Hi friends! Sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted a blog! Wifi has been really limited but I have a few blogs coming! Here is a blog from the beginning of the month! Enjoy!
We’ve been in Nicaragua for four days and it has been nothing short of amazing. On a remote piece of land surrounded by mountains and banana trees, R squad and Fusion came together for a few days of rest and restoration. We came for an awakening.
The realization that we have been on the field for ten months now, and will soon be going home has started to hit all of us. A lot of us came to awakening tired and drained. Traveling the world for ten months is not easy, and if you aren’t careful, you might start to rely on your own strength. You might skip your quiet time in the morning because you feel exhausted from ministry. You might hide and watch Netflix instead of pouring into your teammates because you just feel the need to escape for a little bit. Most racers are guilty of this at some point.
God knew we needed an awakening. He knew we needed a refreshed spirit. He knew we needed his strength to help us through the last two months. He knew all of this, and in his infinite goodness, he had Adventures in Missions do something they hadn’t done before. We had an awakening.
If you were to come on this piece of land right now you would see tents pitched everywhere. You would see eno’s and a couple people squished in them. You would see racers and locals playing ultimate Frisbee and kickball. You would see a lot of laugher, and a lot of rest. But you would also see racers, locals, and local missionaries pursuing the Lord. You would see breakout sessions focused on prayer, meditation, long-term mission work, and healing. You would see beautiful, free, worship.
You would see racers encouraging long term missionaries to keep going strong, to keep chasing the Lord, to keep walking beside him everyday. You would see long-term missionaries pouring into racers with advice and encouragement. The few days on the farm gave all of us strength. It gave all of us the rest we needed. We learned quickly that physical rest isn’t enough. We need spiritual rest. We need to rest in our Father and that is exactly what God gave us.
We had sermons, worship, and breakouts all centered on the idea of waking up. We were challenged when we first got here to wake our spiritual life up. If we were awake, we were supposed to stay awake, and then wake others up. So what does being awake in Christ look like?
It means actually having a relationship with him. It means realizing he is your friend, not just some guy far away in the sky. It means listening to him, and not just talking his ears off. It means looking to him for guidance. It means trusting him and his strength. It means praying constantly. It means devoting yourself to worship, quiet time, and the word.
People think racers and long-term missionaries are the perfect Christians. They think we are always in step with God and that we never experience spiritual dryness. They think we never run empty. But that isn’t true. This awakening came at the perfect time. It restored the ones that were running empty. It gave them something to cling to. I think it was equally as important for the people that came in full. It gave them information to fight through the dry season when it comes. I can see a difference in the racers. I can see how a lot of us came in empty and needing God more than ever, and I can see how they left. Full, ready to fight, ready to pour into others, and back in step with the Holy Spirit. We woke up.
