as I sit back and process my time in Gainesville ending, I am at a complete loss for words. How do I put into words the joys and hardships of this season? of sessions in the mornings and walks on the trails in the afternoon. of moments shared over family squad meals and the sinking feeling of knowing you left your rainfly of your tent off when it starts to rain. of heart surrendering worship and waking up ready to experience another glimpse of heaven? I simply do not know. I compiled a list of my favorite moments and it took up 6 full pages of my journal. I’ve somehow reduced what I’ve learned to a list of 20, but know that I cannot even begin to explain the heart change of this time. I could write a list of 50 things I learned in a day. in an hour.
God has turned my reluctant yes to my favorite season of life thus far. Praise the Lord for being bigger than who I could ever imagine Him to be. and praise the Lord that there’s more! We get to launch to Costa Rica in 13 days!
20 things I learned in Gainesville:
– The Lord wants to know every part of my day. He delights in what I have to say. He’s in all those moments! He wants to be invited into all those moments!
– Porta-potties are fun to shake when people are in them. Bonus points for during quiet hours (?)
– Dreams are scary and thats okay – the Lord values my dreams and desires!
– Walmarts are significantly more exciting when you haven’t been anywhere in months
– Tents are comforting
– until you’re crying at night and your tent neighbor texts to ask if you’re okay & you realize tent walls are, well, not walls
– You can do a lot more than you think you can (like hike 2.2 miles in 38 minutes with 50 pounds on your back.)
– Community really is a beautiful thing. It’s HARD. it’s family. It’s fun. It’s joyful. It’s stretching. It’s beautiful.
– I’ll never get tired of worshipping the Father
– Home can be redefined. Home can be people, wherever your sleeping pad sits, places you’ve been for three days. But more importantly, I find Home in Him.
– The Word is alive and always speaking. And I actually am in love with scripture!
– Ministry is everywhere. People just wanna be loved! By the Creator of love! By Love Himself! I get to carry that Love around! I get to have it overflow from me!
– I lack nothing in Christ. My identity is rooted in Him. Even if I had nothing, I’d still have everything because I am a daughter of the King.
– Laundry in a bucket is actually really fun (until it rains on laundry day for 3 weeks. sigh)
– Overflow of love && wonder of the Father are the most powerful tools
– Sanctification is a really cool thing. It hurts and is confusing sometimes, but all I truly want is to look more like Jesus
– It really is as simple as saying yes to Jesus. I want to give my all to Him forever.
– He’ll give you desire for more of Him if you ask for it.
– He’s everything + more. Comforter, provider, home, rest, satisfier, bridegroom, protector, defender, healer. It makes no sense and I’m so glad I don’t have a God I can figure out.
– In His presence there is fullness of joy, because He satisfies every desire I could ever have. A bad day is never really “bad”.
my sweet, sweet squad. I love you F squad!!
hand-washing laundry is not something I’ll be leaving behind me in the next 6 months! I kinda love it
our squad mentor Kyndal praying over us. I’m thankful for leadership that is so connected to the Father through constant prayer. We know we are always being prayed for and it sets a really great culture on our squad.
some of my squadmate friends praying over us when we had covid. community is sweet!
house church 🙂
one of my homes from the last couple months. arguably one of my favorite!
porta potty, porta palace, porta john, throne room, cry room, whatever you wanna call it, these things were honestly the thing that made me the most nervous about going to gainesville. gotta love em.
the dining patio. my favorite place. where we eat, have free time, have alone time (sorta), worship, everything. this photo is from week one. we all washed each others feet/got our feet washed to commit to serving one another.
yeah! that’s it! Thanks God for being so faithful!!
– Hannah <3
