God of Justice

I ran across this song today and LOVED it! So excited to be serving Our Awesome God in HONDURAS in January!! Fill me up and send me out!

"God of Justice" by Tim Hughes. Go listen to it, and then try to tell me that you don't want to go travel the world and be Christ's hands and feet!!

Shields

"Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle!" --Jeremiah 46:3

After what might have been one of my worst days at A&M yet, I skipped water polo and snuggled up under a blanket with my Bible, devotion book, and journal and was ready to have an amazing quiet time that would refocus me on what was really important-living for our awesome God!

I really wasn't expecting to get anything Honduras related out of my quiet time today, but once again what I was expecting wasn't what happened--God went WAY above that! Not only did I calm down and refocus on God, but he revealed to me this awesome little verse that would begin my intense preparation for Honduras!

In 55 days I will be in Honduras. CRAZY! If I were to have to get on that plane right now, I would be feeling so inadequate to be Christ's hands and feet. I'm nowhere near as ready biblically and spiritually to be missioning for our God as I want to be in January. But this verse showed me exactly how I need to be preparing. Preparing my shields, both large and small.

Some things seem obvious when it comes to mission trips. These "large shields" - such as patience, biblical foundation, a flourishing relationship with Our Lord. Those are the things that I have been caught up with trying to prepare myself for. But in reality, those are only part of the things that are needed in order for a mission trip to be successful. We also have to have "small shields" - love, joy, compassion, humility, a servant's heart, and a commitment.

It are these "small shields" that will ultimately build into the "large shields" that I have been focusing on. Starting now, I will be focusing on encompassing these smaller necessities that don't seem as crucial as the bigger "shields". But in reality, without these small shields, our larger shields are just big flimsy shields. Yes, they have the size to protect you, but they aren't made with the correct materials. They aren't going to do much unless we have the small shields building them up! Combined together, it is these shields that will be essential for our work to glorify our Father when we are in Honduras! The large shields aren't enough by themselves, and neither are the small shields. We need them both!

Tomatoes, Flour and Eggs

Tomatoes, Flour, and Eggs! That's how Camp Cho-Yeh likes to raise money for mission trips!!

Yesterday at Chovember Fest (it's a Fall Festival type thing that Cho-Yeh puts on for campers in the Houston area once a year), there was an obstacle course that was set up for everybody who was going on the mission trip to run through. Here's the catch. All of the campers and their families could purchase tomatoes, flour bombs (panty hose filled with flour), water balloons and eggs to throw at us as we ran through it!

Kristen, Carley and I ran through the race together, which was a hoot in itself because we are best friends and all uber competitive. I managed to get through the race pretty clean, and was pretty excited. Boy was I in for a surprise! All of my campers had saved all of their ammo for when I got done, so that they could pelt me when I wasn't expecting it. Yep. I was disgusting to say the least. I had eggs and tomatoes woven into my braid and in my ears. I looked like a pancake with all of the flour that was caked onto my skin. It was disgusting. But so much fun at the same time!!

I think we ended up raising about $500 for the mission trip!! It was a huge success!!

Here is a picture with me and my campers after they had finally exhausted their ammo. This is also after I then rubbed all of the disgustingness off of me and onto them that I could.... What fun :)

Sponsoring

I am amazed at how awesome God is about providing for this mission trip!! SO many incredible stories have come out of the sponsorship letters that we sent out. He is SO faithful about providing everything that is necessary for us to fulfill His will! We find out in about a week and a half how much total money was raised, but the fact that God is at work already on this trip is so incredible to hear. I have never been so sure in my life about how God wants me to spend some of my time!!

He won't leave them either!

This morning I was reading out of Jeremiah (I'm still slowly working my way through that book!) and found a passage that I LOVED!

"This is what the LORD says, "he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and the stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that the waves roar - the LORD Almighty is his name: Only if these decrees vanish from my sight," declares the LORD, "will the decscendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me." This is what the LORD says: "Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done," declares the LORD." --Jeremiah 31:35-37

After reading that I couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside. At this point, Israel hasn't been following the Lord and have been rejecting Him essentially. But, God doesn't give up on them. This is pre-Jesus, before all of our sins have been paid for, and yet God still isn't forgetting about Israel, and still loves them enough to call them His people. Our God won't give up or leave us either, even after all the not-so-great and downright ugly things that we do.

This is one of the messages that we will be carrying when we go to Honduras. They too have a God who loves them, and who cares about each one of those precious little children. Those children have been through rough times, but the God who loved Israel in the Old Testament loves them too! He won't leave them either, just like He will never give up on us! What an awesome message that we get to carry and spread when we are serving Our Great God in Honduras!!

First Profit Share!

Whoooooo!!! We had a profit share tonight at Froyoyo (it's a frozen yogurt place off campus), and I think it went pretty well. We get 25% of whatever we sold tonight (in other words, whoever we brought to froyoyo). We think we had about 40 people come in the 2 hours we were there, which would be about $160. So we would get $40. Which once we divide it among the 10 of us Aggies that it was benefiting it won't equal out to much at all I'm just now realizing. BUT, we raised a bunch of awareness for what we are doing got some additional prayer support!! We are definitely going to have to advertise better for our next one!

It was fun though getting to see those of us from A&M that are going all in one place! Makes the excitement even more!! Didn't know that was possible :) we are all WAY excited to be serving the Lord in Honduras in a few short months!!

Night-and-Day Difference

"But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted." -1 Peter 2:9-10 (MSG)

This is what Honduras is all about! We are going to tell hundreds of children and their families about Our God, the God that has made a complete 180 degree turnabout in my life. The God that has relentlessly taken me back time and time again. The God that sees past all my imperfections. The God that never gives up on me. The God that knows my flaws, and uses them to bring Him glory. The God that will never let me down. The God that has made a "night-and-day difference" for me. The God that has brought me "from nothing to something" and "from rejected to accepted".

That is what we are going to be doing that week. Loving on kids, and bragging about our God. It's something we should be doing everyday, in every situation. There is no opportunity too small for Our God to use. It doesn't take a huge mission trip out of the country in order to bring our God glory and honor. All it takes is a willing servant who will let the Lord in and a few seconds, and God can do miraculous things. He can, will, and does make "night and day" differences each and every day. He turns all of us who deserves to be nothing, who deserve worse than rejection, into people that are "somethings" and who are accepted. That's not the world, that's God.