Ah, Slovakia.
I shared this with my bible study group last night in my brief recap of the trip. Before going on the mission trip, our group leader Brad asked our smaller team what love language we best recieved and best gave out. While I knew I best recieved quality time and phsyical touch, I sat and thought about what I best gave out. Then I realized it was all of them, all the time! And that made sense right then, how that is too much for some people and some people don't like it or don't get it! It's not forced from me, it's just how I've always been. If we're good friends, then I am going to hug you, buy you things, do things for you, write you notes / on facebook, and want to spend time with you. So even when that begins to come across to people who aren't Christians, they start to kind of back away or be confused.
Well on this trip, as with any mission trips, you're both giving and recieving all 5 love languages ALL THE TIME! The camp is set up so that you can write each other notes to put in envelopes, you spend lots of time together, you talk about things, you share your food, buy each other ice cream, give each other things you made in crafts or bracelets, and more. It's tons and tons of love! Then you come home, and it all stops. Sometimes I don't know how to love the difficult people in my life, or the everyday people in my life. And obviously it's different when you're not able to recieve as much as you give out sometimes. There you give of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, as much as you can and it's a mix between hard and great. Back home while it's less of all of that, it's still hard because you know you're supposed to be more like that in order to love the way we're supposed to.
I had four 15 year old girls in my room for the week of camp, and a 19 year old Slovak leader, Mat'a, who also spoke fluent english. They were such awesome girls. They are currently my facebook cover. :-) It was hard sometimes when we couldn't communicate well. It was also hard to listen to them at night speaking fluent Slovak for 30 minutes to an hour, especially when they would all laugh or cry and I didn't know why and wanted to give them words of encouragement or advice. But during that time I prayed for Mat'a to have the right words to say, and that was all I could do. I did have some great conversations with some of the girls in the camp, in my room or not in my room, and while I didn't personally see any big changes or desicions, I hope that God uses our conversations to plant seeds in their hearts.
The other 5 people on my team who were from America were awesome too. Such a blessing in my life, and just the best people I could have gone with. I am so thankful to see them here, some every week.
The trip in a brief summary: We missed our layover in London because our plane was late, so we got a day to look around London. It's a place I never thought I'd see! It was stressful with 21 of us though. We had a day in Prague which was also beautiful and stressful at the same time. There were tons of trains, subways and buses in all our traveling. I've never sweat as much in my entire life as I did on this trip! Sometimes our camping backpack was on our backs and my book bag on my front, and it was heavy as we walked! At camp we had English classes - my class was great, so well behaved, so ready to learn. We played games, had crafts, had speakers who told the story of the Prodigal son and some shared their testimonies, there were discussion groups, and each night was a different theme. On night was had one of their foods over the camp fire (sausage, bacon, and onion on a stick over the fire, then put on bread), smores, casino night, mexican night, and a night of worship. Traveling home was 31 hours straight of a bus and planes and cars, and I slept on and off the entire time, throwing off my sleeping schedule!
One of the girls in my room asked me one night why I came to Slovakia. I told her it was because God is the most important thing to me, and Jesus said to go into all the nations and tell others about Him and to love others and serve others, and that I would go wherever I could to do that. Coming back from this trip reminds me that it was a beautiful two weeks, but I am also called to do all of that here in my life now and every day. God is still here as much as He is there. There are people here who need to know God as much as in Slovakia or in Kenya. I just don't know what that looks like. It's a process. I know that the pain of coming back can't be quenched by being busy, reading good books, watching tv, or sleeping. It is only by bringing my heart to God and letting Him bring me peace that I will be able to feel ok again and find ways to serve with as much joy here as I did there.
Last night one of the girls in our group, Hannah Bickers, said that she wants to find something here that she can find just as much connection with and longing for. I totally agree. So whether you went to Slovakia or any other mission trip this summer or not, you still have the great opportunity to live out that same mission here.
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