Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
So I’ve officially been in Gainesville Georgia for 10 days and man, it’s been the hardest and most spiritually growing week of my life. The Lord completely broke my expectations down and rebuilt them in His perfect way. Did you know that the Lord loves you so much that He wants with everything inside of Him to fall madly in love with you? He’s just waiting for it. Did you know He sent His son to die for you, and STILL gave you the option to reject Him, or to Chase after Him and eternal life? Did you know His goodness is so vast that He wants to bless you in every way He is able? Did you know He loves your best girl and your family more than you can ever even try? Did you know you can trust Him with your EVERY plan, your EVERY desire, your EVERY step. Did you know surrendering is perhaps the hardest thing you will ever do, but the absolute best way you can love?. . . I sure didn’t, but the Lord is revealing more of Himself to me every hour, and every hour I’m more and more blown away by Him. The call to discipleship is HARD, but it is the LORD’s plan, and I am so thankful. Praise the Lord for His almighty power. Praise the Lord for His goodness and grace. Praise the Lord for His perfect will and His everlasting love. Praise the Lord for His CHALLENGES. Just praise the Lord.
Ok, on to some of the other fun details… I washed my clothes yesterday. Hand washing is actually really therapeutic, and as long as your drying clothes don’t get caught in the rain, you have a full new wardrobe in 24 hours (but my gosh, you better scrub hard or else it does nothing). Praise the Lord for soap. I had maxed out basically all of my clothes in sweat capacity, and I was starting to sacrifice some of my very limited shower water to attempt to rinse some of them out (doesn’t work by the way). On that note, bucket showers are actually GREAT. I think the first bucket shower I had was probably the best shower I’ve ever had in my entire life just because of how incredibly ready for a shower I was. The guys were all belting their hearts out and screaming like little girls about how incredibly excited they were to dump cold water over themselves. Even if we did all start sweating as soon as we ran out of water, it was still one of the most relieving feelings I’ve experienced so far. When your scheduled shower day ends up being at 6:50 in the morning it can be a bit frigid, but we all agreed you can scream through the pain, and it wakes you up better than coffee does. Also I discovered that sleeping in my eno no matter the temperature is FOR SURE the way to go. The first night I woke up at about 2:30am shivering, but I got over it, and now it’s definitely the way to go. My squad mate, Ben, rigged up a rain fly for his hammock, which is located on top of mine, so now we have a sheltered, two story set-up that I’m extremely thankful for (Love you Ben). Some things have been harder than others, and some days have seemed incredibly tough, but at the ene of the day I am so INCREDIBLY blessed to be here, and I’m thankful for every second. The hard part hasn’t been the new living experiences, it’s been the mental and spiritual battle of filling up soley on the Holy Spirit, and fighting each day to surrender to the Lord’s mercies. We are so blessed as Americans to be able to enjoy the luxuries that we do, and I’m realizing just how privileged I am just to have a tent, good meals every day, clean running water, and an incredible squad to push and encourage me. Thank you Lord for this amazing opportunity. I’m praying for everyone back home, and starting now, I’ll be updating my blog pretty regularly. God is GOOD!
Mom and Dad, I miss you a lot and I love you guys
Abs and Elise, live it up (but don’t talk to any boys) <3
Joc (and Forest), Matt, and Kimry, I’m proud of you guys and I love you
Rye… hm… We seem to get along pretty well… I miss you a lot, but I love you more.
Love you all!
