Thanking God for the hard things.

Thank you God for giving me something so good that it makes leaving so hard. Thank you God for giving me people I love so much that saying goodbye is so painful. Thank you God for giving me a country so beautiful that makes going home so difficult. Thank you for this pain. Thank you for the hard things in life.Thank you for the hard things in life because that means we have something good.

Tomorrow I venture back to the States. Saying it is bittersweet would be the understatement of the century. The bitterness is painful, but the sweetness is pure bliss. There aren't words to describe the impact this country has had on my life and more importantly my relationship with Christ.  There also aren't words to describe the difficulty of being away from my family, my friends, and my home has been. I felt pain when i left home, and I praised God in through it because it meant I had something great that i was leaving behind. I feel pain now going back to the States, and I praise God in it because it means I formed relationships and grew to love this country and its people.
Thank you God that I can praise you through this pain.
Thank you God for joy that comes after the pain.
Thank you God for the peace you give us when we go through times like this.
I could go on and on thanking God for all he has given me but I don't know if this blog has enough space.
God has shown me many things this year but there's one that sticks out the most. Love. The greatest of these is love. His love, our love, the love we give, the love we accept, the love that surrounds the children of God, the love that nailed Jesus to the cross, and the love that brought him back to life 3 days later. There is truly not a more powerful force in this world. People fall in love all the time, people do crazy things for the people they love. But wait till you can fully experience God's love. God sent me to another country so that I could experience it in full force and let me tell you, it;s not something to treat lightly. It's big, it's great, it's unwavering and nonstop. It has no limits, no boundaries, and no exceptions. It was created for the least of us. The lowest of the low. The Neilly's of the world who seriously don't know how a God so great can love a a person so sinful. It blows me away that I can continually go against his will but his view of me does not change.
It's impossible to express this feeling, one simply has to experience it. I pray that all the kids I got know this year, some point in their life experience it. I pray that all the adults who believe it is too late for them to get their life together, can experience it. I pray that all of my family, my friends, everyone I care about can experience it. God's love was made to be experienced. Sometimes he takes you to another country to experience it, sometimes you experience it through your Younglife group, sometimes you experience through your church or school. The cool thing is, we all experience the same love from the same person! I can sit in this tiny house, in this rough barrio, with the power out, the sound of dogs fighting outside, the smell of rice and beans on the stove, and experience the same exact love that my friends can experience at college, in their youglife groups and small groups and church groups. We can be as close or as far to home as we want and it's the same love. The same overflowing, abundant love.
I'll leave you with this. This is the prayer I read over almost every day. I pray it over my family, my friends, specific people, and sometimes myself. When I read it, it has a sense of power and greatness in it that I love. Be rooted and established in LOVE.

Ephesians 3

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your heartsthrough faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Amen. 

But I hate Nineveh

Last week I was talking to an older friend here who is currently married to a Dominican man, raising their two little children here, and running a school basically out of their own home. She was telling me how one day in the past few years her sister made the remark that "it's really good that you enjoy the heat because you live in a place where its 90 degrees in the middle of January". Her reply was something like "well I don't. I don't live here because I love to be hot every second of the day. I live here because it's what God called me to do. I hate the heat, but I'm obeying God".

Obedience. My mom always used to tell me that it's not obedience if I wanted to do the same thing she was telling me to do. Obedience was doing what she asked me when I didn't want to do it. It's giving up your own will and wants to submit to that of your authority.
Obedience is hard. Obedience is literally doing what we don't want to do. I believe that we as Christians don't obey as God as much as we are called to.
As a senior in highschool the big question was always "where are you going to college". Your parents ask like every day, your grandparents ask at Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas, your parents' friends ask every week at church. It's a tough question and a huge decision. But what is the main advice people give when helping each other chose a college? "Well what feels right to you? Where can you see yourself at? Which place seems to you like it could be home for the next four years? Oh, just go with your gut. Do what you want to do". Yes, we may get the occasional "pray about it" response, but the majority of the time, it's about what feels good to us. Obedience to God is literally doing what doesn't feel good to us. Obedience to God is searching for His will and following it even when it feels totally wrong to us. So maybe one college feels good to you, but God is telling you something else. And that's scary, that's hard, doing what you know is God's plan but having it feel totally wrong. God doesn't always make his plan happy and easy and feel good. His plan, though it will always end in a better place, is often the most difficult path we could take.
Paul in the Bible demonstrates this so well. From the second that he is converted from Saul to Paul, he obeys God. He relentlessly goes where he is called to go, sees the people he is called to see, preaches the things he is called to preach. Do you think getting himself thrown in prison or saying things he knew would get him stoned, felt good to him? Do you think God's path for Paul's life seemed like the right thing to do in Paul's eyes? I'm guessing no. But he did it, nonstop, till the day he died he followed God's plan despite the pain it brought him.
More often than not we take a Jonah approach to God's will rather than a Paul one. We hear God's voice, we see how his plan sounds to us, and when we don't like it or agree with it, we run. We go where we want to go because we think that our idea of a "good plan" is far better than God's idea of a good plan. We run the other direction but when we do God pulls us back. God's plan WILL happen one way or another. It might take pain and heartache and tough times to pull us back onto His track, but He will pull us back. We may hate our freshman year of college, we may not make any friends, or maybe we make bad grades, maybe money runs out and our families can't afford that college anymore. Then we have to transfer. Then God gives us a second chance to follow HIS will. He gets us swallowed up and then spit back out onto the shore so that we then have another to chance to go to Nineveh.
But here's the good news. We don't have to obey God alone. He doesn't give us this crazy hard path to follow and abandon us. One of the big "obeyers of God's will" in the Old Testament is Moses. In Exodus 3, God uses the burning bush to talk to Moses. Moses immediately questions God's instructions, but God tells him "But I will be with you..." And He was. This doesn't mean the path is any less tough or difficult, but He doesn't leave us to take it on all alone.
When we chose to obey God we are expecting that it will feel right to us, that God will give us peace about where He's calling us, that His will line up with our will if we pray about it enough. And sometimes it does. Sometimes we do feel at peace with God's will. But, more often than not, thats not the case. Obey God when it seems impossible, when it hurts, when it doesn't feel right, because that is true obedience. But keep in mind, when we don't chose to take God's path, He will do what he has to do to get back on His path, so we might as well just do it His way from the beginning.
Go to Nineveh even if you hate the people there, save your people from Egypt even if it's you against a whole country, preach the Good News even if it will get you sent to jail.

If's God's will feels good, then you're probably doing it wrong.

To love is to be loved.

Here I am, back on the island. Christmas break was incredible and I was so blessed to be able to see my family again. This first week returning has not been as difficult as I was expecting. There were some changes though. This semester I'm teaching English with another girl, Hilary. For the first day of class we gave each student an interview sheet to fill out, just so we could get to know them better. One of the questions on the sheet was "what do you want to be when you grow up?". What they wrote blew my mind. Here were a few of the answers.
"Doctora, porque me gusta ayudar a los demás" - A doctor because I like to help others. "Bombero, porque es ayudando gente"- A firefighter because it's helping people. "Dentista, porque me gusta curar las bocas de los niños"- A dentist because I like to fix kids' mouths. 
Those were some of my favorites, but many more of the sheets had answers with a similar theme.
Help.
They all want to help.
They want to help because they have been helped.
They want to give out the love that they have received.
They recognize what people have done for them and want to do the same for other kids.
The night I read these answers I also started reading the Gospel Mark. And just like that my mind was blown again. Chapter 1 of Mark has multiple subheadings. Some of these are "Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit", "Jesus Heals Many" "Jesus cleanses a Leper". Chapter 2 starts out with "Jesus Heals a Paralytic". Chapter 3 begins with "A Man with a Withered Hand". As I read through these first three chapters the only thing I could think about was the worksheet answers I had read only hours before this.
Jesus loved people, and therefor He helped people. He didn't help people out of pity or because it was His duty, He did it because He LOVED PEOPLE. He loved all kinds of people. He loved those with unclean spirits, those who were ill, those who were diseased, those who were demon possessed, those with physical deformities, those with disabilities. He loved everyone and therefor He helped anyone who would allow Him to.
The kids in our program have been taken out of some pretty bad situations. Many of them carry strong similarities to the people Jesus helped in the Gospels.
Far too often as Christians we put the "helping" part of Christianity on the back-burners. We will donate money, go to church, worship, and truly mean it with all our hearts! But the going out, cleansing the unclean, healing the sick, praying for the possessed, is something we seem to forget. Why do we need to do this? Because of love. Because of an overwhelming, unimaginable, unbelievable, amount of love that we have been shown. Once we can truly comprehend how much Christ did for us, how much He really loves us, it is impossible to resist sharing this love with others. So maybe our lack of helping isn't because we don't feel it necessary, but because we haven't fully comprehended Christ's love for us. If you truly want to help others, first work on yourself. Dive into the word, explore who God is, discover His love for us. Helping others will become a side effect of the love you uncover.
My prayer for myself this semester, is that I can keep reminding myself of this love I have been blessed with so that I can better serve. If my goal is to serve out of myself and my own love and strength, I will fail. 100% of the time I will fail. My mom always tells me to "do something so great, that it is doomed to failure, unless God be in it". Unconditionally loving and helping hundreds of kids all day, 7 days a week, is not an easy task. Me accomplishing that is for sure doomed to failure. UNLESS, God be the center of it. Because when God is the center of it, when it's His love pouring out of me, His hands working through me, His feet walking me around, then it will be a successful task.
Search for His never-ending love. Take hold of it and never let go. Let yourself become full of Christ's love. Become overflowing with His love. Pour this love out to everyone you come in contact with.
Love and be Loved.

Tis the season

With less than a month left until I return home for Christmas break, there are so many things running through my mind. It's really crazy to think that my first three months are already coming to a close. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the Atlanta airport full of excitement about my new life here. While a lot of that excitement has just turned into everyday life, there are still new adventures I encounter everyday.
Over Thanksgiving break our family and another family that was visiting took a trip to the beach. This was the first Thanksgiving I have ever had away from my family, but God filled me with a sense of wholeness as I shared a Thanksgiving dinner by the beach in the warm air with people who I am certain are the family God has given me for now.

 Thanksgiving is now in the rearview and next up is Christmas. This means returning home for just a few weeks to see the fam and try to have a normal Christmas. I say "try" to have a normal Christmas because coming back to all my abundance may be hard to do after being so close to people who have so little. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier to be coming home, but I pray that I can continue to keep my priorities insight.
I don't want to be wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas, and the money, and the presents, and all the craziness that comes with the American Christmas. I want to remember the feeling I had when I saw the kids getting one new pair of soccer cleats donated by a church and their excitement and joy that came with that. I want to remember how I felt when I heard some of these kids' stories and their backgrounds and what they have been through. I want to remember the looks of the barrios and seeing families of 10 or more all living in a one bedroom house with a tin roof and dirt floors. I want this to be a Christmas season different than I have ever had before. I pray that me and my family can have a greater appreciation of what we have and what God has provided for us. I am so ridiculously blessed to simply have a family that loves me and this Christmas I am so much more aware and grateful of that.
My prayer is that my friends and family can also make this the Season of gratefulness. Instead of wanting more I hope we can be more appreciate of what we already have.

Hands up. Eyes closed.

I remember one of the first times I went on a roller coaster. My head told me to be scarred and worried but somewhere underneath that, there was a sense of adventure and excitement and it was a feeling I hadn't felt in many other situations. The fear was due to the fact that for 60 or so seconds, I was out of control. I had to sit in a seat with a buckle that I hoped would keep me safe, on tracks that I hoped were sturdy, and I had no control over either of things. Not everyone loves roller coasters, there are probably a whole bunch of reasons why, but I think the most common is that for a little bit, you are out of control. You aren't the one driving the car, decided where to turn, how fast to go, when to stop. You put your safety in someone else's hands, and that is a scary thing. But, it's also one of the most rewarding, thrilling things one can subject themselves to. After the roller coaster, many would agree that the joy you feel during it shadows the fear you felt before it.

Letting go of control is one of the most amazing and joyful experiences a person can have. We hold so tightly onto our lives and dreams that when they are pulled away from us, it hurts to let go. Well imagine if we were just lighting holding onto these dreams. I am not saying let go of them, not at all, but grasp them, gently, knowing that any moment God can take it out of our hands. If we are clenching so tightly and won't let go, we will never find out if what he replaces it with is better than the first.

If you had asked me when I was a freshman in high school where I would be after senior year, I would have 100% said attending Auburn University. My families school, my dream. For a while I had this dream in a tight fist. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. But God helped me let go of that, in fact He helped me let go of my dream of going to college with my friends entirely. Just like He does, he replaced that dream with something far far better than I ever could have come up with.

If you had asked me 3 moths ago what I would be doing in the DR, what my role would be, who my friends would be here, what my living situation would be, it wouldn't be anything to close what it actually is now. But in fact, it's much better than I would have pictured it. Coming here was the most out of control I have ever felt in life, and it's also been the best 2 months of my life. If I had stuck to my plan, I wouldn't have the joy and peace and love that I'm experiencing and receiving now.

So stop living life with your hands tight on the wheel, gripping your own plans. Live a little. Let go of it. Let God be in control. Live life with your hands up and your eyes closed. God will take care of you, and you will find joy and life in this like you have never experienced before.

My fingers hurt typing this

"Chikungunya (pronunciation: \chik-en-gun-ye) virus is transmitted to people by mosquitoes. The most common symptoms of chikungunya virus infection are fever and joint pain. Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash."

This is the official definition from the CDC website of the interesting virus I have contracted. No need to worry, it is far from life-threating. But, it has but me in a great deal of pain. I started having back pains last wednesday. I didn't think anything of it until it spread to my shoulders, elbow, and neck on thursday. By then I had informed the family and we didn't jump to conclusions but kept an eye on it. Friday by the time i got home from soccer, it was full fledged joint pain in places I didn't even know I had joints. The fever and headaches Friday night also gave it away. Ankles, wrists, back, neck and fingers are the worst because they are the most used joints so I feel them the most. Saturday we were all planning to go up to the North Shore to go surfing but obviously this wasn't in my best interests. I still wanted to go to the beach and being as stubborn as I am I went to the beach anyways. I took a bottle of Tylenol, my hammock, a huge water bottle and a blanket. I rolled into the car at 7am Saturday and didn't wakeup until we arrived at almost 10. In a matter of minutes I was back asleep in my hammock on the beach. Luke, Chase, Jackie and Vic all spent the rest of the afternoon surfing and we headed back home around 2. We got home right before 5 and i hopped back into bed. I didn't wake up till 8pm that night. All day Saturday I had a fever on and off. I haven't had a fever yet today so that's a good sign, the pain is just as bad though. 
Pray that this virus will leave my body ASAP so I can get back to playing soccer and hanging out at the orphanage like I have been for the past month. I am positive that God is allowing my body to have this so that I can better understand the Dominican's lives and culture. This summer most people got this virus and had to go to work with it so that they could continue to support their families. I can barely get off the couch I couldn't imagine having to go to a manual labor job everyday with this. In these moments of sickness I am even more grateful for where I am. I am blessed to live with a fantastic family who continues to make me laugh in my pain. Vic asked yesterday "Neilly, i know you have Gunya but can we make jokes about it?" There is nothing that made me happier than him asking that. My family knows better than anyone that joking in times of pain of discomfort is my specialty. I get made fun of 24/7 and it makes me feel like I really am at home. I am also blessed to have the access to Tylenol, ice packs, comfort food, and the ability to take time off and sleep, which the majority of people with this virus do not have. 
I truly appreciate your prayers but there are tons of adults and children who need them a lot more than I do right now! I am so grateful and happy where I am right now and I wouldn't change a thing! 

Why loneliness isn't actually loneliness

"you're feeling lonely because you have no one else around you and you're probably wishing you had your family or friends back home? But God draws people out and strands them, which leads to us relying on him when we have no one else. It's basic. Maybe when you feel lonely you should get into the word. You've been saying you haven't made time for it. Maybe that's an opening"

The reason that previous statement is in quotes is because it's not my words. They're God's words, God's words given to me by one of the biggest blessings in my life. (Side note, I suggest everyone find a best friend who will encourage you in your faith and share such wise thoughts with you.) Words that are so profound, yet she makes seem so simple. It's so obvious, but why did I never think of that on my own? I don't know why, but I'm beyond grateful that she did bring this to my attention. I was wallowing in self-pity up until this point. Of all the advice I have been given over the past few months, this may be the most influential, the one that will stick with me the most. It hit one of my biggest struggles right on the head. (Shoutout to you for being the real MVP). 

God didn't abandon me, He didn't leave me out to dry, He didn't drop me into the middle of no where and say good luck. He did quite the opposite. He longs for time with me, He longs for time with all of us. But sometimes, we don't let Him have it. God doesn't need us, He wants us. He wants our thoughts and our prayers, our troubles, our joys, our triumphs and our grief. He wants it all. But how often do we offer it to Him? I know I don't offer it far enough. For the first two weeks of my time here, I spent less time with God than I did all summer. Which is ironic, in the worst way. I was using my "missionariness" as an excuse to dodge what God had to tell me. After two weeks of this, God was ready to have me back. So how did he do it? He let me feel lonely. He allowed me feel like I had no one there for me, that without my friends or family, I was alone. I don't think He wants me to hurt or to be in pain, but I needed a wake up call, something to draw me back to Him. 

Our flesh tells us loneliness is because we have no one who wants us, but God uses it to tell us that He adores spending time with us. Our self-centered-ness tells us that it's us not having someone who cares about us but God tells us it's Him being madly in love with us. Our minds tell us that our loneliness is us being pushed away from everyone, but God uses it to push in the direction of our Creator. Loneliness does not mean we are alone. Loneliness means there is someone there who misses us, who wants us, but we are denying time with Him. 

As much as I try to convince myself that I am actually lonely, I can't deny the truth that my loneliness isn't loneliness. It's the Holy Spirit in me telling me to stop denying and start running. Start running to Him, to the One who takes away all loneliness and pain and heartache. Stop avoiding and start confronting. Confront yourself about it, take it to God. I speak from recent personal experience when I say that the loneliness will be no more the minute we get into the word. It's a lot harder to be lonely when you're not actually alone, and now I realize that I'm never actually alone. I can try to tell myself that I am, but He's there, waiting. Waiting to give a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, and a lotta love and attention to give us. 

How thankful am I for the loneliness I felt and the wise words of a loving friend. God has used both these things in ways that my mind will never be able to comprehend. 

A picture is worth a thousand words....

When I titled this "a picture is worth a thousand words", I meant it. I really have nothing to say, but today we went on a another, different hike, and it was so incredible I just had to share these pictures. That is all.

Woah

Thursday

It's 10:30 am and I am already maxed out on information consumption. We got up and were at the school early this morning. I got to talk to the director and meet some of the other staff and some of the kids. We walked around there for a while and then Vic (the father of the family I am living with) sent me and Chase (13 year old girl in the family) to the market to grab some things. Chase made me ask where everything was, so I guess that counts as my spanish lesson of the day. Later some of Micah's friends (17 year old girl) came over to play volleyball in the front yard and make pizza for dinner. Although I had no idea what they were saying, it was fun being able to hang out with some other girls my age.

Friday

Today we went to the North Coast where Kids Alive has another school location. This is also where most of the tourism is located so after visiting the village and school we were able to check out the beach! We came back late afternoon and were able to just chill out until dinner. Tomorrow we are planning to go on a waterfall hike in the morning. 

So far everything has been extremely overwhelming and exhausting but it's all in a good way! I love it and I can't wait to start to get into more of routine next week. It's a lot to take in in just a couple days but any type of adjustment like this needs some time. I am faithful that everything will get more normal as time goes on. 

T'was the night before the departure...

My Dash

In less than 12 hours I will be on a plane to an unknown place, to live with an unknown family, and do something that is completely unknown to me. I should be scared out of my mind, but I'm not. I'm not because God did some epic things in my heart this week that have made me psyched to get to the DR. 

Sunday morning I had the opportunity to attend Athens Church, which is a plant of North Point Church. They stream Andy Stanley's message from his home North Point Church. The story that Andy talked about came from Mathew 4. It was about Simon Peter dropping everything and following Jesus. Now one could say that this is what we are suppose to do, we are suppose to give up all we have and follow this Jesus guy, even if we have no idea what we are doing. But that's not the whole story. A more detailed account of this story is found in Luke 5. Here it tells us that Jesus had asked Peter if he could use his boat, Peter agreed, probably reluctantly considering he had no idea who this guy was. At this point Peter refers to Christ as "Master", a common, unspecific name for a teacher. After teaching for a period of time, Jesus asks Peter to take him out and to cast his nets into the water. Peter is again reluctant saying that they had already tried and there was nothing. But, then he says, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets". Most of you know the rest of the story. They go to the boat, they catch a ridiculous amount of fish, and it isn't until then and Peter begins to refer to Jesus as "Lord" and makes the decision to follow him. Andy's point in all this was, following begins with information. It begins with listening and learning who God is. We aren't called to a blind faith. We aren't called to go serve a God we know nothing about. We are called to know God, to first trust him, to begin to call him Lord instead of Master. We are also called to do something God's way. Even if we are fisherman and may have cast out our nets a million times, we are called to do it one time HIS WAY, and to see what happens. So this is me casting out my nets GOD'S WAY. I trust him, I let him in my boat and now I'm doing what he has asked of me. I am not going into a foreign country with a blind faith, but rather a knowledgeable faith on the One I serve. 

This was an awesome morning that really made everything click for me. But, God wasn't done with it yet, for he had far more in store. 

Sunday night I was back home and me and my brother went to our church, Passion City Church. Church twice in one day? Yeah, it didn't sound too great to me either especially when I still have not started packing yet. But I went and now I know why. Pastor Louie started a new series called "A matter of life and death", this was kind of the opening overview message. Here's a synopsis of what he said. When we die, we all have a tombstone. We all have a name, a birthdate, and a deathdate engraved on this tombstone. But, the dash between our birth and death dates is the most significant, yet least noticed part of the engravings. A dash is such an underrated symbol for everything we did in the years between our birth and death, but it's all we get. We all get one dash, and none of us know how long that dash will be. Knowing this fact, as Christians, we can't take advantage of any day. We can't let anything hold us back from living the life we want to live while sharing the Gospel. We have to be confident and undying in this pursuit of sharing the Goodnews. 

This rocked me. In a totally good way. It was like God was yelling at me saying "yes! yes Neilly, yes! what you are doing is right and good! Do not waste another day!" I don't know how long my dash is, God does, but that's for Him to worry about and not me. My job is fill my dash with as much Kingdomwork as I can. My job is to not let an piece of this dash slip by me wasted. 

So my work in the DR isn't for college or job applications, it's not to get a great tan, or to take a break from school. It's to do something God's way instead of my way, and through that, to fulfill my one dash that I'm given. And because of that, I can sit here, hours before I leave (still not packed), and have not one ounce of fear or doubt in my body. To be full of joy and confidence and excitement knowing that I can further and kingdom and my dash will not be wasted.