This past week Mission Adventures hosted a group of 10 come in from Hillsboro, OR for their Spring Break Mission Trip. They were a super easy group; they were eager to learn, willing to open up to us, on time for the most part, and excited to be challenged! The leaders that came with the group were awesome as well; they truly cared about the students and poured into them quite a bit.
Throughout the week we had different youth pastors come in to teach in the mornings. The focus was 'The Kingdom in Your Heart' as the International MA theme this year is 'Expand Heaven Here'. Random fact: One of the youth pastors we had as a guest speaker was on 'The Bigest Loser: Season 3'.
Every afternoon we arranged for the group to have outreach, ranging from one of our
Street Surges (Hot Chocolate Handout, Letters to Salem, Spoken Word, and Speaking with the Stars) to community service, helping clean a local ministry, Stiches, that feeds street kids. And every night we held a 'night session' which held in store for the students experiences like Night of Missions and Experiencing Injustice, each put on by different ministries at YWAM Salem.
Honestly, I feel like I learned more than the students. Every speaker that came in had amazing eye opening things to say about the Kingdom being here in our hearts. The main thing that caught my attention was something one of our speakers said about halfway through the week. "We change the world by having a kingdom mindset; it is not about the here and now". Joseph probably didn't like his here and now, being sold as a slave and then thrown in jail for something he didn't do, but he knew that life isn't about present circumstances. As a slave he served diligently, even in jail he took up work, because he understood that God was worthy of his best no matter if he liked the circumstance. And because he focused on the kingdom and how the Lord can use everything to further His kingdom, God was able to use him to save a nation from famine.
I've been having a hard time not focusing on the here and now. My here and now is cold, rainy, far from home, and in a strange culture (believe it or not, west coast culture is very different than east coasts). But that isn't what my life is about; it is about the kingdom being furthered. I know that God has called me here and I am blessed to be working with youth groups, designing promo, and living in the same location as my soon to be husband! I will serve here diligently, because God is worthy of my best.
About a week and a half ago Mike took me out on a really nice date. I'd bought a cocktail dress a while back and commented on how I hadn't had the opportunity to wear it yet; a couple nights later he got me off work early and told me to dress up. Mike took me to DaVinci's, a super nice restaurant in town, for drinks and appetizer. 
