Month 11?!?!? What???? One year ago I was at training camp meeting the people I would go on this crazy journey with. My hands were shaking while I put my tent up and I scolded myself for being nervous. I knew that God was about to seriously rock my world and that over the course of these 11 months he would continue to mold me to be more like him.
And he sure has! God has broken chains I didn’t even know were there a year ago. He has shown me again and again the way he sees me and he has helped me to truly love and like who I am. He taught me that I’m a lot more capable than I think I am and he taught me to believe in my dreams.
I came out of month 10 on a bit of a high. I love Guatemala, and I really enjoyed our ministry and hosts there. God had me in a really cool place and he was teaching me some really cool stuff. Our ministry this month in Nicaragua was working at a children’s home on an island in Lake Nicaragua formed by two volcanoes. We did manual labor, played with the kids, and a lot of intercessory prayer. Sounds great right?
It was sometimes. But it was also pretty challenging in ways I did not expect. The kids had a lot of walls up for a variety of reasons. They strived to be independent and didn’t want to be coddled. They often rejected hugs, help, and various other forms of affection. But underneath all of that we knew and we could see how much they craved love, real love, the love of God.
Christ pursues us even though he gets rejected again and again when we choose sin and ourselves over him. So our two teams did our best to pursue the children as Christ pursues us and in the end they were eating up our love and affection. God softened their hearts and we were able to pour out his love on them.
To give you a picture of what my life was like on the island, here are 11 questions I asked myself in month 11.
1. Is this real life? We lived on an island formed of two volcanoes. Never in my life did I think I would do that.
2. Is this a pimple or a bug bite?
3. Is this a rash or a cluster of bug bites?
4. Why are my lips swollen?
5. When did denim cut off shorts become my fancy pants?
6. Do you think that kid is demon possessed?
7. How do you say “follow the rules or you can’t play” in Spanish?
8. Anyone want bubblegum papaya juice?
9. How many chickens are they gonna slaughter today?
10. is this mango ripe?
11. Do you think this paint will come off of me, ever?
yep there ya go.
