Hey ya'll! (ok I dont actually ever say ya'll, it just seemed appropriate..)
I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Life is crazy as usual and remembering to update my blog is not one of my strong points...The rest of our outreach in Japan was amazing. We went back down to Narashino Church in Chiba for our last week there in February, it was there that we debriefed and kind of let ourselves breathe before we went back to Hawaii. We arrived in Hawaii on March 3rd, which was our second March 3rd (time change-we went back in time a day!) I left the next day for Maui, where my family was waiting for me. It was so great to be reunited with them, but it was very hard to leave my Japan Outreach family. Because that is exactly what they had become, my second family. That is one of the factors of traveling and short term missions that I struggle with the most. I get so attached to the people I meet and so leaving is like ripping a piece of me away. But God is good, and shines through that. Amen? Amen!
Anyways, the reason my family was there in Maui waiting for me is because I was planning on moving to maui directly after YWAM, and I didn't know the next time I would see my family, so they used it as an excuse for a vacation and came out. I bet you're wondering why I am writing this from Nashville then..hahah me too! Well, while I was with my family in Maui I was desperately looking around for a job and an apartment, but things were just not working out, so I was praying and I really felt like God was saying "Not yet." It was hard to submit to that. But I have learned my lesson in obedience to God, He knows what's up, so I told my dad and he brought up the idea of going to Nashville. I told my sister Jessica who was already living there and she loved the idea, but my family was going back the 14th of March, and she didn't have a place for me to stay until the beginning of April. I had to decide if I was going to go back home with my parents until April and basically do nothing except for catch up with friends and wait for april to come or couch-surf in maui. But I only knew of a few people I could stay with in Maui and only for a couple of nights, and I had fifty bucks in my pocket, so it was definately going to be a faith journey. When I was trying to make the decision my friend back in Chicago called me up and said she was spending a couple of weeks in Cali with her family and wanted to know if I wanted to join her. She would be there until the first week of April. It worked out so perfectly, but I still had a couple of weeks in maui after my family left that I would be on my own with no where to stay. But God was so good and totally came through. It was one of the best weeks of my life. I made great friends and it was really nice to be travelling on my own because I got to spend a lot of alone time with Jesus. He was my travel buddy. It was hard to leave the islands because it felt like my second home, but I clung to the "not YET" God had given me. I still had that 'yet'...so i have hope hahaha. California was great, I hadn't seen my friend Hannah (the one who invited me out there) since I had left for YWAM in September so it was great to be with her. She is my 4th sister basically. Then I headed over to Nash, where I am now, I am living in a small college town just outside of downtown, I have an amazing roommate, I just got a job as a waitress and making great friends. I don't know what is next, as soon as I am settled I am going to start looking for some kind of internship I could do in another country helping out at a halfway house or something for women who got out of prostitution. Or maybe i'll just go straight to college. God only knows. Much love!
Demetria
me in starbucks in Nashville-
