As I entered into the month of April, it hit me that this is my 9th month on the race. The realization did not come alone, but it brought with it emotions that I was not expecting, challenges that I had not thought were coming, and not to mention on top of the exhaustion that I was facing from traveling.
My time in Panama was incredible; my team and I were working with a couple that was such a beautiful picture of walking and following Jesus, and I know I was inspired and challenged by them daily.
Panama was a month of growth and a month where I felt the Lord meet me in some beautiful places. I loved the children in the village, I could spend all day with them holding them and telling them they were loved in a community that had rejected and neglected them at best; I loved the girls that we met in the girls home, telling them they were beautiful and valued in a culture that saw them as less; and of course I loved living close to the ocean and eating empanadas and “ohaldres”. But the time came for my 8th goodbye… I knew it was coming, as the goodbyes always do, but even still it is always hard just the same.
The goodbyes never, ever get easier, but looking back it is so worth it to see the beautiful people and families that have let me into their home as they made a way into my heart.
So here we are into month 9, in Jamaica. It is easy for me to look at that and to see how far I’ve come during this experience and almost forget about the last two months that are still to be had. But I know that I signed up for a full 11-month missions trip and I cannot tune out now just because home is beginning to come into sight.
So I choose to press in. To now, to this month, and to everyday I have left on this thing, because I won’t get that time back. I won’t get any time back ever really, so might as well give it all I have.
This month my team is doing something a bit unique called “Unsung Heroes”. It is a special month that not every team gets to do, in which we have been given the task of finding new ministries for our organization to partner with in the hope to bring the nations to Christ together. One small detail about this month is that there is nothing planned or set up for us this month. No plans or contacts for lodging, food, or ministry. We have to rely on the Lord and trust where He is leading. So we started reaching out to people asking if my team of 7 (Yes 7!) could stay in their homes, churches, on their floor, etc. At first, the idea of this brought more stress than I would like to admit. But time after time, and day after day all our needs have been taken care of and more. How could I be surprised?
36 hours before landing in Jamaica we had no place to stay. 24 hours before landing and we got a message from a family that said they would meet us at the Kingston airport with taxis to take us to their home where they would cook for us and give us beds for a few nights.
A few days later a friend of a friend said she would take us in for a few nights in Portmore. At first she wasn’t sure if she and her husband where supposed to be doing this, but she said the second she watched us get out of the car and saw our smiling faces, she knew it was confirmation, and we all had such a wonderful time there, laughing, listening to old Bob Marley and the Wailers records, and stepping in as this couple’s grandchildren for a few days.
A couple days more and we made our way north on the island to stay with a friend’s mom and she has taken such great care of us as well, always teaching us how to check the expiration date at grocery stores and making sure we call our taxis on time. Definite and undeniable important life skills.
And now, I am writing this to you as I sit on a couch in a beautiful bed and breakfast that is about 5 times our budget, but the owner decided she would give us a home for the week. To give us a home at a beautiful place to stay, overlooking the Caribbean Ocean, with coffee in our mugs and muffins on our plates, for 6 US dollars a day. I promise, I am not making this up. I also promise that this does not just happen by coincidence. There is no way we could have orchestrated this on our own, it is a far far better plan than we ever could have thought up (Trust me our original plan was to either tent outside a hostel, or knock on doors until we found someone that would let us in- can you imagine? “Knock knock…who’s there? 7 homeless Americans in Jamaica needing a place to stay. YEAH God knew we really needed Him)
So far we have been in 4 different cities, with 4 different hosts and have met with 7 different ministries who want to partner with us, all within the first two weeks. The Lord is faithful and although we don’t know what is coming next, watching the Lord provide pulls me into deeper trust and dependence.
Yes, nine months on the field and it has been filled with growth, relationships, hard goodbyes and excited hellos, adventures and exploration, and seeing people come to Christ. Somedays it’s easy and it is hard to believe that this is the life I am living right now, other days it is so hard I can’t even see the next day. But I choose to press on; whole-heartedly and all-in because this is what matters, and I signed up for a whole 11 months, not just 9. The last 3 months I will not let escape me, but dive even deeper to receive and to give all that I can.
Please pray for my team and I as we trust the Lord to provide new ministries and places to stay as we continue to wander on with the purposes of trusting where the Lord leads to bring His glory to the nations and beyond.
Thanks for letting my story be a part of your day,
Blessings, Katie
