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Guatemala 2010

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I feel kind of tactless and rude for posting this up on my blog, but as explained in the proceeding letter - I did not plan on going and as such instead of mailing this out to the friends on LitNet that I mailed it to last year, I've decided to post it this way. Should you feel interested in aiding me, please send me a private message for details on address information. - Thank you so much guys for putting up with me! I love you lots!!

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June 27th, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

One day last year, after spending about half an hour sharing lunch and gospel stories with some barefoot children who lived in the alley-way dump of Guatemala City, and after moving a family’s corrugated sheet metal “home” from one of the city dumps to another hillside landfill location, I had a conversation with a team member about the effectiveness of our missionary work in Guatemala. She was discouraged because she felt as though we could have done more. How were we showing Jesus to these people? My response was not as labored an explanation as you might think. Our job in Guatemala, I told her, was not that we could save everyone from the lives they were living – only God could do that, nor to grab them up in our arms and carry them home with us, otherwise if we could have, we would have done just that. Rather, the calling that God set upon our lives in going to Guatemala was a calling to love and to serve those in need there. Our job was to instill a hope in those who had previously had no hope, to share with them the love of the Savior in whom they had no previous knowledge. The job we had to do in Guatemala last year was that of giving them an OPPORTUNITY to hope.

Jesus Christ only did the will of God the Father, and God’s will for Jesus was that He should suffer death at the cross and rise again…not so that everyone would BE saved, but so that everyone could have the OPPORTUNITY to make that decision to be reconciled through salvation. So much pain was endured for so great a love so that we might be given the opportunity to hope. We tend to forget that as Christians, when we step out on God’s will for our lives, it sometimes entails us suffering through pain for God’s glory. When we experience this, the results of stepping out on His will can taste bittersweet. If we are not careful, the enemy can use this pain to make us doubtful, unconfident, and fearful to pursue Christ’s will for our lives again.

It took me almost a year to learn this lesson. When I returned from the mission field last year, my life back home was turned completely upside down and I was broken. The pain I suffered for doing God’s will made me question whether or not I had heard Him correctly – had I made a mistake in believing He sent me? So when conversation came up for Guatemala 2010, the enemy had placed a fear in my heart and a desire not to return to the mission field, and my response to the question of my participation was that God had not yet confirmed my going. I write this letter to you now with full recognition of the haste and of the heavy requests being made. It is also with a humbled heart that I tell you that because of the fear of the potential pain in doing God’s will, I did not want to return to Guatemala – the fear, the lack of confidence, and the lack of faith was sin.

God reconciled me to Him once more when He examined my heart (Psalms 26:2) and revealed to me that despite the issues He would help me work through, it is still my call to return to Guatemala for the July 11th- 25th, 2010 mission trip. The lesson continued when he told me that despite the promise made in Romans 8:28, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” He does not promise there won’t be moments of suffering for the glory of God. And this is where I appeal to you. The need for constant prayer for our team and for myself is the most important gift you could give to us while we are away. The second request I would make of you is that you please seek God’s face as to whether He would have you help financially support me on this mission. The total cost of the trip is $1800, of which is needed to provide for airfare and supplies by the deadline of July 11th, 2010.

I recognize the haste in which I make these requests, and I understand that in this time of economic difficulty, it is also hard at times to follow God’s call on our lives to support those who would go out into the mission field. My prayer for you is that if our God calls you to aid financially, that you would do so faithfully, and without the fear of possible pains it may cause you in the future.

Fear of pain nearly prevented me from doing what God has placed on my heart to do. In these past days, however, I have recognized, that like Christ, my heart is more than willing to suffer the pains that may be endured when in country, or upon my return home, so that those in need in Guatemala may know love and have the OPPORTUNITY to obtain hope and salvation. This year’s trip will personally present many difficulties in many areas of my life – but yet if it is my God’s will to do this work, it will be done with joy, faith, and gladness.

Pray faithfully dear friends and family, and in whatever way our Lord may have you support this trip I pray that you do only what God has called you to do, to do it in full confidence of His will for your life, and that you may be blessed for all your efforts. Stand with me as I make a step out on faith. Pray with me as you and I grow in Him, step out in faith and know that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Help me to plant seeds of hope and give an opportunity to know Christ to those in need.


With love and many blessings,
Grace86




“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” – Matthew 28:19-20 KJV
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