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.
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