Well, we made it to Yalta. This is the most beautiful place. My team and I are staying 
on the Black sea. Every morning we wake up and I stand in awe of where we are. Even some simple walks will captivate you…you get lost in thought for sure. We started our month with some good ole manual labor. We pulled weeds, painted metal, cleaned metal, cleaned wood, and made the place look pretty a bit. Two of my teammates spent their first eleven days in a hospital though. So things were crazy for a bit. One of my teammates had to have her appendix out and of course her husband spent the days with her. God was faithful to them the whole time though. He protected them and is healing her more everyday. Now we are in the midst of summer camps. I love camps. They make me feel like a kid again. They remind me to love and be patient. With the language being a bit of a challenge I wasn’t sure what this was all for. To me, the first day it was clear. We are here for the leaders. They are a little younger than us but have such a clear drive and eagerness for this place. Most of them understand a little English so we can communicate a little. I’m not sure what they need or where they are with the Lord but just us being around is an encouragment. It’s been fun to see God show up and just us to pour out. It’s a humbling thing when you think about that; GOD is choosing to use you to bring the message of
grace and love. That changes the way we walk, talk, and act.
I like to read Charles Spurgeon. He is like Oswald Chambers. Both wise men who left the world with great things to ponder and push us to greater and greater. They both seem to have had an interesting connectiong with the Lord. One morning I was reading a morning devotion from Spurgeon’s book. He talked about being a letter to the world. Spurgeon reads from 1 John 2:6, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” Funny statement, huh? It seems that we stuggle so much with our identity and what are to do with ourselves…our lives. The Bible is clear. Ephsians tells us of our new nature and 1 John tells us to walk like Jesus. Spurgeon says in his insert that we should imitate Christ for own sakes. If we drink DEEPLY of our Father’s love, we would enjoy and enter into this holy and happy communion with Jesus. We like to complicate life. It’s really not that complicated. We are just scared. The ‘what ifsss’ flood our minds and take over our hearts.
baptizing our bro!
On the race I realized a lot about myself. I realized the really good things about me and the things I fall short at. Thankfully where I fall short, God is there and makes my mess clean. That’s why it isn’t all that difficult to write this to you. Maybe you struggle with it to. I learned the past few months that when you aren’t good at something it’s ok. I learned that it doesn’t mean you don’t do it, it just looks differant from someone else. It doesn’t mean you have to hide behind it or that you to keep it out of light. Actually, you should bring it to light. Shine the brightest light on it you can. Here is me shining light on some things. I am not good at being open with people. I am far better at processing in my head and figuring it out that talking through it with someone. I realize in context of community this can be a disaster. Thankfully there is GRACE! I realize it may put off the wrong vibe to people and I have to make more of an effort to reach out to people. I use to think that I was an open book and that people could just see my heart but I’m finding that is not the case. Another thing, I actually love playing guitar and singing whatever. I didn’t realize how much until Kenya, month 5 of not having a guitar to play. That was just difficult. So I prayed about it and bought a guitar. I fall short here because I know I’m not the greatest at guitar, I’m really not that bad but I don’t like to play for people. It scares me. The one time I did in Kenya actually; it wasn’t good for me. My squad mates were so awesome to encourage me but I’m stubborn and haven’t found it to play again for people. I sneak away to do. Crazy, huh?
It’s funny that Spurgeon says to be a letter. He means to be like Christ. A letter in the times of Christ was read in the middle of the towns. Everyone came to listen to what was read. The letter carried weight and high importance. It had power to change people, to inform people, and to love people. So Christ dying gave us a connection with the Father. Now he chooses to use us as a tablet…as paper that is passed from town to town. I’m sure the paper was a bit worn but it’s meanings were still carried out. We all have our faults. We could easily hide behind them for most of our lives. We could easily let the better one present something or do something. Or we could walk like he walked. He walked in light. He walked in who He is…The Son of Man. Christ died so we could walk in who we are…SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD.
I write this to bring freedom to myself. To bring freedom to you…I know I’m not alone in this. Your mess may look differant than mine or maybe it’s similar. Today I pray we all walk out of our mess. That we take on the challenge to be a letter.
“…imitate Jesus; Be a letter of Christ…known and read by all.”
