I could probably think of better titles, but then again why would i when God takes us all on a journey of FAITH that exemplifies the verses of this chapter.
With that said, a couple of days before we left Guatamala on our Luke 10 journey i had a dream about going to the red gas station in Panajachel getting into a brown truck drive to Sololar and once there walk up a steep hill and then..... i woke up! I am overwhelmed to report as we left the house in Pana things happened very much in the order God planned it. We left the house, after a little detour went to the gas station found the truck and went to Sololar, there we asked a couple of people for lifts before walking up a very steep hill, in fact so steep we needed to rest and this is where the old lady passed us and the Lord provided our lift which if i dreamed the rest of what your about to read i would not have believed it.
We started off on a Tuesday afternoon with one scripture- Isaiah 49. This was the only compass we had to work with, and, what an amazing promise it was!
"In the time of my favour I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inherrances, to say to the captives, 'come out' and to those in darkness, 'be free!' They will feed beside the roads adn find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thurst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See they will come from afar-some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Ashwan"
Throughout our journey this verse came alive to us. We prayed for captives and people in darkness and believed they have been set free. We fed beside many roads and never hungered/thurst for even a meal. God provided shelter from the scorching son. He lead us step by step, sign post by sign post for our entire 8 days. We were exposed to people from afar, some from the north and some from the west.
For the 3 nights we stayed in Casa de Migrante-this is a home for illegal migrants from all over the world. We had an open door ministry with people from many countries. Hondouras, El Savador, Beliz, Iraq to mention a few.
We received our next point of on our compass from a dream my dad(Bronwyn) -the Lord woke him up the night before Luke 10, with 2 words, Augustine and Pehol. When we had crossed the border into Mexico and found ourselves in a city called Tapachula, the catholic church was called St Augustin, this blew my mind. We went to chat to the father of the church and this connection allowed us to have accommodation and two meals a day at Casa de Migrante for 3 days. The Lord was slowly fitting the puzzle pieces together. We had discover another clue. The Lord gave Celeste a vision of water just after crossing the border. When we arrived in Tapachule their was a large fountain apposite St Augustine church...go figure!!
We are still awaiting Pehol to come accross our path but hey, there is always China....the Lords Luke 10 is never complete!!
"All powerfull, untainable, awestruck we fall down to our knees as we humble proclaim, You are amazing God" cant help thinking about Chris Tomlin's song indescribable when I reflect back on our Luke 10 journey. God is just so awesome!!
Sitting back I am trying to reflect and recall on all the wow, amazing, awesome things that happened, but where do I start and where do I finished?? it is just too much to start mentioning!
we saw people healed, so many seeds planted, that we believe are growing as i type, God's favor pouring down on us beyond measures with every meal, lift we got, places we stayed, and the money He provided. And then this cool story,,,
We were traveling from one town to another, sitting on the back of a truck. We were all sitting down trying to hide from the wind blowing in our faces, and when i looked up, i saw rain drops on the window screen. At first i thought he was washing his wind screen but then i saw the streets all wet, and then i thought well, we dont feel antything, maby due to the fact that he was going at a very fast speed, but then we stopped and we still didnt feel any drop. As we got off the truck us and our bags were all dry, not even a drop!!
How awesome is our God that He care so much for us, that He stopped the rain from us....go figure!!
INDESCRIBABLE, thats all i can say!!
I believe that one of the biggest vessels God uses to bless either His children, His body or His creation, is people. And on a journey like the one we embarked on, you experience that in it'f fullness.
Having the promise of God's favor, grace and salvation as our "Yes" , the people we met on our journey became our "Amen". From an indiginous Guatamalian family who still speaks Quiche, to a local Mexican family with all the hundreds of additional "family".
God use His whole array of people to bless and guide us, even some that's not in His kingdom, yet, and we had the chance to minister to them.
The one thing that continually amazed us, is the love and grace of with which we were welcomed and received by of follow believers in Christ that made them stand out from those still in the world.
And of course the two men of God, Cesar and Elias, who to us, embodied the command to all man to become more Christlike...
Our Luke 10 journey took place in 2 places to the most; Tapachula and Elias little town in Chiapas. After going through Guatamala and a town by the border which we couldn't stay at we found ourselves outside St Augustine church in Tapachula. From there Frank(father of the church) helped us to find our first place of ministry, Casa de migrante, where we stayed an incrediable 3 nights with interesting and wonderful people, had cold showers(which were great in the heat) and feeling a bit like we were in "shawshank redemption" at meal times.
We then began our short lived journey to the humble abode of Elias; our man of peace. My experience of this warm, homely place was making tortillas on the fire, chickens, back of the truck(bakkie) with cowboy hats and Garth Brooks!
What an amazing journey this has been, one that will never be forgotton by either of us 5 and will be re-tell for many years to come! All the glory to our God!!