Hello friends!
This is not clickbait, I get to finish my Race!! But in a different way than I ever anticipated. I got accepted to a program called CGA, Center for Global Action, and it starts… this weekend!
Let me back up a bit. About a month ago my World Race mentor asked me what I was wanted to do next- enter into a “normal” life, or continue on some type of discipleship journey. I had a strange sensation come over me, and I knew I wanted discipleship.
She gave me a crazy opportunity to do CGA and within two weeks I was committed. So today I move to Gainesville, Georgia to continue this wild journey with Jesus! He has shown me so much love these past two months, I can hardly contain it. In fact, I don’t want to contain it! I want to share this overwhelming life-changing love with everyone I meet! I thought my life had fallen apart when I came home. I thought I’d lost everything, most especially my mental health and clarity and sense of being. But through a series of unpredictable events God showed me who I am and can be. He threw me in the midst of a hurricane and brought me out stronger and more loved than ever before.
The Race was an awakening for me. I saw and experienced God in ways I didn’t expect in my surroundings and through the people I encountered. My eyes were opened to a new way of living- a freer, more God-centered life. I got to love people when they felt unlovable, and I was seen by people when I didn’t feel worthy to be looked at. I came home with all of this in my head, my heart, and my gut, not knowing what to do. But Jesus was patient and slow.
CGA is an opportunity for me to solidify everything I learned on the race. A way that all the information and experiences I had can live inside me as I continue my life. Jesus started so many cool things in me on the Race, and I love the woman I’m becoming and I just don’t want that to end. Jesus has given me this desire to continue living for him in this way and he’s asking me to go, again. I had friends tell me when I came home that my Race wasn’t over, just that it might not look like everyone else’s. How true their words have become!! CGA is five months long, which means I will be ending my ‘Race’ around the same time as my squad mates! God is so cool!! The Lord has so much more for me, and I can feel it.
I do need your help though!! I need to raise $5,950 to stay at CGA all semester long. Good news though!! Because of how much I raised on the Race, half of my money is being transferred from my World Race Fund to my CGA fund!! Praise God!! If you feel a tug in your heart, or gut, or wherever the Lord speaks to you, please consider donating! You can do so by simply clicking the orange button at the top of my blog page and donating there!
Many of you are wondering how my depression is, and I can happily tell you that the good days far outnumber the bad days! It was a hard transition at first, but through consistent counseling, and sweet friends that sought me out when I couldn’t get out of bed, I’ve begun to heal. It comes and goes like the ocean, and maybe it even follows the phases of the moon. But the Lord is patient and good. He’s taught me soo much patience and love through this suffering, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. There will be down days, but I know that Jesus draws me closer to Him when I’m wading through darkness.
Thank you for following along my journey so far! I hope you are encouraged today!
Love,
Marianna H.
“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.”
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 NLT
