Friendship
Hello all, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been busy here at HKAC.
Every week comes with its own challenges. Some weeks I can almost see Him taking each step with me and others, the emotions and stress really get to me. Still, I know that God is always walking beside me.
Right now, we're in the final push for this year. We finished our Gospel Week two weeks ago, the Spiritual Retreat we've been planning ended yesterday, and Alumni Weekend and Food & Fun Fair are coming up at the end of the week. After that, it's finals and it's a wrap for the semester. Crazy!
Looking through my camera roll, I can't help but smile because God has been so good to me here. I'm so grateful that of all the places He could've sent me, He sent me here.
Before I came, I started praying that God would send me friends for eternity. Now, I'm praying that the friendships I'm making here would really be created and refined by God and that they really would be friends for eternity.
This month, my prayer in the mornings has been to intentionally surrender my plans to God and to ask that as I go about my day that it would not be me but Him living in me. It is so amazing what God does when we willingly surrender our plans to Him everyday.
The deadline to sign up for the mission trip was at the start of this month. My roommate was considering it. She already asked her family and they gave her the go ahead. Which was a big deal because the mission trip is during their biggest holiday here, Chinese New Year. It was just a matter of whether she wanted to go. The deadline was that Friday. At the start of the week, she told me she wanted to think about it. I had done everything I could in trying to convince her to go and I knew the rest was up to God. His Spirit needed to move on her heart and I was praying.
That Wednesday, my roommate fell on the stairs in the dorm and landed wrong on her ankle. I could see how much it hurt. We thought it was just a bad sprain. I canceled my plans for the day to help her move around, get her anything she needed, and ice it until her family could bring her home early. It was so discouraging because I knew she was close to going on the mission trip and that happened. The devil was working.
The next day, when her family took her to the hospital, she was told that she would need surgery for her leg to heal properly. It was scheduled that Friday morning. I decided to visit her in the afternoon and one of the other SDA dorm students came with me. I really wanted to be a good friend and love a hurting friend.
It is so beautiful how God uses true friendship as a witness. I could see how happy it made her to see us and that made me really happy. I know that was Christ's love in me. He cries when we cry and hurts when we hurt but He also smiles with a glowing radiance when we find joy in loving one another.
We stayed there for a few hours, just being good company. Before we left, the friend that came with me asked if my roommate was going on the mission trip. Her mom was really supportive and my roommate filled out the Google form right there on the hospital bed. It was so easy like everything just fell into place and that was 100% God.
He works all things for the good of those who love Him.
It's been a few weeks since and mission trip planning is underway. There are 25 of us going. We've started fundraising with bake sales, hospital fundraising visits with the college choir, and booths at this weekend's Food & Fun fair.
We're going to be going to an SDA school along the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Most of the students are refugees. We'll be running morning and evening worships, morning and afternoon Week of Prayer sessions, teaching English classes, and building toilets. God has put together the group He wants going and I'm excited!
That's all for now, more updates to come!
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