Prayer Update & Lessons from my Devotional

For anyone who's not on my email list for prayer updates and is interested in praying for me, here's a copy of the prayer requests I emailed to my prayer supporters on Tuesday. After I leave for Guatemala I plan to include prayer requests at the end of each post.

First of all, you can thank God with me that he has faithfully provided ALL of the financial support I need! I'm blessed to be able to focus on other areas of preparation in the next few weeks and not have to worry about finances.

Second, I leave for Guatemala on May 30 (not the 31st like I erroneously sent out in some versions of my support letter) -- just over two weeks away! I have been gradually receiving more and more information from my internship supervisors about what to bring, what to expect, etc., but for as much information as they may give me, I think there are some things I just won't know what to expect until I actually get there. That's a little scary to me, but at the same time it's a great lesson in trusting the Lord. Please pray that the Lord would help me prepare adequately for my eight weeks in Guatemala but that I would trust him with all of the unknowns.

Finally, please pray that God would continue preparing my heart to humbly love and serve the girls I'll be living with at the Oasis. Pray against pride and wrong motivations that often stem from an American way of thinking that we need to 'help' or 'fix' other people. Pray that I would instead be open to learning from the people of Guatemala and loving them with a "love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5).

In response to that last request, one of my friends who received my email on Tuesday suggested I read When Helping Hurts (by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert) before I leave for Guatemala. I ordered it on Amazon and I'm planning to start reading it as soon as it arrives.

Another pre-Guatemala reading I'm doing is a daily devotional called Before You Go (by Jack Hempfling), which the staff at Camino Global sent to all the interns and asked us to read, well, before we go! The devotional is designed for 40 days, but since I'm leaving in less than 2 weeks and the devotionals are pretty short, I'm going to read a few a day so I can get through it before I leave.

Some helpful lessons so far from the first 4 days of the devotional:

• "Technical preparation and excellence are important; after all, we serve an excellent God and a team should strive for excellence in practical preparation. Most importantly, however, team members must prepare their hearts to stay focused, unified, positive, pure, humble, submissive, and full of praise and faith. Combining both the practical excellence with focused heart preparation is best of all" (page 30). So in my own words, it's a good thing to be prepared (it honors the Lord and also helps me feel more secure), but more importantly I need to be spending quality time with the Lord by investing time in the Word and in prayer to keep me spiritually healthy so my investment in ministry is more meaningful and effective.
• Kind of similar to the first bullet point: "It's important to work hard at preparing a ministry plan and having as much ready as possible; that level of diligence and commitment to excellence honors the Lord. Yet God may intervene in the plan and adjust the direction as you go" (33). This quote is from the chapter entitled "Expect the Unexpected," so Hempfling's point is basically to make a plan/be prepared but also be aware of unplanned opportunities that the Lord may create, and be willing to follow His leading even when it differs from our own plans. In other words, I need to be flexible and keep my eyes open to how God is leading.
• Day 3's devotional talks about not letting anyone else or even myself limit me because of certain qualifications (related to gender, age, race, education level, condition, etc.). It's easy for me to get too confident in my own skills/qualifications or to become insecure because I lack certain ones, but Hempfling says no one is called to missions purely because of their abilities, but rather, "your primary qualifications are that God has deposited His presence within your heart and your life, and that you have made yourself available to Him" (35-36). The prayer at the end of the devotional confesses, "Because taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is Your idea, I resist all temptations to focus on my personal limitations, nor do I care what others who know me might think" (37). I have a feeling this might be a prayer I need to bring to the Lord repeatedly throughout the summer because I am often tempted to dwell on my own failures and shortcomings.