I'm new at this!

Hey everyone.

 As you can see, I'm going to start blogging. I've decided to share my walk with Christ and my experience about 2 weeks ago in El Salvador. I will probably share a few stories from my mission trip and then my bible study input. I really wanted to start this hoping to reach out to people. I have realized I love to do that :) and if that doesn't work, it is still helping me gather my thoughts.

The first week of June, I went with a church to San Salvador, El Salvador. We stayed for a week at the mission house there. When I got back, most people asked me if it was totally gross, and it was not. They had AC, showers and beds. But after exploring and seeing the different places we went, all that stuff didn't matter to us anymore that week. One thing that really stood out to me was when we went to the very poor community up in the mountains. It took about 2 hours to get there, with a rock road for about 10 miles straight. Car sick had a hold of me. We finally arrived, and it was tons of shacks, mud, animal poop, rocks, etc. all in one area. That was definitely a eye opening moment. Back at home, we complain if our AC isn't cool enough, or if the power goes out. These people literally had nothing. We had treat bags with us to hand out to the kids. Those were the most beautiful dirty faces I have ever seen. I could have taken them all, I think we all could have. After we handed out treat bags, we carried bags of rice and beans to hand out to the different families, oh and life straws! Life straws cleans the water in the river, they can use it for a year and hopefully get healthy! Now, I know I am weak but carrying those bags of rice and beans were a lot heavier than expected. I was complaining in my head that I can't do this anymore and sweat was just dripping down my face. I was nearly about to give up. But, I saw how thankful these people were to us giving them food, they wanted to give us something back. Even when they couldn't. This girl from Mississippi, Lydia, told a great story when we got back together. She said she was tired and Orsy, one of the translators, wanted his group to walk up a huge hill. Lydia questioned him. He said, "many men have walked much farther, for much less." now if that doesn't give you cold chills, I don't know what will. That community broke our hearts, it made me challenge myself when I got back to the states, not to ask for anything. I love to shop...but do I really need anything? I thank God everyday for giving me that experience.

Today my sermon was awesome. I don't know if it's because I want to listen and study God's word more or what. It was on the gospel of Matthew chapter 10, I love the book of Matthew anyway, but I never really sit and break apart each and every verse. One things that stood out to me is Matthew 10:39 "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." This verse to me means you will absolutely lose everything you think is best for you to find God. Because God doesn't want to be just an addition to your life, he wants to take over your life. As you put God first and learn he is the ultimate planner, the ultimate everything you will find your life again. God will start to put the things you need to help you grow into the person you are meant to be in your life.

  Thank you for reading :) -Brooke