July came so fast and suddenly it is already August. I wished July was longer, though. I miss being somewhere far from here and yet, knowing I was never alone. I guess that's the feeling I had all this past month. Although I spent a month away from Brazil with people I had never seen before in my life, I just knew I wasn't alone.
Well, let's start from the beginning then. I was invited to be a summer missionary in Tennessee and I honestly didn't even know this kind of stuff could happen. Without much hesitation, though, I accepted the challenge. A regular missionary would normally spend 8 weeks doing missions. Unfortunately, I didn't have two months to do that, so I just went for the month of July.
So I went to Tennessee to work for the Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries (aka SMRM) with no real expectations. I honestly didn't know what I was going to deal with.
I got to learn, later on, that SMRM is a ministry which does lots of missions with the international students who come to work there for a work and travel experience (like I had done in the past), does LOTS of daycamps for the kids at some campgrounds and provides worship service at these same campgrounds. It also does other stuff, like helping at the Craftsmen's Fair and working in the 4th of July Parade. Basically, there were 10 of us doing all kinds of stuff.
Now imagine yourself living with lots of people you don't even know. (Actually, it was like living with 15 people - there were also some other summer missionaries sharing the dorm with us, but they were ACMNP [A Christian Ministry in the National Parks] - they weren't exactly doing the same things as we were.) It's not easy. Not easy at all. However, I was able to see that God had blessed me with great people I'd get acquainted with and from whom I would learn a lot. Having to live with so many people was definetely challenging, though that's when I saw how wonderful God was for allowing me to meet each and every one of them, and oh gosh, I am definetely gonna miss all the great fun and even all the tears we cried together.
So back to missions. Well, as I had written to Cassi (my prayer partner prior to going to Tennessee), doing missions in my second language was my greatest fear. And I have to say, it did feel funny and unnatural the first time I actually preached. But I felt great doing that. And I know God was the one who gave me the strength and even the courage to do all the preaching, all the talking and well, basically, everything.
I guess I just want this post to be some kind of a prayer to God. Just a thank-you prayer for giving me the opportunity to serve Him with SMRM this summer and being able to experience great moments there.
