I have spent nearly all of my entire 25 year alive voyaging around the globe in the name of Jesus. I have been immersed in radiantly diverse cultures, made friends among all sorts of people groups, and have been encapsulated with new beautifuls languages each month! From the astounding foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal, to the rich lava sand beaches of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. From the dumps to the slums, to the halfway homes and straw huts. I have seen so much and have been blessed to be apart of so much more! Within the tragedy, the oppression, and poverty I have seen life starting to blossom. I have seen many people come to Christ and experience true freedom for the 1st time! And still I have witnessed years of rock solid faith that has blown me away at how they follow the Lord so closely, and it came from people in the most humble of humble of situations your mind can ponder. The Lord is at work all over the world, and it is good folks! The media will never cover it, nor will the world recognize what is happening, but amidst the constant barrage of bad tidings, the Lord is at work in so many ways across this world, so many hearts are being changed for eternity! If you want in, all you have to do is sacrifice your own life, give up somethings, to come and witness it for yourselves! 🙂
You can see the number 25 has great meaning to me now. It is a representation of my pursuit of the Lord. A symbol to all that have journeyed with me physically and spiritually. And a reminder of the things that I have had to sacrifice, even the things that I never new I had to give. Like the 25lbs I have lost so far on the race!!! Yup, who knew I had that to give! Officially weighed in at 66kgs on the airport scale in Chisinau, Moldova. Most of yall that know me are probably reading now with a bit of jaw drop, haha, but don’t worry God had another little lesson in it all! The Rabbi mever stops teaching those He loves!
I knew the race would be a sacrifice and I knew the Lord desired my everything as I journeyed forth. Yet now, in this last month of the race as I look back I never would have guessed the sacrifice would be to this magnitude. I have had to sacrifice more than I thought; some expected, some not so enjoyable, and obviously some sacrifices came to pass without my knowing! But as I slowly begin to give what I never knew I had; God brought me to a deeper level of understanding with Him! Again to a place I never expected to go. I got to explore new avenues of my Father’s heart; to see, feel, smell, and experience how His heart yearns for His people. I was able to experience the physical presence of His Spirit and true unfiltered joy in full on worship! As I poured out some what begrudgingly God poured in what I really needed! You see, when He calls us to give and we self-willing step into that sacrifice we end up giving more than we ever thought we could (kind of like my 25lbs). And out of that we are rewarded with so many gains from our Father that bring us life in ways we could not bring for our own selves. Folks, our Father in Heaven truely does know our needs and always takes care of us, we just have to drop some things before we can handle the enormous gift that is coming!
Well ministry in Monjas, Guatemala has come to a close. We nearly completed clearing a huge section of land by hand to make way for a bean crop to be planted. Last year farmers in the same area came away with 2-3 bags of beans, yet Shadow was blessed with 19 bags of beans!!! It was a privilege to work that very same land, andpray that God continues to shine through the ministry at Shadow. Being the 1st WR team there, we had a chance to talk more with the leaders there about who we are and ways teams can be utilized in the future. We were able to established a great relationship with Shadow this past month and pray that the relationship will flourish for future teams to come and be the hands and feet of Jesus in whatever way they need! Shadow of His Wings is an epic organization involved heavily with equiping the upcoming Guatemalan generation for a future with the Lord here on earth. They take kids often times from abusive situations and raise them at shadow with the coolest house parents around! Seriously a great organization, if you have a heart for Guatemala I have a hook up for you!
Our boy Jace at Shadow hooked us up with a sick beach house in El Zante, El Salvador; where the waves are fierce… (extreme days quote) but for real 10 foot rollers for days! My team and I were blessed to spend 2 days of r & r there. A pool, lava sand beaches, and boogy boarding! From there we journeyed 4 hours across El Salvador to La Union to meet up with the rest of the squad. After 6 hours of waiting we cast off from shore in boats at sunset to cross the Gulf of Fonseca! It was a gnarly wet ride (for most) that ended up last 3 hours. At port, we spent another couple of hours waiting on a complaining immigration officer, but finally got through to make the remaining 4 hour ride to our hostel. A solid way to top off the last major travel day on the race… WR record setting, haha!
We just arrived in Granada, Nicaragua where we are partnering up with the ministry know as Reap Granada. They are involved greatly in the community here, and started it all just by walking the streets forming relationships with others. We will be helping in Bible studies, prison ministry, kids ministry, and feeding programs! It is month 11 and this is my last stop before home toward the end of May! Please pray with me that God will bring clarity and wisdom for my next steps post race! Thank you so much for supporting me this far! Just 1 more Month!!!
