hello!!!! friends and family! I know that it has been awhile since I have posted a blog. My squad and I are in THAILAND!!! We have been here 2 weeks already. I love this place. Thai tea babyyyyy !
Though, I shouldn’t overlook the fact that my PARENTS came to AFRICA ! Our last week in africa, my parents participated in PVT. During that week, we worked with BEAM africa. Our ministry days looks like playing with kids and participating in a life skills class for young adults. It was so sweet to see all my squad mates interacting with their parents and (this goes without saying) to see my parents after 6 months.
Back to Thailand! We are partnered with a ministry here called Agape. It is a home for children with HIV and AIDS. It is an amazing ministry as it has been planted for years now (atleast 23, but maybe 43??? a lot of years !). Our ministry host, Avis (the founder of agape) reminds me daily that all you have to do is say yes. She is an ordinary woman with an extradonairy passion and a willing spirit. That’s all it really takes. To this day she is so in love with ALL 70+ kids at the home and goes above and beyond to do what she can. We have only had 8 days of ministry, but we have done anything from painting to sewing to organizing to holding babies. Agape is a very very very fitting name for the place. I am so excited to be able to be a small part of this ministry for the next few months. I am so grateful that God has allowed me to even be here and walk alongside people like Avis.
We also got to participate in an adoption celebration. A little boy named Martin, about to be 2 years old was being adopted by a couple from Denmark. I couldn’t help but think of just how much this day is going to mean to this little boy, for it changes the entirety of his life, but he hardly even knows it. He probably didn’t even realize how loved he was by the nannies, Avis, and his fellow children. God does that with us. He puts us in situations where we can’t even grasp what is actually happening. Situations that turn out to be life molding. Situations that we couldn’t dream up ourselves. Situations where we don’t even realize things are changing until everything is different. But the thing is,,,, even though Martin has biological parents, God knew that his adoptive parents were going to be his family. That’s how He designed it. He knew that Martin couldn’t be the Martin He created without his adoptive parents.
And to think Martin is just one little boy. My younger brother, Andrew is adopted, and I believe God has orchestrated our family with Andrew in mind since the beginning. Safe to say, my life would look very different if Andrew wasn’t my brother. God works in big ways through adoption. To think of all the kids that have ever been adopted, Jesus planned their families to be their families because He knew what was best. Jesus works so personally in all of our lives it blows my mind to think He wants a l l o f u s !!!!!!
God has so intricately and stratigecally planned Martin’s life and he is barely even 2 yet. He LOVES Martin. But, Martin can’t grasp that. Something I have struggled with throughout the race is that you don’t always ‘feel’ God’s love. Sometimes it’s hard when you can’t tangibly feel His love. I’ve found that it’s really not about Him, it’s about me. If I walk my life in a haze and I don’t make an effort to see the Father, the chances of me doing so is much less. When I put my best foot forward to spend time with Him and open my eyes to what is around me, I find Him in the simplest moments. I craved for the longest time to ‘feel’ His supernatural love like I have in previous moments. But when it comes down to it, His love isn’t a feeling. He freakin created you, and I. The c r e a t o r of everything, beginning, middle, and end, created you, undignified himself enough to walk the earth for you. Because He wants forever with you. Forever. That in itself is an act of love greater than everything I’ve ever known. You are loved, entirely, by the very author of love itself. You can’t always feel it, but you know it to be true. So you find yourself there, knowing you are His. That’s what I have been learning. God’s love isn’t a feeling. It’s always around us, and most importantly, it’s a part of who we are.
thank you for reading this somewhat not really put together compilation of my thoughts these days.
love you !
