My World Race journey has officially begun! We spent 2 and a half days first in Washington D.C. to get some more training and then we took a bus to New York, flew to Costa Rica, drove to Nicaragua, and now we are in Tegucigalpa, Honduras!
God has already been doing some amazing things. When I accepted the calling to go on the World Race, I never realized how much God and I needed to work on stuff. Before I was able to serve others and fully step into the calling God has placed on my life, He had to deal with our relationship first.
For a long time I have thought my identity was in Christ, but in reality I know that I have been struggling in that area. I do not always walk in the freedom and the grace that God wants me to. I act as though that the cross was not enough. Thankfully God has used the past few days to heal me in some areas. I am beyond thankful that the Lord is continuously refining me every day even when I fight Him sometimes (let’s be honest… a lot of the times lol) Even though I am not where I want to be in my relationship with Christ, I know I am exactly where I need to be. I am so thankful that God loves me for who I am right now, nothing more and nothing less. I am in process and praise God that He is always taking me deeper in our relationship.
My one main prayer for these next 11 months is that I want to experience all that God has for me. I am praying for revelation so that my heart and mind may be changed and I may become the woman of God that He wants me to be. For a long time I have been so sick and tired of being a normal, cookie-cutter Christian so now that I am finally on the mission field I want to step up, have boldness, and live out the things that my heart desires. I want to walk in the presence of God, every moment, of every day.
Honduras has been incredible so far. Our host Tony and his ministry has already had such an impact on my life. Tony is ministering to young men who have been addicted to drugs, specifically sniffing paint thinner, and leading them to Christ. He brought 10-12 young men who used to be street kids living out of dumpsters and in poverty, and invited them to his home. He is the definition of what it means to really live your life for Christ and complete abandonment.
He started this ministry and had no plan, no money, and no clue what he was going to do. God gave him the heart to start this ministry and so he sold all of his belongings back in America, followed the calling, and moved to Honduras. Many of these young men have continuously turned their back on Tony and have fallen back into drugs, yet he continuously gives them grace and loves them even when they fail. He does not judge or condemn but rather loves them as Christ does. He is a man of grace, faith, and love and I deeply respect him. His heart and vision is to disciple these young men and do life with them. He has literally sacrificed everything he has to do this ministry and has invested his entire life into this. I love the fact that he is not concerned with how many people are in his ministry, but rather just doing life with them and disciplining the few that really want to change. I am greatly encouraged by his heart and ministry and I am thankful to be a small part of it for this month.
One of my favorite things so far here has been playing with the kids here. This culture and society is so different than anything I have ever experienced. The kids are so sweet and loving and they come straight up to you and just accept you. It is incredibly eye-opening to be the minority for the first time in my life. I am very humbled at the fact that the kids look past the color of my skin and that I am different from them. Although I don’t speak any Spanish, it has been amazing to spend time with these kids and love them without ever even saying any words to each other.
I also experienced my first church service in Honduras and it was LEGIT. One of the young men who used to be addicted to paint thinner shared his heart and wrote a sermon and it was beautiful. His sermon was based on the fact that we are conquerors because of Christ. I was blown away by the fact that he had experienced so much throughout his life and literally came from nothing, and now he is pursuing God and putting Him first in his life. Praise God for that!
I have had the honor to lead worship a few times here and that has been incredible. I never thought that God would use me so much in the area of worship. I have played more guitar in the past week than I ever have in my life. I am very blessed to have the gift of worship and that I get to use it to lead others to worship Jesus Christ.
My hope for the next 11 months if for God to move. To use my team and squad to bring hope, life, and the presence of God to people. I’m praying for salvation to come, for chains of bondage to be broken, for children to feel God’s love, value, and worth, for the elderly to experience child-like faith and restoration, for orphans to see God as their true Father and the only Father they will ever need, for strangers we come in contact with to encounter the Holy Spirit and have fellowship, for my entire team and squad to be representatives for Christ, for miracles to happen, for physical healing, for broken hearts to be mended. I have no idea what to expect or what God is going to do but I refuse to limit Him and pray small prayers. I am expecting divine encounters to occur. That there would be a revival, an awakening and people would be changed. That we would bring the kingdom of God to earth.
At the end of May 2013, I have total and complete faith that everything I have prayed will come true. I absolutely cannot wait to see what God does in and through my team during this month in Honduras!
