Asia,
When I was preparing to visit you, I was scared. I am a girl who has been very scared of the unknown in the past. New things, potential heartache that change can bring, and unfamiliarity are all very uncomfortable to me and because I like to be comfortable, I was scared of you because you were new. My route went to Central America, Asia, and Africa. Because I have visited Central America and Africa before, Asia, you were the daunting one. You were the one that made me catch my breath and filled my heart with anxious nerves. Then you came along, and you were the most precious gift.
You were new, and instead of being scary, you were exactly what I needed. You were a breath of fresh air pushing me to find new perspective. You were a place where I could be at my lowest, where I could cry myself to sleep because things were changing. Things in my life were scary and they hurt, but it was stuff at home, and Asia, you were my safe place. You kept me far away from the situations, but gave me a place to feel all the emotions and you pushed me to the Lord to process them. I found assurance of myself in who the Father calls me. He calls me His. He calls me Beloved. He calls me Church, His precious bride. I found those truths here, in Asia.
Asia, because of you, I am no longer a girl who is scared of the unknown. I am a girl who knows who she is. I am a woman who can know without a doubt that I have been called by name, and that I am seen and loved by my Father and that that is enough. I am a woman that can declare the truths walking into new situations that being His daughter and His inheritance is all I will ever need. Asia, you weren’t easy, not even a little bit. Thank you for that. Thank you for being hard and uncomfortable and pushing me to grow. Thank you for being a safe place for me to experience pain and heartache and for allowing my only option to be to go to the Lord. As I leave in a few short days, I am a completely new woman than I was when I entered your borders in December.
I found peace with the Father here. I recognized how many opportunities to evangelize the Lord has actually given me and I just have to be paying attention and ready for them. I found that He is all I will ever need, that if my life with Him is all that I have in this life, I have more than enough. Life with him equals abundance, and Asia, you showed me that that looks differently than I’ve always thought. I’m not promised every dream I’ve ever had. I’m not promised marriage or kids or money or really cool friends or popularity. I’m promised an abundance of him, though. I’m promised opportunities to share about Him. I’m promised grace and peace and love and a faithful Friend in Him.
So Asia, thank you for being a place that pushed me to grow. For being a safe place for me to process new emotions and old ones that I never dealt with. Thank you for pushing me to my team and really showing me that these girls are my sisters, women I can trust with the deepest parts of my heart.
I didn’t always love you. There were days when I wanted to be anywhere else. Days when if I could have teleported back to Memphis, I would have, in a heart beat. Thanks for days like that, cause on days when I wanted to leave and you sucked a lot, you made me dig deeper into my relationship with my Father and our intimacy is off the charts right now.
Asia, I love ya and I hate ya, but I mainly love ya. Thanks for everything you taught me. Hope to see ya soon.
Ya girly,
K
