I want to give a big shout out to the Hanson family for adopting my Nicaragua jar. The Hanson family has been so supportive of my journey, providing daily encouragemen. When I recieved their jar, it was filled with coins, really sweet personalized notes and bracelets. One bracelet has really stood out and I haven’t taken it off since June when I received the jar. Can you find it in a picture?
So the reality is I love Central America, I love the counties we have been too (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua). Each month has been incredibly challenging, pushing me out of my comfort zone to areas that I have always tried to avoid.
El Salvador and Guatemala gave me a reality check, forcing me to looking into my past to see sin that I didn’t know was even there.
Honduras gave me a chance to redeem past actions, to try again and learn from a really good 14-year-old role model. I was learning to forgive myself and give myself grace, the same grace that the Lord gives, yet I wasn’t giving to myself.
Nicaragua taught me to love, to love like the Lord, to love like mans best friend, to love like a child desperate for affection. I was learning where I could find joy in the world around me, and how I could use that joy to fill my cup.
A lot of Nicaragua was learning about serving from my overflow. Each of us has a cup from God, the cup has all of our own strength in it but without Gods strength these cups will never be full. Just think you wouldn’t buy a drink at a restaurant and pay the full price but only get half of a cup. The other portion of the cup is filled by God’s strength, it is so full that the liquid inside overflows beyond the rim of the cup. It is like a constant waterfall of liquid strength from God that will never run dry as long as you allow God to continually fill your cup. When you rely on yourself to fill the cup, it will never reach the top, it will never overflow out of love and you will never know ALL that you are capable without God. The REAP Granada team os all about filling each other’s cups so you are serving it of God’s love. This is exactly where I want to live, to have a constant overflow of strength pushing me on.
Obtaining this overflow was relatively easy, I just had to be here and people would pour into me. I never asked for this, but I also never knew I could feel so full! As we enter Africa and over the next couple of days my mission is to find out how I can be filled to the point of overflow so that I can serve God’s Kingdom out of the same overflow.
To all all the people who have been praying for me and my team, thank you. No matter how big or how small the prayers may seem they are so appreciated. I ask that you continue to pray for my new team!, travel days and adjusting to our new ministry, host and community. Africa is a different word full of spiritual warfare, I have been doing as much as I can to prepare but more prayers can and will always help.
Sorry about the giant pictures, I don’t know how to edit the six on my phone. I’ve been dealig with some computer difficultie, maybe God is telling me I don’t need my computer and I’ve been too attached to it the last 4 months or really 24 years of my life.
