Ashes to Beauty

It is not uncommon for missionaries to be quite familiar with saying hello and goodbye.  The Lord brings people in and out of our lives frequently and I am afraid transition never gets easier!

We said goodbye to the Spradleys this past week and our team is mourning right now.  Jesse and Liz brought an unparalleled vibrance and love for Christ and others to La Ceiba.  They served our team and Hondurans well.  Isaiah 61 comes to mind as they made beauty from ashes and turned mourning into joy.  They worked hard at making the Lord's ministries here thrive and operate with excellence. They helped our team heal and move forward through many hardships and surprises.  We had a fun going away party and they will be greatly missed (pray for our boys who are missing their buddy, Hudson). 

   

We also said hello to Raul and Alma Villanueva at the beginning of this month as our team helped them move from Siguatepeque to La Ceiba.  Our team has morphed over the past year or so to include 4 Honduran families.  This week, we held our biannual planning meeting where we revisit our mission, vision, goals, and objetives and set new goals and objectives.  It was a sweet time to be able to see how the Lord has answered very specific prayers and needs for our team.  It was also our first big meeting where we operated primarily in Spanish as nearly half of our team are native speakers.  This too was a beauty from ashes reminder for me as we see the Lord turn messes into great ministries by the hands and hard work of Hondurans investing in Hondurans. The Lord is uprooting the plants He did not plant and planting oaks of righteousness so that HE is the one receiving the glory!           

to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. -Isaiah 61:3

But Jesus replied, "Every plant that My Heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots. -Matthew 15:13