Hola, amigos and familia! I hope this blog posts finds you all well. I’m officially 1/3 of the way through the race…which is so crazy!! Time is flying by. We just finished our third week of ministry here in Honduras, and while the country and our hosts are incredible, working at the special needs orphanage has been a little mind-numbing at times. A large part of our ministry this past month has been wrapping incredibly long, tangled spools of fabric into balls so the residence can use them to sew things. Monotonous tasks like wrapping up yarn have never been things I enjoy, and at times I’ve felt like I’m going a little bit crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve definitely been building some fun memories. Getting to have long talks with my squad, jam sessions, and bonding with the residence always bring me joy. However, it has been easy to feel like we’re not really making a huge difference or building kingdom.
Two Sundays ago, we watched an awesome sermon that spoke directly to my heart in regards to ministry. It was on Matthew 25 and the parable of the bags of gold. In the parable, a master gives one servant 5 bags of gold, one servant 2 bags, and one servant 1 bag. The servants with 5 and 2 bags of gold each put their money to work and their bags double, so when their master came back, they presented him with 10 and 4 bags. The master said the same thing to each servant: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness!” The third servant did nothing with the bag of gold he was given–he simply buried it. The master addressed him as a wicked and lazy servant, and had him thrown into the darkness. In Cambodia, it felt like God gave me 5 bags of gold. I felt so blessed by New Hope, and it was easy to see the fruits of our labor. This month, I’ve felt like I’ve been given a little less. But the reality is, that’s completely irrelevant. God is very intentional with what He gives us, and with everything he entrusts to us He wants us to experience Him in new ways. The amount doesn’t matter, but what we do with it is what counts. I want to hear God say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and that requires being faithful with the little things: the things that may not seem so important…the things I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen. The promise God gives us if we do this is so encouraging: “whoever has will be given more, and they will have in abundance.” At first, the abundance wasn’t very clear…but looking back, I can see how we got more work done in 1 month than the orphanage could’ve completed in a year. I grew so much closer to my squad mates, and I had some amazing talks with God, as I’ve been discovering so more and more about His character and mine. None of that would have been possible if I wasn’t forced to slow down and do a job I wasn’t excited about.
After I spent the week meditating on this passage and started to have a heart change, we found out that wrapping yarn was over (for the most part), and we were going to start painting the houses and singing in a choir with the residents for our second month of ministry here. Coincidence? Maybe..but I don’t think so.
In addition, this week Scarleth has told us multiple times this week that her and David have been so incredibly blessed by us. The country of Honduras is going through a tough spot politically right now (they have a very corrupt president), and she said that us being here has been so encouraging to her. She told me that she feels like our ministry this month has mostly been her and David. It brought me so much joy to hear this…we all love our hosts deeply, and knowing that we’re serving them well and building up their ministry is so incredibly fulfilling.
For those following the news on Honduras, we’re completely safe. We’re on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, and there is no violence near us. God is good, and we know He’s protecting us.
God bless!!
