Lisa goes to Central America

So the last blog I wrote I talked about how God has worked in my life to pursue ministry or at least something outside of myself. As I mentioned before I will also be using to give prayer updates for the trip this summer. I guess the first big date of the summer is coming up. On April 28^th and May 11^th we will be running a mock hygiene training. The purpose for this training is threefold. First to help me practice the hygiene and sanitation lessons so I will be prepared when I go to Nicaragua in June (did I mention there is no hygiene team leader on this trip or in-country rep for hygiene and I will be the only hygiene person who has been on a trip) and I lead a team in July to Guatemala. Second it is to teach my teammate who is going with the lessons so she will be prepared to teach them in
Nicaragua (can I tell how excited and blessed I am that she is going with me). Third to let anyone who wants to learn more about LWI our and missions there especially if they are interested in future trips or if they want to learn.

Please pray that:

• the training will go well
• that I will be prepared and know my lessons well.
• That we will adequately prepare my teammate to go.
• That we will have enough people to simulate a town
• That people will learn

Thanks for your prayers and support I have been overwhelmingly been encouraged by everyone.

If anyone wants to come to training of if you want to help out for an afternoon or morning please email me for details J

Hi this is my first blog regarding the upcoming summer inCentral America. I just want to write about the path God has led me through over the past year or so. This will give you an idea of what has been going on in my head because many of you know bits and pieces or most of the puzzle but have not put it together yet.

I guess it really begins 6 years ago when I went toGhana. It was the worst trip I have been on in my life. I didn’t see the point. The leadership seemed poor and it almost felt like a waste of a trip. At that point I said never again will I go on a missions trip because they didn’t seem effective.  I couldn’t see where we impacted the country we went to.

Last year was a rough year. I had rough students, a hard roommate situation, a class that near killed me and my first time ever dealing with a mortgage. In October I went on a retreat about remembering God’s faithfulness. It redirected my life back to God. The struggles were still very evident but I had God carrying me through it to rely on him. Around January I felt called to go on the missions trip that year which was supposed to be to going to Macedonia to build a playground which fell through for a myriad of reasons but really because of God’s providence. We then thought we were going to Mississippi to work with Hurricane Katrina relief but yet again it fell through. At that point we were without a missions trip I was a little bummed but also too exhausted from the world around me to worry to much. About a week or two later I got an email from our worship leader regarding a trip to Nicaragua about drilling a well and teaching hygiene. I said sure I’d love to go because God had been prodding me to go on the missions trip this summer. Mind you if this was the initial trip I don’t know if I would have gone on it.

During this time work was a headache my students were out of control. I was exhausted and pretty much hated it. I had students that no one knew what to do with. I was seriously considering leaving teaching and work at a bank or really anything to get me out. I talked to my brother, and a friend of mine’s father in law both pretty much said the same thing. Take a year to sit on it. You weren’t made for the corporate world because they will own your soul. Money is really not worth it (is it ever?). I made a list of pros and cons and decided to stay for another year and trusted God with it.

As I continued to get involved with the trip it was hard for me to get excited I think the year in the past made me too worn out to even have expectations. I began to see God work. First the amount of money are team raised was off the chart – I am still in awe of God hand in this (you will see where this comes in later).

We went through hygiene training then I went to Hawai’i to visit a good friend and then off to Nicaragua. I was still tired from Hawai’i so I was a bit of an empty vessel at this point. Our first day I think it was a bit shocking to all of us we didn’t expected the sanitation conditions to be as bad as what we saw in training – you won’t believe it until you see it either.  As the week progressed I observed the community talked with the people and bonded with the kids. My first lesson taught was awful I messed up in everyway after that we brought it all to God all the time and from then on lessons went smoothly because I was/we were empowered by God. His words were my words. I bonded with the community in a way I didn’t expect to. God and I had some good conversations that week that often ended in me thinking he was crazy. Often he was saying Lisa (or Elisa as I was known in Nicaragua) you can do this – what you are doing here uses you strengths and abilities that I (God) have given you. That voice stayed in my head so I signed up to go next time – anytime. I would go. I was slotted to go El Salvador with IBC. I felt led to do more – in part because one of the donations slips asked me why don’t you do it for the whole summer?  That stayed in my head so I decided to sign up for another trip to Guatemala but there was only drill spots (not really what I wanted – I am quite involved with the hygiene).

Lucky there was a Nicaragua trip at the same time – I somehow got offered a spot there and there was hygiene! So now I am going to Nicaragua (I left a piece of my heart there so I’d like to have it back ) and I am teaching hygiene SWEET! I don’t have to take time off during SOLs for drill training and I can do what I love. After about a week or two of beginning to plan for this trip I got an email from the hygiene lead at LWI she asked me to go to Guatemala to lead a team of course I said yes! So now I really am going for a summer. Every step I see God lead me.

If I hadn’t listened to my brother’s and friend’s father in law sound advise I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to serve God. If I hadn’t listened to them I would not have had the opportunity to tell my students and my coworkers about the water crisis – which has lead to opportunities to share Christ. If I hadn’t taken that step to follow God on that first trip I would never have had my life revolutionized by him. If I hadn’t followed him I wouldn’t have had the chance to see him use me as a tool.  

I am now blessed to be able to go to El Salvador with my sister in law and to have seen my brother go to
Nicaragua and see him become passionate for this ministry as well. Seeing God’s work this year is bigger than me – it is bigger than anything I have seen before it my personal life.Oh if you supported me last year and want to know where all that extra money went. When we went to Nicaragua LWI was using a 1989 Isuzu trooper that was broken more than fixed. With the money you gave the church we were able to buy them a truck to replace it. God knew what he was doing – we were just tools.  I know this is an incredibly long blog. I promise shorter ones in the future. I wanted to share my story with you so you can understand a little about my heart and see a little of how God has worked.