Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but thanks for your patience with me!!
Updates: tomorrow we have team changes! I’m not entirely sure what that looks like, but I do know that I have full trust in Gods plan and that he will put me with a group of people that will challenge me to grow closer to him, as well as encourage personal growth! 🙂 I’m not anxious, nor super excited, but I am content with it! 🙂
We have officially ended our Asia portion of the trip- four months have come and gone, with many lessons, memories, and experiences- all of it has been amazing! I am currently writing to you from debrief: a time that the entire squad gets to relax and reflect on our time in a certain continent. We just got here yesterday, and I can already tell that God is doing big things in those around me, but also myself!
This last month my team partnered with another team so that we totaled 13 individuals when all was said and done. We lived in one tiny house with one bathroom, but many cool seating areas. Our ministry was to evangelize this month. What does that mean? Instead of showing God through our actions we were able to have open conversations about him- everywhere! The Philippines is a Catholic based country and so they know who Jesus is, but their form of worship is doing more action based things- hail Marus for prayer and really performances focused. Our two teams went into about eight different schools and told the students why we were there and we shared our life story.
That has been my favorite part- I love connecting with people and really sharing who Christ is to me as well as publicly proclaiming how I’ve encountered Jesus. It’s not about the flashy “I’ve done something bad and need to repent”, it can be as simple as wanting/desiring something more for your life and recognizing that God is that in the most intimate way. I had the opportunity to give my story in front of 150 college-aged students and I absolutely loved it. I could relate to them on a more personal level and it was amazing- it was cool enough to the point that all my teammates told me that I was in my element while doing that- And they were right!
Ive had the privilege to see classrooms of students give their life to Christ and really desire something deeper in their life and at first I was hesitant to believe how easy it was, but that has been my theme this month: child-like faith. Really taking things to God and trusting that he knows far greater than I do about things, and that it’s not worth stressing the small stuff. It’s been an amazing journey to really live that out this month and have others stand with me during the process.
This month i have gotten a lot of feedback from my team that I am accepted as an individual and that I have a lot to offer. So much so, that they want to see more- they want me to bring all the thought processes out of my head and put them on the table- to work through some of the hard things that I’ve went through in life and really trust God in those areas. I’m thankful that they call that out in me- to have me grow in my relationship with Christ and really challenge me to not stay in my head, but it terrifies me. Why you ask? My team has been awesome at accepting me where I’m at, but bringing them into the depths of my head also allows them to accept me at that point to- the part where I’ve lied to myself saying that I’m too much, not worth it, or that I’m hard to handle. They would encounter this thought process with grace, truth, and love. They’d accept it and challenge me to talk to God about it and see what he has to say about it. That scares me because that’s the ugly stuff and they say they love all of me and mean it…. Here’s the real question: do I love that side of me/myself?? This has been something that I’m really wanting to scream yes to, and show you by actions, but the truth is- I haven’t… I’m starting to, but it’s still a bit rocky.. God has been doing a lot in my heart this month but I couldn’t put it into words until just now..
Guys, God is calling me deeper- into deeper waters and really asking me if I trust him… my answer is yes and I’m excited to see how this journey continues to unfold! 🙂
Separate update: I need to be fully funded by the end of this month: 7 days and I only have $2,719 left to go!!! Praise God! I want to continue to see how God wants me to dive deeper with him, if you do as well, would you click the donate button at the top of this blog and support me in my efforts in this journey? It’s greatly appreciated!
Next stop: AFRICA!! 🙂
