Loved!

I promise that pictures will come soon. I will work on getting some up over the next day or two before we head out with the next team. Living Hope - my church in College Station was in this past week and it was such a blessing to have them here.

I want to write more about that later. However, I'd first like to share a little about what God has been teaching me. God loves me!!! Hmmmm....sounds like one of those "duh" statements, right? Really though, think about it.

I am loved by the creator of all things. I am loved by the almighty most high God. I, we, are loved by God! Again, I know it doesn't sound like an ahhh haaaa moment because we know God loves us, right??????

Well, I am not so sure about that. I know that some people don't know it. They are told for the first time that God loves them or that anyone loves them for that matter. But what about all of us who "think" we know it. Do we really?

Do we really understand that God has made a covenant with us and that He loves us even when we are so underserving of love. He is faithful even when we are not. His love is perfect and ours is not... but God decided that He would love us anyway. God doesn't just love us a little bit, or love us when we do good things....God loves us all the time. His love for us is great. He desires for us to know him. He desires to use us. I don't have to earn God's love...I already have it.

Do you believe that? Do your really believe that God loves you....all the time? If the most High God of this universe loves me so dearly then why don't I see such value in myself? If I am precious unto the Lord, valued, lifted up, prized then why do I often think of myself as less? Well, I know where I have been. I know who I was before surrendering my life to the the Lord. But wait!!!!!!!!! I was loved THEN before I decided to follow the Lord. I was valued THEN. I was prized THEN.

I know that I can do nothing apart from the Lord! (I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5) Yet, even then when I could do nothing because I was trying to do it on my own....I was still love greatly.

Now, with the Lord living in me He can work....He can do amazing things through me. Yet, I am not loved any more than before. My pastor often says, "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing you can do to make Him love you less" God loves you (period). It (God's love) was and never has been based on me and what I do.

Still, here is the thing. Sometimes I don't rest in the fact that God loves me. I think we let Satan in and we don't see ourselves the way God does. We think we can't do, or we aren't good enough. The truth is...we were never good enough to begin with....ha! God chooses to love us and God chooses to use us. Imagine what we could all do if we rested in that...

God loves me! God desires to use me! I am precious and valued in His sight! I am a child of the risen savior!

Boy, I can't wait to see how the God who loves me and calls me His child is going to use me. It feels kindof weird to write that out even. But I think that is the point God is trying to get me to understand. What if I have such a confidence in God's love for me that I can't wait to see how I, the one He loves and values so dearly, am favored so sweetly to be used by Him. It blows my mind.

To say it another way....
I am blessed to have an amazing earthly daddy. I EXPECT..he he.. to be favored by him. I know that he will stop what he is doing and focus on me. I know that he has trained me, that he has put me in charge of things. I know that he has introduced me to people of influence, I know that he has prepared and worked so that I can now be out in this world with a leg up. Confident of his love for me. Confident that I am special to him. Ready to do....ready for action. Why in the world would I take a step back and question whether or not I am worthy or whether or not I am good enough? I am confident that he thinks I am valuable. I know that he sees me as precious. I know that he loves me.

God's love for me is so much greater than that. So the question I have been asking myself is....Do I know that God loves me? For Real? Am I confident of His love for me? Am I so confident of His love for me that I am know that I am favored and useful to him, that I am valued and precious in His sight?

Let me tell you it is humbling thought. At the same time it is an amazing truth. We ARE LOVED. Deeply loved...and wow how it should change my thinking to know this truth. I am Loved, I am favored, I am valuable, I am useful, I am the daughter of a King.

Amazing Love,
How can it Be,
That you, my King, should die for me?
Amazing Love,
I know it's true......


Do you really know it's true? God is showing me...He is teaching me.

Pictures

Obviously the other pictures didn´t load. Sorry but no time to try again. Will post them when I return in a week. God Bless!

A Quick Update!

Hi friends...things have been fast and furious. We just finished with a medical team. It was a cool new experience for me. Tons of people came for the clinic. Many who had never seen a doctor in their lives...LIKE EVER. One young woman 18 or 19 came in with a few day old newborn that she had just had at home. SHE walked the several miles with the infant to get to the clinic.

I worked most of the time in the makeshift pharmacy that we set up. We saw all kindof things....most frequent was parasites\worms....most unusual was a gangrenous foot where a machete had gotten hold of a man´s toe.

We gave out lots of children´s and adult vitamins as well as prenatal vitamins. These are very helpful because a large percentage of Nicaragua eats the same meal, for each meal of the day, everday. Beans and rice (sometimes with eggs or chicken), tortillas and whatever fruit grows locally around their home or their neighbors home. This I have quickly realized is why many countries who eat the same foods for each meal are not overweight. When you have rice and beans for every meal you listen to your body when it tells you it is full (and I love beans and rice but you can only eat so much of them)

I have included a couple of pictures from the team this past week. Plus one of a really cool insect we saw and a cool toad. I mean who wouldn´t want to see a picture of a cool toad? Ha!

We are leaving tomorrow for a hiking team. We are going to Nawawas. Please pray for the HS to go ahead of us and prepare the hearts of the people. Pray for salvation and for God to raise up Gody leaders in their area. There is a small church that Loren has worked with there before.

Pray for Loren please. He has a heal spur that is really bothering him. He has been walking with a cane around the house for several days and now he has to hike on it. He is considering having surgery when we return. Pray for healing and for wisdom about the surgery. We have a bunch of teams scheduled back to back. In fact my church, Living Hope, comes in on the 13th of March the same day this week´s team leaves. I am super excited to see them. Pray with me that we are all in awe of what God does in us and around us.

Karen has started working from home for her job that she will be doing in Chile. She is good at it and I think she will enjoy this job. She is going to stay here this week but will go out with the Living Hope team.

Okay, gotta run for now. Maybe I will have time to post more before we leave. Thanks for checking in with me and for praying.

Rachel