areonahrogers - When It Rains, It Pours

Hello, friend! Since my last blog update, I have begun a new journey with World Race! I am now a Field Mentor for a semester squad that is currently on the field until November and for another semester squad that will launch in January!

I first met T squad in Georgia at the end of August when they showed up for their training camp. From the moment I met them, I was so in awe of the Lord’s intentionality in the group of people that He called together for this season. T squad has 11 of the most tender, gentle, and joyful people that I have ever met in my entire life.

Each day that I have spent with them, I have seen a new layer to the Lord’s goodness and mercy through their eagerness to serve, their diligence to love, their zeal for this new adventure, and their willingness to receive everything that the Father has for them in this season, even if it is different than what they had expected.

Being able to mentor them has been one of the sweetest honors that I have ever stepped into!

And don’t even get me started on my two squad leaders that I get to lead alongside for the duration of this trip! Marissa and Jerome each carry such a beautiful and unique piece of the Father’s heart and it has been such a joy to witness them walk that out with the squad! Their faith and devotion to the Lord has consistently inspired me throughout every step of this journey!

This leadership team is truly beyond what I ever could have prayed and hoped for! I feel so blessed to know Marissa and Jerome and to be known by them!

What a privilege this season has been!

T squad is being sent by the Lord to three countries; Honduras, Guatemala, and Indonesia.

We have been in Honduras since September 7th and are scheduled to leave October 7th for Guatemala! Over the last four weeks, my squad has been living in tents on a mountain, 30 minutes away from the city of Comayagua. This has presented some unique challenges as it is currently the rainy season in Honduras!

Our time here has consisted of manual labor, women’s bible studies, children’s ministry, school visits, and trekking the mountains to share the good news!

This past week, T squad split into two teams and traveled to the top of a mountain called Granadia by car. We then spent 7 hours hiking down the mountain, traveling from house to house sharing the good news, an encouraging word, hearing their stories, and praying for each family.

The time we got to share with each family was so precious. I was reminded as we shared with each person and they shared in turn, of how deep the Father’s love is and how much of an honor it is to be invited into His unique pursuit of each individual.

About ¾ of the way through our day of hiking, it started to downpour for about an hour. Not only were we instantly soaked but our travel down the mountain became slippery and we even had to cross a river that had flooded across the road!

Even still, tired and soaked and some of us not feeling well, we continued to trek and find more houses to stop at and share the Gospel! As we did this, I was overcome with how worthy He is of momentary discomfort and how much of an honor it is to be on mission with Him in Honduras!

Many Hondurians would consider themselves to be Christian, but one thing that we learned pretty early on, is that in the mountains, it is very common that people know of Jesus but don’t actually know the truth about Him.

For many in Honduras, Jesus is a baby that was born to Mary and that is all. In fact, to many, Mary is the focal point of their faith.

They don’t know that Jesus is the son of God who lived 33 sinless years on earth. They don’t know that He took on the penalty of their sins and was crucified so that they would be reconciled to God. They don’t know that He did not stay on the cross–that He resurrected and defeated death. They don’t know that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and that there is no other way to eternal life except through Him.

They don’t know the hope of the Gospel.

In Honduras, there are many who believe that their faith in Mary and their good deeds alone will get them into heaven.

And that is absolutely heartbreaking.

As I was praying about what else to share with you, I felt like the Lord asked me to share more about what He has walked me through personally in the last month. Friend, I hope He uses what He has taught me to minister to and encourage you!

This last month has been abundantly sweet but not without difficulty.

A prayer that I prayed frequently at the start of our time in Honduras was for an overflow from the Lord. I don’t want my leadership of T squad to stem from my own strength, wisdom, and ability but from His.

I probably should have been more careful of how I worded that prayer as the answer did not come the way I expected, haha!

Remember how I said previously that it was the rainy season here? Well the Lord provided the answer to that prayer through a tent that has nearly consistently leaked and flooded every time it has rained, which is a lot.

You can’t tell me the Lord doesn’t have a sense of humor! LOL!

BUT on a more serious note, that physical overflow in my tent from the heavy rains gave me a picture from the Lord of what it takes to get to a place of overflow spiritually.

In order for my tent to flood and for it to leak, the ground and the fabric of my tent have to reach a place where they are so saturated with water that it has no choice but to flood/leak, or in other words, overflow. SO…in order for me to get to a place of overflow spiritually, I have to become so saturated from time spent with the Lord and with the Holy Spirit that eventually, there is no where else for it go but to overflow.

In the 4 weeks that we have been in Honduras, the Lord has been showing me little by little that He has been increasing my saturation through countless invitations into new levels of dependency and a type of faithfulness and devotion that is rooted in truth rather than feeling.

One of the main ways He has done this is through my health.

As some of you might remember, the end of my original race last year was quite difficult. I spent the last 6 weeks of my race extremely sick and in immense physical pain from a really bad bacteria infection that I got at the beginning of our time in Uganda that gave me ulcers. This continued after my race, until around February of this year.

Now, just over a year later from when I first began to get sick, I am still dealing with many of the same symptoms, although, for the most part, they are lesser than what they were before. Praise God!

To be completely honest, this season and its length have tested my faith and what I believe about the character of God immensely. Especially now that I am back in the field and dealing with flare ups.

I entered this race with T squad knowing that this was the Lord’s placement for me but feeling so depleted, discouraged, weak, and desperate. Because of that, I felt as though I had nothing to offer this squad or to the Lord. All I could see was lack–in myself, in my faith, and in my offering to Him which seemed so empty and insignificant.

In doing that, my gaze had slipped from being locked on beholding the Lord and His superabundant sufficiency and had fixed instead on my perceieved insufficiency. Originally, I had thought by acknowledging what I saw was making room for God to use my weakness and failures. But in reality, by focusing so much on my lack, I unintentionally made it and my circumstances an idol.

As the days have passed, I have begun to see the beauty in a long season of desperation and dependency unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

The Lord recently reminded me of the story of the woman who gave her last two coppers and how beautiful her offering was to Him because it was costly, although by a worldly sense, it was much lesser than some of the other offerings that were given.

Through our time in Honduras and this story, the Lord has been showing me that He delights and is honored in what is given faithfully from a place of lack. And in that, I’ve begun to see more and more beauty in serving the Lord in ways that feel costly.

In my lowest and weakest moments, the Lord has continually shown me His tender compassion and mercies through T squad, through Marissa and Jerome, countless other people, and through encounters with Him.

He has shown me that my needs are not a burden to Him and that it is His delight, as my Heavenly Father, to tend to me. To renew my hope. To sustain me and carry me through a wilderness season of suffering that has at points, felt beyond what I could bear.

He has shown me that even the tiniest measure of His grace is abundantly sufficient.

He has shown me that my perceived lack is simply an invitation into deeper, abiding fellowship with Him.

He has shown me that lamenting is a form of worship.

He has shown me that His power is made perfect in my weakness.

He has shown me that dependency on Him matters more than how capable I feel.

He has shown me that those who plant in tears will reap harvests with shouts of joy.

My heart, which at the start of Honduras felt so heavy with the ache of discouragement, has begun to rejoice and sing a new song. And each time it has rained and my tent floods and leaks on me while I’m sleeping, I am reminded that overflow is coming!

Praise God!

If you would like to pray for me and my squad, here are some prayer points:

For safe and smooth travels to Guatemala;
That I would continue to lead from a place of dependency on the Lord;
That the Lord would continue to provide miraculously for the ministry that we’ve been partnering with in Honduras, Catracho Missions;
For Jesus to continue to reveal Himself and the truth to the people of Honduras and for the TRUTH of the gospel to pierce their hearts;
For all of the seeds that were planted throughout our time in Honduras, that the Lord would continue to water and grow them; and
That T squad would continue to be receptive and sensitive to the leadings and promptings of the Lord as we head into a time of ATL (Ask the Lord) ministry in Guatemala.