Back in May, I had a woman ask a friend of mine if she could meet with me. My friend explained that this woman had told her that she had felt God urging her to meet with me and that she had been praying for me for months.
I was a little skeptical, but my friend had me with the words:"God's urging her to meet you! ".....can't say no to that right?!
This woman told me that God had been speaking to her about me and the need for me to go back to Guatemala. My mouth feel open, the tears started flowing....and so did my excuses for NOT going back at this point in my life. I explained to her that I had a long list of reasons, but after EVERY STINKING reason I gave her....she had an answer...she KNEW reasons I had NEVER shared with anyone, and yet she explained how God had and was going to take care of all these issues...MY issues! All I needed was a little faith...
This is a really long and unbelievable story of God's pursuit and I will share it with anyone....but for your sake now, I will just tell you that I am indeed going back to Guatemala in February along with 14 wonderful women. God has assembled a "Dream Team" with so many gifts and abilities....and yes, we are a little nervous!
This morning, we went to my mom and dad's church and the pastor preached on a text from Leviticus. To me the book of Leviticus has always been a "book about rules"...really weird, old rules! But, today he referenced Leviticus 27:28:
"But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the Lord—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the Lord."
The pastors point was that everything /everyone belongs to God. He alone gets to determine its value, even though our culture tries to put monetary or worth on everything. But to God it's all worth more. We are all valuable in God's sight.... Everyone is "worth" being cared for!
And that got me to thinking about missions...I have a passion for missions. I am not gonna lie, one of my reasons for NOT going back to Guatemala, was because I believe there are MANY, MANY wonderful and needy misson opportunities right here, and maybe I should be "investing" in them. But for some reason, God is calling me back to Guatemala.
We will be partnering with Paradise Bound Ministries in Zeeland and providing dental and medical care in remote villages, building 2 homes, and spreading God's love to all we encounter. We will be caring for people who our culture says are "worthless", but yet they have been made in God's image....they are worth it!
A couple months ago, I met with my friend and this woman again. She brought me two lanterns and explained that God wanted her to give me these lanterns. One was good, but the other had broken glass. She also referenced Matthew 25:14-30, the parable of the talents. We talked about this passage, and she said she didn't really understand what I could or should do with these lanterns, but she knew I would figure out a way to use them. She also talked about Matthew 5:14-16 and letting our light shine. I kindly thanked her and I put the box with the lanterns in my trunk....and left them there.
A couple weeks passed and everytime I opened my trunk, there they were....starring at me. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them...remember, one was broken. My first thought was to take out the broken glass and keep that lantern as a reminder of how "broken" I am, and sell the other one for $ for Guatemala.
But, I didn't really find peace with that option. I shared with my mom what this woman had given me, and mom thought we should fix them both up and sell them. And then we went on a "lantern misson"! We started collecting lanterns to sell...and let me tell you we have alot of lanterns..all kinds of different lanterns!
I thought it would be cool to have 15 lanterns that represent each of us going to Guatemala, but when we counted them we realized we have more than than that...just like there might be just 15 of us physically going to Guatemala, but honestly it's going to take a much bigger "team". There are people that have been supporting us financially and people that are praying....with out all of these faithful people, we cannot accomplish the misson God has called us to do.
And after all this rambling....this is where you come in:
At our sale on Thursday and Friday, you will see lanterns, candles, and a few other things that have a "Let your Light Shine" tag and on the back of the tag are the dates of our trip. If you decide to purchase these items, we ask a few things of you...
#1 -during the week of our trip please light your candle.
#2 - Let your light shine and BE THE LIGHT! May all those you come in contact with, even right here in west michigan...see God's light in your life!
#3- Most importantly to us- PLEASE, PLEASE be in prayer for our team, especially that week. We will share specifc things you can pray for as it gets closer!
We have been SO blessed to be able to do this event every year and we are hoping and praying that with our profits from the sale this year we will be able to bless 2 Guatemalan families by being able to build them homes! It's a huge goal.... but we will WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY BY SIGHT!
Hope to see you all soon!
~Blessings
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