2 hours, 2 houses, 5 people, no professions of faith….BUT…. No Failure, because God’s will was done. Today was our first full day in country and so we had a morning of evangelism, afternoon of feeding in a community, gospel being shared and then preaching. Our team of three and one interpreter for door to door evangelism was guided to two houses in the two hour timeframe but it was definitely God guiding us to those two houses and our team was obedient and not concerned about “numbers”. During prayer at one of the houses, one of the ladies kept saying Gracious Papa, how sweet was that to be lifted up while we were praying.
Author: abarnett
I will Praise You in the Storm..
That song (see the title of this post) sums up the week for me. The rain from the clouds has been minimal and has not slowed us down, but the storms that Satan has tried to create in my life have made me have to fully rely on God for energy, strength, endurance and patience. But I do Praise Him for these storms, as God has allowed me to work through this and hold fast to the fact that it is not about me. God has shown up, used each of the 15 of us and our interpreters, in ways none of us expected or could imagine. While teaching some kids the song, My God is so Big, I was again reminded that He is SO BIG!!! He asked me to obey and come on this trip as He knew there was going to be amazing things happen. This had to make Satan “shake in his boots” so he did all he could do to ruin this trip, but again, God is BIGGER and He Delivers his people if we call out on His name.
I know I have not blogged until now and it is not because there has been nothing to say, it is partly due to the “storms” but mainly because there has been so much that God has done I have not been able to but words to His Works. My teammates have done a terrific job at keeping everyone up to date, so I will let them speak what I cannot.
All I can say is… Once again, I say Amen, and its still raining
Almost There?!?
Travel has been quite amazing so far. No set-backs, but there has been several blessings from God. One of the first ones we experienced was at the check-in counter in Louisville. Not only was the US Airway staff (3 of them) doing a great job helping us get checked in, but when it was over, we did not get charged for any of our totes, which should have been $50 a piece since they were considered a 2nd check bag. The flight from Louisville to Charlotte was uneventful, another blessing, except for John Harlan. We will let him tell you about the little boy and the blue water. The flight was great from Charlotte, NC to Munich Germany. The gentleman sitting next to me was from Jacksonville, FL and was traveling to Greece with 2 other members from his church to check out property as they are starting a church plant in Greece. He and his wife/kids will be moving to Greece in 2011 as he will be the Senior Pastor at the church plant. What an amazing God we have!!! The flight was not full, so we were able to move seats a little. After “supper” I moved back to the row with my sister as she was the only one in the section of 4 seats. We were able to “lay” down and sleep just a little. So we are sitting at the gate in Munich Germany waiting on our last plane boarding routine to take place until we are ready to go home. We will be traveling to Budapest, Hungary and then getting on a bus to get to Romania. Share more later. Isaiah – love you and praying you are having a great night’s rest as it is 2:30am (Central Time) your time as I am writing this. Have fun this week!!!
Another Amazing day from Our Even More Amazing God
With this being the last day I really tried to soak in everything. Our overall team saw 33 salvations and then this afternoon there were 12 at the Youth Rally bringing the week’s total to 188. The Youth Rally ended up being younger kids, about 110. Isaiah gave his testimony for the first time and let 12 kids to Christ at the end. God is doing amazing work through Isaiah. The kids are great to be with, even with a language barrier I was able to sit and color with them for almost one hour and we had a blast. I really feel drawn to the people in Honduras. I know Isaiah and Rich are too. So now we are praying and asking God to show us his will for our future and whether it includes Honduras. I think all three of us can see us living here and serving God everyday. I am sadden about leaving tomorrow, but am very thankful God provided our way to come here for a second time. Today we met a little boy, about 24 months, who is HIV positive. His parents no longer care for him so he is being taken care of by another little girl who is about 5. I could not believe this. They are part of Compassion International, so they are getting support. But who could do this. I just wanted to take him home with us and love and care for him. For now we can pray for him. Well, I need to go pack and get some sleep. Breakfast is at 6:30 and we leave for the airport by 8am. Thank you all for following our teams blog. I hope you have enjoyed our posts and have been able to see how God works in so many different ways through ordinary people like us. I also hopes this has encouraged you to live your life for Christ, build a relationship with Him and serve Him as He calls you to do so in Matthew 28:19-20, but remember it is As you Go so that means in your daily routine you should be sharing Christ with those you encounter and you do not have to go to a foreign country to follow Christ’s direction.
God Bless,
Amy
Greeted by Angels…
I am going to start at the end and work backwards. Tonight we went to church and were led in worship by little girls in white robes. They did interpretive dance to the worship music. It was amazing. Erin and Adam gave their testimony and both did a great job. Rich preached and then the church had a prayer for a lady that was having problems. One of the girls, one that begged me not to leave earlier in the day, came to me and wrapped her arms around me while we prayed. All of a sudden I felt her shaking and I looked down. My shirt was wet from her tears. So I sat down and held her. For the rest of the prayer time, at least 10 minutes, she cried on my neck. Afterwards I asked her if she was okay and she said yes, that she had been praying and was praising God. Isn’t amazing how a child reminds us how we should worship.
Earlier in the day we went Evangelizing in the area of the church we went to tonight and then after lunch we went back to that area to invite them to a Fiesta and to Church. We did the Fiesta in the church and had about 75 kids. THe best way to describe a Fiesta is think of VBS and doing it in one hour, without the craft. We have games, music, drama, prizes and the Gospel presentation. And then of course candy.
We saw 45 professions of faith today with 18 of them being at the Fiesta. This brings the total professions of faith so far this week to 143. God is Amazing!! How He can use the ten of us to glorify Him in this way.
Well, I need to share the computer now, so I will tell you all goodbye. Keep praying for us, we will be home soon.
God Bless,
Amy
PS
Adam, Austin and Amber – We hope you are all having fun. We miss you and love each of you very much. Keep praying for us as you have been. I cannot wait to talk to you on the phone when we get home. We will call you on Sunday. Be sure you are good for your mom and dad, and Adam, have a great Friday at school tomorrow.
God is Good, God is Great…
When we hear this, most of us think of the prayer we learned as a child for meal time, but let me tell you there is a totally different meaning to these words. I have yet to post since we arrived, so bear with me this will be long…
Since we have been here, we have been blessed with so many different things. The first service we led on Sunday had a Baptism (in a portable pool in their building). There was also a family from Switzerland that is living in Comayagua for his work and his parents and grandmother had been visiting. So Pastor Mario had them speak to the church. We heard them speak in German, the son translated it to Spanish and then Jasmine interpreted it into English. The son was one of those that were baptized. Then Sunday evening we went to the CCI church and they had Communion. We were able to participate, and what a joy that was. Both the Baptism and Communion are not done every service. Isn’t it amazing how great God is, to have these events for the services we were at. Monday took us to the streets in the morning. We divided into 3 groups for evangelism with Pastor Mao’s church. We saw a total of 21 salvations professed, every team had at least one. Monday afternoon we went to the Hospital. We took stuffed animals for the children, Purse filled with goodies for the women and hats for the men, and of course candy for all. It was definitely a step up from the Hospital Rich and I visited in Choluteca in 2008, but the others on the trip still felt the impact of their misfortune and our appreciation for the Hospitals in the USA. Then we had our “free time”. This was a little strange for Rich and I as last time we did not have “free time” until the last day. They took us to two Souvenir shops and two parks and to the oldest Clock Tower in all the America’s. This is attached to a Church and we were allowed to go into the church and take pics, and they let us go up to t he top of the Bell Tower and look out. The stairs were interesting, as they were not evenly spaced, but it was amazing view of God’s glorious creation in the sky and on Earth. We then headed to the local mall, just like ours only smaller. Oh, and there were armed guards in the parking lot. Back to the house after the mall for supper and share time and prepped for VBS on Tuesday.
Today we went out in the morning for evangelism with Pastor Orlando’s church. Our team experienced a total of 45 salvation’s professed. We also invited everyone to the church service for tonight and the children to the VBS we were putting on at 2pm today. We then headed back to the house for lunch and regrouped. We then headed back to Pastor Orlando’ s church for VBS. There were at least 140 kids plus the adults and our team. Adam did a great job leading the Bible Story. He chose when Jesus walks on water in Matthew. He had others act out the story as he read it from the Bible and then he reemphasized the importance of the story. Erin asked questions and Beth and Eric gave out the prizes. I had the kids come up (5 boys and 5 girls) and tell their favorite bible verse. If they got it right, they got a prize. We then led them in a few songs and a game of Hot Potato. The kids lined the walls to play this game. We then had real game time where the guys took the boys and the ladies took the girls to play games, while Ida, Beth and Erin took the younger ones to color and jump rope. Then at the end we gave them all candy. That 2 hours went by so quick. (Those of you who know Beth will have to ask her about her pants. She sat on the stage during VBS and ripped her pants on a nail, clear down her leg. Thank goodness someone had a jacket she could wrap around her waist.)
We are all now relaxing and waiting until we have to get ready for church at 7pm.
Of course the food is so amazing. It has been tempting to “cheat” and drink something while I eat, but I am being good so far and having to chose wisely. Fanny is a terrific cook, and a great housekeeper.
Isaiah is doing unbelievable, although I do not think I should expect any different. Yesterday he presented the gospel once and today three times. Today he had presented it to a group of five boys and they all excepted and this is while his other teammates were speaking to someone else. It is a blessing to see God work not only in your own live, but even more when God works in your Child’s life.
Well, I think I need to wrap up for now, I will try blog everyday, so it is not so long.
God Bless,
Amy
PS
Adam, Austin and Amber – We love you so much and miss you all.
Mom and Dad – Thanks for the comments and the prayers.
Valerie – Thank you for the encouragement and the prayers, I miss you so much and wish you could have come with us, you would love to be serving God with us.
Work – I do no t regret coming, and although I miss you all, I do not miss the work and the interference with God’s service. I hope you all enjoy our blogs and can appreciate the work we are doing here.
Less than 2 Weeks…
WIth less than 2 weeks to go, we are all getting excited about our Mission Trip to Honduras. I cannot wait to be there and share the gospel and God’s love with the people in Comayagua. My prayer has been that as God is preparing each of our hearts that he is also preparing the hearts of those we will encounter.