Team life

Working in a team is always tough, especially if you're working with people you don't particularly like in the first place. So when I was put in the team with 4 other people - our leader, a girl from Mauritius, our assistant leader, a guy from Finland (the only one older than me), a girl from Switzerland, and a guy from the USA - I had mixed emotions about the group.

But I have to say, they really proved me wrong. I'm guilty of judging people and sizing them up too quickly - I'm sure we all are - and I feel bad now because these people are nothing like I thought they were. First impressions aren't always accurate, and they never really last (for me, at least).

We had somewhat of a difficult first week, as we were still getting to know each other and accept one another's quirks and weaknesses and bad habits. But... slowly and surely, we've been more accepting of one another, and I guess some differences are due to culture and others to personality. Christian love has and will definitely come into play a lot over the next few months.

It's amazing how well you get to know people when you live with them, eat with them, shower with them, do chores with them, do ministry with them, and basically do everything together 24/7. Every little bad habit becomes blown out of proportion into an enormous annoyance. But patience, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance is key. And love, of course.

So yeah. We are learning to get along and this week has definitely been a vast improvement. We're bonding well together, we're learning to laugh at and with each other, we're finally getting each other's jokes, we're working well as a team... it's going pretty good right now. Thank God, because last week I seriously thought we might kill each other (well, maybe just one person in particular) in our sleep at some point. Just kidding. Not really.

Walking in the wilderness

 I feel like I've been trudging along in the desert for a while. 

There's nothing but sand everywhere, and I can't see any living thing in my surroundings. The sand covers such a vast expense of land that there's no end to my journey. I'm exhausted and drained from wandering around aimlessly, trying to occupy myself with trivial things but never really finding any real fulfillment.

My feet hurt from walking, my eyes are sore from the never-ending search, my ears sting from the deafening silence, my mind is weak from the constant bombardment of thoughts, my heart cries out from the dark void of emptiness, my spirit is desolate.

I have no idea where I am or where I'm going.

I just know that I feel really tired and weary, and nothing seems to be of much help. But today God spoke to me through the devotional, and it was exactly what I needed for my malnourished spirit.

     "Are you going through a season of difficulty? Fear not. Be bold, for God is with you and working in you. Just as God comforts His people during the time of captivity, God is using this time in the wilderness for you to grow and understand His faithfulness and loving-kindness. He can bring out good even in the midst of our failures. Just as a master painter can restore a damaged piece of artwork, God restores His people.

     In our fallen world, people keep searching but they never find what satisfies. Ultimate satisfaction can only be found in God, the gracious giver of all good things. We were made for Him and will never be satisfied with less. As long as we hold onto the illusion that we can find what we're looking for somewhere else, we'll never give ourselves fully to God. It's just easier not to. And yet, in the long run, the easy road we choose proves to be much harder than the hard road we turned away from."

All of my life

In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship

It's already been a month?!

*Photo montage begins (in random order)*

 

We are fed good homecooked food... sometimes :)

 

Performing a korean song during International Night

 

Random singing session in our 12-bed room

 

Practicing our dance for International Night

 

Dancing on stage

 

'Playing' our instruments as part of the dance - guitar, piano, drums, flute

 

Singing at the town square for our outreach

 Training week: Learning rope magic tricks in class for evangelism

Practicing magic tricks

 

Playing the drums

 

Our first trip to Birmingham - at the arts festival during a reggae concert

 

Some of the girls at the arts festival

 

During our mini mission outreach we had an International Night event

 

We did a dance together for the event - 'I love Jesus' dance

 

We went to another town during the mini mission outreach to do street evangelism

 

Going out for my birthday

 

Dinner at the center with the girls

 

Learning how to use puppets to do drama and songs in class

 

One of the guys' farewell party at the pizza place

 

Sleeping on the church floor at the mini mission outreach

 

Lots of sheep in the towns here

 

We got to take a 3 minute shower twice in 5 days during the mini mission outreach

 

We learned how to do face painting

 

During International Night, this was one of the drama/mimes we performed

 

Another drama performed on stage

 

The beginning of our 'I love Jesus' dance

 

Still dancing

 

And dancing

 

And dancing

 

And dancing

 

And dancing

 

We stuck a bottle in her curly hair and tied it around the bottle - it was awesome

 

They brought me breakfast in bed on my birthday :)

 

Then we had a photoshoot after dinner at the pizza place on my birthday

 

Yes, we take a lot of pictures. All the time.

 

We went to someone's house and made pizzas with mushroom, corn, ham, tomatoes, tuna, pepperoni, capsicums, and lots of cheese. Yum.

 

Karaoke-ing in the pub

Dancing in the pub

 

Good times :)