10 things I've learned since I've began my journey on the World Race:
1) God does things in His own time. One example I learned this from
is when I was healed from my sickness. I wasn't healed by either of the 2
doctors I went to, God decided to wait and eventually heal me when He
was ready to.
2) We don't always understand why God allows some things to
happen in the world. Again, me getting sick is a great example, because
of whatever sickness I had I missed out on a ton of ministry days and while
I was at Debrief I missed almost all of the sessions. Another thing that's
really been evident in the world lately is ISIS. God has the power and
ability to completely stop them whenever and however He wants to, yet
so far He hasn't. I have absolutely no idea why He doesn't just stop all of
them before any more attacks happen, but it isn't my place to know, it's
God's and I have to just accept that.
3) Even in the bad times, God is still good. A little less than a week ago,
we were all sitting back at home and a few from our squad came in and
told us that a 16 year old girl had just committed suicide. Two days later,
our group all went to the wake-type thing that was held at the family's
house to sing, pray and just be there for the family. It honestly was one
of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It broke my heart when one of
the girls friends came and was talking to her in the casket while crying,
just like it did when her mom fell to her knees sobbing while we were
praying for them. I can't imagine being at the place where I feel like the
only solution is to take my life, but German later told us that this tragedy
brought the whole family a lot closer to God. At the time, we can see no
good coming from this girls death, but what the devil means to be evil,
God turns to good (Gen. 50:20)
4) God always provides. I can 100% testify to this statement, how else
would I be able to raise over $15,000 CAD in 5 months? Since I was
accepted for the Race, I had been worrying about funds, when it was in
God's control all along, and I should have realized that if He wants me
to do something, He'll provide for me the means of doing it.
5) If you have faith that God'll show up, He will. Since being here
I've seen or heard about a few miracles that have happened here in
Xenacoj and I'm still amazed by them. During one of our ATL's (Ask The
Lord) one of my squadmates prayed in tongues over a Ketchiquel man,
and the man understood his prayer. A couple of weeks ago we were at
Ayapon playing with the kids, and we were planning on giving them a
little bag of candy at the end. We had I think 40-something bags of
candy, and about 50 kids, so you can imagine our surprise when we
just kept handing out the candy, and there was enough left over to
give to 20 widows the next day.
6) Lice as bad as people make it out to be. Two days ago, we found
out that one of the people here had lice, so everyone had to be checked.
Out of the 15 girls living here, I think only 3 didn't have any, and I
happened to be in the group that did have some. Our ministry for that
afternoon was sitting together having people picking the nits out of our
hair. Through this I've gotten a huge new respect for the people I'm
living with here, because I've had lice before and needed my mom to
spend 3+ hours picking them out of my hair, but I've never had to get
someone that I've only known for 3ish months spend 2 hours helping me.
7) Don't be wishing your time away.I'm still kind of struggling with
not doing this. When I was at home, I couldn't wait to go on this trip,
it was all I'd think about, I would be so impatient for September to come,
but I'm finding that when I'm here I am sometimes longing for things
from home. I sometimes catch myself thinking about what I'll be doing
when I get home, when really I have another 6 months to be doing God's
work away from home.
8) Living in community is hard. We've got 15 girls, 1 bathroom, 2
extremely cramped bedrooms, and out of this experience I'm learning
a lot about patience. Sometimes you just have to suck up little annoyances
because living in community isn't about what you always want, it's about
the people you're living with and putting them first.
9) You're always going to be wishing for something, so learn to just
be happy with what you have.This kind of relates to #7, there's always
going to be something that you want/are wishing for, but if you focus on
that you'll never really appreciate everything that you've already been
blessed with. Sure a lot of the time I find myself wishing I had some item
from home, or my old bed, or some American food (lucky we get Little
Caesar's pretty often), but by focusing on what I want, it takes away from
the fact that how we're living here is sooooooo much better than how we
could be living. We aren't living out of tents, not eating any crazy inedible
food, not sleeping on our sleeping pads, there are tiendas EVERYWHERE
that sell American-ish snacks, our life here is was better than it could be
and I have to remind myself to be thankful for that.
10) Doing this gap year was one of the best decisions of my life. Sure
I miss my family. And I think my clothes permanently smell bad. And I'm
sharing a room with 7 other girls. And some of the stuff I see here is
incredibly hard. And I have days where I'm really homesick. And it cost a
whole lot of money to come here...BUT: I'm traveling the world. I have
a ton of new friends and family. I'm getting the experience of a lifetime.
I'm learning more about God everyday. And I'm following His will for my
life, so how could that ever be a bad decision?
