My world has drastically changed. Changed how you may be asking yourself?
It amazes me that in each state you encounter a diverse amount of people. Here at the AIM office I am living with people from all over the United States and Canada. I have enjoyed being in Georgia and just learning and understanding things more clearly.
The past week has been called ignition training, where you ignite your hearts and minds to get ready for the World Race. We are now in the stage of launching out to leave next Saturday for Thailand. It is scary to think that I will be leaving so soon.
Friends are asking me, what are you learning, so I though I would share a few things. I appreciate lots of you asking about what is going on and would love to share some of my thoughts of the last week.
The first thing I learned was God’s grace and mercy. Before I came to training came, I thought that I was short on support. Since that point, I have gotten all of my support and had a few people tell me that they would help me out by giving me money at the end if I ran short. This a huge blessing from God and such a relief for me.
Learning is something I enjoy fully, the only thing is we have been doing 3-5 hours of lectures a day. This equates to the fact that I have not gotten the time that I need to chew up and digest the information that I have been given. The last few days have given me this opportunity. Prayer is the most important thing in life(it is also the thing that most people struggle with). I am amazed at what prayer can do in life. I believe that you need prayer to help just make it through days at times. We learned a couple of models for praying to use in the filed. I enjoyed this because it gave me another perspective on praying in general. Prayer is not clear cut and you can pray in more than one way.
Now that I am going out in a week. I was taught about worldviews and cultures. I forget at times how sensitive we have to be towards others. I have had many friends with different backgrounds, but still have to remind myself daily to watch what I say and what I do. The time oversees will not be easy. I know that God prepares us for things that we do not know about or understand. He shows us things even before they happen so that we can use it later on in life. We have had a couple of seminars that totally scared me. They were on the more spiritual realm. It is hard for me to understand what speaking in tongues, spiritual healing, and laying of hands is all about. I am so thankful for getting to see some of these done here in the comfort zone of the United States before I go oversees. Some things are difficult for people to understand because of the way they grew up and how close minded we are as Americans.
The final thing we have done is team builders. I have never had to trust people so much in my life before and as those that know me, I struggle with touching people. I am not a hugger. God has definitely burst my little bubble that I like to keep around me for protection. Trusting is huge when oversees with my teammates. I can’t question some decisions and I have to be willing to do without totally understanding.
God has shown me so much in the last week. I can’t wait until I leave and can apply some of the things I have learned. I thank the Lord for growing and stretching that he has done in my life in the last week.
