~All Things...

This past weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to work with middle school girls at our church's Mpact weekend (which is D-now with a different name).

We talked about Redefining Normal.  Our t-shirts have a flying pig on them.  Still trying to figure out that connection but the t-shirts are soft so we're good.

On Saturday night we always have an intense worship time with The James Curlin Band (they're awesome by the way!).  The line in one of the songs practically jumped out at me as it rolled off my lips. "You make all things work together for my good."  I felt God smiling and saying, "All things. Not just the good things. Not just the bad things. All things."

And it hit me.  Every opportunity God has given me to minister to others, He's used that to prepare me for this trip.  Every time I failed and ignored God, He's used that to prepare me.  Even the moments where I stub my toe and cry out, "God! Why did you create Mondays???" He's used those moments to prepare me.

Lately, as I've entered into worship, I can't help but think, "God, I am so unworthy of this calling you've placed on my life! I am so unworthy to be your ambassador in Honduras." And I feel God laugh and say, "You've got that right! BUT I still choose to love you enough to get a taste of what I'm doing in Honduras."

To me, the thought that God uses everything we've been through, is just astounding.  It sounds cliche until you experience it.  I used to roll my eyes when people would say something like this.  Now I'm eating my words! God really does use EVERYTHING!

~Outrageous~

Matthew 10:37- Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 

Luke 14:26-27- If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters- yes, even his own life- he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

The true meaning of these verses is making itself known in my life.  This weekend, I heard a pastor preach about following Jesus.  One of the things we're called to do as Christ-followers is sacrifice the things we love.

"This could be your boyfriend or girlfriend, your material things, your family."

Your family? *gulp*

That's a thought I could have lived without.  The reality hit me that I will be sacrificing my family when I move to Honduras.

I had always read these verses thinking Jesus was outrageous.  As I look at it now, Jesus was (and is) outrageous.  As followers of Christ, we are called to be outrageous.

Jonah was a prophet (Ooh-Ooh)- Veggietales

There are moments when I read the bible and I simply have to cringe. Moments when you try to criticize the people in the bible and tell them how they should have done things.  Suddenly, you realize you identify with them more than you originally thought.

Jonah happens to be one of those people for me.

No, I've never been inside a whale.

Yes, I've doubted, and disobeyed God.  I've complained about my calling.  I've gotten other people in trouble.  And I've been used by God despite my attitude.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Jonah, I recommend you check it out.  It's only four chapters long. Easily knocked out in about thirty minutes.  Jonah was a prophet of God to his people, the Israelites.  One day, he was called by God to go to the Ninevites.  These people were the most vile in that time period. They did much more than slap people with fish.  As disgusting as that is, it doesn't compare to the decapitated heads that lined the road to Nineveh.  I'll give this one to Jonah, I wouldn't want to take a vacation to Nineveh, let alone tell them that if they didn't get their act together, God was going to destroy them.  So, instead of obeying God, Jonah boards a boat and goes the opposite direction of Nineveh.  A big storm comes and Jonah tells the crew to throw him over (or he walked off a plank, your choice).  As Jonah's sinking to the bottom, a fish swallows him and he's inside the belly of the fish for three days.

I'm sleeping with fishes here, in the belly of the whale. 
I'm highly nutritious here, in the belly of the whale. 

Jam session over.

After three days, Jonah is vomited onto dry ground and makes his way to Ninevah.  He tells the Ninevites to repent because God is going to destroy their city if they don't.  Then he goes out to wait on God's imminent destruction of this evil city.

To Jonah's dismay, the Ninevites obeyed, and prayed, and fasted, and repented.

We're not too sure what happened to Jonah. Last we hear of him, he's complaining to God for not wiping out the Ninevites along with a few other things he decided he wasn't thankful for.  My assumption is he died a bitter man.

Now, while the story of Jonah is kind of depressing, I love it.  We see Jonah in three places in his life.
1) His comfort zone- I'm guessing he had a fairly easy job of being a prophet to the Israelites.  At least the bible doesn't mention any troubles like those of Hosea.
2) In disobedience- God tells Jonah to do one thing, he does the other. Sound familiar to anyone?
3) In obedience to God- He finally obeys God and goes to the Ninevites.

What I love about this story is how Jonah is used by God in every instance.
Jonah faithfully delivers God's messages to his people, giving encouragement and discipline to God's chosen people.  When Jonah disobeys and heads to Tarsus, the crew on the ship, seeing God's power, praise God. And when Jonah obeys, the Ninevites turn from their sin and ask God's forgiveness.

Here's my theory,  the only reason God still works in powerful ways whatever our walks of life are, is because God is JUST that powerful!!! God doesn't need us! God can do things on His own.  Yet, he chooses to let us be apart of His great story and uses us despite our flaws.

We serve a great God!

And just for fun, here's a picture of Jonah, with a swimming cap and a duck float. You're welcome. 

God is good

All I can say is God is good!

I say that with the intention of saying more than just that.  I want to tell you how God is good in my life.

Today, our mission team reported to the church the amazing things God did for the people of Honduras as well as us.  I told my testimony of how God has called me to teach at Destino Del Reino.  I was completely overwhelmed by the love, support, and excitement I felt from the Body of Christ.  I know you have your church that you love dearly.  But let's be honest.  Mine church is awesome. I mean, my church is really awesome!  It is a body of believers who seek God, share God, and support each other.

If you are a member of my church, I want to say THANK YOU!!! I don't think there is a way to describe how thankful I am for the support you've shown me!

God has shown me today, even more confirmation that I am supposed to go to Honduras.

Speaking of my church family, I want to say how incredibly blessed I am with the friends I've made through this church.  Every time I talk to my closest friends, I am overwhelmed by the love they have for Christ and a passion they have for missions!  My friends don't bring me down as is the case of other friendships I've had, these friends bring me up and spur (yes, spur- as in cowboy spurs that do indeed cause momentary pain) me on towards Christ.  They don't pull punches, yet they don't hold off hugs.  I encourage each of you to pray for friends like these.  Just don't steal mine!  Deal?

I'll end with what I began.  God is good. And His love endures forever!

He who began a good work in you...- Philippians 1:6

I've attended the Passion Conference for three years in a row.  One conference in Ft. Worth and two conferences in Atlanta.  If you ever have the chance to attend a Passion conference, do it.  There's something about worshiping with thousands and thousands of other college students and adults who have a heart and a passion for Jesus Christ and seeing Him glorified.

The Passion albums are easily some of the most played albums on my iTunes (it's a fairly close tie with anything Switchfoot).  What I love about Passion songs, is they are so full of these great lines that hit home.  One song can have thousands of different meanings to me that often times don't exactly have anything to do with the overall meaning of the song.  I think this happens because 1) the Holy Spirit just knows how to get my attention and 2) I'm always analyzing lyrics.  My love of words and how they go together is the top reason I'm an English Major.

The other day, I was jamming to Let The Future Begin on my way to work.  I was (big surprise) thinking about my relocation to Honduras.  At the beginning of the song, Kristian Stanfill is belting out the lyrics, "Promise Maker, Promise Keeper, You finish what you begin."  Immediately I tear up.  Since I was about seven years old, I've wanted to be a missionary.  Many times I've prayed, "God, I just want to go!!!" Of course the moment He tells me go my breaks kick in.  I've known, since I was seven years old, God has been preparing me for this wonderful journey.  I know He's not anywhere close to finishing me, but it's surreal seeing a glimpse of how He's finishing what He began.

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.- Gustave Flaubert

Because I'm so enthralled with this world of blogging, I decided to post some pictures from our trip. 

Saturday Travels

 Our flight from Houston to San Pedro Sula was two and a half hours plus an insane amount of taxiing.  Funny story, as we were waiting to take off, a luggage car comes driving up to the side of the plane.  This luggage cart was carrying suitcases with little red ribbons tied onto them, which was the thing we used to identify what luggage was ours.  Thankfully, all of our luggage arrived in Honduras. 

Beautiful green Honduras!

 My twin sister and I waiting in customs. We're not really twins. I'm five years older. While we were in U.S.A. Customs, the "check-out person" (not sure of the actual title but customs reminded me of Wal-Mart checkout lanes so we'll go with that title) thought Brittany was the older "twin." 

 By this time, we had been awake for twelve hours and it had only passed lunchtime. We were tired but couldn't exactly sleep due to the desire to talk to these beautiful Honduran kids. Above is Cokie, she lives with Rhonda Jackson at Destino Del Reino.  She's only in fifth grade but God has already placed a call of missions on her life. 

 This is David (Dah-veed). His smile is cute. His laugh is cute. His face is cute. And he's a stinker. 

Sunday Morning

We chose to travel at a very interesting time. Not only was it Spring Break, it was also Daylight Savings Time.  Honduras is smart and doesn't do this.  However, our smart phones decided to change.  On Sunday morning, we all woke up an hour early giving us plenty of time to goof off and take pictures. 

 The quiet street should have been a sign to us that it was incredibly early. 

 These are two of my favorite people in the entire world. 

 

 Let me tell you a little something about the food. We were not roughing it.  We had amazing pancakes, fresh fruit, flour tortillas, corn tortillas, beans, rice, papas (my brother's favorite word in Spanish), fried chicken, roasted chicken, real bacon, cat sausage (not really, I promise), eggs, quesadillas, Honduran Tacos (completely trumps the taco you're thinking of), and Honduran variations of America's favorites such as egg rolls, stir fry, and spaghetti. 

Funny story about the food, my brother learned the word "papas."  One of the nights, Maribel (the cook) made these EXCELLENT potatoes.  She came out of the kitchen and said something in Spanish that no one caught because we were a group of gringos with three Spanish speaking people. Somewhere in her conversation, my brother heard the words "mas papas."  Immediately, his head popped up and exclaimed, "Did she just say 'mas papas?'" He looked at her and said the only other Spanish he knew, "SI!" After that, she served us potatoes almost every night. No one complained. 

Our team led Sunday School that morning at the Destino church.  They learned about the armor of God and how to protect themselves from Satan's attacks. 

In my personal story, while in Honduras, I was able to get a good grasp on the Shield of Faith.  One night, in our discussion group, it dawned on me that in battle, a shield is constantly in motion, deflecting arrows, swords, spears, and other life-threatening objects.  In the same way, our faith is constantly having to re-shift and re-focus.  I may have faith that God will bring to me my future husband in His timing, suddenly, I have to re-focus my faith to a completely different situation such as having faith in the healing of a friend, or having faith that God will protect you.  The only way to aptly move around to block the blows of Satan is to live by the Spirit so you know exactly where you're supposed to move. 

That's all for now! More pictures to come!

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind- C.S. Lewis

Two Sundays ago, my pastor began a sermon series entitled, "The Road to Calvary." The first subject he addressed was Sacrifice; sacrificing our will for God's. At least that was the message I heard. My pastor has preached many great sermons that have given me hope, comfort, or a call to repentance.  They've all had significant value in my life.  However, this has been the most significant sermon in my life thus far.  

The night before this sermon, I had just arrived home from a mission trip to Siguatapeque, Honduras with 15 other people (including my entire family). It was my second time working with Rhonda Jackson at Destino Del Reino (www.destinodelreino.org). The trip was flat out amazing and flew by way too quickly.  This trip to Destino consisted of a week of substitute teaching English for 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade.  When I first learned about this opportunity to teach, I did this thing where I kind of jump around my house and let out extremely girly squeals and freak my dogs out.  I hope no one ever has the chance to video tape it.  Because it's scary.  Okay, moving away from all things white girl and moving back to serious matters. Not only was this an opportunity to teach, it was an opportunity to teach in the kind of atmosphere I had always dreamed about.  Currently, I'm doing online classes to earn my BA in English so I can teach the English language. However, there was always something in me that wondered if I was going to hate teaching once I experienced it.  Turned out, all my worries were for nothing (big surprise) and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and discovered I was definitely in my element.  Lesson learned, God is giving me the desires of my heart even when I don't know what those desires are at first. 

On one of the many bus rides on our trip, God and I were having a conversation.  It was one of those conversations where I was telling God why I wasn't going to teach at Destino.  I could almost see a playful smirk peaking through the clouds.  Anytime I feel like amusing God (and myself) I tell Him my thoughts.  Once I finished presenting my case entitled, "Why I am not going to teach full time at Destino" God asked me, "Why not? Why not teach at Destino?"  I gave God my best cringe face and said, "Well if you want me here, then I have no reason not to come." At that moment, all of the reasons and excuses I had piled up, pretty much dissipated. When He asked me, "Why not?" all my, "Why not's" turned into, "uh's."

With that conversation in mind, let's fast forward to the following Sunday.  I woke up late for church, which was the second time the time change had messed me up. In my hurried state, I managed to lift up a pleading praying, "Please God, if I'm supposed to go to Destino, make it loud and clear. And if you don't mind, make it loud and clear...today...in church...or whenever you see fit...but preferably today."  Did I ever mention I'm sort of impatient? I was choking back tears the entire sermon.  I'm not sure if God's message could have been any louder or clearer.  During the invitation my best friend grabbed me and began praying for me. I was able to squeak out, between tears, snot, and dripping mascara, "Gosh darnit, I'm supposed to go to Honduras." Her and I both began laughing at my exuberance to God's latest calling on my life. 

Since that conversation on the bus in Siguatapeque, God has given me so much confirmation on this call. 

Before I even decided, or even told people I had decided to go to Honduras, a few people have come up and told me they'd like to help out financially.  My school schedule has lined up perfectly so I'll finish by July. I have my family and close friends behind me and praying for me.  And I have a great God who is always by my side! 

If God changes my plans somehow, this will all change.  If not, I will be hoping on a plane headed to Honduras. Presently, this reality isn't quite a reality in my brain.  Being a missionary to a foreign country has always been something I've dreamed about and worked towards since I was about seven years old. Being a missionary to Honduras is something I've prayed about for the past few years.  The fact that these dreams are being fulfilled and these prayers are being answered, is absolutely unrealistic in my finite way of thinking.  

I want to close with this verse because I think it aptly portrays my heart's thoughts at this moment.  

Isaiah 55:8- "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."