A woman literally walking on her knees up to the alter of the Virgin of San Juan
You will notice above the lit up idol of Jesus a box with a doll in a dress - this is the Virgin of San Juan - they take her out every few months to parade her through the streets.
A woman lifting her arms to form a cross as she prayed during a processional on good friday - this day is the most holy day of the year for Mexican catholics - they reenact the passion of Christ and never once mention his resurrection. They do nothing on Sunday.To my brothers and sisters living in the States,
I have much to share about the past few weeks here in Mexico but I feel the need to encourage you in this moment from what God has been teaching me. As many or all of you know, my transition to Mexico has been much more difficult than I ever anticipated. When I thought of missions, I envisioned a great adventure - I expected to be on fire for Christ and set others on fire as well. What I have found instead is a daily choice to surrender my being to Him, my creator. I have always learned the most during struggles and I don't think I have ever grown as much as I have during the last 3 months. I am being edified in Him daily as I wait for his strength to fill me. No matter where we are at or what we are doing, whether we are happy or sad, in plenty or in want we have the choice to surrender ourselves to Christ and follow His direction in every decision. This is what I have been learning - to daily tell Jesus that I am not enough and that I need Him to be enough for me. What I have found through this time of hardship is a deeper relationship with God. I have always heard about the peace of Christ and even talked about it as if I understood it - but the truth is, I don't think I ever really grasped what that peace was until a few days ago. In what should have been the most difficult of days since I arrived here, I found myself standing firm in the loving arms of Jesus. I found myself laughing and even experiencing joy. And since that day I have continued to feel that peace covering me. How is it possible I wonder? How is it that I am still standing? how is it that I have the strength and the desire to keep moving forward? To continue to share the truth of Christ with the most lost people I have ever met? It is God! It is His love for me, the weakest of women, that sustains me. It is His peace that is filling me up in these days and even giving me joy to dive into this work and to love these people more. Praise Jesus!
What I am trying to tell you all through this small testimony to God's grace is that HE is enough for you. Please submit yourselves to Him in this moment. Please give yourself completely to Him. While I know some of you are so strong in the faith, I also know that no matter how strong we are, we are still going to hit walls and have hard days. Submit yourselves to Christ in the good and the bad - Sometimes it is more painful to submit and to wait in Him but goodness! it is so worth it! Surrender and experience His peace - it is more incredible than I have words to describe.
Obviously I still need your prayers. Please pray for my ministry here - pray that I will have wisdom and discernment in how to go about reaching and helping these people. Please pray for my heart in these next few weeks - pray that God will heal all wounds and that I will be able to love more fully. Pray for entry into the Universities so that I can begin ministries in them. Pray that I will be able to find the social service agencies in this city and that God will give me wisdom in how to work with them. Pray for people of peace and for softened hearts as I share the word of God - pray that it will not fall on deaf ears. Just pray for this city.
I can not thank you enough for your support and prayer - God hears you and has been answering. I love your sweet notes of encouragement that remind me I am not forgotten. I am praising my Father for you all :)
Continue following Christ, reading his word daily, and actually living by what the word says.
"But the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure; then peaceloving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." James 3:17-18
This is a video demonstrating how to receive a free hour of Skating! Also demonstrating how to have fun when you love to skate and sing - 2 of my favorite things ;)
2 comments:
Dearest Rachel,
You are such a sweet, sweet, soul.
It amazes me at how much you witness to me with each blog I read. I truly pray that God hedges you and uses every bit of your being for His glory to win lost souls; to uplift you and bring you even more closer to Him than you can ever believe possible.
In Christ,
Krystal
What up lil sis, this yo bro Mizzah. Its like every blue moon with me but i hope every time is edifying for you. Great to see that you are still being led in Gods mission for you. I have looked at your updates and i was concerend about you being concerned about the lost children. The parade you said was to celebrate the death of christ and not a word was said about the resurrection. Well, its because people are being led astray by only parts of the truth or twisted by lies. This is why i cant stand religion and tradition. Tradition is set for certain days or occasions to fully celebrate Christ but we are so quick to say this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is set for that we praise the Lord everyday and not just sometimes. What do we do in the times that we are not focus on the Lord? We are being beat up by the troubles of life in this silly world. How can we celebrate the death of christ when its the resurection that allowed the holy spirit to dwell withen us and set us free? ya dig. Tradition sucks. Religion is totally the work of the devil to seperate us from the body of christ. God said its one body, one christ, one spirit, one head of the body all in ONE. But us people have taken it upon ourselevs to come up with our on interpretation of who christ is and how God works and how and when to praise him. All crap lil sis. This is the meaning of mans wisdom being foolish in Gods eyes because we dont know the truth and decide to come up with our on jive theories. God said that jesus is the head and we are the body and in joint with the head supporting each other that we do not break and become handicaped. Religion is like a brain with cerebral palsy because it dosent get the full message to the ligaments which causes the body to malfunction. Religion sucks, Christ is King. Anyway lil sis, God isnt sending you place to place so that you can only get a glimpse of the world before it ends and be all confused. The devil hates children and want to teach them everything that is detestable to God that they grow up and be more screwed up than we are today. God takes the foolish to shame the wise. Yet while the children are in there learning stage God is flocking them to you in your programs that you are creating and everything that you do that will edify them and Glorify God. So that you wont have to take on a whole country on your own he is giving you intentive ears and followers who are to teach as they learn so that you all can be heard to the lost and unbeleivers that they may be lead to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Dont fret on whats going on right now, you are not there in vain. God dont do nothing in vain. Your faith is in the fact that God is with you and he is building a army through you. Patience, because all things come in his devine time, ya dig.Its already in process. You are most definitly being prayed for fervently so dont wonder why you still standing, you standing on a rock. Remember the boy on the football team i told he wondered why God put him on the field with all these huge men and he was so pint size? Because God wanted to show him how big he was in the boy. Im bout to split so ill holla back at you soon. Keep the faith and keep stepping, God got your destitanation under control, just let your faith be over control, ya dig, Peace.
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