When thankfulness comes from our heart thanksgiving becomes more than a Thursday on a calendar it becomes a lifestyle for a Christian. According to1 Thess. 5:18, Heb. 12:28, Ps. 69:30, and Ps. 147:7 thanksgiving is 
what our hearts should be about but sin is what happens when we are ungrateful and unthankful (Romans 1:21-32). They did not glorify God nor give God thanks, and when that occurred they walked right smack into a bunch of other sins. Since I’ve been down in Mexico I have looked around and started comparing myself with the people down here, and in my heart I thought “God, you have blessed me so much. Thank you, God.” In my heart I thought that God was teaching me gratefulness by comparing what they have to what I have, what their health is to my health, or their poverty to mine. But then God has been teaching me that the comparison to others was hindering my thankfulness, and who hasn’t done that? You’re feeling down and then, oh well, at least I have health, family, job… And we try to get thankfulness from it from comparing and not having our thankfulness rooted in on what God has done for us (Gal. 6:1-5, Col. 2:6-7). I was running the other day in my colony like normal and it was like God just hit me with his love and looking around I realized the little things that God has created and I was just so in awe of the little things that he had made. There were clouds, scenery, people whom our team has established relationships with in the colonia (especially Oscar this short lil beautiful kid whom I saw and love) and there was of course the duck that chases me every morning and its owners who laugh at me while I run away from their big scary duck. And this thanksgiving is unlike any other for me b/c I’m Wowed of what God is doing around in the little things and I’m not focused on a week where the world says, “Hey, gives thanks this week,” but from my heart thankfulness to Jesus Christ as Paul says in 2 Cor. 9:15. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! God has been working through our team and has been establishing incredible relationships/changing lives and I encourage you to just look around at what God is doing and be thankful for your work in the Lord b/c it is not in vain and rejoice for He has/is/will continue to do great things. – John
For my internship this last Wednesday, my group and had to spend our time at the .jpg)
hospital a little differently. There are three parts of the hospital we are aloud to be in, pediatric, surgery, and internal medicine.
On Wednesday we first went to pediatrics, but the only room we are aloud in was very busy, and overcrowded, so we thought that us being in there might just be too many people. We then went to surgery, and internal medicine, but could not find anyone who really wanted to sit and talk. It was really strange, because usually we find one or two people we end up visiting with the whole time.
After that, my group and I looked at our watches and saw that we had an hour or so left before we were supposed to leave. We decided to pray. It was the perfect opportunity to just pray over the hospital, doctors, nurses, security guards, patients, and anything in-between.
Sometimes you can get so caught up in the work that it is easy to forget why you are doing things and Whom you are doing things for. It felt great to give all of the glory to God.
Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans of the heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” – Jenny
Lately I’ve been working on forgiveness and how for me it’s a huge part of my problem to get rid of my anger issues. Issues that I have ignored from my past, ones that I should have dealt with but never did so I could hold on to it. Why? Who knows…not even I have a good excuse anymore to hold on to it. I’ve also realized how it hinders me not only from doing God’s will but also how it hinders my growth in Him. I’ve been working hard on that ever since I got here and now I finally feel like I’m breaking free of it all!! As I type this my back is tensing up and I’m beginning to get a headache all because I’m dying to myself and glorifying God in sharing this with you! Glorios Dios Glorios!!
God has also been opening my eyes and helping me see the warfare going on around me not only in my life but in this country. Oh how the enemy is attacking and trying to take hold of those who are precious to God! I’ve been reading/working through “The Warrior’s Journal” by Seth Barnes (by the way you are the man, Seth!) and it has been showing me just how critical it is to be aware of the war between heaven and hell, between God and the enemy and how there are so many lost souls caught in the middle of it all. Also he is showing me how it is okay to hate the enemy and to hate evil things in this world, that it’s okay to have a hatred for those things! Love it! I truly feel God working on me not only to become a warrior for him but also help make others aware of it as well! Until then though I’ll train and wait… – Jeanne
Okay yesterday I did two different WOWs, which I think was the reason why I was so tired. So the first one I went to Estrella because we wanted to visit Laura, but she ended up not being home. So we went to our friend Erica’s house. It’s really cool because Erica had never been to church until last week. She told us about a dream she had- that Jesus came to her and said, “I’ll never leave you, I’ll always be with you; I’m never going to forsake you.” Its really cool because I as
ked her if she had ever read Hebrews, and I kind of figured she hadn’t since she hasn’t had a whole lot of experience with God, and actually she can’t read so she definitely hadn’t, but I shared with her that Hebrews 13:5 says “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So that is super cool because I think she got it – that her dream was most definitely a God thing. But then she went into this whole thing about how her son Luis has to wear a catheter and he never goes to the bathroom when he needs to, and she was just describing the agony she goes through as a mother with a really sick child, especially since this has been going on since he was 3, so for the last 7 years, and how every day its washing his clothes over and over and getting him to bathe over and over and then she said, “This is my life. I’ll never be happy, because this is my life.” It just broke my heart because she has no idea that joy comes only from the Lord, so we talked about that and shared with her some things we’ve learned in our own lives. So I just ask that you pray with me about her, that God would speak loudly to her, that he would pour his peace over her, the peace that is not what the world knows but that only comes from HIM. – Lauren
Though Thanksgiving isn’t that big of a holiday here in Mexico, our team is planning on celebrating it this Thursday. After this morning’s debrief, a team member mentioned something that became a challenge to me personally as I reflected on what and who I’m most thankful for. It’s not a matter of comparing ourselves with anybody here, for example, seeing how little some may have and being grateful that we’ve been given “more” maybe on a material level. And it’s definitely not about comparing ourselves with one another and feeling inadequate or even better than anybody. It’s about giving God thanks for everything He has done in our lives and being sincerely thankful for what He has done, is doing and is going to do.
I’m not going to lie about being excited to go home for Christmas. I just don’t want it to become a distraction so that I miss out on what God wants to do in the here and now in my life. He brought me here for a reason and I want to soak it in. – Jessica
