by José Chinchilla
Honduras National Director

En Español

We start a year with challenges and opportunities. This year, 2021, will be full of challenges and consequences from the past year, but we must also be attentive to what God wants to tell us in the midst of these challenges. Challenges can create opportunities for us if we have a correct attitude as we turn them into opportunities. We must always be aware to not have the attitude of the ten explorers Moses commanded to explore the promised land. Their attitudes focused more on claiming the challenges they will have to face and how impossible they looked at it than on the opportunities God was presenting to them to conquer that land and the fruits they could have. Sadly, they died, victims of a plague. They were not blessed to see the opportunities God had for them. The same is for us today. Please do not perish, symbolically speaking, to have our sight only on the obstacles that this year 2021 can bring us.

 

At Family Life Missions we are attentive to the opportunities God is giving us. Today, we can say that God is blessing us with the strengthening of relationships, new modes of education, and the exponential use of technology.

There is an English word called STAMINA. In fact, I read about it and I know what it means in the book "STAMINA" by Lucas Leys. Leys sums it up like this: "It is the physical, mental, and spiritual ability to endure activities without getting tired, or without having to stop before reaching the goal." In the Christian journey, we have to exercise stamina to withstand the challenges, problems, or fallings that we face and not lose sight of the opportunities that God is putting in front of us. One word that gets closer to the meaning of stamina is the Spanish word "resistance". Without resistance, we can easily fall into being aimless, with no purpose,  and without wanting to move on. We can get stuck. But keep going! Let us move forward by trusting in God and continuing to serve the most disadvantaged people!

I take Paul's words in Philippians 3:13-14 to heart: "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Again, let us not let challenges or problems prevent us from seeing God's opportunities for us this year. Let us put our trust in God to complete this race successfully. Family Life Missions wishes you a 2021 year full of opportunities as we put our trust in God even in the midst of the wounds that 2020 left behind. Emmanuel! God with each of you!