Beautiful Moments

It has been over a week since my team arrived in our first location in Central Asia!

The few weeks leading up to our send-off were filled with sweet dinners with new friends, last minute shopping runs, reminiscing on what the Lord has already taught us, looking forward to our goals, and our final training sessions. I am so very grateful for this training period and what I learned! It was definitely a sweet time of building the team relationships and of the Lord reminding me of His goodness. Thank you to everyone who put in work for this month!

The travel day was long and mostly uneventful (except when we almost missed our second flight into Dubai because of a delay and we had to sprint through the airport and security haha). We flew from Orlando to JFK (New York), and from New York to Dubai, and from Dubai to our current location in Central Asia! (I am not mentioning the name for safety reasons:)

When we arrived we realized that three of our bags were missing. Even though this was the case and it was 4:00 in the morning, God gave us peace! It took several days to get used to the 10 hour time difference and a few of us on our team felt a little sick, but overall the transition was smooth for us (praise God!). This first week has been crazy! Filled with: tasty food, sweet hosts who help us immensely, beautiful sights, lots of laughs, community building, learning of the language and culture, sweet faces and friends, and hearing from the Lord and resting in His Word! Praise Jesus for all of these blessings and for keeping and sustaining my team every day.

The first few days were kind of a blur haha and I had basically half a brain cell for a few days. Time changes are hard on your body and the whole team felt like walking zombies on our first day. That is when absolutely everything is new and you just have to laugh at your silly mistakes. Its truly humbling but the less sleep you have, the funnier. God definitely held us up those first few days and we were able to experience some beautiful things! He is so faithful in reminding me of His consistent and considerate goodness towards me and the fact that He is right by my side through it all. He truly calms my soul in these stressful moments. This city is so beautiful, but even more, the people in it. I have never experienced anything like this before (traveling to a new culture), but just to see God's creativity and beauty He places on people is so encouraging. It's so exciting to see His Spirit moving all over the world and also in and through my own heart.

The rest of the week was so full and exhausting. However, it is so cool to begin relationships with the students and locals. I am writing this on a Monday, which is our day off! On Tuesdays we meet as a team to plan out the week and strategize how we can best reach students. Then we begin English talking club with students at the learning center (we have this every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the afternoons). This is the main way we are able to talk with the students and build relationships. On Wednesdays and Thursdays we also visit Universities and colleges in the mornings to teach and run more talking clubs. On Friday's we have a prayer walk in the morning and initiative outreach in the afternoon, followed by evening seminars with the students. As you can tell our schedule is very busy and some days it is hard to find energy. I think the mental exhaustion we are experiencing because of constant communication is often much harder than physical exhaustion. The Lord is sustaining us! We have been able to have sweet times in the Word and we have attended two services at the local international church! It is so awesome to worship the one true God alongside people from many different cultures.

Saturday (10/15) was such a sweet day! 82 students and staff+locals piled into 6 vans and drove 45 minutes to the beautiful mountains! The whole day I was filled with awe at God's creation and it was so fun playing games, hiking, and talking with the students!

Team prayer requests:

1. We are unable to mention anything related to Jesus at the learning center and at the Universities we visit. Since this is where we spend the majority of our time, pray that we will be able to reflect Jesus in our actions and speech. Pray that we will be lead fully by the Spirit in our conversations. Pray that we would consistently be able to connect with students and build relationships with them so that we can eventually share the gospel!

2. Pray for strength and energy day after day to walk faithfully in the good works God has planned for us. We need to depend fully on Him.

3. On Wednesday nights we host a mini Bible study at our house with the few students who already believe. Pray that the words we prepare would be fruitful and encouraging. Pray that the numbers would grow! We want to pray boldly before the throne because we already have access to the Living Water and we know that people desperately need this.

Personal prayer requests:

1. I have a few girl students who I have already met and connected personally with and pray that these relationships would grow! They are so sweet and encouraging to me and I can see our bond growing strong. As a team, we are meeting so many new students every day so just pray that we wouldn't be overwhelmed and that several relationships would truly go deep.

2. The Lord has been speaking to me about letting go of certain idols in my life. This is hard to do so pray for strength and that God would continue to do good work in my heart! (Psalm 139:23-24)

And finally praise reports:

In the first week alone we have been able to share the gospel to 18 different young adults and students! Praise Jesus!!!! God is so faithful and I know He has us exactly where He wants us.