Before I left for the race I had many thoughts about growth bouncing around in my head. A lot of those jumbled thoughts were put there by other people. Such as; “wow you’re going to grow and change so much” or “I can’t wait to see how god works through you these next nine months”. And yes, of course these are true, yes I will grow in unimaginable ways and yes god is and is going to do amazing things through me and in me these next months. But I went into this thing thinking I would be changed immediately. And even when I’d been here for a couple days and was still on the high of being in the dominican I had people from home saying they could already see a difference in me. It was like that was God confirming my thoughts of changing and growing AFTER THREE DAYS! True…but not true.
To my surprise, I was hit with a brick.
Picture this (about a week and a half ago): Kaylin shivering in a freezing cold shower with little to no shower pressure, and then the shower head goes bizerk. I mean absolutely crazy. It started spraying out of the water pipes and at every side of the shower head, which resulted with the bathroom walls raining. I, of course, started screaming for one of the girls to come help, and what better call could I have used than “SOS!!” “SOS! THE SHOWER IS ATTACKING ME”.
How could I have ever expected anything but laughter from outside the bathroom after that cry for help?
Present Day: Kaylin walks back from ministry to the compound where we’re staying and can’t wait to shower for the first time in three days. It’s hot and she’s nasty and sweaty. She’s just bought some ice cold grape gatorade from the little corner store up the street and can’t wait to down it. She proceeds into her dorm, realizes nobody else is in there and embraces the quiet and alone time, for it’s somewhat of a foreign concept on the race. Turns up her music and jumps in the shower which has no water pressure once again, just three little repetitive drops. But SHE LOVES IT. Because she’s alone. Just as her hair is getting wet and she puts some shampoo in the shower turns off. So, she quickly jumps out and runs to the other shower to see if that one’s working. It’s not. Then all of a sudden she hears yells from the upstairs dorms that their showers had turned off as they were putting shampoo in too. She was not alone. After listening to her friends on the porch yelling out solutions for the problem; go wash your hair in the waterfall in the backyard, put your hair up in a bun and call it good, and use your dry shampoo, she’d decided to have her friend Emma wash her hair out with the remaining water in her water bottle.
It’s funny because God has used things like this before to “wake me up”. The first shower incident didn’t do much but irritate me. But, a second time?? That caught my attention and God gave me a realization through it. I need my people, no matter how much I try to get away from the chaos of the world race for just a few minutes, they will always be there. God doesn’t want me doing this on my own. He doesn’t want any of us doing this “life thing” on our own.
I can not do anything alone. I can not grow without him. I can not do ministry on my own. I can not sit on the back burner and just go through the motions everyday. That is not what the Lord called me here for.
He made me to be intentional, in every way possible. He created me to be his daughter. He set me free. He created me to sing and rejoice and dance with him and every person I can reach.
So here I am saying who knows when I’ll have an incredibly profound truth spoken into my life to share with you all? I sure don’t and I’m not going to worry about that.
I’m working on drowning in the love of Christ, learning more and more about Jesus everyday and making sure I’m not trying to do it all myself and putting God on the backburner. I can’t expect to grow immensely in two weeks, especially if I’m not doing it through him and in him.
So, that was my little realization of the night/ words of wisdom spoken through a shower head to me. That’s where my hearts at right now.
I’ll be posting soon about the dominican! Love you all so much, I’m forever grateful for your love, support and prayers.
-Kay <3
