So it’s been a week since I’ve left home for training camp/Peru and I have to say it’s been an awesome experience thus far. Cajamarca, Peru is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people. The rooftop of the home we are staying at is one of my favorite places ever with views of breathtaking mountains surrounding us in the valley. The ministry is great as well and even though it isn’t necessarily the children’s ministry I’m used to doing on mission trips, I love how it’s stretching me and helping the people here. t’s only been a week and I’ve already gotten to go through the Bible with a homeless woman in the airport, share my testimony in church, play with the children, grow extremely close in fellowship with my team, and so much more. And in the short span of a week God has already taught me so much and put certain things on my heart. One of those things is the power of the Holy Spirit. I’ve realized in my life the Holy Spirit has been the most overlooked part of the trinity. I constantly think of God and Jesus but tend not to think a lot about the Holy Spirit. Adventures in Missions really pushes connecting more with the Holy Spirit within you and I’m realizing how much more I need to be doing that; how the still-small voice of God within me is coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God within us and what connects us to significantly to Him all thanks to Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. It’s crazy to me now how much I have overlooked this crucial part of my faith in the past. My team has been a big part of helping me realize this; seeing some of the ways the Holy Spirit moves through them and uses them to minister to others is awe-inspiring. One of my teammates actually allowed the Lord to speak through her to me in order to help me work through some trials with self image I have been struggling with. I hope during my time here in Peru I am able to allow myself to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit and to partner with Him to serve the people here. And I pray I can keep that level of oneness with God when I return to my daily life as well. I keep thinking of an analogy we heard at training camp. In this analogy, I want my life to be like a glass of water in which the water is the Holy Spirit and the empty part of the cup is myself. I want the water to be to the brim, overflowing so that when I bump into someone and spillover, it is God that touches people first and not me. The Lord is so good and I’m excited for what the rest of the month will bring!
