After 1 missed flight and an overnight stay in Atlanta, our team arrived back to the Philly airport on the 4th of July. By the grace of God, we left behind a trail of freedom in many cities of Honduras. If I didn’t have The World Race to look forward to, I don’t think they could have dragged me back onto the plane! My heart is so full of love for the people of Honduras. The Lord did so much that there is no simple way to cram it all into 1 blog, so there will be more to come over the next week before I leave for training camp in Georgia. I stayed in PA for a few days visiting a missionary family that serves the medical community of Philadelphia. It was so beautiful to reconnect with them after serving with them 5 years ago in Texas.
Check-a-leck-ey (that’s OK in Spanish), now to the question on all of your minds “How did it go?”
AMAZING! We spoke to hundreds of women (and some men) every day, and the Lord showed up for them in a powerful way each time. Don Le, Catacamas, Tegucigalpa, Castilla Del Rey (Kings Castle), and Campamento Del Rey (Kings Camp) are just a few of the places I remember the names too, though my heart remembers the people and faces and meeting with the Lord.
It felt like there were 2 ‘parts’ to my trip. During part 1, I really struggled with the language barrier. My heart wanted desperately to connect, but I felt stuck and lost. Even the first few times I shared, I felt like I wasn’t connecting with what the Lord was wanting to speak to the people, and didn’t know if I was even reaching the womens hearts. The first place we spoke, we were treated to a beautiful meal by some of the pastors wives in the region, then arrived just as service was starting and were ushered to a place of honor at the front of the sanctuary. It all sounds great, but it was aweful! I didn’t even get to see the beautiful faces of the women I was about to speak to until I was at the platform. My heart longed to connect, but I felt like I didn’t know how. Also, in this service, and a few others, all 3 of us were cramming our messages into 1 service instead of the 3 separate services for the big conferences we were doing. My self-doubt was in full swing and I felt like I had to change the message the HS (Holy Spirit) birthed in my heart in May. The Lord is faithful and the reports we got back were good. The women enjoyed getting 3 short power-shots of essential info. The Lord moved during the alter time and many women let the Lord work in their hearts. I wish I could have known more about what God was doing in them and felt lost not being able to minister to them in a language they could understand. What a lesson in trusting the Lord to do the work. It truly is HE who changes hearts and lives. At the very end, one woman asked me to pray for her and I was able to have a translator. She ended up giving her heart to the Lord that night. What a beautiful night! I also am told that Hondurans do a wonderful job of following up with people who give their hearts to the Lord and was assured that they would connect with her and help her begin to grow in this new relationship. What a blessing. After like 3 days of this kind of experience, I was feeling so drained and empty. Once I identified what it was and why, I was able to bring it to the Lord, and take a new perspective. Once I did, the second half of the trip was like having my batteries recharged every day! I found ways to be intentional about connecting with someone in some way before service, started sticking with the message the Lord gave me for the women, and just sat back and watched Him work. There were so many beautiful times of ministry where all I could offer was the embrace of the Lord. That was all I needed to offer. He was doing the rest. I also grew in confidence that I was hearing from the Lord. (more on this to come) When He gave me a specific message for someone, I went to find a translator, and got to deliver the words of hope and healing HS gave :0)
This is getting long, so I will stop here, and fill in blanks over the next few blogs. Feel free to leave any specific questions you have or things you want to know more about :0)
