Intimacy

So I thought the point of this missions trip would be to change the world! I wanted to make a difference. To help. To serve. Which are all good ambitions.
But God has taught me something different. He has been teaching me the importance of intimacy with my Creator. There is nothing like it.

Through my other posts, you can probably see that I am learning that God cares about the HEART. About motives. Yes, if we love Him we will obey his commandments. But He makes it clear that He wants willing hearts, not workers out of obligation.

Sometimes in life it's easy to feel like we aren't doing anything important. We have our everyday tasks, then we go to bed and do it all again. It can seem trivial and meaningless. But there is good  news- it doesn't have to be!

1 Peter 1:5-8
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we are in prayer and submitted to the Spirit, we can be increasing in these qualities. Meaning no matter where you are in life, you are neither useless nor unfruitful. You are getting to know the Lord more.

I want to encourage you to do something. Set aside time, each day, to get REAL with God. Get alone, and open up your heart to the Spirit. Sing, cry, dance- do whatever! But open up your heart to your Savior. Let Him flood you with peace. Bask in His presence. There is no place like it. I've read many books telling me to do this, and I would do it here and there, but there is nothing like consistant intimacy with the Lord. We are His bride, His children, His beloved. He actually WANTS to spend time with us! This blows my mind.

But it's up to us to take time out of our busy days to really kneel before Him and get intimate.

1 John 4:9-10
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

What incredible love!
It has become my passion to serve people. And though that sounds good, I let it come before loving God. So though I came into this ready to serve people, God has gently humbled me and showed me how I was wrong. He has taught me how to love Him first so that I can Better serve His people that He loves so dearly.

Matthew 22:36-39
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Home-stay in Lautoka

This past Wednesday-Friday I had the wonderful opportunity of doing a home-stay in Lautoka with a lovely woman named Joanna and her family. It was so cool to see how they lived and to be shown around Fiji by a true Fijian. I took my first bucket shower (which consisted of standing on the porch dumping a bucket of water over my head), and tried many new foods! The shower was actually pretty cool- I did it under the stars and coconut trees and it was very refreshing :)
The place where I stayed had one huge room where all the beds were (Fijians often live with extended family)

You can't see the whole room, but there were at least 10 beds- they jokingly called it their hostile. Then on the other side was their outside sink/woodstove and inside was the kerosene stove. They had to move everything out of that side of the house because of the flooding (my facebook album is of my time here- the people I met wanted me to post the pictures and tag them!).

It was a wonderful experience, and I got to see a lot of really cool things- I got to visit where Joanna's mom works, which is The Golden Home (like a nursing home). We got there in time for their exercises!!!

I also got to visit The Special School, which was a school for special needs kids. Joanna's cousin Soko works there and it is a labor of love. She works with a little boy named Patrick who has cerebral palsy and some other conditions... He can't feed himself or change himself... and doesn't respond at all when you talk to him. When I asked her if it was tiring just pouring so much in but not getting even one thanks, she simply said,"that's what love is." She has incredible faith and endurance and Christ's love is so evident in her life.

We also visited the market- the biggest place downtown!

There were many other adventures, and I loved the whole experience, but I think my favorite part was jumping off the rocks into this beautiful river with some of Joanna's rugby friends. It was pretty high up- I screamed the whole way down my first jump! I wish I could've gotten some better pictures but it was getting dark and my camera battery died

The last night there, they made a huge special feast for me because I was their guest, and we had a time of encouragement and prayer. I was so blessed by their words and their love. I know they made many sacrifices in order to make me feel comfortable and welcome. I pray a special blessing on that family. I have a lot to learn from them.

I came to Fiji to serve but have been blessed and so humbly served instead. This family reminded me of Galations 5:13
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love."