South Dakota

The days and nights pretty much ran together, but I wanted to write about some of my takeaways from the trip.  It was a long week in many ways, but it also went by very quickly.  The trip was fairly primitive - no showers, no cells, no computers...etc.  I loved being out in the middle of nowhere without the distractions or the busyness of city life.  Having been back for a little over a month now I have realized how different ministry is here at home.  How fast paced it is and how at times perfectionism creeps into it making it more of a show than ministry. 

Over the last month life has been moving at break-neck speed.  However, I think my biggest take away has been to let things be, they don't have to be perfect ... life goes on ... ministry goes on.  It is a struggle for me to not have everything just as it should be, but I'm growing, I'm learning, I'm being stretched in ways that I have never been stretched before ... and yet I am thankful for this reminder that its about the people ... simply loving on the people, not worrying about the programs, the stuff, having it all together ... its the people who matter.  And in the past month I have at times (many times to be honest) lost focus of that - yet in the end people and relationships are all that's left.

I am thankful for these reminders that God provides to step into another culture, another place, another ministry and be refreshed, reminded, and refocused.