I’m one-third of the way done? Already? God has been so good to me these past few weeks, and this week was no exception.

One of my favorites things about being here as an intern is how different each of the teams are. They each have a different kind of impact on JDV and it’s the coolest thing to watch.

The team from week two was a family team, and they had a few different “fun nights” that they set up all on their own. The first was a movie/date night. The kids all went down to the church to watch Frozen while the adults watched a movie elsewhere and got a nice break from their kids as well as a devotion led by the team afterwards. The other night they had was a family game night. This was AWESOME! They set up games from “A Minute to Win It” and everyone loved it. I loved seeing how this team did such an awesome job of showing the families at JDV how important family is and how important it is for families to spend quality time together.

Then the team from this week was a group of 14 from Knoxville, 4 deaf and 10 hearing. Not many deaf people come on teams here (at least during my experience) so that was really cool. Three of the deaf had master’s degrees and one had his doctorate, so they were awesome examples to the deaf here that anyone can succeed if they try. They shared their testimonies at Deaf Fellowship on Thursday night, and it was truly so encouraging! I’m glad I got to see that.

I guess it’s just really cool to see how different teams have completely different impacts on JDV, and it makes me wonder what kind of impact I will leave here.

God also taught me a hard lesson this week. One part of coming here on a short term trip is that you really just see the best sides of missions and everything good about it. Being here for longer has helped me to see the ups AND the downs of missions and ministry. Don’t get me wrong, my time here has been nothing short of wonderful, but it’s just a new perspective.

I’ve heard people say “be careful what you pray for,” and in some ways I could see where they’re coming from. Just because you pray for patience or humility, doesn’t mean that God is just going to all of a sudden make you patient and humble. Instead, he gives you opportunities to be patient and to be humble. Sometimes that’s hard. But in the end it’s good! So I guess this week challenged me a bit, but I feel like a better Christ-follower after that. I wouldn’t agree to be “careful” what you pray for, but I would say to be prepared to face those opportunities and pray that God will help you through them and work through you during them.

We have a two-week break, so I’m really eager to see what JDV is like without any teams. We also might do some traveling around the island.

P.S. Our water supply is rain, and it hasn’t rained in about a month, so we’re quickly running out of water. I’ve learned in the last few days that living without water is pretty difficult, so please pray that we would get some good storms this week! God Bless.