GHE Philippine Team
Our team headed off to the local market on beautiful and “cooler” Sunday afternoon. Sunday grocery shopping has become a weekend tradition for us. The quiet conversations spoken in the native tongue of the Philippines, Tagalog have become a familiar background noise in busy places such as the market. After 3 weeks abroad unfamiliar sounds are ingrained in our day-to-day life. You could imagine my surprise when the soft-spoken words of a Carrie Underwood song “Jesus Take the Wheel” radiated across the produce aisle. I inhaled with a deep sense of comfort as the lyrics sounded like a piece of home.
“Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands cause I can’t do this on my own.” The words “I can’t do this on my own” echo with truth, mirroring a consistent theme of emotions felt each day. For an entire semester Global Health Engagement was an alluring calling that we all felt destined to answer. Despite the variations of reasoning that brought us all to take part in Global Health Engagement, in less than 24 hours from departing LAX we were together in the Philippines. No longer in the comfort of routine, no longer surrounded by proverbial luxuries, no longer in control.
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand,” Isaiah 41:10. Every day, we have the opportunity to decide who’s going to be in control of our lives — it will either be God or us.
That choice is a battle. There will always be things in life that we want to control. Chop it up to human nature, but control and order seem to be priority over necessity pertaining to routine. The reality of being in a third world country makes one almost fight to find that sense of comfort, small feelings of normalcy in a place of so much unfamiliarity.
Regardless of the discomforts we knew we might face by leaving home behind, we did just that. Our team as a whole has embraced flexibility and sought purpose each day to exist in the moment with purpose.
When we relinquish our control, God reveals to us His purpose for our lives.
I am thankful for that quiet hum of a country song that reminded me of the powerful reality, God is IN control.
The Philippine Team