Traveling with the Currents: January 2014

I truly hate that we haven’t been keeping the blog up since we came back from Africa. A lot of things have happened since we have returned. I have finished my third semester at Lincoln Christian University and I have enjoyed a nice long break at home. When the semester ended, I knew that I had a good month at home and during that time I had some things that I needed to decide on. As I have written about before, I have an opportunity to spend my summer in Zimbabwe for an internship. I need to be honest; I have been dragging my feet about it the whole semester. I never really knew why I was dragging my feet on it, but I was. Don’t get me wrong, I was super excited about the opportunity, but something didn’t seem right about it. When I came home, my mom said that I needed to make a decision about Zimbabwe by the end of my break.

Since I have been back from Africa, I have known that I left my heart back there. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that there was something about Africa, but I never knew what it was about it. I have to say that it is the people there and the kids are a huge part of it. One child can have the biggest smile on their face, but you can see how absolutely broken they truly are. Those kids do not have a lot. They try to hide their brokenness. They make the most and are thankful for what they have. I can say that I was more blessed by the people there than I feel like I was a blessing for them. I learned so much while I was there and I would take any opportunity that I could to go back. Being able to learn from the people there was something that God had been preparing me for. To think that God has been preparing me since I was a little girl is even more mind blowing.

God prepares us for something long before we even know about it. He has been preparing me for a life of missions ever since I was a little girl. I have known that I wanted to help people. I still don’t know exactly how God is going to use me in that way, but I know that He will. I know that He has some great plans for me. During my break, I was able to contact the people that I talked to about my internship. I have learned that God has shut the door for my internship. It is just not the right time for that internship. Mark had told me back in September “That the door may be open now, but that doesn’t mean that it will be open later.” There was a reason why I was dragging my feet on applying for the internship and I have learned why. I hope that in the future I might be able to go to Zimbabwe and serve along side of Zimbabwe Outreach Ministry. They are doing some great things there.

I am now back to square one of not knowing what to do for the summer. Right now I have many options that I could possibly do. I am in the process of checking on some other internships or possibly working for the summer. Whatever I may be doing for the summer, I know that God is going to guide me in the direction that I need to go in. I have started my 4^th semester at Lincoln Christian University. I am super excited about this semester and I also know it will be a challenging one. I am taking three different mission classes and a spiritual conflict class. I can’t wait to see what I am going to be learning this semester. These are going to be things that I can apply to what I do in the future.

Before I left to come back to school, mom had me read a devotional that she had read. It was something that I needed to hear. I have been worrying about what I should be doing this summer and about my future. The devotion was able to take me back a step or two. The devotion was about how we don’t see the whole picture but God does. He gives us a little glimpse of what we should be seeing at a time. It also gave a great analogy. The analogy was of stand still traffic. We don’t always know why we are in stand still traffic (life) but God knows and He is guiding us through it. It also talked about how we can get off at different exits to avoid the traffic, but we usually don’t do that. We don’t always know what is coming up ahead, but we need to trust that God does. Even if we don’t know it, He is always guiding us. Don’t get ahead of yourself when you are trying to figure out your future. Soon you will see what you are supposed to see.

I found this and I feel that it is true. People portray Africa from what they see in movies, but that's not all of Africa. If you are having a hard time reading it, here is the link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/150941024985027724/

Here are some other pictures from the trip that we haven't posted.