Would it be a shock for you to hear that this trip keeps changing me?:) But on second thought, it is not the trip itself. But God is using his children and new experiences as tools to mold me into His image.   To be chiseled into His image has at times been very painful. I have to confront old fears, hurt, and past experiences. But God is faithful and He has proved that He is either holding me by my right arm or He is carrying me. The Lord is burning away my self so that His joy, freedom, and fruit can take root and grow.   Recently I have been challenged to live intentionally by...

      Well people prepare yourself for the most cliché and typical missionary post of your life. I’m about to tell you how blessed I truly am after being here, even after such a short time. I know what you’re thinking “oh great another missionary telling me how I need to eat all my food because there are starving child in Africa”, but that’s NOT what I want to say at all.       So here we go, I was sitting at the dump today talking to this family while they ate lunch. (When I say talking I mean barely picking up any of their...

It all started with God telling me to "be ready to recieve." He also went on to tell me "be ready to recieve bad news, but venture forth with good news." So, that left me with a shaky assurance that God was going to do something. The good thing is that I was assured that that bad news was not that my family wasn't in trouble or something worse.  So, my team and I went to the Santo Tomas market to pray for the bars, and the marred gentlemen who reside there. We walked to a very shady and dark bar that said something in Spanish. The men in the club across from...

Lord please give me the eyes to see how you see. Pausing to absorb the scenery as I walk along the dusty roads of Puerto Barrios, I notice to my left sits a hibiscus bush intertwined in a metal fence. I come up close and gracefully lift the delicate red flower that hangs there, perfect in form. My eyes follow the plant down to the roots where garbage of all kind is scattered there below. Hmmm, waste birthing beauty instead of beauty birthing more beauty. Not what you'd expect.  Merriam-Webster defines irony as "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of...

We started out last week going out to the children’s hospital here in Puerto Barrios. I was a little nervous walking in, not knowing what I might find. The rooms reminded me of something out of an old war movie. Old, uncomfortable beds and a handful of patients all put together in one room with different injuries and illnesses. No privacy at all. It being a children’s hospital, the room was also filled families and parents sitting with their sick children. Looking around the room, one little boy in particular stole my heart. He was wearing old, ratty clothes made for man twice...

As the weeks go by I am continually being immersed and challenged by new situations, concepts, and beliefs. God is challenging me everyday to live outside my comfort zone and walk with in His boldness and authority. By abiding in Christ, I can rest in the promise that He is leading me to peaceful streams in midst of battle. God has been teaching me about loving people purely, without attaching any labels to them. And that started at the garbage dump. These families live on the edge of the garbage pile, sleeping and cooking under scraps of wood, plastic, and tarps. In tattered clothes these...

I can still hear the child screaming. We were in the children's hospital prayer walking over the building and for the staff. We had one more area to pray over. As we were standing there, there was a child down the hall screaming in agonizing pain. I had never heard anything like it. The screaming continued, the child barely took time to take a breath. The more I listened, the more my heart broke, the more this sound pierced my ears. I felt like I could almost feel the child's pain. This drove me insane. My emotions were high. I asked God, "Why is this happening? Why does this...

Life in America taught me to be self sufficient. It taught me that we are what we do so we better be doing something pretty great with our lives We better be writing ourselves a pretty great story to live out and to tell.  But life here in Guatemala, with God and my lovely team, is teaching me something completely different.  For so long I have taken it upon myself to be the grower of my own spiritual fruit, the keeper of all my emotions, and the controller of how I am presenting myself to others and how they receive me. But God told me to abide in him. He directed me to John 15...