It’s quiet.
It’s been 14 days.
People were still cleaning and packing. I was grabbing my things – hugging people.
Then I was in the car with Stacy and the house, street, vans were falling away in the background.
And we were driving back to where this had begun.
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I’m in a room now.
My bed is against a wall that’s basically all window.
My guitar, notebook, and kavu are on one side.
I’m sitting at a desk to the left of the futon bed. Waiting – hoping – for my phone to charge enough to allow me to get it’s hotspot.
And trying to think of what to say.
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What do you say when you’ve stopped moving after moving for the last 270 days…?
I’ve taken a few walks in the afternoons.
I’ve said hello to street people when I’ve passed them.
I haven’t stopped yet.
Anyway, the Spirit hasn’t prompted me.
I don’t know these places yet. But I will.
The latinos washing cars half way down the block – I wave at them and they look back at me like I’m crazy and wave back with bated hesitation.
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I got two pairs of pants at the goodwill.
I could have brought some from my stash in California, but I didn’t.
I didn’t make time.
I haven’t done laundry yet, and when I’m not helping my friend with her baby, or walking, I’m laying on the futon staring at the ceiling trying to put together some words – some feelings – some motivation to propel me from the last year into the next hour – day – week.
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I see people like I didn’t before this last year.
“I know you have something,” I think, when I ask someone if they want prayer.
I smile more – like I used to. And I engage in small talk. All for the sake of the gospel. That I might have a chance to pray for them, or tell them something about Jesus’ love for them.
All so they might crack open a little and let me love on them a little. For Jesus’ sake.
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This last year was a gift.
A gift the Lord gave to me, and a gift that I was able to give to people across the United States. I am so grateful for the people I got to do life with this year. Both those who hosted us, did ministry with us, cooked and ate with us, and those who I lived out of bags and a cooler in a van with.
Both the people that I fell in love with, and those who pushed me out of my comfort zone(s). The people who encouraged me and the people who drove me to seek God’s strength and grow fruits of the spirit.
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How do you sum up a year of life?
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Thank you Emily, Chris and Darla, MelissaP, Joann, and Johanna for your encouraging words on my last blog!
Thank you for your prayers and for reading and so too becoming a witness of what God has and is doing in the States!
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When I left my team I got picked up by my Florida Sister Courtney and she took me home and her and her husband Richie treated me to dinner – then the next day she took me to the airport.
I couldnt shake the call on me to see people. To engage with them.
I don’t think I talked with anyone that day without intentionally engaging somehow.
I got to pray with people anxious about their flight in security, a gentleman selling health products in the terminal, the stewardesses, other passengers, people waiting on layovers in the coffee shop and a nearby restaurant, and even the waiter there.
I felt full by the time I stepped off the plane and landed in California for thanksgiving.
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It is hard to go from that and then see conflict in your own family and have to silently intercede with the Father on their behalf.
It’s so much easier to listen to the small voice and follow through on doing random and culturally strange things – then to sit in silence without prompting from the Spirit and have to observe hurt in ones own family.
No. My family isn’t perfect and isn’t doing well.
It was a sweet reunion with some of my family. To see them, to hug them, to hear the good things and the hard things God had walked through with them this year.
To hear of His faithfulness – and hear it coming out of my Grandfathers mouth!
Out of a mouth that up to this year has denied everything having to do with the Lord!
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Super kewl SUPER AMAZING to see so many prayers for him starting to bear fruit!
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Then I was off again.
Off on a plane to Houston to help my friend out for a bit and pray about what God wants to invite me into next.
Please pray for me in this time I am in Houston!
More blogs to come as I go back and try to share key moments throughout the year where I saw God moving!
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The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance!
-Psalm 16:6
