The land of water everywhere, fresh breezes, beautiful sunsets, limited to no cell phone reception, and the best local coffee shops.
Something that I shared is that I've noticed for the past few years, there's been something pretty heavy or tough that happens in my life the week leading up to the trip. That always leaves me frustrated and thinking 'why does this have to happen now?' But the more I dwelt on that thought of mine, I realized something.
It's almost nice when something difficult happens right before I leave.
It gives me an opportunity to reorient my heart and my life's focus while I'm up on the Island. And it's easy to do that because our task as a team is to run a week-long VBS for the children on a Native Reserve. Aka our task is to do nothing other than serve God.
Every night when I went to bed last week, I would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night with some type of profound or important thought, which was relatively amusing and random. One night, my profound 2am thought was 'the only thing that matters in my life is my relationship with God.'
It's something that I've heard and known for years and years, but it just hit me in a new way last week. (perhaps because it hit me in the middle of the night??? Who knows.)
The point is that I've returned home feeling refreshed, and realizing that maybe God allows hardships to hit me right before I leave so that He can remind me that He is what truly matters. First and foremost. People may fail me, situations may leave me exhausted, but He is constant.
And that's exactly what happened this year right before leaving. People failed me, I was left exhausted, sad, and feeling lost. I didn't want to go and put on a happy mask for the children. But seeing as Manitoulin is the highlight of my whole year, bar none, I obviously knew that I'd still go.
At the end of our week together as a team, we had a debrief meeting on Friday night, and our Youth Pastor wanted people to share about how God showed Himself to us and used us throughout our time with the children (or the ladies - we also run a ladies ministry while we're there).
I shared that God showed me the meaning of finding my joy in Him. Before I left for the trip, as I mentioned before, I was exhausted and was dreading having to be positive and smiley, and having the responsibilities of leading music and teaching small group, and also having to be "on" all week while hanging out with the team.
But at the end of each day, I found myself realizing that nothing was forced. And while I was exhausted, it was never from putting on a happy mask for the children. It was always from leading music, teaching small group, and having spent quality time with the children, and my fellow team members. It was a good exhaustion.
I'd been so sad and frustrated the week before leaving for Manitoulin, but there were SO many times throughout last week where I reflected on moments that I'd shared with people each day, and I had thoughts of 'THIS is who I am.' I wasn't sad or forcing anything. Like, every interaction I had with my team and the children was genuine. It turned out that none of my fears of having to feign happiness even came true. I was so filled with joy and a new energy (amidst the exhaustion) to serve God and the children that He brought to camp each day.
God showed Himself faithful each and every day - each and every moment. My heart is full.
Peep some more memories n views down below:
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