Unconditional Love

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”                         Jeremiah 31:3 

This week has been so exciting! I’m starting to feel so comfortable in South Africa, I wake up every morning like being here is normal, like it’s been part of my life for a long time. I feel so at home!

Volunteering this week has been good! I had my 3rd day with Ham the leader of Connections Church and it was even better than last week. I was worried because my 1st day didn’t go well and I didn’t know whether it was going to improve but it definitely is. I helped out with sorting the tithes and offerings, then I didn’t have any other work to do so I helped out in the kitchen with Ham’s wife Jane, making chocolates for the ladies seminar invites, we had a good time!

I’ve also been in the Links office with James and Mike (granddad) as usual, working on articles and social media. I had my first formal job review with James on Tuesday, which I was worried about but it was fine and we got some good stuff out of it. We are going to be having a formal job review at the end of every month just to make sure things are going to plan and that I am getting what I want out of my experience. So after our job review James asked me to write an article on the purpose and benefits of a formal job review which you can read. This article was a bit harder to write compared to some of the others and it wasn’t as good as the others that I have wrote but I’m still learning and still improving. 

In my job review we spoke about the benefits of my work. So far it has really brought our numbers up on the Facebook page and we have a lot more hits on our website, it’s really exciting to look at the difference and see how far we have come. It’s been a great encouragement to the team and me.

Over the past week I have been learning a lot and mostly through my work. In my job review James encouraged me to engage God in my work and just to embrace it because it’s what God has for me at the moment. I’ve been working on that by asking God to talk me, encourage me and use me through my work especially my blogs because it’s a great opportunity to teach and show people what God is doing in my life. Sometimes it’s hard writing blogs and trying to put into words what I’m experiencing but by asking God what he wants me to say and how, it becomes easier and more enjoyable. It’s exciting and a great chance to really engage God and not forget about him because after all he is the reason I am here. 

This week I have felt so loved by my family and friends, we’ve spoke quite a lot and I was on Skype to my mum the other day and she randomly said ‘I love you soooo much’, it felt so nice to hear her say it even though we say it every time we speak but it felt really special and I knew she really meant it. Knowing your loved is such an amazing feeling! 

This there has been a few times over the past month when my parents have been brought in up conversation. Every time my mum is mentioned Nan and Granddad say how amazing and beautiful she is and every time they say it I feel so blessed and proud because she is MY MUM! My granddad even told me that my uncle Graham said that my mum and dad are the best parents he has ever met!

 I am just so blessed, my family is just amazing and by being away from them I’m starting to appreciate and love them so much more! In the past I’ve felt as though I have taken my family for granted and not appreciated them as much as I should have. It was down to a few reasons and one was that at the time I was going through a faze were my relationship with God wasn’t good at all, I was denying Gods love so it affected my relationships because I didn’t know how to show or except love anymore and I felt as though I didn’t deserve it. 

Things are different now though, God really knocked down my walls, I accepted his love again and now I think I’m pretty good at showing my love. My love for my family and God is unconditional and this week God has been teaching me that he’s the reason why I know how to except and give love.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”                            1 John 4: 7-8 

God is the one who teaches us how to love and if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t know how to love or how to except love. By knowing God we know love. God’s love is unconditional.

I’ve enjoyed my spare time so much this week. I seem to have found another thing I am passionate about because on Saturday James and I went surfing with 2 families from church. James promised to give me my 2nd surfing lesson and even though it was only my 2nd I seemed to have made progress. James was teaching me how to push myself up so I could eventually get onto my feet and I was pushing myself up but didn’t try to get up on to my feet because I was a little scared. I was getting tired so I said to James I’m going in and he said I had to catch a wave in so I did and I actually got up on to my feet!!! Although my knees were a little bent and I didn’t stay up for long but my adrenaline was pumping and I loved it!!! I’ve had good feedback from a few people too which is a good for my 2nd time. 

Apart from surfing I’ve been sunbathing as usual and also went out for dinner with Nan and Granddad to a Chinese restaurant. Worst Chinese I’ve ever tasted but it was a funny night, we laughed so much! 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”                                                            Romans 8: 38-39