Panama: Freedom. What an amazing way to start the World Race. I was at YWAM Panama City with my team. We had great hosts, great food, awesome staff and DTS students. The cold showers were even nice after the hot days. We went to a prison to minister once a week and we would work with the children’s ministry at Gamboa Union Church as well as work around the YWAM base. There was more downtime than I expected. I learned about true freedom through the prisoners and God worked in me to let me experience true freedom.
Costa Rica: Faithfulness. I was with my whole squad at Christian Light Foundation in Los Guido, a dangerous slum just outside of San Jose filled with drugs, violence, and abuse. My team went into a local school for ministry which was a lot of fun. But the schools had holidays and schedule changes so we were not there as often as we would have liked. When we were not at the school we were playing with the kids at the feeding center, just showing them God’s love. I got the pleasure of preaching in Spanish about Faith Without Fear. God showed me His faithfulness throughout the month and how He wants us to faithfully serve Him. I saw this best through a Christian teacher at the school who poured into her students. She taught them about God, they prayed, and memorized scripture. What an amazing example!
Nicaragua: Discipline. For November my team and I stayed with Eva and Milton. Eva arranged ministry for us which included teaching English in local elementary schools, doing house visits, painting ceramic lawn ornaments, and ministering in local churches. One of the most memorable moments was getting to preach in Spanish on the first night with a two song notice. I didn’t know what to say, but made a quick outline from Philippians 2 and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. This reminded me that we, as Christians, need to be ready in season and out of season. We need to be ready to share God’s love every time the Holy Spirit prompts us to or every time we are asked to. This started my month of realizing I needed to be more disciplined with my relationship with God so that I could always be fully ready. So I dedicated my month to reading more of His Word and praying more which turned out to be invaluable.
Honduras: Faith. Our last month in Central America ended in such a great way. My team and I were with Tree of Life ministry in Villa de San Fransisco where we helped with a children’s program twice a week, taught English a number of times, did door to door ministry twice, ministered at the psychiatric hospital and drug rehabilitation center twice as well. The other days we did physical labor at the ministry site where we built a soccer goal, built decorative stone rings around trees, and dug a hole for a septic system. Through a variety of ministry I saw God work in many ways. God increased my faith this month in many ways as I took time to seek Him more through prayer and fasting. Talking with my ministry hosts about their experiences tremendously increased my faith. I saw a new perspective that you don’t wait till all the money is in to begin a project or do what God has called you to do, but you walk by faith and begin the project in phases as the money comes in and before one phase is complete God will provide the money for the next part. That’s the kind of faith I want to walk in!
Thank you for all your support and prayers! This journey wouldn’t be possible without you. On January 5th we begin 3-4 days of travel to Malayasia to minister with our new teams. I am very excited to see a new culture and see what God has in store, but I am also a bit nervous too.
