Hey everyone!
It’s been a while since I updated this and everyone following my journey. Everyone who was on the field with the World Race was brought back to their home countries about three weeks ago. I am currently in Florida with my sweet parents and brother during this time. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about how long we will be back here, if we will go back out on the field, etc. I am in a very uncertain time as I’m sure you all are as well. Although, what is really cool about this opportunity to be back, is that America just got back over 500 on fire missionaries wanting to bring what we have learned on the field back home to change how we love people, how we serve one another, and to make a big difference in our communities! I am not sure what God is going to through all of this, but I know it’s not going to be a small thing!
I have been very blessed to be created the way that I was by God. I adjust to change and new routines very easily and quickly. But the downside to this is I don’t always feel the need to process things because I adjust quickly. When I talked to our squad mentor about this, she gave me a very easy exercise to do to help me process. I was asked to try to answer these three questions:
What happened?
What do I think about what happened?
What do I feel about what happened?
This allowed me to separate facts, thoughts, and emotions out in my mind. (Ladies, this is HUGE because our brains process everything all at once all the time so if you ever need help processing a situation, try answering these questions to help figure out where you are at 🙂 ).
Using this, I was able to acknowledge my thoughts and feelings apart from what actually happened. Sometimes we can paint a situation based on what we feel about a situation instead of taking it for what it is. I absolutely believe we can positively change our lives just by changing how we react to our circumstances.
And for me being in a position where I was just pulled (hopefully only temporarily) from the World Race, pulled from the strongest community of believers I’ve ever had around me, having no job, no local community, no physical church, and no way of knowing when things will go back to normal, I am choosing to believe God will take care of me. He will take care of all of us because He loves us.
Coming back home, I had the choice whether I would go back into the lifestyle I had before the Race or I could take this as an opportunity to keep diving deeper into the Word and into God. I will be honest and say I slipped back into old habits and how my life was before the Race for the first couple of weeks. I didn’t read my Bible as much, I didn’t spend much time in prayer, and I felt as though I was slipping back down into a pit God had already pulled me out of. It didn’t seem like such a bad thing since I was most spending time with family, having movie night and reading. But I soon discovered I really missed being in God’s presence and intentionally spending time with Him on a regular basis. If I learned anything from being back home and going through all of this, it would be that I need God more that I think I do! My soul needs more of Him regularly, my body needs His presence to be renewed every day, and my Spirit craves to sing praises to Him! Even though I was only gone for a little over two months, those two months allowed me to experience what was probably the most beautiful journey to encounter God I could’ve ever asked for. It was just enough time for God to show me what I needed to see and work through. I’m not saying I have everything figured out, but I can tell you God sought after me relentlessly and I allowed Him to find me.
I share this with all of you because I want to encourage you! If you find yourself wrestling and fighting God or even the idea of Him, I encourage you to allow Him to find you and show you who He is and how much He loves you. And what better time to do that than now?? It could take you on your own beautiful journey to encounter Him like never before!
I will leave you with one last thought. One Sunday while I was in Malaysia, the pastor came on the stage during one of the last worship songs and said, “Have an encounter with God you cannot recover from.” He challenged us with this, and now I challenge you. Have that beautiful encounter! It’ll be so worth it.
I love you all! I will try to keep you all updated as best as I can, but for now we are all in a waiting period. I pray you and your family stays safe and healthy during this time!
