You know what it's like when you are preparing to do something exciting and you're nervous that it won't be great at all. And then it turns out to be even better then you ever imagined it could be. Well that's how this mission went.
Puerto Rico is an island that gives me both of my favorite things: Gorgeous mountains and bright blue water with white sandy beaches. Yea.. I know. Amazing. But more than that is the sweet people that look timidly at you with their big brown eyes. The Puerto Ricans carry such a sweet and joyful spirit. The little kids are confident in themselves and ready to make you laugh in a heartbeat.
So here in this beautiful land of Puerto Rico I asked myself what God would want to do here. And He said the obvious: Love.
We stayed with John Marshall at Campamento Del Caribe. It's a beautiful camp with a plentiful supply of iguanas, coconuts and laughter. His heart for the Puerto Rican people is full and he understands them so well.
At Campamento Del Caribe they have every intention of setting up an environment that allows kids to be kids and also developing them to be hard workers. When the team arrived they came ready to serve and to offer love.
We went from playing with little Puerto Rican babies in the dirt to laying down foundations for a new chapel on the camp's property. The team consisted of about 50 people from the farms of Kansas. They came ready to embrace Jesus in Puerto Rico. We had sessions each night that discussed what God was wanting to do in our hearts that week. What we all walked away with was a new definition of His love for us.
We had seen how Jesus loved us by how we served each other. We put each other before ourselves. I mean we kind of had to in some cases. But God is higher and bigger than our comforts. We asked each other to see what God wanted to do in our lives and in the lives around us.
One day we had an ATL. (Ask The Lord) we prayed together and asked Jesus who He wanted us to speak with. So we went to a plaza in a nearby city. One woman on our team heard Jesus tell her a name, "AnnaMaria" we prayed about it and then we split ways and started walking around the city. About an hour later we met up again. Turns out… Our teammate had actually met AnnaMaria! She found her on a side street. She was a young girl. Probably only 20 years old. They talked and prayed together. Our teammate heard from God how much He loved AnnaMaria. AnnaMaria got excited and told our teammate this: "I see now just how much God loves me. He sent you all the way from Kansas to Puerto Rico to answer my prayers. You see I just found out I'm pregnant and I didn't know what to do with the baby. But now that you have come I see how much God loves me and I have made my decision."
God's love for AnnaMaria showed us how much He loves not only her but each of us. We shared more delight in each other and care for the people there.
God will show up when you invite Him. He is always ready to move, and always loving. His heart for His children is bigger than what we see and I'm thankful that we got to share a glimpse of it.
