Beautiful Restoration

I wanna start it over

–Newsboys “Something Beautiful” lyrics

 

Our team had a bible study recently that lead us into a discussion about restoration.  Much of our conversation centered on the restoration that takes place when we come to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior and the promise of full restoration of all things when Christ returns.  The last ten and a half months have brought me to a greater realization about the restoration that takes place when we not only welcome Christ into our lives but fully surrender our lives to Him.  This restoration is not a one time occurrence but instead, it is a life-long process.  I have watched as the Lord restored the lives of complete strangers this year, drawing them to dedicate their lives to Him and as He has continued this process of restoration in my teammates and in me.  This process is often challenging and messy, but the end product and even the process itself are absolutely beautiful!

 

“What do people really get for all their hard work?  I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.  He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work form beginning to end.” –Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 NLT

 

My team and I had the pleasure of spending our 10th month of ministry in beautiful Panajachel, Guatemala.  While we were there we spent the majority of our time doing a great deal of manual labor from about 9am until 3pm five days a week.  The project was helping to tear down and begin the process of rebuilding an old hostel that one of the church members had inherited from his father.  The hotel itself had a poor reputation for being a place that many adulterers ventured to in their free time; however, the Lord’s plans for restoration of this place are beyond beautiful!  The couple that now owns this place feels called to rebuild this run-down hotel, making it into a Hostel for missionaries who come to work in Panajachel.  Their church, Mi-Reto, frequently receives short term mission teams who partner with the church in a variety of projects throughout Panajachel and the surrounding community.  Our work was only the beginning of what is to be done to this place to make it the place Martin and Alexandra hope for it to be.  However, I am very excited to report that the hostel has its very first team arriving this week-a Global Challenge team from South Africa who will continue the renovation that we started.