Family and friends, the Lord has been filling me up so much during my time here in Guatemala. I only have one month left of ministry, and I feel like I’m slamming the brakes and skidding across black ice— time refuses to slow down. For this blog post, I’m going to reflect on all that the Lord has been teaching me in these past few weeks; things I’ve been meaning to share but can’t find the time or the words to say. I’m sorry if this post is a bit jumbled, but it truly reveals the color of my deepest thoughts and dreams.
Operating on overflow : During my sophomore year of high school, I had to memorize Psalm 23 for a grade. I complained the entire time. I genuinely found no benefit to memorizing scripture. Now, Psalm 23 is a verse I fall back on daily, and from memory I am able to type “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His names sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” The key to being Jesus to people is to operate on the overflow from the Lord. God gives us so much love and grace that it should simply pour out of us in return. It’s not a lot of work; a cup can’t help but overflowing once it reaches it’s maximum capacity. I’m so thankful that I learned that verse in english class, it’s such a source of comfort and motivation for me now.
Lice : my lice have taught me so much. If you don’t know about lice, you have to use a lice-killing shampoo then have a headlamped person pick through them with a comb. Truly depending on my teammates has taught me so much about trust and true friendship. Besides my own mother, I’ve never had to depend on anyone else for my own well-being so at first I felt like a burden to my sweet teammates. I quickly learned that is is the deepest desire of my teammates to be there for me through all the icky parts of my life, and that they will gladly stay up for hours into the night coming through each individual baby lice egg. The Lord loves them hard, and their cups overflow.
Caffeine : I gave up coffee for all of last week because I found myself depending on it to keep me motivated and excited for ministry. Instead, I decided to dig deeper and find my wild, child-like enthusiasm in the Lord. At first, it didn’t go great. I could barely hold my eyes open at ministry, much less run around and spin the kids dizzy. But in my hardships and times of desperation of a spur of energy, I leaned on the Lord. I learned that my passion for people is not something that you can find in a drink or anything else. It is knit into my identity; interweaved into the depths of my personality and character. Rooting myself in that truth gives me all the energy I need to chase kids and scream “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” at the top of my lungs.
As always, thank you all for your sweet sweet support. I often feel like I have a team of cheerleaders at home rooting me on as I continue to hurl myself through this insane experience called the World Race. I would love to answer any of your questions or hear what the Lord is teaching you right now, so please message me! Love and blessings :*
