ow, friends. It’s been about two weeks since I last posted, and SO much has happened. I know I won’t be able to share it all with you, but I’d love to share some highlights. Since the first of the year, I’ve been in 5 different states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia), attended two incredible gatherings of believers (Passion Conference 2018 and Project Searchlight 2018), saw some of my dearest friends, and encountered the Lord in some incredible, incredible ways. Allow me to share some quick snippets of the last 2 weeks with you:
Romping around Texas was a blast! We ate amazing BBQ and killer Tex-Mex, shot some guns, and rang in the New Year with a 4 hour “nap” followed by a 14-hour road-trip to Atlanta. It felt so awesome to do normal life with my dear squad mates and friends, to explore their cities, and to be in each other’s homes. We spent three days in Atlanta at the Passion Conference, which was my first time at Passion. Worshipping in an arena with thousands of other believers my age is an experience I won’t soon forget. We witnessed young adults come to know the Lord and listened to victory stories and messages of encouragemen and challenge from world-changing believers. After Passion ended, we were hosted for two days by some incredibly gracious family friends. They listened to our stories from the Race, and shared some of their own from their many years living overseas. They treated us so kindly, and it gave me a lot of time to think about how hospitality can look in my own life. Two days later, it was time to head to Project Searchlight (or PSL, as us constantly abbreviating Racers call it). If I had to pick one word to describe PSL, it would be READJUSTMENT. These past 6 days have been a truly ordained time to gather together with my World Race family and ask hard questions about what it looks like to take everything we learned from our time on the field and swirl it together with our “real lives”, whether those are lives on the field, in a nonprofit, in a company, in our families, etc. Friends, God was SO SWEET in revealing His heart to me during this time. Read on…
I am TERRIBLE at transitioning in and out of seasons. I’m a serial hold-er on-er, especially when it comes to seasons of life that I don’t want to let go of. It comes from deep fears of being abandoned, forgotten, rejected, and never being chosen. There are fears that friends, regardless how close I believe us to be, will move on and leave and never come back for me. There are deep roots of distrust of man, which has even deeper roots in distrust of God. But friends, something incredible has happened in my heart, especially in the last 24 hours. All thanks to the Holy Spirit, I feel such a supernatural peace about this season titled “World Race” officially coming to an end. I can’t explain it fully, and I know that it’s in no way me just “coming to terms” with it. I was praying last night, and through the (inevitable, because I just cry a lot) tears, was thanking God for this season and for the ways that it’s changed my life. And the Holy Spirit stopped me and said NO. He said “No, Joanna. Don’t thank me for this season. Thank me for ME. Because EVERYTHING you have loved about this season, the friendship and community and vulnerability and beauty and adventure and intimacy and life and joy and ALL OF THAT? The thing you love about ALL OF IT is the ME in it. It’s ALL ABOUT ME, Joanna! So thank me for ME.”
Gosh. Mic drop. Guys, this is a profound perspective shift for me. The Holy Spirit went on to show me a sweet “montage” of pictures and images from this year, like the tables where we ate in Albania and our little apartment room in Greece and the rocks where we watched the sunset in Bulgaria and pictures of my beautiful teammates laughing and over and surrounding all of those, there was a deep, soul-level understanding that I loved those things because of the JESUS in those things. Not because of the things themselves, and not because of how those things made me feel or touched my heart, but because JESUS, the love of my life and the king of my heart, was in those things. And you know what the great thing about that is? The great thing is that I don’t have to miss the friendship and community and vulnerability and beauty and adventure and intimacy and life and joy because if it’s ultimately JESUS that I love and the way He’s been in those things, then it’s (He’s) not going anywhere.
And with that perspective change, memories become sweet pieces of gold that I can hold onto and treasure and entrust to the Lord, instead of what I believe to be sustaining me. Because those thing, those memories, that life lived on specific ministry, those friend (sorry, ladies), all of that… that can’t and won’t EVER be enough. It never has and it never will be. But JESUS, and the sweet ways He has and will continue to show up and move and work and be an intimate part of the journey He has for me here on this earth… That will ALWAYS be enough.
Wow, there’s so much more that the Lord did at PSL; this is just a tiny snapshot of what He began and will continue doing in my heart.
Some quick updates:
-I’m in the process of moving my story-sharing platform to a personal WordPress blog. Check out and subscribe to justsomeporchtalkblog.wordpress.com.
-I’m fundraising for my Passport trip! I (only) need to raise $1,450 total. I don’t have a destination yet, but that will hopefully be coming to you by the end of the month. If you’re interested in donating, please MAIL your donations to me at 2435 Rossmere Street / Colorado Springs CO / 80919. Feel free to still put Adventures in Missions as the recipient on any checks you may send (especially for tax and transparency purposes). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel welcome to send me an e-mail personally at [email protected].
Sending love to you all!
