Hello again, I know it has been far too long since I have written. If I were to try to tell everything that has happened since we would all be here for a while...so let me give you and overview and try to share some of the cool things along the way.
I guess I never wrote again after I told you I got to Nicaragua in October...so let me see what I can remember about the rest of that month and November. While I was here for a month I got to continue some of the working I had done over the summer and see some fruit of it as well. I also got to translate for an amazing medical team and saw God do incredible work in three of our churches here. And of course I got to continue building relationships and start some new ones. I headed back to Wisconsin the day before thanksgiving with a heavy heart not sure what was next for me.
I got to spend the Holidays with my family and friends in the States and freeze my booty off while doing so! Haha. I had been invited to come back in January and wasn't completely sure if that was going to be possible but God made a way, a very clear path actually. I honestly do not know how to explain to you the way God moves when He makes these things happen, it is like I don't even have to speak a word and all of the sudden everything is in place and I am going. It is such a blessing in my life right now to see how He continues to fit all the pieces right together in front of me.
Pretty much right after New Years I was back on a plane headed for the next chapter in this crazy journey God is taking me on. When I got here my best friend picked me up from the airport and I got to spend the next day with her before I headed for camp with the teens/young adults. I actually got to surprise almost all of my people here by coming this time so that was really fun. Only five people knew I was coming. Lets just say the blonde haired, blue eyed, white girl on the bus stands out a bit! Faces were priceless.
Once I got to camp we hit the ground running. I was the photographer because...well I am just too clumsy to play the games they play at camp. These games are the real deal! It was military themed this year and that stepped it up even more. Just imagine a training camp with some silliness and devotions and you pretty much can get the picture...oh and no bathrooms! We did have showers though, Praise God! It was a cool week getting to see camp and some of the leaders speak and some of the campers commit to God in new ways!
I can tell you that the fun and silliness is not all that comes with ministry. There are hard hard times and you get bad news when you aren't home and have to deal with your feelings and try to make sense of life again. Sometimes you get good news and that makes you a little sad too because you want to celebrate with your family. Sometimes you just want to ask "what am I even doing here anyway?". Sometimes nothing seems to make sense and you have to trust God when you can't see. But in all that God is still here, He is still working, and if you choose to allow it He will use you. And if you don't He will use someone else, you just have to decide if you want to be involved.
After camp we started getting ready for the team that would arrive in a few days. Once they got here we worked hard in Pochocuape. Visiting, playing, building, running VBS, and getting to spend some good time in fellowship. While they were here we saw nine kids start a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! We also finished a beautiful chicken coop and the team gave us some chickens to fill it! What a blessing! Today at church we were able to eat the eggs from those chickens and praise God for the people who allowed Him to work through their lives last week.
That brings me to the present. Wow! I don't even know how to express my gratitude and love for all those who support me and love me in all of my crazy. God has blessed me abundantly! Today I got to work in Pochocuape all day, first during church, and then in the afternoon we worked out in the field trying to get some of the land ready to be able to us for soccer, baseball, and whatever else we might want to do. I get to see the growth in one of the girls who accepted Christ while I was here in July and see what God has done in her life since. She is a changed child of God, and I could write a book about all the ways I see it. Yes, she still struggles and she still fights and still messes up...but God has changed her heart and what it beats for. That is truly beautiful. That is why we do missions. I love this work. I love these people.
Pray that God would continue showing me what is next right when I need it. Pray for a sweet friend of mine who is struggling right now. Pray for my friends who start seminary classes this week, that God would work in them greatly and raise them up to be leaders in their homes, churches, communities, and relationships. Pray for the amazing Donna (missionary) as she starts this semester with the students and sets them up for a year of study. Pray for our church in Pochocuape, that the men God has put in leadership would continue to be sensitive to His leading, for the people who are coming to church that God would work in their lives, for those in the community who are maybe thinking about coming would you ask that someone be able to touch them in a special way this week that would bring them to church? Would you worship with me for the lives saved and changed in Jesus name?! We serve an incredible God!
Forgive me for writing a book this time! I will try hard to be better!
"If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all
I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing."
1 Corinthians
13:1-3
