- The one thing I had the hardest time with was the exact thing people praised me for. L O V E
- You can transform the routine and mundane tasks into a form of worship.
- Sometimes all people need is someone who will listen to them, and not give advice.
- There is beauty in everything, and everyone; you just have to put in the time and effort into seeing it.
- Holding babies is ministry. Take the time to pray over them and their future. You don’t know the next time they’ll get love.
- Patience is not something that can be forced on someone. People don’t learn the way you do, so give grace.
- Always carry wipes or toilet paper and a plastic bag when going to a bathroom outside of your host home or ministry site.
- You can’t expect someone to change overnight over something they have been learning for 20+ years. It takes time.
- Why not worship like nobody’s watching? It is you and God after all.
- Live the life you want lo tell your kids about, so don’t let money be the reason you don’t do something.
- If you have the opportunity to get an empanada on a Tica bus in Central America, go for it! I highly recommend it.
- I absolutely love hospitality and serving behind the scenes in a church.
- You’ll never regret waking up at 5am to watch the sunrise on the beach, or behind a mountaintop from your roof.
- You create family wherever you go.
- I don’t enjoy strategic, orderly, painted murals.
- Remember to look up from time to time. You never know what you might see.
- The sweat you endured through those 600 steps, 1hr uphill climb, etc, is worth the view that you will never forget.
- Be completely present in the now. You don’t know who will or won’t be in your tomorrow.
- You never know when you won’t have access to coffee, so drink as much Bohio (Jaco, Costa Rica) and Bella Goose (Chiang Mai, Thailand) coffee as you can!
- The number of attendance won’t disqualify what the Holy Spirit can or cannot do.
- Pancakes will always cheer up a teammate.
- Work smarter not harder.
- Joy is a choice that never gets mastered. You have to actively choose it everyday.
- Most of the time you’re never needed, but wanted.
- When doing ministry with children, love them with 120% of who Jesus is inside of you, because you don’t know what their living situation is at home when you leave.
- The words you choose to say, negative or positive, will create a natural routine.
- You don’t need instruments, microphones, speakers, or flashy lights to worship God.
- Do everything WITH God, not for Him.
- You can make anything you do fun (manual labor) when you do it with joy.
- Give all that you are to the people around you, even when you know that you might not see them again.
- It is true that when you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4) and only He can satisfy.
- Trusting in the Lord is not always easy, but choosing to trust him with everything has become easier.
- BUT IF NOT, YOU ARE GOOD. (Daniel 3:18)
- The Lord gives you strength to do what He wants you to do.
- God cares about what you care about. Even the little things like finding a coffee shop that serves v60 coffee! (43 Factory Coffee Roasters, Da Nang, Vietnam)
- I carry the gift of love, discernment, prophesy, peace and grace.
- I was not created to carry other people’s loads. (Galatians 6:2, 5)
- I am a privileged human.
- I’m a boss at killing cockroaches.
- I actually enjoy learning now, not being in school!
- The Lord will sustain you in the season you are in, if it’s where He wants you to be.
- Distance from the Lord will cause problems inwardly. Ex: (not being present, thinking about home)
I’ll end it here, because there are so much more, but I will leave you with these for now.
Traveling to 12 different counties in 11 months as a 21 year old is something that most people will never get to do, and I’ve definitely taken that for granted this year. I’m currently in Botswana, and I wake up every morning saying, “I’m in freakin Africa right now. What is life?!” This is a trip I will never forget, and hope to talk about for the rest of my life.
