As many of you know I just recently returned from the Dominican Republic. Myself and 7 other School of Ministry students got the incredible opportunity to serve, live, worship, and work among the amazing people of this country.

We were in the south in the country side, right on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, and I don't think there are words to describe how beautiful it was. This was the first thing the Lord revealed to me, how vast and beautiful His creation is. I sat on our bus, driving to a village to go door to door and share the gospel, and sat in awe in wonder as we passed tropical mountain ranges to our right and an ocean that stretched farther than I could comprehend to my left. Sitting in the midst of so much raw beauty, that I never get the chance to see in Northwest Arkansas, reminded me what a creator our God is. The verse that came to my mind was Genesis 1:9-10, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good." In one sudden moment I found myself in the very middle of the contents of this verse, and I looked upon a creation so beautiful, even after the fall and all its imperfections, and I couldn't help but better understand what the Lord meant by those three small words. 

But the beauty didn't end after the bus ride, in fact it only got better. As beautiful as earth and the ocean were, His people were even more beautiful. I will never forget my first ride into the villages how many smiles and waves I exchanged with people who I passed by. One moment in particular was our first day when we were pulling into a Haitian church, our bus drove by this woman and her and I met eyes and exchanged such joyful smiles at each other. I knew I was going to get the opportunity to talk to her eventually, but every part of my body wanted to jump out of that bus and just love on her. I knew that was Jesus within me, I felt His love flow so strongly through me with every person I encountered. I felt more love in my heart than I knew what to do with. At first I thought I was just being really emotional, because of where I was and what I was doing, but then I realized that this is exactly how I should be living. I should be living with a love of God's people that overflows from within me. As I have returned home, I've tried my hardest to keep and show the same genuine love I encountered there. 

Unfortunately, just like in life, this bliss didn't last forever. On our first day of door-to-door evangelism I became crippled with fear and anxiety. Reality set in of what I was there to do and I was so scared that I wasn't going to have the words to say. If we are being completely honest, I am horrible at evangelizing at home. Too often I let it slip down under my list of my ministerial duties and that is such a disservice to both me and God. But God being God, and knowing who I am, gave me the opportunity to be the first one to share in our group. I told myself over and over in my head before that that I was going to go last and watch what others did before me, but God had other plans. We were walking up to our first home and we approached a young women, in a house barely held together by a tin roof and 3 small children running around, I knew I was the one who was needed to talk to her. I approached her and found out the basic things about her, her name how old she was etc, and I learned that she was only a year older than me at 21 years old. Without even thinking about I began to tell her my testimony and how the Lord changed my life and took my brokenness and made it into something beautiful. As I was speaking to her tears swelled from her eyes and I could see movement in her heart. That women did not receive Christ in that moment, but there's not a doubt in my mind that I planted a seed in her heart that will continue to grow until it has nothing to do but blossom. From that moment forward I had such a confidence to share the gospel, I realized that I just needed to share the story of my best friend and how He saved me. The Lord really convicted me in that village that I had never felt confidence in sharing His word with strangers until that moment, and showed me just how many people need to hear that same message back home. As a Christian, and for all of us, that is the number one thing we should be concerned with doing and all to often we let it slip through the cracks.