Let's Try This Again

Recently I was talking with a dear friend catching up on life and she told me that I should have a blog to share all of my stories.  I told her that I used to have a blog, but hadn't kept up with it.  She encouraged me that it would be a great way to share with my friends and family the things going on in my life, since I now live far away from many of them.  So, here I am.  It took me forever to even log into this blog, it's been so long.  I thought about starting a whole new one, since it seemed kind of silly to come back to something I had neglected for so long, but I decided to continue with this one, once I was finally able to log in, because a lot of time has passed and it's amazing to see where God has brought me from, the things he taught me years ago, and where He's brought me since then.  

So, let's try this again...

Let me introduce myself, since so much has changed.  I'm Miranda Jones.  I'm from the Midwest cornfields and am now living in the big city of Houston Texas working part time as an Assistant Director of Missions for First United Methodist Downtown and part time as the Children's Ministry Director of a non-proft called Neighbors in Action in the Port of Houston.  I graduated from Judson University in Elgin Illinois on May 2nd of 2015, and left on a mission trip to Peru on May 3rd.  I got home, learned to drive my standard transmission car, Ernesto, and 10 days later moved to Houston to start the two jobs I have now.  

This last year and two months have been some of the most difficult and challenging times of my entire life as I was thrown into figuring out how to be an adult in the real world in a big city in a part of the country that is very unfamiliar to me and into two very unique first real adult jobs.  I've cried a lot, I've felt lonely like I've never felt it before, I've disappointed people and made mistakes, I've dealt with bed bugs, cockroaches, flat tires, bad brakes, traffic, been overwhelmed by H.E.B., and been bitten by fire ants multiple times.  I moved in with a complete stranger and had to learn how to pay rent, loans, utilities, budget for my own food, do my taxes, get my car registered in Texas and get a Texas drivers license.  I've gotten familiar with the airport traveling home to see my family and picking up friends and family coming to visit me.  At work I've been cussed out by a 4 year old, physically restrained some children, misunderstood and miss-communicated, bitten off more than I could chew, been terrible at time management and felt like giving up.  It has not been an easy transition and there's still so much I have to learn and so many more mistakes to be made.  

But that's not all there is to be said about my new adult life.  I've also experienced so many amazing blessings and had some incredible opportunities and met some fantastic people and I've learned and grown so much!  

As the Assistant Director of Missions I've gotten to witness incredible generosity, meet people in all sorts of incredible ministries around the city of Houston, hear powerful testimonies, share my testimony, encourage others to serve, be encouraged by so many people in what I'm doing, and recently I got to lead an amazing team of people on a mission trip to Honduras and watch God move in amazing ways in their lives.  I have gotten to host a missionary family passing through Houston, attend a medical missions conference, meet with city leaders to discuss homelessness in Houston, and help run an event which had 400 people serving multiple ministries across Houston.  I've watched people completely light up as they discover the joy of using gifts they didn't even know they had or think were significant to serve God's people.  It still amazes me every time I cruse into downtown that this is where I work.

At Neighbors in Action I've gotten to run and create and re-create programs for some of the sweetest, sassiest and most awesome and welcoming kids I've ever met.  I've gotten to take kids out for ice cream and get to know them better and hang out at the pool.  I've seen kids going from only speaking Spanish to being perfectly bilingual. I've gotten to celebrate with kids as they promote to another grade. I've gotten to see them grow tremendously in every way in the small amount of time I've been here.  I've gotten to bring kids to camp, watch them learn to worship and witness them open up about struggles and gotten to speak truth to them and help them understand who Jesus is.  I've gotten to hear heartbreaking stories, pray over those situations, and see God start to bring healing that can only come from Him.   I've been welcomed into a community completely different from me, fed the most amazing homemade Mexican, Honduran, and El Salvadorian food and kissed on the cheek.  I get hugs daily from kids who I've done nothing to earn love from, but they give it freely. 

Personally I've made friends who have been kind enough to help me move furniture into my first apartment, let me stay at their house for a week when my car broke down, let me join them and their family at the beach Easter weekend, and even hooked me up with a sweet deal on my first house on my own. (Most of those were one person, so shout out to my girl Dahlia who never lets on if she's sick of seeing me every day and is still letting me be her neighbor now ;) 

And these are just the few things I can remember at the moment from this last year.  There have been many other hardships, but so many blessings.  My calling and goal is still even further south, but I really feel like this is where I'm supposed to be right now, like I'm in a season of training and preparation for what's next, and even though it has been a difficult season, it's been a blessed season of growth and so many life lessons.  My relationship with God isn't where I'd like it to be and I know it's because I try to often to handle all of these things on my own and not in His strength.  Let me tell you, that doesn't work.  I'm amazed by how, even when I'm not faithful or have a whiny complaining attitude or am wallowing in a pit a self-pity, God continues to show incredible grace and favor and pour out so many blessings on my life.  It's a great reminder that I don't earn any of these blessings I've received, I don't deserve them at all.

So today I thank God for this last year and this new season of life.  I thank Him for the hard times that teach me life lessons and push me closer to Him and for the good times, which I do not deserve but show me that He really is a good good Father.  I pray that I would be more thankful for the many blessings He's poured out on me, that I would lean on Him for strength when things are hard and look for the lesson to be learned and I pray that I would be constantly made more and more aware of the Holy Spirit with me and moving in people around me.