Bloom and Grow

How strange to imagine this foreign land once coated in a sparkling blanket of pure white is now a sauna of thick hot air, with watermelon stands on the side of the road and fields of sunflowers and sprinklers working overtime to keep the grass green. The temperature has barely dropped below 30 degrees for two weeks straight. Summer in July, a concept I am only just accepting to be a reality. How strange to be living through the normally long drawn out middle of the year, spent hibernating in ugg boots, instead living life to the full in my flip-flops. Is 2010 a blessed year for me? I think so.

The summer season here at the Castle in Vajta is wonderful. It has had a different feel to the semester altogether, which I can’t entirely describe, or tell you what exactly changed. Maybe its me that changed. Certainly I feel a lot more settled and have become more comfortable with the place and the people. The picture in my mind is that I was a shrub (certainly I am not strong or noble enough to be compared with a tree) that totally uprooted. The roots that clung to my reputation, friends, and general home comforts had trouble getting used to the new soil, and so the Lord had me in a pot and personally cared for and tended to me. His water and sunlight was my sustenance. This was and is an experience I would not have passed up for any amount of uncomfortability. But when I arrived back in Vajta to begin my time as a Summer of Service volunteer He decided to plant me. The first night I arrived and walked the loop through the beautiful green trees I felt the firm earth around me, and rejoiced. I feel like I am now part of His garden here, along with the rest of the family and body who I have the privilege of serving and ‘blooming’ along side of. He is still my Gardener, my sustenance, the one who comes now and again to prune and water. But for the most part it is a season of just blooming rather of needing constant tending.

To put it more plainly I think the atmosphere is different because of the nature of our task as a Summer of Service crew- that we are a community with one mind to imitate our Saviour Jesus and serve without expecting earthly reward. We are a family, working together as a body, to bless others. While many brothers and sisters in Christ pass through this place weekly, from literally all over the world, come Saturday morning they leave and the family remains- to clean up and then relax and unwind before our next guests. Community volleyball tournaments and pool time is just different to the semester experience. I feel like the friendships are deeper and sweeter, which is also just my attitude that has changed. Being outdoors, the exercise and sunshine, oh sweet sunshine, I have no doubt about the effects of the endorphins and Vitamin D on one’s mental state.

I do see the potential for the time to become routine and mundane; working 5-7 hours a day, six days of the week, week after week. I have possibly made over 100 cheesecakes this summer, but does is get old? Never...well, thats a lie, occasionally the thought of crushing more biscuits is met with an inward sigh and a prayer- but thanks be to God for his joy and strength, for the most part I can say it is an exciting sort of life. I feel blessed to be in a position in the ‘Cap Bar’ where I get to use the gifts and talents God has given me. And I get to have face to face interaction with our conference guests, and hear stories of missionaries in hostile lands or just see Hungarian believers full of the same Spirit. You know it is a unique kind of coffee shop where a small bright eyed blond haired boy comes in asks me a question in perfect Arabic or some other language unknown to me. “No son, this isn’t Africa, they don’t have Mango ice-cream in Hungary”.

I have been exhorted by the Lord to live with a simple goal, taken from the biography of Amy Carmichael- “nothing less than to walk with God everyday”. This involves placing the Lord in my mind as the first thought when I wake up, and when I go to sleep, and knowing He is there with me in all the little things, doing dishes and serving customers. It involves keeping a lot of my selfish attitudes in check- the tendancy to give glory to myself, or judge or envy others around me. It requires always looking to the example of Jesus who did not come to be served but to serve. I finally understand the verse that says ‘a servant is not greater than his master’. Since Jesus demonstrated the willingness to take the lowest servants job- washing the grimy feet of the guests, how can we think we are above any task? Not that I think making cheesecake and cappuccinos is the least bit a low form of service, ha! But it is the principle of being humble and not thinking highly of myself. I seek not to make a name for myself, but to lift up the name of Jesus.

So that’s where I’m at, and shall continue for at least one more month. After that, God will reveal the plans at just the right time! For those blessed hearts reading this and wondering how best to pray for me, please pray I would listen to the Lord and not my own heart, that I would know His clear direction. I know this is a prayer He always answers when our hearts are right before Him, so just to have confidence and peace in that. And to serve with the right heart and motive- out of love for Jesus and joy in serving Him, not for selfish reasons. Strength and health....and anything else God puts on your hearts.

There are so many songs I like that reflect my heart and prayers but this one came up in shuffle as I was writing this, and I really love the heart of it, so I’d like to share part of it...

Sarah Reeves “Sweet Sweet Sound”

I am an instrument of the living God,
my life a melody to his name.
More than the songs I sing
Worship is everything
I live to glorify my King

Hear the song of my life
Let it be a sweet sweet sound
Let it be a sweet sweet sound

I raise this anthem high,
Let it be a sweet sweet sound
Let it be a sweet sweet sound