So part of the reason this blog is being written, is to share with the story track at our upcoming debrief. It is the end of month 10 and we are about to enter into the United States. Kind of unreal. We are going to be spending a little over two weeks back on “most” of our home turfs, before flying home to begin the next piece of the journey. God has much goodness in store for the future and much goodness has been experienced within this past month.
Its a tad long, but hang in there!
Our challenge from story track is to choose one word to describe our past month, something we have learned, or anything along those lines.
So why the word “glory” to describe this past month in Belize? There are many many reasons and I pray as I write this all out that God blesses these words and gives me the words to share with you all a piece that is truly His glory, His goodness, and His heart.
Belize has by far been the most challenging month on my race. God knew this before I had ever joined the race but He also knew that this challenging time was for good and to really reveal to me all of the work He had been doing in my heart, my teams heart, and the body of Christ.
He is a Father of immense “goodness”.
So when my team and I first received word that we would be on an island for month 10 of our venture, we were thrilled. As much to our knowledge, an island would be relaxing, calm, and a great time to semi-recover from the intense nature of the previous months. But little did we know, it would not be the typical island experience one would see on TV or in the movies, it would be a tad different. Different not in a bad way but in a way that has truly allowed me (and I believe my team) to see that God is good amidst crazy poverty and hardship, and we serve a God who is an artist by nature and He is molding us to always be armored.
Upon our arrival to San Mateo, all of our jaws dropped. Aside from India and remote places in Haiti, I had not seen such poverty on the Race. I had not lived in such poverty ever. And as I describe all of this, it is not to convey any pity on us for the hardship of the past month but to give you rather a wholistic picture that will allow this story to come full circle.
Sewage runs freely in the ground water of San Mateo. Wooden boards are sometimes used for quarters of miles to help people reach their homes. Rats crawl around the walls at night and scurry across the floor. Rain is acidic and can cause fevers (we were told about this after getting drenched one night after a team outing…so make sure to shower if you are out in the rain). The water levels are rising and flooding is a major health concern in this small community.
The first week we were living in San Mateo, many of us did not sleep. I have never had a week where I did not sleep, its no fun. Heat was unrelenting and sickness was passing around from person to person, as well as simple exhaustion from pushing our bodies for 10 months. I am certain we were not the only ones feeling like this (all of my squad mates are in a similar boat).
I had a hard time seeing the goodness that God had in this place, especially when we were all dragging ourselves and needing a healthier living condition. This place does have beautiful physical beauty, in the oceans, smiles, and an occasional rainbow that just so happens to fall on ones birthday. But, because He is a God of complete goodness, He began to reveal this goodness not in the physical ways but in the spiritual ways.
His goodness is not bound by the physical because most of the time, He takes the innards and speaks to them long before we experience and see the outward transformation. This is happening in San Mateo. We are praying, Pastor Robert is praying, and change is happening-not super fast, but change is occurring in the physical realm, as God is spiritually speaking. We are praying for what is unseen to affect the seen because when hearts are changed and set on Jesus, true transformation is going to occur in the physical realm of San Mateo. The things we see in San Mateo are temporary, but God is eternal and eternally good. So we set our eyes on Him because He is greater and His goodness is greater than the sewage, roaches, or anything that surrounds us.
Goodness. True goodness. Heavenly goodness.
He began to show me how much He had molded me over the past months. How much transformation He had done. You see spiritual warfare this month has been INSANE! Insane insane insane. Our team and people in general were experiencing lies out the wazoo, anxiety, unrest, and hopelessness. This month I was even given the ability to physically feel what people were feeling. I was feeling things I normally never do and asking God what was going on…He answered with empathy for the least, empathy for the hurting, and empathy past the superficial layer.
Spiritual warfare elicited nights of prayer…where I would wake up and just need to pray to go back to sleep. Pray for peace. Pray for lies to dissipate. Pray for our team, our squad, our futures. Pray for truth to invade.
Slowly, over the course of the weeks God began to reveal the discernment that was being given through all of this because again, He is a good Father. He was building up a new piece of armor in me, a locket around my heart that was cased with His name.
At the beginning of the month, I was given a vision that I shared with a few on my team about how God was molding a piece of armor that He would show me how to use. I didn’t see what it looked like but there was a picture of me as a warrior all armored up and in training. Little did I know that the piece He would be molding would be the locket of truth that was and is to always be held near my heart. Over this Race He has made me into a daughter of truth. I am seeking it, needing it, craving it and realizing that with it, we can move mountains and find beauty in the sewage.
His goodness is eternal. He reaches out to us with arms of love that are desiring us to grab ahold so that He may lift our eyes above the clouds to see higher than the circumstances that surround us. He wants us to share in His glory. But with sharing in glory, we must share in suffering; in the wrestle to find goodness, in the warfare, in the dying of ourselves, in it all. Because when asking for more of God, He allows us to experience more. But its all so worth His glory. Its all for His glory. And we as His children get to walk from glory to glory.
I have been praying this the past two months: And BOY did God answer. He wants His children to experience GLORY!
//I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.// (Phil. 3:10-14)
This month I got to experience a piece of God’s glory, my whole team did. And as hard at it was at times, He was and is good, He is armoring us up for whats to come and always preparing us, and He wants us to share in His glory!
We get to be made more like Christ daily and our moments of revelation are oftentimes glimpses of the GLORY He revealed, our hardest moments are disguised as moments of glory in the making. He is so so good!
So I would say it was a pretty great month!
