As the New Year came rolling around, I found myself looking back over the past year.
It was only a year ago…I had just moved back home to Lubbock, Texas all the way from Florida. I was confused why God was calling me home, why I had spent only eight months there “finding myself”, and yet I was coming home still feeling a sense of emptiness and searching for more.
I thought I was home for good. I thought maybe I was finally going to stay put for a while and “settle down” or something like that.
I love when God has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves. His always tend to blow ours out of the water.
Little did I know, God was not calling me to settle down at all. Instead He was calling me away from my home once again…and this time He was telling me to sell almost everything I owned and give up all of my comforts and control, to go travel the World with a backpack of belongings and live out of a tent.
Before I knew it, I had quit another job, leaving clients that I love dearly and I was saying goodbye to my family and friends to go spread the love and grace that has been extended to me…to THE WORLD!
Sometimes on the World Race you kind of forget the beauty of it all.
The fact that we are the called, the chosen…and we are traveling the stinking World for a year.
So this New Years, I decided to take it all in. To breathe deep and realize that I had survived a really hard and long month. But I’m still here…and finally in Thailand.
It took me literally two minutes to fall in love with this place.
The culture, the fashion, the food, the ministry….ALL AMAZING.
So here I am…beginning a new month, a new year, a new REDEEMED life in Christ….and I’m loving every minute of it.
And do you want to hear how good God is….
I got to spend my New Years loving on women in the bars…seeing my old life from a sober, Spirit-minded perspective. I got to eat delicious Pad Thai and try Thai tea. I got to countdown to Midnight with my beautiful sisters, sending a floating lantern into a firework filled sky. I got to text my family when I got home and share the day with them.
I got to spend New Years Day visiting Buddhist temples and learning about the Thai culture. Drinking incredible smoothies and coffee, planning an actual schedule for ministry (this never happens on the race!).
This month my team will be living above a coffee shop. We will be going to the two Universities within walking distance and trying to connect with the students. We will be hosting game nights and open mic nights at the coffee shop and doing daily tutoring with students teaching them English and just having conversations with them. I am beyond excited as we dive into relationships with college students this month. I feel so alive here, I feel like we have such purpose and I truly believe God is going to blow our minds as He works in and through WonGen Kafe’.
So to 2012…You taught me a lot. You are a year I don’t think I ever want to relive again, but a year I will never forget. A year of so much change, heartache, and restoration. I close the book of 2012 and am excited to look back on it only as a memory now.
As I try to grasp this new life that I have been given…I couldn’t think of a better start to 2013.
It’s going to be an incredible year…and I cannot wait to see how it unfolds.
Here's to 2013…to dreaming bigger, living freely, and loving extravagantly.
