1 more day!!

Listo para los grupos!!

Our first team arrives tomorrow evening and we are so excited!! It has definitely been a blessing to have a few weeks to adjust to life in Nicaragua and reconnect with the families in Los Brasiles. Paul has been teaching me Spanish in the evenings while we walk around our apartment complex as our apartment cools off from making dinner on the fire. I learned how to pray in Spanish last night and I am so excited to pray with the families in Los Brasiles even though what I can pray for in Spanish is quite limited at this point....I trust that the Holy Spirit will enable me to communicate as He knows our inner thoughts.
We have had the chance to do some fun activities with some of the kids from the community. We took 5 boys to the beach with us on Saturday along with Luis for his birthday and Deb Morrison. Deb is here from California to prepare for her team that arrives on Wednesday. It has been really great getting to know her before we hit the ground running. Anyways, the beach was awesome! Deb mentioned that watching the boys play in the water with such joy and reckless abandon must be similar to how the Lord feels about watching us rejoice in His blessings. It was so wonderful and brought us such joy to watch the boys playing and enjoying God's creation. What a great day it was to bond with the boys!
Keep us and the teams in your prayers that we would be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and for the boldness to follow that leading!

Submission

 

Unfortunately, I do not become a submissive wife simply by putting a ring on my finger. I am learning that submissiveness is something that I will learn more and more each day and is not a quality that develops overnight. Paul, so far (it's been a little over 3 weeks) has been an amazing husband. Very attentive, caring and is a great leader. However, even though he is a wonderful, god-fearing man, I can still have a hard time submitting. "Deep belief and complete trust in Jesus to sustain a wife makes submission to even the most difficult man possible" (Smidt). Now I am not suggesting that Paul is the 'most difficult man' but I have found that it is much more possible to respect him and submit to him on days when I truly am trusting in Jesus. I need to offer my husband the same grace that I have received in my deepest time of need. The biggest help to submission is waking up daily and determining to die to myself so that I may live for Christ. I am dependent on his righteousness alone and as Paul puts it in Philippians, "it is we who serve God by His spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus and we who put no confidence in the flesh..."

Honestly, the biggest hindrance to full submission to my husband is fear.

"A fearful woman will have a very hard time submitting to her husband. A fearful woman isn’t actively trusting God with her life, which makes entrusting a man with your future nearly impossible. Submission to Christ frees a woman from fear as she rests in God’s character and provision for her, delivered through her husband" (Smidt). Like Peter, I tend to doubt. So quickly I let fear and doubt take over and begin to sink. After reading the article by Jennifer Smidt, I realize how closely related my trust on the Lord is to the quality of my relationship with my husband. Unless, I am first wholly submitted to the Lord, I cannot submit myself to my husband. My prayer and goal is to be more wholly submitted and dependent on the Lord so that I can be submitted and respectful of my husband every day. Praise God for his abundant grace and patience for me as I work out what his word says about marriage. 

Smidt, Jennifer. 10 Things Submission is Not. http://theresurgence.com/2011/05/16/10-things-submission-is-not

Arrived in Nica!

It certainly has been a while since I have written! Paul and I have been in Nicaragua for a little over a week now and it has been so wonderful. The Lord my provider amazes me, day after day. It is amazing how much more dependent I feel on the Lord in a foreign country. Both planes were delayed on the way to Nicaragua, so we arrived a little after 10pm…then it hit us, our apartment rental office will not be open this late at night…where are we gonna sleep tonight?! Well we had no other option but to pray and ask the Lord to provide. And He did! We drove to the apartment complex, stopped at the gate, and asked the guard if he would let us in as we were renting Apt. 18. The guard replied that he was expecting us and had a key to let us in—praise God! We found out the next day when we went to sign papers in the office that typically the office is only open until 5pm and you can only get your key then, but for some reason the admin decided to give the guard the key to let us in when we arrived. The Lord is sovereign over all things, including the small details that we overlook. That was only the first night, but the Lord has answered our prayers and provided for us day after day.

            Another prayer of Paul and I’s was that the relationships Paul made in the community of Los Brasiles would pick up right where they left off 7 months ago. Paul lived in the Los Brasiles for 7 months before we got engaged, and then he planned to return to the states for a month before going back to Los Brasiles. However, the Lord led us to spend the time before our marriage in the same town, therefore Paul was unable to return until last week! However God answered this prayer as well! The first day back in this community, Los Brasiles, the boys that Paul had discipled, asked him if they could go to church with us on Sunday. Of course Paul was delighted to say, “yes!” The kids were so glad to have him back and immediately struck up a 3v3 soccer tournament. On Sunday, we brought 4 of the boys to church, it was so cool to worship God together and see them all dressed up in their Sunday best. Thank you Lord for answered prayers and restored relationships!

            I find that in every new season of life, I experience God in a new way. Right now, I am learning the name of God, Jehovah-jireh my provider. Hasta luego!