Spring Retreat & Little Lights Days 1-2

Writing these next couple entries as a personal reflection/reminder for later years of this week.

Spring Retreat:
God is so good. Pastor John Cha brought so much healing & blessing to GCF. Through the different exercises (how our fathers see us, blessing others, how God sees us), I realized how loved I am by those around me. I beat myself up for failing God so many times, but through the retreat I realized that I am a daughter of God, whom God loves, & with whom He is well pleased.
I got through singing backup okay. I was so nervous since I am still very not comfortable with singing, but it was really encouraging when people would tell me they like my voice... o.O
I loved how the Praise Team would meet to talk/pray substantially before the services. A lot of times, I think we forget to come before God and instead we think about making sure we have practice time. The long meeting times before the services were a good reminder that it's not about how good we sound or how well we have the song rehearsed, but about letting God work through us as vessels.

Day One (Sunday, March 7):
We left for Little Lights as soon as retreat was over. The car ride was enjoyable- we sang the whole time. Funsies. Stopped by A&Ts (noms all around), then went shopping at Costco for a week's worth of food for $270. We did it! Nice. We ate at Chipotle at Fairfax corner & then arrived at Little Lights. Sunday night was chill- just unpacked everything and then met for a short PM. We all slept before midnight because we were all so tired.

Day Two (Monday, March 8):
I got okay sleep, but throughout the day, I would get suuuuper tired/my head would hurt because of lack of sleep. I am quite the person who NEEDS sleep to function & if I don't I just get so dysfunctional. We read from Jeremiah & Psalms for our QT and I was really blessed. It was a good reminder that God has already made the victory and He is always loving and watching over us. In the morning, we all got together and cleaned out the basement. Dang, it was pretty messy/dirty, but we cleaned it up pretty nice. We then proceeded to clean the rest of the house and do little chores for the LL staff. Like Lucy mentioned at our night's meeting, it was cool to see that cleaning the house was a metaphor of cleaning out our heart to allow God's power (or in her case the suction power of the vacuum) to work fully.
Ji Yon & I helped out with the LL Choir. It was so blessing to be there with the kids, dance/sing with them, and just see how much joy they have. The kids who live in Potomac Gardens are the poorest of the poor, yet seeing them with such excitement and joy was really incredible. At one point, Ms. Linda (the choir director) told the kids to close their eyes and think about the words they were singing. At that point, I realized how pleased God must be when He sees His children praising Him. At that point, I felt a little of God's pleasure too.
It was really encouraging to be continuously thanked by the LL staff that we are here. Glad to be here to be used by God in whatever way He chooses- whether that be filling cups with water for the choir kids or clearing out the basement.
It's nice to see our team bonding. Really great to see how God makes our little team a mini-body for Him. I'm loving how I'm getting to know this team better in the context of serving. Like Joe said, it's awesome to be able to come straight from Spring Retreat where we received so many blessings to come to Little Lights and be able to share what we received.

Okay, it is now 11:58 and I am exhausted. Good night dears!

God is good- all the time. All the time- God is good.