This new years my team and I decided to end our last day of 2019 doing worship in our room. Sitting on our cement floor just remembering what our year has been. What 2019 had looked like, how the Lord has changed us, and what were looking forwards to this year. We laughed and cried thinking about how we are so much more different than the girls we had been a year ago. I thank God everyday that it’s my normal to worship on our cement floor to ring in the year. It’s normal to have these kinds of conversations. It’s normal to give up my year to the Lord and want to have the Lord to have full control. It’s normal to fight for us to see the Lords faithfulness even through the hard times. I thank God that this New Years has looked different then it has in the years before. I am thankful that entering the New Year is different now. We got to sit around a bonfire and count down the New Year as squad even though in Ethiopia its 2012 and it wasn’t even the day of their New Year. I was so curious what my New Year back at home would have looked like. Would I have been at a party? Would I have been with my parents? What would I have worn? Would I have had a New Years kiss? All those questions don’t even look the same to my New Years this year. I did have a party with a coffee ceremony and playing charades. I did get to dress up and take pictures with my squad. I got to play with the kids during the day. I got to light birthday sparklers and sit in my pajamas around the fire with my friends. My friend Midge was able to intercede for me and told me my 2020 is a time to have my roots go deeper than they have before. Alexis told me this is a time for awe and wonder. Maddie spoke over the words beloved and strength. Bailey said it is a time for resilience. I have had people praying over me and letting me know through them what the Lord is saying to me. New Years day I took time to sit down and write about what I want 2020 to be like. It is all based around being rooted in the Lord. 2020 is a different year. I am ending the World Race and starting college. They are so different. I am thinking about things for this year revolving around the Race and things that revolve around college and that time in between. I wrote things like being fully funded and having my parents come to PVT. Things like spending intentional time with my friends back at home and being able to spend time with my family and see Christ in all of them. I have things like making new friends at college and being able to know how to balance school. Bringing people to Christ, knowing my promises from the Lord, continuing journaling, paying for tuition, and being present in my life. So many different wants but overall I just want to look more like Jesus.
