Hello all of my beautiful people!
Wow what a month this has been! So much has happened over the last few weeks! So here it is: The Good, The Tough, and The Wrestle!
So let me catch you up a bit on my life over the last three weeks!
The Good
We spent close to a week in Quito for debrief after finishing ministry. It was a good time to just kind of relax and just to spend time with Hope (our squad mentor) and our coaches and debrief the last few months. During this time I was approached by our squad leaders and was asked to step down from leadership. This wasn’t because of anything I had done wrong, just because they felt like it was a time for me to rest and enjoy the race as a racer and they asked Sam to step into the team leader position. Initially this was a bit of a shock and slightly upsetting but I had full confidence that they were listening to the Holy Spirit and I fully trusted their decision. During debrief, Hope had talked to me about “listening prayer”, a concept I had never really been able to fully grasp until such a shift had come about.
And let me tell you, it’s changing my life.
So I spent some time listening to what God had to say and one thing He spoke to me was that He doesn’t want me to find my identity in being a leader, instead He wants me to find my identity in Him, and Him alone. And this was confirmed when Zach had given me feedback the very next day that was pretty much the exact same words that I wrote in my journal.
So this abrupt shift in my race determined the way I was going to go about the next month, and hopefully the rest of my race.
It sparked in me a desire to dig so deep into my relationship with my Daddy and to seek out a deep and intimate relationship with Him. I decided that in order to fully pursue that relationship I needed to get a bit more serious. So I told myself that for this month I was not going to connect to the Internet unless for blogging purposes (hence this blog post). And man, am I so glad I did! It has been such a wonderful time of just focusing my time and my energy on Him and in just the few short weeks that I have been doing it has been rocking my world. So after this month I have decided that the only time I will use the Internet for Facebook, Instagram, Skype, email, or any of that will only be around the beginning or end of each month. It excites me so much knowing that this is truly going to be a great time of growth, I know it won’t make mom very happy but I know she’ll be happy for me! This is going to be a great time of abandonment and reliance on Him!
After debrief we began our trek to our next ministry. After 52ish hours on a few different buses, we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia! We arrived to the neighborhood of San Francisco, now don’t let this name fool you, we are living in the straight up ghetto, yes the hood. And it’s great! I’m talking about gang fights and people getting shot. I know it sounds a bit scary but I’ve been loving it! And I have really felt safe because our host is so well known and there are ALWAYS locals with us. We have formed so many wonderful relationships here with the kids and the locals! And everywhere we go we hear people yelling from their houses “Gringos!” It’s like we’re famous! We’ve spent a lot of time playing sports with the kids, teaching English classes, and building relationships with a few guys by the names of JJ, Smiley (Delvis), Hollman, Wader, and Reynoldo. These dudes are just such solid dudes that love to have fun and seem to be so hungry for Jesus and it has just been great to pour our lives into them and hear the questions they have.
The Tough
Now there have been some incredible times living in the hood, but a few times that haven’t been the best. For example, the time that my backpack got stolen with my bible and journal in it. We were playing basketball with some kids from the neighborhood and I had my backpack and water bottle clipped onto the fence and I turned around to look for it and it was gone. Initially I told myself, “Well at least it was just a bible and journal, nothing of crazy monetary value.” Until I realized that there was so much more value in those two simple books than any other monetarily valuable item I have. It has been a tough past couple of days especially since I have just been digging so deep and really enjoying the time I have been spending in both of those books and then they disappeared right behind my back. My only hope is that my sword will do some work in the life of whoever took it.
The Wrestle
Finally, God and I have had a bit of a wrestle the past month. The first week we were in Cartagena, we went to a small basketball/soccer court to play sports with some kids. As we were there I met a young boy by the name of Elias. As I was taking a break, he wanted to introduce me to his younger brother Eliseo. Initially Eliseo didn’t move very much and I was kind of confused. Then Elias picked him up, put him in a wheelchair, and pushed him over to me. He was very quiet and didn’t talk very much and I was not really sure what to do but then the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray for him, so I obeyed. I found out that he has been battling muscular dystrophy since he was born and he is now 7 years old. So I asked if we could pray for him and he and his grandmother agreed. So Zach, Sam, and myself began praying for him. I was on my knees praying for this boy and I was so sure that this kid was going to get up out of his wheelchair and begin walking and that we were going to see a miracle. I kept thinking about the story of when Jesus was healing the paralyzed man that was brought to Him by the 4 friends. After finishing praying I reached out to the boy and asked him to stand up.
Then, nothing happened.
So we went back to where we were staying and I just couldn’t help but think to myself, “Why?! Why wasn’t this kid healed?!” And I began to wrestle with God and began listening to what He had to say about the situation. And as I began listening, He revealed to me that we are not going to be the ones that heal anyone, we are only the ones that are called to bring these people to the feet of Jesus like the 4 friends in the story, and He will be the one to heal them!
So it’s been a month of ups and downs, twists and turns, but it has been such a wonderful month and I’m just so excited to see how God will work over the next few months!
My challenge to you is to cut out some of the distractions in your life and take your time to listen to how God wants to speak to you. Write it down. And let it change your life.
Listen and He will speak.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…”
-Revelations 3:22
