On a different side this time...

...Whew. We made it through our first volunteer team since I've been here. What an amazing experience. I've always been on the other side of things. I've always been the one that is part of a group going abroad. Now, this time...I was on the receiving end...what a difference. The group came from Southeastern Seminary in North Carolina and spent 10 days here with us in Paris. I am thrilled at how fast they jumped into helping us with everything here. We had them meeting students from Day 2 and they made a lot of new contacts for us as well. It was so interesting to listen to what their expectations were when they got here, and see how they changed over the week. I think they all left Paris with a new perspective on the "heartset" (the spiritual place) of the students here. The group got a big dose of teaching on building friendships and being here to sow seeds and trust the Lord with the rest. But I believe they got a lot out of the 10 days they were here.

As far as me...I got a lot out of it too. The seminary students were so great at encouraging me...even when they didn't know they were doing it. I was challenged to make my message to students even clearer and to continue to make sure that prayer is the first and foremost thing I am doing. The biggest lesson I learned, though, was TRUST. Only a few days had passed and I was already a little anxious about having put so much trust in people that I barely knew. I had to trust them with students, my new friends, that I had put so much love, time, and effort into forming bonds with. I found myself doubting their abilities to understand how to interact with the students, afterall, I couldn't tell them every bit of background that has been going on for four months in just a few minutes. So...could I really trust them? Then...it hit me. Oh, what a beautiful illustration of how the Lord trusts us. God has allowed me to be a part of the task of helping students to come one step closer to Him. Am I worthy of that trust? I don't know all of the background on all of these students from the past 18-22 years. I don't know exactly how to interact with all of them. But He entrusts me with the task anyways. Wow. I am floored. Now I see how hard that can be from this side of things.