Continued from part 1… in case you need to catch up…
https://melissajordan.theworldrace.org/post/update-part-1-hineni-and-confirmation
After the Hineni retreat it was back to my usual schedule. Though now that seems to have changed slightly. Mondays are usually Spanish days. Tuesdays are now staff meeting days. I have also recently joined a bible study group that meets on Tuesday nights. Wednesdays are Spanish class days and I have a standing lunch date with a friend I’ve made since being here. I also use those afternoons to prepare for any other ministry things I have going on. Thursdays are still the activation days with the gap squad and Fridays are the days I go out and do women’s ministry in the villages.
To those who are curious, my Spanish is getting better! I am able to hold basic conversations. I’m able to order at a restaurant, actually know what I’m getting, and ask for substitutions if I want them. I can tell the tuk tuk driver where I live or where I am trying to go. I can understand when people are speaking, for the most part. However, I learned at the Bible study (which is typically completely in Spanish) that I have so much more to learn. There are words and phrases that people use when speaking about God that they don’t use in normal conversation. It’s a whole new aspect to the language that I will need to learn to be able to minister well. So there’s still a long way to go. However, I don’t think it’s coincidence that I spend a large chunk of time each week with Axel. So making sure to see those times as ministry is important to me. We’ve talked about everything from family, to tortillas, to ministry, to why the streets have 2 names. Recently we spent the majority of class where I was sharing with him about the 5 love languages and he was correcting my Spanish along the way. Every class is different and I really love it.
Thursdays, the activation days, are always so good. I haven’t made it to them much lately but, when I am there, its always so life-giving. For example, a couple weeks ago the teaching was on the Holy Spirit, and it was sooo good!!! After the teaching we went out with the gap squad into Parramos (A town right next to the base). When we go out on these days the idea is to Ask the Lord who he wants us to speak to and then go find them. I went with one of the Gap year girls and Aderkee (one of the Guatemalan men we have on staff). As we went out, it was a rough start. The first person we tried to speak with didn’t want to talk with us and actually ran away from us. It was a little defeating, feeling foolish for trying to talk to this man who obviously wanted nothing to do with us. Then I realized I’d gladly feel foolish if it meant that I was walking in obedience. I’d gladly look foolish attempting to love someone like Jesus. Faith is believing that we were supposed to reach out to that man and trusting that God will work out the rest. My obedience isn’t determined by someone else’s response to it. So we just turned around and continued on. In the end, we did end up speaking with 3 different sets of people that day, all of whom were christians.
One of them was a man who was watching us as we were talking with someone else. I felt like I noticed him for a reason so I went to talk with him. Aderkee and the gap year girl were talking with another couple, so I was going to have to rely on my own Spanish to get by. Once we get talking though, I found out he knew enough English and I knew enough Spanish that we were able to understand each other. (Thanks, God!) He said he was christian and would go to church when people invited him. When I asked why he didn’t go all the time, why only when he was invited, he shared that he was on dialysis and his pain keeps him from going sometimes. He was holding his daughter and when I ask her name, he tells me, “Her name is Genesis, like the Bible.” I asked why and he told me that when she was born he had promised her life to God. This was his first child with his wife, but she had been pregnant once before. She lost the baby at 5 months. So Genesis was their rainbow baby.
It was at this point when Aderkee had finished the conversation he was in and came to join us. The timing was perfect. After introducing them we continued on where we had left off.
The father said he felt like his daughter was going to be a singer in the church one day. It was in this moment that I knew why we were supposed to speak with this man. I asked him, “How is she going to sing in the church if you never take her?” Thankfully Aderkee was on the same wave length as me. We knew of a local church with a good pastor that was actually meeting in person. Aderkee invited him to the church and encouraged him to be the spiritual leader in his family. To go as often as he physically could for himself and his family. In that moment I got to see Aderkee step into his calling in encouraging this man and see that man responding well to the authority that Aderkee was walking in. We ended our conversation in prayer. We prayed for the man and his family. We prayed for his health and for him to find the desire to go to church.
Now I know it’s not about going to church, but for someone seeking prayer, desiring healing, wanting his child to grow in faith… well stepping into a church is a pretty good first step. In the moment I felt like that was what we were supposed to share with him. A starting point.
That was only one of the conversations had that day, too. There were 20+ other people on the gap squad out in the community that afternoon having similar conversations. Its moments like this that make me love Thursdays.
But Fridays… Y’all, Fridays are seriously the best! I absolutely love the house visits we get to do in San Lorenzo. Its these days that solidify in my heart that this is what the Lord has for me. There have been so many impactful moments, so I’ll quickly share just a few with you since this is what I’m actually planning to do if I move to Guatemala.
But first let me explain something. My job isn’t to just listen to these women’s problems, but to call them higher. It’s not just to share the gospel with them but also to teach them how to step into living that out. To call them into a deeper level of intimacy with God and a deeper ownership of their relationship with Him. God has so much more for their lives and I get to help show them how to step into that.
So with that being said, what a typical house visit looks like is us trying to find the house, which is usually pretty easy. There are the exceptions though. One time we had to hike across the whole mountain to find the house we were looking for. A bonus to doing this ministry full time would be counting it as my cardio for the week every time I go out! Here’s a picture I took one day while we were in the village.
Anyways… Once we find the houses we go in, sit down, and talk. This is where my Spanish classes come in handy. Rake does her best to summarize what’s happening but sometimes its hard to repeat everything. I use the little bit of Spanish I know to try and pick up what I can of what is happening. Using my limited Spanish and visual clues I can keep up pretty well sometimes. Though others not so much. Each time I just find myself praying, asking God what He wants to say in this moment. Then towards the end of our visits, Rake always asks before we pray if I have anything I feel like sharing. It’s in these moments that I have seen God move so much. These are the stories I want to share.
So, one woman was sharing with us of the troubles she was having with her neighbors. She shared that her neighbors claimed to be Christians but were being very awful to her. After a while she decided that if that is what it meant to be Christian, she wanted nothing to do with it. She shared she had recently began to start practicing witchcraft. Witchcraft is still a big part of the culture in the villages. So this isn’t uncommon to hear. As they spoke I prayed. I asked God, “I feel so unequipped. I’ve never been in this situation. How do I share your truth with this woman?” So when Rake asked if I had anything to share, I just spoke what was in my heart. I shared how its hard to believe that God is good when his people aren’t. We can’t see God, but we can see his people. And when those people don’t represent Him well, it tends to change our opinion of God. I just shared that people are flawed and won’t always do a good job of representing God well, but that doesn’t change the fact that God is good. Once I said this, Rake’s eyes lit up. As she translated it she filled in the gaps and you could tell the woman was touched. As we began to pray tears fell from all of our eyes.
Another moment was when a woman was sharing about her husband’s drinking problem. Here that is a huge issue. It’s not uncommon to pass a man laying passed out on the street daily. What was uncommon was how this woman spoke of her husband. She didn’t speak a bad word against him. She loved him deeply. She said he was a good man. That there was nothing bad she could say about him. He just had this one problem that he couldn’t seem to get over. This woman was saying how she wanted him to change. How he wanted to change. She said he would pray about wanting to change every day. That one time he prayed for 3 days and stayed sober but on the fourth day, he couldn’t withstand the temptation. Again, I begin praying and asking God what He wants to say. When Rake turned to ask me if there was anything I wanted to share, I was ready. I said, “You should pray with your husband.” You see he was praying, but she wasn’t. She admitted knowing she should pray with him, but was not doing it. We encouraged her to pray with him before he leaves for work. To pray with him when he comes home from work. That where 2 or more are gathered… We called her to stand in the gap for her husband. To not just believe that God can change her husband, but to ask for it.
The last story I’ll share is from the most recent visit we’ve had. The woman we visited was really heartbroken. She had been coming to the meetings when they were able to meet in groups pre-covid. She would go, but she wouldn’t ever speak. Everything was always fine. No issues. Nothing to share. But that day, in the privacy of her own home, she was finally able to share. Her husband had been cheating on her. This is also a common issue in the villages. I asked Rake after this conversation if women feel like they have to stay in the relationships even if their husbands are cheating and she said yes. The women will stay until the children are grown no matter what. So by her saying he was cheating, it was also sharing how trapped she felt. She made his dinner, cleaned his clothes, took care of the kids… She felt like she tried so hard for him, yet he didn’t want her. She definitely didn’t want to even think about God. She didn’t want to pray. She didn’t want to talk about God at all. Yet she knew who we were, knew that we would talk about God, and she still invited us in. So as I prayed, I felt at a loss. I’ve never been married. I’ve never been in her shoes. How can I begin to speak into this situation that I know nothing about? Rake turned to me, and at this moment I knew that Lord was with me. I would have had nothing to say, but the Lord gave me the words. I told her that believing in God when everything is good, is great. It’s easy. But believing in God when things are hard, when things aren’t good, that is FAITH. As Rake took over translating you could see the words hit home. Tears began to fall and we just prayed.
Y’all this is what I’m here for. This is why I want to move to Guatemala. This is what God has equipped me for. I clearly couldn’t do this without him. I wouldn’t even know where to begin, and thankfully I don’t have to. He is with me. Every single time. He is constantly reassuring me that He is giving me everything I need.
There are 2 other big moments in women’s ministry since being here that I want to share with y’all, but that will be in the next and (hopefully) final installment of the update blogs. If you have any questions about ministry or anything, feel free to reach out. I love y’all! Thanks for reading!
