Refresh

It's almost been a month since I came out to San Diego, and how the time has flown by! Once the students arrive it has been go, go, go, but such a great time of building relationships, growth and fun. I am blessed to have three wonderful girls to pour into while I am here. It's amazing the feeling you get when you've been praying for people you don't know and then you finally get to meet and get to know them. I have loved seeing how different they are, how much wisdom and insight they have in their thoughts and getting to have fun and hang out with them as well. Even though it has been a wonderful past few weeks I am seeing the importance of taking time to refresh. It's hard to pull away from things you love, but I have found that by not giving yourself a break those things you love can turn into things less enjoyable. I have realized that there are two areas I need to pay attention to when I am doing ministry related things. One is to see if what I am doing are areas that I am gifted in. When we put all our efforts into things that we are not gifted in it can be very draining and does not allow us to fulfill our purpose in the best way possible.Is what you're investing your time in giving you energy? or taking it away. Do you look forward to how you spend your time? or is it a chore that you go through day after day.  The second is that when you are in a place where you are using your gifts to not drain yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually investing in that. Sometimes it will take longer to recharge then we would like, but doing so will allow us to have a much more effective ministry. I enjoy having one on one time with people, hearing there stories and being a person that they can trust to come to with anything. Having people to pour into energizes me and makes me excited, but I can also get very drained from it if I'm not careful. I think I'm still trying to figure out how I best need to be recharged. I do know that I need to make sure I have people in my life that are there to invest in me. I am not the kind of person that needs to process my thoughts and emotions with multiple people, but I do need to have people I can go to in my life. I have been very blessed with friends that have been that for me over the years, some that have been around since middle school and some that are only in my life for a season.
Being on summer project is a unique situation in every aspect. Someone described it to me as a relational sprint. We have such a short amount of time to build such deep relationships that it can be challenging to balance. I love being here and the opportunities I have gotten being here. I hope that as time goes on I become more and more aware of what this means to refresh in my life to give glory to God in all that I do.