PEACE OUT WEEK 5

Week 5 is dooonneeee!!

It was a rough one. The barn itself wasn't bad, but we had some pretty intense things going on as a team. God moved in some crazy ways. I love when God works in me to change me, but man, does it SUCK sometimes in the moment.

One day in the barn, I was frustrated because I couldn't find joy. I wanted to have joy in what I was doing, and I wanted the barn to not just be a thing I had to endure in order to get to Guatemala, I wanted it to mean something. I wanted to have joy. So, I proceeded to get mad at God (ever the genius, I am). I spent a couple hours asking God why he wasn't allowing me to find joy in my work, why I was always grumpy, why I wasn't always happy if this is where I was supposed to be, etc. Later that day, as a song was playing in the barn, a couple of the girls and I started dancing. And not like civilized, subtly-moving-your-head-to-the-music dancing. Like full-on, arms-in-the-air, singing and dancing. Everyone who was watching us was laughing, we were laughing, and it was a super JOYFUL moment. I realized that it's okay if I don't have joy in my work. I can have joy in little moments, like dance parties and jokes and line changes. And choosing joy means I have a choice. I actually have a choice in my mood, it's not simply a product of my circumstances. Weird eh.

The next day, we didn't have any music for a while, so I had to find a new thing to make me joyful. I started listing out loud to Whitney the things for which I am thankful. Oddly enough, the first thing that came to mind was that I don't work in an underground mine. Apparently I think that would be worse than the barn.

So as it turns out, the barn is teaching me things.

On an unrelated note ... I GOT IN to Pharmacy School at the University of Waterloo! I'll be starting school in January 2017, so I have a few months off until school starts for 4 years. So if you need a cool pharmacist in 2020, I know a guy (aka me).

The UH-mazing sunset on Sunday night. For those of you who don't know, those are massive windmills that produce electricity (and make for cool pictures). They're really common around Port Burwell area / around Lake Erie.

Wedding crew! I was able to take Saturday off from the barn and hang out with some friends at the wedding of one of Mack's best high school friends. PS y'all are pretty cool.

Chels, Amy and I decided to take advantage of the SUPER sweet sunset and have a quick dance party in the field.

Last Sunday, a few of us went to Port Burwell for ice cream. The best part was, I got a free scoop! (only because the guy who dropped it on the ground decided not to pick it up) The second best part was that Mack came to visit! (he's the bestest)

Thanks for continuing to pray for us! We've had some cool answers to prayer.

-a couple of the kids in the barn have been asking us about faith-related things, so pray that we would continually seek out ways to be Jesus to the people in the barn

-pray for energy. We should have only a couple weeks left in the barn, but we're running out of steam.

-pray for unity as a team