Epimone

Hello friends and family!

I’ve got some pretty exciting news and updates to share with you.

I have only $1,000 left to raise before I’m fully funded! I would like to thank everyone who’s been supporting me through this because it is so encouraging and it shows me how God is working in this. My final deadline for $15,800 is January 8th, so I would like to invite you to join me in prayer that I will successfully meet this deadline or consider donating if you feel called to. Once again, many thanks to all of you!

Two weeks ago my squad and I finished training camp. So, for those past two weeks we have been here in Jackson, Kentucky and the surrounding areas helping with flood relief projects. In case you didn’t know, just this summer (2022) there was severe flooding in this part of Kentucky. A small river rose over 50 feet above its normal water level and flooded into the surrounding towns; it swept homes, cars, and other debris away and caused lots of destruction and devastation in this community. All the men in the gap year squads and I (the women went to serve in a different place) volunteered with Samaritan’s Purse to do demolition and clean-up work in the houses that have been damaged by the flooding. This looks like tearing down mold-infested drywall and insulation, shoveling mud out of houses, hauling moldy and damaged furniture out of the house, stepping on rotten floorboards and accidentally falling through, tearing up carpet, and anything else that the project calls for. Did I mention mold? As you can tell, this job is a little on the disgusting and tedious side. It’s been two weeks of long days and hard work, and as difficult as this episode of the journey has been it has been rewarding in so many ways! I have learned a lot from meeting the homeowners and spending my days serving a community in need. I learned what happens when a refrigerator full of black mold and 3 month old food accidentally gets opened and releases revolting toxic fumes into a closed space. Have you ever been slapped in the face with the worst smell you’ve ever smelled as your stomach does a kickflip followed by a migraine for the next hour and a half? I also learned a lot about service and working for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:24, 10:31). When you find yourself doing the last thing you want to be doing all day for TWO WEEKS it’s easy to suffer from burnout and begin feeling frustration at all the challenges. I found myself doing gross and tedious tasks that made me uncomfortable or were just difficult and inconvenient to do. It was important for me to remember that this time of service is all about serving the community and even more importantly, showing the love of Christ to these homeowners in need. We were able to meet their practical needs by working to restore their property, but we also have the mission of meeting their spiritual need for a Lord and savior. At Samaritan’s Purse sharing the gospel with these homeowners and presenting them with their own copy of a NKJV Bible at the end of the workday was a priority. At least two or three salvations PER DAY occurred as we came to work on these homes and show love to these devastated people! Even if we didn’t get a chance to have an in-depth gospel conversation with a homeowner it was a blessing to be able to serve and be “God’s hands and feet” through the work we were doing. The name of my team, Epimone, is a Greek word for perseverance. This word and my team in general served as a reminder to persevere through this challenge and keep my eyes not on myself but on God and the work he’s doing through us. We chose this as our team name because it will certainly be a consistent theme over the next 8 months, and for the rest of life!

I have to be honest, workdays didn’t always go well for me. I had been struggling with some intense on-and-off anxious episodes throughout my entire time here. On the first few days I would wake up in dread of an asthma attack from working in moldy conditions. It was just my luck because the houses we worked on happened to have a ton of molds in its insulation and drywall, as well as covering the furniture. During work I would over-fixate on my bodily sensations and worry about my safety around all this mold. This anxiety persisted into the next week and evolved into a more intense form of worry and dread about what my future in this gap year might hold. I can’t really explain, but I was going about my days consumed with dread about particular negative things that could potentially happen to me. This mindset was interfering with my ability to engage fully with service and pay attention to God’s work in the people around me. With much prayer and conversation with friends, I was able to practice taking my thoughts captive and approaching them from a Biblical perspective and my anxious mind began feeling more at ease! In addition to what I had been learning from manual labor, God showed me that one reason I’m so anxious is because I focus too much on myself! I was ruining an opportunity to live selflessly and God-centered because I was obsessed with my own circumstances. I have taken this anxiety as an opportunity to turn my eyes away from myself and onto God’s work in this situation. Furthermore, this anxiety was a call to trust God and put my life in his hands and have faith that he is in control (Psalm 91). Yet again, James 1:2-3 comes to mind: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” With this in mind I’m almost glad that I’ve been confronted with the anxieties that I have, because I can count it as joy and an opportunity to draw closer to God.

Until next time,

Micah