HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!!!!!!!
It’s hard to believe that 2018 is coming to a close, and man what a year it has been for me with the highlight being finally fulfilling the promise I made to God when I was 17 by serving him and his people on a long term mission trip, and quitting my job of 5 years in order to obey God’s call that this was the right time to take that next step- The World Race
2017: My New Year’s eve last year consisted of me working at my former job from 4pm-9pm then going and grabbing McDonalds for dinner before heading home to relax and watching the action that was going on in Times Square (while thinking about just how much I miss that place), and beginning my World Race countdown.
2018: My team and I are celebrating the new year with the kids of Mi Casa with a turkey dinner done Salvadoran style, and we’ll be shooting off fireworks once again at midnight to ring in the new year later on tonight. Earlier today my team hosted a Beauty for Ashes session with the girls which is a sub ministry of AIM that focuses on empowering women, and helping them in their faith journey, and it also provides healing from their past through faith in Christ. We then had lunch and then in the afternoon we all, the girls and my team, had a siesta (or in my case I took the opportunity to listen to my music & write this blog) before partying it up tonight to ring in the new year.
My team has done an incredible job of fundraising for the kids of Mi Casa to get their education fully funded for the upcoming school year in addition to just loving on them, and being role models for the girls.
But before then I thought I take some time to reflect on this past year, and just how awesome it has been for me, and what lessons 2018 taught me.
Faith wise, I have grown so much over the past year as well. God assured me that this was the year that he wanted me to go on the Race, and serve his people, and like a good servant of God I obeyed, and during that waiting period before training camp, God taught me things that I never thought that I would ever learn, and he worked on my heart to prepare me for the Race in ways only he can. He slowly closed on the door on my retail career during this time in order to teach me that he does have a greater plan for me, and that he’ll show me that plan in the upcoming year.
God also taught me the virtue of patience as time got closer for me to leave for the World Race especially during the last month of my job (as I seriously thought about quitting about 43 times each shift I worked). I realized that patience is an important part of the race as all 3 of our ministries so far, I have needed a huge dose of patience, so patience is def a area of my life that I have grown in during these early months of my Race.
Another lesson that I have learned is to not to let my past define me. My struggle with self esteem, personal identity, mental illness, and self worth were things that I was dealing with both before I found a job, and even while I was working to a certain extent as in a way I had made work part of my identity. I felt like I had to fight those battles alone because no one would understand what it was like to deal with those issues. I put on a tough exterior, and quietly fought those demons while going about my daily life.
As these were the issues that God brought to my mind during training camp, and he told me through others that these things meant nothing, and that no matter what God saw me as his, and that I am his daughter- how cool is that I am a daughter of the most high King. The more I am on the Race, the more I am beginning to see this fact, and to me that is such an awesome feeling. Getting rebaptized and recommitting my life to Christ on the last day of training camp was also a huge deal for me, and a big highlight of 2018 for me.
Yeah 2018 was a hard year, but it was a good hard year for without it I would still be caught in the rat race that I was in, but now I know that 2019 will bring a new direction to my life.
I am so looking forward to what God revels to me in the coming year, and I am excited to spend most of 2019 traveling the world with 36 awesome peeps that make up P Squad.
Cheers to 2019 & the journey ahead!
Til next time your fellow sister in Christ,
Bonnie
Team Surrendered
P Squad
Psalms 18:2
YOLO
