CHOICES

What an amazing start to our day!  There were several people made the decision to give their hearts and lives to the Lord in our first church service.  They listened intently as Saul explained about our gracious, forgiving God who sent His Son to die for our sins so that we can spend eternity in Heaven with Him...so that we could live a life full of joy and peace that we were born to seek.  He explained that this amazing gift from God was free for all to have, but the CHOICE was ours to make.   And we all make a choice.  Even by not choosing, we are making the choice to spend an eternity separated from God....an eternity in hell.

Just looking at the picture now of all the hands raised, choosing God, makes me full of joy.... for all these lives were changed because of choices.  Choices made by the individuals in the picture, choices by the team members who came together to create this ministry opportunity, choices by the team's family and churches who supportingly sent them, choices of the missionaries who have given up the comforts of home to serve in Honduras as well as interrupt their ministry schedules to allow us to do this ministry and the list goes on and on.  Millions of little choices that culminated in this one moment of the greatest choice of all....eternal choices.

I had an amazing morning spending time with the children in this village.  They taught me some Spanish and I taught them some English while we waited for the first church service to start.  Once again they melted my heart as I looked into each of their eyes, while tying their bracelets on and praying for them.  I hope to never forget those faces and hope that in those moments they saw the love of Christ that will go with them throughout their lives.

My day was a little shorter on the field than expected because Erma (my friend Jeneen's mom who I promised to take care of) got sick.  Erma didn't want to be a burden, but I insisted that she let us take her back to Faith Home where she could lay down and rest and get some medicine to working on her.  As Johnny and Jeff took us back to Faith Home, I thought about geting her settled in and going back since Roberta (our cook) and our missionaries would be there to check on her, but I didn't feel comfortable with that.  I felt I needed to be here with her.  So I made the CHOICE to stay and I'm glad I did.

Erma is still sleeping and is doing much better and I've had an amazing afternoon here at Faith Home.  I am now sitting on the porch with the sounds of the children in the valley below, the gorgeous mountainside view around me, the birds singing in the woods behind me and an amazing God speaking to my heart.  I'm thinking about choices.

Everyday, we make hundreds of choices, either deliberately or automatically.  Our choices affect more than we realize and often times lead to more difficult choices later.  From the big choices down to the small choices....they all affect us and others somehow.  The hardest choices don't seem to be between good and bad....they seem to be between good and better.  Even a lack of choosing is still a choice.  God gives us so many amazing opportunities and gives us the freedom to choose to join Him in His plan.

God's plan hasn't changed.  He wants everyone to know Him and love Him and spend an eternity with Him  and He invites us to be a part of that plan.  Yet, He gives us the freedom of choice.  We can choose to join Him on an incredible fullfilling adventure of being a part of His plan or we can choose to pursue our own selfish desires and plans.  I know it's easy for me to say that while I'm here in Honduras, far removed from the temptations of the world.   My desire is to serve Him with my life...to choose Him each and every opportunity that He gives me to be His hands and feet, here and at home.   I want to make Godly choices.  

And now I see Saul's sons outside playing beside the team house, so I'm choosing to quit thinking so much and go play!