The moment we arrived in Honduras it was apparent to me that I was in for a completely new and different experience. When I arrived at my ministry site it was obvious that the people in the community that we are working with love well, are eager to learn, and don’t expect things without hard work.
This month we are living in tents on the top of a mountain, in the middle of the jungle…during rainy season. It has been interesting!! There is no cell service, no electricity, and the closest store is 35 miles away, down the mountain in a town called Comayagua.
I can’t stress enough just how in the middle of the jungle we are. In a labor of love, volenteers cleared a space for our tents just two weeks before we came. Do you know how hard it is to make tent spaces for 42 people in a dense jungle?! Hard! I know because 9 of our squad mates are arriving to the country about a week after everyone else and we had to clear a space for them.
If you had told me a year ago I’d be swinging a machete through the jungles of Honduras to build a campsite for my friends I certainly wouldn’t believe you. Sometimes the best things in life are the things we didn’t plan for.
Life this next two months is going to look like a lot of construction. We are building a church for this community, we will be doing some visits to houses to pray for people, and we get the opportunity to help some local youth who want to learn English and due to covid are still unable to be in school.
The biggest thing I have learned since arriving here is that life is lived in the hard work. Life in the US is saturated with instant gratification. We want something and expect to get it right away. Why would we not? We assume we deserve things to work that way.
What if we are missing out on the deep beauties of life while we are wishing away the long middle process?
At our ministry site this month, building a church looks a lot like cutting down bamboo and carrying it up a mountain, just two pieces at a time. It looks like lots of people with machetes and pick-axs clearing a space. It looks like bumping elbows and doing life with the people working alongside me.
It’s kind of crazy, we are literally building a church from the ground up. We spent a week taking a chunk out of the side of a mountain and leveling the ground. We hike down the mountain, cut down bamboo trees with machetes and carry them back up the mountain to later be used for the walls of the structure. I love being part of building a foundation.
What if our relationship with God is the same way? We miss out on relationship and the beautifully hard and good of the middle ground when we expect relationship to be instant. The monotony, the wrestling, and the strain of building a strong foundation leads to the trust, the joy, and the confidence of living a life with the Father.
Jesus wants to start with our foundation. It won’t be quick or easy but it will be good. Scripture is filled with references to foundation. Jesus wants us to build our life on Him. He is the cornerstone.
“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” -Psalm 11:3
“Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: Whoever believes will not be in haste.” -Isaiah 28:16
“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” -1 Corinthians 3:11
What if true relationship with God is found in the sweat, tears, and the laughs in between. I don’t want to miss God in the slow rhythms of my everyday.
Lord thank you for Honduras,
Thank You for the slowing of my heart and the changing of my perspective,
Show me what it looks like to make You my foundation,
Show me what it looks to not take my eyes off of You in the process.
Thanks for this post! It is a great reminder to trust God and lean in to Him during the journey and not just try to fast forward to the destination. It is also great to hear a little bit of what you all are doing and dealing with in your new “home” as we haven’t heard from our son JD yet.
I loved reading this! Thank you! Praying for yall daily!
Thank you for your post! I’m not able to hear from my daughter and I’ve been so curious how things are there since she arrived. It looks beautiful and very peaceful there. My daughter , Kennedy was one of the nine that were held back in Guatemala, so she just arrived to Comayagua a few days ago. I am really not liking that I can’t speak to her for weeks, or know how she is adjusting to the tent life, etc. So thank you again for your post and pictures! You are so right. a good foundation is so important, in building a relationship with the Lord and when building a church! Praying that your time there will be so needed and appreciated and that you ALL see Gods hand in all your hard work! If your able please keep us updated! God bless you!
Courtney, oh, what a beautifully written testimony of how the Lord is moving in your life on this journey with the world race. I’m Chelsey Smith’s father, and I love catching up with all of you guys as you post things along your journey.
I’m so encouraged it seeing how God is moving in each of your lies and you are able to see him in a closer and greater way than what you would have seen him back home here in the states. Being a missions pastor and having several International trips myself I always find God in such great ways on the field!
Praying for you all to have a wonderful rest of your journey and that you experience God and so many more ways than you could ever imagine in the next five and a half months. Be safe on the mountain and may God bless that little village that you’re building the church for four years to come until he returns! Just imagine the church building your building will leave imprint on that mountain and in the kingdom of God for all the souls that will come to knowledge of him through your labors of love and sacrifice now. Someday when we’re all in heaven oh, there will be people that will come to you and thank you for what you did to be a part of them coming to the knowledge of Christ! What a joy that will be.
Courtney, oh, what a beautifully written testimony of how the Lord is moving in your life on this journey with the world race. I’m Chelsey Smith’s father, and I love catching up with all of you guys as you post things along your journey.
I’m so encouraged it seeing how God is moving in each of your lies and you are able to see him in a closer and greater way than what you would have seen him back home here in the states. Being a missions pastor and having several International trips myself I always find God in such great ways on the field!
Praying for you all to have a wonderful rest of your journey and that you experience God and so many more ways than you could ever imagine in the next five and a half months. Be safe on the mountain and may God bless that little village that you’re building the church for four years to come until he returns! Just imagine the church building your building will leave imprint on that mountain and in the kingdom of God for all the souls that will come to knowledge of him through your labors of love and sacrifice now. Someday when we’re all in heaven oh, there will be people that will come to you and thank you for what you did to be a part of them coming to the knowledge of Christ! What a joy that will be.