Destination for Month TWO

On October 19^th, Monday I think, we were given a list of three ministry opportunities. We were not given ANY details about where these ministry opportunities take place within the country or what the living conditions will be like.

Number One is a lengthy list. The main ministry is YOUTH MINISTRY to underprivileged youth including: ministry through sports camps, youth services, tutoring at schools, teaching English, and preaching opportunities.

Number Two is a description of SLUM MINISTRY. There is a pastor and a youth pastor who have a tent making business for the people who call the “dump” their home. They distribute food, and have also recently started some sort of preschool in this area.

Number Three is also a lengthy list that includes: ORPHANAGE WORK, construction, and preaching/evangelism opportunities. The main ministry would be orphanages.

After my team read the list we prayed about it for a couple days. Then one night we all gave our first impression/opinion. Six of us felt strongly about wanting to go to number three, and DISLIKED the idea of number two. One person on our team was really excited about number two and wanted to consider number one. Later on in the week we all started to feel like we NEED get to the point where we are ok with number two, but we still wanted to go to the orphanages.

Last night we had to give our answer to our squad leaders so they could begin the logistics part of getting us there. As a team we read the list one more time and spent some time in PRAYER. We decided before we voted that whichever place had the most votes would be our new destination. The first two people felt like number three is where we should go. After that there was a vote for number two and then another vote for number three. So at that point there were three votes for the orphanage ministry and one vote for the slums.

At this point I kept hearing the thought “Just choose number three and go with the majority.” All night I was going back and forth between number two and three, and then I realized that the thought “go with the crowd” was not from God. So that was the point I decided in my mind that I would choose number two. There was another vote for the slums and then I BLURTED my vote out because I knew it would be a tie and I didn’t want to be the tie breaker. Becka was stuck with the tie breaking vote, and with a vote of 4 to 3 we decided to choose the SLUM MINISTRY in Nicaragua.

We all KNOW that God is going to use us wherever we go, and that we still might go somewhere else if too many teams pick the same place. We also talked after the vote and all agreed that although we WANTED to go to the orphanages, we are excited to just step out in faith and obedience. We WILL walk in God’s favor and bring KINGDOM wherever he is calling us to go. We didn’t come on this trip to stay in our comfort zone, even though its hard stepping out of it!

ONE HOUR after typing all of the above we got the text for our next destination. We are for sure doing slum ministry BUT its not in Nicaragua its in….COSTA RICA!!!!! I’m so glad we stepped out in obedience, because God is already blessing us. We are going to an awesome location geographically and we are the only team going to that country. Bring on the SLUMS! SEND US WE’LL GO!!