Jumping Into the Unknown

For those of you who do not know, I am officially working with YouthWorks this summer as a Program Staff. YouthWorks is a non-denominational Christian missing organization that creates week long mission trips for junior high and high school students. YouthWorks partners with many communities and people in those communities so that students that come on trips will experience service in the community showing the love of Christ and serving God by being present to worship who He is. This past week has been crazy with training and learning so much information to pull off a successful summer....with the help of God, obviously.

To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into this summer and I am still a little clueless. There have been many times even being here at training that I have thought, 'why am I here? God, what is the purpose of you bringing this trip into my life?' I fully believe in God's promises of His perfect plan and I am excited for Him to reveal the purpose of why I am going to West Virginia this summer and when I will be sharing His ultimate purpose with others.

I am excited to be stretched in so many different ways that are already happening. I have grown so used to being involved with CRU that I haven't really ever experienced another ministry organization before and I have even gotten used to CRU language and just the similar people that I have grown close to. I have now left that bubble for the summer and it has been challenging but refreshing at the same time to get to know new people with completely different backgrounds involved in completely different ministries and churches back from where they live and grew up. Hearing people's testimonies and life stories is one of my favorite things because I love getting to know the heart within someone and understand the ways God has blessed and challenged them. This week has been incredibly eye opening of continually learning how skewd my view on life can be and how narrow my focus on certain circumstances and ideas has been. My comfort zone has been stretched tremendously being so used to evangelism and laying out the gospel for people. This summer we are focusing so much more on just loving others and building deeper relationships to show Christ to others. Don't read this the wrong way, I still think sharing the gospel is the most important purpose of our lives but learning how to better have strangers feel cared for in deep relationships to build trust is also important.

The team that I will be working with this summer is different but we do share a lot of things in common. I have been laughing non-stop since getting to know them because they are HILARIOUS. I haven't been laughing this hard and often in a long time so I am very blessed to constantly be surrounded by humor and laughter. We have many differences on thoughts and how to go about life and it will be a stretch to work on communicating with types of people I haven't really worked with before, especially in ministry. The more I am processing, though, the more I realize how comfortable I have been getting with routine and ministry and being confident in knowing how to do the ministry I am used to doing. I am excited for God to break me in many ways and to break my expectations, my pride, my stereotypes, my weaknesses, and ultimately any disbelief that I have developed in God's character. I know learning and processing these things will not be easy but I am ready to be stretched and learn new things, work on my own character, and be challenged by people around me.

This is a very short and vague explanation of my week but lastly I want you to know that you are loved so much. I love you and more importantly God loves you. Know you are appreciated and I am really going to miss my close friends while I am away. Please let me know how I can be praying for you at any time!