Well, it has OFFICIALLY been a week by the time all of you A W E S O M E people are reading this! I’m currently writing it on Sunday, the 13th, but our wifi here is very limited so we are only uploading once a week.
We are currently serving in Urraco, Honduras. We are part of Zoe Church, a ministry based in the Word of God and thriving off the presence of the Holy Spirit. Their goal is to help cultivate more mature believers in Honduras and the nations, to disciple, to live out the calling of salvations, restoration and a better life.
We have the privilege of working side by side with Pastor Rony and his family. They have been such incredible hosts for our first month of the Race! They treat us like family, have opened their house to us, and feed us like family too (hallelujah). We’ve been busy with community evangelism, house visits, church services, kids feeding programs and have more crazy awesome opportunities coming up this week, including evangelism at a BANANA factory!! So excited to tell y’all more next week.
So far, adventure has been —>
6 nights slept on my sleeping pad
5 incredible and weird teammates
4 books I brought to read
3 dead mice (one having been found in a big pack)
2 geckos (I LOVE geckos)
1 shower
and approximately 3,590,283 mosquito bites. Though, let’s be honest, my best guess is mosquitos, but the gnats and flies here seem to be carnivorous.
I can’t seem to decide on whether the messiness of this life is endearing or a little off-putting, but I think it’s actually this big beautiful swirl of both. It’s off-putting to have flies landing on your face as an alarm clock in the morning, but there’s beauty in it.. to have 3 (and counting) mouse murders on your hands, yet there’s humor in it. I think in this life, you can find whatever you’re looking for if you search with the right perspective on like a good pair of glasses. God gives us grace to see the good and the funny in situations that would otherwise pull out frustration. He doesn’t expect us to go through life with this pharisee lens where everything has to be serious and religious all the time: He knows that some things are going to happen and we need to be able to not just relate to the seriousness but see the beauty in the mess and the humor in the unexpected. Rigid rules don’t make very much room for a God who does out of the box things. He can’t be contained and measured because He is so undeniably present and creative in how He has crafted the world and our lives. That leads me to believe that He wants more for us than looking for the serious piece in every situation.
I think that He wants us to look for the humor, the laughs that cause tears and stomach aches. I think that He wants us to look for the beauty, the part that colors our every day existence more vividly than we could have imagined. I think that He wants us to find the joy in the circumstance, the in-your-bones-and-never-leaving-because-it’s-made-a-home-there joy.
HIS sense of humor.
HIS beauty.
HIS joy.
HIS revelation that can be different and new and fresh in each thing you go through.
It might sound silly that these small things have been teaching me some bigger lessons, and don’t worry: I’ll get to the super cool ministry stuff we’ve been doing on my next blog. But for now, humor me.
I didn’t exactly thank the flies on my face for waking me up with the sun. I didn’t think my world was colored more brightly after killing mice that have been eating out of our food. But I can surely look back a few days after and laugh that I’m here in this place after years of dreaming, and my alarm clock is a fly. I can see the beauty in staying in this incredible community that just so happens to give us a few mice for roommates. I can absolutely say that there is joy here.
And I know God will work in me enough that I don’t need a few days to see the endearing parts of those circumstances I currently live in – I’ll live in the midst of those moments, laughing and thanking God that I’m finally where I’ve dreamt of being for so long.
In the middle of His will.
I can’t hit snooze on this alarm clock, and I’ve never been so glad to say that.
