¨….and now we are going to share testimonies. who wants to go first?¨
this is the question asked at typically every gathering here in
nicaragua, whether it´s on sunday morning, the drug rehab center, a
bible study, or in someones home. sharing your testimony, a story about
your life, a word from the Lord is a very big and vital part of
community and church down here.
giving my testimony is not something completely foreign to me,l but
is defiantly not something i´ve done a whole lot. it defiantly is not
something that i´ve just whipped out of my back pocket. it´s always
been something i´ve graphed out on paper…rehearsed 56 times and
quoted in the mirror 21 times. in the last 2 weeks God has destroyed
that luxury i ones had and has placed me in situations where i have had
no time to write my thoughts out or to plan what i say.
We went to church the first week that we where here in jinotepe.
service started and within the first 5 minutes, we where asked ¨do you
americans have a testimony to share.¨ i can´t remember now if anyone
from our team shared. i know for a fact though that I didn´t. on the
ride home, God started to prick my heart. In 1 peter it says, always be
prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason
for the hope you have.¨ i can´t think of a more clear command for a
situation that what i just described above. god began to work in my
heart that night as a wrestled with reasons why i couldn´t…or
wouldn´t.
testimonies don´t have to me epic. they don´t have to have a red
bow ending. they don´t have to be poetic. the most certainly don´t have
to end in a period. after all, isn´t a testimony an ongoing thing. a
story of learning and continuation?
if you, like me felt that your story wasn´t all that great. that it wasn´t worth sharing….
….try
thinking about the greatest story ever. for me, the story is simple.
i´ve been saved from being damned to hell. I´ve ransomed. called into
God´s marvelous light. and set free! if that´s not a reason to share,
you need an AED to the heart.
I think for me one of the greatest weapons satan uses against me is
feeling in adequate or unequipped. the language barrier here is a huge
frustration to me. i want to bad to communicate unhindered. God really
spoke to me the night after I walked away not saying anything. i had
used the excuse of language difference to keep me inside my comfort
zone. it was basically just a cop out and a way to justify in my mind
my actions that i knew where wrong in my heart. God knows how i
work…He reminded of the story of balem. nothing stops God from
getting His message across to people. yeah, he even uses asses.
In 2 Peter 1.3 says that ¨he has given us everything we need for life and godliness.´´
my
part is just to listen and obey. He has promised to equip me with all i
need and in that, i have no reason not to open my mouth boldly to
proclaim Christ.
so yeah… that´s one of a dictionary sized book full of lessons God has been teaching me down here.
i´ll
most more later about life and living with bucket showers, sleeping on
the ground, and the bats that make their rounds in our bedroom.
love.
