Nobody got saved since my last post. Nobody died. No orphans were handed over to us. No dogs were rescued and our lives haven't been put in danger.
Really I don't feel as though I have anything worth writing about that you'd be excited to read.
However, He says:
He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I
may show him the salvation of God
-Psalm 50:23
Lord, thank you for starting phase 1 of our children's home. The footings dug, and laid, and now the foundation.
And Lord, I thank you that it is going to cost us $39,610.99 to build this 24x28sqft thing legally and install electricity, because that pulls me WAY out of my comfort zone and is going to prove to all the skeptics in the world that you are absolutely 100% real, especially when they realize that we never asked for even a penny of it from anybody.
Holy Spirit, thank you for the generous people who believe in us and have given to us because we already have about $25,000 of that and only lack around $15,000 which by the time it is all due, YOU will have worked a miracle and provided for us.
I especially want to give thanks for the unexpected and unusually large donation we received this morning from one of our faithful supporters, also for the man who is going above and beyond in trying to raise funds for this children's home, and for the sweet teacher from OHS who has expressed interest in helping to support Casa Gloria. Thank you Lord for touching random hearts in random places to make this mission a reality. Let them reap what they sow.
I want to thank you, Father, for our friends here and the opportunities we have had to reach out to them and minister to them in Jesus' name. I also want to thank the Lord for putting Your gospel Word in my heart and my mouth and pray that I take full advantage of every opportunity You give me to share this with the people here.
I thank you, Lord, for the best in-laws in the whole wide world and for all the support they brought us, for the wisdom and helping hands they brought us, and for the week long vacation they took us on so we could get away and enjoy our time with them without all the stress of the work we are doing. I thank you for all the good meals they provided us with and that You spared us from the horrible flu until the very last day of their trip so we could enjoy every minute. And even when we were running to the toilet every 30 minutes thinking we would die I am so thankful that we were in a clean, beautiful hotel where we could just lay around...
And lastly Lord, I just want to say thank you for calling me to this dirty place, full of inconveniences, beautifully humble people, where I am either overwhelmed with the stress of the work or feeling like the progress is just not exciting enough to keep the people back home entertained or wanting to support us. I thank you for allowing me to live somewhere where I only understand about 20% of what is going on, where things go wrong every day, and where Mayan people fight over work we have yet to even know we will need.
I thank you for taking me off of my little comfy couch, in my air conditioned home, with hot and cold water running all day long every day, for taking me away from my cushy job and my loving family, and giving me something incredible in such an unlikely place.
Now I have the Word of Truth to sit on, the promises of Jesus to breathe in, a new appreciation for life's little things like water, a job that has meaning beyond meaning, a family of little brown skinned, black haired, skinny armed people that hug my neck and kiss my cheeks and smile at me with a smile that says more to me than one thousand Spanish words...and it is incredible.
To be utterly dependent on you for my next meal, for the place to lay my head, for the falling apart sandals that fit my dirty feet, that is where I want to be. Here is where the Joy is for me.
I pray Father that every person who gives a second thought to this Mission will know that we are not here for the orphans, for the abandoned, or for the abused. We are here for you and because of you. We are here not because they are worthy, but because you are worthy. I can not scream it louder! It is easy to fall into humanitarian thinking and get wrapped up in the injustices of this world...but Lord, the true injustice is that you, the ONLY ONE who is worthy, does not get the glory that you have earned and so rightly deserve simply because comfy couches and cushy jobs are more appealing than Your Word of Truth and the promises of the Savior. The injustice is that there is a 40lb twelve year old boy who should be learning to worship you, but instead he is digging through the garbage trying to find himself and his baby sister something to eat. The injustice is the 25lb six year old girl who finds herself under the weight of some nasty adult at night and not in the arms of a loving parent who is reading her stories about Jesus. The injustice is all the lives that are being wasted away because of the laziness and the sinfulness of this fallen world, and not given away for the cause of Christ and the glory of His great name. We are here for you, Lord. We do what we do for you, Lord. You are our prize at the end of this life, our goal...and we want to share this victory, Lord, with the ones who may otherwise never get to experience it.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Love,
Jenna
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