When reflecting on my twenty first year of life I am left in complete awe and wonder at what my Lord Jesus has done. By his grace I graduated from the best university (Wreck Em) in three years with honors, I finished a yearlong student teaching position, I finished raising almost $17,000 (whaaaaaat????), I said goodbye to everything and everyone I ever loved, and I started traveling the word with a group of 41 complete strangers to countries I have never been to (some of them I honestly had never heard of).
THEN something happened. In this twenty first year my Master gently and steadily changed me. I experienced more of the Father’s love than I even thought possible, I experience more joy and carried more joy within my heart than I ever had before, I saw more of my brokenness and he tilled the soils in my heart that had been left untouched and neglected. I’ve seen darkness in the world that were once just far off thoughts and nightmares. I’ve walked through hard (like REAL hard) and holy and sanctifying things, I saw even greater glimpses of how my Father sees me, I’ve walked in greater fullness of my unique giftings, and I’ve loved harder and served more fiercely than I have in my whole life. As for those strangers I started with in August? They have turned into the most loyal lifelong friends who cause me to worship our Father in deep reverence and awe.
And I’ve also gotten to do some really cool things too, like cliff jump in Greece, live on the coast of the Black Sea, walk the streets of Macedonia, swim in Victoria Falls, see real live elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, and cheetahs, walk the iconic night markets of Asia, and eat a tarantula. Here are some cool pictures (22 to be exact) of what the Lord has caused my eyes to behold this year.
I have been twenty two for a whole 24+ hours and I have a feeling this year is going to be even greater than the last. On my birthday my team allowed me to sleep in until 6:00 (yes, that is sleeping in), then they made me pancakes and I was surprised with a card and flowers from kind and sneaky friends who are not even on my team! At school (my team and I are serving at Eli International School this month) “Happy Birthday” was sung to me in EIGHT different languages, the whole school prayed over me, and during morning break everyone was served cake and ice cream and we danced to a birthday playlist blasting from the speakers. During afternoon break I was able to talk to some sweet friends from home, then I read ten chapters of Harry Potter and after school my team and I went to a village to play with the children in the community. To finish the day my team and another team who’s also in Siem Reap met up at a Mexican food restaurant and we all stuffed ourselves with authentic Cambodian Mexican food and I bought a gorgeous dress at the night market. It has been the fullest birthday and I am bursting with love.
I am excited and greatly anticipating what all God does in and through my life. My greatest hope and prayer is that he would create me to be more like his son and that others would come to know the Father more greatly because of how the Son shines through me.
To everyone who has wished me a happy day, THANK YOU! I love you and deeply appreciate your wishes, thoughts, and prayers. To everyone who hasn’t, don’t worry, you still have a few hours if your’re in America 😉
All my love from this side of the wifi,
Em
