This blog is late. Sorry. It’s been a busy week. Right now I’m sitting with Monica, Naomi, and Marah watching Once Upon a Time. So if any of this doesn’t make sense in a grammatical or simply sensical sense, that’s why. I’m partially distracted.
But this past week and a half has been full of interesting twists and turns.
Part One: Logistics
First things first. Because our awesome logistics team worked so hard for the past seven months and according to our leadership team things have been crazy difficult for them so they’ve given them the past four months to rest. Yay Haley and Monica!
Aaaaand that brings us to me. Yep. Yours truly has been asked to step up with the lovely, capable and all-around incredible Jessica Torres to be the new logistics team.
(This is where we all start running for the hills.)
So in the past few days we have been scrambling to figure out transportation to Thailand, our next and eighth stop on this crazy adventure. There is no way with less than a week, two newly minted teammates who don’t know what they’re doing and a language barrier that we could have gotten anywhere. That’s where God came in. He is so good and everything seems to be a go at this point. I’d tell you more, but my teammates could potentially be reading this and they can’t know for a few more days.
Love you guys!
Part Two: The Mural
Over the course of a week we have been able to help one of the local people with a project. This man and his wife are making a mall in Penang, a kind of art center where artists will be able to sell their products out of shipment containers. Currently they are still undergoing construction but his vision for the place is to have all the walls, all the crates he wants to be painted and covered in murals.
Melissa met him through a street artists we met on the way to ministry one day. So she was able to meet up with this guy, hear his vision and offer to paint a mural for him free of charge. If you look on facebook, you can see the end results. Personally, I think it’s amazing. Melissa even let all of us paint inside the lines and help her out a bit. It was really cool.
It was actually really hot.
But it was such a cool experience.
Anyway, she and the few of us who went with her got to bless this man and his wife. It’s been incredible to watch that relationship grow so much within the course of a few days.
Part Three:
I got another tattoo. The story behind this one is pretty interesting. Or at least I think so.
One of the AIM staffers we worked with in Guatemala gave me a word about wolves near the end of our first month. Basically she said she saw me as someone who runs with wolves, that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are my pack and I need to run with them.
There are so many lessons to learn here and God had slowly been revealing them to me over the past six months. Here are just a few things I’ve learned.
Wolves are wild. Untamed. I have the freedom to be that person in Christ. It’s still about stepping further into my identity and I’m still working on this one.
A wolf’s strength lies in it’s pack. If I try to do things by myself I have no strength.
That’s also where it’s power lies. But if a wolf does not trust it’s pack, it’s as good as being alone. With no trust, there is no power.
The people who God has given me to be in my life, people for me to pour into and for me from whom I am to learn. These people, who are my spiritual family are also a part of my pack.
Wolves are born with weapons: claws and fangs and intellect and strength. God has also given me weapons to use against the enemy in this war we are waging.
That’s a short recap.
Love y’all,
Tigerlily
