Poco a Poco (Little by Little)

Psalm 121:1-2

"I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and eath."

Jesus and I are on a journey together.  I have a long way to go in my walk with Jesus and I am so thankful He is patient with me as I seek intimacy with Him.  I struggle with the same sins over and over and over again.  Yes, I am an imperfect Missionary and yes, I said it, sins.  I really wanted to put "things" or "areas" but in reality they are sins.  I have victory in these "areas" for awhile and then I slip back into old habits again.  To be honest with you, I feel like I am the only Christian with this problem.  I feel like everyone else has found sustaining victory and is walking in total freedom, only dealing with occasional unintentional sin.  I honestly hope that this latest description is true for most people.  But for those who are like me, I am thinking there might be at least one person out there, I wanted to share some gems and encouragement that the Lord showed me this week.

I was reading out of the devotional "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young and one of the scriptures for that day was Jeremiah 29:13-14.  I have long quoted Jeremiah 29:11 as my favorite verse, but this particular day God opened my eyes to the treasure in the surrounding verses and I realized that my favorite verse held even more than I realized.  Jeremiah 29:11 is in the middle of a message from the Lord through His prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel who have been exiled to Babylon.  In verse 10 He tells them that after 70 years He will come to bring them out of captivity, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."   (vs 11)  This promise of hope and a future comes when they are in the middle of captivity, not when everything is hunky dorey (for the young people out there that might not know what hunky dorey is, it means when everything is going along fine and dandy.)  AND they are in this captivity because of their disobedience.  Struggling over and over with the same sins is a form of captivity, and we are there because of our disobedience and lack of trust in the Lord to deliver us.  Then verses 12 through the first half of 14 go on to say::

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  

I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity."  

So am I calling upon the Lord, going to Him and praying to Him and seeking him will all my heart?  If I do, He promises to bring me back from captivity.  Is this what I want?  Do I believe that if I seek Him I will find Him?  

Lord, 

I believe you and I seek you with all my heart.  I praise you that I will find you and you will bring me out of captivity.  I pray Lord that I will not be like the Israelites when you brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  When things got tough they wanted to go back to the familiar.  Back into captivity.  Lord, help me to live in the light of your freedom and to experience those plans you have for me to give me hope and a future!

Amen   

So poco a poco, little by little, step by step I am following the Lord out of captivity.  It isn't a perfect journey, I get off track at times but the Lord's mercies are new every morning and when I seek Him with all my heart I find Him and together we continue the journey.  Because I know He has plans to prosper me, not to fail me, plans to give me hope and a future!  Amen y Amen!

God's Ways Never Cease to Amaze Me!

Tuesday we had the privilege to host a group of four people (and a baby) for the day for lunch and a tour of the home.  The interesting part is that these four people came from Spain to Guatemala to check out different ministries (more about that later) and among the four of them they represent four different countries.  One is from Spain, one from Guatemala, one from England and one from the United States.  They all know each other from their church in Spain.

The even more amazing part is how we even got in touch with them in the first place.  It's a little bit of a long story, so bare with me here.  You know how sometimes your plans don't go exactly how they were supposed to and you are inconvenienced?  Well, when that happens we just adjust (or get bent out of shape) and go on with life and don't really know or see any reason for that inconvenience to have happened.  Well, about 2-1/2 weeks ago when I was coming back from a short visit to the States, my return was postponed by 24 hours due to a delayed flight that would cause me to miss my connecting flight, the last one of the day.  It caused some minor inconveniences both on the U.S. end and the Guatemala end, but the blessings that came from it are far more.  First, I got to spend another day with my daughter. Second, I got to help with another wedding detail that I had really wanted to help with but had run out of time.  Third, when I did end up flying back to Guatemala I got to fly first class!  The fourth involves my husband, Norman, on the Guatemala end.

By the time I got a hold of Norman to let him know I wasn't coming back until the next day, he had already left the home to head to Guatemala City to pick me up at the airport.  He was in Quiche, an hour away from home, but that hour is a pretty rough road and it isn't exactly a joy ride to navigate.  When I called him, he "just happened" to be with some other missionaries picking something up from them.  They told him they were hosting a couple for the night and invited him to stay.  So he stayed and met this nice couple.  He is Guatemalan and she is English and they have an 8 month old baby.  He is a Doctor and has been in residency in Spain.  He will be done in a year and a half.  They both have a heart for serving the Lord and for Guatemala.  So while they were in Guatemala visiting family they also have been visiting different ministries to see where God may lead them to serve when they return.  If my flight hadn't been postponed, he wouldn't have met them.

A couple weeks later we received a phone call from the wife saying that they had two men from their church in Spain here visiting and they wanted to come visit the home.  Once they got here and shared their heart, we told them that they needed to go to Canilla and meet the Fickers and learn about Adonai International Ministries.  Their time was limited but we zipped over there and had an awesome time listening to the vision God has given both the Fickers and this young couple.  Meeting this couple and their two friends and spending the day with them was such a blessing to us.  We enjoyed hearing how God is working in their lives.  And it is all because my flight was postponed by 24 hours.  God's ways never cease to amaze me and they are definitely higher than mine!

Isaiah 55:9  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."