Today was my last day being a teenager. (In Thailand its night-time right now because of the time difference) And I am SO STOKED to wake up tomorrow morning and be 20! This past year of being 19 has been amazing but also lots & lots of crying. God taught me to rely on Him in ways that a year ago I couldnt have even imagined. He opened my eyes to how weak and broken I am and all of that drew me so much closer to God. Scripture has became my joy-source, my energy, my inspiration and this year God has just increased soooooo much my desire to know more of Him by reading the Bible. I learned about showing empathy & emotional validation & giving emotional support from all the times people poured love into me when I was crying. I learned about love languages, that I need words of affirmation to feel loved. I became obsessed with Myers Briggs (I am ESTJ) and have now started trying to type everyone I know. I learned that I CANNOT just live off of my intuitions, that often doing the right thing to serve God is uncomfortable or not what I feel like I want to do. I accepted that I need people, that so much of life is about loving them and being loved by them. I learned that God uses people who love you to protect you and that I need to let them protect me. Ive finally felt completely at home and connected with the people at University Church (at Pepperdine) & Watcharapon (in Thailand). Ephesians has been MY FAVORITE Book of the Bible all year. And praying has become an art form to me. My prayer life has become so much more amazing because Ive started believing more & more in the power of petitioning God and in His intervention. Read the book, Circlemaker :) I did Jesus Calling all this past year & that brought me into parts of the Old Testament I hadnt read in years, like Isaiah and Lamentations and Deuteronomy. It also taught me about having a spiritual perspective on life. God taught me so much about His peace through me being in Thailand last summer and He protected me in that. Philippians 4:4-7 has been my go-to verse the whole time Ive been 19. Also, Oceans by Hillsong~ that has meant so much to me. I had my first relationship. And my first breakup. All the experiences involved in that taught me so much about life, about God, and about who I am. Will changed me and inspired me. He showed me all the parts of me that are beautiful that I didnt even realize and he also opened my eyes to all the parts of me that are ugly and awful and that need to change. Growing apart doesnt change the fact that for a while we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. Im thankful for that. In December, I made a video about my FAVORITE nonprofit, IJM (International Justice Mission) and four months later met the IJM President, Gary Haugen, because I got to attend a class he taught at Pepperdine law school. I took a bunch of major classes & became even more obsessed with Philosophy. I finished 3 semesters of Koine Greek & also started learning Thai. I learned to play guitar. I saw Taylor Swift in concert on her RED tour. I hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube!! I finished half of my undergrad degree at Pepperdine. I learned that relaxing & down time is important to stay healthy. I got my first actual job, working for A/V Tech (audio/visual technologies), on Pepperdine campus. The BEST THING that happened: experiencing God in Thailand. The Christian community here is called RCC and this feels so much like my family and my home. I spent 5 weeks here last summer & am going into my 6th week this summer, teaching English through Lets Start Talking (LST). LST uses the Gospel of Luke to teach English through one-on-one conversations and so God opened my eyes to the power of scripture to change hearts and cause people to believe in Him. God taught me peace and joy and about being selfless. Everyone here, their hearts are so beautiful because of how they just intuitively serve each other. So every person here has inspired me to love God more and to become more selfless & more loving. I learned that sharing the Gospel is what makes me happiest and that doing ministry full-time involves tons of Gods intervention and also exhilarated spiritual growth because youre relying on His power so, so, so much. And so I finally decided what I want to do with my life!! I want to move to Thailand after graduating Pepperdine and work with the Church here as a full-time...missionary (that word is STILL so scary to me!!) For the past few years, the idea of being 20 has felt so daunting to me~ like not being a teenager makes you sooooooo old. This past week though, Ive realized that Im ready to be 20. So 7 years of me being a teenager is about to be over! Thank you for following my life on this epic journey that God is so intricately involved in. Im excited for you to watch all the videos I make over this next year, when Im 20. I love you guys!
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:26:55 +0000