It’s June 6th, and ministry in the Philippines, month 11, has officially ended. After the first week of serving with Trash Mountain Project, my last two weeks were spent with the children at KIM’s children home and doing some painting for the ministry.
Some of the children I got close to at the Children's Home, and a picture with Gie, a sweet girl who works in the nursery. She will be leaving to start college in a week.
A visitor donated these basketball backboards for the children's home, and Frank asked me to paint them. IIt was a day of excitement when he and Ben helped to put them up at the children's home.
This last month has been markedly different than the rest of the Race, with half the squad serving at the same place. We were free to choose the ministries that we were most drawn to and gifted in. Everyone served in a different capacity, and the lines that divided the teams became erased. Even though we still fought to pour into our ministries, this month has been one of increasingly turning our thoughts towards home. How does one return home after a trip like this? What significance has this Race played in our lives? How have we changed and touched each of the places we’ve served? How has it changed our relationships and perspectives of God? What will we do with what we’ve learned? More and more, these thoughts whirled in our heads as our month closed out.
Squadmates Katie and Rachel help with the daily feedings in various places in the city, while Frank built and painted these awesome shelves and artistically arranged items for the store at our ministry site.
We have the blessing of spending the last four days of our Race at a beach resort about 3 hours away from Manila. I’ve had the leisure of re-reading some of my journal entries from during the Race. As I read, the fear in me subsided as I remembered and rediscovered what God has been teaching me and changing in me throughout these past months.
The view at Coralview resort.
I am the Beloved Daughter of the Living God.
I hear the voice of God and His Spirit is alive within me.
I am a joyful and bold woman walking in freedom in Him.
My identity is found in His love for me.
He will use ordinary me, just as He has the whole Race, to do extraordinary things. He gives me the courage, the drive, the passion, the words, the wisdom, and the love to meet and overcome each and every circumstance, every obstacle on the Race. And He will continue to do so. All the glory goes to Him for the beautiful things He’s done through us, and through our supporters, this last World Race season, and before and after it.
So let me step back as the Lord prepares the canvas for this next season. The brush is not in my hands; rather, I am the brush in His Hands. And He already knows exactly what the end picture will look like; what beautiful masterpiece He’s going to craft and create. Even if there are parts that look messy and blotches that may look like mistakes, in the end we’ll see exactly for what purpose those parts were there, that they were exactly placed to serve their own purpose.
So, let me declare that fear has no place in this next season that is coming.
I only pray to have the courage, passion, and discipline to continue to follow wherever my Father leads me to go.
The tree that teammate Ben helped me to paint in the prayer room at our ministry site.
