A mentor of mine asked me a question and said: If you could immortalize one part of what you learned in the Philippines into one tattoo, what would it be? This was a great question and really made me think. After about a minute, I had my answer: JUST WORSHIP. I would get those two words. Why? Because during my time in the Philippines, God showed me the importance of worship. I genuinely believe it is one of the most valuable spiritual activities we can do. God revealed this to me through both struggles and moments of joy. About a month into my time in the Philippines, I felt completely drained. I felt as if I had given everything I had and had nothing left. Then I got sick... During that time, I stayed at our house. The house has no Wi-Fi and I had no service. This left me with no way to distract myself with my phone. So, all I had was my Bible, the worship songs I had downloaded, and my guitar. I sat with God. I read my Bible. I worshiped Him. For two days straight, I did nothing but be with Him and worship. By the end of those two days, I felt more spiritually renewed than I had in months. I felt physically better than before I got sick and finally had the energy I needed. My problem was that I had been pouring out all that God had given me, but I was forgetting to allow Him to fill me again. And I did this through worship. So, when it gets hard, when life feels overwhelming, Just Worship.

The Lord has also shown me a lot about myself through music while here. I have always loved music but never known why. Until now. I believe that the Lord has given of a musical ear. He has also given me creativity. This has been so good to me. Over the past three months I have been learning guitar A LOT. And because of that I have been able to write music a lot more. Something that I discovered while in the Philippines is that if I wake up early in the morning and just sit with the Lord while playing the guitar it is so filling to me. It is almost like David writing the psalms to the Lord. It is a beautiful personal time that I have discovered with the Lord.