I can’t believe I’ve neglected my blog for so long! Without a doubt the past 3 weeks have been a jam packed, nonstop whirlwind, so I guess I’ll start by skimming over what all has been going on. Not my favorite kind of blog to write, but I feel like there are huge blanks to fill in.
After Dad and Shark left, all of our bodies decided that it was time for us to get sick. Alli was gone visiting home but Darwin, Amber, Tess, and I were all sick for about three days at the same time. Amber and Tess had swine flu symptoms and we thought they were going to have to be quarantined at Hospital Escuela, the scariest hospital on the face of the earth. But it’s all good, it was just the regular flu and they lived to tell about it. I had some stomach thing, it was probably just food poisoning since it was pretty short lived. Darwin had a bunch of random symptoms, who knows what his problem was. But we’re all better now, life goes on.
As soon as we all got better, spring breakers started getting here. First to arrive was Bob, a friend of Amber’s. He got here from Oklahoma on the day that Alli came back, which was before the rest of the group got here. He is the one who started the Shine program with the first graders we tutor who are on scholarship at a bilingual school. He was so much fun to have around, he always made sure we were entertained and well fed and was just wonderful! Before everyone else got here we went to the movies, the circus, and the water park with the Shine kids. A few days later the rest of the group started trickling in and by Sunday all 45 or so were here. About a third was from Dell City, OK an the rest were from the Memorial Road church in OK. A few of Amber’s closer friends stayed with us at her house which made for cramped quarters but also for a lot of fun times!
Having the groups here was definitely a blast. We spent time in El Magote doing a VBS and a few days at Jovenes en Camino pouring concrete and hanging out with the boys who live there. Everyone in the group worked hard all week and got along really well, and there were a lot of college kids that Alli and Tess and I hit it off with. Tess had to fly home unexpectedly because of a family emergency about a week ago and now that she’s gone and the group has left Alli and I can’t get over how much we miss everyone. Our house feels so empty! We had a fantastic week that provided a lot of new friends and great memories.
Over the course of the week Amber took a lot of the group members out to feed with her. She had a full car every time so I gave up my spot to let others experience it. By the beginning of this week I was surprised at how excited I was to go back out with her! I had really missed seeing everyone and serving them and laughing with them. But while I missed being out with everyone, I’m also glad that so many people got to see the work that Amber does with the homeless feeding. Hopefully that will allow more people to see that this is a ministry worth supporting.
Lately we’ve also been spending a lot of time at a local boys’ home. We got connected with it when one of the kids from the homeless feeding got attacked on a bus and, after a stint in the hospital, was sent to live there. On any given day there are between 40 and 60 boys in this cramped little building. The staff is very kind to the boys but they don’t have any planned activities from day to day, so we have been going to visit them and bringing cards and board games. Amber has really taken this place and the boys there into her heart and always talks about wanting to bring all of them home with her. They really are sweet kids and it’s hard to see that they have ended up where they are because of the rough lives they’ve lived. It has been a pretty interesting experience going a few times a week and seeing old and new faces and building more relationships with them. It’s hard not to just love them.
OK well I think that pretty much covers the big things about the past few weeks. Sorry for the length, but I think I did a pretty good job of covering 3 weeks in one post. I love and miss you all and can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your love and support and prayers :)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
On a Mission
Ever since I first approached the Global Missions team at church about using the missions internship for this trip to Honduras, I’ve had this feeling of being kind of a poser. I’ve felt that way because people keep asking me if I’m taking this trip because I’m thinking about being a missionary in the future, or even assuming that that’s the case. I’ve really felt guilty about saying that those are not my plans. Now I’ve learned that God’s plans aren’t always on the same page as my own plans and that His generally trump mine, but I still answer that question by saying that I don’t have plans to be a “missionary” long term in the future.
However, after I was yet again asked the same question the other day, I got to thinking about my answer and what being a “missionary” really means. And I think I’ve changed my mind. I think we’re all missionaries, but not in the connotation under which I had originally put the word. When I’ve thought of a missionary, the image that has always come to my head has been one of a really brave, independent, young-ish person who ventures off into some unknown country, the “mission field,” where he or she doesn’t know or understand the language or culture and proceeds to assimilate him- or herself with the people there, develop relationships with them, and share Christ’s love through word and action. I wouldn’t say that describes me or my preferred scene very well, and if that’s the definition of a missionary I would definitely not put myself in that category, especially not long term. But once I got to thinking about it, I realized that that is a ridiculously narrow description of a missionary.
The reality is that, whether we like it or not, every Christian is called to be a missionary. The only difference is the “field” in which we serve. You may not be called to drop everything and move to Antarctica where you have to build a hut out of ice cubes and eat whale blubber and convert all the Eskimos, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be called to serve in some other way. You might find that God opens doors for you to minister to the homeless in your own city. Maybe your mission field will be at PTO meetings at your child’s school or in the conference room in your office. Or maybe you are the best person to be an example of Christian living to the people right in your own home. No place is too small or too close to home to be a mission field. I am totally convinced that God can use anyone, at any age, in any place. I have friends my age and younger whose desire to serve God and whose ingenuity in finding ways to do so inspires me, and on the other end of the spectrum, I love and admire that my Grandma at 80 years old still has a huge heart for all sorts of missions and always has a contagious excitement when I tell her about the mission work I’m involved in. God doesn’t have rules or boundaries that limit Him to using a certain kind of person to accomplish His purposes. I guess that what I’m really trying to say is that God won’t fit in the box I had put Him in, and I’m unusually pleased to find out that I’ve been wrong.
You never know where you’ll end up, and I doubt God will ever stop reminding me of that. My prayer is that He will always be able to use me to help build His kingdom and that I won’t ever neglect to show His love in whatever mission field I’m called into. That might mean that I never leave the country again. Or maybe I’ll end up in Antarctica. I wouldn’t mind having a pet penguin.
However, after I was yet again asked the same question the other day, I got to thinking about my answer and what being a “missionary” really means. And I think I’ve changed my mind. I think we’re all missionaries, but not in the connotation under which I had originally put the word. When I’ve thought of a missionary, the image that has always come to my head has been one of a really brave, independent, young-ish person who ventures off into some unknown country, the “mission field,” where he or she doesn’t know or understand the language or culture and proceeds to assimilate him- or herself with the people there, develop relationships with them, and share Christ’s love through word and action. I wouldn’t say that describes me or my preferred scene very well, and if that’s the definition of a missionary I would definitely not put myself in that category, especially not long term. But once I got to thinking about it, I realized that that is a ridiculously narrow description of a missionary.
The reality is that, whether we like it or not, every Christian is called to be a missionary. The only difference is the “field” in which we serve. You may not be called to drop everything and move to Antarctica where you have to build a hut out of ice cubes and eat whale blubber and convert all the Eskimos, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be called to serve in some other way. You might find that God opens doors for you to minister to the homeless in your own city. Maybe your mission field will be at PTO meetings at your child’s school or in the conference room in your office. Or maybe you are the best person to be an example of Christian living to the people right in your own home. No place is too small or too close to home to be a mission field. I am totally convinced that God can use anyone, at any age, in any place. I have friends my age and younger whose desire to serve God and whose ingenuity in finding ways to do so inspires me, and on the other end of the spectrum, I love and admire that my Grandma at 80 years old still has a huge heart for all sorts of missions and always has a contagious excitement when I tell her about the mission work I’m involved in. God doesn’t have rules or boundaries that limit Him to using a certain kind of person to accomplish His purposes. I guess that what I’m really trying to say is that God won’t fit in the box I had put Him in, and I’m unusually pleased to find out that I’ve been wrong.
You never know where you’ll end up, and I doubt God will ever stop reminding me of that. My prayer is that He will always be able to use me to help build His kingdom and that I won’t ever neglect to show His love in whatever mission field I’m called into. That might mean that I never leave the country again. Or maybe I’ll end up in Antarctica. I wouldn’t mind having a pet penguin.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
"Love" is English for "Amor"
This week I have really started to feel like I’m getting more of a grasp of Spanish than I’ve had so far. It’s so good! I mean I’m still definitely not fluent or anything like that, but I’m finding that I generally and consistently understand more of what people are saying. It has made me more confident in having conversations, which means I’m getting even more practice, and it’s just one big happy circle!
I’ve also come to appreciate knowing Spanish more this week with Dad and Shark here. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not everybody speaks the same language you do until you are forced into a situation where practically nobody speaks the same language you do. I understand and speak enough Spanish that that’s not really an issue for me, and I don’t really think about it until I see other people struggling to communicate. Last night at dinner our waiter offered to take a picture for us and John tried to inform him of how to use the camera by saying “and there’s the zoom!” We all laughed because, of course, the waiter had no idea what John was saying, but when you don’t speak the language you don’t have a choice but to communicate the only way you know how. I have to imagine what it would be like for me if I went to Japan or somewhere like that. I wouldn’t even have any idea of where to start…I would be completely lost! That would be such a frustrating feeling. I’ve heard enough frustration voiced over the language barrier that I will forever be an advocate of learning a second or third language, and this is my plug for doing just that!
It has also been great to have Dad and Shark here this week just so that they can see what I’ve been up to and what God has been up to these past six weeks. Yesterday we went to the house Amber is looking to buy for the Breaking Chains ministry to work on cleaning it up a little bit. The whole house itself is a beautiful piece of architecture and we took a lot of pictures, but they’re all on other cameras (and I wouldn’t be technologically savvy enough to put them up here even if I did have them lol). So suffice it to say that there’s a big courtyard in the middle of the two-story house and it has several little plots that are all overgrown with these unidentified plants, some of which are really spiky and almost all of which are dead and need to be removed. So our job for the day was to clear out those plots and do some general cleaning up. On our way in we ran into a few women who we usually see on our feeding nights, and they came into the house with us and were eager to help us clean. We got most of the courtyard cleared out and a lot of sweeping done in just about an hour, which would never have been possible without their help. It was so cool to see them having a hand in getting the building ready that will potentially be purchased and put to use for their benefit! As we were leaving, several other people we feed came by the house to check it out and everyone wanted to know when they could come back and help clean again. The whole thing was an awesome sight to see! I hope John and Dad can appreciate the gravity of what they saw there, and if you know them you should definitely ask them about it. It is so exciting to think about what opening the doors of that house could do for Amber’s ministry and for the lives of the people who helped us yesterday. Please be praying that God opens His doors to allow that to happen!
I’ve also come to appreciate knowing Spanish more this week with Dad and Shark here. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not everybody speaks the same language you do until you are forced into a situation where practically nobody speaks the same language you do. I understand and speak enough Spanish that that’s not really an issue for me, and I don’t really think about it until I see other people struggling to communicate. Last night at dinner our waiter offered to take a picture for us and John tried to inform him of how to use the camera by saying “and there’s the zoom!” We all laughed because, of course, the waiter had no idea what John was saying, but when you don’t speak the language you don’t have a choice but to communicate the only way you know how. I have to imagine what it would be like for me if I went to Japan or somewhere like that. I wouldn’t even have any idea of where to start…I would be completely lost! That would be such a frustrating feeling. I’ve heard enough frustration voiced over the language barrier that I will forever be an advocate of learning a second or third language, and this is my plug for doing just that!
It has also been great to have Dad and Shark here this week just so that they can see what I’ve been up to and what God has been up to these past six weeks. Yesterday we went to the house Amber is looking to buy for the Breaking Chains ministry to work on cleaning it up a little bit. The whole house itself is a beautiful piece of architecture and we took a lot of pictures, but they’re all on other cameras (and I wouldn’t be technologically savvy enough to put them up here even if I did have them lol). So suffice it to say that there’s a big courtyard in the middle of the two-story house and it has several little plots that are all overgrown with these unidentified plants, some of which are really spiky and almost all of which are dead and need to be removed. So our job for the day was to clear out those plots and do some general cleaning up. On our way in we ran into a few women who we usually see on our feeding nights, and they came into the house with us and were eager to help us clean. We got most of the courtyard cleared out and a lot of sweeping done in just about an hour, which would never have been possible without their help. It was so cool to see them having a hand in getting the building ready that will potentially be purchased and put to use for their benefit! As we were leaving, several other people we feed came by the house to check it out and everyone wanted to know when they could come back and help clean again. The whole thing was an awesome sight to see! I hope John and Dad can appreciate the gravity of what they saw there, and if you know them you should definitely ask them about it. It is so exciting to think about what opening the doors of that house could do for Amber’s ministry and for the lives of the people who helped us yesterday. Please be praying that God opens His doors to allow that to happen!
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