1 Año

Today I celebrate 1 year in Monte Plata - 1 year of countless smiles, 1 year of countless tears, 1 year of unimaginable difficulties, 1 year of unimaginable joy, and 1 year of innumerable moments that have shown me more of Jesus and His Kingdom than I ever thought possible. 

Today I celebrate a million lessons learned. 

I celebrate the ongoing battle of me trying to manage my life and my ministry here on my own and God lovingly, yet forcefully, teaching me that I am not in control and will fail miserably without Him. 

I celebrate the limitless power of prayer that has so clearly been demonstrated in my life here throughout the past year. As John Piper says, prayer is a "wartime weapon," and it is the only weapon I've ever seen bring beautiful, restorative peace when used. 

I celebrate the lesson of thankfulness and the new discipline of thanking God for every piece of every difficult, stressful, and stretching situation. Ann Voskamp wrote "The feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving." In the most trying and darkest of situations, in the depths of loneliness, and through the demands of work that seem unfair or to go unnoticed, I celebrate the way God reveals more of Himself as I chose gratitude and, in turn, chose to joyfully trust.

I celebrate God's people. I celebrate the team of 80 friends who have faithfully supported me financially in this Kingdom work over the past year. I celebrate the hundreds more who consistently lift me up in prayer. I celebrate the hundreds of sponsors who enable our school and orphanage to function each day. I celebrate our little North American missionary team in Monte Plata (James, Rebekah, Alex, and I) and the much larger group of Dominicans who selflessly and sacrificially run our programs every day. I celebrate the groups and individuals who have visited us in Monte Plata and poured love, resources, and time into our ministry and into our kids. I celebrate Dad, Riley, Vicki, Paige, and Tricia getting to visit me from home and experience firsthand the great things God is doing here. 

Today I celebrate God's provisions and pray for more of His Body - the church - to answer His call to care for the poor, the outcast, the orphans, and the widows. I pray for more of His Spirit to fall in Monte Plata. Extreme poverty, lack of clean water, lack of medical care, and lack of access to education are real threats that seriously affect real people here in this city that I love. I think of a kind and obedient little boy who lost his life in a river while out gathering wood for his family's cooking fire and I mourn the unavoidable fact that if his family had owned a simple, inexpensive, gas-powered burner, he wouldn't have been out by that river. I pray for His Spirit to bring hope, opportunities, and life-change here. I ask that you join me.

Today I celebrate Jesus in me. I celebrate that He is the only good thing about me. I celebrate that His life, death, and resurrection are the only things that make everything I do worth doing. 

I celebrate that I get to do this all again. As of today, year 2 begins. New lessons, new battles, new prayers, new reasons to give thanks, new people, new provisions -  Same Jesus.