WHOAAH! Livin' on a prayer!
So today officially marks 5 weeks that I have been in Guatemala, the halfway point. Now that I have finally gotten used to life in Guatemala, it definitely does not feel like I have been here for 5 weeks. I also know that the last half of this internship is going to go by so fast!
We have a lot of stuff coming up that I am super excited about! This Saturday the three other interns and I are getting a day away from The Oasis, which all of us are really needing! We are going to climb Pacaya, the active volcano that erupted last May, and spend the day just marveling at God´s power in His creation. Needless to say, all of us are very excited! Next weekend, we are taking some of the older girls to a Christian music festival, Explo Music Fest, on Friday night; but I am probably most excited about that Saturday because I am making a day trip to Antigua (my favorite place in Guatemala so far) where I will get to see my sister who will be here from June 16-26 on a mission trip with The Village Church from Dallas. Getting to spend the day with my sister is going to be so wonderful! The next weekend all of the interns are taking a trip with the director of The Oasis and his family to Panajachel which is on Lake Atitlan. I have heard that it is absolutely beautiful, and I am going to love the relaxation!
With all of these awesome experiences taking up several of my weekends, I know that I am going to blink and the next 5 weeks will be over. No matter how great I feel here, it is still such a challenge. My biggest challenge right now is finding time to just be alone with The Lord and allow Him to restore me. I still catch myself trying to rely on my own strength sometimes, and I have to constantly check my heart to make sure that the love I am trying to show these girls is out of pure motives to glorify God, not to make myself feel good or righteous. As always, I miss home. I know being able to see Casey is going to be such a blessing from God, and I know I am going to enjoy that time so much!
God is refusing to let up on pounding my flesh and chiseling at my soul every single day. He has continually revealed sin in my life that basically revolves around pride, self-righteousness, and a lacking in faith. I never realized how much I tried to rely on myself before this trip and how little I understood that ¨my¨ strength is only provided by the grace of God. He is continually showing me how big He is and how small I am. I have been reading the Psalms, and it has been a beautiful encouragement! My time here will mean NOTHING if it is not powered by strength, grace, and love from the Lord. I am at awe everyday about His sacrifice on the cross and the grace that comes with that even when I ignore His sovereignty over my life.
I will close with an awesome story that is just a tangible example of an answered prayer: I had explained earlier in one of my posts about how the older girls had been taking a lot longer to warm up to me. One girl in particular wanted very little to do with me (the Oasis is trying to be very sensitive with posting names online so I will call her Dee). Dee lives in the house where I eat breakfast and dinner. She has been nice and polite, but had been keeping me at arms length. A couple of days ago, Lydia (another intern) and I were sitting outside singing a few worship songs in Spanish as she played her guitar. We started messing around with Revelation Song, which has a beautiful Spanish version. As we were singing Dee came up and asked if we could practice with her because she knew the song on the piano. Lydia played guitar, Dee played piano, and another Oasis girl and I sang. We ended up playing worships songs for almost 2 hours before dinner. It was a very sweet blessing. After dinner their youth pastor came over to pray over Dee. She has had back problems in the past, so we all prayed over her health. After the youth minister left she came and sat in my lap and laid her head on my shoulder. Neither of us said anything, and I just put my arms around her and hugged her. I had been praying that God would open up some sort of connection for us, so it was SO awesome to see that prayer answered.
I have so many stories already of God working here, and I feel SO blessed and SO humbled that God has given me the opportunity to see Him working in this place.
Please continue to pray for these sweet girls and for my time here to do nothing but glorify God!! Thank you to everyone who reads this, has been emailing me, and is praying for me. The support I have gotten has been SUCH an encouragement to me! This is definitely a very challenging, very tough time, but God is bringing me through it. His provision is always more than I ever deserve!
No comments:
Post a Comment