This is a tough transition. Looking back just on the past month of my life, my expectations of what my life would look like have changed a lot. Here are 12 things I’ve learned in the 12 days I’ve been here.
1. The Lord is always speaking to us; we are the ones that have a hard time listening.
The Lord wants to romance us and draw us nearer to Himself through a variety of ways. I’ve found that even in me being here, I’ve had a hard time hearing from the Lord. That is, until I changed my viewpoint and focused outwards. I’m learning what it looks like to be wild and free, to not put my God in a box and limit what I think he can do. He is bigger than what my mind can comprehend. One of the ways God has been speaking to me over these past two weeks is through nature and the pure joy that comes through the circumstances we are in. There are these little plants that I found out about when I was in Hawaii a couple years ago that are my favorite plant to this day. I don’t know the name of them but ever since then, I’ve been fascinated. When you touch this plant, it has a defense mechanism where the leaves slowly close up and fall down. They are almost like these magical little plants, whenever I find a patch of them, I like to wave my hand across them and watch them all close up together. I found them again in Laos last year and was so amused that they were there as well! One of the first days I was here, I was telling my friend and teammate Paige about how I love all the different types of plants in each country I’ve been to. As I was trying to explain this plant to her and how it was my favorite, I looked down on the path we were walking on and there was a huge patch of them! It made me so joyful because in a way, I felt like it was a gift from the Lord. He delights in knowing what makes me happy. On my way to breakfast in the mornings, I stop along the road to see the magic happen among these little plants.
Another way is simply through the sunrise I got to watch the other morning. The clouds rolled in over the mountains, everything was so crisp, and the sun slowly made its way through the clouds and peeked through with its bright beauty.
We have been in different ministry areas doing these mundane things where it seems impossible to find fun, but yet there always seems to be joy. During construction we had to move dirt into this foundation and then needed to flatten it out among the area. We turned on some music, and made the job of flattening the dirt out into a dance party by stomping around. The locals joined in and looking around, there was not one face that didn’t have the biggest smile on it. People were filled with joy. The Lord’s presence is there. We do not serve a boring God. Who do you think created humor?
Another way the Lord has been speaking to me is through my teammates. Every evening we have team time where we simply just hang out, get to know each other better, laugh until we are almost peeing, and encouraging each other in where we are at. The other night we had listening prayer in which we broke up with partners and just prayed over each other. We practice praying for the person and listening to what the Lord wants to tell that person. I was really doubting that He was going to say anything on my behalf but I was so wrong! My teammate Hannah prayed about me and what she said was straight from the Lord:
“I see these super tall trees, like the Redwood forest type trees, and they have such deep roots. The Lord wanted me to tell you that you are a princess, you are chosen, you are a royal priesthood in which the Lord has such deep, amazing plans for you. He wants to tell you that He has NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU”
For anyone who knows me, I LOVE climbing trees. I love being deep, and the craziest part is that the “you are chosen, you are a royal priesthood” part of that, I have been memorizing that verse since the day I arrived in India. I have it written on my arm to remind me and Hannah did not know that at all.
For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9
The Lord is speaking friends, sometimes it just takes some retuning of our listening to hear it.
2. The people here drink tea like 6x a day (or maybe it’s just me that drinks that many glasses)
To cool off from doing hard work like construction, people drink hot tea for a tea break. Still don’t understand why, but surprisingly it works.
3. The comforts you feel suddenly change in meaning of what you thought they were going to be.
- Finding joy in your clothes drying in a day instead of 3 days due to consistent rain even though they still smell
- taking a cold bucket shower after a long day
- Going to sleep in your “bed” that is on a humid, concrete floor but it still feels so great Getting a banana (first piece of fruit in like 10 days)
- Successfully using the squatty
- Getting a good rate on the tuk tuk AND knowing exactly where you need to go
- Getting to wear a shirt 4 days in a row because it doesn’t smell THAT bad (plus not wanting to dirty another pair of clothes)
4. We will always be stared at and waved at everywhere we go.
The perks of being like the only Americans in the whole state of Manipur
5. Bartering in the markets is a talent.
One I’ve found I’m quite good at 😉 (you’re welcome Paige!)
6. There is never going to be a good time to cross the street, you just gotta go for it. Following the locals when they run out is usually your best bet
7. The locals will always want pictures with and of you.
They will not make it secretive either. Most times they will just straight up point the camera in your face or yell “selfie!”
8. Everything we eat here is homegrown and organic 😉
Plus, our hosts are AMAZING cooks. We always get the best curry and puri (sounds like booty) bread!
9. When the church asks us to “prepare a performance” for the service, we sing How Great Thou Art. It doesn’t matter if you are a good singer or not.
Of course, they have a girl in the church who was a part of the Indian Children’s Choir back in 2008 that used to tour around America who sang the exact same song right after us, except with background music and sounded 10x better.
10. Being alone in the quiet is never really a thing in community living.
Put in your earphones and it MAY feel like you have some peace and quiet. There is always something going, FOMO is a real thing my friends. It is critical to find a balance between doing those things, and staying back to rest and be by yourself. This is not something we can go home at the end of the week or month to recover from. This is life now.
11. It’s not easy having pretty much no connection to back home.
I’m missing you guys like crazy. I want to see your faces; I want to hear your voices. It’s hard when wifi is extremely unreliable and we only get access to that about once a week (if it even works or if people are awake). In this time of abandonment though, I am learning what it looks like to fully rely on the Lord.
12. Life on the race is not as glamorous as social media makes it seem.
This is just my life in this season. It just looks a little bit different. It is an awesome journey but don’t think it is this romanticized, version of life. I’m learning what it looks like to live on a mission. I’m learning to love others intentionally but it’s hard. Giving and receiving feedback is hard. Being sick is hard. Having spiritual warfare keep you up at night is hard. Not having people who fully know you yet is hard. Walking almost a mile to get food 3x a day can be annoying sometimes. This life is so beautiful but please don’t think that it is always rainbows and butterflies. Let’s walk through this together. I want to be honest with you guys about my experience, not just about all the good things that happen but the bad as well.
-Steph
