Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.
Matthew 24-25
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.
Those verses came to mind today as I think of the life that Jesus, Jennifer, and I are now living. Tears of joy, happiness, fulfillment, come to my eyes as I think of all that God has done in our lives since I stopped trying to live life according to my own understanding. God constantly amazes me as he makes his presence so clear. I begin each day praying that God will use me to say what he wants said, to do what he wants done. I pray that I will know and do his will for my life every day. I don’t know words to express the incredible feelings that I have daily, now that I have begun to “find true life”.
There are wonderful translators that work for WGO when we go out to the churches for medical brigades. One, Obed, is truly gifted at communicating the love of Jesus Christ through his words and actions. A lot of the time he works with the children’s ministry, and in evangelism. A recent team member told how Obed came over to him all excited one day and whispered to him, “I can’t believe I actually get paid to tell people about Jesus Christ”! I understand how he feels. I feel so blessed that getting up and going out to help share Gods love is what I do every day.
When I was back home living my normal life, I felt like I was wasting so much time. All day at work I had to concentrate so hard on doing my job. I was spending so much time doing and concentrating on things that seemed to have nothing to do with what I believe God created us to do. I know God had a reason for me being there, and I thank him for everything that happened in my life that brought me to where I am and what I am doing now. I know that he was preparing me for what he had for me in the future. I believe that we should all concentrate on growing in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and help as many people as possible to also come to know and accept him as their Lord and Savior. And now, that is exactly what I do every day. I encourage all of you to “make yourselves available” to God. Be willing to say anything he puts in your heart to say, to do what he asks you to do, to go where he calls you to go. But when you make that commitment, be ready! You will be amazed at how God will begin to use you once you truly surrender to his will.
I know it was a big surprise to most of you when you found out that we were here as missionaries. Believe me, it was an even bigger surprise to us. I knew God had called us to be here, I just didn’t know he meant NOW! From the very beginning, I had a peace in my heart that God put us here, he kept us here, and that he was going to provide for us to stay here.
Matthew 6:25-33 (NLT)
So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life-whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.
And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!
So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
These verses help bring peace to me as I think of how to provide for the daily needs of Jesus, Jennifer, and myself as we serve here in Honduras. Before I took off work for two weeks to come for my final interview to serve with WGO, I had a good job with great benefits. I expected that I would get the position with WGO, but I would go back home and work for several more months while I was raising support. As I have said before, that was my plan, not God’s. Once we were here, God very quickly made it clear that his plan was for us to be here in Honduras now. Ever since then, we have truly been depending on God to provide for our daily needs.
Now I want to thank all of you back home that have helped to make it possible for us to be here. Thank you all for your prayers, your encouragement, and you financial support. Without your help, we could not be here. I wish there was a better way for me to keep track of financial donations. But for now, I only get a statement once a month that gives me details on contributions. I should receive it during the first week of the month. I admit it can be a bit nerve racking wondering from day to day, week to week, whether or not we will reach our budget for the next month. I have faith that God is in control and that he will meet our needs, but human nature (especially thinking of Jesus and Jennifer) makes me pray for a time when we will stay a little farther ahead than just going from month to month like we do now. Right now we are good for the rest of August, but I won’t know until Sept. 1st whether or not we have enough for Sept. WGO only disperses contributions that have been made to us once a month, and that is on the 1st. .
Please prayerfully consider making a commitment to contributing on a monthly basis. WGO requires us to meet a minumum budget each month. Through one time contributions we were able to meet that goal for August, and we are well on the way to meeting it for September, but so far we have not been able to show that we have met that level of monthly commited support.
For detailed information on how to make contributions, please see our JULY 22 "In The WGO System Now" article.
Again, thank you to everyone for all that you do to make this possible for us. I am so thankful to all of you. You are truly a blessing not only to us, but also to the people here in Honduras that we serve in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You!
-WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET SERVICE at our apartment.
-WE ALSO HAVE BROADBAND PHONE SERVICE that allows us to make and
receive calls from the U.S. just like a local call. It is a free local call for you to call us.
- OUR PHONE NUMBER is (919) 521-8051. Just remember it is two hours
earlier here than it is there now.
-OUR CONTACT INFO:
email- rmorton@wgo-hn.org
web site- http://roymorton.blogspot.com/
photos- http://photobucket.com/MortonMissions
phone #- (919) 521-8051
-PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US. We would love to hear from you.
From Jennifer
School has been great so far, and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve made a lot of friends of a wide range of ages. There’s Elli, Nilsy, Jolibeth, Maria, Abby, Valerie, Jennifer, Kensy, Daisy, Katherline, Audrey, Nate, Kevin, Julio, Franklin (a.k.a. Frank, Franky, and Frankenstein) Jack, Favio, Christian, Emmanuel, David, Wilson, Marlon, David, Junior, and a few others whose names I can’t remember right now. There are only 3 kids in my class including me, and we’re all girl missionary kids My biggest class is 6 people, when we’re joined with the only 6th grader Franklin and the two 4th graders Kevin and Julio. I think it’s funny because when we’re all together the are 3 American girls and 3 Honduran boys.
In Home Economics all of us made a wooden figure. Most of us finished today, but 1 or 2 still need one more day. Since some of the directions were wrong we’ve had to do a lot of improvising and kind of making it up as we went along. Emma and I made a horse (mine turned out better, but I don’t mean to be mean). Elli made a giraffe, Kevin made a peacock, Julio is making a Ferris wheel, and Franklin is making a train.
I’m finally starting to get used to that hour van ride down and back, but its still tiring. What I really like is that all our books are in a Christian perspective, so I get to hear the truth about God and his love instead in stuff like “Dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years before humans came.” My history book talks about things like The Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, and how things like evolution are definitely not true. Another great thing is that we have a Bible class. So instead of not being allowed to bring our Bible to school like back at home, we have to bring it. Another thing is that we have a chapel on Thursday for the little kids and chapel on Friday for the older kids, But because 5th graders are considered as a mix of big kids and little kids so I attend both.
I’ve been having an awesome time, and I love that every Wednesday is a half day and that we get to play soccer when the new teams come to see the ranch. Even though I really miss my old friends and old school, things here are just as good, and some are even better. I really appreciate my new school and enjoy it a lot.
From Jesus
Wow! School has been going great for me. Its different from what I’m use to, but I have adapted to it. Usually I have only three other people in my class throughout the entire school day. Only in two other classes do I get a chance to be with seven other people, and that’s for Bible and Math class. Since there are so few students in the class you are provided with all the attention you need to learn, understand, and complete the assignments given to you. You have to participate more. There is no front of the classroom or back of the classroom down here. I feel like I’m learning more at a faster pace down here then I did back at home. All my teachers are wonderful and nice. My Bible class is interesting, the teacher can be funny at times as well. The bus ride seems shorter now, and I don’t mind if I have to get up early or not anymore. School is enjoyable down here.
Since we have to be on the bus right after school gets out, there’s no time for any after school activities. It’s not like if we miss the bus, then we can just walk home. Luckily the one after school activity that we do have makes up for the whole week. I’m talking about the Wednesday medical brigade soccer game. That’s always a blast to do, especially after you’ve been sitting in a chair for a couple of hours. I’m starting to get a little of my soccer skills back, from when I played a couple of years back. That soccer game provides an opportunity to meet the team members and have fun with my new friends. Unfortunately there would be times like this week, where there’s no team coming down. Still it’s always cool to know that you get a half day in the middle of the week. I like my new school, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the school year.
God Bless,
Jesus
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