Year in Review
INTRODUCTION
Hello! I just spent the last three and a half weeks at home in Wyoming reflecting on 2019 and wanted to share with you. It was an exciting year with so many new life changing experiences. This time reflecting on 2019 has not only allowed me to look back on how much God worked in my life, but also has shown me just how much love I experienced this last year. God’s love is powerful and I experience a Christ-like love from so many of you.
God’s love. God loves us with such a life changing love. He loves us with an endless and reckless kind of love, that compares to no other. With that, God wants us to experience an incredible amount of mercy and compassion not only from Him, but also those around us. He wants us to show the same love that He so freely gives us to others. We are called to love, and it is challenging at times, but it reminds us of how God loves us. How completely God loves us without any expectations of return!
It’s been this kind of love from God and all of you that has allowed me to stay and serve in Honduras. It’s been the love demonstrated to me that has helped me to love and better serve the kids I work with everyday. On Saturday I left to come back for five more months, and honestly, thinking about coming back made my stomach do cartwheels in the best way. My nerves were so much more real coming back because I know what a difficult job I have, and the challenges that I face while on the mission field. I am so grateful for this experience and what it has taught me about myself and what I have learned about God through it. I am beyond excited to see what God does in my life and the lives of those around me in 2020.
2019 in Review
To catch you up to where we are now, let me give you a quick recap of my year. In 2019, I attended and graduated from the Word of Life Bible Institute in Florida. After a missions conference in January 2019 I dedicated my life to serving God wherever he takes me. Shortly after, in April I committed to serving at a bilingual school in Honduras. Little did I know this was God opening the door to a place for me to serve while using the Bible certificate I was about to receive.
In the following summer, I was introduced to my first counseling experience at the Word of Life summer camp. More than anything, this taught me about the power of prayer. I saw people's hearts be softened to the gospel and watched so many kids make a decision that changed their entire life. Being a counselor broke me to live a life that is dedicated to reaching lives for Christ.
While living in Honduras, through ministering to the children at the bilingual school and children home I have deepened my faith and grown more in love with and dependent on God. It’s crazy how much the faith of a child can impact your life. It is also amazing how much my reliance on the Lord increased just in the five months of me living here.
One of my ministries outside of school is “Bible Club” with four of the pre-teen boys who live in our Children’s home. We are making things happen! The boys have to memorize eight verses in Spanish and in English each month (December-May) to receive a reward trip to the Cayos Cochinos, a set of islands near us. When I presented this deal to the boys in Bible club they were giddy and ecstatic. We will spend the day snorkeling and playing on the beaches. None of the boys have ever had an experience like this. I am currently working on finances for this trip, so let me know if you’re interested in sponsoring one of our boys!
Finally, I am working on a website all about my life and ministry here. This is going to provide a place for my friends and supporters (YOU!) to look at all of my newsletters, easily support me and so much more. I’ll say it again; I am so excited to see what God does in 2020!
Prayer Request and Praises
Among many things, I am praising God that He has brought me to Honduras. It has taught me so much about myself. I am so grateful for the people that have partnered with me in this ministry. Honestly, it’s very humbling to be completely dependent on the generosity of others to meet my financial needs. God has provided abundantly through so many of you, and I am incredibly humbled and grateful. The past months that I have spent in Honduras would not have been possible without any of you.
Please be praying with me…
as I continue on with my ministry. I have faced so many new challenges that the Lord has helped me conquer.
that God gives me wisdom with every interaction I have with the kids.
that I continue to learn the language to be able to communicate better.
Finally, please be praying for my finances. God keeps providing and I keep trusting that He will provide. Please consider giving! Options for giving include venmo, paypal and mail. The details for these are below.
This truth I am clinging on to:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1
THANK YOU!
Chase Gray