A New Season

Hello Family and Friends,

This will be our new code of communication for the next year. Yes, I realize it is quite limited and also severly one sided- however with the limited amount of internet access I will be receiving in Duran it makes it nearly impossible for me to communitcate with all of you in the way I desire to. This is not a group e-mail, I will likely not give the walk through of my day, it is a just a space for me to lay out some of my reflections and thoughts about my time in Ecuador. These are not professional, they might not even be understandable, but I appreciate your interest to find out what is happening in my life a world away.

For those of you who would like to know prayer requests (THANK YOU!) I will give you a little list that you can throw up to God whenever you get the chance.

Things I need prayers for:

Trust. All I have walking into this next year is God, and I don’t have any idea what he will ask of me, what my life will be like down there, what is going to happen, etc. Its like signing up for a blank mission; I figure out everything once I am there, in it all. God is definitely teaching me to let control of my life, stripping away the things and people and places that have defined me for so long. I ask that God give me strength to trust in Him, to get out of the boat and walk even if I don’t think I will make it.

Friendships. Everything in my life is flipping around, all my relationships as I know them will not be the same, and simply cannot play the dominant role they have played in my life up until now. I pray that God will restore to me new friends, that I would be open and loving to the people that God brings in my path, and that I would invite them to share with me in the journey. I pray that he protects my friendships in the states, and gives me peace about leaving the people that I cherish for a whole year.

Brokenness. That my heart would be broken over the people of Duran. That my materialistic mindset and ways would be challenged and that I would learn to live with less, embracing simplicity and letting go of all the things God wants to pull out of my hands. I am praying for a new sense of being. That my greedy and selfish being would be destroyed and that God would place a heart for others there.

A spirit of courage. Last time I went to Chile I was eaten with fear the first few months. The language played a huge part of my barrier to other people, but everything was so different that I too became different and very fearful. I pray that God would keep the enemy from our team, keep us out of loneliness, and in a spirit of community to be fully present when we are there.

Community- the people I will be living with will be my family and friends for the next year, pray that we develop deep relationships, enough to sustain us and grow us while we are away from everyone at home. I pray for open communication, that conflict and stresses would be dealt with in a healthy manner. I pray that in our placement sites, the way that we divide the work for the year, each individual's calling will be fulfilled in their assignments.

Personal growth. This is a year that I am giving for the Lord to use me, and I am at a crossroad where I don’t know where to go next or what I will be doing when I return, but I am giving God this time and this space and this context of living in service to work in my heart and work in me. My hope is that God will reveal to me who I am in Christ. If I take nothing else from this experience, I would like to know myself more through the experience of serving our Lord.

Vulnerability- that I would become flesh and bones to the people I am with. That I would not put up walls or a facade and hide, but that I would really expose myself to the hardships of their life and in return expose who I fully am to the people there. That I would learn to develop deeper relationships, even at the cost of humility and pain.

It's long I know. I need a lot of prayers, what can I say.

All my love,
Colie