Incredible, beautiful peace

Now that everybody has arrived and we have about 60 people living on the property, ministry off the property has started! We visited INFA, which is a place that houses street kids, mostly girls. I personally got to work with the kids with special needs, which was a first for me. It was a good experience to work with girls for a change as well. Yesterday was street ministry where 60 of us invaded a street corner, usually filled with people selling fruit or candy or random things. Instead of selling, we gave away candy with scripture attached, we had people dancing, singing, holding signs praising the Lord. Plenty of people probably thought we were crazy, but plenty others were excited for what we were doing and all the joy for the Lord. And we couldn’t help but notice Carlos and Fernando joining in on the ministry. They used to go up to every car window begging for money, but this time they were running around with huge smiles on their faces, handing out scriptures to cars instead. Talk about a change, all in less than a year. They have recognized and are starting to embrace their identities as children of God, not street kids that no one gives a second glance. Today’s ministry was another large group ministry working in a small colony outside of Tegucigalpa. It was around a soccer field with a bunch of boys playing and we finished the day with worship and a message. 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of these ministries so far, and I’m super excited to hopefully get the chance to go into Los Pinos next week with the Passport team. But it has also helped me to realize that God’s primary purpose for me here is on the property with these boys. I’m not a large group ministry person, I’m a small group-er for sure. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to continue the large group stuff too, but it’s encouraging to know that God put me here to form relationships and do life with these boys, and not necessarily to be loud on the streets. Obviously, because that’s not who God made me. I am super excited about all these ministries this month,  but as I definitely learned last summer, I’m not going to take for granted the 24/7 ministry on the property that I’ve been put here for. Day after day God has given me more and more peace about being here and about life in general. A major concern coming here was wondering if I had a purpose here, if there was something for me to do, and making sure I’m not just here taking up space for two months. Not only has God relieved those fears and shown me a bit of my purpose here, but he showed me some really cool scripture yesterday. Really all of Isaiah 51, which I highly recommend reading, but especially verses 15-16.

“For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the seas so that its waves roar, the Lord Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand, I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people’.”  - Isaiah 51:15-16

My purpose is to be God’s daughter, to live in his love, and to be one of His people. That’s it, he’ll do all the fine tuning to where I need to be and when. He’s put me here in Honduras on purpose, and I know because of the incredible peace He’s given me about it. So to best do His work, all I have to do is love Him, live in His shadow, and speak the words he puts in my mouth.  How liberating is that? No need to worry about the future, plans etc because they don’t belong to me. They were figured out long ago, and I’ll just go wherever he pushes me. Peace straight from God is absolutely incomparable to anything this world can offer. I guess it's ironic that I'd discover His peace while I'm living with 60 other people including 10 former street kids, but in my experience, that's just how God tends to do things.

If yall could be praying for all the new ministries we're taking on and safety for the teams, it would be greatly appreciated!