It has been almost two years since God first called me to full-time missions, and I can’t tell you how much He has drastically changed my life since then. After being here in Nicaragua for so long it has started to feel like home, and I began to forget what Christ had brought me out of. He brought me out of a life where I was only halfheartedly serving Christ to a life where I am completely sold-out for Him. God changed me, and I am only here today because of Him. God has reminded me of this, and also reminded me that I have to continue to completely surrender everything to Him.
“Thank you Jesus for reminding me of this. Thank you for your forgiveness and your grace. Thank you that you are always working and moving in my life. You are so good.”
God has not only been moving in my life, but He has also been doing some awesome things here. Last Sunday we saw our guard, Julio, get baptized. This mission has been praying for Julio for years now and this past week he asked Christ into his heart and now lives a new life!! He is not only our guard, but also our brother in Christ! Also, we will be taking the youth to a nearby lagoon where we will be doing baptisms. Please pray for the youth that are ready to be baptized.
We have begun a study on knowing God through the life of Jesus, and I am extremely excited about this! Tonight we will be teaching on how God is holy. Also, we challenged the youth to be reading the gospels in order to get to know Jesus for them. We are holding a separate small group study on the book of John. I also have been able to study different gospels with different individuals. These are probably my favorite parts of the day.
A door that God has also opened for me here in Nicaragua is working with something that I absolutely love… sports! I have been playing on a Nicaraguan team for about 2 weeks now, and they are actually going to begin practicing on the church’s property. My desire is to get to know these girls, and show them why I am here. I want to show them that Jesus is the most important thing to me, and hopefully bring some new faces into the church. I also have a ton of softball equipment coming on April 2nd thanks to all of you guys! With all of this equipment coming, my heart is to host a softball clinic for the girls in Candelaria. Also, the church is now going to be able to start up an adult softball team with all the equipment. This means so much to me, because I know how God works through sports. I have seen it in my life, and in the life of my family. I have also seen God bring many families to my church at home through sports.We still are without electricity on the property, but hopefully very soon we will be getting it. Please be in prayer for this. For the missions sake, and for my family's sake. We know that God is going to work through this situation, and we are praying that the community will take some responsibility and begin paying for their power bills. For more information on the current electricity problems and how it has affected the community take a look at Lisa Smith's blog at http://lisasmith.myadventures.org/?filename=when-simple-isnt-simple
Thank you for all your prayers and support. I am so blessed to see God's power through things He is doing here in Candelaria. I pray that my time spent here will be focused on His will, and that each and every day I am filled with His grace in order to pour out to the people here in Nicaragua. I pray also that I am also walking in the Spirit, and by His power. I love all of you, and miss you greatly.
Psalm 70:5- "Yet I am poor and needy, come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer, O Lord, do not delay."
