You know how you have an experience, but minimize its impact, until years later?
It’s then you realize it was the catalyst for radical, life-altering change?
Well, my first trip to China, as well as our first family’s trip to Guatemala was exactly like that.
Guatemala was paramount for a few reasons….
- Guatemala birthed God’s heart for missions in our oldest children, who were ages 8 & 11, at the time.
- This trip rev
ealed God’s miraculous provision, when we step out and into His purposes. - God birthed in us His heart for the diverse land of Guatemala, taking us from the jungle to the city, revealing God’s love for the Latin people, and imprinted our hearts His love for those with disabilities.
- Our time exposed God’s hearts for orphans in a greater way; those cared for by Christian ministries to those living inside a government orphanage.
- Our eyes became even more opened to real poverty; lice infested, garbage picking, alongside the railroad tracks families, living in poverty.
- God re-connected our hearts with a family we had known who has a wheelchair ministry an
d later we would have accompany us to China. - This trip showed us what real worship was, from up on a mountain and under a tarp. We were broken by desparate hearts lifting up Jesus in their poverty and lack. We heard uneven voices, poverty-stricken and struggling, bellowing out His name and we were forever changed.
- On this trip God gave us a new appreciation for His church; a church that didn’t need walls, didn’t need overly-structured programs, organizations or agendas. It just needed Jesus!
I could go on and on.
Guatemala changed us all, radically.
It was not an easy trip; hiking twenty miles to a remote people, a scorpian crawling up my eight-year-old daughter’s arm, while doing a puppet show in the middle of the jungle, and shifting from unbearable heat to being drenched by rain, in the back of a pick-up truck coming down from the mountain in the jungle….
However, we came, with a small view of God’s sovereinty and grace. We left, more fully dependent on Him, more heartbroken and burdened, gripped by His grace and mercy for us all.
This trip was the gateway to all our other adventures of obedience, as we would spread His love to the nations in the years to come; Peru, China, and Dominican Republic.
You may never know now how one “yes” can change the trajectory of your life. But I dare you….
Say “yes” to God’s call and see how your life changes, forever.
