So it's been a long time since I have posted on here. I am sorry. But know that I read your posts often and am very encouraged by what is happening within our community.
Where to begin.
AFRICA - was amazing. I had some major struggles and some major joys during that time. I learned sooo much about the character of God, just by my interactions with the children. I experienced first hand the "fatherly" love that God has for each and every one of us, and can finally wrap my head around how God can be a jealous God and still not contradict his perfect nature. That trip was truly a major blessing and I feel strengthened me so much in the areas of patience, and standing firm in my values. I can't lie and say that is was all easy and was the best time of my life. Some days I was like, "what am I doing here?" and so badly wanted to return to the security of home. But it is from those times that I see my greatest learning. So praise the Lord for that adventure.
SUMMER - another amazing summer of seeing God work in the lives of campers. I am just so astounded when I actually step away for a minute and think about the amazing work that God does through summer camps. The discipleship and the evangelism that happens is so evident of God's hand at work. I fills me with oodles of joy! This summer also found me and my friend Hannah photographing a few weddings for friends - the pics turned out so good, that people encouraged us to start a little business, it's been going well - we just kind of do it for fun but it's been really good, and one day it would be sweet if it took off.
ALASKA - THis is just a side note. At the end of the summer, me and 4 of my friends decided to just drive to Alaska and camp for a while, it was amazing. We had good fellowship and made some great memories. We of course had some tense moments as you might imagine with 5 people driving that much in a mini van, but it was such a great time all in all.
Oh NO! REALITY! - Ok this is when I got home from Alasaka, finished up at camp and then realized it was real world time. I moved back home and then started to look for places to rent with my little bro who just graduated. For a couple months there was like literally no where to rent in Melfort, so we figured - let's save some money and just stay at home. So that is where I still am right now. In the midst of all this (mid Oct.), my Dad graduated from his 12 month program at Teen Challenge and moved home and began looking for a job. It has been an adjustment having him back (a good one though) and if you think of it please pray for him as he is still trying to find work.
JOB(s) - K, so I am probably not the best employee, When I got home from camp I began looking for a job. I found a part time job working at an Italian restaurant (owned by a Greek family - go figure)- it was not bad, and kind of like working for the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. While I was there another job came up - A shipping Dock worker at a Meat Processing Plant. It was full time, and they had really good benefits (and a 4 day work week), it was a really good deal - and I eventually go the job through a couple of interviews. I had been working there for about 3 months when.........
HONDURAS - A Mission organization from Tisdale (a town near mine), asked me if I would be interested in traveling to Honduras with one of their teams to do promotional photography/video for their ministry (oh and they would pay for me to go!!!), So I thought and prayed about it for a while (although it didn't seem like a hard decision), and decided to quit my job and so I am leaving on Feb 5th to go to Honduras for about 2 weeks. !! Crazy!
RELATIONSHIP - Here is where most of your questions probably are. So this is a girl who I have kind of known for a while through camp, and who randomly decided to move to Melfort this year to work (from Calgary). She is one of the most spiritual discerning people I know, and we started meeting to talk about a similar idea we had to start a small prayer group that was really dedicated to accountability and working through things within our lives. It started with the two of us sharing our entire stories with each other, like everything, and it was so encouraging and we started praying about who else God would have to be part of this group. We started hanging out more and talking and eventually we started "dating", that was mid Nov. This was another period of learning as God tried to show me that I need to learn to sometimes just accept Love, the kind of agape Love that he created - that goes beyond our sins and our past. As of right now however we are not seeing each other anymore, as she decided that she still had things in her life that she would eventually want to to that didn't involve having a relationship, and we decided together that it was probably better that we take what we could from our time together and end our relationship now rather that later. It was tough, but I know that these things happen for a reason and that God is still teaching me through all of this.
So really the sum of all these things (and the reason it is first in the title), is that I have learned over the past year and a half - to LEARN. To take everything as what it is (a part of God's divine and perfect plan) and learn from it - soak in the wisdom that it offers. So I tell you all these things with a joyful heart; joyful because I am learning to learn and learning to see God in all that I do - allowing Him to take hold of my LIFE - and not confining Him to my "spiritual" life.
If I could ask for your prayers in one thing, it would be this -
My greatest struggle/fear at this time is that I don't know what I wan't to do with me life, sooooo many things come to mind, but none seem to take hold. I so often think like - I feel like I am not living the life I am supposed to living or doing what God wants me to be doing - but on the other hand, I don't have a clue what I am supposed to be doing. So I sometimes find myself feeling stuck - but like I said before, I am learning patience :)
Learning - there is always learning.
I miss you all Terribly!
Hopeful (and now - Learning)
Andrew.
