Strong Tower

Hola Amigos y Familia!

We want you to know that we love you, we miss you and we can undoubtedly feel your prayers. God is working hard to prepare us as we get ready to go into Chanco Monday morning. We have so many stories we could share already, so choosing just one is difficult.

Perhaps the most impressionable thing to us so far is the fact that the Lord is our Strong Tower! Saturday night while our missionary, David Miller, was doing a little bit of introduction as to how the week would go, he mentioned the name of the first hotel we were staying in … “Torre Fuerte.” Those spanish words mean “strong tower.” When Kristen Robinson heard this she whispered to me, “Wow, that’s what the devotion I prepared is talking about!” Each of us came prepared to share a devotion one night during the week, so I told her to please share first! Kristen read to us Proverbs 18: 10. It says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” We also listened to a song by Kutless, also called “Strong Tower.” Part of the lyrics say:

You are my strong tower
Shelter over me
Beautiful and mighty
Everlasting King
You are my strong tower
Fortress when I’m weak
Your name is true and holy
And Your face is all I seek

That night we went to bed encouraged to press in to God this week. We were encouraged to seek Him when things get tough and look to Him in praise when things are going great. What a great way to start off! Well, in the morning, when the sun was up and everyone was walking around ‘exporing’ the hotel we found Proverbs 18:10 painted on the wall in spanish! A picture was definitely in order before we headed to church. It doesn’t stop there! Two more times on Sunday the Lord reminded us that He is our strong tower.

Pastor Rolando (from one of our partnering Guatemalan churches) preached about having no excuses to go out and share the gospel. He gave a story about a man he was sharing with who’s Bible was open to Psalm 91. It says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most Hight will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘my refuste and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ ” God is our refuge, our strength, our fortress – our Strong Tower!

Sunday evening, after we traveled here to Chiquimula & went to church with Pastor Fito (from the other partnering Guatemalan church), we had some team time. We debriefed the day, gave encouragement to each other, shared a few hesitations and worshipped. The computer we brought has about twenty worship songs on it so we chose one to start with. Well, during that song, the speakers were acting up … technology right? Jennifer Lively & David got them to work again, however in the midst of all of that commotion the song changed. Can you guess what it was about? The name of the song that mysteriously started playing was “Your Name.” Part of the lyrics say:

Your Name is a strong and mighty tower
Your Name is a shelter like no other
Your Name, let the nations sing it louder
‘Cause nothing has the power to save but Your Name

Wow … the Lord has truly revealed to us that He is our strength. He is with us this week. He is going to be our strong tower as we step into the work we’ve planned this morning. He is going to be with us as we step into the village this afternoon. He is going to be with us as we go day by day sharing the good news with these people. We can’t tell you how much we’ve already fallen in love with them. Please keep praying for us. Keep praying that as things get tough we do, like Kristen encouraged the first night, press in to Him instead of pull away. As I write this I’m moved to tears at the omnipresence of our loving God! May he be with you as you go on with your week as well! We’ll write again soon!