finishing strong- week four

Hello friends!! 

Last week! Ahh I can’t believe how quick this month has gone. Some of the days have felt long but the month has definitely flown by. 

This past week has been pretty rad. Something on my heart is the fact that my actions reflect the Lord and ultimately impact others in their relationship with the Lord. I always struggled in a boldness with my faith but this past week God has been showing up in my willingness to be bold. Last night, I took a little trip up to the blue ridge mountains to watch the sunset with some friends. After the sun had set, we sat under a bridge and sang worship music. We were safe under there. Promise. Anyways, cars came and we were able to wave at them as they passed. Super fun time with some super fun people. After a good amount of time passed, we decided to head back down to the parking lot and go home. To our surprise, a couple approached us. They were wrapped up in little blankets but literally ran over to greet us. We eventually learned the girl moved to Asheville and had been seeking a Christian community of young adults. We invited her to the Excel college worship night and basically connected her with the community. We got to pray over the couple  too and share stories of how the Lord is good, through her move and my team’s month of serving here. A good forty five minutes of solely praising God though the sharing of our testimonies and prayer!! Being interruptible is so sweet. God shows up when we fully allow him to. Going back to what I was saying about how our actions impact others, because we outwardly worshiped and expressed so much love for the Lord under that bridge, we were able to share a God encounter. We were able to meet a greater part of the body of God. Our boldness in the Lord did not go unseen. It was a small moment but it glorified the Lord. So many others had heard us singing and so many other cars had passed. I will never get to know for sure but can only imagine how the Lord worked in them though us. 

 

I think that whole thought of “our actions do not go unseen” is also big. Mondays and Fridays, my team has been working in the fields on campus to plant grass for a future soccer field. In the beginning I really questioned why. Was the work I was going really making an impact to God’s kingdom? Same with the thrift store, I was just working like a regular employee rather than directly being with the children. How was that ministry ? Another example was this past weekend. Some of the girls spent the morning weeding the front yard of a house. Nobody was even living there. How was that benefiting anyone? I’ve been so used to directly serving people and meeting needs, but this past week has been a constant reminder that nothing goes unseen by the Lord. Our actions may not seem significant in the moment yet God still sees it and is using it for his good. 

 

A big thing I wanted to take home was living a missionary lifestyle in wherever I end up in life. I think that God has really shown up in that way and has helped me to fully understand what that means. I want my life to be a living testimony of God’s goodness. Learning how to do that through working in the thrift store and keeping my spiritual eyes open when just walking down grocery store aisles has been challenging but fun. How will that play out when I return home? Now, I don’t have an exact answer quite yet. I know that being aware of what God is doing is going to be so key- keeping my spiritual eyeballs peeled. Being interruptible and willing to let God do His thing though me is going to be a big priority. These are ideas I’m taking home with me but I’m not sure how exactly to execute that quite yet. Because I’m moving to Utah quite soon after returning home, it’s also hard to have set expectations for life there. Again, letting God do his thing in the process of building new routine and habit will be so significant. 

 

This is my team’s last week on the field. Crazy. We have our typical ministry routine through Wednesday still. Thursday is travel day. The team will be driving to Atlanta for debrief. Debrief will be a sweet time to reflect on all the things God has done and discuss realistic ways of how we can bring what we learned back home. It’ll also be the last few days before parting ways with my team 🙁 Saturday is flying day. I’ll be arriving back in California at 11:30p. I can’t wait to see you all soon. 

 

Pray for my team. Pray that we will finish this trip strong and continually allow God to work in and though us. Pray that this last week will be full of smiles and celebration amidst the sad closure of the trip soon. Pray for safe travels to Atlanta and eventually home for all of us. And please pray that we will continue being a blessing to those around us whether that be at ministry, on the Excel college campus, or anywhere else. 

 

Thank you so much for praying for my team and following us on this journey. You are all so appreciated and so loved. Thank you endlessly. 

 

Allison