Lord of the Rings?

So I've posted about my Nicaragua mission trip as a whole, but there are a few more stories that need to be told. The first one happened before I even left the country....

As I was preparing for my trip to share with young girls about purity, I was trying to think of something I could give them. I wanted something nice they could keep to remind them, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do"....as Proverbs 4:23 was my key scripture reference. I envisioned a little ring with a heart on it...or maybe a heart bracelet but I would need quite a few, and that would be expensive. So I prayed....I prayed that God would help me come up with the perfect gift and that I could afford it...and to hurry because in true Jennifer fashion, I put off everything until the last minute and I was running out of time!

The next week I was talking with one of my clients who has a heart for missions and works at Hope Pregnancy Center. I asked her where they got their stuff for the purity ball they sponsor every year and if I could have the website; hoping if I bought in bulk like they did, it would be cheaper. She gave it to me but before I could check it, she texted me and told me they had some extra stuff in their closet if I was interested. Of course I was interested!! I asked how much they wanted for it and she said, "oh no, you can have them!" I was so excited and didn't even know what it was yet. Imagine how overjoyed I was to find out that she was giving me sterling silver rings with hearts on them....perfect, right down to the heart--thank you God, you did it again. She warned me that they were a couple years old and very tarnished. I thought, "Who cares, they're FREE!!" So she brought me the rings, a few bracelets, and a polishing cloth and I went to work on them that night while watching TV... praising God. It didn't take long to turn those dull black rings shiny and new again.

I love how God cares about small details...

I love how God made sure those extra rings were stuck in a closet for two years waiting for me....

I love how God works behind the scenes and weaves everything together in his perfect timing....

I love how God loves ME, a procrastinator (among other things) who doesn't deserve it.

There are 37 of those rings in Achuapa, Nicaragua now. All worn by the girls who decided to follow Jesus that week, to serve as a reminder of WHO holds their heart...and to guard it above all else.

Mission POSSIBLE!

Getting prepared for a mission trip takes a lot of time. As many times as I've been to Nicaragua, you'd think I'd have it down to a science but I don't. Between the flashlights, rainboots, bugspray, tent, camping supplies, shower light, fan, batteries, etc., that I have to take....there is the fact that I'm supposed to be packing light at the same time!? Somehow, by the grace of God...(and a few mission friends carrying some of my stuff in their bags), I haven't gotten charged an overweight fee yet!

But as much preparation as it takes on the physical side, that's nothing compared to the preparation it takes, spiritually. I knew, especially this year, since I was going to be sharing the gospel with teenage girls 4 services a day, I needed to be FILLED and on my game! I spent more time in prayer, in the word, and just enjoyed being in God's presence more. I prayed for the girls who I hadn't met yet, that the Holy Spirit would start preparing them in advance. I prayed for God to use me in a mighty way in spite of my shortcomings. I prayed Ephesians 3:20 fervently--"NOW GLORY BE TO GOD! BY HIS MIGHTY POWER AT WORK WITHIN US, HE IS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH INFINITELY MORE THAN WE WOULD EVER DARE TO ASK OR HOPE."(NLT)

I love that verse, and I believe it with all my heart. I know my God is ABLE...I know with my God, NOTHING is impossible...but when I got a front row seat to watch Him in action...wow, there were no words to describe it. Somehow God took my stumbling words and He spoke to their hearts. God showed me it's not the words you say, but the TRUTH behind them....it's not eloquent speaking, but the Holy Spirit moving....it's not me...IT'S ALL HIM!!

God allowed me the privilige of leading 37 girls into a relationship with Him. Although it's not about the numbers, that is definitely more than I dared to ask or hope for...I was blown away! He didn't NEED me to do any of this, but ALLOWED me be a part of it to show me something bigger. He is "accomplishing infinitely more" within my own heart...He is showing me that my experience didn't happen just to make a good mission trip story or journal entry or blog post. That kind of thing doesn't just happen in Nicaragua. That was just God's way of getting my attention and showing me that I need to stay focused on Him and willing to be used by Him in the mission field of my everyday life.
~Why not prepare my heart DAILY like I did before that trip?
~What if I looked for opportunities to share the love of Christ
even during my mundane day to day activities?
~What if I focused more on Jesus than MYSELF??
I guess that's what Jesus meant when He said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me"(Luke 9:23-NIV).

What God showed me most, was how to be more intentional in my witness and in my relationship with Him...every day.I just had to go to Nicaragua to figure out how to be a missionary in my own back yard...funny how God works.

Ordinary me....Extraordinary God!

This past June I went on my 6th mission trip to Nicaragua and I must say, it was my best one yet! It has taken me awhile to process everything that God allowed me to be a part of, and so It may take me a few blog posts to explain it all....

To do that, I have to start at the beginning....my first trip, June 2007. Although this mission with BMDMI is a medical/dental trip, I was allowed to use my profession as a hairstylist to do ministry. It was a great blessing for me to do so since most of the women and girls had never had a haircut unless they did it themselves, much less a professional hairstyle! Any woman (and some men) will agree that nothing makes you feel better than being pampered and loving how your hair looks. So for 4 years, this was my offering to this mission--haircuts. But looking back, I see that God was up to so much more because the experiences I had then, led up to what I did on this year's mission trip. You see, every year I would have some young girls who would come around every day to see me. They would sit with me in the evening worship services, they would come to my room at night after the clinics closed down. We would paint nails and communicate the best we could with the language barrier, which was mostly through music. One year I even had the privilige of leading 2 of these girls to Christ. I was doing more than haircuts...I was connecting with these girls and showing them God's love...and God had a plan how He was going to use this to grow my faith and give me a new ministry.

During one of our meetings before this year's trip, our leader asked the team to be praying for God to raise up a leader for the youth girls. We had a male youth leader for the boys already, but didn't have a woman to teach the girls. The youth are split up because the main message is about growing up, sexual purity, and honoring God in their dating relationships as well as how to have a relationship with Christ. This is a huge job, and of course we needed someone to go on the trip who was trained in leading young women--we needed someone who was a counselor or on staff at a church as a youth leader....right?? In fact, that is how my prayers went as I was asking God for this woman to join our team....I told God what credentials she needed and for Him to touch her heart and get her on our team, we needed her!

God did answer my prayer....He did touch her heart...He let her know with certainty SHE was the one He would use for this job. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was me. ME? Really?? Instead of assuming I "heard" wrong or questioning God's decision making skills, I said YES and I was sooo excited!! I knew since He called me to do it, He would equip me to do it. Knowing all the stories in the bible of God using the most ordinary people to do the most extraordinary things, I knew that He would be all the more glorified with ME in this role and I was ready to watch Him work!

That was the beginning of an awesome faith building experience for me. It started with listening to God's call and being willing to follow through....not focusing on my weakness but on HIS POWER!

....and wait until you hear what happened next....

The trip may be over but the not the mission!

We came home from our mission trip last night and I already miss the beautiful Costa Rica weather, Jason and Kerby and my Grace mission family! We worked hard and really bonded as a team. But just because the trip is over, it doesn't mean the mission is! The thing about going on mission is that you tend to receive more of a blessing than the ones you go to serve....funny how that happens. The more the you sacrifice and give and serve, the more God blesses! The main thing I want for myself as well as for the rest of my team mates is for our mission to keep going!! I'm praying that we can use our experience in Costa Rica to help people here. Whether it be to share our testimony with a coworker or to be more active in our church or community, we need to keep serving the Lord right where we are. We need to continue to step out of our comfort zone and stretch our faith so we can keep growing! It would be a shame to leave our mission in Costa Rica when, in fact we should be on mission everywhere we go. I was reminded this week of how precious my relationship with Christ is, and how I need to take more time getting to know Him deeper so I can be a better reflection of Him to the world.

That's my mission.....what's yours?

Costa Rica--day 7

All of our work is done and this was our last full day before we leave this beautiful place. FREE DAY! The plan was to go see the volcano at Poaz, go zip lining, lunch and shopping at the market.
We did all of those things but it didn't turn out quite like we planned.....

First of all, the weather was cold and rainy on the mountain, therefore it was super foggy and we couldn't see the volcano....just white fog. I must admit it was kind of neat looking, like looking into a cauldron of witch's brew!....is that weird? I didn't hang around long since despite my jacket and umbrella, I was getting soaked!
After a cup of coffee we were on our way to zip line! We were concerned that since it was raining that the zip line would be closed but we got the thumbs up! Woo hoo! We were on our way to the tree tops for a new experience in the cold rain but we didn't care because we were determined to do it! I was pretty nervous that I was the one in control of how fast I went on this thing and that I had to watch for signals to brake but after the first one I was hooked!! (no pun intended!;) while we were waiting to go on one of the lines, however, we see some workers walk by with a first aid body board.....uh oh, not good. I said a silent prayer for the person who was going to be on that board not realizing I was praying for one of my team members.
Dr. Boles broke his leg landing on one of the platforms. He is such a trooper though, they said he was cracking jokes as they were carrying him to meet the ambulance.
We cut our zip adventure short and ate lunch while anxiously waiting to hear from the hospital. We were all absolutely SOAKED and cold to the bone!! It was all good though....for next we went SHOPPING!
By the time we got to the market , we were just extremely damp and warmer! We did some power shopping and were back at Franco's for dinner and devotion.
We finally found out that Dave's leg is pretty much shattered and he and his wife will take a medical plane back to the States.
Michael and Regina Hampton led devotion and did a great job of challenging the team to take our relationship with God to the next level by living more by faith and sacrifice. I've loved getting to serve with them this week, they are such awesome people!

As I look back on today and how nothing went as planned, I can still see God's hand in it all. If anyone on the team could handle the trauma of being in a foreign hospital, it is Dr. Boles...you know, since he's a doctor! He had his wife and Chad (who is an X-ray tech) with him at the hospital. A broken leg is bad but it could definitely be worse!! And he had a team of mission friends lifting him up In prayer.
It makes stressing about the bad weather seem so trivial.
Perspective=God is in control even when things feel out of control! We just have to look at things from His perspective and see all of His providence in the midst of the chaos.

Costa Rica-day 6

The catch phrase on this (or any) mission trip is "flex and bend". Since you're out of your comfort zone and familiar surroundings and operating on someone else's schedule, there is a lot of flexing and bending going on! Well today was our last
work day at the Abraham Project and probably the most frustrating but the most rewarding as well! We went back to digging our postholes that we started yesterday, we remeasured and made sure the stakes were in the right places--exactly as we were told.............yesterday...

Alot can change in a day.....

After we had almost finished digging 3 holes, 50 cm deep, (by hand) the foreman, Oraku decided to space the posts out a little more. Translation: your hole's off!!!

Seriously?

Breathe.....flex and bend....
We were tired and not to happy to fill those holes in and start over, but we did! I reminded the ladies this was 'character building'. I think either Oraku felt bad for us or was just afraid to leave us alone, but he stuck around and helped us dig the new holes. We sat and took a break and got to talk with him and got to know what an awesome man of faith he is!! It was such a blessing to hear him talk about his relationship with God! Suddenly it was easier to flex and bend because the work wasn't as important than getting to know a Costa Rican brother in Christ. After he left us to set the posts in the new holes, he came back by and gave us a 2 liter Coke! How sweet that was! We finished setting those concrete posts and gave a huge cheer! You'd of thought we'd climbed Mt Everest! Lol

After dinner, I led devotion, and as usual I didn't say most of what I'd planned, but I
guess I shared what God led me to say and what someone needed to hear! I encouraged a time of sharing and several people spoke of the awesome things they experienced during the week. Pat closed our devo giving praise to God by reading Psalm 103. It was a very emotional time just listening to the scripture, letting the meaning sink in, worshiping our Great God as a team.

Costa Rica--day 5

I found out today that digging post holes in Costa Rica is freaking hard! Lots of rocks and roots! Our "girl power team" set the 2 end posts today after lunch and ran a line between them and marked where the rest of the posts will go tomorrow when we resume the fence building!

BUT before we could do all that, we had to get rid of a huge tree that had been cut down right in our way! They told us to cut it up with machetes and an ax! Are you kidding? Did i mention it was HUGE?? (they don't have power tools) So the "girl power team" went at it!! I got out every ounce of stress with that darn ax..(since I'm machetically challenged, ya know;) I think this was the part when the heat went to my brain ... We took turns chopping and when one of the huge limbs looked like it was getting close, I climbed on top and jumped up and down while Judy chopped.....we were DETERMINED! Nikki was like, "Jen, when that gives way, your gonna fall!" "I know but it's the ONLY way to get it down", I reply as I'm 5 ft off the ground still jumping on the limb....I hear a crack....

This sounds a little crazy now as I'm writing it...

And down we go!!!!!! I fell on the limb, the tree, some rocks, but not the ax! SUCCESS. Nikki, trying not to laugh yet, "JEN, you ok?"
To that I said, "TIMBER!!" So everyone was free to laugh;) I checked for blood and didn't find any, so I guess I'm fine! I bet I'll have a few more bruises to add to my collection tomorrow!

Tonight Jason and Kerby came to Franco's for a visit:) Brenda and Chad did a devotion about a servants heart and the sacrifices missionaries make. The team had taken up a collection and bought them each a 15 speed bike so they don't have to walk everywhere and we surprised them with it tonight! They were overwhelmed to say the least. I was overwhelmed too, at the generosity of the team members and we all got such a blessing out of seeing their faces when we brought them out! We had a good time playing games and acting silly....this team is just plain hilarious;)

Tomorrow is our last work day....hopefully I can move :-/