Back home

Well the trip went great. So many neat things happened, and we met so many wonderful people. I am glad to be home though. Kaelin got a little dress from the market down there, Eli got a wooden machetee (wish I knew how to spell that) and Jessi got a braclet made of sea shells by some sweet little old lady. The day after I got home Eli and I went to see Madagascar and it was a blast.

While in Honduras Fred (our Foreign Missions Leader)and I had a great conversation with a young lady about Christianity and truth. She was very intellegent and had many well thought out questions about our beliefs and how we could decide to follow Jesus. It was a great reminder about the struggle that the world is facing right now in not wanting to accept absolute truth at the risk of excluding someone elses ideas or belief system. We all face the same journey in this life...trying to discover what is really true, and then patterning our lives in a way that lines up with the Truth that we discover. For example, while I was there I was continuously reminded (because I was staring at it) about the truth that most of the world lives in a completely different way than we do in the U.S. I know that to be true, and I saw that to be true, but I must align myself in such a way that it actually has an impact on my life. To have visited a village that doesn't have medical care, running water, or electricity and think that those are things I take for granted every day should effect me. It should change my thought process! It should enter my mind the next time I go out to buy a new pair of shoes. But how should it effect me?
When I came back from my first mission trip to El Salvador I remember feeling sick when I got back to my house full of electronics, dvds, air conditioning, tons of clothing, running water, etc. I had an overwhelming urge to sell everything that I had and go back to El Salvador to give it to the orphans I had seen. But then God spoke something very liberating and motivating to me. He said, "Freddy, do not feel bad about the blessings I have given you. Be thankful. Just always remember that I bless you so you can be a blessing to others."
So how should it effect my thinking...well, I think that it should call me to account about what I have been doing with all of the blessings that God has given me. Do I honor Him with my time? Do I honor Him with my family? Do I honor Him with my finances? Is my life all about me, or is it lived for others? Those are the questions that motivate me. Those are the thoughts that drive me to see my life make a difference, not just in Hampton, VA, but in the world at large. God is so much bigger than the Villarreal home, or Freedom Life Church, or Hampton, or Virginia. He is so much bigger than 10% of my paycheck or two hours of my weekend. He is so much more worthy than that. So I will joyfully give Him more than that. I will celebrate that He has invited me to sow into the lives of others, in real ways that have nothing to do with Freddy!