Hello and goodbye from
iNFUSE #1,
Well,
this is it. The final blog. Oh my gosh… I don’t even know where to
start. I guess thank you would be
a good place – thank you to everyone who has read our blog! I’ve enjoyed writing it, and I’m glad
to have been able to share all the joys of our team with you.
It’s
been an incredible year. Although
it’s been almost 9 months, it’s gone by so fast. For me it’s been a year to learn how to love, and I think
that goes for the rest of the team as well. Learning how to love, how to be loved, and how to show love
just by loving… crazy right?!
What
attracted me so much to this ministry and NET itself was the love I saw between
the Netters and how dedicated and honest they were to each other. Just the other day, Young shared with
us what one of our host sisters had said – she shared about how we’ve witnessed
to her by how much we loved each other and that we had been such a culture
shock for her.
Throughout
the year, it was hard to really see all the fruits of our ministry, even when
it’s been right in front of us - mostly because we’d always be really focused
on what we could improve on. Coming
to the end of the year has given us the chance to step back and see that what
we came here to do has been a clean success.
This
week has been filled with goodbyes, tears, and so much joy. Last week we went to the grade schools
for the last time, and today was our last visit to the high school… and it’s
amazing to realize how many people we’ve come to know and love. Coming into this year, the word
‘relationships’ was drilled into our head, and our team ran with that. Ya, maybe we came here and continued
building what last year’s team started, and maybe from the outside it looks
like a youth ministry – but I promise you that that house is filled with every
individual that we’ve met along the way.
For me, saying goodbye to the host homes who’ve opened their homes and
hearts to us all year, was one of the hardest parts.
All
of us have grown so much this year… I can’t say I’m the same person I was when
I came here, but I can say that I’m more me than I used to be! Waking up wondering how you can better
love the person next to you, telling each other how important they are to you,
and never forgetting why you’re here in the first place – Christ, and His love.
At
first, I’m not going to lie, part of me thought that NET would be easy, that it
would be like some awesome sleepover every night, or that going to youth group
all the time would be nothing but AWESOME. Oh boy did I get a huge wake up call. From the outside, it may seem this way,
but it’s been a year filled with climbing, striving and surviving… but despite
the difficulties, the beauty of it all, and the amount of growing that
occurred, completely surpasses every difficult moment we encountered. And just saying, it sometimes is like an awesome sleepover, and sometimes it is nothing but AWESOME…
So,
to end this off, thank you once again – for taking the time to share in our
adventure, for every thought, and every prayer. May God bless your hearts.
Signing out for the
last time,
~ Natalie (iNFUSE 1's Blogger)
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