Recently I was incredibly blessed to take a two-week vacation in Spain with my best friend, 
Steph (thanks to our fire insurance money from my parents’ house fire last April). We ran around Madrid and Barcelona taking in all of the sights, visiting art museums, eating tons of delicious tapas, laughing and talking together, and living in our own little literary tourist world (pictured right in El Parque de Buen Retiro in Madrid). It was a dream come true. The entire trip was amazingly refreshing to my heart and of course so much fun to be with my best friend again (she’s been living and working in Cambodia for the last 1 1/2 years so we don’t get to see one another much). Thank you Jesus for this wonderful gift! 
We finished out our trip to Spain visiting some of our World Race sisters who are working for G42 Leadership Academy in the south of Spain (Mijas, the gorgeous city where G42 is located, pictured left). I loved sitting in on their classes, hearing Andrew Shearman teach, catching up with my F-squad girls and other friends, meeting the interns, and just being a part of community there.
One morning during class Andrew invited me to share for a few minutes. Andrew had been teaching the day before about harvest and how the Lord longs for us to join in His harvest. I had been thinking a lot about the beauty of committing to a place and a people. Of not only becoming a part of His harvest, but committing to harvest in a particular place amongst a particular people. There is something deeply beautiful about that.
There is something so beautiful about being in a place long enough to not only see people 
come to know the Lord, but to walk alongside them as they fall in love with Him and learn to walk with Him in daily ways. Yes, I loved being here to see some of my kids come to know the Lord for the first time. I was here when Anthony accepted Jesus. I was here when he was baptized (pictured right- Anthony’s baptism in August 2008). I loved being here for all of that. It was glorious!! Being here during that time of revival and outpouring captured my heart for all that the Lord is doing in Candelaria. It made me want to return and walk with these beautiful teens as the Lord continued His work in their lives.
There is something so incredible about planting yourself in another culture or place. 
Of committing to be a part of life there, to walk alongside people as they learn to walk with the Lord. It’s amazing to not only be a part of Kingdom harvest, but to also be somewhere long enough to see those that you’ve led to the Lord become harvesters themselves. It’s beginning to happen here in Candelaria. The youth that I have been discipling are beginning to put their hands to the plow and dive into Kingdom ministries of their own. Just in the last couple of months we have had sent Emerson out as a missionary to Honduras to work with street kids (pictured above left Emerson leading the way with some of the youth in Honduras), seen Joel and some of the youth join together to help children in need, watched Cristhian step up in leadership of worship in the church, 
seen Rosita and Gema begin ministering to women in the villages of Candelaria and Santa Matilde (sweet time of prayer and worship for the women’s ministry pictured right), and watched as Jovanny has started teaching English classes with me to the children in Nuevo Amanecer.
Yes, there is a glorious beauty in sudden a miraculous transformation or in being the first to tell someone that they are loved by the Lord. It’s glorious and exciting. But I believe that my heart prefers the deep beauty of commitment, of discipleship, of diving into life together learning to love the Lord in deeper ways and to build His Kingdom together.
I so appreciate your thoughts here, Lisa. This is a very small scale example compared to how you moved to an entirely new culture and immersed yourself in it, but I recently decided to become intentional about setting aside a couple of hours each week to go to a coffee shop so that I can read. This started because I wanted to make time for reading again and it’s often too easy to be distracted at home… But as I started to ponder this plan, I decided to pick one coffee shop and stick with it in hopes that I might gradually get to know some of the employees… Being that I work at a church, I don’t have a lot of contacts outside my Christian bubble, and I loved the idea that this could be an intentional way to engage with the world outside the Church!
I also have a standing coffee date with a friend on Thursdays at another coffee shop, where we have become regulars and developed a good rapport with the two guys who are always working when we are there… This past week it was on my heart to be praying for these guys; and then, my friend & I usually pray together in my car (because the coffee shop is closed by the time we leave haha) before we go home, so we also prayed together for the guys in the coffee shop. I’m certain this is something we’ll continue to do in the weeks ahead!
Like I said, these are very small-scale examples, but the idea of commitment is something that’s been on my heart lately, too, as I’ve become more intentional about “committing” to frequent the same establishments in hopes of building relationships!! =) Super exciting. Love your heart, friend! Love you!
jumping up and down happy about all of this! You go Girl! I love you!