What can I say? What words can perfectly describe a whole year? Well, I don’t have any perfect words, but I can try to articulate my feelings that have come up from this year.
The year started off with a blast. Literally.
It began on a roof in Kipseli, Greece. Rain fell on us while fireworks exploded in the sky. From the street, explosions of light and color were easily missed due to the surrounding buildings. However, we gathered on the roof of our building in the freezing rain to cheer whenever we saw fireworks explode.
By January, we were midway through our outreach journey in Discipleship Training School (DTS). Greece, was our first location, is the first European country I have ever actually been to (this means getting outside of the airport). Because of tourism and the refugee crisis, there are a lot of different nationalities roaming the streets of Athens.
My outreach team and I teamed with Streetlights, a youth café for Greek and refuge children alike, and were able to experience a small sample of the life they live during our outreach. Despite conflict in the country, it was beautiful to see all the hard work that Streetlights does to pour out love in their little community in Kipseli, Athens. Their heart is that all are welcome into the loving embrace of Streetlight.
Our journey with the refuge crisis didn’t end in Greece. In fact, it only seemed to increase even more in Jordan, our second country we served. People from surrounding countries come to Jordan to seek refuge, but sometimes find none due to rough living conditions. Of course, there are people thriving in Jordan and are reaching out to those around them. Yet, I can’t ignore the pain and suffering so many of these people face. I met so many people with stories of losing everything. Jobs, families, and lives that had been completely destroyed because of devastating situations back home. Even I found it hopeless at times, but they inspired me.
For instance one of the biggest events that broke me the most was a dinner with a lovely refuge family. A couple of teammates and I came to visit this family at home for a “house check up”, to see how they were doing. They invited us to have dinner and gave us a home cooked meal, despite our polite protests. Walking back after dinner, one of the locals told me that that was the majority of the food they had for their family. My heart sank, but was filled with so much gratitude. This moment of sacrificial hospitality stuck with me the rest of the year.
After another month or so, we finished our time in Jordan and went back to Muizenberg to graduate from DTS. Once at base, we had two weeks of “processing time”, but apparently it wasn’t enough for me. Coming home was weird to say the least.
As most of you know, before this venture I worked in the film industry in Los Angeles for about seven years. When I arrived back in the famous Hollywood, I couldn’t help but feel appalled. Driving by multi-million dollar houses after just witnessing people barely staying alive made me sick. I couldn’t comprehend how these two worlds could exist in the same reality.
In Muizenberg, the area I live in is a much smaller bubble of the wealth-poverty dilemma I struggled with earlier. Since Muizenberg is a popular tourist and surfing spot, you can find all sorts of wealth. A few newer BMWs pull up racking surfboards some times. Meanwhile, ten minutes away is a township, running with poverty and injustice. While people are complaining about the use of plastic straws at the beach, nearby the township is a growing mountain of garbage.
You can clearly see the injustice of it all.
In spring, I started my 11-month School of Biblical Studies (SBS) with YWAM Muizenberg, studying and reading the Bible. I’m starting to better (not perfect, but better) understand God’s heart for humanity in this crazy world that we live in. I believe we have 12 more books out of the 66 until we are finished.
With what information I have collected now, here is what I can summarize about God. (Please note: There are better theologians, saints, pastors, and other smart people who do a much better job than me at explaining God and his character. I am explaining from my own experience. )
God is love.
“Duh,” you might say, but it’s true.
One thing that is quite clear in the New Testament is that God loves. He loves each and every one of us. So much so, that he sent his Son, whom he loves. Could you imagine sending away your own child? But because he loved humanity, he sent him. Not just to die- the part that most people focus on- but to be born, to be a baby, and to be human like us. Through that, we can relate to him. God isn’t some far away glowing entity in the clouds. He became flesh to be with us because that’s what he has always wanted, to be with us.
The Old Testament shows that God is constantly reaching out to his own creation, which unsurprisingly rejects him again and again. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s love. In a poor example, imagine the Old Testament is almost like a script. Jesus is the movie. Every word that God ever spoke and all his actions can be rolled up into the person of Jesus.
Everything that you see in the Old Testament points to Jesus.
Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus, the one that everyone in Old Testament put their faith towards, is reigning over death and sin. This means that you and I have the chance to experience the life and love that God has been extending to us from before we were even born.
There are a whole bunch of other details that I am missing out on. Again, I am absolutely no expert. However, God, who loves so vastly and infinitely, fearfully and wonderfully made me, a little human being in the vastness of time and space. This year I have felt a deeper weight to what it means to be loved by God.
I can’t explain why things happen. This year I have witnessed for myself first hand what tragedy can look like nationally, communally, and individually. No tragedy can be compared to another nor can anyone discredit another’s experience. We all go through wins as well as hardships. How we handle it makes the difference.
Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life. In fact, he says it will be pretty hard for those who follow him. I’ve yelled at God this year, even questioned if he was really even there. No matter how I felt (or how you may feel) he is still there. It won’t change.
Our feelings and situations don’t change who he is or the love that he has for us.
There is no way in heck this little blog actually describes my whole year. I kind of just typed where my heart led me. Funny enough, it led me to Jesus. So, in conclusion, 2019 has had its challenges as well as its beauties. I can say, “I have learned in whatever situation to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Not content in where I am at. That would be depressing. I am much rather content through this wonderful and dreadful time that I call my life in the abounding and steadfast love of God.
Merry Christmas everyone and have a blessed New Year!
Blessings,
Catherine H. Fisher