Venezuela day 5

Today has been a fun and exciting day both spiritually and personally.  It was great to be able to get out into the city and worship with our Venezuelan brothers and sisters and see the city and countryside.  I actually got to see two worship services.  I went to resurrection church which was very interesting.  The man who preached was a government official who is feeling a call to the ministry.  He preached a very Old Testament prophetic message based on 3 texts from Isaiah.  It was very much a message of hope but also an anti government message.  He talked about how the government was corrupt and did not have the interest of the people at heart but that we should turn to God and not the government for care and provision.  It ended with a hug fest which I didn't really understand.  Afterwards, Ted and I were asked to speak on YHWH radio. A station in the first floor of the church.  It was very brief but also very interesting.
We also got to hear the tail end of the message at a smaller church on a hilltop.  It was open air and beautiful.  They are starting an orphanage and it was fun to play soccer with a 3 yo and a balloon. We also got to watch a drama of a girl on the streets and how Christ defeated the enemies around her and saved her.  It was very moving and the teenagers did a great job.

Seeing the beauty of the land and the mass poverty in this country was astounding to me.  Although we passed farms they were growing plants to make alcohol not food.  We passed nurseries but no fields for food.  There was trash everywhere and nearly every flat surface was covered in graffiti.  Some neighborhoods we passed were nicer than others but most would have qualified as poor in the states.

One of the things I am learning this week is how to face and sometimes embrace feelings of uncomfortableness.  Everything is out of my comfort zone and I find I am reluctant to volunteer for things that at home I would not hesitate to do.  Since many situations are new and uncomfortable I am learning to fight through those moments of resistance and doing so has been a blessing.  I am making friends I may have avoided or not made at home, I am taking emotional risks that will help me grow as a person and as a disciple of Christ.  I have always thought there is little in this world left up to chance.  I have always believed I have been put in situations for a reason, even if I never fully understand those reasons, people are put in my life and I in theirs for long and short so that we can learn and grow to be the people God created us to be.  It is the moments of uncertainty and uncomfortableness that we rely more on God and less on our own skills and when God's work is most evident.