God of this city.

12/8/10

Looking back on last month, I can see God’s hand at work in my heart. The first ten days in Nicaragua my heart was still broken for the boys in Honduras and I cried every day. Once I was honest with myself, my team and others with where I was at, God started taking away that hurt and allowed me to begin ministering to the kids in Nicaragua and it ended up being an incredible month! I didn’t understand at first and I was confused and sad that my heart was no longer hurting for Honduras. I still longed to be there every day, but God allowed that part of my heart to be shut off for the rest of the month so He could use me effectively where I was. The day we got on the bus to leave Candelaria and head to Granada for debrief, I thought it would be hard saying goodbye to the kids I got close to and I thought I would be missing them just like I did after month 1. Instead, I got on the bus and was immediately hit with Honduras all over again–I thought about Los Pinos and the boys and the colegio and Lillian and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my mind off of it. I truly think God is calling me back there after the race.

 

[Henry, Josue, Luis, Fernando, Cristo]

One night at debrief, we had a really intense night of worship and prayer for one of our squadmates that was sent to the hospital. Our squad leaders wanted us to do a Night Watch–each team would take one hour throughout the night to pray. Our team was assigned the 1am time slot, so Alex and I decided to just stay up until then. First, we talked to some of the team that had been in Honduras last month and heard stories of the boys and everything that’s going on. Erica told us that Luis talked about us all the time and always said how much he misses us and loves us. She said the day Chelsea was painting the mural in the colegio, Luis took some of the paint into another room of the colegio and painted a picture of two giant hearts with mine and Alex’s names on them and he was in the middle. I’m so thankful that we had such a huge impact on their lives. On their last night in Los Pinos, the boys walked the other teams down to the bus stop and they were reminiscing about how they had walked us down on our last night to say our goodbyes. I think about that night often–we drove away in our taxis and I left my heart there. It was really bittersweet, but somehow I knew in my heart I would come back there someday.

After our conversation with Erica, we still had over an hour before it was our time to pray so Alex and I went down to the worship room to listen to music and write in our journals. At one point, Alex asked me how to spell “colegio� and I couldn’t help but laugh because that was exactly what I had been journaling about. We both feel like God has given us a vision for the colegio in Los Pinos.

You’re the God of this city

You’re the King of these people

You’re the Lord of this nation

You are

You’re the Light in this darkness

You’re the Hope to the hopeless

You’re the Peace to the restless

You are

There is no one like our God!!

Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city

We believe, we believe in You, God

When “God of This Cityâ€� came on, we looked up at each other and immediately knew that the other was thinking about Honduras. We started talking about Honduras and our plans to go back. Come to find out, Honduras was on her heart during the whole travel day to debrief as well. I truly don’t think that was a coincidence. We both want to live in Los Pinos, in the heart of all the drugs, gangs, and violence.  We want to be a light to that dark community.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.â€� –Matthew 5:14

[The most dangerous place is safe when you are in God’s will,

but the safest place is really the most dangerous if you are not in God’s will]

We are praying for God to continue refining the vision He has for the colegio, and reveal what our part will be in that. We would love for it to be a place for street kids to come in and be educated…to learn how to live in community together…to learn how to deal with the hard stuff. We want to empower them to go out and change their families and communities. We want to free them from their pasts of destruction and teach them to live in victory over sin. We want to be Jesus to the people involved in alcohol, drugs, violence, gangs, etc. and show them the love of Christ and the power of His forgiveness. We want it to be about discipleship and empowerment. We want to create jobs for the community. We want to begin to erase the lines between secular and religious realms.

We have absolutely no idea how this can happen legally, logistically, or financially, but we are completely relying on God and trusting His guidance throughout this process. We are going to continue to pray for God to reveal His plan for our lives in that place and I will keep you updated as God speaks to us.

—————

God, clearly You have laid Los Pinos and mine and Alex’s hearts intentionally. I pray that You would continue revising and refining Your purpose for us and for that place. Lord, begin ordering steps to get us back there, whether it be through an established organization or starting up our own. I pray that Your hand would lead us and guide us through the entire process. We have absolutely no idea how or where to even begin with that so I pray that You would go before us and anoint the path that I truly believe You’ve called us to. Thank You so much for uniting our hearts and visions for Los Pinos. My heart longs to be back in that place. Please continue to speak to us. AMEN!