Heros and Holas (Waves)

I've been sitting here for several minutes right now trying to figure out where in the world to try and start to update on what's been going on here. I've been learning so many different things many of which I feel like I've just scratched the surface of and when I get home I'll continue building on what God's been teaching me.

Since I last posted an update Lindsay and her brother Nicky returned home and in the same day my sister Lyndsey came and visted. It's hard to believe that her time here has already come and gone.

It was so great to have her here! She's the first person from my family to come and be apart of my life/heart here in Nicaragua. That means a lot ya know? When you get to share something so special with the people you are close to. While she was here she was able to meet the people I've been telling her about for the last 6 years and they were so excited to meet her.

One of the most memorable things that we did while she was here was take her to Corinto which is a nearby beach. Many of you have heard me talk about Yahira before....she is 24 yrs. old and I've become very close to her and her family over the years. Before Lyndsey got here they told me they wanted to do something special with her and so to the BEACH WE WENT!!

It amazes me how personal God is and how he uses even the little things we do in our day to day lives to explain his Word. I usually refer to myself as a visual learner, so maybe that's one reason he does this for me...to make sure I get it.

Well, all of that to say he used our trip to the beach to illustrate something that he's begun to teach me. One driving force behind the Lord leading me here this summer was with the desire to live life alongside the people here....day by day. In doing so I didn't really think about what all that could entail. Once you start to do that you realize the reality that people live in and how we don't live in an ideal world. It says in Isaiah 45:18 "...He made this world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos..."

The past several days however, there has been several situations that have left me feeling helpless, frustrated and slightly chaotic. It's made me question "God, how can you use me here when some of these problems are so much bigger than I am." I think that's exactly where he wants me to be actually. Because when we run out of ideas of how to "fix" things then we finally learn to depend on him and ask him for wisdom. I started reading James this week and it immediately reminded me of our trip to the beach. In James 1:5-6 is says

"If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind."

I'd like to share a little bit of what I've needed wisdom for.....

Wednesday night I finally got to spend more time with my adoptive family in Bethel. When I got there my "Mom" told me she needed to talk to me . So, we went to the back of the house and she started just breaking down and told me that her husband left her. Sadly enough this is not all that uncommon for her. I've been staying with their family for a number of years now and he's rarely there. He has a history of leaving for a number of days and then come back for 2 or 3 and then leave again. What made it different this time was that he finally admited it was for another woman and took his belongings with him when he left.

I sat there and listened to her share about how her heart has been breaking for herself, her marriage and her 2 children. One of which is having her 21st birthday this weekend. "If you need wisdom...ok God now is most defintely that time...I need it." We had a really great talk but there's so many layers to this situation and my heart just absolutely breaks for this family.

Accompanied with the sadness it also really angered me at the same time at the reminder of how Satan is such a deceiver and how he is lying to this father/husband that there is fufillment outside of the family that God has given him. It's incredible to think how believing his lies can destroy families. So, with this situation alone I'm learning how walking alongside people like Christ did involves both the good and the bad. This is not just a story this is their lives...if it was a story we'd be waiting for the superhero to come in at just the right time and save the day all in 30 minutes including commercials. But ya know...God is that...he is our HERO and it's times like these where we need to call on him! Calling on him in faith...not wavering but knowing that the God we are calling on "his arm is not too weak to save, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call." Isaiah 59:1. Please continue to keep this family in your prayers and I'd love for you to join me in my pray for wisdom in how God may want to use me for this family. Praise God that we do have a HERO in his son Jesus Christ.

This song is one of my favs. right now and it's gaining more significance the longer I'm here. It's by Trip Lee and it's called "Hero" Check in out at www.reachrecords.com/b2w. Hit the play button to hear the song.

Step By Step

Cerro Negro

This is a picture of Cerro Negro one of the active volcanoes in Nicaragua. The group from Bent Creek Baptist left July 2nd which left Matheson, Lindsay, Nick, and myself as the remaining family of 4. As I'm writing this Lindsay and her brother Nicky are already back home (they headed out July 9th), but this experience was one worth recapping.

Before I left for Nicaragua I was spending time with my beloved mentor and friend Patty Dorn. She shared a verse with me that I've heard countless times growing up, but she explained it in such a way that brought with it a whole new meaning for me.

Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path."

The statement Patty made was "If there wasn't darkness you wouldn't need a lamp. A lamp or think of a flashlight is used to give you just enough light to make the next step you need to take." The more I'm here the more I realize how God has designed life to be lived step by step.

This was personified through our hike up Cerro Negro. Lindsay, Josue, and I were lagging behind as we were taking time to take a ton of pictures. We could look ahead and see the rest of our group as they were bookin' it up this volcano and as we continued on the trail we saw their footprints. Lindsay has a fear or heights, but she noticed that it was easier once she placed her feet in the footprints of those who'd gone before us to get up the volcano. I thought that was a pretty good idea and decided to do the same and when I began to do so I placed my foot in someone elses footprint and my food immediately slipped. So, I began to make my own new footprints as well.

We continued on our journey and after we had been hiking for quite some time Lindsay turned around and said "Lauren! Look how far we've come!" It was true...when we turned around it was so evident the heights that we were at and it was making the trek worth it. Once we got to the top of the volcano it was even more incredible to look around and see God's creation and to be reminded of how big he is and how little I am. Yet he is interested in all the little steps that it took me to get to the top of Cerro Negro.

What a beautiful picture of life! There are people who've walked before me and the footprints they leave have aided me in knowing the Lord more or even to be able to get through a "steep" time in my life much like the trail on the volcano. Then there are those people in my life who I've followed their steps which have caused me to stumble and I'm reminded how God has a special purpose, plan and path for my life and that instead of following their steps and trying to mirror their walk that I need to follow after God and he'll take me to heights that I've never seen before. I looked back over a verse that I read probably a week ago and I'm just now catching how God was preparing me to hear his voice through this experience. There are actually several verses.

Deut. 28:1-2 "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all is commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

Psalm 32: 8 "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. "





My "goal" for this summer has been to be able to walk away at the end of it knowing what God wants me to do with my life. I've been praying if whether or not his will is for me to do trip planning for Vision Nicaragua full time or if I'm just to continue serving the way I have been. The more I've been here the more I feel like I have no idea haha, but this experience helped me to realize that what God requires of me is to let him lead. He is totally in control and I have to remind myself that often...especially here. I do think that he speaks to us in big picture ways, much like looking at the enormity of a volcano and then realizing it takes the step by step journey to get to know him more and to fully experience his presence. In the meantime I'm finding peace in walking with just enough light for the moment and begining to learn that

"And now, Lauren what does the Lord require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. " Deut. 10:12

Dame tus Ojos Quiero Ver (Give me your eyes I want to see)

Have you ever prayed for something and prayed so specifically that when God answers your prayers with the same attention to details you're almost shocked? That's exactly what he did with the Women's Conference this past week.

Orignally, I shared with you all that I thought that God was moving us to have the Women's Conference with another village. Well, as is very common things change constantly when you are here in Nicaragua.

One of the first days I spoke to Mario, who is our project manager/our hands and feet here in Nicaragua about how we were thinking about inviting another village instead of Bethel. He had a look like "oh no" on his face and told me that the women of Bethel had been planning on us having it with them. So, I instantly knew that there was know way that we could tell these ladies "no."

My friend Lindsay and I have been working on this conference literally for months. The title was "Mesa para Dos" or "Table for Two" based on Rev.3:20

"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice

and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."

The whole purpose was centered around telling these ladies how much God loves them and wants to spend intimate time with them. This was illustrated the first afternoon where I shared from John 12. Where God spent an itimate time with Lazarus' family. Especially with Mary when she poured out everything she at his feet. She did this in an act of worship and for his (Christ's) impending death, but we also see where she ran to his feet in John 11:32 when she just lost her brother. Mary ran to him out of her anquish and pain and then later to worship him. I love this picture in scripture about how God recieved her exactly how she was in both situations. He was exactly what she needed and he just wanted to spend time with her. He wants the same for us as well.

Thus the theme of this conference. The second day we showed the ladies how just like Mary they too can share intimate moments with God. He wants to speak to each of them personally. He is afterall a personal God! Day 2 then was teaching a method of how to read your Bible that Anne Graham Lotz teaches. There is nothing magical about this method and it is not dependent on someone else it simply shows you how to read your Bible to hear his voice..

Each day we started off with some ice breakers where the winner received a door prizes. It was some fun to see these womens have fun and enjoy being kids. Their favorites I would say were the balloon toss and musical chairs. They are ruthless when it comes to musical chairs haha.

The first day we had 35 women and we told them that the next afteroon we were going to share with them how they too can have those intimate moments with God daily...and to come back tomorrow, bring their Bible and if they didn't have a Bible bring a friend.

Day 2 we had 50 women PRAISE GOD!!! We started off again with some ice breakers and then with worship. This day we had the chairs around round tables and at each table we had them a pen, notebook, and laminated bookmark with a ribbon that explained the steps we were going to teach so they could take it home with them.

Also, just to show you how God's hand was on this Jazmina a young girl from Bethel lead worship for us and knew nothing on the topic that we'd be teaching. The song she lead the ladies in worship was "Dame tus Ojos" The whole song is asking God to give us his eyes so that we can see and to give us his words. In essence it was asking God to make us like him. It was incredible just how the Lord worked through that song. It was a great theme song for the time we had with these ladies.

After worship Lindsay started to share the 3-Questions we call it from time to time. It's reading God's Word, looking for lessons and then taking those lessons and making applications from them. She used 1 Samuel 3 where the Lord speaks to Samuel. We then after explaining the method gave them Mark 6:30-35 to try on their own. We had tables set up this day so the women were working with each other digging through God's word together. Talk about amazing.

We circled the room asking if anyone had any questions, but these women GOT IT! It was incredible to see the lessons that they came up with and how quickly they did it. There were several women who couldn't read or write, but we told me hey no problem you can do this in your mind you don't have to write anything. After we circled around for couple minutes we went around the room and got the women to stand up and share their facts, lessons and applications. I'm telling you the whole 2 days was like I was physically present, but it was like I was standing back and watching God work in the hearts of these women. You could see the hunger for the Word in their eyes. It was incredible...gets me excited just thinking about it again!

As we were wrapping it up we told the ladies "know you are the teachers....you don't even need me and Lindsay...now that we've passed on to you what has been given to us you can pass it on to others." (2 Tim. 2:2)

We were about to pray and then a lady stood up and asked if she could come up and share something. This was the pastor of Bethel's wife (I was totally floored by this) she started thanking me and Lindsay for teaching them this and then said "this is the way we need to read the Bible...I've never read my Bible like this before." After she sat down another lady came up and said "I wish I would of came yesterday, because I obviously missed a blessing due to being lazy. But today I just couldn't not come and I'm so glad I did!"

God is moving people! It's amazing what happens when I got out of the way and let God do all the work. His word is ALIVE and POWERFUL! (Hebrews 4:12) Thank you all for your prayers! I'll be updating more soon : )

Here is a video of the women worshiping to the song "Dame Tus Ojos" that I mentioned earlier.