My trip was actually two parts. The first three weeks, I was in the Rio Grande Valley which is by South Padre. There, my team of 21 and I were divided in half. The first week, we were all together doing a Vacation Bible School in a “colonia” and 2 church services. The second week, we were split and had an equal amount of work to do. My team visited Buckner’s Children Home in Harlingen and a Children’s Hospital, held 2 VBS (one in a church and one in a neighborhood), and participated in 2 more church services. The last week, we were all together again. We partnered with a local church called “Casa de Oracion,” which means “House of Prayer,” and held 2 worship nights in the surrounding community and one college seminar at their church.
While I was in the Valley, God showed me:
· That He gifted me to work with children and music. The second week when we went to one of the church services, my team thought that we were simply going to participate in the service; however, when we arrived , they told the congregation that we would be leading music and preaching the sermon. Wow! In thirty minutes, my friends Denise and Cheko and I prepared to sing. I had been in choir for 12 years and never sung a solo in English on stage, but my friends and I sung in Spanish in front of the congregation. Through that, the Lord showed me my passion and gift of worship through song. I am not sure how He is going to use that in the future, but I am pretty sure that He will.
· That He has for sure given me a passion for the Spanish people.
· More of how to relate to non-Christians.
· Many more things, but these were the big ones.
The second part of the trip, I went with a different team of 11 to Nicaragua. Although my mom joked that I was going there to be on the show “Survivor” (they are in Nicaragua this season), my team and I partnered with a local church and went door to door passing out discipleship books one per family. Most of us were in teams of 3 or 4 Americans and 3 or 4 Nicaraguans; however, I was only partnered with the pastor of the church. In total, the whole team passed out over 5,000 books and walked over 72 miles (This averages to 8 miles a day, which was a lot compared to my normal of 0 miles a day. Lol )
While I was in Nicaragua, God showed me:
· that He desires for His children to follow Him close enough to be in constant communication with Him. It is not about making the right decisions or going in the right direction. Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Through walking with the pastor every day, I learned what it means to truly walk with someone instead of just walking the same path. Many days, I was too tired to keep up and wanted to simply sit down, but by walking with pastor I was able to learn so much more and enjoy it more also. It is the same way, with our walk with God. It is not just about walking in the right direction on the right path, but truly walking with our God daily in prayer and reading our Bible. As cliché as that sounds, this was a huge lesson for me.
· Love has no boundaries. Despite my inability to speak Spanish and communicate with the Nicaraguans, I was still able to love them in action by praying for them and serving them in whatever way I could.
· That everyone is poor in their own way. Although the Nicaragua people live on less than $1 per day, their love for each other and their family shines brightly. They are willing to work hard for the gospel to be spread because their passion for God is built around Him. They love God for who He is, not for the physical provisions or simply because everyone else is worshiping God. They are also extremely servant-hearted. Many days, they would carry our bags without us even asking. One lady got up a 3:30 every morning to clean her house, make food for her family, and then be at the church to clean up our mess and pass out books with us. Nicaraguan love is extremely genuine, selfless, and rich.
· To be thankful for all the provisions I have in America.
· How to simply rest in Him and trust Him instead of constantly being busy in service. Despite our discomfort and lack of “necessities,” the hardest part of the trip for me was the fact that I wasn’t busy doing something at every moment. As many of you know, my normal life consists of 3 jobs, 2 ministries or organizations, and a lot of hanging out with people. I love everything that I do and in which I am involved, but God showed me that I was loving to serve Him more than simply loving Him. It was so hard for me to only pass out books in the morning and have the whole afternoon and evening to relax. At first, it frustrated me that we weren’t doing more, but then I just started sleeping 5 hours when we would get back every day. I felt extremely guilty for not doing something and sleeping instead, but then God showed me that He was only providing me with a time to rest and read His word which is equally as important as acts of service.
· Every individual that has ever lived on earth, that is living on earth, and that will live on earth is made in God’s image. We all, no matter who we are, have His fingerprints on our character and lives. Sometimes I have a hard time seeing this in people, instead I see their sin. The Lord definitely challenged me to start looking for His character in every individual that I meet and know.
The greatest thing that He showed me over the trip was that He loves me. Last semester, I was studying the gospels in which the major theme is God’s grace. I found myself unable to admit that God would love me. I have made so many mistakes and even when I try to right, I do wrong. I simply didn’t feel loved by Him. I knew what the Bible says and could tell anybody and everybody that God loves them, but telling myself that God loves me was extremely difficult. I daily prayed for the Lord to show me that He loves me. I did not know how He would or even if He would answer such a selfish prayer, but I prayed in the hope that He would. Oh how He answered this prayer of mine! Two nights before we left Nicaragua, we had a service with just our American teams. Our leaders read the passage out of Matthew where Jesus washed the disciples feet and then washed our feet. Next, the missionary that we had been working with noted how we were all sitting out on a patio in a circle of rocking chairs. In the middle, was a table with about 20 beautifully painted and polished miniature vases. In the center of all them, was a vase that was neither polished nor painted. Then Loren, the missionary, had us read Isaiah 53 which states:
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He asked for one volunteer to read each verse. I raised my hand first; however, I read verse five. Right before I read, the Lord almost audibly said, “Katie, I love you. I am about to amaze you and remind you how much I do. This verse is important.” I don’t remember any of the other verses being read aloud, but I remember reading verse 5 and word by word, God revealed to me personally His love for me. I thought He was done there, but of course the Lord always has more planned for ourselves than we do. After I read the verse, Loren asked me to come to the table which now only contained the unpolished vase. He handed me a hammer. He asked me to just like the verse said, crush the vase which represented Jesus. How could I crush it while it represented my Lord and Savior? I tried to smash it three times, all the while shaking my head no in my inability. Loren then whispered to me, reminding me that Jesus chose to be smashed and broken for my sin, for our sins. As my heart pounded and my hand shook with the hammer, thoughts ran through my head, “How could Jesus Christ choose that? And all that we can be with Him forever? We are so undeserving, we have turned our backs too many times to count. Why, why would He joyfully, die for me? Love. He loved me so much that He chose to die for my life and my sins. He took my penalty for my sin, for my brokenness.” Loren then helped me crush the vase, embraced me with encouragement, and told me to sit back down. Wow, how God answered my prayers and faithfully showed me that He loves me. I had wanted something tangible to tell of His love, and that is exactly what He provided. What an amazing God we serve!
Well, as you have read God did mighty things throughout the five weeks of the trip. Please continue to pray for the Nicaraguan people and the families in the Valley. Also, praise Him for all that He did for He was so faithful to answer everything that I asked for prayer about. Lastly, please take about five minutes to thank Him for His love and reflect on how He has provided for you in the past.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support! They were greatly appreciated
Love,
Katie
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