I ended up receiving too many questions for one blog.
Thank you all for your participation!
Due to some of the questions being extremely thought provoking. I decided to split my answers up into two separate blog posts. This one is more of the deep questions and my next one will be funnier questions about my absurd living conditions and experiences the last few months!
So please enjoy this one and stay tuned for my next one 🙂
What are some ways we can change in the U.S.A. to help people here to be hungry for our Lord?
I am confident that the best way people in the U.S. can create a hunger for the Lord within themselves and in others is by taking steps to get the focus off of themselves. After now almost seven months of serving others in whatever way is asked and looking for ways beyond that. I have come to realize that most all of the ways I have been serving in these foreign countries are ways we can serve in our local community. There is a need everywhere and we so often overlook it. Atlantic City (or any city near you) and even your neighborhood are gigantic places to start that. Whether it be getting groups together with our churches and going into the city to help clean houses, pick up trash, babysit for free, spending the afternoon with someone lonely, ect. Or if people just went with a friend and volunteered at the soup kitchens or Salvation Armies. There are so many areas, we just have to choose to love God and His people enough to look for them. Or better yet, create them. We need to be the difference we want to see. There is no greater way to create a hunger for the Lord than to serve the people he loves no matter how difficult it is. We need to take the steps to get the focus off ourselves. It’s not about us and making sure our relationship or understanding of God is perfect and exactly where it needs to be before we give someone a tract at the grocery store. Jump into the raw, hard, demanding, stretching, act of serving the people who need Christ’s love and hope. Show them that Gods love is an action word. Before you know it you will be itching to tell your new friends of the hope you have in Christ no matter how much you fumble over your words, and you will feel a deeper love and overwhelming appreciation for our Saviors love for you because you will be doing what He created us to do.
How has the Holy Spirit influenced your experience?
The Holy Spirit has made this whole experience possible! I know that if I didn’t have my faith in the living Holy Spirit, knowing that He is with me through out each day encouraging me to keep going. I would have stubbornly sat down a few months ago, crossed my arms and said, ‘No! No more, I’m done’. But the Holy Spirit softly whispers to me in the most loving and yet convicting way, ‘This is not about you. Get your butt up and keep truckin’ girlfriend!’ (I think the Holy Spirit speaks to us how we individually need to be spoken to. Apparently mine knows I need a swift kick in the rear at times and speaks a bit Southern.) As I literally just typed that comment in parenthesis. I just came to the conclusion that that is exactly how the Holy Spirit has influenced my experience. He has revealed to me and given me the confidence that he speaks to everyone in different ways. He takes into account how you need to be spoken to and how that may vary throughout your life. Some people get knocked to the ground while worshipping (I’ve seen it), others bust out in speaking in tongues from the Holy Spirit (I’ve seen that as well), some hear God audible voice, some get specific words for others, some experience Him while singing an dancing praises, some feel His presents while walking through the splendor of His creation, while others (like me) hear the clarity of the Holy Spirit through a sweet soft whisper in your Spirit in the middle of a normal day and if you don’t slow down enough to listen, you may miss. Some people tend to think that is an inferior or unimportant way to experience the Holy Spirit. Some think that if it’s not some big ‘pow’ moment, that you’re doing something wrong or you need to just keep waiting. I disagree because that is how the powerful Holy Spirit speaks to me, in quiet whispers. Through the race I have learned to identify that and truly embrace and love every part of it. I have a quiet, intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and I am so blessed to be able to walk alongside Him through this journey. I have realized that I need to slow down and be quiet enough to allow the Holy Spirit to point out all the specific ways He wants me to step up and out of my comfort zone along the way, as well as point at all the beautiful things we pass along the way. Never think for a second that the Holy Spirit isn’t alive and active. If you don’t feel Him, I encourage you to look into finding your specific Spiritual Instinct which is how you feel God and experience His presents most. (maybe I’ll write a blog on it) I know that if I hadn’t taken the time to identify how the Holy Spirit specifically communicates with me or I had pouted because I wanted to speak in tongues instead, I would have missed out on so much beauty and intimate experiences with Him.
Describe the situation and person that you have met anywhere on the race that has impacted you the most and in what way?
There have been a number of people along my journey that have impacted me by their overwhelming love and hospitality. They didn’t know me and my team, but knew we had the bond of being brothers and sisters in Christ and because of that they opened their hearts and their doors and they became a taste of home to a group of weary, homesick, missionaries and I will never be able to thank them to the fullest extent of my gratitude.
If I had to choose only one however, I would have to rewind back to Puerto Rico. Month one of the race when everyone if questioning what they got themselves into. Pastor Peter. It has been six months now since I have seen or spoken to him and I still feel the love from him and the wisdom of his words like I had spent the afternoon with him yesterday. Many times I have tried to identify why he had such a large impact on my life and it always comes back to how well he loved us. When I began my trip in January, I spoke no Spanish what so ever and he knew only a handful of English words, but he was so intentional about making sure we all knew individually how special we were to not only him, but to our Savior. He learned all of our names within the first couple days, and proceeded in giving us additional nicknames, he would surprise us with ice cream or candy after a long day of service, he worked right alongside us all day every day with a machete or paintbrush or shovel, he planned surprise outings for us to the beach or the city and drove us around everywhere we needed, he would have meetings with all 12 of us just so we could ask him any and all questions we had about him and about things we were learning with Christ, he pushed us all out of our comfort zones no matter what fit we would throw (like painting a massive wall mural J ), his sermons were dripping with Gods wisdom even after going through a translator, he would sing worship songs in the van as loud as he could and jumped into our games even if he didn’t understand the rules, he made sure we all did our laundry at his house so we wouldn’t have to hand wash our clothes, he gave each of us farewell gifts and personal notes before we left, and would give us random pep talks and a fresh perspective of the beauty of life throughout the day, and with what little Spanish he knew, he would come up to all of is individually at some point and say ‘gooood joob’ or ‘I lobe yo’ (I love you), and if at some point he could tell one of us was sad or acting distant he made sure he grabbed a translator so he would clearly communicate with you to get to the bottom of what was wrong and pray for you. With all of this being said, remember that this was only within one month and with a man who spoke complete Spanish. He did not treat us like a short term mission team, he treated us like his beloved children. After all 12 of us left at the end of the month, we all felt individually loved and appreciated by him. To have 12, 20-something-year-olds acknowledge that is huge. That is an amazing example of a man seeking to love like Jesus does. I strive to love as intentionally and without any boundaries like Pastor Peter. So much to the extreme that if I was only around someone for one month and if they didn’t speak a lick of my language that they would leave my presence after that month with an everlasting impression of Christ’s love in their heart and a lifelong affection for me.
How do you think this trip will impact your life when you get back home?
I know that a major way that my perspective has changed can be referred back to my answer to the question ‘What are some ways we can change in the U.S.A. to help people here to be hungry for our Lord?’. We don’t do enough in our local community. We don’t get our hands dirty and push ourselves to the end of our strength to serve others like we should. We need ways to disciple and grow Christians within the walls of our church for sure, but we also need to be the body of believers that reach out into the lost, broken, and needy of our area. Whether that looks like doing it with our church or getting together a group of friends and instead of drinking wine and giggling all night (don’t get me wrong that is definitely okay and needed at times too) we should be coming together as friends and baking dinner for someone sick, babysitting for someone for free, baking cookies with someone lonely, volunteering at a soup kitchen, painting someone’s house just to see them light up with the excitement of seeing a fresh coat of paint on their dingy walls, or spending a night simply praying for someone. Loving like Jesus loves. With no conditions. Loving like this does not mean we have to go bake cookies with a lonely widow and endure an awkward evening alone, nor does it mean we have to boldly witness to the person in the check out line next to us. It means, take advantage of the community of believers around you who are called to love in the same way and make the point to make it real in your lives. There is no better way to grow in closer friendship with someone than getting your hands dirty in the grime of other people’s messes and learn together that you enjoy doing it! It’s addicting. It also doesn’t mean you have to witness to everyone and their dog walking down the street. There is no greater witness to God’s overwhelming love for people than them seeing His ‘representatives’ taking individual initiative and loving and serving like no one else they’ve seen in their life. And when you not only choose to do this, but act on it, there is no way it cannot over flow into every part of your life. That is what I never want to forget from this trip and that I pray I will be able to lead in example in when I get home.
How have these months grown your love for Christ and your dependence on Him?
I wrote a blog a couple of months ago (‘He Chose Me Over His Pillow’) about how I was beginning to understand what real dependence on God looks like and what is takes to get there. As I just re-read that blog I laughed to myself at the fact that in month five, which was when I wrote it, was when I thought I had reached dependence on Christ. I chuckle now with the realization that while now in the middle of month seven, I acknowledge the fact that that was not something I can check off my list as mastered in Ecuador – month five. But it is something even now, I am still pushing through and understanding its beauty in more detail each day when I wake up and have to roll off my sleeping pad. In addition to that blog that still rings with truth. I have also come face to face this month with understanding what it really looks like to love like Jesus loves. And shoot it is hard. The people who God is using in order to teach me what that looks like is my team. When we eat together, sleep next to each other, serve (work) all day next to each other, grocery shop together, have our off time together, get coffee together, exercise together, it is not easy to love them all the time. It is so much easier to love people at home when you can get in your car and leave them and go home to get some sanity. Reading about Jesus’ life and praying for help in this area. I have come to realize for the first time that Jesus was not always around people He liked. I’m sure his disciples annoyed the daylights out of him, the inpatient, needy, smelly, demanding, and sometimes I’m sure ungrateful people who lined up to receive healing from Him were probably not at the top of His warm and fuzzy list all the time, not to mention the people who plotted to cease His existence on this earth in a brutal way, or us – present day Christians and non-Christians who doubt His existence or pick and choose what we want to obey of the bible. Despite all of that, He loves us. He intentionally chose/choose to meet us where we are at, to reach down and comfort us, to forgive us even after all of the terrible things we have done against Him. And because of that perfect example, I am learning to let myself lean on Him for full dependence because I know that there is no possible way I can love like this on my own. While learning about this beautiful characteristic of Christ and being blessed enough to have the challenging situation placed in my life where I have to learn to apply it, it is here my love for my Savior Jesus Christ grows.
What is the most miraculous thing you have seen God do or be?
I think the overall most miraculous thing I have seen God do/be on the race is seeing so many of His faithful workers in all of the countries I have been to. Their lives revolve around ministry. They are living in it, every day of their life. Not just for eleven months. The orphanage in Bolivia will always be taking care of and loving the orphans on that mountain top well after my plane lands in the states. Pastor Alex, Mimi and David with continue working with the indigenous tribe’s day in and day out even when they don’t have the man power of a World Race team there to help. They are loyal, dedicated followers of Christ that don’t have opportunity to hide away from their duty as Christians when they get back to their house Sunday afternoons after church. Their life is expanding The Kingdom of God and there are people like that all over the world. Whether they have the privilege of being acknowledged and receive support, or if they serve their entire lives and never get recognized, it doesn’t matter to them because the lost people of this world and obeying Jesus/ call matters immensely more to them.
*If after reading this you have any last question submissions you can email them to me at [email protected] within this next week *
Please keep me in your prayers as I am definitely missing home and the comforts that it brings. I need continued endurance and excitement to blaze forward full force for my last FOUR AND A HALF months! (Can you believe it?!)
–Hugs to all–
