November Recap

Dear family and friends,

I realize it has been several weeks since I have written anything, so I would love to update you all on what has been happening in my life.

Our time in Alabama

On October 31, our squad piled in vans and drove six hours to Foley, Alabama. We arrived at the church and started serving with Samaritan’s Purse in disaster recovery relief for the next two weeks. The way it worked was, my team Yashab, was joined with team Brosaic and a few other volunteers outside of the World Race to work on the jobsite each day. In the morning we would arrive at the homeowner’s property, pray together, and get to work. The tasks we did consisted of cutting down trees, dragging branches and leaves into burn piles, tarping roofs, breaking down moldy drywall inside the house, and anything else we could find to be helpful. 

To an outsider, our purpose there may have looked like just getting the job done, but we were there for so much more than that. Our goal was to show the love of Jesus and make Him known in all we were doing. We were there to encourage and love the homeowner in whatever situation their life might be in right now. Many of these people lived alone and did not have the ability physically or financially to clean up their home from the disastrous storms. Through Samaritan’s Purse we were able to bring a glimmer of hope into their lives. We were there to pray and listen to their stories and make a connection in whatever capacity the Lord allowed. 

Throughout these two weeks, the Lord was teaching me to listen to the Holy Spirit in every situation and follow His leading whenever I felt the prompt. For me, this looked like saying a kind word to a teammate, helping someone if they looked tired, praying over the job we were doing, going up to the homeowner and having a conversation with them, or praying for a random person walking down the street. Through these situations, I gained a deeper security in knowing that the Lord is so present wherever we are, we just have to look for Him and invite Him into whatever we may be doing. I grew in a new boldness from the Lord and a desire to make His heart known to whoever I am with, regardless of their opinion of Him or me in that moment. There were so many times I watched the Lord transform a homeowners heart from being cold and distant when we arrived, and through conversations with members of our team and the work and hope we were able to provide to them, many of them opened their hearts and prayed with us when we left. Their countenance would change to being open and loving and full of joy and gratitude.

Another way the Lord was growing me during this time was in having grace for myself and the people around me. Within fatigue we, as humans often become more irritable and quick to judge, etc. I am no exception. But within this tiredness the Lord was leading me to love, to serve, to assume the best about people, to have patience with myself and others, and to try and see the heart or reason behind a hurtful action or word. He was teaching me to look at the positives of a situation and live out of the joy of gratitude He was giving me, instead of a place of hurt or fatigue. God will provide us in abundance with all we need and will be present in every situation we invite Him into, bringing clarity and peace in His time. 

I truly loved being in Alabama, serving everyday, working really hard, praying for and encouraging the homeowners, leaning on my teammates and having fun together. It was full and good and hard and I am so grateful for those two weeks and extremely excited to go on the field and do ministry again everyday! 

Upcoming Ministry and Travel

When we arrived back at the AIM campus, we were informed that our squad will be launching to ECUADOR in January!! Although none of us thought we would be going to South America this year, we are so ready and excited to see all that the Lord will do in and through our time there! We are not sure yet where we will be living, what ministry will look like while we are there, how long we will be in the country, where we are going after, or how it will all play out in regards to Covid19, but I am sure that God will lead and use us in whatever way He sees fit and will allow us to meet and form relationship with people He already has in mind. 

Team Change

A few days after we arrived back in Georgia, after our leadership announced we were going to Ecuador, my team as well as team Rock were told that we are going to merge and become one team. The main reason for this is because both teams only have three women on them now, due to people choosing to drop out of the program for various reasons. Our leadership wanted to ensure the safety of all of us, especially since we are going out of the county and it would be safer to have a group of six women walking to and from ministry everyday instead of two groups of three.

Please be praying for us as we attempt to merge our two little families into one, learning to serve together and let one another in, growing in intimacy with each other and with the Lord. I am excited for this opportunity to grow closer with more people on my squad and get to see all the Lord is doing in the lives of the two women on my previous team, as well as the new three daughters of the King. 

Finishing the Semester at Home

After the two weeks in Alabama, we had one week back in Georgia until we were able to go home for Thanksgiving. During that week in GA, several of the other squads on campus with us at AIM tested positively for Covid, placing us all in major lockdown, not allowing us to interact with other squads at all. Then, we all left campus and traveled home for the week of Thanksgiving, planning to go back on campus after the holiday for another two weeks to finish the semester and our training together before Christmas. However, because of the amount of people that have tested positively for Covid on other squads and the highly contagious nature of the sickness, that we are all more than aware of at this point, the leadership at AIM decided that none of the squads will be going back to campus for the remaining two weeks, but will finish our training online via zoom and livestreaming the sessions. Obviously, this is disappointing for all of us, not expecting to be home for five weeks, but it is the safest and most sure way to guarantee our launch with everyone healthy in January. 

I am thankful for God and His plan in all of this and the fact that He is sovereign over it all. He’s constantly creating more space for me to trust Him and surrender my own plans or desires, in order for Him to be more glorified than the ideals of what I think my life should look like. 

This life is always changing. Nothing is up to me, I have zero control. Yet, God is good and faithful. I didn’t sign up for the World Race (or Christanity) to know everything, or to get to plan out my life or be comfortable inside my bubble of met expectations. I signed up to know Jesus more and walk in a deeper relationship with Him, and if all these changes and uncertainties are what bring me closer into that, then I am more than happy to accept them and walk in the freedom of trusting that His plan is so much better than mine. 

I am thankful to be home and still able to learn and would love to meet up with anyone who is local in CO. Thank you all for your prayers and support in this whole experience and I pray you are all having a great start to this beginning of the Christmas season! 

-Bethany