The Philippines…
For this month me and my entire squad are all staying in an amazing ministry home in Manila. We have been blessed with 3 home cooked meals a day, a bed for each of us, running water, lots and lots of fans and an absolutely amazing view from the forth floor. Oh and an awesome pool. It may sound a little more glamorous than you expected, but this is no five star hotel. Im sleeping in a room with 20 girls and no AC, they have bugs here that put cockroaches to shame. only one corner of my bed gets hit by a fan. I wake up sweaty every morning and I’m sweating almost every moment of the day. My face looks like a slice of pizza and my backs pretty bad too. I have a heat rash over half my body. All of the smog is making my asthma go crazy. It rains a lot so after washing my clothes they are hung by a string above my bed to dry; which takes like 3 days. Yes we have an amazing view when we look out from the fourth floor; we can see the city scape in the distance and tons of beautiful trees. But when you look down to see whats on the other side of our building you see the slums. People that are living in houses smaller than my bathroom in the states. You see them getting water from a well and making homes from scrap metal and tarps. Oh and this “view” is accompanied by the smell of burning garbage and urine. Now please don’t read what I said and take it as a complaint, Im not complaining. Quite honestly I braced myself for much worse.
What I couldn’t brace myself for was Ministry. Its harder than I expected. Theres times when I feel unwelcome or like a burden. And for a moment there I felt as if I wasn’t helping anything or doing any good. But then God told me to shut up. He reminded me that he told me to go on this trip even if I didn’t know the reason and still don’t. He used my amazing squad mates, leaders and those I’m working with to show he that he has a purpose for me and he is no where near done. He told the that Im not here to change lives and save orphans, I am here to listen to him. To move when he says move, to talk when he says talk to listen when he says listen and to not only trust him in the moment but to also trust him in the outcome. I don’t know what God is doing here or how he is going to use us. All I know is that he will.
I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of christ jesus.
Philippians 1:6
I have either read or heard or thought of this verse more times than I can count in the past few days. I think He’s gotten his point across; He isn’t finished with me yet.
