As some of you know, my October deadline is quickly approaching to have $11,000 in my account, and after that in December, $15,500. Please consider supporting me as I continue on my race to 8 more countries around the world. I am so incredibly thankful for the generous donations that I have already received and I praise God in advance for already funding me through my whole race- because I know He has, and sometimes all you need is a little faith J.
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Nicaragua has been a great month so far! My team and another team are with Vision Nicaragua for the month and we have loved our stay so far. We have been blessed with beds and fans and I couldn’t be happier. I had forgotten what it felt like to have a bed to call my own. It has been different being just with my own team and another, but it has been such a joy to dive deeper with teammates. We have dedicated our month to property work on site, going to different villages to talk to locals, spend time with the kids at Bethel, a city that Vision Nicaragua has provided hundreds of homes to, and to the orphanage that Vision Nicaragua partners with. The orphanage is a beautiful piece of land that farms their own food and houses their own cattle. They have acres of different organic fruits and vegetables that they plant and harvest themselves for both eating and selling for income. We have been able to farm alongside them this past week- its been amazing to get to know the workers and to be a small part in their community getting fed. We have also been able to play with the kids that live there. We spent one afternoon playing yard games with the kids and they absolutely loved it. Excited to spend more time with them the rest of the month.
Vision Nicaragua sits right in front of a huge volcano and it is quite stunning. At night, we have witnessed some of the most beautiful sunsets. The past few weeks of being here, storms have been a regular part of our day but the lightening that comes along with them are a sight to see. After the rain comes, hundreds of fireflies light up the grass at night and they twinkle like Christmas lights. Those fireflies always seem to remind me that in darkness, there are always glimmers of light.
One day while it was storming, our teams decided to embrace the rain and we began to dance in it. After a long day in the sun, it felt good to get absolutely drenched from head to toe. A wise man once told me that he believed water in all forms is holy. And when I began to think about it, I realized that he is absolutely right. In my life, rain has been a constant reminder of change. When I studied abroad in Ghana, we moved around every 2 weeks to different parts of the country. Each night before leaving, we were hit with storms that devoured the sky. After about 2 months of this, my teammate pointed this out to us. It was like clock work. From then on, every time a season of change is coming on, whether it was the day of my graduation from college, the days leading up to, during, and after training camp, the nights before leaving Guatemala and Nicaragua- it always rained. And with this rain came change. It cleansed me of the past and led me into a new chapter in my life. The last few days I have spent the majority of the day worrying about getting funded. It has been a constant on my mind. Yesterday the clouds formed and the rains fell for what seemed like forever. And standing in the rain I realized something- I need more faith in God that my funds have already been provided for. I am reading the book, The Circle Maker, and in the book Mark Batterson talks about different aspects of prayer and praise.
“This is going to sound sacrilegious, but sometimes you need to quit praying. After you pray through, you need to praise through. You need to quit asking God to do something and start praising Him for what He had already done. Prayer and praise are both expressions of faith, but praise is a higher dimension of faith. Prayer is asking God to do something, future tense; praise is believing that God has already done it, past tense.”
So instead of focusing on having funds come in, I have started praising God for the funds that He has already provided to me- and maybe those funds aren’t in my account just yet, but I have faith that they will be soon enough. Rain washed away the doubt that I have had these past few days and entered me into a new season of trust in God. So next time it rains, go dance in it. Because water in all forms is in fact truly holy.
