How can you not be changed?

Dear anyone and everyone who may be expecting me to come back the same,

It's not happening. 

When I got to training camp, the prayer that was on my heart was that God would change me. I was a girl who struggled with her identity, and wanted to know the joy that was in Christ. I was so scared of being out of my comfort zone, but God (once again) blew me away. 

Two months ago I walked down the hallway of the airport to meet the fourteen other people that would become my family. Two months ago I left my home of comfort and luxury to go to the second pooreset country in the western hemisphere. Two months ago I began an adventure, that would surely change my life. 

After spending time with children who don't have the love and support of an earthly father or mother, but still have so much joy and love for the Lord, how can you not be changed?

After seeing church after church full of people praising God with so much heart, even when they have so little, how can you not be changed?

After seeing families give you so much just because they are so thankful that someone came to their house to talk to them, how can you not be changed?

After seeing God answer huge prayer requests for financial provision at an orphanage that struggles to get by, how can you not be changed?

After visitng a drug rehabilitation center and seeing God work in their hearts, how can you not be changed?

After visiting houses where the women are mistreated, where they are not being loved by their husbands like the deserve to be, how can you not be changed?

After seeing children who you can literally feel every individual rib,  whos teeth are rotting out, how can you not be changed?

After seeing an adorable little boy who runs away from you because the only time people talk to him is when he's being yelled at, how can you not be changed?

After having the oppurtunity to share the gospel with men in jail, and seeing Jesus move in their lives, how can you not be changed?

After being so tired from hoeing a garden all day, you have no other option but to go to God for strength, how can you not be changed?

After volunteering to preach a sermon three hours before church starts and completely relying on God to speak through you, how can you not be changed?

After having fourteen brothers and sisters who love you so much and who encourage and pray for you consistantly, how can you not be changed?

After seeing families living in shacks, with dirt floors, no electricity and no running water, when you know that you have all these luxuries waiting for you back home, how can you not be changed?

After having people speak so much truth into your life, how can you not be changed? 

After hearing your whole team open up and vulnerably share how God has worked in their lives, how can you not be changed?

After seeing the joy people have just because there are people in this world that want to get to know them, how can you not be changed?

After finally surrenduring things to God that you have been holding on to for years, and after finally realizing that your identity is in Christ, how can you not be changed?

After finally realizing that we are all called to be free and that it is Christ that gives us this freedom, how can you not be changed?

After finally realizing that God has completely broken all of our chains, and that if we surrendur things to God, he is only going to replace those things with better things, how can you not be changed?

And here's the best part.. you don't have to go on a two month mission trip to Nicaragua to have a life changing experience. You don't need to be in a third world country, and you don't have to be a certain religion, and you don't have to be a certain age or gender or race. You need God. And guess what? He's everywhere. He's not just in Nicaragua, He's not just in Africa or Thailand or India, He's wherever you are. God has completely changed my life, and He's going to completely change your life if you let Him.

Sincerely, Ana Tallakson 🙂