Thirteen days into the World Race and I have spent three days sick back at our home base. Really is that what God has in store for me for the next 10 months? NO WAY! I expect that God is going to provide me with protection throughout this year, but it is hard when I am in the midst of hurting and feeling sick to trust that the Lord is going to provide healing. Throughout our time here there have been quite a few World Racers who have been sick as well, but daily we are having to ask and expect the Lord to heal us. Please pray for our health as a squad, Satan really doesn’t want us here but we ARE NOT leaving. When you think of us please pray that God will protect us and give us JOY despite our circumstances. James 1:2-4
Other than being sick our squad has been spending time every day ministering in two different locations around Chincha. For those of you who don’t know, the area that we are ministering in was devastated by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake on August 15, 2007. Now five months later peoples homes are still rubble and they are living in refugee camps. The particular area my team has been in is a refugee camp from Tambo de Mora, a coastal town. There are over 300 families in this one camp made up of tarps and poles with some thatched roofs. In this whole community there are around 10 outhouse type bathrooms for the whole camp. Really the people don’t have much in worldly terms. Outside organizations and countries have been providing them with minimal food and water. Many people were forced to literally run from their homes during the earthquake because of the ocean rising into their crumbling homes. Many people lost friends and family in the three-minute quake. The disaster is unbelievable and their needs are vast.
While ministering in the refugee camp of Tambo de Mora we discovered that we were being eaten by some sort of dust fleas. After talking to the people we discovered they too were suffering from bites as well. Tuesday we showed up to minister to the people and we found ourselves frustrated (believe it or not, not every day in the field is filled with miracles) at the vast needs of the community. After some grumbling and lack of hope and direction the Lord showed up in a big way. The city told us they would fumigate the whole refugee community for us. So yesterday they showed up and started spraying for the whole community, tomorrow they will complete the rest of the homes. They also agreed to give medicine the dogs, who are the carriers of these ankle biters. That is such a huge blessing! We were so bogged down with having such a huge TO-DO list and not having enough resources and time and God busted in and gave the fumigation to us for free. Oh how we fail to trust and believe that our God is big, we put him in this box and he is BOXLESS!!!
In the morning of this same day of frustration and triumph I had some one on one time with God and he told me: “I want to move within you in MIGHTY WAYS. Waves will crash over this place and ALL will be renewed for my sake. I moved the mountains, I CAN MOVE THIS VILLAGE” ARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH, before I found out about the donation of the fumigation and spraying I had already forgotten this promise he had made to me. What little faith I really have! I pray that God will continue to increase my faith and trust in him.
I am learning one day at a time to use the power that the Lord has entrusted to me and to expect God to show up in mighty ways. I want to blow up my “god-box” with an atom bomb every day. I pray for every person that reads this that they will take a look at their dumb little “god-box”, spend some time asking God how you have contained him and ask him to shatter your box today. Submit your will to the Lord and he will rock your world!
For those of you who kept reading this mumbo jumbo, I leave you with this… Two of the three times I have gotten sick I was wearing skirts(the only two times), coincidence- I don’t think so!
Last but not least check out the Oddacity (an amazing band from Forsythe, MO my home away from home) video “Fight For Me” on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQk-PxS1GuY I am praying that the Lord will fight for me daily and that I will have eyes to identify the need for a fight. Please check it out it spoke so loudly to me today.
