K.

God has placed me in a unique position here. Coming in and joining a solid team, only to see them all move out and then being left here to receive a new team. God is so good and designs relational shifts with excellence in structure and timing. I love sitting back and watching him maneuver people to where he wants them. Through the constant change of environment, God is softening my heart and making me relationally vulnerable. I'm learning that I must depend on him for my stability and embrace what is in the moment.

While living here, I believe that we have the wrong mentality on short term relationships. We have adopted the belief that knowing someone for only a week is bad. "It's not worth investing in a relationship that will only last a couple days or weeks." Why do we think this? It's because we want to avoid the pain of loss. By living with this mentality, however, we put ourselves in a position to miss out on what God wants to deposit in our lives during a short season of our lives. The blessings we receive from NOT withholding ourselves from people is worth any pain we may experience from moving on. God is our constant. Our constant love. Our constant support. Our constant comfort. Our constant joy. Our constant peace. Our constant rock on which we can stand when the tide of life moves in and out. It so much about Him and so not about us. Living with that perspective allows us to ride freely in his exciting purpose.

This morning, the family, including Whit, Meg, and Bri, met together for worship, prayer, and open share time. It was emotional as the team processed the departure of Lisa, Lindsay, and Barbara; but it was also a sweet time of blessing each other and intimate confession. God is all about intimacy and genuine vulnerability; and in a short time, an open atmosphere of trust and a bond of love has been formed between everyone on the team.

Pray for safe travels for Barbara as she leaves in the morning. Pray for Lindsay in her last three days here... Shes's bringing closure to strong relationships that have been built for the past five months here. Lisa will leave with Lindsay but is returning without her in three weeks. When she returns, the community she has built among the American family will be starting from scratch as her whole team (excluding Diego) will have moved on. She and Lindsay are like sisters and it will be a difficult transition for her. God evidently knows what he is doing and is knitting together a new and effective team here at New Song.