Getting Un-stuck From Reverse Culture Shock

Once again, it's been forever since I've given an actual update, but stories from the rest of the trip will probably have to come later. Hopefully the sooner kind of later.. But I was thinking today that maybe I could share something I'm being challenged with now.

I think my reverse culture shock is worse this year than it was last year. Reverse culture shock is a term that refers to the culture shock that happens going back home after being in another culture rather than stepping into a new world and being uncomfortable. I think it's because I connected so much more with the people, the place, and the culture of the Amazon this year. Last year during my DTS, I was still pretty "me" focused, how everything was affecting me, how I missed things like toilets and washing my hands, and how it was "my" outreach. This past trip, leading students of a DTS, I had to completely depend on God for what He wanted to do through us on the outreach because I knew that if I was trying to lead a team being focused on "me", I would crash hard.

It turns out that when you're asking God on a daily basis for His heart for your ministry or the people you're working with, you can't help but see things through a different lens. When your questions stop sounding like "what can I get out of this experience?" and start sounding more like "Lord, how do you want to use me in this experience?", I think God tends to show up in completely new ways. Sometimes that meant being a part of healings and miracles, and sometimes it just meant an energy boost to get me through the next activity. When He came through on those prayers, I connected to the people we were ministering to in an entirely new way for me.

Because of those prayers, I was able to get in the 'missionary' mindset and be willing to do a lot of uncomfortable things for God's glory. It's a stretching experience in anybody's life, but once you start being obedient to what God is asking, you start seeing the fruit of your work and spiritual growth in yourself and possibly others. It's amazing how God rewards obedience just because He's cute and He likes to do that. And it also amazes me how easy it is to forget all those things after just a short time of living in North America again.

What I really want to be doing is to be asking God for His heart for people no matter where I am. I don't want to just connect with people because they're in Peru, I want to connect with people and make a difference everywhere. I'm finding it difficult here at home because it's so simple to slip into old patterns and not care about the world around me. But I don't want to just be a missionary when I'm out in the nations, I want to be glorifying God's kingdom in the Twin Cities and encouraging others around me to do the same.

So a prayer request comes from this I suppose. Would you be praying that I would be asking God how He wants to use me every day here at home? And that I would have the same passion to love Americans as much as Peruvians. It's quite a bit more challenging because let me tell you, Americans are rude and selfish. Let's be honest, I'm still "American" at times, but I personally find it way easier to fall in love with a cute Peruvian slum kid who has nothing but ripped clothes and a great smile verses the screaming kid at Walmart who wants her 7th pillow pet. Just sayin'.

And it's always easier to pray that someone else would do uncomfortable things for God's glory like step out of their comfort zone and share God's love with people even in the suburbs, but I think I actually want to challenge you guys this time around to pray the same thing for yourselves. That doesn't mean I expect you all to report back to me about how you evangelized your whole neighborhood, but if you're taking your relationship with God seriously, you SHOULD be asking Him as often as you can how He wants to use you. A promise I always have to remember is that God will never give you more than you can handle, so if you're afraid He's going to ask you to do something ridiculous, just know that He knows you can handle whatever it is He wants you to do. Maybe it will start with being polite to people at the gas station, or maybe He's ready to take you further than that and you're supposed to ask a friend how you can be praying for them. I don't have the answers for what you should be doing, He does. But I can at least remind you to be asking Him, for me and for yourself  :)

If you wanna talk about steps you're taking, it would be a huge encouragement to me! And I would love to be praying for you as well. Anytime you guys wanna chat, hopefully you have my cell number or you can always message me on facebook.

Grad and Team Pictures!

There's soooo much to update on, I'm a little overwhelmed and not sure where to start. But I did want to give a little something... So I figured that the least I could do would be post a few pictures so that as I'm referring to people in my posts, you can put a face to the names. And it's a quick way for you guys to get to know the people I've been serving God with the past months of my life.


Our 'good' picture of DTS staff and students (there were tons of cameras so we're not always looking in the same direction) -

Back row: Scott (staff), Jarryd, Nate, Brian, Ageeth, Brenden (staff), Haleigh

Middle: Michelle, Deb (school leader), Ahnna (staff), Debbie, Me (staff), Deanne, Kirstin (staff), Courtney, Tammy, Lara, Dorie, Caitlin (staff), Katie (staff)

Bottom row: Paul, Michelle and Paul's kids :)

It seems like not all of us got the 'funny picture' memo...

And one of our last Peru team photos - 

From the top: Nate, Scott, Brian, Deanne, Me, Debbie

Thank you so much to everyone that kept us in your prayers! It means the world to me!

Home Again

I know it's been forever since I've written and I'm probably not even going to write a lot now. But I feel bad because I haven't updated in so long...

So the last week of Peru was insanity (crazy busy) and we finally got home on February 17th. The DTS students and also the SOMD interns (so me and 4 other interns) graduated on February 23rd. That was definitely a satisfying graduation after 9 months. Then we said our goodbyes and everyone left within a few days. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can share some stories from the last portion of time in Peru when I didn't get a chance to blog.

Since being home... well let's be honest, I haven't really been home much. Actually the day after the last of my SOMD friends left, I went on a road trip with some of the DTS students to Chicago for a couple days. It was an awesome time. We went around the city, saw Millennium Park, went to the ZOO!!, and did other things I don't remember right now because I'm exhausted haha.

So now I'm home... not sure for how long, not sure of future plans, same story as always :) I'll start applying for jobs within the next week probably and I'm spending lots of time with friends, catching up and resting from the past few months. Hope to keep you all updated in the meantime, call or text me if you'd like to get coffee and chat! I've got plenty of time on my hands right now!

PS. Look how funny I am:

     Anaconda in the zoo in Iquitos..

"Anaconda" in the zoo in Chicago!!  

Hahaha so clever!