It's Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting on the back deck of my brother and
sister-in-laws' new house. I'm by myself, sitting in a chair, facing a
bunch of woods. It's an overcast kind of day but I can still feel the
sun beaming down on my skin. I hear birds chirping, the wind blowing
through the trees, the occasional airplane flying overhead, the
distant sound of cars on the highway, and all the familiar sounds of
summer.
It's quiet. It's relaxing. It's peaceful.
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This past Thursday, I returned back home from a three week missions
trip to Ireland. At the beginning of the second week, when I
volunteered to write a blog post about the first week, I had no idea
how hard it was going to be.
Throughout the trip and even the couple days after, I kept thinking
"what am I going to write about? The first week I barely did anything.
I didn't learn anything major. Nothing really impacted me."
I was starting to get a little worried about it because I wanted to
fulfill my commitment and not let anyone down. So I started praying
day after day asking God to give the words to write.
It wasn't until today, while I was sitting on this deck about to fall
asleep, that God revealed to me my theme for that week: My Soul Finds
Rest in Nature.
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In first week of this Ireland trip, the Adventures in Missions team
partnered up with a church in Dublin to run a children's summer camp.
The location of this summer camp was at a retreat center an hour
northwest of Dublin called Drewstown House.
It was absolutely beautiful.
There was a lake with docks; a boat house; a forest with trails and a
rock wall surrounding the backside of the lake; a big fire pit; a
gymnasium; a big grassy field in front the main house that was right
next to another field full of cows; a courtyard behind the main house
with a couple of other housing buildings surrounding it; oh and not to
mention the house itself was a huge, old, kind of run-down but livable
mansion that used to be an orphanage.
I could have lived on that property for the rest of my life. That is
how much a fell in love with it.
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Normally for children's activities (like a summer camp), I jump right
in and have no problem being a leader. I've had loads of experience
working with children in the past due to that being a call on my life.
But when the week started and we got to meet the children, I kind of
felt like God was telling me to step back and not be as involved in
this summer camp.
At first I felt guilty for stepping back because I didn't want my
teammates to feel like I wasn't doing anything. But then after talking
with a few of them at the beginning of the week, they were very
supportive of me taking that time to be with God. One of them even
said that there was a reason as to why it was almost a one-to-one
ratio with the children and leaders and that if I needed to take this
opportunity to be with God, then do it.
So I did.
I spent a lot of time going on walks through the forest; sitting by
the lake; observing the interactions between the kids and leaders
during the outdoor activity times; listening and enjoying the silence
and the sounds of nature; spending alone time with God by dancing and
taking pictures and praying and singing my little heart out.
Looking back now, I can see why God told me to step back. He used that
time I spent out in nature to give me rest while in His presence. He
was preparing my heart and soul for the following two weeks of the
trip where basically, through many different occurrences, He healed my
broken heart.
I could go into great detail about the last two weeks of the trip, but
I think that will have to be in another post. If you're interested in
the rest of my experience in Ireland or how I even got to Ireland in
the first place, you can go check out my personal blog at
intothegloriousunknown.wordpress.com.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read this. I will
hope and pray that this post might impact your life in someway, even
if it's in the smallest of ways. God is so good and He loves each one
of us so, so much!
Love to you,
Rachel Graham
