Rainbows and Otter Pelt

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” Isaiah 61:1

“and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Last week I had the privilege to spend an amazing week with a mission team from Gano Baptist Church, located in Georgetown Kentucky, in Colombia sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. We held 4 days of medical and dental clinics.

Monday and Tuesday, we were in Palmira, a fishing village outside of Santa Marta.

Monday – 378 people visited clinic and 44 people accepted Christ as their savior

Tuesday – 416 people visited clinic and 80 people accepted Christ as their savior.

I met an amazing couple from Colombia that helped in Pharmacy: Yeraldint Yomayuza, Marco Rincon Gomez and their daughter Jenna. Marco is a pharmacist in Colombia and both have helped with this team in the past. With the assistance of Google Translate, we were able to communicate. Working with Marco was a good learning experience for me. Interestingly, drugs such as codeine, tramadol, and meloxicam are readily available in Colombia with no prescription. However, Benadryl is illegal. Marco explained because a compound is extracted from it to make another drug.

On Wednesday, we were in Timayui where there are many refugees from Venezuela. Many of the people we treated were Venezuelan, fleeing the persecution of the government.

Wednesday – 265 people visited the clinic and 11 people accepted Jesus as savior.

On this day, I had the opportunity to talk one on one with some ladies (through an interpreter) about their relationship with Jesus. This is the first time I have attempted one on one evangelism and am glad I overcame the fear. Fillipe was encouraging and told me in Colombia you will find two types of people: those that know accepting Christ is a commitment and are not ready to make it and those that will say they accept Him every time you ask. We spoke with an older lady that did pray to accept Jesus, a young lady who asked for prayer but was not ready to make a commitment, and a young lady who already has a relationship with Jesus.

Thursday, we set up clinic in a school in La Quinina. 434 people visited clinic and 8 people accepted Jesus as Savior.

Many seeds were planted and many were watered.

Please continue to pray for these people. For encouragement and boldness for those that know Jesus, for people to continue to spread the good news to those that are not ready to commit as well as to those who have yet to hear.

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matt. 9:37-38

As part of this trip, I had the opportunity to reunite with my good friend Paz, the dentist from Honduras who has a ministry and is a full time missionary. I have not seen her in 5 years. I was excited to share with her the journey the Lord has me on. I had several opportunities to talk with her about my fears, anxiety, as well as my excitement. She expressed excitement for me and offered encouragement.

Dental clinic

eyeglasses clinic

Rachel and I at Castillo do San Felipe

In 7 days, I leave for Colombia on a medical mission trip, to serve in a pharmacy. I am in awe of how God is moving in my life and reminded of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” A year ago, I never dreamed this would be my path. I was anxiously waiting on direction from the Lord, and all He kept telling me was “wait”. His message was very clear in my daily devlotions, and by other means. One day, I would read Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.” And then be reminded with Lamentations 3:35, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him” In mid June 2017, I wrote “I’ve been waiting almost 5 months. What am I waiting for?”

Waiting is hard for me. I like to have a plan, and work the plan. The Lord would remind me, “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” Isaiah 30:18. So I waited. During this time I read a book entitled “Wait and See: Finding Peace in God’s Pauses and Plans” by Wendy Pope. In her book, Wendy referenced Isaiah 64:4, “For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for him.” The Hebrew word for Wait in this verse is Khaw-Kaw. God teaches us through this word to tarry for Him to act on our behalf. This means those who wait are to delay in acting or starting anything. Waiters are to linger where they are, doing what they know to do until they receive instructions. So I waited, continuing to do what I knew to do, until I had instructions to do something else. And in a few months, I had my direction.

Sometimes I still wonder, and am in awe, of the path God has me on. I recall Philippians 4:7 and receive reassurance, “and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. I do have a peace about going to school to receive training to be able to participate in medical missions. And this peace does transcend the world’s understanding of what I should be doing.

This brings me full circle, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” How has He done this for me? Ever since elementary school studying history, I can recall having an interest in other cultures, and having a desire to travel to discover how they live. I believe God has blessed me for having a desire to seek His plan for my life and not my own, calling me to serve in international missions and giving me opportunities on short term medical missions. I continue to seek His calling and direction each day as well as for the future. Was the Wait worth it? Oh yeah! Definitely!

Thanks for joining me on my journey chronicling what God is doing in my life.  My journey began in December of 2016, after I read Jennie Allen’s book Anything.  I prayed a prayer, “Lord, I’ll do anything.”  At least that’s what my heart desired to pray.  My prayer went more like this:  “Lord, I wish I could say I would do anything for you, but if you asked me to walk away from my job with nothing else lined up…I just don’t think I could do that.”  You see, security was my big hang up.  I knew everything I had was from God but it was comfortable knowing there was a steady paycheck to provide the “necessities” – with a few extras.  Well, He showed me I could walk away.  And that He is faithful and does provide.  In Matthew 6, Jesus questions us about why we worry about food and clothes.  In verse 33,  he tells us “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  James tell us in chapter 4 how arrogant we are to make plans for our lives.  Instead, we should be saying “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (Verse 15).

You may wonder where the title Rainbows and Otter Pelt came from.  Early on, I related my journey to the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land.  In Joshua 3:4, God directs them to follow the ark of the covenant and keep it in their sight, “then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”  I prayed for firmly closed doors and giant neon signs as I tried to discern God’s leading for my life.  When I would question whether I had interpreted something correctly, sometimes I would ask God to show me a sign.  I saw more rainbows in the summer of 2017 than I had ever seen in any other given timeframe!  Once I saw rainbows 2 days in a row!

In August 2017, I returned to school to receive training as a pharmacy technician and answer the call to serve on international missions.  The weekend before I started classes, I was questioning if I was doing the correct thing.  It didn’t make sense – in the world’s eyes- to abandon a job search and return to school.  A friend of mine, who was also a coworker at my previous job, sent me an Otter Pelt that I had always admired hanging on his office wall; along with an encouraging note commenting on how he and his wife were impressed with the joy I expressed in following God’s direction for my life.  God had instructed the Israelites to gather stones from the middle of the Jordan, while the waters were parted, and set them up as memorial stones to commemorate what God had done for them that day.  The Otter Pelt is my first “memorial stone” commemorating what God is doing for me along this journey.  A friend of mine who encourages me along the way suggested the title Rainbows and Otter Pelt.

God continues to confirm I am on the correct path.  I have already had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala this past spring and help build a house for a young couple.  I have 2 more mission trips arranged for this summer, each a medical mission and I will be serving in the pharmacy.  July to Colombia and August to Ukraine.  I invite you to follow along on my upcoming adventures, as well as future adventures, in this blog.  I will try to share joys, as well as trials, and spiritual insight I gain along the way.