Team Joyous light is finally in Bolivia! We are currently in Santa Cruz for our off day, but most of our ministry is done in Lagunillas, Bolivia & the surrounding towns. This weeks blog is a couple of questions that we are asked to answer every week so that our squad leaders, mentors, and coaches have a glimpse of each of our lives and how we are growing and struggling! There may be a lot….. especially a lot of grammatical errors and spelling errors because I usually just type away and never go back to read it. (lol) But, through these C&C’s you can get a glimpse of what has been happening in Teamjoyouslight & my life!
So far Bolivia has been BY FAR the most beautiful country of South America. Although very hot, we have been blessed to meet such great people and endure some crazy adventures which i’ll hopefully write more about. I have officially ridden on the WORST bus ride every (which felt like a lifetime… especially when the bus driver decides that bladders don’t exist), have seen a road turn into a river & staking out at a goat house, and eating our poor goat friend.
How have you encountered the Holy Spirit this week?
So much has happened this past week. God has been teaching me what it looks like to die to myself. There were many moments where I was grossed out by the things we were eating (ex: we see a goat in the morning, and we eat it at night) or all the flies that surrounded the table stepping on our food and diving into our drinks. (To be respectful, we have to try to finish everything) I didn’t really enjoy trekking through sand for 10 minutes to get to our meals… nor did I like that I was getting darker every second (Pretty sure i’m 10 shades darker than when I started the race). But there was a day when we started doing house visits so that we could invite people to church, and God really reminded me that this is how people live… and in order to win people for the kingdom (through Christ of course), I can’t put on a nasty face every time I encounter something I don’t like… but reminding myself I need to die to myself and put myself in the shoes of Jesus. Jesus cared more about the souls he encountered than where he slept or what he ate. So who am I to complain about petty things like flies and sand… The Holy spirit reveals to me daily… places in my heart that needs to be set at His feet.
In what ways have you experienced the Kingdom of God in ministry this week?
We had the joy of serving alongside a medical team from Chicago. We got to serve some really poor communities by bringing them supplies, hanging out with the children in the neighborhood, pray over families, and enjoy one another presence. I loved how we were able to come together so quickly with the medical team and be able to assist them in anyway we could. It showed me what unity in Christ looked like and also being able to physically and spiritually serve these communities was also very encouraging to me. We were also able to see people get healed through prayer and some were even offered rides to bigger towns to get surgeries (for free!) Our contact, Phillip is super wise and so cool. God taught me a lot through serving alongside him this past week as well.
How have you helped to further the Kingdom?
I mentioned a lot of what we/I did above but another way I believe I helped further the kingdom is being intentional with my teammates in conversations. Going deeper and encouraging and challenging one another to seek the kingdom in relationships. Also, one of the pastors that we met the past week called our team “Rambos” because we revealed such patience and having a good attitude when our truck got stuck and was struck by a “mansoon” basically. We were able to also encourage some of the translators that were assigned to our teams and shared our experience about the race. I believe God has planted seeds in some hearts to even go on missions in the future!
How can your leadership team (coaches, mentor, SQL) be praying for you?
Please pray that i’ll have more Christ centered conversations with everyone I meet and am with. Pray that God will teach me what it looks like to feel for peoples emotional pains and heartaches. Pray that God will protect our team with patience and we travel a lot the next couple of days and also for protection and good health as we spend the night in some of the small villages (some villages don’t even have water). That God will allow miracles to happen in the communities that we go to & that we’ll be a team that reveals joy and light to our hosts and everyone we meet!
Glimpses via pictures below!
a. walking to our hosts house who prepares meals with us. b. House visits
c. Hanging out with kids during house visits. d. Philip sharing the gospel as the locals wait.
e. Our amazing team the past week. “TEAM RAMBO!” f. Handing out medicine in local schools and clinics
