2011 has come and will be gone at the end of this day. Tonight is a night were many will go out on the town, and celebrate the coming of the New Year.
This year has been a year of years for me, which will definitely be marked down in my book for one of the years that I will always look back on when I get older. So much has happened to me in the past 6 months while on the race. I helped build a church in Ecuador, talk to people in Laredo about God, got to help street kids in Bolivia, worshipped with college students in Albania, made a lasting friendship with 91 year old women in Romania.
I have broken down so many of my walls that have been built up in the past to protect myself from harm. I no longer hide behind those walls as a security blanket, or a place to hide; because I know with the grace of God he will give me strength and courage to overcome that fear. I have forgiven many people who have hurt me in the past. I have forgiven someone who I hated for so long. I have forgiven the person who took something away from me so long ago. For people who made fun of my stutter in the past and those who continue to laugh as I talk, I just let their laughter roll off me like butter. I don’t let it affect me because I know I am strong, because God gave me life and He has made me special for a reason.
What this mission trip has taught me so far is…
- To let go of the past, and to look forward to the future.
- To be free of old grudges.
- To tear down my walls
- To not care what other people think
- To love on others who have nothing but the love of God in their hearts
- To love my team, and become a family
- To not have control of anything that happens to me while on this race
- To trust God fully and let him have the reins.
- To just be free from any worries or stress’s in the past, the present, and the future.
- To just beME
On a side note
Many people who believe the end of the world will come on December 20, 2012; may be celebrating with more of a fear then of gay celebrating. I remember the day I left for training camp; some fellow travelers were talking about how this one guy predicted the end of the world would come on May 21, 2011 at 6pm that night. I remember looking at my clock that night at 6pm, and just shaking my head thinking of the foolishness of it. You all remember the Y2K scare, in the year 2000 when all electronics were supposed to all stop working, and how the event would make everyone poor because we had no capable way of calculating anything without a press of a button. Let’s just continue to say that as I type on my computer in the year 2011, that it was just people wanting to make the people of the world frightened.
Whatever the case is I do believe the world will continue to go on even past the year 2012.
How do I know that?
Let’s just say, I have God on my side!
Pictures of the past 6 months in 2011
