God Is So Good

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog, so there will be a few different topics covered in this one, and it might be a bit long, so I apologize in advance. Also, it has been a pretty crazy 2 months, so get ready for some good stories.

To start off, let’s talk about how I saw God show up towards the end of Albania, and what He was teaching me. Two words: steadfast love. I know how much the Lord loves me (well I don’t think I’ll ever actually be able to grasp how much He ACTUALLY loves me, but like I know that He loves me and that will never change.) I stand firm on that truth and I know that the enemy can’t take that away from me. However, I don’t think I ever really realized the importance and power of His steadfast love and the impact it can have when you show that love to others. Also, I got to see how God showed His steadfast love to His people while reading in Exodus, so that was really cool.

Ok, if you read my last blog, you’ll know all about Bianca (if you haven’t read it, you should go and do that, it’s a great story). Well, as I look back at that friendship we developed, I can see how God used us to show His love to Bianca and how His love is what can sustain her and how He will never fail her. He showed her that she can find peace in His love and in His presence. I’m honored that God used me to help show one of His daughters that. There’s another friend I made in Albania, and I was able to show them that love as well, and through that God actually showed me the power of showing other people that steadfast love. This friend is new to their faith, and is still figuring out what is truth and what isn’t. Throughout my time in Albania, we had many discussions and debates about God and the Bible and basically everything in between. I could have easily gotten frustrated with all of the debates we had, but I felt like no matter how our discussions went, God wanted me to make sure that I told them that no matter what differences we have in our beliefs, I will always care about them and pray for them, and that, more importantly, God still loves them and always will. Towards the end of February, they started thinking about leaving church and going against God, this obviously was hard, and honestly led to an argument that I didn’t carry out very lovingly. I knew my mistake, and I prayed a lot after that conversation ended. I thought the friendship had ended and I had pushed them away from God even further. I continued to pray for them and had other people join me in praying for them, and a week later, God did something awesome. He gave them a dream of seeing Jesus, and in that dream they were reminded of the love that me and my team had continued to show them throughout the past two months, even when “I was being rude” (their words to me). They thanked me for continuing to show them that love and that because of the dream and the love we showed them, they decided to come back to church.

Now obviously, all of this was God doing His thing and pursuing His children, but I just thought it was really cool how I got to see Him use me and my team through shining His love through us. Also, I think God reminded me that showing people love is the main ministry I will do the rest of my life, and how impactful and important it is to keep acting and living in God’s love.

So yea, that’s mainly what I learned at the end of Albania. That, and how much I had grown to love that country and all of the friends I had made- I hadn’t realized how much I had grown to love those people and how much of an impact that had on me until I had to leave them. There is one last thing though. I feel like I probably mentioned in an earlier blog about how my joy came back to me once I got to Albania, and I think I finally realize part of why that happened. I felt so close to the Lord in Albania, and I noticed that I was truly and sincerely seeking after Him, and I think that was the main source of my joy. The Lord is joy, and it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit, so it makes so much sense why I felt better when I was closer with Him. Ok, now that’s really the end of Albania.

We had planned to leave Albania on February 27th and get to Guatemala around March 2, but things did not go to plan whatsoever. Basically, we flew to Greece from Albania on the 27th, but there was a big riot going on on the 28th, and all of our flights got cancelled, so we ended up staying in Greece for 4 days, which was such a blessing from the Lord actually. We didn’t think we were going to be able to explore the city (Athens) because of the riots and also because we had to be on call in case we got flights booked and had to head to the airport, but we actually ended up being able to spend a day to see Athens, which was SOOO amazing. I got to see the acropolis and all of these other things that are a part of Ancient Greece history, and it was just a nice gift from God to let us do that. Also, we were able to actually rest, process Albania, prepare ourselves for Guatemala, and also be around all of our friends that we hadn’t seen in two months (all of the teams were split up during Albania). So yea, that was actually really nice. Then, we got flights, and found out that we had kind of a crazy travel day coming up. We flew from Greece to Egypt- where we spent the night in the airport- then we flew to New York (YAY AMERICA!), and then to Panama, and finally to Guatemala. So in the span of 2 days, I went to 3 different continents, plus Central America, which is so cool to be able to say.

Now, onto Guatemala. I’m going to be so honest here, this has not been an easy country to be in. Since the beginning of the race, I have been told that Guatemala will be like the promised land after all that we had done, and I was so prepared for it to be light and happy and an amazing time (don’t get me wrong, there have been those moments, and I do enjoy being here), but I was actually met with a lot of spiritual warfare that I hadn’t prepare for and actually didn’t even recognize until almost a month in. I had come from Albania, where I was having an easy time spending a lot of time with God, to a place where I was having a hard time having the desire to or even feeling like I could spend time with Him. Suddenly, it was so hard to choose God over comfortability that I honestly just stopped trying. I got to the point where it felt like every time I tried to seek Him, worship, or even pick up my bible, something would come up in my mind that would make me want to turn away from Him, get mad at Him, or be void of any feeling and therefore making my worship feel ungenuine and worthless. This went on for a while, until I had started talking to other people on my team and squad, and realized that a lot of people were going through the same thing as me. That’s when I fully realized that it wasn’t just a me problem, but it was a spiritual warfare thing. God allowed me to realize this so that I could stop being on the defense in this, but advance to offense against the enemy, and bring my team and squad with me. So I was able to read scripture and pray over my squad, and since that day, things have been so much better. There is so much power in unifying the body and becoming aware of the schemes of the enemy so that we can all fight against him together.

So other than that aspect of Guatemala, here’s a little summary of what life has been like here so far: I have been working with such an incredible ministry called Dar Para Dar, which translates to Give to Give, and there are a few different aspects of this ministry.

The first one is a place called The House of Prayer, and that’s solely focused on praise and worship, and then we also have teachings. The thought behind the House of Prayer is to bring the body back to a state of worship like it was during the tabernacle of David, so that has been so amazing to be a part of. They believe that a huge part of ministry is ministering to the Lord Himself and offering up ourselves in a state where we are solely focused on Him. We also do a lot of intercession for His people, especially Israel, which has been a beautiful thing.

The second part of their ministry is focused on a place called Prayer Mountain (are you catching the theme of prayer? It’s amazing). Our ministry host, ChaKo, has been working on building a retreat center of sorts on one of the mountains for people to come to, for free, to simply meet with the Lord and spend time with Him in His presence away from all the busyness and distractions of everyday life. Right now him and his team are working on building the cabins, and we’ve been able to help with things Iike digging trenches for electrical lines and then installing them as well. I love being at Prayer Mountain because before we even start working at all, we go out and spend time with the Lord for at least an hour, but usually more. There is a lot of importance put on coming into ministry already having spent time with God and making sure our eyes are fixed on Him before getting into the actual work. It’s definitely something I want to start really prioritizing in my life.

The last part of their ministry that we help out with is focused on helping the villages right next to/on the mountain, and getting to know the people there. We have been able to visit so many houses and get to know and pray over these families who mostly don’t know the Lord. We have also been working on a project where we go to these houses and see if there are any physical things within their homes that we can help fix or replace. There is a church that is funding these projects, but in order to see who is most in need of this help, we go to all the houses and see what their home conditions are. This is something that is really growing my boldness, because this would never be something that would happen in America- people would never let a random group of foreigners come into their house to just talk, and definitely not to see what parts of their house need fixing. So that has been interesting. Also, they only speak Spanish, so battling the uncomfortability of speaking to people when I don’t really know their language and have to use minimum English and google translate. But despite all the awkwardness and uncomfortableness, it has been such an amazing experience, and I’ve been able to meet and pray over so many families.

So yea, that’s what my time in Guatemala looks like. I love this country and all the families here, and I would love it if you guys could be praying for all the people we are meeting, and joining us in intercession for their faith.

Oh! I also want to add in that we had something called PVT the second week of being here. PVT stands for Parent Vision Trip, and our parents got to come and visit us for a week and do ministry with us. It was so amazing to see my parents. I’m going to give a quick shout out to my parents really quick, so don’t mind this if you aren’t them. Thank you guys so much for everything you do for me. I don’t think I have ever appreciated or even fully noticed the love you guys have for me more than that week you were with me. You made me feel so cared for, seen, treasured, loved, and prefered, and you have no idea how much I needed that and appreciated it. I know I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for all the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical help you have provided for me. I know this can’t have been easy for you to send your daughter off to the unknown and fully put me in God’s hands, and I am eternally grateful that you have allowed me to do this life changing experience. I love you guys soooooo much and I can’t wait until I’m with you again. Anyways, back to PVT. They got to come with me to the mountain, and it was amazing because Prayer Mountain is basically the Guatemalan mountain version of the retreat center that my parents, and basically our whole family, works at. Because of that, and the fact that my family is already a missionary family, I got to just live life with my parents that week, but in a different setting than usual. We got to talk about how the Lord had been speaking to us recently, and talk about His goodness as a family (minus my brother who I wish could have been there too). It was a really sweet time.

2387 words later… I am finally done with my update. So sorry it took me two months to get this out, hopefully I will be quicker next time. As always, I want to thank you for all of the prayers and support you have given me, and I ask that you would continue to cover me and my team and squad in those prayers as we are coming to an end of our time overseas. Please pray that we would continue to stay content in our circumstances and in looking at the Lord in all things. Some of us are really fighting the desire to be done and go home, so please pray that we would be filled with excitement for all God still has for us in this current season. Love you guys so much! See you soon (if you’re a part of my church).

Love, Gabi