I think about my Instagram, how my life looks in those tiny little boxes. It’s a beautiful life, really. My social media is a great representation of that. I go to the beach all the time, I’m eating at nice places, going to cute coffee shops, hitting up all the stores. I mean who could ask for better? I’m traveling the world, fulfilling all my childhood dreams of working with children at a school in Africa. I’m sometimes jealous of myself, not many people have the luxury of saying this is their life.

But then as I sit in the van on my way to ministry, I’m reminded of what my reality is. Sure I still go to coffee shops and the beach all the time, but I also go to a preschool 5 days of the week and feed kids their only meals of the day. I drive from my base on the GLA campus to Tokyo Sexwhale where everything is trashed and poverty ridden. There’s houses that sleep 10-15 people but look like they’re only big enough to hold maybe 4 people. There’s a sign that says “mugging beyond this point,” there’s a gang that runs the roads, there’s homeless people begging for the things in your possession. Some of these kids have absolutely nothing, but you’d never be able to tell. 

Looks are deceiving, don’t think that just because my feed is all glorious doesn’t mean that’s what the reality looks like. It’s heartbreaking but the ministry is so rewarding. I wouldn’t change anything because the smiles on these kids faces will truly change your life. I would go through the heartbreak a million times over just to have the reward of what the Lord is doing in these kids lives and mine.