Hola amigos! Our team arrived today in Guatemala city and we are thrilled to be here. It was wonderful to get off the plane and immediately begin meeting people. One of the workers who helps people carry out their bags came and talked to us for half an hour as we waited for our contacts to come and pick us up. It was very encouraging for me to speak Spanish with such a friendly person and immediately I felt better about speaking despite errors because he explained that he was learning English in the University. Please pray for me because I can be inconsistent with my confidence in speaking the language, and it is going to take relying on the Lord each day to speak. I am our translator whenever the official Buckner translators are not available and I pray that this would go well.
The people here are beautiful. If you smile at anyone, they will meet you with a huge smile and everyone is so helpful. Guatemala city is a swarm of color everywhere amist the lush green mountains and crowded streets. There is a steep cliff outside of the window of the place that we are staying and we went out on the roof when we got here to see the gorgeous land. I am so excited to see more of this beautiful country as we will be doing some traveling by vans later this week to the Zacapa government orphanage. Upon arriving at the Buckner office where we will be staying, it was wonderful to meet the native men and ladies who work to keep the Buckner orphanage system running smoothly. So many times we think that missions is going overseas and packing a suitcase full of things to give away, but these people give their lives away every day to show the love of Christ to needy children.
Thank you for all of your continual prayers. I have some initial prayer requests before the first actual trip to an orphanage.
Last night it really struck me that I have had a mindset for a very long time about service and evangelism that must change. So many times I go into a ministry situation and expect things to happen immediately. I often peg ministry trips or opportunities even in my daily life as either ¨succesful¨or ¨unsuccesful¨ based on what I see happening in peoples lives before my eyes. When I do not see ¨results¨ I become discouraged. I love seeing peoples lives transformed to the point that sometimes this becomes the driving force, rather than simply an expression of my love to God. A statement at the orientation will stick with me this entire trip- no matter how much you give an orphan they are still broken. It really hit me that I am a fixer and often God calls us to simply love and share rather than trying to solve every problem and fix someones life situation. Yes we should be motivated to change someones situation if it is terrible, but it should be out of a drive and passion for Jesus Christ. I may not hear a single child or teen say ¨wow my life was really changed because of you,¨ but why do I need that? I must rather be motivated by the passion Jesus had on the cross and trust them to the Lord after loving them. Besides, someday those who serve our good God will step into the throne room and hear ¨well done, my good and faithful servant.¨ ... the best and most fulfilling words one could ever hear of affirmation. I need to let God do the fixing. I need to learn love with no conditions or goals. Simply an act of obedience out of love. Lord please teach me.
Please pray for the children. Many of them have been abused and we also learned that most are not true orphans. Many have been dropped off at orphanages because their parents cannot afford to keep them. We learned also yesterday that many of these orphans, even though they have family living in the same city, are seldomly if ever visited by their families. This can be equally as difficult as being without families completely because it sends a message to these children that not only are they a burden but also unimportant and unwanted. We must remember that God is good though. He sees each child and knows of their abandonment, mistrust and hurts. Pray that they would be open to Jesus Christ, the great Father, and complete healer.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
God's plans are always much better....Guatemala and Honduras.
Friends and family! Thank you so much for your prayers so far. Wow. I feel like I am about to jump out of a plane to skydive as I stand looking at the next few months of summertime. I cannot wait to see what is ahead.
Originally the plan was to try to work with Teresa Devlin in Honduras with a team of 4 for about 5-6 weeks. Plans changed because Teresa Devlin is having stomach problems and is in America right now receiving immediate medical attention. Please please pray for her. She is an incredible servant of the Lord and when she referred to her condition she called it a "small tummy problem." It is incredible to see that people who are serving the Lord consider themselves last even when it comes to their own health. However Teresa will be back in July at the music conservatory and stressed that she still wanted our team to come out and serve. We will be boarding a plane on July 16th and heading for La Ceiba. Andy, my dad and I will be serving in a music conservatory there. My dad is also praying about having opportunities to witness to the Guafano people in La Ceiba, a people group different from the hondurans. My dad has to return early from the trip to teach and will return in early August. Andy and I will fly home Lord willing August 10, and I head back to school and work the following day. I am so blessed to be able to serve with my dad on missions this summer, please pray that we would grow even closer.
After all of this was arranged I struggled with what to do for the first half of summer. I really felt that God wanted me in Latin America for longer but for some reason this door had clearly closed. About 3 weeks later an opportunity presented itself to work with Buckner Missions with a team of college students in Guatemala for 4 weeks from May 29 to June 29. My first question and concern was that this trip would cost far too much and I had a small amount of time to raise support. Then I found out that Buckner was scholarshipping language majors to be interns for Buckner through Hardin-Simmons. I applied, and praise God they accepted me. I am thrilled and excited to serve in Guatemala.
Buckner is a Christian foundation that has hundreds of orphanages worldwide. They also connect American families with orphans all around the world and assist in the adoption process.
We will be spending much of our time in the 3 orphanages in Guatemala for the month of June. I am so excited to meet the 6 other college students on my team and serve with them. Please pray that God would begin to prepare the hearts of the children that we will minister to. Please pray for the single mothers that we will encounter. Pray that Christ crucified and raised would exclusively be our loving and bold message. Please pray that we would have humble hearts that want to serve rather than force our way into peoples lives. Please pray that God would use my far from perfect Spanish to communicate the gospel and that all of us on the team will be able to overcome various language barriers. Pray for our health and safety. Pray for unity between team members. Pray for a healthy realization that God is the one who changes hearts and heals pain.
Once again I am completely overwhelmed with how God's timing and planning is far more than I can imagine. Once again, I mistrusted my savior in the planning process. I seem to keep thinking that I am in control and that if I don't make all of the plans, then God's will, will not be accomplished. But God, in his faithfullness and love shows me yet again that He knows the plans that he has for me, and he will usher opportunities into my life on his clock. I would encourage you that if you are stressed or beside yourself about a situation in your life that seems impossible to squeeze into your timetable of life, or timeclock, give it to God. Abandon it. Cast it far from you as a fisherman casts his line. If you are a child of the King, He has it under control. Psalm 139 looks into the wonder of God's intimate perception of the totality of our being. Yes it can be scary, but trust Him. He is so good. Rest in that trust. It was meant to be restfull not a burden!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers. You are all dear to me, and I am blessed to have brothers, sisters like you.
Originally the plan was to try to work with Teresa Devlin in Honduras with a team of 4 for about 5-6 weeks. Plans changed because Teresa Devlin is having stomach problems and is in America right now receiving immediate medical attention. Please please pray for her. She is an incredible servant of the Lord and when she referred to her condition she called it a "small tummy problem." It is incredible to see that people who are serving the Lord consider themselves last even when it comes to their own health. However Teresa will be back in July at the music conservatory and stressed that she still wanted our team to come out and serve. We will be boarding a plane on July 16th and heading for La Ceiba. Andy, my dad and I will be serving in a music conservatory there. My dad is also praying about having opportunities to witness to the Guafano people in La Ceiba, a people group different from the hondurans. My dad has to return early from the trip to teach and will return in early August. Andy and I will fly home Lord willing August 10, and I head back to school and work the following day. I am so blessed to be able to serve with my dad on missions this summer, please pray that we would grow even closer.
After all of this was arranged I struggled with what to do for the first half of summer. I really felt that God wanted me in Latin America for longer but for some reason this door had clearly closed. About 3 weeks later an opportunity presented itself to work with Buckner Missions with a team of college students in Guatemala for 4 weeks from May 29 to June 29. My first question and concern was that this trip would cost far too much and I had a small amount of time to raise support. Then I found out that Buckner was scholarshipping language majors to be interns for Buckner through Hardin-Simmons. I applied, and praise God they accepted me. I am thrilled and excited to serve in Guatemala.
Buckner is a Christian foundation that has hundreds of orphanages worldwide. They also connect American families with orphans all around the world and assist in the adoption process.
We will be spending much of our time in the 3 orphanages in Guatemala for the month of June. I am so excited to meet the 6 other college students on my team and serve with them. Please pray that God would begin to prepare the hearts of the children that we will minister to. Please pray for the single mothers that we will encounter. Pray that Christ crucified and raised would exclusively be our loving and bold message. Please pray that we would have humble hearts that want to serve rather than force our way into peoples lives. Please pray that God would use my far from perfect Spanish to communicate the gospel and that all of us on the team will be able to overcome various language barriers. Pray for our health and safety. Pray for unity between team members. Pray for a healthy realization that God is the one who changes hearts and heals pain.
Once again I am completely overwhelmed with how God's timing and planning is far more than I can imagine. Once again, I mistrusted my savior in the planning process. I seem to keep thinking that I am in control and that if I don't make all of the plans, then God's will, will not be accomplished. But God, in his faithfullness and love shows me yet again that He knows the plans that he has for me, and he will usher opportunities into my life on his clock. I would encourage you that if you are stressed or beside yourself about a situation in your life that seems impossible to squeeze into your timetable of life, or timeclock, give it to God. Abandon it. Cast it far from you as a fisherman casts his line. If you are a child of the King, He has it under control. Psalm 139 looks into the wonder of God's intimate perception of the totality of our being. Yes it can be scary, but trust Him. He is so good. Rest in that trust. It was meant to be restfull not a burden!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers. You are all dear to me, and I am blessed to have brothers, sisters like you.
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