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Learning to Swim

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by Kaitlyn Farley, EM Summer Staff in Portland, ME

Maine Mission Trips

Beach day has easily become my favorite part of each mission trip week with the kids. A school bus loaded up with 50 some kids invades a local state park beach and we play and explore for the whole day. During these days I've been able to connect with a lot of kids and hear pieces of their stories. You see their adventurous, playful, daredevil, creative sides.

Last Wednesday I was playing with Gloria in the shallow water teaching her how to swim. She kept losing focus and looking out to the older kids swimming out in the deeper water. She finally looked at me and asked me if I would take her out there. I agreed, but told her she had to always hold onto me so she wouldn't start sinking. The water was now a little past my waist and definitely over Gloria's head when she tried to touch. She was excited to be in this new depth of water and instantly wanted to try to swim on her own. I knew she wouldn't be able to, but she insisted. So I gently held onto her, reassuring her that I've got her, and told her she could try to do it on her own. But, after only a few seconds of kicking she quick panicked and grabbed onto me looking up at me and said, "you were right I need your help." So we went back to shallower water to practice swimming again. A pattern started to arise—practice swimming in shallow water, go out to the deep water, try to swim with me holding on a little, quickly clinging onto me when she thinks I don't have her and asking to go back into the easier water. After several repeats we were back in the deep water and when she told me she was ready to swim she asked me to hold on tight and help her. "You won't let me drown." Her swimming was more like kicking and splashing water but that's ok, she knew I was going to hold onto her and trusted me to kept her afloat. Once she lifted her face out of the water she looked up at me, gave me a hug, "I did it!".

Maine Mission Trips

My encounter with Gloria parallels many Christian's lives. I know it does my own. It is easy to trust God in the shallow waters when life is simple and I have minimal worries. But, when the struggle and deep waters come, I so often try to do things on my own. I know that God is there but I don't let him hold me afloat. It's in those desperate times when I realize I am about to sink and grab onto God, forgetting that he was there all along. The beauty is that God does have us the whole time, whether we choose to be aware of Him or not. He will never let go—even when I may question Him, turn my back on Him, be angry with Him or not trust Him. Christ is my relentless pursuer, and nothing will stop Him from calling me back into His arms. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you," Jeremiah 31:3. When expectations are crushed, or I fear the future, or question my effectiveness or feel like I just messed up, God is there. He desires for me to find peace and rest in His arms. He has everything in His control if only I trust in Him and His sovereign plan.

God used a 6-year-old girl trying to swim to remind me that I cannot try to take control of my own life; when I face struggles I cannot survive on my own. I am in daily need of God and his grace. As I continue to interact with kids at the beach, homeless people at the soup kitchen, new mission trip teams each week, and the staff at Preble Street, I pray that God will continue to reveal himself to me and that my eyes would be open to see it.

Praise God that he is continuing to pursue and redeem me. And praise God that he is pursuing and working in the lives of people in Portland.

Maine Mission Trips

LEARN MORE | Mission Trips to Portland, ME

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