“What are you actually doing there?” is a question I get a lot. and it’s a valid one, especially since my day to day life doesn’t look anywhere near the way I thought it would when I signed up for the race. I posted a blog a few weeks ago about our daily schedule, about how life here is so beautifully different than a normal day at home.
and it is 🙂 so beautifully different. filled with highs, higher than I could’ve guessed, and marked by a few lows, some lower than I would’ve thought, but nonetheless it’s a life I continue to fall in love with every morning that I wake up in my tent. and it’s a life that I love to share about! and one simple way I decided to do that was by putting some common questions (and some of your specific questions) into one post, and sharing my answers! so here they are 🙂
What do you miss about home and how do you fill that void? missing things that I left at home, and allowing the Father to fulfill those desires in His way, is something that I walk through daily. I miss my bed, I miss flushing a toilet, I miss my mom’s home cooked dinners, and I miss being able to put ice in my water.
But the Lord meets my needs in those areas. Of course, a sleeping bag is not the same as my memory foam mattress pad, or using a full porta potty with the company of flies is very different than being able to lock a bathroom door and then flush a toilet after. the rice, chicken, or roasted crickets that I get to eat here aren’t quite the same as homemade alfredo or burgers made on the grill in my backyard at home. and the hose water that I get to fill my bottle with doesn’t exactly compare to the purified water I have access to at home.
But it’s still a bed. still a bathroom. still a filling meal. still an unlimited source of water. and God is still Provider.
So how do I fill the longing of missing things at home? Ultimately I can’t. No matter how hard I try and believe that my sleeping bag is as comfortable as my bed, it’s not going to become true. But what is true is that the Father is more satisfying than a bed will ever be. in John 4:34, Jesus says “my food is to do the will of the One who sent me.” abiding in the will of our Father is more satisfying than a clean toilet or seeing my favorite meal set in front of me. so that’s how I get to be fulfilled even in the longing for things at home. I still miss my bed, my family, my ice maker, but I love the Lord more – and His love for me is sweeter than all of those things.
What is a favorite memory that I have since being here? this question makes me so excited, and I don’t think I can choose just one, but some of my favorites so far have been dancing in the rain with my team, taking a surprise trip to chickfila, having a dinner to celebrate Jesus complete with party hats and pizza, choosing our team name, doing cotton eye joe as a squad, leading church one week, having a “no talent, talent show” as a squad, and eating lunch at a random table in the woods. I could share so many others, but long story short, I love my team, my squad, and time here is abundantly joyful 🙂
If I had to choose one, and only one, team leader to take overseas, which one would it be? this question came from a squadmate as a joke, but I thought it’d still be fun to answer! To give a little context, the leaders of our squad (our group as a whole) are with us the entire 9 months, but the leaders of our individual teams are with us only for the time that we are in Gainesville, and a team leader from our group (so one of our peers) is raised up to lead the team during our time overseas.
We have four team leaders on our squad: Regan, Austin, Sam, and my team leader Leanna! honestly I couldn’t choose just one of them, but if I could only take one person overseas with us, I would take a person who has Regan’s steady intentionality, Austin’s reverent wisdom, Sam’s lighthearted friendliness, and Leanna’s unashamed joy!
We love our team leaders here on gap f 🙂
Where have I seen myself grow? another great question, and my answer to this changes every day, as the Lord is constantly reminding me of Himself in new ways. overall, I think the biggest thing that the Lord has been teaching me during this month and a half has been the ability to simply be.
So often I fill my day with business and doing – even doing really good things, but the Father has been showing me that freedom doesn’t come in the doing for God, but in simply being His child. and in that, I’ve been growing in my ability to rest and growing in the ability to be content as a daughter of the King, no matter where my feet are.
What is my favorite part of the day? my favorite part of the day is actually before breakfast! I love to get up early and spend time with the Lord before the day begins. especially now, with the days getting shorter, I’m able to get up before the sun, watch the stars in the morning, and sit under the sky as it changes from darkness to daylight. and it’s beautiful 🙂
The Father meets my heart in those moments and starting my day that way opens my eyes to His new mercies, every single morning.
What is one characteristic of God that I have seen this week? this week I have seen the Lord show up as Comforter. after almost two months of outdoor living and sleeping on the ground, it’s safe to say that my tent is not the most comfortable place I’ve ever been. but I’m learning that the comfort of the Father exceeds any earthly comfort! and God doesn’t even redeem and fulfill our desires for physical comfort, but He is even the Comforter of our hearts, meeting us in the hurt and the pain, and using affliction to make us more like Himself. and on top of that, He wants to be our Comforter, so let’s receive Him as He is!
If I could describe this season in one word, what word would it be? abundant!
What has been the most difficult thing, and how has God worked through that? one of the hardest things here has been adjusting to life in constant community, and learning to live without most of the “normal luxuries” that I have access to at home. Similar to my answer to the first question, the Lord is showing and reminding me that His grace is sufficient. always. and that includes my wish for a more comfortable bed, or even my desire for alone time. His grace is great enough to have saved me, so His grace is definitely great enough to meet my needs. and He is so faithful in showing me the power of His sufficiency.
Is the relief trip to Louisiana still happening? yes! If you remember from one of my previous blogs, my squad gets to go to Louisiana for two weeks, and we actually leave tomorrow morning to do that! we’ll be in Lake Charles, Louisiana until November 7th, and while we’re there, we get to partner with Samaritan’s Purse and aid in disaster relief for all the homes and families impacted by the recent hurricanes
Are international travel planes definitive yet? plans for our overseas launch in January are not official yet. we are still planning to go on our original route of Romania, India, and Costa Rica, but because of various border laws and covid regulations, that route is not set in stone yet. that route is still our goal, but because of the constant changes in our world right now, the places we go or the duration of time that we get to stay there may change.
the last question that was asked is “what is it like to live in community 24/7?” and long story short, it’s so hard, but so so good. and I’m actually working on a different blog post to better answer this question and explain what living in constant community looks like!
Thank you all for asking questions, and thank you for sitting to hear my answers! it truly means a lot 🙂 of course, if there are any other questions, feel free to email, text, or call me, and I’d love to share more about what my life in the kingdom looks like right now!
