A Touch of Home

This past week gave me a taste of home. First came the arrival of Jenna and Hannah!! Two wild and crazy girls from Iowa. :) They are so full of joy and love for the kids. Itʼs been an enormous blessing to have them here to know more and especially seeing their love for kids just exploding from them. They donʼt need any language to reach the kids but continue to have fun playing games with them. Now our house is full of four gringa (American) girls, which brings a lot of fun moments, talking, just being girls and joking around. It has been messing with my mind a bit more as I have to switch between my Spanish mind and English mind. Sometimes I think my mind just wants to
shut down and think in no language. lol. :)

Then, we had a group of seven Americans from Orlando, Florida come to work in Church Berea for four days. Monday started the week with a sports tournament day, volleyball for the women and soccer for the men. It had a great turnout and the winners got cash prizes. The teams fought hard for that prize. I had so much joy giving the volleyball prize to the winners, because they really needed that extra blessing in their lives. In the mornings of Tuesday through Thursday, the American group did training on water filters that provided clean water for people in the neighborhood around Berea. I sat in on one of the teachings where the Americans taught about the water filters and gave an underlining presentation of the gospel, as the water of Christ can clean our hearts from our sinful nature which gives us new life. Then the afternoons of Tuesday and Wednesday were full of kids ministry. Children came by the bucketful! There were songs, candy, and activities for the three different age groups. I helped with the youngest age group which was a bit of a challenge as I donʼt work with them much. But Godʼs name was lifted high during all of these days. Thursday afternoon contained door to door evangelism. This was one of my favorite days, to see how Sister Mele from the church presented the gospel with the love of Christ and truth pouring out. An Paul, one of the Americans, and I went with her, so I translated to him what I could and translated questions that he had. Please pray for all of those who were presented with the gospel that they may have their hearts turned to rely on God and be brought to his kingdom. The entire week we had prayed for no rain, because if it rained we wouldnʼt be able to have the ministry. God was faithful (as He always is) and it didnʼt rain at all until the last group came in after door to door
evangelism when we were literally done. It was such a cool God moment to see his faithfulness time and time again.

God has also presented an awesome opportunity to go with another group of missionaries this next week (July 3-8ish) as translators and helping with kids ministry. Bethany was asked to be a translator and so weʼre all going. I think maybe us three younger girls might be helping with the kids ministry. Itʼs in a village a little bit up the river, so weʼll be getting a bit deeper into the jungle.The neighborhood kids are doing great and I have enjoyed getting to know them even more, playing games in the street or sitting and talking with the little bit older kids. Thatʼs where my passion is, with the kids in middle school/high school. God continues to show me where he is planning on using me and affirming my identity in Him. That he has made me exactly as he meant to, even when thatʼs completely different than other people around me. He continues to give me encouragement and love everyday as I am satisfied in Him and his plan as we walk together throughout life. Lately he has given me a huge love for Berea church and the people there! Their hearts are so dependent
on Him and they wait on the Lord and have faith in Him, that he will satisfy their needs. There is a great lesson to be learned here I feel. At home I didnʼt have to have this type of dependence because I knew that I couldnʼt at least get through the next week with food for example. Here they must depend on God for even their next meal. God has his children in His hands, and thatʼs the faith they we should be living every day.