real

Being real. Being yourself. Something that has slipped away from me the past couple weeks. Still taking on a new culture and new challenges, pride and a desire to "prove myself" so sneakily gets in the way of my reliance on God.

I was challenged by a great message this morning (here) that helped me refresh and restart in a way that I have been searching for the past few weeks. By being too consumed with trying to measure up and being questioned in my doubts of: is my spanish good enough, am I qualified to be in ministry, am I the right age for this, will people like/understand me, can I have sad times as a missionary? has caused me to take control into my own hands trying to prove what I can be instead of plainly answering: no!  I can't do all of this, and that is what is so awesome about having a God who longs to be in control of my life and allow me to do things I could never do own my own. It is ok to have emotion. God wants us to be open and exposed before Him to show us where we need to lean into Him most.

I have never taught a Sunday school class, and here I find myself teaching a class to the sweetest girls in a different language! It is humorous really. And that they even receive a message! But how easily I can be too concerned with trying to get the grammar right to resonate the deep love God has for them when all the while it is God that changes hearts anyways! Amen?

So it is cool. And being open and transparent on a blog is kind of intimidating to me- but I know that we all experience similar seasons. And in the days that you feel like your communication is really one-sided with God, and you aren't getting any words back from Him, maybe it is time to push the re-start and re-surrender to your inadequacies! Because then we see the miracles of God, who can use us for far greater things than we could do alone!

In celebrating His presence, we had an awesome week here at the City of Children with a fall break team from Goodpasture in Tennessee. What used to be the ole "high school rivals" are now my friends- yay Jesus! This was their first trip here, and they jumped in and handled it like pros.  Their group leader and Spanish teacher, Kate, is a dear friend of Baja and has been serving here for many years. They had the best attitudes and were such an encouragement to all of us here with their presence. The theme for the week in VBS was using your spiritual gifts which was cool because I also saw their group as really diverse with lots of different personalities and gifts.

They also served in the community by painting an elementary school that many of the kids here attend and delivered food packages to church members of Chapultapec (pictured above).

We are thankful for these students and adults that gave their time to bring a refreshment of His light and love!

I also had the opportunity to witness the goodness of God Wednesday night, when we got to take a huge food basket to brother Samuel, one of the church members at Colonia 89. His wife died about 2 weeks ago, and he has been really lonely. He has the sweetest spirit and cannot see very well. We have been worried about him living alone, and he often mentions of how much he misses his wife. A group from here got this basket together to send him and has been lifting him up in prayer. What a beautiful picture of the church!

I hope you are enjoying fall wherever you may be! Here in Baja we have also received cooler weather which has been a great relief!

lots of blessings!