This is the About Me Extended Edition!
Hello and welcome to my blog! For those of you who may not know, I am joining World Race Gap Year with Adventures in Missions for my gap year after high school! World Race Gap Year is a nine month mission trip. I will be traveling to Swaziland, Thailand and Nicaragua (three months each) and serving the people as needed and sharing the love of God with those around me! I will be fundraising as well in the near future, more information to come! This blog will keep you up to date on my adventures before and during the trip! More to come!
I have changed so much within the last year, which also happens to be about the same time I began to have a personal relationship with the Lord. For the past seventeen years I have struggled with who I was and what my purpose was. I yearned for attention from peers and searched for joy in all the wrong places. I knew of God but I never took the time to really get to know Him. I never invested my time in prayer. It was always a one and done activity that introduced dinner at home. I was searching for answers in the people around me or in things, not in God. I didn’t pray to God when I had problems. Instead I complained to my friends. I went to church but I didn’t put effort into my relationship with the Lord or my church community. I was a go-through-the-motions church goer. This was a time in my life when I was searching for fulfillment. I never found it until I came to know the Lord. There were cracks in my heart and I was filling the cracks with earthly things. I was unsteady. I was weak. I was lost. I was blinded by things on this earth. I let things on this earth control me. I was so blinded by earthly things that I couldn’t see the light for myself in all the rubbage.
I began going to a new youth group in the spring of 2018. I was surrounding myself with people who wanted to invest their time in the Lord. I was beginning to see the light in the darkness. I was coming to know the Lord. It was not an easy journey but man was it worth it. Many tears were shed, happy and sad. The first two times I went to my new youth group, Generation Grace aka G2, I bawled. I was beginning to feel the love of God and the love of others for the first time. That my brokenness was welcome in the Lord’s hands and in His house. The cracks in my heart were beginning to be filled by the love of the Lord. I was seeing people who were fired up to live for the Lord. I saw joy in people’s faces when they talked about God. I was wondering what I had been missing out on this whole time. I wanted that joy. That joy was what I had been looking for in earthly things. The Bible says in Colossians 3:2, set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For years my mind was set to look for things on this earth to fill the gaps in my heart. True joy comes from the Lord. I see the light in the darkness now. In fact the Lord pulled me up out of the darkness to surround me in His light. He showed me joy. He showed me His joy. After investing myself in the Lord, I found my true identity in Him. I am His daughter. I am His vessel. I am a beautiful creation made by Him. I am found.
“I once was lost, but now I am found. Was blind, but now I see.”
Broken Vessel ~ Hillsong
Much love.
Your pal, Hannah 🙂
