Seeing God's Power on the Mountainside

Blog post written by Hailey Ryman (age 17), , Beaverton, OR

I am constantly being reminded of God's power throughout this trip. He is moving powerfully and it is incredible to see! The home that we built yesterday is yet another example of the ways God is working. We weren't planning to build a house since we have a small team and it wasn’t in our budget. Building a house wasn’t in our plans as we began our team meetings via Zoom this fall. However, Kurt Ackermann, the leader of Sus Hijos, mentioned that we could build a house on one of our Zoom meetings, so the team began to pray about it. God started to provide in many unexpected ways. One of our team members' uncles had just begun searching for a place to donate and received an email about the financial need for the house. He generously helped to funded the house. A church donated $1K to help with the house. Others also began to donate. And this provided a beautiful family with their new home.

The house that we built was located on a steep mountainside. The views were spectacular. The team had to work hard to get everything down the hill but it was absolutely worth it. It filled me with indescribable joy to watch the family, especially their three year old, Vanessa, walk into their house and find the gifts that we had chosen for them. Sweet Vanessa was so excited when she saw her pink cat and the sparkly backpack that we had picked for her the night before! It is only through God's help that our team managed to haul all the pieces of the house down the hill.

The Holy Spirit is also working in me, pushing me to step out of my comfort zone and try new things. I was honored to pray over the house before handing the family the key. It was an emotional moment! I came on this mission trip hoping to grown in my relationship with Jesus and feel that I'm on a path back to Him. "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:6 ESV

I'm so grateful for the ways I've been able to witness the Holy Spirit moving, and I can't wait to see more! Thank you for your prayers and support. They mean so much to our team and to Sus Hijos.