Breaking Up

You may or may not have noticed that
Jenn, Kari, and Renee are on a different island with another team this month
(they’re in Dumaguete with seven:eleven).
Let me share a little bit about that…

At debrief in Siem Reap we
were presented with our ministries for the next month, and this is what was
said for our team:

Shock.

Gasp!

They’re splitting us up?

Why?

What???

We’re coming off a month where basically the
only people we saw were each other, our translator, and the kids and director
at the orphanage…and now you’re splitting us up?

Let me tell you – I had a really hard time
with that idea in the first place, let alone figuring out who would be going
where. We talked about it as a team and
decided we would take a few days to pray and think about it, and that we would
discuss the split again when we got to Bangkok.

I kind of muddled through the next couple days, knowing exactly what I
wanted to happen but not hearing much of anything from God on what He
wanted. I was frustrated that I wasn’t
hearing anything and some others on my team seemed to be hearing very clearly
what everyone was supposed to do.

So we
came back together in Bangkok and talked.
And prayed. And talked some more. And God gave us a peace about who was
supposed to go with the other team and who was supposed to travel farther to a
different island by themselves.

Then
Heather breaks out with “but don’t get too set on this because plans could
be changing anyway.”

Bam. You mean all this anguish and torture might
have been for nothing? Not funny,
God. Not funny at all.

Fast forward to our first morning in
Manila…and guess what – plans were changed. Our
team was still splitting up for the month, but because of other factors the
team we would be joining was changing.

More tears.

More prayers.

More frustration.

More talks.

You mean we were supposed to be prepared for this? What’s going on here, God? We had a long talk about what all of us
wanted and what we had been hearing from God and what other people had told
us…and in the end, after lots of prayers and lots of tears, God told us the
same groupings He had given us so much peace about when we were still in
Bangkok. So Jenn, Kari, and Renee are
with seven:eleven for the month, and Heather, Caitlin, and I are by ourselves
on our own little island paradise.

It’s
crazy how God works, but in the end, His plans are perfect.

I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else this
month…we’re staying on a beautiful island, but more than that, we’re working
with the most amazing ICM staff there could possibly be and having some of the
most phenomenal visits with pastors and spending lots of time with each other and with God. Like my new touristy t-shirt says “My first day in Bohol was awesome” and the rest of the days are as awesome as the first.