Lecture Phase Over, Mexico Here We Come

Lecture phase is officially over and outreach phase has begun. We headed out this morning for our road trip down to Mexico (I am writing this on the bus, I forgot how bumpy school buses are!). Today we are driving 15 hours to Oklahoma, where we will be for a few days doing local outreaches there. Then we will drive a few more days making stops in Texas and New Mexico before heading down into Juarez, Mexico.

So, the last time I blogged it was right after we got back from backpacking…since then we had the children at risk seminar, a final week of classes and debriefing, and the madness of packing and prepping for outreach.

The children at risk seminar was fantastic. Our speaker was from Colombia and works with street kids there. He gave us so much insight into the building blocks of ministry, how to build the foundations and how to actually go out. It was a very valuable week of teaching.

We started our final week with a question, “How did God surprise you during lecture phase?” The thing that came to mind, in of itself, was a surprise to me. About a month ago when I started thinking about grad school, I started considering getting my doctorate. Somehow when I graduated three months ago I was ready to go straight into missions, maybe get my masters, but I never really considered getting my doctorate. So when I felt that God was calling me to look at those programs honestly I was surprised, then excited, then terrified. But I know that God’s time schedule is different than mine, and even though the idea of going back to school another five years sounds awful at this point, I can trust that it will be completely worth it.

Learning that God sometimes lets us wait for things is a hard lesson to learn, and not one that I thought I would learn by thinking about further education. But it is good I think, for I came into the DTS hoping for direction, this just wasn’t the exact direction I had in mind.

As we went through that last week and the few days leading up to leaving for outreach we did a lot of team communication as well as the logistical preparation. Making sure our hearts and minds were ready for outreach both for ourselves and for team relationships.

These next two months are going to be a challenge for me. Just as these last three months have been as well. My personal struggles of finding balance, figuring out boundaries, restoring my mind and my heart from the hurts of the past years, and many other things, make it even more difficult to then deal with the struggles presented when living in community. I have learned little ways to cope this summer, but I am imagining that outreach will provide new challenges for me in relating graciously with others, no matter how much I love them.

At the same time though there is something exciting and fulfilling in going out to serve others and relying on God in the process, so regardless of the challenges these next two months in Mexico will be worth it, I am sure.