To Love and Be Loved

If I had to sum up the last two weeks it would be learning to love and be loved. I was not expecting that going into a week on destiny and then a week backpacking in Michigan would teach me so much about love, but it really did.

Destiny, to follow God's call on our life. To overcome difficulties and challenges to reap the benefits of God's blessing. Fairly simple. But two weeks ago all that God wanted to teach me was "love hopes." In I Corinthians 13:7, Paul tells the Corinthians that love hopes all things. When someone you love hurts you, in love you hope that they did not mean it for evil, you hope for the best in others, yourself, God, you hope that God has the best in mind for you. That first full week in August was a week of hurt, restoration, joy, and love. Thursday, my birthday, ended with a night laying under the stars with friends coming along side me showing love. If earlier in the week I did not hope for the best in these same friends, Thursday would not have been the same. Love hopes.

Then this last week, backpacking in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan along Lake Superior. So beautiful. I loved being in the outdoors, basking in God's creation. But I found it very hard to love the others in my DTS. In my physical tiredness I lost all patience for others. I often desired to go out, be alone, but instead had to do something for another. Really the week hiking was quite easy, but emotionally I never wanted to show my weaknesses, but being with others all the time made that impossible, so I often broke down crying for no real reason.

Some other fun challenges included: learning to poop in the woods, having to set up and tear down camp every day, trying to find firewood in the damp woods, waking up early every day after hardly sleeping, having dirt constantly under my fingernails, having to lick my dishes clean after meals, drinking iodized lake water, trying to sit by the fire and avoid the smoke, having one 11 mile day hiking, having to pack out all our trash and nasties, losing my Russia ring. But all these challenges were nothing compared to the beauty we were surrounded with.

Sunlight streaming through green leaves soaring above us. Tiny orange mushrooms splattered across the ground. Bark folding off birch trees. Stars reflected on a smooth lake at night. Mushrooms growing up a tree. Seeing Lake Superior for the first time and realizing it actually looks like the ocean. Finding completely smooth round rocks in the sand. Picking blueberries along the path as we hiked. Watching the trees change from campsite to campsite, from deciduous to evergreen. Hiking along side Lake Superior. Black-eyed Susans in a field. Neon colored leaves strewn throughout the woods. Tiny crystals of sand with so many colors. Standing on the edge of a sand dune feeling the wind in my skin.

So much beauty and life in God's creation. Each tiny moment making it all worth it. Learning to love regardless of all else, learning to accept love from others, learning that God truly loves me and has a plan and a purpose for my life.

Hanging out in the Corn

I haven't had a chance to post in awhile, so I thought I might try to figure out some updates to share with you all. I'm still alive, the corn is growing taller, and I am getting more and more tired. But God is teaching me all sorts of things, and I'm continually learning to trust in his faithfulness.

August...just one month till we leave for outreach. Last night we held an awareness event about Rancho Los Amigos, the children's home we will be serving at in Juarez, Mexico. On outreach we will be serving at Rancho for the first month, then will be going South to Creel, Mexico for the second month. Planning for the awareness event has taken up a lot of extra time these last few weeks. As we gathered information, got decorations, made food, prepared games for the kids, put together pictures, our hearts grew for the children in Juarez. Although not many people were able to go the event last night, the fact that I now have a greater heart for the people we will be serving makes is worthwhile to me.

Also, about outreach, I still have more funds to raise. If you feel called to help support me with that, I would greatly appreciate it! We haven't been told the exact number we have to raise, but it will be between 1500-2500 dollars. A few weekends ago I was blessed by my church community back in Spokane. They put on a yard sale to help me raise support, which brought in about 1200, which I am so grateful for.

This last week we had our last official Camp Tuesday. This week we are helping host a carnival for the kids and presentation for the parents, then Camp Tuesday will be done for the summer. It has been fun serving there these past few weeks. Being on the worship team has had challenging moments, but has been so worth it. This last week, a lot of the girls sang along with us and danced and praised, and it was so exciting to see them actually learning the words, where most weeks they would just stare at us and sometimes clap along. It was encouraging to see the truth of the words impacting their hearts.

Since I blogged last, we have had three speakers, one on the Holy Spirit, one on evangelism, and one on relationships. All challenging weeks in some ways, confirming in others, and terribly exhausting. I'm still processing it all, but am starting to accept the fact that I just won't be able to really grasp all of it in these short busy weeks. Thankfully we are getting the recordings of all the teachings, so I will be able to go back and listen to them later...because as it is, it is impossible to really hold onto all the teachings like I want to.

Next week we are talking about destiny. The last week or so I have started thinking again about grad schools, and am leaning back to wanting to further study clinical psychology. Part of me is almost afraid of going in this route because it will require so much school and many other fears, but I know that if this is really where God is leading me, it will be so good. Hopefully this week will give me a little more insight into all of this!

For now though...its time to go watch Rise of the Guardians! I love children's movies.