As I’m coming to a close on this 11 month journey, I’ve realized a couple of things. Things that may seem small at first, but end up being big in the long run.
The first being that traveling is only fun if you indulge yourself in the culture. You go to New York and get a slice of pizza even if you don’t care for it because it’s infamous for its warm hand tossed dough and assortment of toppings. So piece of advice, when you go to Thailand, you have to try Thai street food even if you’ve heard from a couple dozen people that it will make you sick. Trust me, it might.
God gave every culture something unique about it and if you don’t invest in it, you could potentially miss out on a lot of cool experiences!
Second thing I’ve learned is that God will use us in any situation that we may find ourselves in. For example, in Romania our host didn’t have much ministry for us to do but he really needed guy friends that would encourage him and just be a light to him. He was young and charismatic but sometimes that’s not enough to be on your A game 24/7. That’s when we came in and just laughed with him, and uplifted this man who committed a lot of his life to the Lord’s work. To some that could’ve been a wasted month, but since we said yes to a simple task, big impacts came out it. One of the guys was even asked to come back and help be a larger part of his ministry. God uses us even if we think we are not where we are supposed to be.
The last thing is that I’ve been truly blessed to see this much of the world at such a young age. I hate the thought of maybe saying no to this year and then missing out on so many great places and some even greater friendships. Wherever we are in life we can always make the most of who’s around us.
In the end we all need Jesus. No matter how bad or how good we think we are, he wants us and calls us to have a relationship with him. That was my job this month, allowing these people to experiences who Jesus is. I’ve made mistakes along the way but I know a lot of good was also done for the kingdom of God in the end of it all. Thanks for being apart of this year!
