in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life

Virgin of Guadalupe

Someone's house
One of the streets I worked on

I want to share with you what God has been doing in my life these past few weeks. I have gone from deep discouragement to deep joys. God has been using this time in Mexico to truly mold me and shape me and I am so thankful for that. He always wants us to grow closer to him and that sometimes involves hard days.

This last week however, I have been incredibly encouraged. I have been involved in the coordination and translation tasks of two volunteer teams that have come down to help from the US. I worked for two days with a group of youth and we went door to door giving out gospels of John (Evangelios de San Juan) and I translated as they shared their testimonies in English. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed translating! It was a blast of creativity as I tried to translate their profound emotions and thoughts. Simply glorious ;)

I also had my first Bible study with one of my teammates this last week and we had about 6 or 7 people show up which was wonderful! And I was challenged to pray out loud in Spanish for the first time ever. Though I have been learning Spanish for the last 5 months I had never been forced to pray and therefore avoided it at every turn because if speaking isn't hard enough, imagine trying to passionately speak to God in a language not your own. A few days later though, I prayed out loud for about 8 women as I went house to house taking surveys - what a tremendous blessing that was! God is so wonderful to shape us and stretch us at exactly the right moments.

This past week I have had the opportunity to share the truth about Jesus more than I ever have before. And it awakened me to the deep darkness of the city of Leon. These people are steeped in lies from the time they are born and they cling to it stubbornly as it has become not only a religion but their culture. Everything they do revolves around their holidays and idols. Almost every house has an Idol of the Virgin of Guadalupe - if you don't know about her I encourage you to look her up. She is everywhere here and people worship her as their divine mother. She is more important to them than our precious Savior. Though there is no basis for their beliefs in her found anywhere in the Scripture, they cling to her as a savior. One of my greatest conversations and also most tragic moments this week was on Sunday. We went to a part of town that is poorer and also known to have more gangs and I knocked on 3 doors before someone answered. But on that third door, I looked in and saw an old man and then almost passed the house by, but something inside of me made me knock. He came to the door and invited me and one of the volunteers in to sit at his table as we chatted. He is 68 years old and there was an entire wall covered in idols. We began to speak and honestly, I shared about a relationship with Christ and the hope that he gives us more passionately than I ever have before. And it was such a joy because I was speaking Spanish! God is so faithful! What was so tragic was that he had no hope whatsoever. He looked at me and said "All of that sounds wonderful, it sounds beautiful, but how can it help me?" My heart broke. Here is a man who has an entire wall dedicated to idols and he says he believes in God but he has no hope that God can help him or change his life. My heart was awakened to the oppressiveness of the darkness in this city - it is like a heavy weight bearing down us. Please pray for this man, Jo. He has health issues and is taking care of his 96 year old mother. He was a sweet and precious older man - please pray that as we follow up with him his heart would be softened and that he would witness the joy and love that we have within us through the Holy Spirit.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

This passage has really spoken to me lately - Just by living in this dark world we are demolishing strongholds simply with our mere presence which contains within it the Holy Spirit. How blessed we are to have within us weapons that have divine power. What is even more interesting and astounding is that these weapons are weapons of love, peace, humility, selflessness, faith, joy, etc...that through living holy lives we can defeat the powers of darkness is insane. Sometimes it is so hard to actually use these weapons - we want to wage war as the world does with hurtful words and mean glances and manipulation but through the power of the Holy Spirit we can live Holy and allow God to fight the battles through us using His incredible love! It is the Spirit within us who fights because in reality we are incapable of living holy without him guiding us and giving us strength. But with Him we can live HOLY - so amazing. I have been challenged lately, by God, to live a more selfless life. Though I am here in Mexico and I have left my family and the comforts of home I have still been living selfishly - As though I deserve a great adventure in this place and as if I am entitled to happiness. But the truth is, is that God never promises us a great adventure, he doesn’t promise us happy days. But he does promise to love us and to never forsake us. There is a passage that says: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13. Hallelujah! We can do everything through Him he gives us strength. I have been having to rely solely on God’s strength lately as I have had none of my own and he is so faithful. The secret is to rely on Him - to give it to Him - to surrender our lives to him - to be sacrificial and selfless and also humble. It seems hard and our flesh resists but when we choose Christ we truly have joy and life! How holy is he!!! We truly receive abundant life when we loosen our grip on our own lives and trust God to do with them what he wills.

Thank you all so much for your support during these last few months. Please continue to pray for this city and for these people who have been confused by lies. Pray that the strongholds here would be broken and that people’s hearts will be softened. Pray for us as we continue on in God’s work here - sharing passionately and boldly about him. Pray for strength and a deepening of our faith. Pray that we would draw closer to Christ and that each day as we open his word we would learn and grow and truly hear from Him. Your prayers are appreciated more than I can express here.

Also, here is a link to a site I created to share my music. I hope you enjoy it :)

http://www.purevolume.com/RachelEldredge