Comfort-Ability

Today marked the halfway point of our journal that our good friends gave us back in Athens.  They were so sweet and they gave us a little journal to write in and they wrote some messages throughout.  So as write everyday about what we did and what the Lord is doing, we get to see little notes of encouragement from our friends back home, which means SO much!  As yesterday was a hard day, I even just decided to read them all!!!! haha 

Us getting ready to had out Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches to people on the street

In the past week or so, we went west to San Ignacio and had a very interesting time! We met with Pastor Simpson and we drove around the city!  It was crazy, all the roads are very narrow and all the roads are at like a 90 degree incline!  So as we were driving around we were either going up a mountain or doing down a mountain.  

Laurens Valentines Day card to me:)

On Valentines day, we stayed with this lady who was in the middle of a difficult situation and her husband was not living with her.  It is so crazy how the Lord plans very specific things for his children!  So as we were in San Ignacio we were able to stay with this incredible lady!  She was really sweet to us letting us stay in her house, were we did not even know her, but she took us out to show us the town and then she bought us supper!  We taught her how to play the game Farkle, and we laughed all night long!  We also really had to laugh that night because one of our little themes for the trip is a little "bow" that we have on the dash of the car.  It is so crazy because that night as we were going to sleep we looked over to our left and we saw a little bow above the closed!  What! That is crazy and like a little wink from the Lord for that moment!

The BOW....do you see it?

Alba who we stayed with for Valentines day...she is such a happy woman!

We then left and headed over to Spanish Lookout which is a Mennonite community.  We drove around until finally we came across a little bookstore, where we were able to meet an elder of one of the churches in the community.  We invited him to the conference and then we headed over to Belize City.  We stayed in Belize City for a few days and went to the park and played some worship music and ran into a man named Dallas.  As we played music, he sat and listened to us.  He was homeless and only had one shoe on.  As we sat there we were discerning that there was some spirit over Dallas and so as we worshiped we tried our best to claim His name.  Dallas listened as we dedicated every song to him.  As we left we really felt weird.  It is hard to describe but it is funny as you are in a place, or around certain people...how much that can affect you.  

I call it combover in the park

Dallas

The following day we went to church in the morning, and then looked at a house in Belize City...ok this is where it gets really good!  We looked at this specific apartment that was for rent, and as we did it was kind of expensive but it was close to the city and it was in a safe neighborhood and I started to think that that was going to be the best we were going to be able to find.

my sunglasses broke:(

We soon left Belize City to head back to Belmopan, to soon go to Punta Gorda but felt like the Lord was telling us to stay in Belmopan that night and go to the Nazarene Church with Pastor Maganya (who we LOVE).  

 Favorite Quote of Pastor Maganya at church last night: "I dont like that much Risky Business"

We ended up staying the night and as we woke up Lauren and I talked for like a good 2 hours!  The night before we had watched a movie we had bought called the Human Experiment.  It was really great and gave us a different look, and revelation about things.  We realized that the "fog" we had felt we were living in, the past couple days as we were in the city was because of something specific...this is where the revelation comes in: 

Lauren and I realizing that Comfort is not good!

I desire to live without distraction...why have comforts?  I dont want to be comfortable, it will only make me stagnant.  I want to be moving.  I want to see, I want to hear, I want to do...this comes from intimacy with the Lord.  This comes from asking and seeing what I should see with His eyes.  Living "without" allows me to spend time with people who live without.  It is about positioning ourselves.  For example, in the movie we watched last night, it was these two brothers who decided that they wanted to experience and associate with the homeless, so in order to do that they became homeless in New York City.  The slept the way the homeless people did, they had to beg like the homeless people do, etc.  And the conversations they were able to have, the experiences they were able to have, came from being at a place where they could associate because they did not live with "comfort-ability"  past the people they were loving.  Because these guys were living homeless and ministering to the homeless, they were humbled in a way to feel worthy to talk to the homeless.  

It truly is about positioning ourselves...it is about positioning myself so I am not above the people I have a heart to love.  So I realize this day, at our half way point (halfway in our journal and halfway to the conference date) my heart has become so cushioned with the comforts of this word.  

So as you look at the little diagram I drew, there are certain walls we put up around our hearts.  This makes it so our mind cant not get to our heart to control it.  Our heart can not be our decision maker.  I need to take away the cushions to allow my mind to control my heart to live out of a humble place.  WE CAN BE OUR OWN WORST SPIRITUAL WARFARE.  

Jeremiah 17:9  "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" NIV

Proverbs 28:26  "He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe." NIV

Romans 12:2  "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." NIV

So what we did was then wrote down a list of all of our luxuries/COMFORTS.  As you can see we have a pretty big list, some we are living without and some we have.  But the conclusion was we felt closer to the Lord when we had less of the things on the list because there were less distractions and more dependency on the Lord.  It is truly about positioning ourselves.

SO.....then we decided to go to the post office to look for rooms for rent.  We called a ton of places, like 15!  We decided that a place for us to position ourselves more to be in the Lords presence was to live in Belmopan instead of Belize City.  At the end of the calling session, we had a couple maybes but nothing incredible.  So then I got a call from a lady that we had called the day before and she gave us a number for a lady that owned this house.  We called the landlady and she was like...come over now!  She seemed awesome...felt very peaceful talking to her on the phone.  So we bolted over there to take a look at as she came out of the house literally across the street she showed us two houses that were next to each other.  The first house she showed us was a little smaller, it was furnished and it was perfect!!!!! Then she told us she was going to reduce the rent so that the total for the month would be in our budget!  What????? Really????? Ok, we did nothing...nothing at all to get to the place we were at right now.  We were at an amazing house!  And at the end of the day, we really need a place to stay for the remainder of our stay.  We have been living one night here, one night there and for us to continue to do ministry here after this conference, we needed to have more of a steady life.  In order to be effective, we need to stay stationary somewhere! haha  So this lady showed us one more apartment that she had, but we just came back to the very first place we looked at.  After deciding, and acknowledging what the Lord had done and how this was the perfect place the the Lord had completely blessed us with....we PRAYED AND THANKED THE LORD!!!!!!  And it was so awesome, because we were in a humble place to see truly what the Lord had done!  It is so about position!  Seriously, a couple days ago, we may have not see this all and acknowledged the Lords had all over this the way we were able to today.  So we called her to tell her we wanted to move in next week....AND SHE SAYS "I talked to my husband and we just love what you are doing and we decided to take some more off the rent."  Are you SERIOUS?  Come on, thank you LORD!!!! You are truly the provider of all!  Oh I almost forgot, there are SCREENS on the windows:)

Our adorable HOUSE!

So now we sit here all giddy, and met an incredible girl who is our new friend!  We invited her over to the house next week!!!! And then there are some other guys (one who I knew for a couple years now) and they want to come over to cook for everyone.  Lord this is your house, do what you will in Your house!  We are excited for just all the things the Lord has in store, because He provided this house for a reason!  Thank you Lord

I pray that this was encouraging to you, for I feel so humbled to be here, I feel so humbled to be able to live this day.  And I am excited for tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support!  As you pray...WE FEEL IT!