One Month Ago Today…. and my life hasn’t been the same since!

As my title suggests, I arrived back from my summer in Nicaragua exactly one month ago today. Little did I know, the minute I stepped into KC off the plane my relationships with the ones I loved most would forever change. Because I had changed. I had changed because of Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Savior of my life, took ahold of every piece of me- even the things I had been holding onto for so long that I wasn’t willing to give up.

I have been reading my journals recently and here were a few highlights and life changes the Lord showed me I needed to adjust in obedience to Him.

1. Humility (is and will probably always be a daily struggle for me) – “I need to stop doing things to bring attention to myself or to make myself look like a better Christian.” Glorify Jesus, give him glory, that’s it!

3. TAKE RISKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                This was communicated to me the day I first noticed this trip on November 12^th, 2011 sitting in a Starbucks seeking and trusting Jesus with whatever plans he had in store for me. Financially, in relationships, and with my future: my life is a living testimony that you will never find complete joy without taking risks for Jesus!
I PROMISE YOU: without the faith to jump out of the boat like Peter in Matthew 14:22-33 you will always be stuck in the boat. Just like the other disciples yelling out and criticizing Peter from their comfortable place in the boat, there will always be those who disagree and mock you for following the Lord. However, I have chosen to take 20 seconds of insane courage and jump out of the boat and run after my Savior. I question His plans every day and he always blesses me way beyond anything I could ever imagine!

Every single day of door-to-door ministry I would dread going out into the homes because I had the assumption of awkwardness, etc., but Jesus never failed to impress/amaze/and blow me away! He would send verses to my heart to share with the families as encouragement, he created a more compassionate person inside me that has never existed, He even sent a woman named Hayley to us on the very last day who taught me more in 20 minutes than I have ever learned in school or church!

(You may not get this, but do you have any idea how absolutely NUTTY it is that she was named Hayley in a Spanish speaking country? The Spanish language doesn’t pronounce “H’s” or “Y’s” so giving someone that name is almost pointless! However she was a woman full of integrity, who loved the Lord despite the fact that her husband gave her no respect and told her she was worthless; a lesson I needed to learn. Beautiful spirit no matter what others had to say.)

My last story of inspiration that has changed my life is related to one of my scariest moments in Nicaragua. My teammates are probably laughing at this because I had many moments both life-threatening and hilarious that scared me). This story unfolded at the end of our time at the orphanage, Cicrin, on Ometepe Island. This story isn’t about tarantulas, or how we became back-alley taxi runaways, its about a rainy night.

It was a rainy night, we hadn’t seen rain all summer. In Nica it gets dark at like 6, it was about 7pm. One of the teenage girls had told my teammate Jeanne that they were having a little youth get together and invited some of us impromptu. You may not know this, but before this night my greatest fear, is driving in rain. Now obviously I wasn’t driving, but needless to say, in my mind- nothing good comes from rain…. So the teenage guys all ran ahead with the flashlight, and it was one of the teenage girls from Cicrin, myself, Jeanne, Kat, and Austin. We had the cell phone light of the young, quiet, security guy named Juan, who we didn’t even know. We were trusting a stranger to walk us down the dirt/horse poop road, showering rain, no street lights or nothing- no joke PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE. Now we were told this youthgroup meeting was only 10 minutes away, more like 35! It was so insane scary not knowing where we were going, what we were going to do, who to trust, etc. However, we had this random guy leading us and we were trusting him with everything. As I held Kat’s hand walking to the house that night I remembered all the ways Jesus has been my strength and been made real in my life. Without Him:: I AM NOTHING!!!!  I need Him as my guide for everything.