Following the Leader: December 2015

November.
What a busy month! It stared off with leaving Peru and heading to Colombia for a long layover of 9 hours. It was a huge blessing! Lydia and I met up with some mutual friends there. They took us all around Cali Colombia, bought us coffee and Colombian bread (it was delicious!).
After that awesome time with new friends, Lydia and I got on a plane and headed to NY City. We had another long layover together. So we left the airport and went into the city for our last day together of 2015. It was a bit of a culture shock...! We kept on replying to people in Spanish and whenever we heard people speaking Spanish we got super excited! It was hard to come back and be in a super busy city but we were together and that helped so much! Well, we spent the day together then went back to the airport where I got on a plane to go to California and she got on a plane to go to upstate New York.
I arrived in Long Beach airport around 9:30 pm. My good friend Becca came to pick me up. Wow, had it really been two years since I had been in California, the place I spent the first 18 years of my life in? Yup. It had been a long two years but I was back.
I was so excited to be back and see my family and friends there. I knew a lot of things had changed... The freeway off ramps, the people, the church. But I was eager to see it all, and at the same time I just wanted to rest a little. Well, resting doesn't really happen in Southern California haha! I arrived with no plans at all, but somehow every day was packed full with things I needed to do and people I wanted to see.
It was a huge blessing to go to my home church Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano. God is really at work there and it is so evident to see. The church has grown- it really is GOD adding to the church, He get's the glory for that!
While I was there, I got to do a fundraiser for going back to Guatemala. It was cool just to know that people are already praying for me. And now more people know about God's work down there and are praying too! God is good!
Some really exciting things are happening at the church and I was able to be there for them! I didn't even plan it! CCSJC started their first bilingual Kids Club! It's really similar to what Potter's Field does all around the world. I was able to be there for the first one and help out and serve with them! It was a huge blessing! The the next day, the church started there first Spanish service at the church! I got to attend that and it was great to kinda be in my "element" of hearing a teaching in Spanish, worshiping and fellowshipping in Spanish. So keep those things in your prayer s please as I will too :)
So November 16th I got on another plane to return to Maui to be with my brother and sister and their families. It has been a great season of resting and spending time with family. I hadn't seen them for 11 months! My little niece and nephew have grown so much!
As I am here in Maui, I am taking this time to kinda relax and get my health in order. It has been a good season so far. Also, I am taking a Spanish class online once a week and it has been helpful. The more I learn, the more I see I need to learn more haha.
Church has been sooooo good. The messages have been what I need. We are going through 2 Corinthians on Sundays and Psalm on Wednesday night. I keep on hearing two reoccurring words: grace and praise. God has given me so much grace I don't want to receive it in vain. He is so worthy of my praise and my life should reflect that. He is teaching my a lot through my personal devotions too. I am going through the minor prophets and I see His justice and mercy. I see that it is okay to question God like Habakkuk did, but to always wait for His answer because He always answers His children. I see that God is working when we can't see it and that I am to live by faith.
We had our first family thanksgiving without my parents :( so weird! But we did it! We pulled it off haha. It was a good team effort of me, my 24 year old sister and my 26 year old sister-in-law. We felt like a bunch of kids doing grown-up things haha! It was so fun!
Well, I love Maui and always will. But, I am so excited to go back to Guatemala next month. I know this next year is going to be above and beyond all I could ever think or imagine.
If you ever want to get more info or have any questions, you can email me at:
quinceymarie@me.com
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Thanks for reading!
To God be the glory, now and forever!