weeks 8 & 9


If you’ve been following along you’ll see that I didn’t post last week. I honestly have no excuse except for the fact instead of going to the coffee shop like we usually do we went to get sushi. Despite not getting what I wanted to do, it was well worth it. Week 8 looked very different from the previous weeks in lecture phase. Our speaker is a missionary with her family living in Indonesia. Due to covid she couldn’t come out here to speak to us, so we met with her on zoom in the evenings (am her time) and spent our mornings practically applying what she was teaching us. We talked a lot about what it looks like to lay down your rights. We talked about how it’s not about us, and if it's not about us then who is it about? We worked in our outreach groups about how we can best serve in the countries we are going to. We also took a good look at different themes from books in the New Testament and looked at how we can apply the concepts to mission work. Jenny (our speaker) was incredible. She spent so much time speaking on the simple concepts that are brought up a lot, but are so often overlooked in the church. Like yeah we know it's not about us but then what does that really mean? What does it mean to abide in the vine? And because she only spoke for an hour we got to do a lot of diving into those concepts individually and as a group during our normal lecture times during the day. I really enjoyed the change of pace last week, and it was refreshing not having to focus so deeply on myself… of course that all changed pretty quickly. 

 

Week 9 was on healing sexual brokenness. We talked about sexuality and family dynamics and all that good stuff. And it dug up a lot. Which is good! It means God and I have something to work through together, but it kinda really freakin sucks at the same time. I thought I had gotten over a lot of this stuff, but it turns out I had just gotten rid of the things I was using to medicate. Pat Caven is literally the most incredible woman, and I’m glad she was able to speak to us this week. Her vulnerability and her openness with her own story was everything that was needed. She's also a counselor and met with most of us (if not everyone) individually at some point this past week. Which was honestly so incredibly kind. She’s just a wholesome lady and I’m really grateful that she’ll be here next week talking to the advanced class so we can have more conversation. She has a beautiful testimony and real knowledge and wisdom from experience just about life which is really enjoyable. She's also just really funny, so that's an added bonus. This week was tough, and it gave me a lot to think about and work through. I’m grateful though. We talked about the concept of progress not perfection. I’ve heard this countless times throughout my sobriety journey, but it sort of makes a little more sense now. Any progress is a step in the right direction. And despite this week being incredibly difficult, the understanding of what is actually going on that I gained is beyond valuable. 

 

Matthew Courchine. If you knew this guy it would be a name you’d never forget. This guy is quite the character. He has these insane ideas, but he is also incredibly obedient to God. It’s a beautiful and incredibly inspiring thing. I am very grateful to have him lead my outreach team to Africa in a couple of weeks. Matt is a car detailer. A very good one. And he had this idea to do a car wash to help raise money for outreach. Well we got to do that yesterday and it was incredible. I think we washed 22 cars and raised over $500. It was really fun being in community and washing and drying and vacuuming and tireshining peoples vehicles. We also got to talk to quite a few of the people and that was also really enjoyable. It was a great way to end the week. Washing cars in the best community I could’ve been placed in at this time. I’m sad it's coming to an end here soon, but I gotta be grateful for the time as it happens without being too sad about the future. I just love everything that's happening and the people here so much. It’s funny saying it’s almost over because I won’t be done for another 2 months, but that’s going to be a whole different and beautiful experience that I can’t wait to tell you all about. 

 

Until next time,

 

Lauren