1. Believe the Lie That God Cannot Redeem a Situation
How cool that God gave me a team called “Redeemed”. We truly lived up to our name. I was a bit nervous about what opening my heart up to a new group of girls might look like. Well, I opened up and my girls were wildly different than any team I’ve had in the past! I love them all so uniquely and individually and God has redeemed some brokenness I was carrying when it came to female and male friendships. Oh, how lovely is our God!
2. Fully Invest Myself Into A Few Relationships
I’ve learned to give 100% of myself to each person I spend time with. It doesn’t matter who is in front of me. I want to give 100% of myself to you and be fully present with you as best as I can because you’re worth my time, not just a select few. And, in the kingdom, you never know who God is raising up. Don’t show partiality. You never know!
3. Wait for People to Earn My Trust
I realized this second time around that I was choosing to trust 5 new girls with my heart and my story. It was a risky move, but my heart has stretched in areas I didn’t know it could! I don’t have a ‘World Race best friend’. I have a whole group of girls that are my ‘World Race Best Friends’.
4. Not Believe That I Have Good Things to Give Away
Man, oh man! I have become so passionate about this! While my team was in Lebanon last month, we worked with Syrian refugees. One of the families in particular was really struggling with some heavy stuff that was directly related to their father. My squad mate Val and I connected with the oldest daughter who is pretty open with her family’s situation. Because of her openness, her father rarely allows her to come to church. In the short, sweet time we had with her, she was able to witness two miracles, one of them in her own family. We prayed for her multiple times and spoke some precious truth over her. I was also able to give her the ‘I am’ declarations and ‘Identity’ statements so she could memorize on her own. She was so new to the faith and was impacted by our small investments into her life. I think about how far along I am in my journey and all the things I’ve walked through and it makes me excited to continue finding girls along the way to walk with, for the long haul. I don’t think I would have expressed this sort of excitement 2 years ago!
5. Prioritise Destination Over People
I love to give the analogy of the Square in Marrakesh. We were traveling as a team in that beautiful city in Morocco and our priority was to make it to the square where all the snake charmers, monkeys, and trinkets were. But to get there, we needed to make our way down a windy market called the ‘Medina’. We literally walked at a snail’s pace. Finding myself getting antsy, frustrated, and desiring to get away, I was wrestling deep down inside. It was a matter of staying with my people or breaking off and seeing everything. I just wanted to get to the destination at my own speed. Lo’ and behold, we made it to the market eventually, but as soon as we got there, as per my last blog, magical things began to happen. People were asking for prayer left and right! It was then that I realized that I don’t want to be anywhere but with my team, my people. This is a lesson I am still learning and wrestling through, but I am slowly discovering that in the kingdom, people are the destination. It’s not about the place that makes life adventurous, but the people you get to do it with!
Another time, we put on a Christmas program for the kids in Lebanon and my group decided to paint a few things to decorate the walls, one being a nativity scene. One of the girls asked to help me, but I told her I had a vision and felt like I could handle it on my own. Unbeknownst to me, this hurt her and made her feel excluded. All I knew was that I had this vision and I wanted to execute it. Well, it was close to midnight the night before our program and I still hadn’t completed the mural! In fact, I was extremely behind. I then asked the girls if they could please help me and they did. They pasted and painted as quickly as they could. I realized later that I missed out on an opportunity for me to share some precious time with my teammate on the mural, but instead I did it myself and couldn’t even finish it. She wanted to spend time with me. It wasn’t about the mural. Again, value people over destination, productivity.
These are only a few of the things I’m taking away from my time with Adventures in Missions. They are still things I battle with and still things that are hard for me, but there is grace. Also, sometimes a lesson can seem so elementary until God teaches it to you and then all of a sudden this ‘elementary’ thing falls from your head like an avalanche onto your heart and shatters some things.
I am still fundraising. I need 690 USD to be fully funded by Christmas. Would you pray about financially donating? You can donate to my account by clicking on the donate link on the top of my blog page and inserting your information. Also, I will be coming home in a little over a week so you can also donate in person! Thank you so much.
With all my love,
Tamara <3
