman is a walking, breathing, gift giver. I remember when Ashley Higgins
said that it was her birthday, and there was some things that she wanted. Well,
Daina got vanilla flavored creamer from the states shipped to Ashley in
Thailand, just because she was that loved. That’s not the end or beginning of
her giving. We all remember when Dez broke her guitar, and we all remember when
she got a new one. That had Daina’s name written all over it. She pretty much
took that surprise in her own hands and made Dez feel so special. That’s pretty
much what Daina does all the time, she makes people feel special. I probably
have at least three handwritten notes from her from the year and so does
probably all of the squad. “It’s like she just reads your book,” as Lindsay
would say. Oh, and I was there the day that Lindsay got her camera stolen right
from her arm on the streets of Vietnam. Lindsay, just prayed and asked God to
have her camera just delivered back to the hostel we were at that night. Well,
I don’t know how Daina heard about Lindsay that day, but she did and she went
off and running. That was the night that Daina delivered a brand new version of
her camera to her room, just as Lindsay had prayed. I also remember a pray to
God, “Dear Lord, if you want me to go home and visit my family, I pray you
would just provide it.” No sooner than 2 days later, I’m talking with the girls
about post race and going to Project Searchlight, but also trying to go home to
visit family. Daina pipes in and says, “oh, I have a free flight with
southwest, if you want to use it.” I’m like “what?” So later on that week,
she’s picking out dates and reserving a flight for me through her hard earned
points. Freaking insane!!!
That’s
just the way she is, Daina is insane for God. The last month of the race is one
where we’re all eager to have our computers, posting our last blogs, watching
movies, getting online and yada yada. Well, not for Daina. Here she goes being
like Jesus again and pretty much giving her computer to Lauren for the month,
because Lauren doesn’t have one. She generously gave it to her to have so that
she could work on projects and have access to internet. Who does that? Daina of
course. Oh yeah and Drea’s ipod got stolen in Turkey, what did Daina do? She gave Drea her ipod, which we were able to use on the bus ride from Vietnam to Cambodia. Thanks D!!! Let’s not forget all the times I’ve borrowed her card reader, gotten
music from her in Hungary (which was pretty much her whole library). We had fun
that night Daina, remember eating pretzels and you playing Lithuanian folk
music for me. Oh, and sharing food is no biggie for her, she gets the most
prized possessions on this trip, starbursts, skittles, kool-aid, cake mixes and
shares them with everyone. These are items that are like gold on the trip.
These are items that we might fight over, but she just gives them freely. I can’t
stop thanking God for a woman like Daina. She arrives tonight to our ministry
location with flowers for Stacy. Why? Because Stacy loves flowers and Daina,
was you know jus thinking of her and thought she would like it.
Well
Daina, this is from me to you! You are one of the main reasons I started
blogging and writing is a gift you encouraged me in. You also love words of affirmation
and I’m speaking your language babe. I just wanted to give you the thanks and
acknowledgement for me so like Jesus, that it changes us. It influences me to
give, to pay attention to others needs and to encourage whenever I can. You are
a gift to me. You are a joy that I will miss having close to me. I won’t forget
your kindness this year, whether it was to me, our squad or to the strangers
that became friends. I am a woman of God because you chose to be the woman God
created you to be. We’re the body and we love because He first loved us. Keep
changing the world by being you. That is enough. You are enough and if anyone
reads this, and doesn’t know Daina, you need too. She would welcome you with
open arms. Love you D!!!!!
