Striving to be Steadfast

Guatemala

Guatemala....I've been thinking about this post for a while and I just haven't been able to sit down and write it, because there is just so much in my head! So I decided to try and give you a peak into my missions trip with a summary of what we did.

We went to the mission Hope of Life in Llano Verde Guatemala. Immediately I fell in love with their ministry that they have there and all the amazing ways in which they are serving the people in need! All of the staff was amazing they welcomed us with open arms and made us feel at home, the food there was DELICIOUS! We looked forward to the meals everyday because it was just so yummy and the fresh juice was amazing! :) My favorite part was all of the hammocks that they had everywhere made for a great way to relax and perfect place to spend time with God! While being down there it was so awesome to be able to speak in Spanish and interact with the people there. So glad that God helped me to recall my Spanish (I guess those 4 years of classes really did pay off).

The mission has an orphanage where they care for many children, a nutrition center, elderly home, and a school. While we were there we were able to help with building the hospital there, which was hard work, but it was so neat to be apart of such an awesome project that is going to help save so many lives!

There were so many awesome experiences we had, one day we got to go to the dump (which was literally a dump as you'll see below) and we got to do a feeding their and just share God's love with people living in complete destitute. It was definitely a rude awakening to realize how blessed I am and how much I take for granted. I was complaining about a few burns on my hand (that I got from the soup we were distributing) and then it hit me, why am I complaining about such a tiny thing, when these people have nothing and yet they are still full of joy. Made me want to stop focusing on myself and start looking outward. Somehow these people have hope in the midst of awful circumstances and it's an amazing thing.

We also got the privilege of going to a new village called Oasis, Hope of Life had never been there before so we got to be the first to go there and bring bags of food for all the families and it was amazing to see how grateful they were for the little that we were doing and to see how such a small thing like a bag of food could bring them so much hope! I was able to have a conversation with the leader of the village, it was a little choppy since it was in Spanish, but it was so neat to hear his gratitude as he explained to me details about the village and to share with him the joy that God has given me!

Okkay well those were the main things that we did :) Stay tuned for my next Guatemala post where I will talk about my two favorite parts of the trip the Spanish Church and Nutrition Center! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

I'm back!

I am back from Guatemala safe and sound! :)

Although it's bittersweet, because I wish I was back there! I loved every minute of it!

This is a quick post, because I'm crazy busy catching up on stuff right now, but I can't wait to post about all the amazing things that God did while I was gone!

GUATEMALA!

This blog will be quite for a while, because in about 4 hours I will be heading to Guatemala!

AHHH sooo exciting!

I have the great oppertunity to go with many other seniors from my school and work with the Hope of Life ministry down in Llana Verde :)

I'm so excited to see a new, culture and be able to serve God and share the love of Jesus! I cannot wait to see all of the amazingly awesome things that God is going to do while we are down there! I am ready for him to blow me away and I can't wait to see what he's going to teach me and them mighty ways that he is going to work in!

Please be praying for me and my team! :) If you want to follow my trip here's our blog

www.seniorsinguatemala2012.blogspot.com

See you in 9 days :) Adios!

Memories

Memories--Recollection, recalling events and moments, remembrance

Memories are such an interesting thing. Remembering joyful memories of the past makes me happy , thinking about funny moments make me laugh, recalling God work in amazing ways strengthens my faith, remembering the moments of tears makes me sad.

It is amazing how many emotions can be brought about by simply remembering the past. I believe God has given us memories for many reasons

-God wants us to remember where we have come from and to see how far God has brought us.To encourage us by seeing the growth and change that has happened.

-He wants us to see that he delights to bring us blessings and joy through friendships and fun times. To remember the laughter in the days of saddness.

-God wants to show us his faithfulness and how he has provided for us in the past, to increase our faith for the future by seeing how God has answered us in the past. Remember his faithfulness to us, gives us faith for the future.

-Memories also keep us humble, increase our faith and encourage our hearts, bring smiles to our faces, give hope for the future and help to teach us lessons and reveal more of God's amazing character to us.

*Genesis 9:16-- remember God's promise

*1 Chronicles 16:5-- remember God's wonders

*Ecclesiastes 12:1-- remember your Creator

*Luke 22:19--communion is for us to remember what Christ has done

*Psalm 105:1-2-- recount God's wonderful deeds

Memories are important to God (he's the one who created them in the first place), he wants us to remember and to tell others of the great deeds that he has done! So that not only will your memories give you hope and faith, they will help others to trust God and see more of his amazing greatness as well! :) So treasure your memories they are a gift from God!

My Random Easter Thoughts

Easter has never been a huge holiday for us.

Besides wearing the cute easter outfits and doing the Resurrection Eggs when we were little it, it just was never something that was a big deal for us.

If I'm honest I've never really been that excited about Easter. I never a huge easter bunny or chocolate fan and I've grown up in a christian home my whole life and have been hearing the story ever since I was a baby! I'm most definitely not proud about that fact, but it's the truth.

Around the holidays I usually look at all of the blogs that I follow seeing if anyone has posted a twist on the current holiday, or if they have any cool new insight or perspective to share....as much as I love seeing new perspectives and such, I was thinking about the Easter story last night and I realized how simply, yet amazing it is!

The story is so powerful and deep in and of itself that there is no need to find a new way of saying it, because we will never fully comprehend or get to the depths of it. It is such an amazing story that is is impossible to wrap your head around it.

Why would a Holy and perfect God come down and go through all of that for ME? A sinner who despised and rejected him...It's true love, nothing else would have driven him to give his life for us! how many of us are willing to go die for someone that we know? Who would go die for a criminal? Yet that is what Jesus Christ did for us!

It's so crazy because you feel so worthless, but yet you are worth more than you could ever know, so undeserving, but so loved and cherished at the same time!

When you realize your sinfulness, how you hated God and were enemies with him, that YOU were the reason that he had to come and die, and go through such suffering and pain....it breaks me! Why me? I am so undeserving! I just can't understand, it shows me how real and true and deep his love really is! If Christ was willing to give up his own life as a sacrifice for me, how can I ever doubt his love for me? This love drives me to give my life for him, it's the reason that I want to live my life to glorify my God and to give him all that I have to bring him praise & to serve him only!

So when thinking about the Easter story this weekend think about this quote:

"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something

done by us."

Think about your sinfulness and how much you grieve God in just one day! How you were were

the cause for his death. When you make this story personal to your own life it brings it to a new

level and your really begin to become grateful and realize what a huge gift it is, and what a great

price it cost!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ~ 1 Peter 1:3

Easter means that this life on earth is not all there is. Jesus went “to prepare a place for us” in His Father’s heavenly mansions for all eternity. Jesus died for our sins, paying our penalty, so that we could be forgiven. He was resurrected, to prove that death has no hold on those who repent and accept Him as Savior. This life on earth is a prelude to eternal joy with our Lord. Easter is a celebration
of our eternal destiny.

Beauty

"From Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God shines in glorious radiance."

Psalm 50:2

Perfection of beauty....just stop and think about that for a minute! We've seen so many beautiful things in our lives things that have left us speechless and that we simply gaze at in awe! But everything that we see is broken beauty. If you put all of the beauty in this world combined it wouldn't be half as beautiful as God! How could it be? I can't even wrap my mind around it! God created everything that's beautiful which means he must be SO much more beautiful! His beauty is perfect and uncomprehendable! Next time you are gazing at the beautiful sunset or the grand canyon think about God's beauty and the fact That he is a 1,000 more beautiful! So glorious that we can't even comprehend it! His beauty is greater and more majestic than anything we could ever imagine! Below are some pictures of God's beautiful creation, look at the beauty and remember that God is SO much greater and beautiful than any of these pictures!