Life has been absolutely crazy for me post-Thailand. In my first five days back, I hung out with my grandparents, went to my cousin's graduation open house, went to Grand Rapids to visit friends, went to Lake Michigan, drove back to Ann Arbor, moved in, and started my internship. It certainly was a whirlwind of activity. And I feel like the summer has flown by. But at the same time, it feels like Thailand was ages ago. It's strange how time can feel fast and slow at the same time.
In the past (nearly) three months of my life since summer has started, God has moved A LOT. It's crazy to see how much he's done in my life and in my community. Working 40 hours a week and also participating in the leadership training program, which has events four nights a week, has kept me busy. Going into the internship, I didn't really know what to expect. I'd been hoping to get a feel for full-time ministry and see if perhaps that was something God was calling me to in the future. Although I'm still not sure where I'll be headed after I finish college in two years, I do think God has given me some direction.
For LT, participants spend a lot of time with their teams. A team is basically a group of people who live in the same area of campus. For me, I'm part of the East new life team, since I live in the dorm East Quad during the year. There are 12 women from my team participating, and we're all living together in a house! A normal LT week consists of a team fellowship day, two sessions (basically, a talk and worship), and Party at the Rock on Wednesday, a substance-free party that's put on outside New Life with free food and live music. It's awesome to provide a safe and fun place that people in the community can come to relax!
I've loved working for New Life! Since the bulk of my job description is helping to lead the East new life team and leading a small group of women (which is SO awesome!), a lot of my time is spent planning team fellowship or building into relationships. I LOVE spending time with and investing in people, so I feel incredibly blessed to have a job in which I can use my gifts and passions. I've also absolutely loved playing in the LT worship band. I've always loved singing, so again, it's awesome to have a job that uses my gifts and passions!
Overall, God has blessed the East community. The women in my life are incredibly godly women, and I love them dearly! I love being part of a place where we feel safe feeling our emotions and experiences with each other. Let me show you some of my AWESOME friends:
These three women have been there in my best and worst times. I love how living in community can show us what God's love is really like. I have been able to be completely real with these women, and they love me anyway. It's shown me a picture of what God's love is like- He KNOWS us, even better than we know ourselves, he sees every detail, and he loves us anyway! It makes me think of what was said in the sermon yesterday. In Psalm 78, when Asaph recalls the history of the nation of Israel, he talks about all of the ways they didn't follow God, how they rebelled against him, and how they forgot him. But when God tells the history of the nation of Israel in Joshua 24, he doesn't even mention their sin or rebellion. By following Jesus, the same thing happens for us. When we look back on our past, we remember the ways we failed and how we sinned. I know for me, I sometimes have fear that after I die, God will recount all the ways that I failed. I'm afraid that would take years and years and years. But that's not how God sees us. When he looks at me now, he sees not my sin, but Jesus' righteousness, and he doesn't even remember my sin. It's like Psalm 103:12 says- "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west." It's pretty crazy, and considering the huge debt of my sin, I am so grateful for what Jesus did!!
I'm looking forward to finishing the last few weeks of LT strong. An area that God has really been challenging me is in patience. I feel like I've been waiting on his plan and his guidance a lot, and sometimes, it makes me feel pretty frustrated. But I want to follow him, so I desire to learn to wait patiently for his timing. I know that I can keep following God and trusting Him even after LT's over, so even if he keeps me waiting after LT's over, I will keep waiting on him. Something else that I've been thinking about a lot is what I want the focus of my life to be. After working a lot with people and LOVING it, I feel like God has stirred in my heart even more a desire to go into social work or mental health counseling. I'm not really sure what that would look like, but I could certainly use some prayer about it! That being said, here are some prayer requests:
1. Pray for strengthening of our community so that we can enter the next school year as a family on mission.
2. Pray that I would finish LT strong and not lose motivation since the end is approaching.
3. Pray that God would continue to show me how my gifts and talents can be used to further his kingdom!
One final thing- while my experience in Thailand prompted me to think about a lot of deep things and examine what it means to serve God, some more surface-level things have been brought back. One of these things is playing the game Shadows Over Camelot with people on my team. It's super nerdy, but I love it, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. As a closing note, here's a picture of a few of us after we successfully defended Camelot! Oh the joys of living in community!
