We've talked about the expectations we held for this year and the realities that replaced them once we arrived...
We've talked of struggles, triumphs, successes and losses, and the things we've learned along the way...
We've talked of who we were when we arrived, who we thought we might become, and who this experience has grown us up to be...
And though the details are different, everyone seems to have a similar story:
We all arrived with fears of the unknowns -- the location, the language, even our fellow students -- and we've seen them all be replaced, slowly but surely, by things far greater than we imagined.
Our experience with Argentine culture has been far richer than we anticipated, or even could've known to desire. Our personal growth through adaptations to situations beyond our comfort zones has changed us into people so far beyond what we could've seen for ourselves that it's hard to imagine what life without this experience would look like. Our relationships with our homestays, the Pepperdine professors & staff, and our fellow students in this group are so closely knit that we more-often-than-not refer to everyone in the program as "family."
Above all, though, in all of these, our encounters with God have defined this year.
I remember getting here and feeling like there wasn't a single thing around me that was familiar, only to be reminded gently that the God who called me here, the God who loved me in America, is the same God of Argentina and loves me just the same, wherever I am.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
- Psalm 139:7-10
I had made my plans for this time abroad, but he has shown me that the things he held and holds in store for me are far greater than whatever I could imagine on my own.
Many are the plans in a man's heart,
but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.
- Proverbs 19:21
He has brought me through struggles of heartache and homesickness with the promise that despite the current pain, he will always bring me to a place of healing and rejoicing.
Praise the LORD.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
- Psalm 147:1-3
And in more ways than I can count, he has proven to me that his timing and placement of my life is absolutely intentional.
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.If we are willing to follow him to the places he calls us and reach out to find him in the midst of whatever we encounter, we will find not only him, but ourselves as well.
"For in him we live and move and have our being."
- Acts 17:24-28a
I came across that verse in Acts 17 as we were preparing to leave Malibu last spring, a time when distance and changed seemed to loom around every corner. And throughout the past 12 months, I have clung to it for great encouragement, and it has proven all my doubts to be erroneous.
The Lord has intentionally placed each of us in these times and locations by his perfect plan.
And despite the trials those placements may bring, we can always take comfort that there, in his will, is exactly where we're supposed to be.
_______________________
I'll see you all in TWELVE short days!!
Love from abroad,
Margaret
My Amazing Margaret! We are so blessed to have you in our lives! I love you! Aunt Pat
ReplyDelete