Hello again friends & fam! I wanted to give you all an update on what my team and I have been up to. Last month, we spent in Chile and now we are in Argentina (country #3 already…what?!). We have spent a lot of our time as a team learning what it is to embrace this “Unscripted” life. To recap on what that means – it means our team travels from city to city in the countries we are in by the leading of Holy Spirit. It means we hold each day loosely in case Holy Spirit wants to interrupt our plans. We wake up and pray together each morning, and ask the Lord who is on His heart for that day. We keep our ears and eyes open for those who are on His heart as we live our every day lives and do simple, mundane things like going to the grocery store or hanging out at a coffee shop. God sometimes leads us to simply building relationships with the baristas or street vendors. I personally have struggled some days because I am a “doer” and want to see the fruit of what I am doing. Oftentimes with ministry or just in general, we want something tangible in our hands and want to be able to see what we are building. One of our leaders asked us at training camp if we would be okay if we were the third or fourth person to plant a seed in someone’s heart instead of the seventh – meaning are we willing to love those God is calling us to even if we don’t ever see the fruit? Man, that has been a pill I’ve had to swallow some days. We may not ever know the impact God made on someone’s life through us, because all we saw was a simple moment.
I want to share some of my favorite moments with you during my time in Chile. We spent about eleven nights in a little city named Melipilla. In my last blog, I shared with you about how this place was one that was unlikely for travelers to be. This opened up some amazing conversations about what we are doing. Our time in Melipilla started off by needing to find wifi, and looking up coffee shops in the area. We ended up at one called Carlota’s, and when we got there we found out they did not have wifi. But after meeting and talking with the owner – Sandra, we felt like we needed to stay and spend some time there. Little did we know, that God would lead us to go back there every day during our week and a half in Melipilla. We got to build relationships with Sandra, her daughter Tuto, and their friend Sergio when we visited them at work every day. Some days we just simply came and hung out, others we played card games with Tuto or chatted with Sandra. One day my teammate Brenna suddenly stopped on the street as we were walking to the coffee shop, and bought flowers for Sandra. It seemed like such a simple, sweet thing, but to Sandra it meant more than we knew. It happened to be a hard day for her that day, and we wouldn’t have known that if she didn’t tell us. It is so beautiful how Jesus knew she needed to know she was seen and loved that day. One of the last days before we left, we got to spend some time with them outside of the coffee shop. That evening we laughed a lot together and talk more about what our team is doing on the World Race. Sandra began to tell us how much it meant to her that we spent time at Carlota’s and how she has felt things have been different there since. My heart was filled with joy – because it was a beautiful picture of just how good God is. I must say that I have been beyond blessed by the kindness and the love of this woman as well, as she has inspired me in so many ways. We often come to places to share the love of God with others, but I find myself walking away more blessed by the people God brings me to. Here are some photos of our time with these beautiful people:
Another day, my teammates and I were planning on going to a neighboring town and to the beach, but our plans fell through. We then found ourselves just sitting in a mall talking to each other and a woman named Chana turned around and began talking to us. She was so interested in what we were doing and was excited to show us the restaurant across the street she was in the process of opening. She then invited us over to her house for dinner (what an honor!) and we got to enjoy Venezuelan empanadas and listen to Chana’s story. She is an incredible woman, and so were her sweet friends. We then sang worship songs with them and we got to hear our little friend sing her heart out, she had such a beautiful voice.
None of this would have happened if we had left Melipilla for the day, and it was beautiful to see how God ordered our steps that day so we could run into our friend Chana.
We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. – Proverbs 16:9 NLT
One of the first days we came to Melipilla, our team needed to go to a phone company and get sim cards. Our teammate Allison stood outside as we waited and began talking to a kind lady who worked as a vendor on the corner of the street named Jacqueline. From that day on, Jacqueline had been on our minds a lot, and we walked by and waved at her often when we saw her. We felt lead to bring her flowers one day – oh the joy beaming on her face when we walked up to her with them. It was the first time someone has ever brought her flowers. What a privilege that we got to be the first ones to do that for her.
She was so generous and gave us some popsicles from her little street corner shop. I was overwhelmed by the sweet love and joy of God in that little moment.
It was one of the hardest goodbyes I’ve had yet. This little city and the people God brought us to gripped my heart. We may not ever see all of the fruit of why God had us there or why He has us where we are now, but we get to trust that He is always working and we get to say yes to what He is speaking every day. This my friends, is only a glimpse of what I am learning on this Unscripted journey.
Also – I have about $3,205 to raise to be fully funded by May. If you feel lead to sow into this journey, it would mean so much. If you have any questions about what I am doing please also feel free to reach out! Thank you to all those who are praying. Love ya’ll so much!
