Yes, Mr. Bon Jovi, we are in fact halfway there and livin’ on a prayer…or quite a few. Inspired by a recent blog by my lovely friend and former teammate, Hailey Crump, I thought I would remind you of some of the amazing things that have happened as a result of your prayers and support during the first half of this race. In case you’re just now reading this blog for the first time and would like to know what’s been happening, I’ll post links to my favorite stories from each month as well.
In The Dominican Republic…
We jumped into the Race full swing…
God started off by confirming the calling he placed on each of our lives to be here this year. Read the amazing story HERE.
God used us to find a man of peace in a village that really needs a new church to be planted. Read the story HERE.
We met this 81 year old man who couldn’t read his Bible because the print was too small so we got him a new, large-print version.
We led a Bible study in San Juan in English to help some of the university aged students practice and also learn about God.
We saw so much idolatry and spiritual warfare in this very spiritually dark country.
God used us to help pray over this place and the people in it who are caught in bondage. Read one of the stories about our encounters with spiritual warfare HERE, or watch a video about it HERE.
On our last day in the DR, God used our squad to save four children from their burning house, and then he miraculously put out the fire with three jugs of water.
Although difficult at times, the DR was an amazing month in which God showed himself faithful to help us as we sought to help a nation in need of his love.
In Ecuador…
We were so blessed to be in the amazing village of El Reten in the western rainforest. The people literally took us in as their family, and we got to love on their precious children.
We hiked through the rainforest to do VBS in a remote village.
Several children accepted Christ at the VBS.
This adorable little boy adopted me as his tia (aunt).
This sweet little boy, Pablito, was another one of our favorites. God healed his mother and restored some of the other relationships in the town while we were there. To read about his mother, Victoria, click HERE. To read about the blessings that came after her healing, click HERE.
In Peru…
We lived in the city of Trujillo, on the edge of the Peruvian desert.
We helped the local Alliance churches with construction projects.
We also helped with a VBS.
God protected our team from having to be present while our apartment was getting broken into and robbed…note the police investigator in the background. My lovely teammates got me some yummy snacks to make me feel better about all my stuff being stolen.
We spent time in the village of Miramar building relationships and praying for people.
We also got to spend a little time at the Trujillo city dump and love on the kids there.
In Nicaragua…
We lived outside the towns of Chinandega and Chichigalpa with this as our backyard.
We worked with a ministry called Vision Nicaragua and spent most of our days hanging out with people in the village of Bethel.
We played with the beautiful children of Bethel.
We helped paint at the Vision Nicaragua compound.
We were asked to learn some choreographed dances and perform at a few night crusades in the area.
To see a video of Team Wreckonciled and our mad dancing skills (or lack thereof), click HERE. To see a video that my teammate, Tiffany Prater, made of all the dance moments throughout Latin America, click HERE.
We again got the opportunity to do some ministry in the local city dump.
For a really cool video that my teammate, Joel Dutton, made about our ministry in the dumps, click HERE.
The most impacting part of the month for me was getting to hear the stories of the people whose lives are being destroyed by the chronic kidney failure epidemic in the area.
God prompted our team to film a documentary about the illness and its effects in Bethel. We are still working on the translation and editing, but when it’s finished I’ll post it on this blog. Most of the men cannot afford adequate medical care and desperately need to be sponsored to be able to improve their quality of life as they deal with this sickness. To find out about sponsoring one of the men of Bethel, click HERE.
In El Salvador…
We worked and lived in San Rafael Cedros, about an hour from San Salvador.
We did a lot of door to door ministry and spent time with people in their homes praying for them.
We also did some skits at local schools for the children and their mothers.
God healed several people before our eyes. To read about Leno and his incredible story, check out my teammate Joy Robertson’s blog HERE.
He also healed this woman, Jesus, and inspired her son to start going to church again.
This is the Assemblies of God church we worked with.
During our last week we worked with a ministry called King’s Castle to do live children’s events in a village near San Rafael Cedros.
Our team did a lot of preaching, so I got to do a lot of translating.
On our last weekend there we helped the church with their youth retreat.
As part of the youth retreat we performed a skit.
In Thailand so far…
We have seen how beautiful this country is, but also how deeply the roots of Buddhism run.
We spend our days visiting the local university inviting students to come to the cafe that LightHouse in Action runs. To find out what crazy activity is happening in this picture, watch the video HERE.
We have been working with the girls and ladyboys in the bars at night here in Chiang Mai, getting to know them and hopefully helping show them what freedom looks like.
This is my friend who works at the bar we go to. She is incredible and has a life story that will break you. I’ll be blogging about her several times in the near future. Please pray for her, because she is in desperate need of freedom but is a little scared to reach out and grab it.
We are also visiting the local slums every other day. The children here are often sold into sex slavery, and LightHouse in Action wants to prevent that.
This sweet little girl is Nam. Our team has been getting to know her and seeing some signs of abuse in her life. We are working with LightHouse to hopefully get her some help. Please keep her in your prayers, and I’ll write a blog about her soon.
Due to the theft of my camera and the loss of all my pictures from the beginning of the race, many of these are borrowed from Joy Robertson. Thank you:)
We could not be doing this work without the prayers and support from everyone back home and around the world. Sometimes you don’t get to see what your prayers do, but don’t think they are not effective. Please keep praying for us and for the people we are meeting and ministering to. We have ten more days here in Thailand, and then we head for Kenya. Thank you so much for helping to bring the Kingdom around the world!!
