Thriving Daisies

A few weeks ago while we were doing a prayer walk I came across a few lone daisies that were in the field in front of my house. These simple, beautiful flowers that somehow survived through the beginning of fall, after the field got mowed, with cold weather, harsh winds and all. In that moment I knew ever so gently that I also would survive. Despite the constant change, overwhelming pressures, and always functioning out of my comfort zone, I knew I would survive. Then I was surprised when God whispered again, not only will you survive, you will thrive. I saw the little daisies and I saw all the ups and downs of the last months, and tried to believe thriving was possible, but I didn't understand how.

Then a week and a half ago, I was given a question I didn't know how to process. Would you like to move back to Riga? There is a need there, and with how you have struggled in Valdemārpils, Riga might be better fit for you.

All I could do was cry.

It felt as if I was admitting defeat. I have tried so hard to make a life for myself here in this tiny city. I have done so much, and felt on the cusp of something about to change, but never would I have imagined that change would have been to leave. To take all the pieces from the six months of living here and drop them in order to shift roles yet again. I would miss my little room in this countryside house, the friends at the YWAM base down the road, the church in Talsi I was finally starting to connect with, the opportunity to help run the Women's Center like I originally planned and hoped to do when coming to Latvia.

But then I looked ahead, to what it might mean to live in Riga instead. It meant community and support from friends and mentors outside of just work. It meant having the space to actually have healthy boundaries. It meant helping run the cafe and the different ministry opportunities in Riga. It meant investing in and relating to the girls in order to build their trust so that they actually feel welcomed to go to the center when they are ready to. It meant having the freedom and ability to actually flourish in what I enjoy and am good at within this ministry while still growing and learning in other ways.

It meant having a chance to thrive, rather than just survive.

In all this processing, I went out walking again. As I went by one of the neighbors fields I had to do a double take because I realized the field was completely covered in daisies. Beautiful, dazzling, thriving daisies. It didn't matter that the air was getting cooler and fall had come, the daisies still grew, and it was the sweetest confirmation of all I had been concluding.

So now, after nine months living in Latvia, three in Riga, six in Valdemarpils, I am getting ready to move back to Riga again. While it is yet another transition, I truly trust that this will be such a good thing. I'm getting ready now to go to Northern Ireland for a seminar for three weeks, then off to Riga I go!