Lets just say that I am in awe in how the Lord works. I always thought I had a grasp on how big God was until I arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Our PBA Team to Bolivia (Team Awesome!!) had the opportunity to stay at the Bolivia life Center with 50 amazing orphans. The Lord blessed our time there with relationships, ministry through our songs and girls volleyball team, and the chance to see and meet people in the surrounding areas.  During our trip, we did experience our trials, such as days without luggage or time confusions, but the Lord gave us such a sense of joy and excitement, He used those times to reveal Himself and make us stronger as a group. No brief summary can ever wrap up everything we were able to do and see while in Cochabamba, but what the Lord did and taught me, although no words can describe, left its final, dominant imprint on the trip.

In all of my walk of faith, I had kept God in a box. Searching for what He can do here, now, around me, in my life. I created boundaries in my mind on how I thought the Lord could do things. On our trip, the Lord taught me that when He calls out missionaries, He calls them not just to serve Him, and use them, but also to show them how great He is and how He works. Everything our team experienced, like the boys orphanage, the ministry through volleyball and all the relationships, God did it Himself in His greatness, and allowed us to be apart of it. In a huge way, the trip blessed us as well. I have never really thought about how God works outside my own life, family, and country. He has made me aware that He is alive and working everywhere!!! Just seeing the passion for the Lord in the boys and workers of the orphanage, and how they established such a solid-Christ centered home is enough to show me that God is big!  The people we met are so loving, talented, and passionate, and WILL be used by Christ to spread the Gospel to the lost in their homes. These people are experiencing Jesus in their lives and in their home the same way we do in ours in our home. If that isn’t the biggest indicator that this world is not our home and we were all made for Jesus, I don’t know what is! Just seeing complete freedom and passion from the Lord  on the little boy’s faces showed that God is fulfilling His plan beyond what I can see. Before this, I would have never considered how Christ moves among others away from all that I know.        

The best, most hopeful thing is knowing we had nothing to do with it! He has been alive and working there long before we were called to serve. But, because the Lord is great, He did use us for His glory too. He created and put together such an amazing team and gave us the ability to get super-close and personal with each other and the people we encountered in Bolivia. He filled us with a genuine spirit and a real passion to serve. Those who we met that knew the Lord just loved talking to us and helped us in serving Him. Those who we met that were lost, mentioned and/or displayed a notice of joy and passion within our team. And because of our own limits and language barriers, it is so clear that we did nothing ourselves, and once again the Lord was bigger then the box I created, and used us still. In absolutely everything that occurred during our trip: the trials, the relationships, the scenery, the community, Christ’s love and power was revealed. Before I could see the Lord’s greatness outside of a self-created box, He had to call me out of my own. The Lord is incredible! Gloria a Dios!