This week, my group came from Connecticut! Laura was my cohost which was super cool because I absolutely adore her! She is such a kind, lovely, giving person who I was very grateful to have this week. Boy, it was a hard week emotionally; there were many tears shed but Laura helped keep me sane and we developed an amazing support system for one another. Though this week was very difficult, it was more educational than emotional, something I am so grateful for.
Grace and joy were the two things I focused on most, the two things that really pushed me to get through this week. One of the people from the group was very difficult to work with and made it extremely difficult for Laura and I to do our jobs. This person also made it an unpleasant week for the others in the group. Laura and I were faced with an extremely hard decision; to be bitter about how this person was treating us or to suck it up and fight through it, to make it an amazing experience for the rest of the group. We decided to focus all of our energy on pouring into the rest of the group, showing them how amazing Philly is and all of the great things it has to offer, helping to show them they can love doing ministry even when someone is telling them they aren't doing it right. The highlight of the week for me was Thursday at the Neighborhood Center, the after school program we were volunteering at, a few of the students in the group started a game of basketball. After a few minutes, one of the kids had to step away and they needed someone to take his place...so I stepped up. We started playing and then as the rest of the students finished their jobs, they started to trickle into the gym and began to join the game. There were six students total so with me playing, the teams were uneven so Laura had to step in. We played for almost an hour. Just getting to connect with these kids, to love on them, to show them Christ's love was amazing. These students could have very easily decided that they weren't going to try, that they had had enough of this one person's attitude but instead, they got up every morning and gave it their all.
Grace was shown to me in that I was being constantly reminded of Christ's love and the beautiful gift he gave us; grace. I feel that grace and mercy go hand in hand; mercy to forgive one's sins against you and grace to give them favor even if you don't feel that they deserve it. This one person in the group just brought everyone down and made us all dread each and every morning but I was able to have mercy on him and give him grace because God first did that for us. I can't say that I gave of those two things perfectly because I found myself thinking very unmerciful things towards this person but I just had to keep reminding myself of what God did for us. He didn't think we deserved his mercy and grace yet because of Jesus, we were given these amazing gifts.
Joy was what I clung to this week. I just kept reminding myself to choose joy, to choose not to be bitter or angry every day. James 1:2-3 says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." This entire week was a HUGE trial but this verse pushed me because I knew that if i could get through this week, if I could get through this emotionally hard time, it would bring me closer to my Savior...and it did. I leaned on Him to get through those 6 days and I am stronger because of it, as is my faith.
I know this was a pretty jumbled post but because of how hard this week was, I wanted to focus more on what I learned rather than specific events.
Remember,
God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.
Grace and joy were the two things I focused on most, the two things that really pushed me to get through this week. One of the people from the group was very difficult to work with and made it extremely difficult for Laura and I to do our jobs. This person also made it an unpleasant week for the others in the group. Laura and I were faced with an extremely hard decision; to be bitter about how this person was treating us or to suck it up and fight through it, to make it an amazing experience for the rest of the group. We decided to focus all of our energy on pouring into the rest of the group, showing them how amazing Philly is and all of the great things it has to offer, helping to show them they can love doing ministry even when someone is telling them they aren't doing it right. The highlight of the week for me was Thursday at the Neighborhood Center, the after school program we were volunteering at, a few of the students in the group started a game of basketball. After a few minutes, one of the kids had to step away and they needed someone to take his place...so I stepped up. We started playing and then as the rest of the students finished their jobs, they started to trickle into the gym and began to join the game. There were six students total so with me playing, the teams were uneven so Laura had to step in. We played for almost an hour. Just getting to connect with these kids, to love on them, to show them Christ's love was amazing. These students could have very easily decided that they weren't going to try, that they had had enough of this one person's attitude but instead, they got up every morning and gave it their all.
Grace was shown to me in that I was being constantly reminded of Christ's love and the beautiful gift he gave us; grace. I feel that grace and mercy go hand in hand; mercy to forgive one's sins against you and grace to give them favor even if you don't feel that they deserve it. This one person in the group just brought everyone down and made us all dread each and every morning but I was able to have mercy on him and give him grace because God first did that for us. I can't say that I gave of those two things perfectly because I found myself thinking very unmerciful things towards this person but I just had to keep reminding myself of what God did for us. He didn't think we deserved his mercy and grace yet because of Jesus, we were given these amazing gifts.
Joy was what I clung to this week. I just kept reminding myself to choose joy, to choose not to be bitter or angry every day. James 1:2-3 says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." This entire week was a HUGE trial but this verse pushed me because I knew that if i could get through this week, if I could get through this emotionally hard time, it would bring me closer to my Savior...and it did. I leaned on Him to get through those 6 days and I am stronger because of it, as is my faith.
I know this was a pretty jumbled post but because of how hard this week was, I wanted to focus more on what I learned rather than specific events.
Remember,
God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.