I want to first apologize for my lack of blogs this month. It has been a very busy month of traveling all over Nicaragua. During the past month we have visited churches in the city, on an island, in a small farming village with no running water or electricity, and on the beach. We have been so blessed to see so many areas of this beautiful country! At the beginning of this month I did not want to be doing the ministry we were doing or staying where we were staying. Our ministry was doing house to house and preaching, the latter of which is at the bottom of my list of ministries I would like to do. The house we were staying in had a tarantula and an outhouse across the yard, making midnight bathroom runs quite the experience. I desperately wanted to be back in Honduras loving on the boys, so I was frustrated that God would put me in a place that was SO out of my element. I decided to let the Lord know just how I felt about where He had placed me, as if He didn’t already know. After much talking and a few tears, I decided to be quiet and listen for the Lord. In the stillness the Lord reminded me that He came from heaven to be human on earth. He came to earth from a place that is perfect! There I was complaining about being in an uncomfortable place when my King left heaven to live a humble life and die for me! He left heaven for us! “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.â€� – 2 Corinthians 8:9 Apart from being uncomfortable, there were many days this month where I felt like I was just going through the motions and had no purpose. One of these days was when we were going house to house for the third day in a row. We started mid-day (aka the hottest time of day) and what we thought would be going from house to house sharing the gospel and praying for people turned into an introduction of our team and an invitation to that night’s church service. The pastor said the same exact thing at every house we went to and the only words we said were our names, over and over again. Two hours after starting I was hot, sweaty, and frustrated. I wanted to be passionate about what we were doing but I just couldn’t get past my frustration. I felt like there was no purpose for me being there. It was at that point as we continued to walk that I began to pray. “ What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for that one that wondered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.â€� -Matthew 18:12-14
Volcan Concepcion on the island of Ometepe, where we stayed for nine days.
This month has been incredibly challenging for me, but the Lord has been teaching me so much more than I could have ever imagined! I want to give you a glimpse of what the Lord has been doing in me the past couple of weeks by sharing a few truths the Lord reminded me of in moments of frustrations, emptiness, and brokenness. It was during these moments where I had no one else to turn to besides Jesus, that He taught me the most.
Our awesome treehouse we stayed in for four days with no electricity or running water.
One of the many days we did house to house.
I honestly didn’t have the words to pray so I just did a lot of listening. That is when the Lord reminded me just how far He would walk for us. If it was just one person waiting on an invitation to church in order to find their way to Jesus, it is worth it! Jesus would do everything to reach one of his beloved children! If Jesus would do that for me then who am I to not joyfully walk wherever God led? Who am I to complain about walking a few miles when Jesus walked under the weight of a cross to die for me?
One of the many amazing sunsets the Lord blessed us with this month.
Although this month was extremely hard I would do it all over again to learn everything that the Lord taught me through this time of brokenness. I enjoyed my first month in Honduras more than this month, however I learned SO much more this month. I am still walking through brokenness but I know that God is going to continue to change me and teach me more about who He is. I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to be broken in this way so I can fall more in love with my Savior and King! I am not sure what our ministry will be for next month, but what I do know is that God will place me wherever I need to be. Thank you for your support and prayers that make this journey of falling more in love with my King possible!
