How Great Is Our God!

I love worship. I love the way that we can magnify the name of the Lord and remember His goodness and grace and we are encouraged through that. Right before I left for San Felipe I was so uneasy about the unknown. It was a Sunday morning and we were singing How Great Is Our God during worship at Urban Church and I remember the Holy Spirit surrounding me and God whispering to me "Oh Erin, you have yet to see How Great I Am." Since then I have been here in San Felipe. I have seen God answer prayers, and just do miraculous things in my life and in Sonshine. We now have everything that we need to open.

The very nice people from Social Services

 We have started the social service process. Which was such a difficult process to start because every appointment we made with them they didn't show up for. Then we just kind of said we will wait and pray and finish some other things and as soon as we let it go, the Social Service office called us and wanted to meet with us. I was panicked and trying to get everything together and my immigration papers are still in process and I was still awaiting my background check. The the Holy Spirit spoke to me and reminded me that He called this meeting and that the small things that I worry about are not going to mess up what God has put together. As hard as we tried to do things on our own. God has showed us time and time again that He is in control and He will be glorified in everything here at Sonshine.

This is after 5 hours of interviews. It went really well.  :)

Now there are more really cool stories of God's goodness and I think I am surrounded by moments of seeing the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. During church here in San Felipe we were singing How Great Is Our God ( en espanol) and again the Holy Spirit spoke to me that as much as I have seen. I still have more to see of His goodness. I'm so excited to see His greatness and majesty.

This Is Not About Me

Pastor's Wives Fellowship and Dessert. Great Night!

This last week we had a missions group come from Colorado for about 5 days. We started out our time together by climbing this hill that has a cross at the top and the hill also overlooks San Felipe’s poorest areas. These areas are where most of the children that come to Sonshine will be from. Last week I was asked to do the devotion for that morning and come up with a scripture and something small. Now because I knew this would start their trip and set the mode, I just prayed for God to give me something to say because I had no idea. I needed the Lord to give me a scripture or vision. On Thursday afternoon, I was getting a little worried because I had not heard from the Lord about what I was going to say to the group Saturday morning (early morning like 6:00 am). Then the Lord spoke to me while I was getting ready for bible study that evening. God said tell them that it wasn’t about them or us. I bit confused and I just started thinking they know that they aren’t coming for themselves. Then the Holy Spirit just began to remind me that this is not about me, or them, or any staff. I began just dialouging with the Lord and my response to what He was saying was “of course Lord it’s about the children and making a home for your children and teaching them about you.” Then I heard the Holy Spirit say that is bigger than that and bigger than what any of us will ever see.  It is not just about the children who will be at Sonshine but about the generations that follow them and will know the name of the Lord. Some of the children that will be at Sonshine will go on to evangelize and spread the gospel to other nations and thousands upon thousands will come to know the Lord through them and their testimonies. So I realized it is so not about me, but about glorifying the name of the name of the Lord and making His name, His love, and His grace famous. If the things that I do here don’t flow out of that motivation then what is the point?

Playground put together and ready for children!

Quick Update:We have our building signed off. Finally, that was huge and now God is moving the process along quickly with the Mexican Social Services. So please be keeping the process in your prayers this next week. I think the children will be here very soon!

The fences and clothes line going up

There were 10 people that came in this group. As you can imagine this week the Sonshine Staff had a great deal of help from a fantastic team of believers from Colorado. They worked so hard. When the week was over they had put together our playground and moved fences, put in a large clothes line, and painted and stained so much. I was so blessed by them and their heart to serve. They encouraged me and I really just enjoyed spending time talking with them and hearing how the Lord has moved in their lives and transformed them.  Also the ladies from the team put together a dessert event for the Pastor’s Wives. It was really great to hear their testimonies and what they do to minister to the community. I will say that we have some amazing women in this town who love the Lord and are committed to doing His will.

A gift from the Colorado team.
Sonshine Hacienda
T-shirt they had made

Things Are Coming Together

These are the signs outside each room 

Things are coming together in San Felipe. The last couple of weeks have been really good. We have been working and getting a lot done here at Sonshine. We now have smoke alarms, emergency lights, and signs for all of the doors and exits. We also have a playset that will be put together this next week by a team coming from Colorado. I am so happy we are going to have a playground soon.  This is the first team since I have been here on staff and I am so excited about them coming. Also this week I was able to get my background check and immigration papers taken care of. Big shout out to those who support me. I could not have paid for the immigration fees without your support. Thank You.

They were hand painted :)

I am so happy I am a part of the start of Sonshine. The more I am a part of the process,  the up and the downs the frustrations and the moments of happiness and success,  the more that God teaches me to have an eternal perspective. He is little by little revealing to me the answer to my main question which is: What is the full vision for my own life? I don’t have it all figured out but this is just the begginning of this journey.  I am constantly learning daily how to take everything to Him. I’m not perfect at it but I am learning to let Him into every part of my life. I am becoming more and more dependent on God and it’s awesome.

I have made some new friends that I struggle to have a conversation with because they only speak Spanish, but somehow I still am able to understand their stories and  hear how God has transformed their lives and I am able to communicate my story with them and what God is doing in me since I have been here. These conversations are usually in fragmented sentences. They usually talk to me in English the best way they can and I talk to them in Spanish the best way I can but we are learning from each other and stretching each other. For those of you who have been praying for my Spanish abilities and friendships,Thank You because God is definitely answering those prayers.  I still have a long way to go with Spanish but God is definitely helping me.   I have also met some really nice friends.  I was just talking to one of my closest friends on the phone about how I have taken some of my most valued friendships I have for granted when I had them right in front of me, not knowing how I was until they were far away from me and I missed them, but I don’t want to do that again. I want to enjoy every moment of this experience and every person that God places in my path.

 

Dios te Bendiga Hermanos en Cristo!

Someone donated a ping pong table. Going to be some fun times!

After I painted (and made a huge mess with the paint ;) )
I hope to make some fun designs on it soon. 

 In the kid's bathroom
Before I painted