I will start off by saying my biggest struggle on the race so far has been sitting down and writing a blog, which is selfish of me so I am publicly apologizing for that. However, I intend to go into the next month with that in mind and promise to be better about sharing with you the good, the bad, and the beautiful things The Lord is doing in my life this year. ( :
I found myself so sad having to leave Hope for DR this past Tuesday. I connected with some of the most beautiful and honest people I’ve ever met, which encourages and inspires me to be more like that.
Our ministry “assignment” for the month was to run teen camps, complete some grounds projects for the ministry’s establishment, and host a vbs, but I found that the real ministry came from my quiet times with The Lord, walking to the fruit stand just to say hi to the family that owns it, playing with kids over completing the task at hand, and simply just being with people.
I didn’t sign up for the race so that more of my selfish desires could be filled, I did it to lay them down for the sake of others. Even though I was sad to leave, I was extremely thankful knowing that I gave my whole heart and truly pray that I will be able to say that about every month because this race is not possible apart from the Grace of God.
The well-known author, Ann Voskamp, once wrote that “the potential for new life comes in laying yours down.” Someone shared that quote with me almost two years ago and it hits me like a cold shower every time! It opens my eyes and awakes me to the truth of the quiet joy that comes in serving others.
In light of that, I don’t want to be pretentious or say that I perfectly accomplish these desires all the time. It is hard and definitely a narrow way that few find, but how rewarding it is in the end!
The Dominican culture gave me a wake up call to how works-oriented I really am. Always making lists of daily tasks, striving to be punctual, and finding little patience for when those things aren’t fulfilled. There is beauty in productivity and those aren’t necessarily bad things, but what I realized is how much I put “a job well done” above seeking out valuable relationships because its comfortable and easy.
There’s nothing more rewarding than being surrounded by people who love and care for you. I am incredibly blessed to be able to call this squad my family and to do life with them the next year. I love that everything we do is an opportunity to make a memory or to bond over sharing preciously coveted peanut butter.
I hope that wherever this blog finds you whether in school or in the workplace that you not only do things whole-heartedly but you find yourself invested in those around you. Everyone wants and needs to be loved…take hold of the infinite opportunities around you to love someone who needs it desperately!! You just never know how God will use you to impact someone.
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Moving forward, our next stop is Haiti!! We’ll be just outside Port Au Prince working with a ministry called Minsitry of Hope-Haiti. Noticing the hope trend ( :
You can see a glimpse of who we’ll be working with here:
Also, I’ve uploaded pictures to an iCloud stream that you are able to stay posted on. Feel free to subscribe to that as well as this blog so that you don’t have to wait for me to update facebook or instagram (because I don’t really exist on those anymore)…you’ll just get an email.
A huge praise to everyone who has been supporting me prayerfully because I haven’t gotten sick at all and thank you everyone who has supported me financially because with monthly donations calculated in…I’m just $200 shy of being fully funded! God has been faithful to me through all of you and I really mean it from the bottom of my heart when I tell you how thankful I am. This has been a sweet process for me to depend on Him more and less of what I can do by my own strength. The opportunity to be on this race without the worry of fundraising is mindblowing and an incredible blessing. Please help me lift up in praye those who still need to meet their next deadline which is $11,000 by October.
You can keep my entire squad in your prayers as we travel to Haiti in two days. Currently we’ve had about 4 days to rest but there have been at least 18 people sick with the chikungunya virus and one girl even had her appendix removed-not fun!!
Much love,
Kelsey
