Value of Community

Hey everyone it’s been a while since I last posted. I just got home from Black Mountain, North Carolina, right outside of Asheville, two days ago. The second half of the trip was so much better for me than the first half of the trip. In all honesty, if I had been there for only a month like with Wisconsin I probably would have left feeling relieved and with no love lost. My leader Summer mentioned I had so much more joy in the last two weeks of the trip than she saw in me in the first two months. The Lord just really transformed my heart about the place we were staying at because those first two months I never would have chosen to spend time with anyone in that community besides my team. However, in the end especially the last week I found myself going out of my way to hang out and be with the other people in the community. 

It’s funny how the Lord works sometimes. In my last post about my time here in North Carolina, I wrote how at the beginning of this trip I could not stand a thing they did called all team. Where they have dinner together, worship, and then someone gives a message. I just didn’t like all the people in such a small area. However, the last all team I took part in, last Thursday, was my favorite night of the whole trip. I enjoyed talking to the people while we had dinner, we had worship and a message as usual. Then afterward because my team was leaving on Sunday they all gathered around me and my teammate and prayed over us, it was amazing. Then we finished the night with a dance party, which for those of you who know me just a little know I don’t like. However, I was just so filled with joy and peace from the Lord that I actually enjoyed it a lot. So God went from taking the thing I hated the most about the trip to being the best part of the trip. He redeemed it for me.

Things like that have happened to me before, I’ve had groups of people pray over me before and want to get to know me. However, through the constant community that I had here and seeing how supportive and loving everyone is. God just showed me to value Godly community in a way that I never had before. You can also see His perfect timing when He teaches people things because if I didn’t learn to value it here I was going to have to do it when I went on the World Race in August since the average squad size for those trips is about 30 people.

I’m so glad I got to partner with God in what he is doing in Black Mountain and in Asheville at least for a little while. That I got to impact lives: providing needs for kids at the children’s home the thrift store supported, serving my teammates, and other people in the community we lived in, also the impact that we had on Asheville through the few prayer walks we had around the city during our time there. I don’t know the exact impact that we had through that but I am certain that we did impact the city. I don’t know when I’ll get to go back there at least to visit, hopefully in the summer, but it was an amazing place.

While my time in North Carolina and in Wisconsin is not how I planned to do missions this year, it did not surprise God. He knew exactly where I would end up going, how I would serve and love those around me. He knew it was exactly what I needed, my teammates needed, the communities that we served and partnered with needed as well.