My Broadening Mind...

Dad and I were talking before I left for Austria about what an amazing adventure it would be and wondering what God had in store. We knew that this year would be instrumental in developing my character. "Travel broadens the mind," he reminded me. Over the past few days my view of this year has shifted, and I would like to explain why...

On Friday I went paintballing with some people from church; one of the girls had invited me. It was a really difficult day. Before I launch into why it was difficult, I should say that I actually had a great time and it was so cool to be included. The problem was that all of the people there were teenagers or in their twenties, meaning that the German they spoke was a very colloquial form of Kärntnerisch (Carinthian dialect). I probably understood less than a quarter of what was said to me. It was extremely disheartening and absolutely exhausting! We did go for McDonald's afterwards, which cheered me up considerably...

Anyway, that made me want to be more pro-active in learning German.

Meanwhile I was getting very frustrated about not having heard back from some people I was emailing, obsessively checking over and over again. Then I realised that I needed to be spending time with God for my fulfilment. My time with him has been less than regular recently, but on Sunday evening I had a really good time reading, praying and even listening to him a little bit! It made me see myself more clearly, and showed me that I have just been letting things happen to me here, wanting to be served more than to serve and thinking of myself more than I think of others.

That made me want to be more pro-active in developing a godly character.

Finally, some videos on YouTube combined with a friend's blog convinced me that one person can make a difference in the world and that it is necessary for me to have an outward-looking, "broad" mind. God is passionate about this world, and I should be too!

That made me want to be more pro-active in world-mission.

You have probably spotted the pattern. Watch this space...