Soaking Up Every Moment

Hi hi hi!

Hope you are doing so well. After a few days of travel, we are here in Greece for several days as a quick pit stop en route to Spain to hike the Camino for several weeks!

Can you believe less than 2 months left of the race? This is wild my friend. But as I reflect back on this journey-I see the faithfulness of God & answered prayers all over. It brings me to tears, seriously.

The desire to grow in understanding the World. Done.

The desire to heal. Oh yes.

The desire to grow in confidence. Mhmm.

The desire to understanding Biblical history & context. Well on it’s way.

The desire to build a stronger foundation in my relationship with the Lord. Amen.

The desire to understand God’s hear for this world in more ways than I ever imagined. You betcha.

It’s all been so good & challenging & heart aching & renewing & victorious & goofy & tiring & FUN!

I will be processing this time, probably the rest of my life. There are insights from this travel I will hold dear to my heart, absolutely forever. I thank you again for choosing to invest into my life through your support. Forever grateful, seriously.

This past week we had a wonderful opportunity to help celebrate a new friend & her baptism. She got baptized in the beautiful Mediteranian! WOW.

This friend of ours in Turkey who we had an opportunity to celebrate a baptism with, went from hardly speaking any English to engaging in consistent conversations with my friends and I. Just about every other day, if not more in Turkey was spent encouraging & loving on this friend & teaching her basic conversational English. It brings tears to my eyes to see how much she was also growing in her understanding or worth & value in Jesus Christ alone, not what culture or society tells her. Her life is not always easy-but she sure is a resilient woman. 

On our way out of Turkey-we had an opportunity to stop at a House of Prayer. This is a building where local believers & missionaries from all over the world come to connect with other believers, worship, & intercede for the nations. To come & join in at such a place, was refreshing, inspiring, and all around a joy filled time. I actually made a connection with someone from Germany who had taken a vacation to Traverse City Mi-my home town…what the what? Haha! So fun, right?

In that same time, God totally put someone on my heart to pray for. This man was seeking the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. Joy FILLED his eyes-when a person would talk to him, it was like he cared so much, and nothing else mattered in that moment. I really believe this man will be used in more ways than he realizes to go & share the Love of Jesus to the world. Even though a prayer seems like a small thing, I felt in my heart that it really did encourage this man, even if that was the only reason to be in Turkey on that day-I would be totally ok with it! It was an honor & my gosh, I find so much Joy in speaking truth, identity & calling out the Gold in people. It seriously brings me to life!

I also think I discovered my dream job. Hey God, can I just be a Barnabas from the Bible as a life calling-going and encouraging and equipping the Church around the world? :)))

From there we took a long bus ride then train ride to get to Greece.

On the way to Greece we found ourselves on an over night train ride, & in that time a couple friends & I engaged in an awesome conversation with another person around our age in regards to faith. We discussed multiple perspectives on the Christian faith, we discussed the Diety of God, we laughed, we went deep, we were real with each other & vulnerable & truly bonded. I absolutely enjoy conversations like these. May God just bless that person’s sock off & reveal His deep, deep love for Him!

(Also, I wish you could have seen the positions of my friends & I trying to get comfy while sitting up through the night on the train ride. Sore necks, sore backs, blood shot eyes, & a test of patience is what we get! Haha! It’s really not all that bad-honestly I am just super grateful to be here. My earplugs & battered up eye mask really works wonders too, I actually feel weird sleeping without them now (traveler tip 101) LOL! But truly, these are the times I look back on & can’t help but smile. So much grace, messy, awesome, grace!)

Looking forward, we will be traveling to Spain to Hike the Camino for several weeks, check out a discipleship school connected with Adventures in Missions, & then head to Morocco for our last month of Travel before we head back to the states.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I am just ready to soak it all up. Every moment of it, but also know, the adventure has only begun. Whether it be traveling the world or stationed in once place for a long time, there is so much loving to do-so much growth to be-had, so much opportunity to worship God & make His name known. Eeeeee! I love God & God loves YOU!

In a few days, I will send out a VLOG, wrapping up our time in Turkey. For now, know that you are in my thoughts & prayers. Please let me know how I can specifically be praying for YOU too! 🙂 

You are awesome, you are kind, you are amazing. You are GREAT!

Keep on keeping on,

Kailey b.