I’m in a Malaysian Music Video?!?

The Bride of Christ

Numbers 28:1-2

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be careful to present My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me, at their appointed time.’”

‭The Lord asks for the people to give Him sacrifices because it’s part of having a relationship with us. One thing that we say a lot about the World Race is that you get out of it what you put in. We can’t expect to have a great and growing experience if we aren’t investing ourselves in the community and ministry opportunities. In the same way, we can’t have a good relationship with Jesus if we aren’t pouring into Him out of what He has blessed us with.

Imagine if a couple had just gotten married and moved into a new apartment when the wife informed her new husband that she would not be spending quality time with him, helping with the chores, or cooking any meals, but they would have monthly business meetings in which they would discuss her needs only. She would basically be saying, “I’ll be in a relationship with you, but don’t expect me to do anything.” Hopefully she would have some good friends who would warn her that relationships just don’t work like that. You can’t expect to experience all the love and blessings of a relationship if you’re unwilling to put in any more than the bare minimum. If you love someone enough to commit your life to them, you should actually desire to spend time with them and serve their needs.

It’s the same with our marriage with God. We have entered into a covenant relationship with Christ, and although we don’t have to earn His love or blessings from Him, He graciously allows us to be active participants in the relationship through spending time with Him and serving Him with our lives.

Body Image and Stuff 💀

I grew up with an “I don’t put in effort to how I look, so I must not be attractive,” mindset. I never got attention from guys and didn’t really have anyone in my life affirming how I looked, so I didn’t really believe I was beautiful. I was the girl who wore a t-shirt and jeans every single day. It wasn’t necessarily because I liked how I looked in a t-shirt and jeans (not saying I didn’t like it, but it does kind of get old…); it was more because I was afraid to try anything else because I might not like how it turned out. I had been so consistent with my style for my whole life that I knew if I changed anything at all, people would notice, and the very idea of that made me uncomfortable.

Anyways, I was talking with some squad-mates (shoutout to my dear friend Alleah :), and they challenged me to work towards actually liking how I look and seeing myself as beautiful because God made me. Personally, I feel like that ties into being the bride of Christ because God literally designed my body Himself, and He chose me for Himself. I don’t think He wants me to settle for just tolerating how He made me.

I figured it was time to actually do something to embrace my appearance. To face her insecurities head on, my teammate Ella chose to shave her head at the beginning of training camp. My equivalent to that was going on a shopping trip with like half my team and getting clothes that are outside my comfort zone. It was quite a spree. I ended up with two pairs of pants, a skirt, and six tops. I’m not sure I’ve ever bought that much clothes in one day in my life, and definitely not in a mall shopping spree. I was so thankful to have my teammates there to help me figure out what works for me. I could not have done it without them. Also, I’m kind of really excited about the skirt. IT HAS POCKETS!!!

So now I’m spending my first full day in some of those new clothes, and it’s quite different. People on my squad have been super encouraging! I still don’t know exactly what to do with the, “You look so cute!!!” comments, but I’m not hiding in my old jeans and t-shirts, so that’s progress! I definitely had settled into my identity as someone who does not wear all the cute clothes, but now I have the opportunity to step out of that and recognize that my identity isn’t in my appearance, so people noticing me in a positive or a negative way is okay! I don’t have to hide from attention. I can choose to honor, not hide, the body that God has given me through the clothes I wear.

The Music Video

When I said “yes” to the World Race, I was saying “yes” to serving God whatever that looked like. Dancing in a music video was not what I was expecting, and it’s also not what I would have picked. I am not a dancer. It was another opportunity to choose to serve God with the best attitude I can because He is worthy of me doing things that are not fun for me for His glory. It was a learning curve for me, but I really did try my best for the Lord, even if I wasn’t happy about it.

Well, we did it! Saturday night was the boys’ filming day. They were all dressed up as I guess Jewish boys playing drums?!? They filmed in the parking lot at night with a whole light set-up and everything. I stayed up and watched because I need quiet to sleep, and they kept saying “Left! Right! Left! Right!” over and over again so the guys knew which foot they were on for the dance. It was not conducive to sleeping. They got done around 12:30am and then we cleaned up.

The girls were supposed to be getting up at around 5:00, but no one woke me up, so I think I was up at around 6:15 and had to quick have Grace do my makeup (literally just mascara… I’m not changing everything just yet. Haha.) and get changed into my navy blue dress and my white head covering (we were supposed to be Jewish girls). We hit the road and went to some kind of quarry place to film. It was HOT. Apparently it was like 100 degrees. We all got sunburnt. The ground was also not even, so it was really hard to dance on. It was incredibly tiring, and honestly my attitude was not the best, but we all got through it, and now it’s done! NO MORE DANCE PRACTICE!!!!!!

I was beat after the filming day and only having a couple hours of sleep, but Carter helped me stay positive by singing with me in the van. He’s good for that kind of thing. I had to snap a photo of him singing “Wee heeheehee weeoh aweem away” from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” 😂 We had those harmonies going strong. 🙃😅

I don’t know when the final result of the music video will be out. Actually, I don’t even know the title of the song… Seems like I should know that by now. Oh well. I’ll find out eventually. Haha. It wasn’t super fun in the moment with the heat and everything, but it will be a great story to share in the future! I mean, who else can say that they were in a Malaysian worship song music video?!? Well, now I can. 😂

Prayer Requests

• Pray for our last two school days with the kids! We’re definitely going to miss them. The boys I’ve been teaching brought Teacher Alleah, Teacher Bella, and me candy bouquets today! They are so sweet. 😊 No pun intended.
• We had an event last night after filming the music video that will require some processing for a lot of us. I’m going to process more with the Lord before I share details on the blog, but pray for us to be discerning with our processing and to keep our eyes on the Lord even when we don’t understand how He works sometimes.
• Pray for our travel day coming up! We’re traveling by bus to Thailand, which will be at least 20 hours driving time, so that will require a lot of patience, and I believe there are still some logistical details being worked out, so plenty to pray for with that. We leave on Sunday!
• Pray for the church we’ve been staying at/attending. They are seeking to implement baptism at some point, but they are unsure of how to discern who is truly ready to take that step. Also pray for the house church ministry to continue to lead to fruitful conversations and for people to have hearts that are hungry for God.
• It’s kind of hitting us that we’re not going to have the whole squad anymore in a week, so pray for comfort as we are going to be apart for the next two countries.
• Pray for each of us to lean into our teams, leading to further unity and fruitfulness in the teams.