NOTHING. (Other than attend my Aunt’s wedding this Saturday and Thanksgving with the fam…but you get the idea)
This is where I need to be. This is where I am called. This is where I will remain.
I’ve been a World Racer for like what, 6-7 weeks now and it’s been quite the experience. To put it in better terms I guess you could say the “Honeymoon” stage is over. I have been pushed in places I never wanted to go. There were times when I would ask myself if this is all worth it. There were also times where I’ve felt the most alive in my life. This is quite the rollercoaster ride God has designed. I’ve waited in line for 23 years….I’m
READY.
Current Location: Jojo’s House (Not at the house you saw in our last Cribs video) in Diriamba, Nicaragua
We have seen God move in many ways this month. To briefly explain what I’ve been doing this past month, we are traveling Evangelists (I like to refer to us as touring Rock Stars for Jesus). We are working with a ministry called Vida y Luce Internacional (Life & Light International). We travel to different churches each evening and attend worship. One person from team gets chosen to preach the message each night. I have preached three times so far and will be preaching this weekend as well. The first church I preached at was AMAZING! It was on the Island of Ometepe out in the rural area. Outside the church door was Volcano Concepcion, so that definitely made for an awesome backdrop. I had time to prepare a message, so early that morning I wrote up my testimonial and tied in some scripture and a message of hope to be included. I was nervous at first, but I knew when it came time for me to go up and preach, the Holy Spirit would just take over and I would just flow throughout the entire message.
We got to the church and I immediately felt peace over my nervousness. What really made me feel comfortable is that the worship team did two Hillsong United songs (I absolutely LOVE Hillsong United). It felt really cool to be up there in front of the church and just speak the words of God. That was one of the moments where I’ve never felt SO alive in my life.
The second time I had to preach was in San Carlos. We had just got done doing house to house visits in the middle of nowhere and when we got back to our house at 2pm, Pastor Alberto wanted to me to preach….at 5pm. I was like, oh junk….i’m tired and I have no idea what to talk about, but PA just wanted me to share my testimony again because he really enjoyed it. Since the sun goes down at 6pm every day by the time it was time for me to go up and speak it was already dark. So one of the church members went and lit a candle on the table which gave me just enough light for people to see me. The candlelight service was quite an intimate touch!
The time we spent in San Carlos was so amazing. We took a 14 hour ferry ride from the Island of Ometepe to San Carlos. We stop at a market to buy hammocks to hang up ($5 USD) at the ranch and for future use (best investment yet!). We took a chicken bus for an hour and half to literally the middle of nowhere. We drove by a house on stilts and I thought to myself, that’d be kinda cool to stay there and sure enough the bus stopped and it was our stop. We soon found out that the little pueblo we were staying at had NO running water and NO electricity. We were going to there for four days. Yikes!
It took us about a day before all of our computers and ipods all ran out of batteries. I took my first bucket shower for the first time. Umm… AMAZING! I’d choose to take a bucket shower over a regular shower any day. We spent most of the day playing games with the kids and visiting homes with the local Pastor. We would read scripture and pray over the families of each home. We would hold a children’s service where we would sing songs like Father Abraham and perform dramas such as the story of David & Goliath. The adult service followed afterwards and it was full of singing and praying. The place we had Church service was actually not evening a building. It was four poles and a grass roof with benches inside. It was no bigger than an average US living room.
The third time I preached was in Masatepe. We thought it would be a normal service as usual, but as we were walking to the place of worship, we noticed a bunch of people in chairs on the street. Oh junk. They blocked off a road for our service that night. There were well over 100 people there and I was about to speak in front of all of them! I was excited and nervous at the same time. That evening, I spoke a lot about God’s gift of wisdom. I dug really deep into Proverbs and had a few verses from James (I have notes if you would like them). As usual, God definitely stepped in and I felt honored to speak His words. The crowd was very receptive, and my teammate/translator Lindsay did an AWESOME job!
It has definitely been a challenging month for our team. We are drained physically from all the walking house to house all day and traveling from place to place. Spiritually, we running on E because we have poured so much OUT and haven’t been poured IN to very much. We went from last month where we got to build relationships and see immediate results, to this month where we travel around the country every few days. The longest we’ve stayed in a place was nine days, other than that we’ve spent 2-3 days in each community. Now don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy this ministry. We get to meet and talk to lots of new people every night. The men we are traveling with have been SUPER supportive and caring. The other day as we were heading home, I had a really rough day, and my team needed to stop at the grocery store. I didn’t want to go in, so I went across the road and sat down. I thought about what happened that day and started to tear up a lot, not like actually cry, but just a lot of tears. It’s a long story-I can email it to you if you want to know. Pastor Alberto, Jojo, and Lionel saw me tearing up and came over and put their arm around me asked what was going on. I couldn’t really communicate what was wrong because my Spanish isn’t very strong, but using the Spanish I know, I was able to tell them I was okay. I remember Pastor Alberto say “What’s the matter? I’m a Pastor. You can talk to me about anything.” I quickly got myself together, but I don’t know if I could’ve done it without the guys’ help! They are quite funny, so that always keeps it entertaining. But most importantly, they are incredible Men of God.
*Support Update*
So a lot of have been asking about my support account and its progress. I just feel so humbled that so many people care about how I’m doing in that department. I’m still blown away at people’s generosity to give to the Lord in order to help me stay out on the field. THANK YOU SO MUCH! As reported last time I made it over the 5K mark. Our next deadline is December 31st and the amount needed is $10,000. Right now I’m nowhere near that amount, so if you have any ideas on how to help me get there, I would definitely appreciate it. J I’ve got to experience how good God is throughout His Kingdom and OH MAN!, I’m just SO thankful for all my supporters who have helped me experience it!
I’m off to go have Thanksgiving dinner with my World Race Family. We’ve got quite the spread going on! Even though they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Central America, here’s what we managed to dig up:
Myself and Tracy made real mashed potatoes.
Mary Mary made “The greatest grape salad ever.”
Ash-Tree made a noodle dish.
Beks is making green bean casserole.
I’m also doing the baked beans.
L-Dob is making Apple Pie .
Ash-Tree and L-Dob are making Dump Cake (It’s a North Carolina thing?)
Dex Mix is doing the Turkey and Plum Cobbler (Them Georgia boys can cook! Ohh-wee!)
We are also inviting our ministry contacts over for Dinner so they can experience the beauty of Thanksgiving!
I want to wish you ALL a safe and happy Thanksgiving! I wish I could be there to celebrate with ya’ll, but Diriamba, Nicaragua is where the Lord wants me to give Thanks this year!
