Blessings from Starkville

Hello from Starkville, Mississippi! Our road trip is coming along nicely and has been such a blessing thus far. Our biggest expense is gas, of course, but I am so thankful that after all of the berating from people saying, "Fine time for a road trip! Don't you know that gas is going to be $5.00 a gallon this summer?" that gas has actually been cheaper on the road than it was in West Virginia when I left. The cheapest we've seen is $3.30 while the most expensive has been $3.89. The longest we've driven so far is difficult to calculate simply because driving from Keyser, WV to Sneads Ferry, NC would be close to driving from Vero Beach, FL to Panama City Beach, FL had we not gotten confused and thought our friend lived in Panama City rather than Panama City Beach. Needless to say, this mixup added some time to our travels. I don't think we've driven longer than 9 hours at this point. Gabrielle and I split the driving, so while I drive she journals or reads and vice versa. We have found that neither of us feel the need to sleep while the other is driving. I'm not sure why. We live pretty cheap on the road. We try to buy fresh fruit and vegetables or trail mix to tide us over rather than stopping at mealtimes at restaurants. We do occasionally like to enjoy the local cuisine, but we try to choose wisely and generally have a rule that we don't want to spend money going to any chain restaurants. Because traveling has kind of become our way of life, and we're already growing and learning as a result, it feels like we've been on the road so much longer than is the reality--2 weeks and 2 days. We have visited churches in the past couple Sundays--Tirzah ARP Church in York, SC and Heritage Bible Church in Panama City, FL. Both of which support Alvin Anderson and Manos Extendidas. They are full of lovely, friendly people. This Sunday, I believe we're looking at visiting a church in Port Arthur, Texas, which was recommended by my friends the Dixons, who I met my first summer living in Honduras while they were on a mission trip. This church, Celebration of Life Church, also has connections to Honduras--they are planning a mission trip to an orphanage that Alvin just took a Danish group to on Saturday, Didasko Orphanage in Tamara near the juvenile delinquent centers outside of the capital.

Meanwhile, we have been staying with Tim and Carla Cummings, who have been family friends of my family for years. It has been so nice to be here. While Mr. Tim has been out of town, Gabrielle and I have been spoiled with love from Mrs. Carla and have enjoyed the company of her daughter, Jenny. Before we came here, we were in Panama City Beach, Florida, at Rosemary Beach to visit their son, Chris. We had a lovely time there and loved getting to know the many young people living in the beach house and working at the beach this summer. Chris was such a gentleman and so generous after so many years of not seeing him (although we grew up together when both of our families lived in West Virginia) that I hardly knew what to do to repay his kindness. Rosemary Beach is a beautiful, little community with cobblestone streets and little shops. The beach is gorgeous with turquoise water and white sand. Gabrielle and I felt so blessed that God allowed us to be there to enjoy His creation. Our time in Starkville has been so restful and encouraging. In the short time that we've been here, Mrs. Carla has been able to pour lots of motherly wisdom into both of us, and it has been so nice to be around a woman of faith who is obviously so in love with God.

Tomorrow, we hit the road again to New Orleans. We plan to stay in a hostel there called Joe and Flo's Candlelight Hostel. While we love visiting the wonderful people we've seen so far, we also really enjoy the times when it's just the two of us. We are able to test out our independence and find our way around. It's exciting when we're able to see how God leads us and are able to know that we can truly go anywhere He shows us to go. It's been so nice how God has orchestrated our journey so far--He knows exactly what we need and He provides the time to rest, the time to be in places of encouragement, and the time to be around people with whom we can share a common love of Christ Jesus. Gabrielle and I both initially though this trip was about how we could serve and reach out to other people. While I still think that this is the case to a degree, and we both always want to be a blessing to everyone we meet, this trip has also been about teaching us to receive God's love. That task is much more difficult for me than I care to admit sometimes. I hardly know how to handle the generosity of our friends, the beauty that God provides for us to witness, or the kindness of even strangers we meet along the way.

Recently, a scripture that stood out for me in the middle of Panama City Beach in a resort where I could never have afforded to visit of my own finances and felt a bit out of place, was Luke 12:32:
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
I often struggle with wealth or even just receiving blessings because I feel unworthy of them. I don't really seek them, and I am always cautious of them. I think it's somewhat a result of how I was raised and also my reaction to a lot of things I heard in church growing up--lots of prosperity gospel messages. "God's about ready to bless you...God's about ready to give you that new car...that new job, etc." After seeing how people in Honduras lived, I didn't even want to be around places where that message was spoken. My desire is to be content whether I have little or much, but my underlying assumption often tends to be that God means for me to have little. Yet, I am reminded of the lesson from last summer that God showed me at an orphanage in Mexico, Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (http://confessionsofaragamuffin.blogspot.com/2010/05/nuestros-pequenos-hermanos.html). God does indeed wish to bless His children, but He does operate with a learning curve--He asks us to be obedient in the small things first before He blesses us with something greater. And, usually, by the time we've surrendered to God and laid down our lives in obedience, we really do receive His blessings as blessings because our sense of instant gratification and entitlement is stripped away. So, I am learning to receive whatever God has for me. Often, His love overwhelms me, but I am constantly coming to the realization that I have to learn to receive love from Him if I ever want to effectively shower love onto someone else.

Lots of love,
Sarah