Samaritans Purse

Wow! These past two weeks have been amazing. 

We left 2 weeks ago to head to Hammond Louisiana to serve with Samaritans Purse. My team cut up and hauled trees most of the time. Breakfast was at 6:30 every morning and we usually worked till about 4:30. Some days seemed longer than others but I loved every moment and all the memories that were made. 

Some highlights from the past 2 weeks : 

• We were chopping trees at a homeowners house when it started to rain so we all went under the homeowners covered porch. The homeowner was telling us lots of stories and long story short, apparently no one watches Dukes of Hazard anymore because me and only one other person knew what it was, but the homeowners was telling us how the guy who played Bo Duke lived like 5 miles from him!! so cool! 
• Met some of the most amazing cooks and team leaders! Love y’all so much 
• Became a pro on the chain saw! 
• Got to sweat and laugh a lot and grew closer to so many of my teammates 
• And the best part…. we found out that the 3 countries (Guatemala, Cambodia, Eswatini) that we were originally set to go to has been changed. We are now going to Guatemala, Johannesburg South Africa, and Romania! There are lots of mixed emotions about this change but I am extremely excited and can’t wait to see all that the Lord has in store in the next 7 months 

What the Lord has taught me the last 2 weeks : 

These past 2 weeks the Lord has taught me so much, much of which I am still learning. My prayer going into this time at Samaritans Purse was that I would not put my relationship with the Lord on the back burner because I knew we where going to be busy and tired. It didn’t take long for Him to make sure I knew that’s exactly what I was doing. 

The first full work day we had someone with our group who kept trying to talk to me and ask me questions. Eventually I gave up trying to keep working because I was like if I just stop working for a little bit we can have this conversation quicker and I can get back to work. Wrong. If you know anything about me, you know I would rather work and get it done. Then we can talk later. I hate when people are working and I’m standing there talking to someone. We ended up talking for over an hour (the whole time I was fidgeting trying to end the conversation so I could go back to work) However, during this conversation, I found out more about myself than I wanted to know, some of which were things I didn’t want to hear. The Lord made me realize that even though my prayer coming in was that I wouldn’t put Him on the back burner, the truth is, He already was on the back burner because I was scared that if I truly trusted him and fully surrender every day and my future to Him, it wouldn’t be what I want it to be. This is something I have always struggled with and while I still want to fight it, I’m trying to allow the Lord’s desires to be my desires. This is a process but the best part is He doesn’t except us to understand right away. 

Earlier this week we were having worship and I felt the need to walk outside and be able to think by myself. so I walked around the church building we were staying at, the whole time going over all these things that I need to fix in order to fully trust God and surrender fully to Him. I walked back inside after awhile and everyone was sitting in a circle listening to someone. This is what he was saying: 

“God does not except us to fix ourselves, He wants us to find joy in being with Him and enjoy spending time with Him and through that we will change to reflect Him more.”

He used the analogy of him and his wife. His wife did not go into the relationship trying to fix all his flaws but throughout their marriage they have grown closer and he has changed so much. 

So don’t focus on your flaws, focus on spending time and enjoying your time with God.