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Be open to being interrupted.

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Be open to being interrupted.  This morning my plans for prayer time were interrupted. I had planned, as I normally do, to go to the chapel early in the morning and sit with the Lord there. But the lock was giving me difficulties this morning and I couldn’t get the door to open. So I chose to sit in our plaza and do my prayer there in the gazebo. As I sat there watching the sunrise and admiring the Lord’s beauty, I put in my headphones to listen to some peaceful instrumental music and began writing in my journal. I glanced behind me for a second and saw someone I knew walking nearby the plaza. I turned back to my journal and kept writing and then a minute or so later the person came up to me and started talking to me. So I put my journal down and took out my headphones. And I had a conversation with him and we talked for maybe a minute or so and then he went on his way. After he left I reflected back on all that and felt extremely blessed— the Lord can literally use all things for good
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I don’t know, but I know God works in everything for good for me.

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I don’t know, but I know God works in everything for good for me.  “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28  A few weeks ago my team leader tagged me in a post encouraging me to share a bible verse that was currently blessing me… and I am finally responding to that now. On April 17th I will have been in quarantine for a month, and on April 18th I will have been living in Peru for two months. Needless to say this isn’t how I imagined my second month of being in Peru. This past month of quarantine has been a mixture of stuff: It’s been filled with various joys, peace, struggles and lots of uncertainty. During this time in quarantine I’ve continually repeated this bible verse to myself to remind myself of the Lord’s goodness,  “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” This bible verse has blessed me during this time as there
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Welcome to Peru!

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Being molded and shaped. “But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.” -Isaiah 64:8 Welcome to the jungle! Welcome to my new home, Peru! Tomorrow I will have been here in Pucacaca, Peru for a week! How has it been? Honestly it’s been a paradox. This part of Peru is BEAUTIFUL and the people that I have met are lovely and welcoming but at the same time transitioning here has been HARD and BEAUTIFUL. I’ve been trying to think of how to describe what it’s like, what this last week has been and what I thought of as I reflected on this week is that during this time I’m clay and the Lord is molding me and shaping me— and that is good, beautiful and difficult. It’s hard to go against what I’m used to, it’s hard to change, it’s not easy to face the parts of me that the Lord is bringing to the light for me to give to Him to grow and heal in. And it reminded me that it’s so easy to stay where you are comfortable and not
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Allow the Lord to hold you in His arms.

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As I write this I’m sitting outside on the balcony outside our room enjoying the beautiful view of the lake in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. These past few days of being here in Guatemala I’ve been reflecting on the image of Christ holding me tightly in His arms. Simply knowing that He’s got this. It’s been a very helpful image to reflect on as I’ve been sick since this past Saturday with various symptoms that I had before arriving here (“Yay!” Welcome to my first week of missions!). But despite the struggle with that I’ve just had this peace and strength I don’t normally have when I’m sick. I would think that being in a different culture, learning a new language and being sick as a dog that I would be extremely stressed and questioning everything I’m currently doing. I’ve been debating this whole week if I would share the fact that I’ve been sick with all of you, but I couldn’t leave it and felt called to share this difficult but beautiful moment in my life.  This week through the
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Back home, and I simply need to keep my focus on Him.

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I simply need to keep my focus on Him. I’m back home in Michigan now! I returned this past Thursday afternoon and have been taking time to rest since arriving home. It’s usually difficult for me to relax when I know I have a to do list that needs to be worked on and only so much time to get everything accomplished. But this past week I’ve been fighting on and off sickness and once I arrived home I realized that I still had some symptoms and was forced to just be still and relax and recover. I’m still recovering now but have been feeling better than I did previously. During this time of recovering I’ve been trying to not freak out— again, I have a to do list of things I need to prepare and do before heading to Peru and when things need to be done I can tend to want to do all the things ASAP. But as I brought it all to prayer I felt like the Lord wanted me to put the to do list to the side for a moment and write out a post. If I’m being completely honest in this moment it’s hard for
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Week Ten: God works in all things

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The past week I’ve been wondering what to share with you all. I’m currently sitting in the patio outside the house that myself and seven other single ladies are sharing during the FMC mission trip this week. Before I came over here and got my laptop and sat down to type this out I had gone over to the church that’s super close to the house. I went there to spend time with the Lord but to also pray and see if anything would come up to me to share for a blog post. There have been plenty of crazy amazing beautiful moments that have happened since coming to Mexico and I just wasn’t sure how to share them. I came into the church and sat down and got my bible out and felt like the Lord said, “Matthew 25:40” which is a bible verse I know very well, “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to Me.” And I didn’t open my bible to that verse but simply sat there. I got up from my seat and was going to start singing a song (as I was alone in the church and I LOVE to sing.) b
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Week eight: Mexico!

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Week eight: Mexico! We made it to Mexico! As I write this I’m sitting in the little chapel inside the Family Missions Company mission base in General Cepeda, Mexico. We arrived here yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. We left early Friday morning, spend the night in a hotel in Leredo, Texas and then early Saturday morning we stopped at IHOP for breakfast and then went to the border and went through customs. God got us safely here and it’s kind of surreal being here, it’s hitting me more and more that this is going to be my life (depending on where I’m sent it’ll look a little different). And being here is just reminding me that throughout this journey I’m going to grow deeper and deeper in dependence on God. I will be going somewhere where I won’t know the language, the culture etc. This week we had some classes on inculturation and enculturation— and one of the things I took from what we went over is the fact that ultimately wherever I am sent I will be an outsider. I won’t know anythin
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