It has been a roller-coaster since my last blog. Last weekend we had a weekend team that I will only mention briefly, because they were only here briefly. They were a quiet group, but there was one 13 year old boy who blew me away. He talked to us staff and interns with ease and was the first or sometimes only one to initiate conversation with the guys on the street. When I got to talk to him and hear some of his personal story I was even more impressed at his attitude and initiative to come join us on church on the street. He was a blessing over that tired weekend.
Last week with no team was fairly uneventful, but it was nice to sit down with friends or meet someone new and not have to worry about 40 students roaming around. Wednesday Gary, the interns, and some of the volunteer staff and regulars at Retreat went to Six Flags. Despite the record heat, it was a blast. We shared rides together, told stories in line, laughed, and just had a great time together. It did not feel like work (let's face it, it wasn't). It was just a group of friends hanging out at an amusement park, enjoying summer; never-mind the mix of nationalities, races, socioeconomic status, or backgrounds represented. Gary seemed to love it even though we couldn't get him to go on but 2 rides.
Speaking of Gary, he gave the lesson at St. Paul's this past Sunday. The message was great--based out of John 15 (one of my favorite chapters) but really hitting the whole Bible. He spoke about abiding in God, seeking him and letting him rule your life instead of anything else. One line that stuck with me went something like, "We are satisfied to have a savior but we don't want a Lord." It reminded me of what we just read, Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In the beginning especially Bonhoeffer talks about cheap grace: how we will all jump on board for a God that will rescue us, but we are not then willing to devote ourselves to simple obedience to him, to let him rule over us. It's something I'm still greatly struggling with. Besides the message, I really enjoyed Sunday in seeing who came to support Gary. Again people of all backgrounds, some differing beliefs, but all dressed up to worship the same God and to encourage a friend.
Today was the first day with our last mission team, the team from Lauren's home church. They have been wonderful so far. They are here for an extra day so we had them do some things for partner ministries that we don't usually get a chance to work with. But this meant I did not know at all what the day was going to look like. Things kept changing and certain things took much longer and hit an obstacle that we hadn't anticipated but overall it went well. Even though I knew it would be fine and could have gone much MUCH worse, in the moment I was getting quite frustrated and anxious that we didn't have enough to do, or that plans were changing constantly. Plus we got caught in some serious rain after some time on the street this evening. A verse that has been following me around this week (and my whole life) is Matthew 6:25-34 about not worrying. I know it does no good, but I do it anyway, and the world is all about worrying. What are we going to do after college? How am I going to make money? What if this or that happens? I always struggle with insurance and savings. How do we act as responsible stewards but not rely on earthly goods and worry about the future? I don't know and I have digressed a bit into deeper water. Today was simply a good lesson for me on flexibility and faith.
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