April 5th

“He released them with these instructions: “The harvest is huge. But there are not enough harvesters to bring it in. As you go, plead with the Owner of the Harvest to send out many more workers into his harvest fields. Now, off you go! I am sending you out even though you feel as vulnerable as lambs going into a pack of wolves. You won’t need to take anything with you—trust in God alone. And don’t get distracted from my purpose by anyone you might meet along the way. “Once you enter a house, speak to the people there and say, ‘God’s blessing of peace be upon this house!’ If a lover of peace resides there, your peace will rest upon that household. But if you are rejected, your blessing of peace will come back upon you. Don’t shift from one house to another, but stay in one home during your time in that city. Eat and drink whatever they serve you. Receive their hospitality, for you are my harvester, and you deserve to be cared for. “When you enter into a new town, and you have been welcomed by its people, follow these rules: Eat what is served you. Heal the sick, and tell them all, ‘God’s kingdom has arrived and is now within your reach!’ But when you enter a city and they do not receive you, say to them publicly, ‘We wipe from our feet the very dust of your streets as a testimony before you! Understand this: God’s kingdom came within your reach and yet you have rejected God’s invitation!’ ””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭2‬-‭11‬ ‭TPT‬‬

On April 5th we read these exact instructions, went out and acted as such and saw the Lord provide in wild and incredible ways. It may have taken me 20 days to finally write this but that doesn’t take away from the testimony that it is. I’m writing this blog not to flex about anything my team or I did, but truly just to share first person testimony of the provision only the Lord can bring.

So the morning of April 5th we left as a team of 8 with transportation money to get away from the base and that was all. We left on foot, as we did not feel peace about spending the money we got. This led us on a 30 minute walk to nearby Paramos. Paramos brought many people, we got to get a man his first meal in 3 days, worship with random people in the park, and intercede for so many local people. It even led us into a Catholic mass. (Quick break to talk about the Guatemalan religious dynamic. Around 45% of the country is catholic, 45% are evangelical or protestant christian, and 10% hold native beliefs such as mayan religions.) A large majority of the population therefore still sees Jesus on the cross and culturally here lent and Good Friday are WAY more of a big deal than Easter. Kind of backwards right? Anyways, back to April 5th at the church. We didn’t speak Spanish and yet the guys in there asked us to help them lift the statue of Jesus off of the cross. How cool is that?! Despite language barriers and religious barriers we got to physically show them that Jesus is risen! Unfortunately associated with others in the church there was a ton of spiritual burden and we did not feel the peace that is spoken of in Luke 10. So, we interceded on what to do and the Lord told me that we needed to go to San Luis, a town that we stop at on our way to ministry each day. This town was too far of a walk, and none of the chicken buses would let us on for free, so we elected to just walk in that direction and let the Lord lead us.

After walking for a solid 35 or 40 minutes we hit our first town, it was still another 30 minutes at least to San Luis and so Lauren, Nathan, and I went in to the town as we were captivated by the natural beauty of the mountains next to the town. With no direction other than the mountains we started walking toward them, leading us down this dirt road. We saw a cardboard sign that said chocolate fruit ice, and so Nathan just knocked on the gate. A sweet women opened up and invited us in, we got to do a small bible study with her, and she even gave us homemade ice cream. For a little context because I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, this was the first thing I had eaten in 5 days as it was the item that broke my fast. I was absolutely stoked, the Lord provided me with homemade ice cream as a reminder of his goodness, he didn’t have to but he chose to because he loves us. We said bye in broken Spanish to the women and kept walking toward the mountains. Once we got to the base we were surrounded by massive green bean farms. The agriculture was beautiful and I was so overjoyed a) that I had just eaten ice cream and b) that I got to experience such a sweet moment of Gods incredible character. After taking it all in we decided it was probably best to turn around and go back into the town. The road back up where we came left us with two options up the dirt road we came or up a paved hill. We didn’t reach a consensus so Nathan and Lauren played rock paper scissors over which direction we went (it felt like we were in Acts 2 casting lots to decide who the new disciple was). Anyways, Lauren won and so up the paved road we went. It wasn’t another 5 minutes up the hill until Lauren realized the hill was exactly what she had dreamed of the night before. We were super stoked about her dream and also out of breath so we stopped in the shade to just stop and reflect on all God had just done. It was then that 3 guys standing around a fire called us over. Once we got up to them we realized they were barbecuing. Better yet they were making homemade chicharrones. They skipped saying hi, or asking our names, and straight up in English just asked if we wanted some. They brought out lime and tortillas, went and bought sodas for us, and even gave us frozen chocolate covered bananas. None of this we asked for and still they gave everything they had to us. We sat and talked with them for hours finding out about how much love of the Lord they carried. By this time my stomach was hurting because it had shrunk so much, but I was still feasting. One of the guys turned out to be 17, named Benjamin and I got to talk to him a ton. I got to talk to him about what walking out faith as a young person looks like and he was so engaged and loving in return. Eventually we realized we were and hour and a half from home and had to leave so we started to tell them bye. That was when Benjamin asked if we needed a ride home. We said that would be great and homie takes us around the corner to this nice little manual Mazda S series. He whips us back to Paramos and we tell him bye bye and exchange numbers. (Since then we’ve met up to play basketball and still keep in touch and are genuine friends now.)

Within a couple minutes the rest of our group also pulled up, both having rides back to the park given to them, and just got to exchange stories. We then got to use our transportation money we didn’t need to buy flowers and give them to people in the park. This was such an amazing time to share love both to the women selling the flowers, and all of the people in the park. Finally we started our walk back to the base excited to bring it full circle and finish how we started. It was then that we were picked up by an english speaking guy with a minivan and we offered us a ride back to the base. We got to pray over him and minister to him even though we thought we were done. We arrived safely back at the base, well fed, full of peace, and all we had to do was rely on the Lord.

“When the seventy missionaries returned to Jesus, they were ecstatic with joy, telling him, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we commanded them in your name!” Jesus replied, “While you were ministering, I watched Satan topple until he fell suddenly from heaven like lightning to the ground. Now you understand that I have imparted to you my authority to trample over his kingdom. You will trample upon every demon before you and overcome every power Satan possesses. Absolutely nothing will harm you as you walk in this authority. However, your real source of joy isn’t merely that these spirits submit to your authority, but that your names are written in the journals of heaven and that you belong to God’s kingdom. This is the true source of your authority.” Then Jesus, overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s joy, exclaimed, “Father, thank you, for you are Lord Supreme over heaven and earth! You have hidden the great revelation of this authority from those who are proud, those wise in their own eyes, and you have shared it with these who humbled themselves. Yes, Father. This is what pleases your heart: to give these things to those who are like trusting children. “Father, you have entrusted me with all that you have. No one fully knows the Son except the Father. And no one fully knows the Father except the Son. But the Son is able to reveal the Father to anyone he chooses.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭22‬ ‭TPT‬‬

We were able to return ecstatic just as the 72, full of joy and of the Holy Spirit. Thank you God for this opportunity to see your love and glory transcend the boundaries I had on you. Lord let you increase and me decrease.