Your mission is the one call on your heart that screams louder than anything.

We made it!! This has been a long-awaited trip. I couldn’t help but sit in the airport and think that God knew the day that John and I were born that we would be visiting Ecuador in this very moment. He knew the team that we would be with. He knew the children and adults that would be visiting the ministry this week. He knew the babies we would be holding and the children that we would be loving on. He knew the tears that would be shed, and the hearts that would be overfilled. He knew the divine conversations that would be had that would somehow add another building block onto us as human beings on this earth. He knew the weariness we would feel in the midst, and He prepared the strength that He would provide us with. He knew each and every millisecond, and He has been ready and waiting for this moment to finally grace our lives. For the transformation to happen and for His miracles to be revealed. He is a good, good God.

 

Walking up to the house where there were so many precious memories made all those years ago overwhelmed me to tears. As I was looking out over the ocean, John looked at me and asked if I was ok. I told him I can’t believe that we are here and that this is real. A dream that only God could make come true. Just as the ocean waves were washing up on that shore, so were the memories of a time a place that reformed me. There are certain seasons that define a large part of who you are, and this place is and will always be that for me.

 

As I write this, we are starting to settle in. My body is tired and my heart is full already. Riding back to the house tonight with the ocean breeze in my hair as the Ecuadorian music played after a long day of work, I had this insane sense of reality that overwhelmed my entire being. A settled sense of belonging. Anywhere I travel, it seems to always take me a couple of days to finally feel “there.” I think the chaos in preparation is a mindset that hangs on to us for a couple days too many, too often. But it feels good to finally feel and be present.

 

As I was doing my morning quiet time looking out over God’s creation, the entire message was on loving like God does. Which followed a strong conversation that Jeanette and I had just had the day before. That’s the funny thing about how God works.

 

{And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak of the oracles of God. If anyone ministers let him do it with the ability that God supplies. That in all things God may be glorified. 1 Peter 4:8-11}

 

Loving like God does is an everyday prayer of mine simply because we are broken people who live in earthly flesh, but this specific prayer has been my big one for this trip. That no matter who we come in contact with that God’s light would shine through us. That no credit or words come from us, but directly from God. There is that song we used to sing as kids “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” And I pray, that through a smile or a hug, or twirling a child around till I fall down dizzy-that somewhere in us, there is a little light that will shine God’s love brighter than anything they’ve ever seen. Not so they will see us, but so they will see Him in His shining mercies. Knowing that there is something greater.

 

Pulling up in the village, we get out of the front seat and the children are there waiting at the door for hugs and kisses. Their kind of love absolutely knocks me off my feet- the joy that these precious souls have. The love that seems so selfless and pure here. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s light and it’s beautiful. We think we know what love is, but this is real agape love. I wish more people knew how to love like they do, with pure vulnerability and an open heart. I know I wish that I did. They sure do teach me a lot and show me exactly how I yearn to love this world. It’s funny the things you can learn from a nine-year-old child. The things that will change you forever.

 

I look at these children and am learning little bits and pieces of their stories. Stories that will break your heart. Children that I am picking back up with after four years. Adolescents raising children. Fatherless homes. Broken homes. And they are still loving like they aren’t hurting. I pray that they know that there is hope for those hopeless seasons and a love like they’ve never known before. Just like my hopeless days, just like all of our hopeless days- that God is good, all the time.

 

I was able to cut hair today. Around 40 cuts in a matter of 8 hours. Standing there at one moment it’s almost as if the room stood still realizing that the thing that I absolutely love to do, God allowed me to use in a foreign country to help others. Never in a million years could I have dreamed that. The very thing that drives my passion is making people feel good about themselves, and I was blessed to see that ten-fold today. What a humbling experience and a joy that brought to my soul.

 

It takes your body and your mind a couple of days to slow down and to pull out of the chaos that our lives are so heavily wrapped up in, in the states. And once that slow down graces you, the things you see and feel are indescribable. Moving to Tennessee we have been able to see God’s miracles because we’ve slowed down and have had to depend on Him more than ever. But getting to a place like this allows us to see His mercies in ways that we don’t see every day. Getting to that level where you need Him and you are hungry to see Him work, will put you in that very position to see those miracles like never before. God is working and we are anticipating with each and every second that His love over each and every one of us will be revealed at just the right time and place.  We are already seeing it, and it is incredible!!!!