One Last Blog: ¡Bienvenido a Casa!

    Hey guys!

First of all, I want to thank everyone SO much for all the support and prayers you’ve given me and my squad! We absolutely could not have made it through this trip without them!

It’s been about a week and a half since my squad and I have moved home from Central America! What a wild concept! It still feels like just a few days ago that I met my squad for the first time at training camp! 

Through the last few months, we’ve experienced so many different parts of life together! We’ve worked ourselves to the bone together doing manual labor, we’ve had dance parties, cried with each other, rallied around each other in celebrations and trials, and been each other’s family (shout out to our moms) for 3 months straight. 

Moving home, I really thought the difficult part would be adjusting back to the American culture, where we can have everything we want as soon as we want it. What I never expected was for the toughest part of it all to be my relationships with my friends and family. My friends and family, who I love so much, but who haven‘t been with me the last 3 months, and haven’t had the chance to experience what I’ve experienced. It’s hard when I know that they’re doing their best to welcome me back home the best way possible, and want me to talk about my time in Central America, but many times it seems like what I say goes in one ear and out the other, or they get distracted halfway through what I’m saying. It’s rough learning to rebuild those relationships when it seems I can’t talk about what life has been like the last 3 months. 

During my time gone, I’ve experienced Christ in ways I never expected. I saw him in little things, like monkeys hanging around in the trees, kids helping each other at school, and our ministry host quite literally throwing a birthday party for one of us. I saw Him in the big things, like lava glowing out of an active volcano, in the way we saw multiple churches come together to send off missionaries to Mexico, and in the way Señor Juan served us through cooking, and him spending time at the church with Pastor Basilio, when for so long he rejected God.

I also learned how to live. Learning to choose joy when the water is shut off for days at a time, learning to be content with simply what you have and nothing more, learning to lean on Christ when it seems nothing is going right and you don’t know how to handle life anymore, learning how to pour into others in ways that benefit them, but also draw them closer to Christ.

I know these are all things that you could think to yourself and say “okay but I can learn those things in America too”. You’re right, you can, but will you? You can learn to be content with simply what you have, but will you? When you can get anything you want in the snap of a finger, or the click of a button, will you choose to be content? You can pour into others in a way that benefits them, but will you? When someone opens up to you, will you choose to help them in way that benefits them, or will you choose to help them in a way that makes yourself feel good about helping them and may not benefit them or draw them closer to Christ at all? You can learn to rely on Christ in the hardest parts of life, but will you? When life starts being more than you can handle, will you release it to Him and rely on Him, or will you turn to whatever gives you the instant gratification you need in that moment to feel better and numb yourself?

I guess what I’m saying is yes, these things don’t seem all that special because it is something you can learn to do from the comfort of your own home, but in this consumer based culture we live in, where everything is fixed on self, will you choose to learn these things, or will you continue to just live life as normal, day by day? It’s hard learning to live a life that goes against your human nature and human flesh, but the rewards reaped from it, and the mindset going with it makes it all so worth it. <3

Prayer Requests:

• Continuing to learn how to live now that I’m back in the States.

• I’ve had another long term mission opportunity come up for the near future, and prayers for guidance with that would be so appreciated.

• I have some squad members already back out on the mission field, so prayers for them would be awesome.