At the end of our trip I asked the students to write down something that happened during the week that was important or stuck out to them. I was amazed to see how trusting God seemed to be a theme.
For Allie at the beginning of the trip she had a hard time putting her full trust in God and here are three things she learned during the trip:
“1. I can trust in God because when bad things occur, wonderful and glorioius events follow. 2. Showing Jesus can be serving. I learned that I can do so much more in my everyday activities. 3. Relationships are important!! Everyday I made new relationships. that helped me grow spiritually. this mission trip doesn’t end for me at all! I WILL continue to serve. I am inspired.”
It was amazing to see how the students grew over the course of just a few days. Some of them had never worked in a garden or done much yard work before they came and they turned on and were excited to get to our different ministry sites and help out. I loved seeing them dive in and try new things and not be afraid to look silly or for it to fail. For instance none of them had done an Ask The Lord ministry before yet they were excited to try it. One girl told us this story:
“During my ATL all I heard was music. I asked God to clear my mind, but it didn’t work. Soon, I was getting desperate then all of a suddent I recieved the word “singing”. Then during our ATL, we did sing (some I hadn’t even heard before). I was convinced it was all me and my mind. I got really frustrated. However, God made it work out. For that I’m grateful.” – Allison
Most of the students when we started the ATL didn’t know how much the trusted or believed what they saw or heard while praying but as we were walking around and doing what God had told us they began noticing different words that people in the group had got. They got more and more excited as they realized the things they heard and saw were coming true, God really had been speaking to them.
We did have one young man that recieved the word “trials” before they left for ATL, and as they were handing out flowers to people around downtown he was rejected 16 times. As he began to get down because no one was taking his flower he remembered the lady that was under the bridge earlier who smiled and was so excited when he had handed her a flower earlier in the afternoon. Once he remembered that lady and her smile it brought a smile to his face and people began taking his flowers again. God was using the ministry Cole was doing to the people in Nashville to minister to him.
Just goes to show that no matter where we are, or how far away from home God ministers to us as much as he ministers to others through us.
