I am back home in Colorado! I apologize that this blog is so long overdue as I have been home for almost two months now. I have grown so much even in the last few months that I kept finding things I wanted to add to this blog, and I never felt like it was quite ready. But today is the day!
It has been so good to be back and to spend time with my family, friends, and animals again! I also had real Mexican food again for the first time in 11 months and it was AMAZING! For some reason other countries have a hard time making good Mexican food and I was sorely disappointed multiple times. Don’t even get me started on the pizza! Why anyone thought making pizza with a sweet sauce was a good idea is beyond me… It is really nice to have normal food easily accessible again, and be back with my people, but I do miss all of the friends that I made and things that I got to experience on my trip. I have been reflecting on my time on the World Race and I wanted to share the top 10 things that I learned on my trip, as well as my last month of ministry in South Africa.
My last month of the World Race I was in Port Elizabeth, South Africa serving with an organization called Love Story. Everyone that works and volunteers at Love Story does a great job at doing everything they do with love and really seeing the people they serve through God’s eyes. They feed over 200 homeless people five days a week, distribute food packages to people in need, run Bible studies, help out at the local orphanage, and a million other things. It was an awesome ministry to work with and to be a part of. I especially enjoyed developing relationships with the kids at the orphanage. Boy, did they love taking pictures!
Here are the top 10 things I learned to do on a much deeper level than I ever had before going on the World Race:
1. God cares more about my heart posture than the actual thing I am doing. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it talks about the importance of doing EVERYTHING with love:
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
Think about that last part for a second. “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” This is quite the statement! I could give up everything I have, even my own body, but if I don’t do it with love I might as well not even have bothered! That is crazy! But it shows how much God cares about what goes on in our hearts.
My first few months on the World Race I would categorize certain things as being “ministry” and therefore more important than others. I felt if I wasn’t doing “big things for the kingdom” (i.e. feeding the homeless or telling people about Jesus) then I wasn’t living out my purpose, I wasn’t doing enough, and I felt like I was letting myself and my supporters down. Over time God started to open my eyes and show me that as long as I am following what He is telling me to do and I am doing it from a place of love, it is the same in His eyes if I am sweeping a floor or preaching a sermon. HOWEVER, I cannot use that as an excuse to not do the things that are hard or challenging. The key is to pay close attention to what He is telling me to do and then ensure that I am doing those things, whether they are big or small, with the right heart posture.
2. God is trustworthy! I have experienced first hand that I can trust God with all areas of my life and that He will provide. It doesn’t always look the way I envision it to or in the timing that I want, but His plan is always better than mine and I have seen Him come through and provide over and over. I know that He has my back no matter what happens or what my external circumstances look like, and that is so reassuring!
3. Have grace with people!! Everyone has a lot more going on behind the scenes than I originally realized, and it is crucial to extend love, grace, and understanding instead of taking things personally or jumping to conclusions. Two of my friends passed away suddenly in the last two years, and I was reminded afresh to make the most of the time that I have with people.
4. See the big picture. I learned to look at the whole situation and not just from my limited perspective. I also realized that it is important to not dismiss things I did as being too small or insignificant. God can use everything! Sometimes the seemingly small things can have the biggest impact on people.
5. Be teachable. There is something that I can learn from everyone, but sometimes it takes a lot of humility to admit that.
6. Forgive people! Holding unforgiveness in my heart will only hurt me, and freedom will only come after I let go of the things that I am holding on so tightly to.
7. Be open and honest with people. Having difficult conversations with people was a struggle for me most of my life because I would rather go with the flow and make people happy than stand up for myself or what I knew was right. I had the opportunity to have lots of difficult conversations on the Race and I realized how important good communication is and that addressing things early (preferably right when they happen) prevents lots of hard feelings and junk from coming up later on. Along with that I realized it is also important for me to tell people what I am thinking and feeling and what I need. I caught myself several times thinking “they have lived with me for months! How can they still not realize what bothers me and what makes me feel loved?” But the truth is that everyone is dealing with their own stuff and sometimes they just need to be told straight up (sometimes multiple times, and that is okay).
8. Be 100% there with people. I learned to be fully present with people and to ask God to give me His eyes and heart to see and love people the way He does and it makes a huge difference.
9. Jesus loves me more than I can understand. Jesus really does love me the way that I am, and nothing good that I do can ever make Him love me more. No matter how many times I mess up, He will never love me less. And He is with me every step of the way.
10. Doing things for God doesn’t have to be hard! The joy of the Lord is my strength and the most important thing for me to do is to stay filled up by Him and connected to Him. Then His love will automatically overflow from me on the people around me. All I have to do is follow where He is leading and love. There is so much freedom and joy in that!
Obviously I don’t live these things perfectly all the time, but my understanding of them has grown much deeper. The more I practice them and let the truths sink in, the easier it becomes. If you are growing deeper in one of these areas be patient with yourself and just continue to take the next step forward. There is so much grace and God is always right there to help you and cheer you on. God is more interested in your direction than your perfection.
Thank you so much for your support, encouragement, prayers, and for reading my blogs and following my journey. Please feel free to reach out if you have questions or would like to know more about my trip. I have lots of awesome stories about the things that God is doing around the world!
My season with the World Race may be over, but my adventure with God is not. I will continue to let Him use me as He shares His love story with people here at home and around the world. I have a feeling that 2019 might just be the best year yet!
In Him,
Heidi
We had just landed in America!
