Wednesday, April 1, 2020

What a difference a day makes...What a difference a Maker makes.


What a Difference a Day Makes …. What a difference a Maker Makes.



All of us have been directly or indirectly affected by this Covid Virus.   We had such a glorious year planned of ministry.  The girls were responding to the ministry of the new house moms.  We had an outreach program to women in the Mountains.  We had our calendars filled with teams that were coming to help us build fishponds, additions to the houses, roads and relationships. We had vacation times planned with the girls, and I was going to surprise my granddaughter with seeing her spring concert and graduation.  We literally had our whole year planned out in detail.  We had worked very hard on our calendars and all of our planning, and strategizing, unraveled in a day.   Just because we wrote it down, didn’t make it so.  God cautions us not to plan and say that on such and such a day, I will do so and so, but rather we are to speak, if the Lord wills, we will accomplish these things.  I just skipped a step. I just figured as well as everything was coming together with great folks who love the Lord, and who would be doing great ministry, that my will would be CLEARLY His will. 



I had a computer once that was freezing up and acting weird.  It got where it was not even preforming simple tasks. I was told that it had a virus and I needed to have a reset.  A reset helps the computer get rid of everything that isn’t in the original design and go back to the Maker’s factory settings.  I was so busy with ministry.  I wasn’t checking in with my Maker about all my plans. I was just hammering away every day and feeling something was not right.  I needed a reset.  Where does my help come from? The Lord Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and of me.  He is complete, I am not.  I desired to have that feeling of peace and wholeness again.  Unfortunately, this revelation came through a series of unfortunate circumstances, when God helped me clear my calendar.  At first it was a little scary.  I had no plans.  What should I do? How could I keep myself safe?  I realized quickly that the world had no plan to keep itself safe. Just before a quiet panic began to settle in my own heart and the hearts of the girls, God reminded me not to fear. My mind reset to a frightening situation during our first years on the mission field.  He spoke to me as clearly as anything as I was packing my kid’s clothes and planning to leave the mission field immediately.   He said, “If I can’t keep you safe here, I can’t keep you safe anywhere”.  Factory setting alert!

Apart from Him, I can do nothing, but I can do all things, through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. He is my power supply.  Plug in ! Battery power is extremely low.

                                                                                                                                                        

Here in Honduras, they are serious about controlling this virus.  They have made up for their lack of resources by using their common sense and doing the most practical thing, to have the people stay away from each other. The advised the people to  come away, be separate.  Stay in your own homes, plays across our cell phones.  We have the police and health officials blocking off routes from town to town.   If you need to pass, they will spray your tires with a disinfectant and sometimes they will spray inside your car if it looks sketchy, before you travel to the next town. They check their list to see if it is your day to travel, or if you are authorized by an agency of the government. You get a number before you go into the bank, you step into a disinfectant before you enter the limited amounts of establishments.   We get daily mandates on our cell phone about how they are trying to keep us safe and how we can help each other.  This past week, a new order was sent out. If you are out after our curfew (7:00 am – 3 pm) and disobey the community’s orders,  you will go to jail and when you get out you will do community service and clean up your community because you didn’t care about your neighbors.  In extreme situations, we have heard they will take your car and you don’t get it back until the virus threat is over, because you wouldn’t obey and stay home.



I have heard my whole life you can mandate people’s moral behavior.   However, it has been made clear to us as a community here living in Honduras, that we need to be focused on our neighbors good not just our own.  Hmm… sounds familiar.  Come away, come out from among them, be separate, love your neighbor more than yourself. Our Maker had a great idea and He still does.  But our Maker reminds us that He alone knows the plans He has for us.  Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.  God said that He collectively and individually has a plan for the whole world, and that we can rest in that knowledge.    Now with no plans, and chaos abounding, God says to look to Him.  Thankfully a reset button has been activated in me. I am thinking of others in my community, and here at the mission. I am thinking of creative ways to obey the laws here and still do ministry.  I am thinking of ways to minister to the ones, who minister alongside me.  Pray that I   will remember what the Lord has shared with me.  It sounds remotely similar to what I tell my girls here and my family in the States:

1.     Check in with Me and let me know what is going on.  

2.     I want to hear from you.

3.     I am interceding for you.

4.     I love you.

5.     Don’t be afraid



Blessings to you all, The Reset Honduran MOM



Special prayer requests:

1.For all the many people who are grieving over they loved ones who have the Covid virus or the family members who have died.  I pray that people will be continuing to pray over their health, spiritually as well as emotionally.

2. Pray for the people who are suffering financially over their loss of income.  Pray that their jobs will be restored.

3. Pray for all the countries by continent, and the people who live there.

4. That we will not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

5. Pray for safety for all and that people remember that joy comes in the morning.

6. Pray for God’s restoring healing power to cure and heal all of the above. 


2 comments:

  1. You always speak right to my heart..thank you! Love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your heart for the ministry in Honduras. Praying Philippians 4:13 over you. May our God be your great strength to do all things He has in store as you continue to minister during this time. Loves.

    ReplyDelete