That pretty much sums up how this week has gone for me. I have already had a lot of growth and new experiences, but I wouldn’t trade this for anything. I have been writing in my journal practically every day and have about 9 pages of experiences, so it is a little hard to condense. But I’ve decided on two main events: Being homeless in downtown Atlanta and painting our team vision canvas.
Monday night we were surprised to find that we were going to be living as if we were homeless for 6 hours from 10 P.M. to 4 A.M. While it was exceptionally cold, I don’t think we would have gotten to really understand how these people survive in the winter if it hadn’t been. One of the men we met on the street was Leon. We could smell the alcohol on his breath, but sadly that’s about the only way some people can stay warm. Leon talked passionately about his faith in GOD, sang and dance for us and preached for us (during which he always had his hat off for respect for GOD). We talked to Leon for about 1 1/2 hours, just hanging out, until Leon needed to go try and get enough money to get to a shelter. Leon offered us his jacket, gloves and socks since we were standing there shivering. He told us that he knew GOD would keep him warm. We really enjoyed Leon’s company, especially since he was so joyful. He told us that people often asked him why he’s so happy all the time. Leon’s answer was simple: “I went to sleep, I woke up, I’m putting one foot in front of the other, why shouldn’t I be happy?” We take so many things for granted that we often have a heard time to find reasons to be happy. Leon taught me that even when you have nothing, you can still give everything.
Wednesday night we were given the challenge to paint our team’s vision for our trip on a large black canvas. No one in our team claimed to be artistic in the realm of painting, so we figured we would just kind of go for it. We prayed about what our vision was, and we all got different images. Kody got a double sided arrow, Jesse got a big tree with small trees around it, Ali got bold, bright colors, Saralyn got “Love GOD and Love Others” and I got a pile of ashes with a plant coming out of it. We all had different visions, but we found a way to pull everything together.
The tree growing from the pile of ashes represents bringing life from death. The tree dividing and branching off represents discipleship; us ministering to the people of India and them ministering to others and so on. The bright colors represent our boldness of our faith. To create the leaves, we wrote “Love GOD” and “Love Others” over each other over and over again. The double arrows represent how relationships are two sided and that there is give and take. The random paint splatter represents how the team is getting rid of all of our expectations and leaving the plan up to GOD.
Even though none of us are “artistic” and we all had different ideas, we found a way to pull it all together. That in itself is representative of our team unity and how well we already mesh.
I’m so excited to see how much closer GOD as going to make our team and all of the experiences we get to go through together. India is calling, and we are ready to answer!
“You promised nations, I want the nations!” – Jake Hamilton
Blessings!
Lisa Thrasher
