It was incredibly refreshing for me. Earlier in the week I felt like I was on the verge of imploding from the stress of the work I needed to get done, but God gave me grace to do what I needed to before I could leave. In Minneapolis, my cousin Jonny, Bekah, and I watched a number of movies together, hung out, and made lava cakes. I had my first experience with a dinner movie theater where aunt & uncle had salads, Jonny had a whole pizza, and Bekah & I split wings and fried cheese curds to eat and watched Star Trek: Into Darkness. The movie was amazing. If you're interested in science fiction or are into anything Trekkie or StarWars like, or if you're just up for a good time, I totally recommend it.
I had brought my homework fieldbag with me to do homework, but every time I sat to do some, I couldn't remember what I read and I couldn't process what I was supposed to be doing.
Super awesome field bag
It turned out three days of doing no homework was exactly the refresher I needed. I was nervous about coming back in the afternoon on Sunday and having a weekends worth of work to do, but I made unbelievable progress within a 7 hour period.
I've noticed a trend this summer. As my stress and homework level peak and I wonder if I'm about to implode, I pray about it, read the Word, serve somebody here at SIL, and the stress nearly vanishes and I accomplish a lot.
On the whole, I've been trying to reach out to people here this summer and serve them in ways I can. There's a family I consistently give rides to church, I've babysat for a mom who's here without her husband, a couple girls I tried to encourage and mentor specifically, and an older gentlemen I've prayed with a few times for struggles he has.
This summer is different than previous summers. I have yet to take a nighttime walk to the chapel or the cube fountain and pour my heart out to God while I read Psalms and pray, I have yet to feel like I've hit my max with getting to know people, and I have yet to cry.
Well, let me specify: I have cried when praying with John*, teared when I've been struck by God's desire to pursue me or love me, I cried when the lady talked about her inability to conceive and the depression that followed. This is the first summer where I haven't cried for me. My heart has ached to celebrate with my younger 'sisters' graduating from high school and for my amazing siblings who are now adults. My heart has ached to comfort the many people I know back home who are suffering, miserable, or confused. I've cried for being overwhelmed with the love my church family has for me. I've received three cards from them this summer. The last one had so many notes of encouragement and prayer on it that covered both inside pages and the entire back with a few others that trickled onto the front of the card. I hadn't expected to receive any of these cards. Oh yeah, they all made me cry.
The more I grow in my faith, the more I'm amazed at how much I benefit from serving. Service, of course, should be done for others and not out of selfish gain. However, it's totally awesome! I would choose to serve these people without being blessed myself, but it amazes me that it does bless me at all and the more I serve the more I am blessed!
This post was originally supposed to be about roommate Beth and selected other people, but I guess this post was supposed to be about other things. :)
P.S. I'll be attending a youth group for my Grand Forks church sometime in the next week or so to talk about missions. I hope it goes well...
*pseudo-name
1 comment:
Just so you know, someone is reading from this side of the world :) It was good to see a bit of your heart through this screen this morning. I can't wait to see you when you come back <3
Post a Comment