Hello friends!
This weekend we went up to one of the mountain villages!
What an amazing experience full of growth.
We spent the night with bugs and lizards and showered with spiders and toads. Sometimes God calls us to places we don’t feel at home in. It’s SO important to choose joy in all situations. Yeah, sometimes it’s way out of our comfort zone and uncomfortable but if we chose joy God changes our perspectives and blesses us with a new way of seeing things.
On that note! There were sooo many things that actually blessed me beyond measure.
Some little things I was blessed by were:
- children’s laughter
- Playing soccer
- The beautiful mountains
- When so many kids would come and play with my hair.
- Gods love in every smile.
- Childlike faith
On a longer note:
Today is Father’s Day and during the church service the love and honor for the fathers was shown a lot during the service. When the fathers came up to sit in the place of honor I cried in the club. You could see these men who had leathered skin, and rough hands dressed in their Sunday best come to the front. Wow, how powerful is that image, these men who have been working their whole lives to provide for their families led up by their little girls to be honored for that sacrifice.
Unfortunately by observing some of the behaviors of the little boys my heart felt as though some of the children were not being influenced in environments that exemplified the gentleness of the Lord.
Today was actually the first time I’ve ever preached a sermon in a church. To be honest this was also way out of my comfort zone. God just gave me so much peace and it’s an experience I’ll never forget.
I talked about relationship with our Heavenly Father and also challenged the fathers to continue to take after the example God has set on what a father should look like. I also commended them for what they do and stressed how much God loves us all, and no amount of mistakes or sin or shame can change His open invitation for us to be close to Him. (If you wanna know more just ask me personally!) Honestly I was so scared to preach and I just felt so unworthy to share the gospel by preaching. God yet again gave so much peace and confidence to me since I made the choice to follow His will and not my own. Regardless of whether or not what was said impacted any of the congregation, God impacted my heart and continued to promote growth in me as I am on this journey of identity.
After church this one particular father (his name is pronounced Sunday, I don’t know the spelling) came up and thanked us for coming and showing love to the community. This man is a co-pastor and he and his wife had such servants hearts. I was moved. This man works every day of the week an hour away just so he can for his family. He also helps with the church and his wife takes care of their home. In addition to that his wife and himself take care of children that are not their own. These children’s parents aren’t around to take care of them. You could tell by their actions that this couple was filled with Christ’s love and have a culture of kindness and uplifting love in their family.
I encourage you to pray for them and the whole village. Pray that they continue to have that culture of love and that God uses their example to change the hearts of the people who do not practice walking in His love.
W/love
Dana
