WOW! Somehow we are already moving into a new section of this gap year! The past three weeks have flown by and now we get to put all that we have learned into practice! During the next week, we will be at a Young Life retreat center about an hour and a half away! We will be doing a variety of projects, maybe manual labor, or helping in the kitchen or whatever else they need help with! I am very much looking forward to a week off the AIM base and getting to serve.
As for this past week, it has been a whirlwind of activity and sessions. Through the week, we learned about spiritual realities, spiritual warfare, spiritual principles and how easily we can let unChrist-like patterns into our lives through open doors. Although I do not completely understand the spiritual realm, and am very glad about that, it was very interesting to have the chance to understand the very basics and how satan is at work against God’s kingdom, and I also received healing from some ideas I had created from childhood memories. I was a great week of sessions and am so grateful for all our leaders
This week we also had the chance to hike Mt. Yonah, in the foothills of the Appalachians. We stayed overnight on top of the mountain so we had to bring tents and sleeping bags in out big packs, along with all the food and water we would need. It wasn’t a super easy hike, but still felt very rewarding. As we kept hiking up, it started raining and I honestly got really worried about if we would be able to start a fire for dinner or if the inside of my tent would get wet. But when we got to the top it only rained for a little bit longer and we were able to set our tent up and start a fire with dry wood! During our revival night this Friday after our hike, the Lord revealed something to me about that trip. From the top of the mountain, we were able to see a beautiful sunset, one of the prettiest I’ve seen in a long time. And in the sunset I could see all the rain that had just passed us, the rain we had hiked through. But the rain wasn’t just grey like it usually is, instead, the light was reflecting off the rain and turning it purple and pink! It was beautiful!. The Lord showed me that the next nine months will be like our hike. We will hike through rain and much trouble and difficulties, carrying our big loads and pains. But at the top of the mountain, God will take our hard troubles and make them into something beautiful. Without the rain, the sunset still would’ve been pretty, but because of the rain, there was even more purple and pink! I know that during this trip we will see lots of rain and go through many hard things, but we will probably see even more beautiful sunsets and triumphs. And I’m so excited to see how the Lord will use the difficulties of this trip to make something beautiful in me.
During the revival night, I was also so full of joy and wonder over out God! How good of a God do we have that He would choose us over life. He would rather die for us than live without us! Our God is so incredible and He is so worthy of it all. This may be hard to remember on the days that I am doing the dirty work that no one else wants to do, like cleaning our showers, but God is so worthy of it all that I just long to glorify Him with everything I do. Every part of me desires to serve and glorify the Lord.
Some other special things we did this week was go to Chick-fil-a, clean our clothes at a laundromat (yay), go to Target, and have a special girls night where all the girls dressed up and we had a fancier dinner! These things were part of my daily life pre-World Race, but now they are special opportunities and I am so thankful for them! Especially being able to clean my clothes at a laundromat!
Prayer Requests
- I’m still sick, so healing and quick recovery for that
- A sense of peace, I feel a little overwhelmed with being gone and the emotional rollercoaster these past 3 weeks have been
- A good attitude of our squad, that we would be willing to serve in any way needed this next week
