Things are about to get busy. After 3 days of settling in, adjusting back to life in Ecuador, and catching up with Ruby & Fletcher, it is time for my first team to arrive! Tonight we will head to the airport to meet the team of seven from FBC Camden, SC. Mr. Fletcher and I will be joining them for their week of ministry in Machachi, which is about 1 ½ hrs south of Quito.
SBC Camden adopted Machachi in January; this will be their 2nd ministry trip. A leader in Machachi has agreed to allow this team to show movies in the theater on Tuesday & Thursday night this week. The theater holds 500 people! This is God’s workings! Can’t wait to see what will happen!
We will be working with children in the mornings each day. Our translators will be two sisters, Natalia and Cinthia. I met Natalia on my very first trip to Ecuador in 2005. It’s going to be a surprise for her that I am here! I can’t wait! I will be rooming with one of the team members who is also in her 20s. Her name is Brook.
Thank you all for your prayers! I’m praying for you as well!
Please pray for-
-Michaela, Meredith, & Jeremy – 3 high school seniors on this SC team… This trip is at a very transitional time in their life. Pray that they will be open to the Holy Spirit’s work in their hearts.
-Relationships to be built with the people in Machachi and the people we encounter will see Christ in us and begin to understand His Gospel.
-That I will be intentional in pouring into the girls this week. That I will point them to Christ by the way I live & through my words.
- My verse for this morning- “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, PROCLAIM THAT HIS NAME IS EXALTED.” Isaiah 12:4 Pray for His name to be exalted.
-My Spanish :-/
-My family at home
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Nothing Is Too Hard
"'Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is TOO HARD FOR YOU'...'Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is ANYTHING TOO HARD for me?'" Jeremiah 32:17, 27
On this promise, we embark on this summer! No matter what the day holds, what emotions arise, and what challenges may come, NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR OUR LORD!
I arrived in Ecuador last night. Ruby & Fletcher Dickerson warmly welcomed me into the country and into their home with brownies & icecream topped with whip cream and a strawberry! Mr. Fletcher bought fresh roses for my room!
Today through Saturday will be for adjusting to altitude, re-learning language, transportation, local markets, directions, safety tips, etc. I'm soaking it all in. This morning the Lord gave me His strength through 1 Chronicles 28:20-
"Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service...of the Lord is finished."
I am here to serve Him and I will choose to trust Him with all the exciting things and new things that surround me!
My desire for this summer is to gain a deeper understanding and love for our Lord and His Gospel and for that love to motivate a natural flow of joy & truth & hope to be displayed through my life- in words, actions, attitude, & disposition.
PLEASE PRAY-
- That the gift of my salvation & the love of Christ will change me & motive me this summer.
- For me to hunger for God's word and to diligently seek His face.
- For me to quickly pick up my Spanish again & to learn all the little things about being in Quito.
On this promise, we embark on this summer! No matter what the day holds, what emotions arise, and what challenges may come, NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR OUR LORD!
I arrived in Ecuador last night. Ruby & Fletcher Dickerson warmly welcomed me into the country and into their home with brownies & icecream topped with whip cream and a strawberry! Mr. Fletcher bought fresh roses for my room!
Today through Saturday will be for adjusting to altitude, re-learning language, transportation, local markets, directions, safety tips, etc. I'm soaking it all in. This morning the Lord gave me His strength through 1 Chronicles 28:20-
"Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service...of the Lord is finished."
I am here to serve Him and I will choose to trust Him with all the exciting things and new things that surround me!
My desire for this summer is to gain a deeper understanding and love for our Lord and His Gospel and for that love to motivate a natural flow of joy & truth & hope to be displayed through my life- in words, actions, attitude, & disposition.
PLEASE PRAY-
- That the gift of my salvation & the love of Christ will change me & motive me this summer.
- For me to hunger for God's word and to diligently seek His face.
- For me to quickly pick up my Spanish again & to learn all the little things about being in Quito.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Truly A Blessing
Tonight I received what seems right now to be one of the greatest blessings! My dear friends- Jessica, Liz, Kelly, & Robin- made a trip to Henderson to visit me. I leave for Ecuador in 4 days & this is a week when I could not come to them. They brought joy & love into our house. They brought fresh perspective & encouragement!
Their being here allowed me to see my mom in a new way. It allowed her to be apart of some exciting events in their lives & thus to truly share in mine. It allowed her to share her heart & her legacy of being a seminary wife & a godly mother. She offered wedding planning resources & wisdom on biblical womanhood.
Sunday School this week is about everything we have belonging to God. We are stewards of what He entrusts us with. The friendship I hold with these dear girls belongs to God. Tonight they were diligent and faithful stewards of that friendship. Cultivating Christ-centered relationships. Living as one like-minded body.
Just when I thought my heart could not be any more full, I opened up a small package delivered by the girls, sent from a friend's parents. This precious friend is one of my best friends from college who is making much of Christ by teaching overseas. Inside the package was a stack of cards. The card on the top of the stack said "Open before you leave." I figure that applied to tonight :) Inside was a letter explaining that these cards were to open any day in Ecuador that I would like some encouragement and a word of prayer. My eyes flooded with tears.
When my heart was already overwhelmed with the gift of friendship, our gracious, generous Lord blessed me with this small package that is worth a million! It has been a night full of the loving friendships that I share with my mom, my sweet friends from this chapter of life, and an incredible friend & her family both from the previous chapter & the present one- ALL of them pressing me on towards unconditional obedience to Christ.
Tonight was truly a gift from the Lord.
Their being here allowed me to see my mom in a new way. It allowed her to be apart of some exciting events in their lives & thus to truly share in mine. It allowed her to share her heart & her legacy of being a seminary wife & a godly mother. She offered wedding planning resources & wisdom on biblical womanhood.
Sunday School this week is about everything we have belonging to God. We are stewards of what He entrusts us with. The friendship I hold with these dear girls belongs to God. Tonight they were diligent and faithful stewards of that friendship. Cultivating Christ-centered relationships. Living as one like-minded body.
Just when I thought my heart could not be any more full, I opened up a small package delivered by the girls, sent from a friend's parents. This precious friend is one of my best friends from college who is making much of Christ by teaching overseas. Inside the package was a stack of cards. The card on the top of the stack said "Open before you leave." I figure that applied to tonight :) Inside was a letter explaining that these cards were to open any day in Ecuador that I would like some encouragement and a word of prayer. My eyes flooded with tears.
When my heart was already overwhelmed with the gift of friendship, our gracious, generous Lord blessed me with this small package that is worth a million! It has been a night full of the loving friendships that I share with my mom, my sweet friends from this chapter of life, and an incredible friend & her family both from the previous chapter & the present one- ALL of them pressing me on towards unconditional obedience to Christ.
Tonight was truly a gift from the Lord.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Beginning with One Mind
"...one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel..." Philippians 1:27 This is it. This is where the summer begins. With C-N-C and my North Henderson family, with my SEBTS brothers and sisters, and with my dear friends from all parts of life- past and present. We share in this one mind. Different lives. Different circles of influence. Different ways. Even different countries. But one mind set on making much of Christ.
"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." Philippians 1:27
"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." Philippians 1:27
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Be With Jesus
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3
As a greedy American, I have for so long gotten hung up on the Father’s house have many room, being big, and me having my mansion next to my friends mansion or Moses’ mansion. First of all can you imagine the different pictures of mansions the disciples got of Moses would’ve gotten if he were told such things about heaven> We would all have pretty different pictures of mansions, wouldn’t we?! On a golden street of Heaven there would be some very different mansions, maybe an Ancient Egyptian style castle for Moses, a Roman style mansion for the disciples or a elaborate lake-house for the former fishermen, and something off MTV, HGTC, or Extreme Makeover Home Edition for me. It all sounds pretty ridiculous if you think about it and actually make it past that verse.
The next part says the purpose for all this preparation of a place for you and coming back to get you is so that “WHERE I AM YOU MAY BE ALSO!” The point of all this is we will be with Jesus!
Greed and wealth for material things is NOT the point! Jesus has just washed the disciples feet, eaten the Passover meal with them, and has been talking weird all night about not being with them much long. He’s been talking about dying and what they should do when he’s gone. And they are like- “Wait a minute, where are you going?!” Not only that but he has just told one of his own betrayal (though none of the other eleven pick up on it at that point.) He told Peter not only that he was NOT going to follow him but that he was going to deny him three times before morning! Which seemed to Peter quite unbelievable. They are all probably feeling a little shaky about the future, about all these strange things Jesus is saying, and about Him leaving. So Jesus shifts gears and tones at this point and tells them not to be trouble because I’m gonna build you a mansion when I die? No! Those were not the words of comfort at that point! The man whom they have lived life with, day & night, the one they trust, the one they trust as Teacher, Lord, Savior, and the Son of God (though they did not understand it all at that time) was going to leave them, die and they were Not going to stand by him through it! What would have comforted and “let their hearts not be troubled”? Not that they had a big mansion with their name on the mailbox, but that they would be with their Jesus again!
What if that was the greatest desire and comfort in our lives? Just to be with Jesus? What if that’s the part of Heaven and eternal life we longed for? What if what we longed for was NOT the end of pain, suffering, tears, deal and all the other wonderful promises in Revelation 21:4 but rather what we longed for was just to BE WITH JESUS? How radically would that change even our daily pursuits? If that is what we are longing for, for eternity, then don’t you think we are going to try to soak up as much time to be with Jesus in the here and now as possible? Won’t our thoughts, motivations, and even actions change if the greatest comfort and joy is to be with Jesus both now (in part) and for eternity?
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