This past month the squad has been separated: each team spent two weeks with one of their ministry hosts. While some teams traveled hours and hours away, my team happily drove ten minutes away to a church in Parramos.
As we lived in Parramos, we continued with our original ministries (English class, Soccer, and Bookclub) but we got the chance to participate in the nightly church activities!
The growth that I saw in our team through the two weeks was incredible. I saw us grow in courage and comfortability as we stepped into more roles at the church and got to know the church members more and more. The way that God moved through us was incredible. It was so comfortable to step into the new roles even when at first we weren’t fully confident in.
On our last Saturday in Parramos, we got to attend the youth group. The Friday before, our ministry host asked for us to pray into giving a sermon. Instantly when I heard that I felt a sense of calmness. Giving a sermon didn’t sound like a terrifying feat like it might’ve before and I felt comfortable with the idea. Even so I prayed about it Friday night, before I volunteered. The morning of Saturday came, and I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to speak or if I should let someone else have the opportunity to. So I asked God, “ hypothetically, if you were telling me to speak, what would you want me to talk about?” My mind was drawn to my time on the race. I looked for something God revealed to me that I didn’t know or that I drastically improved on since the race. Quickly the process of hearing Gods voice came to my mind. The more I thought about it, the more stories and bible verses came to my mind and excitement rose up in me to the opportunity to preach a sermon for the first time.
So youth group came around and I got to share about hearing Gods voice. I got to explain the difference between awkward silence and comfortable silence. Awkward silence when you’re practicing to hear the voice of the Lord is when you’re at the point in a relationship where when you don’t hear home talking, you are uncomfortable so you talk in order to make yourself comfortable. I’ve done that so many times and felt horrible with myself that I couldn’t stop talking long enough for the Lord to speak to me. He provided a new perspective, though: comfortable silence. Comfortable silence is the one you feel with a close friend. It’s the one where you don’t need to always be talking, you just enjoy each other’s company. I ended by explaining that repetition is a key component to comfortability with the Lord. You can’t get close with someone if you don’t hang out with them. So to close we all wrote down questions we had and prayers we wanted to see happen. I asked them to pray those prayer and ask those questions everyday with an expat ent heart and let people know when he answers you!
When I was up there I was filled with so much peace. I expected a little because I’ve given speeches before, but I’ve always felt a little fidgety or spoke incredibly fast. This time I had a translator, so accidentally spreading through my words was not an option. I was excited for what I was sharing, so I wasn’t worried while speaking. Gods gave me so much peace throughout the whole process.
Afterwards, I was talking to God about it. I felt like I did a great job and I wanted his opinion. It was amazing how I practiced what I preached: I sat down to listen. He told me how proud he was of me and rejoiced with me when I was rejoicing. I wrote down a page of everything he said and turn back on it when I’m excited. God is so good and loves to empower us. Listening to him and how he wants to do it is only the first step.
