Compassion in Action Weekend!!

Hello loved people,

and oh, how you are loved!

I pray you've been doing well, that the Father has been lavishing a kind of love on you that you don't know how to contain, that you are frantically searching for pots and bowls and cups...any vessels you can find within your heart to hold this love. And when you have no more room, I pray it overflows to all the beautiful people around you.

I wish I could have been a part of what the Guatemala team did this weekend but unfortunately I couldn't be :(.

But....what better time than now to let yall hear from our team leaders :)!

For those of you who don't know, this is our team leader, Juandi Velez. Juandi has a heart that runs after God's. He is a very capably leader and is super relatable. Here's what he said about this past weekend:

"The one thing that really stood out to me this weekend was the hard work shown by our team. Whats crazy is that a bunch of college students who could have been doing anything on their Saturday, decided to come out and serve at a church. Not only that but with a great attitude and smiles. My dad said that one thing he noticed about our group was that we never stopped working. Never stood still. If anything our members kept asking what more could they do and my dad and his friend Orlando were running out of things to work on. I'm so proud of our team and the hard working spirit that we had. I was so encouraged because I know that we will work even harder in Guatemala. We are so blessed."

And beautiful Belynn, our co-leader. What a wonderful, soft-hearted joy she is. Belynn has so much to offer and our team is incredibly blessed to have her presence and wisdom!

"Experiencing Compassion in Action weekend with the Guatemala team was a great experience! The Water’s Edge ministry as a whole, are committed to giving ourselves away. I know that each of us on the Guatemala team were eager at the opportunity to give ourselves away through serving. We got the privilege of working with Juandi’s parent’s church. Upon arriving we split up in groups and began working. Nicole and I volunteered to get on top of the roof and clean out gutters. The gutters were not the cleanest and, needless to say, they were full of dirt, bugs, and other gross stuff. As I was digging the dirt out of the gutters I kept singing Glory to God Forever. I know the Holy Spirit put this song inside my heart to reveal a powerful message to me. The message of this song reveals a simple, yet profound prayer. It is the prayer that our life shall not be about us but about God and His Glory. I was cleaning out the dirt from the gutters and as I was singing this song I was reminded that no matter what I do, my prayer is that I would do it whole heartedly for Him and His Glory. It was the coolest thing…there I was picking up gross, bug infested dirt and it was worship to God! This experience solidified in my heart that I desire God to be glorified in everything I do. I pray that as my team and I prepare for Guatemala that we recognize that in everything we do we are His vessels and are utmost desire is to worship Him! I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve at CIA and the many things God did in and through us!"

Please remember how important your prayers are to the Father. Not only are they important, they are precious to Him simply because they come from the mouths of people He loves very much!

Pray that we would continue to be unified as a team.

Praise Him for being so faithful in providing money for us to buy out plane tickets!

Pray that He'd stir within our hearts and the hearts of the people we know a sense of compassion and urgency towards the people in Guatemala.

Pray that now, more than ever, we would learn what it means to be the hands and feet of the Father and that we would feel what a tremendous honor it is to serve such a great God!

And for you I pray peace, time to breathe, and joy overflowing.

Love,

Michelle