Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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NOTE: I wrote this yesterday, but b/c I HATE posting blogs without pictures, I held off from posting til today.

It’s raining in Gainesville today. I like the rain. I don’t like thunder, but I do like the rain. Really close to the office there are some big plans for a park, fully equipped with several sports fields. For weeks now there have been bull dozers and tractors flattening the land so today it’s really, really muddy. Audrey, Katie and I were driving back from lunch and passed this lovely muddy mess. Audrey mentioned that it would be so much fun to play in the mud. I agreed that it would be soooo much fun to run in the rain and even slide down the muddy hills. Seriously, right now I wish I could leave the office and play in it. 
 

A lot of you who know me really well know that I like to get messy. I like to jump into a mess and try to make something beautiful out of it.  The best part about attempting to fix my brakes was that I got grease all over my hands and I love spray painting things because it can be really sloppy. Don’t get me wrong, I love showers and being clean…but mostly after I’ve earned it by getting messy. 

While on the race I loved to explore with my teammate Katie. When I first started the race my constant prayer was that God would give me eyes like Him. To see things, that He sees. Then one day I heard Him say, “Katie sees through My eyes.” From that point on I tried my best to see the things that she saw. She had this awesome way of coming up with random things to do that at first didn’t seem very fun but always ended up being something memorable.  Katie would find something that I thought was a hopeless mess and show me just how beautiful it really was. 

I miss that. I miss building a sidewalk in the 120 degree, 100% humidity of the Philippines. I miss carrying cinder blocks for hours in Guatemala to build a house. I miss walking from hut to hut in Kenya praying for people. I miss going into really stinky hospitals in Tanzania believing God for miracles. I miss playing games in the dirt with the kids in Nicaragua. I miss it all. 

So many of you have asked me why I’m not out there in “the dirt” bringing Kingdom. More and more I’m realizing that this is “the dirt”. I love where I am now. I actually like to come to work and love the people I work with. I get to send amazing young adults to the places I, myself, fell in love with. I get to encourage them when their support doesn’t seem to be coming in and believe God for a miracle alongside them. I get to pray for them and watch them grow through their blogs. I get to see them bring their own mess to the table at training camp and dance with them for hours on end in celebration once they’ve given it up to the Father, knowing that I get to send THEM. This is the dirt that God has placed me in and I love it.