Cheryl's Testimony

Cheryl observed that from the very beginning she saw God’s hand in the mission trip. There were many situations during the planning phase and the mission trip itself where she actively saw God at work.

Cheryl mentioned that she is a Type A personality and feels a need to have “all ducks in a row” or she gets easily frustrated. From the early days of the mission trip (shopping in Villahermosa) she felt a struggle between her personality, her comfort zone, and what was going on around her. Cheryl remembered the Maranatha motto we had repeated often to the participants at each meeting: “Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility”. So Cheryl gave the situation over to the Lord knowing that He is always faithful.

When Cheryl got to the church where we would be staying for two weeks and saw the kitchen facility, she was disheartened. She thought: “I am down here doing what? I don’t know that I can do this!” The kitchen was well-used to say the least and had green slime on the walls. It was a polar opposite from the clean, wall papered and carpeted kitchen she was used to at O’Malley church. After the slime was to some extent cleaned off the walls, the rains came and brought an endless dripping on the counters, walls, and floors. At one point, Cheryl said to the Lord: “I’m just too old for this”. But Cheryl time and again gave her worries and frustrations over to the Lord knowing that He is in control and He would see her through any challenges she encountered.

Communion with the Peñitas members was a memorable day for Cheryl. She was told it was not open communion (meaning some people would be excluded according to that church’s standards) and after the Pastor’s wife, Ibeth, scanned the congregation she said to prepare for about 30 people. Cheryl decided to pour juice for 35 and began to worry when she saw that every person present that day was participating. She too scanned the crowd and realized there wouldn’t be enough to go around. However, God who had been taking care of all the details for us stepped in again and when the plate with juice cups was returned to the front of the church Cheryl was amazed to see that there was one juice cup remaining. I would like to add that I was sitting at the back of the small church taking photos and I witnessed one person who started to take a cup and then chose to decline the juice. The tray, if everyone had participated, held the exact number of cups needed.

A final example Cheryl cited was that somehow each devotional, morning and evening, fit with whatever was going on at that time. For her, it confirmed again that God was in control of every aspect of our mission trip.

May God bless you through Cheryl’s testimony,

Lynda

Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Psalm 119:89-90 “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.”