It’s your favorite fellow Bevi writing to you from our second weekend in a row of winter weather (during which everyone stays home and cancels everything). Been feeling a bit antsy for a routine, and it doesn’t feel like fellows has actually gotten in full swing yet this semester. We keep having snow days, church and work and RT and neighbor to neighbor and class have all been affected or haven’t really started yet. BUT this made me realize last week how we take our routine and busyness for granted; feel like I’d be complaining if we did have it that I was too busy, and now am complaining without it that things feel off. I guess the conclusion then is to be grateful for this rest and also be grateful when things get back into full swing.
We started the month with a trip to Nicaragua for a week and it was an extremely rich experience! It really was awesome in so many ways. We spent lots of the week exploring, playing, eating, experiencing life-giving prayer, and resting (ask me how I injured my foot while surfing oops). We also spent time working, getting dirty, experiencing really difficult prayer, and lamenting lots of hard things. Lots to unpack but the trip taught us how to slow down, work out of our rest, pay attention to God, and expand our perspective on almost everything. My summary in my journal says: I saw how great and grand God is, saw what God is doing in Nicaragua and in my heart too, felt His presence and heard Him tell me things to listen to, felt full of the Spirit, learned how rest can lead to work, and learned how to lament poverty and brokenness.
I really enjoyed our daily rhythms of sharing consolations and desolations as a group. One of my top consolations was getting to know some of the little girls in the neighborhood we were in and seeing how they clung to us. One day, we walked around and prayed for families in the neighborhood. It was a very powerful and Spirit-filled day. It was an honor to meet the people there and attempt Spanish to connect, hear their stories, and pray for them. During this, the little girls wanted to follow us and learn from us as we prayed for their neighbors. I’m praying that God used our time together to reveal Himself to those sweet little girls. I’m so grateful for those moments together and for the trip as a whole.
Things since Nicaragua have been a blur, but also super rich. God has been teaching me a lot through some tricky things. I’m learning a lot from Him and also learning about myself through our career assessments and enneagram classes. Stay tuned for next week as we go on our career calling retreat and maybe get some clarity? Also enjoyed our visual prayer time with Pauline and Roundtable about Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. It’s feeling blurry and overwhelming. In Nicaragua I experienced such clarity from the Lord and am trying to learn how to do that more easily while in Raleigh.
It’s been fun to be back with the fellows and spend time together in Raleigh. So sweet and makes me excited for the fun things this semester. We’ve been going out to eat, playing lots of games, having girls nights, and we went to Gabi’s bday party together and had a slumbie afterward. I’m also grateful for quality time with my mentor Elaina and my host family.
What’s next? Writing family genogram paper, considering career/future ooo scary, quality time with fellows, and probably more things being stirred up in my mind to learn from. Gonna go eat lunch and look at the snow now! Thanks for reading!