Home Stretch

Today was the last official work day for the summer missionaries.

Packing and exit interviews are to be completed. Keys are to be returned, apartments cleaned (YIKES!) and many "au revoir"s are to be said.

Tears shed? Quite possibly.

I've been so blessed to have come here for two months and work alongside fellow Christians. I've been challenged, weakened but never completely torn down. I've been strengthened and felt empowered and sometimes I questioned if God was truly with me when I couldn't feel Him. I now know that feeling God isn't believing. Believing is when we truly trust in His power and His presence when we can't feel Him right beside us.

God has taught me to look inside people and try to figure out why they act or say the things they do. He's given me doors of opportunity to hear people's stories and share with them the love of Jesus. While I haven't been perfect, I have learned to curb my tongue (for the most part) and try not to let my passionate spirit get the best of me.

I've learned to trust Jesus with every aspect of my life. It's so hard because I want to do things in a rush and I'm still learning it all goes His speed, in His time. I've learned, mostly, that when I do things my way, I screw up. When I do things His way, I succeed. It's a continuing battle for me to pull on my reins of impatience and let Him work the way He wants. But God is faithful and I praise Him for it.

I've spent these two months with some of the best people I've encountered in my 19 years of life. They're hilarious, care deeply about others, and know when to have a good time and when to be serious. There have been frustrations, there have been rifts, but in the end I would say that I'm blessed to know them and to have worked with them for a short season.

The next post I'll concentrate on Kid's Club and the progress we saw in our kids :)

Tomorrow I begin packing and cleaning and turning in my keys. My parents come into Jeff City Saturday afternoon. There will be two more posts and then I will retire from using this blog. If after these posts you're interested in my daily life, you can go to my regularly used blog, www.inmymind08.blogspot.com where you'll find links to my college newspaper articles, as well as my life's struggles, fears, successes and hopes.

To bed I go...



Ciao!