Blessings...

Again I haven’t written in a while so here is finally an update…

At the beginning of July I spend 2 weeks back in the states with my parents. It was really restful and rejuvenating. I even got to spend a couple days in Colorado at the Cru staff conference, which was a special blessing and really filled me up and motivated me. I have now been back in Honduras for about 2 weeks and God has filled this time with many blessings, most unexpected.

First off, one of my best friends came as a volunteer here at the beginning of July and we have another week and a half together. It’s been really fun and encouraging being together. God has really blessed this time we’ve had together. 

Second, I have been relieved of one of my responsibilities here, which was supervising the cleaning up of our dining room after every meal. Let’s just say that in the last 4 months of having this responsibility God taught me a lot about doing something I really don’t like and dealing with a lot of poor attitudes (trying to get teenage girls to clean quickly with a positive attitude is quite hard). So this has been a huge blessing to not be in charge of that anymore. It’s taken quite a bit of stress out of my life/given me a bit more margin to breathe during my really packed days. I’ve been praying though that I would be a good steward of this extra time/energy that He’s given me as a result.

One of the things that I’ve been able to start as a result of having more time and energy are two Bible Studies at night for the older/high school girls that help out in the medium girls houses. I have been meeting one-on-one with about 12-15 different older girls, and have been creating my own devotional books (called The Gospel: My Hope, Freedom, and Power) for them but now we are joining together to study and discuss the Bible. It’s been going really well, the girls have been asking so many questions and are really engaged in learning more about God. They’ve also been quite honest about their prayer requests. So that you can join me in prayer for them, these are some of their prayer requests:

-That God would help them fight temptation

-That God would help them to forgive, not hate people who have hurt them, not hold bitterness inside of them

-That God would help them to love

-That God would help them follow Him

I also add to this list that God would save those who are not saved. Not everyone in these Bible Studies have truly repented and given their lives to God, some know this, and several are very unsure about their salvation. Please pray that God would grant them genuine repentance that they might truly experience His forgiveness, grace and love.

I also have been working on a choreography dance with some older girls from another house to perform in church. We will be performing tomorrow night during the Wednesday service, pray that it might minister to those who watch it. We are doing a dance to Kari Jobe’s song “You are For Me” (but in Spanish) which is a song that has meant a lot to me these last 6 months.

Also, I have recently been a substitute English teacher in the high school (7^th-10^th grade) for the teacher who is on vacation. I will be teaching for at least 3 ½ weeks total. I was pretty nervous about teaching these classes because some of the classes are really big (29 students) and I have to teach in Spanish. But it’s actually ended up being a blast. I’ve had so much fun and the projects I have assigned/am assigning I feel are truly meaningful. The project that they are finishing up right now is a timeline project where they describe their past, present and hopes for the future. Most all of the kids have worked really hard and many have been quite honest and transparent about their lives. It’s been so special to read their writing (often makes me tear up) and to see how proud they are of their work. The next project is a project where they will write from the perspective of someone from the Bible. Pray that this would make the Bible more alive, real and relevant for them.

Last thing, so at the moment I am not feeling called to stay at Orphanage Emmanuel long term for a variety of different reasons. I’m not sure what the Lord has in store for me for the future but I still long just as much as ever to be a missionary/in full time ministry. I also still care about Honduras and now that God has given me an ability to speak Spanish in a way I never imagined possible. Right now I am in the process of exploring other ministries in Honduras. Please pray for this process. God has already opened up some cool doors, and so we’ll see what happens as I begin to walk through some of them. This coming Sunday I plan to visit an English speaking church in Tegucigalpa that I found through the gospel coalition’s church directory and meet up with some people of some different ministries in Tegucigalpa. Please pray that God would guide me but most of all that I would just trust Him in the process and continue to do what He is calling me to do here at Emmanuel for the time He has appointed me to be here.