A week ago, my family and I came back from my first ever mission trip and WOW- even in a short time as five days, THE LORD CHANGED MY LIFE IN SO MANY WAYS!
We traveled down to the little town of Tizimin, in Yucatan, Mexico, where we were not only welcomed with open arms by the amazing teams already there, but also by the beautiful people who lived there. Here’s a quick image of a peek looking down a typical street: every door and window is left open to try to get some air flow in the 80% humidity and 100 degree heat, with people walking, talking, sitting on the door steps, whizzing by on their motorcycles, biking, taxi’s zooming, children laughing and running, dogs barking and of course, the beauty of all of the colors on every building. Man, we as Americans sure like the boring colors of grey, brown and white, because it was nothing compared to the vibrant greens, blues, peaches, yellows and every other color of the rainbow splashed down every street!
But even this beauty has nothing on the hearts of every person I was blessed to meet. At the VBS we did in the morning and evening park events, the kids sang and danced with us, did crafts that went along with bible stories, played games (esp water games), and laughed as we tried and many times failed to pronounce their precious names correctly. In the streets during the day, I was meet with a generosity I had only heard of, and rarely seen, as we brought food and offered prayers to people who had nothing, yet still offered us the one chair in the house to sit in.
My heart broke to see these people- but it was not because of pity for them in their poverty. It was because their poverty from material things did NOT stop them from being rich in spiritual matters.
Now since I have been back, Jesus has been doing His thing. As I prayed that my time there would change those people’s lives in whatever way God could best use it, I was also begging Him to change mine. I wanted to come back and live the same mission live in America because the people here are just as beautiful and need help just as much. The very next few days I got back, God put some trials in my path that left me reeling and struggling. After the third night of being exhausted and trying to hold onto my patience and raging inside my head (cause ya know, I’m human too :)) I finally cried out: “God, where are you? How do you want me to live life as a mission if I still have tired days or get frustrated?? I want to do this, but it feels impossible right now!”
And right at that second, the words from the song on the radio registered in my head-
Your ways are higher,
You know just what I need
I trust you, Jesus
You see what I cannot see.
And I completely lost it. God used that to provide the answer to my cry.
He is simply asking us to trust in Him. We don’t have to understand why, because we don’t know what is good for us. He sees just what we need, what will make us stronger and He prepares us for it, knowing it will bring us closer to Him if we let it.
So after saying all that, Jesus has become my priority and I’m making it my habit to continually fall at his feet whenever I need help. It’s no longer my faith, that gets pushed aside for other things, it’s my faith that is incorporated into everything that I do. Like I said before, I’m human and I definitely have times when I fall, but I am learning how to turn back to Jesus faster and faster each time.
After this short mission trip, I am so ready and extremely excited to be able to have this blessing of an opportunity to be a missionary for 9 months!!! So as always, prayers please and donations to spread His kingdom are so so appreciated and welcomed!!
In Christ, Abby
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The lyrics are from the song I’m Listening by Chris McClarney and Hollyn
Strongly recommended;)
