The launch to Amsterdam has been very revealing and convicting. We are so grateful for being able to stay with the OZ100 community, you can feel the love in this place and you know the Holy Spirit is working here.
Staying with this community has really allowed me to compare it with our own Access218 community. It has raised questions in my mind. We have been welcomed so graciously and personally here and I have to ask: are we as a community willing to go to this level to make people feel at home? -are we willing to step out of our comfort zones and allow people to see the real us?
-are we willing to put emotions on the line to cultivate our community?
For me, the trip has been epic.
Other than all the bonding time we have had with the community here including the meals, post-chapel cafe, and Brother Luc graciously taking us sailing, God has given me a check list of things I need to think about just in the projects we have been doing.
-Patience: I have primarily worked on two projects: painting and moving this widow lady. And in both project I really found myself getting impatient. We are attempting to make this house look professional in the way we paint it. Therefore, little mess-ups are a big deal and there is a process for fixing the mess-ups and that process is completely redoing the area that got messed up. With moving the widow, we have had to have patience involved in the process of moving an elderly woman who is attached to all of her belongings...all of her belongings.
-Perseverance: As an impatient person, you often want things done, and done quickly, but that is not what happens so you must be able to persevere through it.
-Acceptance: With patience and the ability to persevere through your impatience, you have to be able to accept that every ball is not going to bounce in your favor--this is what God has been saying to me--and sometimes you just have to be able to accept that.
So these are the things that I have gotten out of this launch to Amsterdam. It has been a great trip and we have had a great team. I have really come to appreciate our leaders even more. I am sure the entire group would join me in thanking the entire OZ100 Community for their hospitality and really just making us feel like part of their community.
DES
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