Bahamas!!!

This week is our first week back after being gone the entire month of February on international trips followed spring break for the first week in March. International trips were absolutely amazing. I chose to go the Bahamas, which was more of a mission-based trip. I was stretched and grown in lots of ways. Our focus while being there was at The Exceptional School for Learner – a school in a nearby town for students with learning disabilities. We helped teach both math and English classes every morning. Another really neat opportunity we had there was to build them a cement pad to play basketball on. Before we built the pad, they played on a rocky slope that was incredibly dangerous. It was fun for me because I love construction and I was able to help envision the whole project and figure out how to get it done. However, the most rewarding part was seeing the kids play on it once it was finished. The joy and gratitude they showed was really fun to see.

While in the Bahamas there were also some ways that God really challenged me that I hope to take away while back in the States. The first way was God revealed the idol of comfort in my life and showed me that I need to be content wherever I am or with whatever I have. For example, we ate oatmeal every morning for 28 days. We also only had cold showers, to name a few of the things I was not used to. What is sad is those things are so small. People obviously live with much less. We always had enough food and I should have been happy we even had showers. But that just goes to show how big the idol of comfort was in my life. I had a few of the things that I was used to (good breakfasts, hot showers, etc.) taken away and I struggled to be content. Now that I am back, I don’t want to sink into the lifestyle I had before. I want to live a little more simple life. Starting by making small changes, like not eating out as much, and hopefully continue to do more and more to take away unnecessary things.

The second area God challenged me in was my generosity, and he used a little boy at the school to do it. A young boy named Joshua, who was incredibly poor and whose shoes had countless holes in them, gave me part of his snack every day I was there. Here is a young boy, who has next to nothing, giving me, an American who has way more than I need, part of his already small snack. Why would he do that? I honestly don’t know, but I do know that if he can give out of the little he had, I sure can give a whole lot more than I do now.

Thanks for reading!