Jewels in La Joya

     Today, on a seemingly normal Monday, as the world spun around me as normal, as people walked to work, and as cars honked their horns, God blessed me.  I feel like I am a cup that is overflowing with sweet Dominican fruit juice... God really really blessed me today.

     After waking an hour past my alarm went off I finally went up to the second floor to catch a breeze and read my Bible.  I went through the same routine that I do every morning here: I feel like I really don't want to be stretched again and pulled out of my comfort zone but I prayerfully place my body and will into God's hands (*cough* hesitantly).  As I left the house I shared with Rosy, the pastor's daughter, that I wanted to do something different today.. "Today while we are in the guagua (bus) we are going to pray without stopping until we arrive."  So during the 40 minute ride we prayed silently over the things that God placed on our heart.  At different points in the ride I couldn't even hear the prayers in my own head because the sound of traffic was so loud!

     We arrived in La Joya, a part of the city known for selling cheap drugs and women.  I catch myself gripping my purse a bit tighter while walking through the dirty streets with men who whistle and promiscuous women sitting in the sidewalk.  Omar's door to his house is open so Rosy and I peak in to see who is home.  Omar, an 18 year old who was baptized last summer, has no example in his home or support to follow through with his faith in God.  We quickly found him inside and began a silly conversation that slowly become serious.  I felt God keep saying "go deeper, tell Him more about what I want for Him."  God told me to share a verse with Omar and with faith I opened my Bible and on the page in front of me God gave me the verse that Omar needed to hear (Phil 2:13 in case you are wondering).  We asked Omar if we could pray with him and he looked me in the eyes and told me yes.  He was very receptive and as I saw a tear fall from His eye I knew that God had blessed us both.

     We left Omar's house with lots of hugs and smiles.  Later that day after recovering our energy with a mountain of rice, we gathered a few teens that we know to go and pray for some of the elderly women in the church who are very sick.  Rosy, Nicole (one of the teens) and I entered the house of Doña Elena, which is hot and lacks windows to allow a breeze in.  She was lying in a bed and in a lot of pain, and we quickly realized that this sweet soul is dying.  Before my eyes, Rosy and Nicole began to soothe Doña Elena and speak kindly with her.  I watched them as they placed hands on her, prayed for her with big faith, and read the Bible with her.  Doña Elena, though bedridden and in pain, kept her hands raised to Heaven receiving the outpouring of love that these 13-year-old girls lavished onto her freely.  

     I could continue.  I have more stories.  But I want to close with this.. God is close and intimate and real.  You can see Him I promise you.  He doesn't stand off and watch the world self-run itself or self-destruct itself. When invited, he comes close and gets all up in your business and performs miracles and changes everything.  Some might look at La Joya and look down on this place or even be afraid to enter, but when I look at La Joya through God's eyes I see jewels and I see Heaven touching earth. God wants to come near.. may you experience the blessings of his closeness this week and begin to notice the jewels around you.

Xoxo,
Emily

"Se fue la luz"

     

     "Se fue la luz," a phrase that you will hear quite often which basically means that the electricity cut off.  Last night as I was snuggled up under my blanket with the fan on turbo speed awaiting a call from my best friend/fiancé Eddie, what happened?... "Se fue la luz...."  Immediately I found myself in pitch black darkness, heat quickly seeping into my once comfortable blanket, and a quick realization that with the electricity goes the wifi and that special call was not going to happen.

     So here I am beginning to now sweat in my bed, which is something I absolutely cannot stand for, and I feel like being really frustrated.  God interupted me before I could even start thinking of reasons why this was so inconvenient and began to speak to me in the darkness.  I couldn't lie, I had began feeling tired that day and just wanted to feel a sense of home.

     "I am home," God said to me.  I sat up in my bed, searched for the flashlight on my phone and opened my bible.  "Okay God, what is it? I'm here, I won't run this time, I won't busy myself this time, I can't go anywhere.  Please, speak into me," I prayed.

     God is a gentleman.  He doesn't push in on our privacy and he doesn't force us into relationship with Him.  But like what happened to me last night, he shut off the lights and canceled my plans because He knew I needed a divine intervention for Him to reveal himself to me afresh.  Last night when the electricity went out, God and I had a heart to heart conversation. He revealed to me some things that I needed to hear and graciously anointed me with the love that I was yearning to feel.

     I am thankful that I have a God who does that.. Who loves me enough to pursue me.  Be encouraged that God doesn't forsake or abandon, but pursues; and as you respond to Him, He will begin to clean and heal and bandage and lavish love into every cavern and crevice that exists inside of you.

May God bless you fully,
Xoxo,
Emily

Journey to Freedom and Fulfillment

     I was honored to be able to preach at Wordserve UMC about the freedom that is offered to us through Jesus Christ.  I am still amazed and blown away by the powerful way that God chooses to use us when we say "yes" to him!  I dare you to watch my sermon, and I dare you to let it impact you.

Xoxo,

Celebrating Freedom

     Want to hear more about how God granted me freedom through my trips to the Dominican Republic and what that has to do with you?  Join me this August 2nd at WordServe Church as we celebrate together the freedom there is in a life with Christ!  WordServe Church meets on Sunday mornings at 9:45 AM at Shafer Elementary in Katy.

See you there!

Xoxo,

This is Freedom at its Finest

     Going into this journey I wasn’t sure what would happen.  I didn’t know if the teens would still be excited to work with me, if the plans would work like I had planned, or if I would gain anything from this trip.  Every moment of my wandering and nervous feelings never changed what God’s plans were for this trip though.  God had a vision, and though I am not consistent, he is.  This trip, in its month long duration, was one of the most intense and testing times in my walk with God.  To wake up everyday and talk to people about God and the sacrifice Jesus made was such an incredible experience.  Though working with teens doesn’t look much different there than it does anywhere else, I was thrilled that God called me to spend some time with these great people. 

     So what did my job consist of..?  Well let me take a shot at it: wake up to rooster crow, greet hungry mosquitos and head out on foot, catch a minivan that already has 17 people in it and squeeze onto a strangers lap, after 35 minutes get out and catch a car that has 6 people in it and squeeze in once more, arrive at base of mountain and take a 25 minute hike up, hunch over as if dying and catch air, greet all of the children with big hugs and act like I didn’t just die, eat a sumo wrester’s portion of rice and beans, sing and dance like I just drank a 5-hour energy for Jesus, preach a sermon in butchered Spanish to teens, take teens out into community to share their faith in God, return to the church to find water bottle empty, allow body to be a human jungle gym to all the children, take 30 minutes to say bye to everyone in the community (at least two times each), pack 4 people onto a sketchy motorcycle to head home, get home to eat another heaping of rice and beans, find a cockroach and watch your 12 year old roommate unsuccessfully try and kill it, sleep with the fear of where the cockroach is, turn fan on until it looks as if it could fly on its own, sleep, repeat.

     I have been blessed beyond measure to have been given the opportunity to share the life of Jesus with many teens.  These teens are all so so special to me and I miss them dearly!  Though working with teens is tough, it was so fun and rewarding to be used by God.  He has taught me to go the extra mile and be intentional by just doing life with people.  He has taught me that he provides the strength needed to complete his missions.  He has taught me that he loves to meet with me every single day, and I learned that I loved these times too.  And most importantly he has taught me that he is real and that he is alive around us!

     Listen clearly to my message.  Jesus died on the cross so that you and I might experience the freedom there is when we live in obedience to him.  Seems strange to say, I know.  Quit living like a prisoner of war when the war has already been won!   He is offering us freedom!  We might have to give up some comforts and things we think are important now, but there is beauty in obedience to Our Savior and more life than we could ever find anywhere else.  The road that God has for us is anything but ordinary.  It is beautiful and filled with laughter and love and life.  We just have to learn to choose it.  Don't wait to accept the invitation he is offering.  Take it and don't turn back.  "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me"- Revelation 3:20.  As I will forever say with joy, look at the beauty that comes from the obedience.  It has been a joy to share this with you all once again!  Until the next time :)

Life is an adventure, or nothing at all.

Xoxo,

A God-Breathed Week

   This week has been transformational and God-breathed.  I got to spend my first 3 weeks here doing life with the teens, sitting with their families, having one on one time, eating meals with them, and being intentional.  That was what I felt that God had called me to do during my time here and  I enjoyed it so much.  I felt like I was really beginning to learn about them, and more than anything I knew that I was really learning who God created Emily to be.

     On Monday a team of 3 hardworking missionaries showed up and literally set up camp in the pastor's home (the home I live in).  Slowly teens from the communities I had gotten the chance to work in started showing up with their bags and jugs of water for the week.  Before we knew it there were 34 teens ready to sleep over at our house and learn how to be followers of Christ!  I knew a lot of the teens that showed up from my Bible study classes and I was looking forward to spending my last week completely at their side.

     With a lack of sleep and an overflow of joy, we ended the camp yesterday.  The teens were able to learn about the basic need for salvation and 13 teens made the desicion to hand their life over into the all-knowing hands of Our Lord!  While some decided to make the decision to begin their journey with God, others made the decision to officially make a public announcement of their new life in Christ by getting baptized.  Ten were baptized in the river with their families and neighbors present!  Like I said this week was God-breathed and full of new life to say the least.

    God has a plan for all of us.  His plan is that we would love Him with our being and follow Him where He takes us.   I have learned that following God were He takes me has given me the best things I have in my life- a good relationship with my family, a wonderful ministry to work with back home, and so many wonderful dominican brothers and sisters in Christ.  I am so thankful that God is interested in His created humans.  As I give thanks to God today for all He has given me, and throw a fiesta in His honor in La Otra Banda, I will carry the smile that God has given me through my obedience to Him in this journey.  "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"- 1 Corinthians 15:57.

Xoxo,

Somos Vencedores//We Are Conquerors

     Oh how I wish I could write paragraphs and paragraphs of my days here and the ways I feel like God is using me.  I want to spend a whole day writing about what I have seen and where my work here is going.  For some reason though, I sit staring at the blank entry in front of me not able to write words for all that is happening before my eyes.  I can now translate english to spanish better than I can translate my life here into words!

     God has placed hills in front of me every day this week telling me "climb on."  It is scary and thrilling at the same time.  I said before my trip, "okay God I want to do your will but let's not make me preach in Spanish."  Those prayers were usually said with a slight chuckle knowing that God works best where we lack skill.  Four spanish sermons later I can say to you that the hardest moments of my trip have been preparing for these sermons, but the moments I know I will share most when I get home will be these exact moments.  I saw God where I couldn't measure up to the task placed before me.

     So over the past week I have learned whether I have the skills necessary or not, I have the victory.  Romans 8:37 says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.". In fact, it just so happens that when we don't have the skills, it comes out looking even more graceful than if we did.  So if having skills or not having skills doesn't matter, what are we waiting for?  God says that with Him we can be conquerors.  I had to take the risk to preach in Spanish to be able to see what God would do through me.  As I start my final week here I will remember that I have the victory in any situation, I hope you will join me.

Xoxo,