Hello, Abandonment.

I have almost been in Honduras for a month now, and it’s wonderful. I really have began to love it here, and it starting to feel like home to me and my team. Just to catch you up on a few of my adventures: I have cut grass with a machete, hand washed my clothes, became accustomed to a co-ed bathroom, not flushing my toilet paper, taking cold showers (warm water does not exist in Honduras), and living in a two person tent. I have also hiked  up and down a mountain and through a river with my squad and about 15 Hondurans. Although I’m having a blast and falling in love with what the Lord is doing here, it has definitely been difficult and a little challenging the past few weeks. The best way to explain it is that the Lord is beginning to grow me through the process of abandonment. Abandoning my things, communication, and the comforts that I didn’t really realize that I had until now. First of all, my tennis shoes have gone missing, I lost my pillow on the bus, and I have a hole in my sleeping pad. So those are just a couple of material comforts that I have had to let go of recently. But what has been the most difficult is that I haven’t  been able to blog or really talk to my family or friends the entire I have been here.  We don’t have Internet on the property so we only get it when we go into town on our off day,  which is Friday. That is if you can get good connection. The past few times either my iPad hasn’t been working or I get a wifi connection to save my life. And i miss my family so much, i think about them every single day. So I’m like okay Lord, obviously you are trying to loosen my grip on these things. And thats what He’s been doing. He’s been asking me to no longer put my faith in the things I can’t control, and instead put my faith in the One who controls all things.  I have been spending too much energy thinking about what I have given up and not on everything that has been put in front of me. The Lord specifically placed me and my squad here for a purpose, and it wasn’t to dwell on our lack of material things, or the absence of our families. I am blessed to live on the property with about 10 Honduran teenage boys, who have all come from broken pasts and I know the Lord has placed me here to build relationships with them and share the love of Christ with them. These guys are actually becoming dear friends, and I’m so excited to see what the Lord does inside of their hearts. So I know that soon I will be able to replace my tennis shoes and pillow, fix my sleeping pad, and I can’t wait to talk to my family and friends. But I am ready to spend my energy this next month and half loving on the people of Honduras and I can’t wait to see God move.