9 months of growing and learning

The last nine months we have learned so much. We learned that living with more is not what makes us happy. We can be just as happy or even happier living with less.  

We learned that what we consider as “living with less” is still a lot more then what most people in the world have.

We now know what we need vs what we want.  

We learned how important relationships really are. We learned that only having cold water is better than having no water.

Our kids have learned that they might be hungry but they are not starving; because we have seen starving.

All of these were things I thought we knew, but now we really know.

Coming here I thought a missionary was someone who left their friends and family to move to another country to serve God.  I now believe that we are all missionaries and we all have the same calling!

As Christians, we are called "out of darkness into His wonderful light".......

1 Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 

Jesus commands all of us to go and share the gospel......

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and no, I am with you always, even to the end of the age

He tells us how to do this……….

Matthew 22:36-40 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matthew 5:43-47  43"You have heard that the law of Moses says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. 44But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. 46If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.

1 Corinthians 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

He has called us all to love one another. When we love each other, we serve each other.

 I now believe a calling is not a place, it is a lifestyle; a lifestyle that we can choose to live in Guatemala, Africa, or even Fort Collins, Colorado.

When we decided to move here, we made a year commitment to serve God in Guatemala. After much prayer, our family has decided to move back to Colorado the end of June and to continue to serve as missionaries there. We are not sure what that will look like, but are trusting God in all of this. Just as it was hard to leave Colorado to come here, it will be hard to leave Guatemala to return home.