God's Guiding Presence

I have more to say about the Indianapolis One Heart Many Hands trip later, but for now I want to address a Britt Nicole song from her new album Gold.

As a whole, I didn't really like the album at first. It just all seemed the same to me, and I grew impatient.  I think that always happens to me when I get a new CD though, so I gave it another try. After another couple of listens, a few of the songs really impacted me, but one in particular spoke to my heart.

"Seeing for the First Time" talks about feeling God's presence in a new and exciting way. Every time you can feel God near and working is exhilarating, of course, but Nicole talks about God planning every moment, Him knowing when she would really need to feel Him by her side.

We know that God has a plan for our life if we choose to accept His free gift of salvation, but I guess I never really thought about the little things. I can trust God to lead me in the right direction. I know He has lead me this far, and He will continue to guide my path throughout college and when it comes time to choosing a career, but I never thought about the little things.

You know? I mean, what about the moments that I have to stop and ask myself "Okay, will this matter in five years?" He is still in control of those times of my life... if I let Him.

Wouldn't it make sense, then, that God has those crazy, out of this world, supernatural moments, when there is no denying He exists moments planned out for us? 

Nicole puts herself "under the stars" and I think that's exactly right. Both the care-free and worry-some nights when you look up at the stars and pause to wonder at their beauty, there is a clear and definite Presence.

You can just breathe and say "God is here."

I realize now those moments are in His beautiful hands also. Because through everything, if you put your trust in God, if you give your all to the Creator of the Universe, He will be there for you. He's been there for me even when I didn't realize I needed Him, and even when I wished He couldn't see me, He was holding out His hands, knowing that His Presence was all I needed to get me through.

"How many years did You plan this moment here to show me how You love me?"

One Heart Many Hands

One Heart Many Hands was born out of Dr Gary Morsch's passion to serve and give back to the community. The Church of the Nazarene gatthers together every four years for a General Assembly, and since the community of Indianapolis was giving so much to them, they decided it was time to do something to benefit the people of this city.

Our youth group had the opportunity to participate in One Heart Many Hands this year. On Sunday morning, we all made the long drive to Indianapolis and sat down together as a community of Believers. People of all ages and all different kinds of skill levels brought together by one purpose. Plans have been being made for almost two years - where to serve, how to serve, and who will serve.

Our youth group was divided into three teams with three different houses. The house I was assigned to didn't sound like a whole lot of work, but the big tasks took longer than everyone allotted time for. We put up new gutters, which involved putting up wood for the gutters to rest on, and painted all the wood white, new boards were put into the deck, the faucet was fixed inside the house, and new doors were put on the front and the back.

We were also blessed to be working right beside another group of ours, which allowed us to help on both houses when needed. The other house needed a lot of TLC. All the windows were scrubbed and re-caulked, I think there were twelve in all, on the front of the house all the paint was scraped off and then they of course painted it again, there was a fence that was paint-scraped and repainted, and then people were up on the roof doing who knows what to fix it.

This wasn't on our itinerary, but when the other group arrived they realized the basement was just a hole in the ground with no supporting beams. Big problem there! (I mean, I don't really know. I know nothing about fixing houses.) So there were a bunch of guys stuck in the basement all week solving the problem of the sinking floor.

Our plan for the week was very straightforward, but when we got there we found a lot of twists and turns that challenged us in ways we were ready to be challenged. You don't expect to see any "miracles" on a trip where you fix houses, but miracles we saw. It was a week of questioning and a week of blessings,

and God provided.

"Share the Gospel story with strangers."

One of the things I loved about our short term mission trip to El Salvador was observing how God used each person to minister to others. This applied not only to the team members, but to the brothers and sisters in El Salvador. It was such fun watching the smiles and listening to the laughter of the children, while seeing the joy on the faces of those ministering to them. And the hosts seemed to derive such pleasure from serving us meals and waiting on us. Then there was the awesome experience of seeing the excitement as our team members moved out of their comfort zones to share the Gospel story with strangers. 

Grant and Trudy presenting the gospel and
praying together during a medical clinic.

The two most rewarding experiences of the visit definitely had eternal consequences. I watched as our bus driver, Oscar, watched all the interaction between us and the El Salvadorans each day,especially one day when we went door to door sharing the gospel using the Evangecube. He stood close by so he could hear each explanation to the people in the homes we called on. It was so obvious that he was wanting to be a part of this big happy "family," but didn't feel like he belonged. As our time grew short, we all began to pray a little harder for Oscar and when, at the Holy Spirit's prompting, one of our team members asked him "the question," he submitted his life to Christ! What a thrill that was!

The second event was when the young girl who had "attached" herself to me two years earlier, and who again became my buddy, came to the medical clinic that we held in the Chalchuapa Nazarene church. She had seen the doctor and then came to Grant and me for prayer (as was the custom). I presented the gospel, using the Evangecube and she accepted Christ then and there. That was truly a blessing!

I am asking the Lord to keep me alert to the opportunities here in my daily life to share Christ's love with each person that I interact with and to be willing to move out of my comfort zone as we all did in El Salvador. It's not as scary as we think. "Try it--You'll like it!"

Trudy