Hello all of my loves!
It is crazy to think that in just 5 days we will be headed off to Cambodia. It does not even seem possible that Vietnam is about over.
We have had such blast in our m!nistry over the past month, and once we’re out of the country, I will be able to post more in depth about exactly what we were doing while we were in Vietnam. Today was the last day that we got to have with the kiddos and it was sad knowing the reality of that. Thursday we said goodbye to our other group of kids we see and I honestly teared up. It ripped me apart having to say goodbye to them.
This has been an unbelievable month. I always tell people that I think it’s so crazy that I love this country so much because I know wholeheartedly that if the Race hadn’t brought me, I would have had zero desire to ever venture to Vietnam. However, I would absolutely come back to visit in the future. This place is amazing.
Our squad is coming to Ho Chi Minh city where we have been for some leadership training on Monday and then on Thursday we are all of on buses to Cambodia! As of right now, all I know about what we will be doing in Cambodia is teaching English, and then possibly doing construction, teaching guitar lessons, and a variety of other things.
I have been learning so much this month, but one thing I have been learning is that I am not in control. The Lord continues to remind me that I’m not. I worry a lot about my family back home, I worry about all of my friends that are so lost and broken, I worry about my future and sometimes I hold on so tightly that I don’t completely give them over to God. I wake up most mornings with a prayer of surrender. Surrendering my life, my heart, my desires, my future, my family etc. But sometimes I think I pray that prayer because I know that’s what I need to do, but I still keep a slight grip on some things.
I remember a pastor at my church in Iowa doing a sermon on letting go. I specifically remember him saying that he would sometimes go to a river and stand on the dock. He would picture all the junk in his life that he needed to let go of sitting in his hands. He would surrender them to the Lord, and just have a conversation with Him telling Him specifically what things he was letting go of. After he was done surrendering those things to the Lord verbally, he physically “threw” them in the river. He said it was a very freeing way of doing a physical act that helps your mind to visualize actually letting go. He said that there would be times where he would start to walk away to leave, and he felt like maybe he hadn’t actually let something go yet, and he would have to walk back and do it again. Sometimes two our three times he would walk back to the end of the dock to throw things in the river.
I don’t know where any of you are at right now. If you’re holding on to things that are burdening you, or maybe you’re like me and you’re holding on to control. I encourage you to picture those burdens in your hands. Go to the garbage, go to the window, your swimming pool, go to the front yard, whatever that looks like. Have a conversation with Jesus about the things that you want to lay at His feet, or that you want Him to take away from you, and let them go. Throw them out. He’s got you. You don’t have to carry them.
My uncle is not doing the best health-wise back home, and I’ve been worrying about him a lot while I’ve been overseas. I’ve been praying for him, my team has been praying for him, and some of my friends as well. It was something I was very burdened by because there is literally nothing I can do about it. But the Lord has been revealing to me that He has a huge love for my uncle. That He loved him before he was even born. That all I need to do is continue to love him, and pray for him specifically, and He will do the rest. He told me that He has been working in Mark’s life long before I even knew him. God is good. He’s in COMPLETE control, and to be honest, I’m grateful for that. Because I don’t know how I would get through things if He wasn’t.
I’m truly blessed beyond words at the amount of things the Lord is teaching me daily while I’m out on the field. Thank you all for being such a huge part of making it possible for me to get to this point and be where I am right now. It’s exactly where the Lord wants me. He’s making that very evident.
I love you guys so much.
Love and Peace,
Keeley
