rHello everyone!!
I want to apologize for being so late on posting my first blog. I know I have yet to post since I have been on the field and I am so eager to tell you all how much your prayers and support are making a difference!
However, God needed me to take these past four weeks to truly process all that has happened here before I began to share it. He is teaching me how to process what I experience on a daily basis….a lesson that I had no idea I even needed to learn!
Wow has it been a trip.
El Salvador is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. As soon as our plane landed, I could feel God’s presence here. I can feel Him in the mountains and I can see Him in the faces of the people. I experience Him in the kindness that everyone here shows me, from the sweet lady at the church who never fails to greet me with a huge smile and hug to match it to our incredible host family who has done everything that they can to make El Salvador feel like home. God is present here.
So far, scheduled ministry has consisted of feeding the locals on the streets in homeless ministry, singing and praying with the kids at kindergarten ministry, preaching and singing (yikes!) at church services for the church and for the youth group, and visiting the children with cancer and terminal illnesses at the local hospital and praying for them the their families.
As for me, God is working in my life in the most unexpected ways He is teaching me to learn lessons that I thought I had already learned and is showing me more about myself than I ever thought I would earn on this Race…and it is only month one! With all of this being thrown my way and being in a new country with a new culture and a new language….I needed time to process.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize before the Race how bad I am at processing.
I am a live-in-the-moment kind of girl. I would rather experience a moment to its fullest rather than take pictures or write down what happened that day. I would rather experience a moment or an emotion and then move on to the next moment or emotion. While this is a quality that can be wonderful when used properly, I have come to learn that I don’t like to deal with what I am feeling. Especially if it is negative emotions. And I was so out of tune with that fact about myself that I didn’t even realize how much I was shoving under the rug and not processing through.
That was the first slap in the face.
The second was realizing how much I had under the rug to process. And only from few weeks on the field! Luckily, with the help of God, I have been able to begin the process of processing, starting with accepting the fact that I have a lot to learn about things that I thought I already had down….such as processing.
I am so glad that I serve a patient God.
The Lord is such a gentleman, gently knocking at my window, waiting for me to open it so He can teach me and reach the areas of my life where I thought I was pretty polished.
The Lord has brought so much scripture to my attention these past few weeks, (also an area where I wasn’t expecting to need growth right off the bat….funny how God works) I wish I could share it all, but I will share a passage from Psalms 139:23-24.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous ways in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
That is why God has called me here. When I a felt the Lord calling me to this place, I heard him say, “Go, and be with me here.” I am learning what it means to be with the Lord where he needs me to be. Not only is he completing his God works through me and my team here, but he is searching my heart and leading in the way everlasting.
I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to be with the Lord In El Salvador, Malawi, and the Philippines for these nine months. There is so much that He is so eager to teach me, and He knew it was something I couldn’t learn where I was before. And thank you for letting God use you, both prayerfully and financially, to carry out his ministry here in these countries. I am constantly in prayer for you all, and I pray that the Lord continues to complete his work through you. I have seen homeless people in the streets, terminally I children, and locals in churches come to give their life and their heart to the Lord as a result of the ministry we have been doing here, all made possible because my supporters at home allowed God work through them to support such ministry. I cannot thank you enough.
I can’t wait to keep you more regularly updated on what is going on here! May the Lord continue to bless you all and always be with you! Hasta luego!
