Three Months In

So here's a thought a lot of us have been struggling with this past week: we have officially been away from home for 3 months. That means 3 months since I have been able to play games and hang out with my family. 3 months since I have had lunch or coffee with any of my friends. 3 months since I have been able to praise and worship with my wonderful church family. 3 months since I have been able to drive my car. 3 months since I have had constant cell service (that one I don't mind so much). 3 months since I have slept in a bed that was actually mine. 3 months since I have been able to look at a closet or go shopping. 3 months since I have had Chick-fil-a (if you knew how many dreams I have had about waffle fries and sweet tea, you would feel so bad you would try to send me some internationally). 3 months is a long time to be separated from everything that is familiar to you!

But it also has brought it's really awesome things too. It's been 3 months since I really cared or worried about how I looked or what I wore. 3 months since I sat on the couch and watched Grey's Anatomy all day. 3 months of intentionally reading my Bible and surrounding myself with God. 3 months of meeting new people and being challenged in new and excited ways. 3 months of having to eat new foods that I may not really like but I eat them because it makes my host moms so happy when I do. 3 months of choosing to think about other people before I think of myself. 3 months of worshipping God on Sundays with awesome people that are crazy about Him. 3 months of trying to be a servant. These 3 months have definitely not come without their fair share of challenges and struggles but I have learned that I have to be dependent on God first. I can't call my mom or my friends when something goes wrong or when I am having a bad day. God has shown that He really is the source of my strength and someone I can depend on in my time of need. And for those of you that wrote me notes or gave me letters of any kind leading up to this trip, just know I really do love having those. They have helped on many homesick days. And if I have learned so much these first 3 months, I can't wait for all of the amazing things these next 3 months have in store for me.

We are also finishing up our time in Jamaica! May 2nd we are leaving Jamaica, spending another night in Miami (Yay America!), and heading out to Belize on May 3rd. As much as I have loved my time here in Jamaica and have loved becoming a part of this community, I am super excited for Belize. This is their first time having an Immersion team and from what I have heard, they are almost as excited as we are about going there! It may or may not be obvious but I really love traveling. So getting to fly for 2 days and going to a new place is something I am really looking forward to. Belize's national language is officially English which hopefully means we will have the ability to get to know people on the same personal level that we have here in Jamaica which I really do appreciate. At this moment, that is all I know about what is ahead of us in Belize but I can't wait to share all of my awesome stories with you!

Recent highlights from Jamaica:
- There is an ice cream man that rides around on a motorcycle! A cone is about 50 cents
- My house I am at right now has a little porch with an incredible view of the mountain! Definitely have taken full advantage of that
- We got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 the other night!
- We got help dig a hole this week for a project at the church. I'm glad we don't get that dirty every day but it was kind of fun
- It's the rainy season in Jamaica so it literally rains every day. I love it!
- My current host family has a boy that reminds me of my little sister Riza and if you know her, you can understand how entertaining our house is
- It's cool enough for me to wear my sweatpants at night! I don't really need to but it makes me happy that I can without melting so I wear them just because I can
- I am finally getting really good at washing my clothes by hand
- Our host mom gave us Jamaican chocolate bars the other day! Yum!

Recently I have been thinking a lot about Abraham. In case you need a refresher (you can check out Genesis 12 for the full story), God came to Abraham (formally Abram) and told him "Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you" -Genesis 12:1. Before this, all we know about Abraham is that his dad's name is Terah and he was married. That's it. We don't know anything about his childhood or really anything about who Abraham was. But apparently God thought he was a stand up guy. God looked down from heaven and decided Abraham would be a great person to begin His nation of Israel. That kind of seems like a crazy huge responsibility to me! And all the Bible says about his response is "So Abram went.." He just went! He didn't say "You know what God, I'm not really sure You know what You're talking about. See I have a family here. And a nice house. And a good job. I will follow You wherever You send me... as long as it's under my terms." No! He just went. And where God was taking him didn't have directions on a GPS he could follow so he knew he was heading the right way. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a map. Abraham trusted God so much that he was willing to just get up and go. I'm trying to figure out where God is telling me I need to get up and go, but I hope to have faith like Abraham and just follow.

PS One of our team members had to leave last week because of some serious health issues her dad is experiencing. From what I have heard, her dad might have a possibility of a very successful recovery but I would ask you to please please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Waiting On God

This past Saturday concluded our time with our first host families in Jamaica. It was actually kind of sad to leave Annette and her family. They have all been so sweet to us: cooking for us, making sure we have everything that we need, and treating us like family. Annette has five of her own children and a couple grandchildren so adopting two extra girls for a couple weeks was easy for her. She took care of me when I was sick by making me special tea and was constantly giving Tiff and I anything she could. She would have literally done anything for us! And that giving spirit didn't stop at us either.

Her son was recently in the hospital and while she was there visiting him one day, she met this young girl who was about to be released but had been in for a while and was unsure how well she would be able to get back on her feet. Annette gave the girl her phone number and told her to call if she needed anything. A day or two later we were in Montego Bay with Annette and she did receive a call from the girl saying she had no food. Annette didn't hesitate telling her where to meet us so she could take care of her. While she was there, Annette decided to use this chance to mother her by encouraging her to continue to take her medication and get ready for an interview she was having soon. That's what I think great ministry should look like. Annette was not satisfied by just giving this girl what she thought she needed like food. Annette showed her that her need for relationship and people that cared about her was just as important, and Annette was the perfect person to give both of those to her.

As I have mentioned before, our church is a part of a group of about 12 churches all across the island. This week is their youth camp while the kids are on spring break. So this Monday, we got the chance to go to the first day of camp with pretty much everyone else from our church. The first day of camp is a big deal full of races and different competitions. You could just really feel the sense of community between all of the churches which was super cool. They were also super excited to have a group of Americans (and one Canadian) at their youth camp. We were welcomed multiple times over the loud speaker throughout the day's events. The competition part consisted of several categories like spoken word, public speaking, poems, singing, and dancing. Not all of them were exactly in sync or on key, but it was really inspiring because you could tell by the looks of their faces that they didn't really care! They were proud of what they did and in the end, it was all for God anyway.

One thing that is unique about the trip I am on is that we don't really have an agenda. We have done some small project here and there but most of our days consist of just sitting around talking to our host families or walking around visiting with people in the community. It doesn't really fit in with the definition people want with a mission trip. But being at the youth camp the other day really showed me the importance of what just being in a community has. If we were a team that came in with packed days of things that we wanted to get done, there is no way we could have given up a whole day to go to this youth camp. We were invited and encouraged to go by members of our church because they wanted us to go them! Because they knew us and cared about us. It can become easy to become discouraged because I haven't found a cure for cancer while building houses for blind, homeless people with leprosy and cavities and helping them get college degrees and impressing them with my Bible knowledge and converting a whole army for God by myself. (I do realize that's not what any mission trip is like but wait for my point!) We can build orphanages and churches but if we forget to actually tell people that we care about them, then we've kind of missed something very important. We can feed 400 hungry children but if we never ask them what their names are and tell them that someone loves them, they are just going to get hungry again so what's the point? So I may not have a tear-jerking slideshow when I get home but I am working on building relationships and showing love that will last longer than an impressive "This is what I did on my missions trip" presentation.

Before going on this trip, I often got asked the question "Why are you going on this trip?" And I was not hiding the fact that a big reason for me going on this trip was because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life as far as college and basically everything else. So by signing up for this trip I was hoping to get some clarity on that. My hope was that God would show me day one and apparently that's not really His plan. God doesn't work on our schedule and if He hadn't told me what I was supposed to do before I left for this trip, I'm not really sure why I thought He would reveal it right after I got here. Probably because that would be easy and this is supposed to be a learning process. And of course, any time I start to get frustrated with God and not knowing what I am supposed to do when I get home, He reminds me of verses like Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you- this is the Lord's declaration- plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Isn't it so annoying how God always wins?) So I still have no idea what I am going to do when I get home, God told me to wait and see. Guess patience is something He thinks I need to work on....