The Night is Darkest Just Before the Dawn

Well first of all, I just wanted to thank you for checking out my blog! I’m going to do my best to post on here on a semi-regular basis, not so much about what I’ve been doing, but about what I’ve been learning and what God has been doing. Thanks again and enjoy!

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The trip did not start of well for me at all. Not even joking, 30 seconds after I walked into the airport in Dallas I started to feel attacked. This past semester was the first time I had ever really felt Satan attack me since I came to Christ at the end of my sophomore year of high school (four years ago), but it had gone away over the past month or so. My entire time in Haiti and the weeks proceeding I did not feel attacked at all, but it came back strongly that morning. I’ve been so busy preparing for Honduras since I got back from Haiti that I have not had really any quality time with the Lord, and though I don’t think that was the reason Satan got through to me, it definitely didn’t help.

My friend told me the day before I left that I should watch the movie “Furious Love”, so I rented it on iTunes and watched it during my layover in Miami. The whole movie is about spiritual warfare, and how our greatest weapon against it is LOVE! When God wanted to save the world, he performed the greatest act of love in the history of mankind. In the movie, these people would go around and cast out demons and pray over people for physical healings, and they had success because they used love as their weapon. It is a weapon that is foreign to the enemy, and that is why it’s so effective.

I slept again on the plane from Miami to Honduras, but sure enough when I woke up the thoughts that Satan had been using to attack me were still there. So what did I use to attack back? God’s love. I started reciting Psalms in my head, proclaiming God’s love to the enemy and letting him know that he has no power over God. I kept speaking about the fact of God’s love to myself, saying “if my God is for me, who can stand against me?” I know he was only getting into my head because God was allowing him to. I was able to stay strong the same way Job was, as he depicts in Job 23. Verse 12 says, “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.” Satan hates the word of God, so we must love it.

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The first thing we did in Honduras was go to the mall to get us some cell phones for local use. The mall was beautiful – nicer than some malls I’ve seen in America. Mark, the long-term missionary that I’m working with, said that the malls were a front for drug dealers. The government would come to them asking how they were getting all this money, and they’d point it back to the malls and say that their income was coming from there. The malls looked beautiful, but they were made out of money from drugs and their presence hindered the authorities from being able to slow down the drug trafficking scene here. After reflecting on this for a bit, I realized how allegorical it was! That’s the essence of what sin is. It looks beautiful at first glance, but when you look deeper you see that all it does is glorify Satan and his work. Perhaps that’s a stretch, but I just love looking for metaphors in everyday life!

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When I was looking into this internship a few months ago, I was drawn to the potential of being able to lead a sports camp or help with construction projects, but because I’m injured (stress fracture in my hip) I will be unable to do these things. While I am bummed about this, I know God is definitely using this for his good. I have considered long term missions before, and during these next six weeks I’m going to be spending a lot of time working with a church that has recently been planted, helping it to grow. If I did do long term missions, church planting is exactly what I’d be doing, so I’m excited to learn more about how it works!

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I’m staying at a seminary that Camino Global (the organization I came here with) started awhile back until Monday, then I’ll be staying with the a guy named Allan who just started a church for a week or so, then I’ll be back at the seminary for the rest of my time in Honduras! I’m excited to stay with Allan because I’ll get more plugged into the culture, but I’m really enjoying the seminary too. I’ve had some great conversations with some of the students here and am really enjoying learning from them more about the culture.

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Prayer requests: It’s a huge bummer that I’m still injured. I was praying for healing today because the locals play soccer all the time and I really want to play with them, but then I remembered James 4:3 which says, “you ask but you do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” My desire to be healed solely comes from my desire to play sports. I came to the realization that maybe God really just doesn’t want me to be healed because he wants my focus elsewhere. I don’t want prayers for healing necessarily, but prayers that my injury will not take away from my joy. It’s a blessing that I’m able to come here for six weeks, and the enemy wants me to be upset for as much of it as possible. I would much rather have opportunity to serve God however he desires than to have my health. Sports are awesome, but God is better (understatement of the year). Thanks!

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Best surprise of the trip thus far: the other missionaries here play Settlers of Catan. I played with Mark’s family today and wrecked shop! #SameStuffDifferentDay

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To all my friends and family, I miss you all like crazy already! I love you guys.