1. That I loved reading the Bible!
For most of my time during the lecture phase of my discipleship training school I always struggled with wanting to read the Bible. While we were in Southeast Asia we had a lot of downtime. During that time God spoke to me through the Bible. He showed me that it wasn’t just a book of rules, but testimonies of His love and grace! 

2. How to eat with my hands
During my outreach, we did a lot of village ministry. After we would speak to a village—whether that be by doing a skit, preaching a sermon, or sharing a testimony—we were invited to a house to eat dinner. This meant lots of curry and most of the time, no cutlery. The locals were more than excited to show us how to use our hands!

3. Dependency
God showed me that I couldn’t control every situation. What better place to show me that than in Southeast Asia! The specific location I was in has its own set of rules and things rarely go as planned. I had to learn to let go of what I thought was best and to allow God to do His thing, which usually isn’t what I expect.

4. I can live with one pair of clothes and whatever I have in my carry on (which isn’t much)
Before we even got to our first outreach location, we lost our bags! After staying the night on an airport floor trying to find our bags, our leaders decided that we should keep moving. We trusted that God knew where our bags were and we believed that He would get them to us. After spending almost a week without our bags and only the clothes on our backs, God provided!

5. Identity
During my time in Southeast Asia, God reminded me that my identity comes from Him. I found myself getting frustrated when I couldn’t get up a route, I did the Climber's Discipleship Training School, and for a good few days I questioned why I was even on a climbers DTS. One day I was looking out at the boulders and God showed me that I was climbing because that’s what you do when you're in that location. I was being so hard on myself, I had forgotten why I even enjoyed climbing. I love climbing because I get to see and experience what God has created. I was reminded that my identity didn’t come from getting up routes or being able to do certain moves, it comes from God who loves seeing us play on His creation.

6. How to sleep on airport floors
Our team spent a lot of time in airports and sometimes we had really long layovers. They usually were either late at night or early in the morning. To pass the time, our team got really good at sleeping wherever, whenever. We found a quiet part of the airport, pulled out our sleeping bag liners and travel pillows, and then covered our eyes from the light. It was easy to get a solid two or three hours of sleep this way.

7. Boldness
While we were in a certain part of Southeast Asia, we got the opportunity to talk with other rock climbers. In other areas it was easier for me to share the Gospel because I had a translator to hide behind. This time it was about making relationships with other westerners and practicing standing on my own beliefs. God really spoke to me about being bold during this part of outreach. I was scared that once people found out I was a Christian, they wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore. But once they heard I was Christian, they were super interested which led to some great conversations. This showed me that being bold in my faith leads to some very cool things!