Finding My Calling

I’ve been meaning to post something new for awhile, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to talk about. We have been doing a lot since my last update, but nothing seemed worthy of writing an entire post about. Sunday afternoon, after church, we crammed 9 people into a vehicle with 5 seats and went on an hour and a half road trip to San Antonio, one of the major port cities in Chile. Smelling the salty air was amazing – even if it was freezing. We walked around the market on the pier for a bit, where they had lots of fresh seafood. We went on a boat tour of the harbor (but the tour was given in Spanish, so I just looked out at the ocean the whole time). We got to eat some fresh seafood and Ashley and I got the fro-yo we’d been wanting since we arrived, so all in all I’d say the trip was pretty successful. Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to Skype with my mission center’s Sr/Jr-high church camp. We talked to them for about 15 minutes and told them some things about the culture here and World Service Corps, and then we answered a few of their questions. We were supposed to teach an English class at a local secondary school today, but apparently on rainy days, kids just don’t show up to school. So the school director called and said that there was no reason to go since no kids were there. I guess we’ll be starting tomorrow instead! So that’s been the past couple days in a nutshell. Now to get down to the real meat of this blog post. I’ve hinted in some of my past blog posts that I’ve been struggling with finding my purpose of being here. When I applied for WSC, I felt like I had a strong calling to spend my summer in another country doing the work of the Lord. Since I’ve been here, I’ve learned a lot about the culture, language, and social struggles of the people, but I haven’t felt like I’ve done much for the church. We have church every Sunday and occasionally Bible study on Wednesday nights, but it’s not the same as my experience with the church back home. I played the piano for one of the church services, but other than that I haven’t ministered to the congregation at all. It’s really bothered me that I haven’t felt the fire that I wanted to feel while I was here, and I’ve been talking to some people back home about it. “Pray and make sure you’re opening yourself up to opportunities” is the advice I am usually given. So I’ve been doing lots of praying and thinking about it, and I think that maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. While I haven’t heard amazing sermons or memorized Bible scriptures, I have seen how this culture cares about what happens to each other in a way that is very Jesus-like. Even though we don’t spend lots of time in church talking about Jesus, we go out into the world and live like Jesus. And really, when I interviewed for WSC, that is what I told them I wanted to do. I said I was tired of sitting in the pews every Sunday and hearing preachers say the same thing about loving each other and I just wanted to go out and live it! I decided that instead of worrying about having great experiences in church on Sunday mornings, I should focus more on showing Christ’s love on the street and in the activities I do here. This experience has also opened my eyes to the needs of people in other countries that I knew nothing about. And I realize that there is need in my own culture as well. I want to look into pursuing more of a career in educational reform and social issues or possibly a job doing ministry in the church somewhere. Since I also want to grow more in my knowledge of the Word of God, so that I can go out and live it, I have decided to start reading the Bible on my own. (I know this probably sounds like a normal thing to most people, but I’ve never had much of a habit of reading my scriptures). I randomly decided to start with reading 1 Corinthians. If anyone has any suggestions of what I should read next, please feel free to comment! I have enjoyed the time that I’ve spent reading and focusing myself. (Especially since my boyfriend has been away helping with a church camp for the past week, with no cell phone service, and I have had no one to talk to!) I am learning to find new things to do with my mind and I really think it’s going to benefit the rest of my time here. Sometimes you can’t sit around and wait for God to make things happen for you, but you have to do things on your own. And that’s good too. If I want a positive experience to come out of this trip, I will make it happen for myself and enjoy the last three weeks that I am here with these people in this country.