Abba

Oh, I love this!!!

“ ‘Abba’ was the word that was used familiarly by children talking to their fathers… A child does not always address his father as ‘father;’ he uses terms such as ‘Papa,’ ‘Dad.’ That is the kind of meaning represented by this word ‘Abba.’ It was a… word lisped by a little child… But let us notice the word ‘cry’… we cry ‘Abba, Father.’ It is a very strong word, and clearly the Apostle has used it quite deliberately. It means a loud cry… it expresses deep emotion… What then does it imply? Obviously… real knowledge of God. God is no longer to us a distant God. He is not merely a God in whom we believe intellectually, theologically, theoretically, doctrinally only. All this is possible to one who is not a child of God at all… [Our] worship and praying are spontaneous; it is the spontaneity of the child who sees the father… and not only spontaneity, but confidence. A little child has confidence.  He does not analyze it… he knows that ‘Abba’ is his father. Grown-ups may be standing back at a distance and being very formal [with some great personage]; but the little child comes running in, rushes right in, and holds on to his father's legs. He has a right that no-one else has… It is instinctive… we cry ‘Abba, Father.’”
– D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans 8:5-17

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

This morning I want to say that there are an abundance of things that I am thankful for…

First and foremost is that I have been loved abundantly by the Lord.  And in my time in Costa Rica, He has continued to show me that He is pursuing me and filling me.  It brings to mind one of my favorite lines from a hymn…
“Love so amazing, so diving, demands my soul, my life, my all!”

Secondly, I’m so thankful for friends and family.  I could go on and on about this.  But I will suffice it to say that I am loved and prayed for and supported and encouraged.  And I’m so thankful.

Because I could go on and on, I will stop with this…

Today I’m thankful for Maggie and that she is here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me.  What a joy to get to see her and hug her neck and show her my life here.  We’ve had a great time together and its been so fun to have her here.  So, thanks to Maggie for coming all the way to Costa Rica and giving up Thanksgiving with her family to be with me!

I wish I had a picture

This blog post would be so much better with a picture.  But in the midst of the excitement I decided to just enjoy myself rather than rushing back to find my camera.

Today I got to see friends from home, and oh what a joy it was to my heart!  Cary Christian School’s senior class was here in Costa Rica doing a mission trip and today I intentionally ran into them downtown at the market.  I didn’t know exactly when they would be there or if I would get to see them at all, so I went to hang out with Ericka and just waited ‘till the masses arrived.

When the market started swarming with teenagers I went in search and found Nikki and William and Elliot!  There was lots of hugging, maybe a little screaming, and just a lot of joy.  It was so good for my heart to hug Nikki and hear about her trip and help her buy souvenirs at the market from people who I can honestly say are my friends.  And I got to help Elliot buy stuff for his sisters while he helped me pick out good brother presents for Christmas.

I was so encouraged about my Spanish because last time I saw Nikki she was teaching me and this time I was translating for her. 

There wasn’t time to catch up on life or have a heart-to-heart… but I loved it none the less.  What a blessed taste of home!

All that to say… I wish I had a picture…

Christmas is Coming

I decorated for Christmas…

    

 

 

 

So did my host mom…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She wins. :)

Blunder

Tonight I was reminded of a blunder that I forgot to blog.  Not that the world needs to know all of my Spanish mishaps, but I thought this was a funny one.

Last weekend I was explaining the game “ticket to ride” all in Spanish.  And as we were playing, one of the choices is to draw a face down card.  Well, not knowing how to say face down in Spanish, I decided to call it a surprise card.  So I said…

“¿Quiere una saprissa?” blank stares…oh right, that’s the soccer team…

“¿Quiere una sorpresa?” Another word I’ll never forget.

the Gospel

“If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.” C. J. Mahaney

News flash.  Missionaries sometimes don’t believe the Gospel for themselves.  Its true, although I’ll admit, hard to say it out loud.  Here you have a group of people who have given their lives to the calling that they believe the Lord has placed on their life.  We believe that the message of God’s grace and redemption is vitally important, so much so that we leave a lot of things that we love behind to go and share this message with the world.  And yet, there are days that I don’t believe this message for myself.  There are days that I don’t let it affect me on a heart level.  There are days that I don’t want to be changed and transformed by this good news. 

Some days its because I believe that I’m too bad and so far gone.  I’ve seen so much of my own heart and my own sin that I just can’t see how the Lord could possibly forgive and turn it around.  And some days I’m just so prideful that I look at my life and see all the things I’m doing well and I just forget that I need the Lord at all because clearly I’m doing alright all by myself.  And some days I believe that I need the Lord’s grace and that it is enough for me on an intellectual level, but it doesn’t bring any transformation to my life.

Tim Keller writes… “A Christian is not just someone who knows about Jesus, but one who has “seen” him on the cross. Our hearts are moved when we see not just that he died in general, but that he had to die for us. When that knowledge becomes affecting and life-changing, we are Christians.  We see the meaning of his work for us.”

I am praying that the Lord continues to remind me every day that I need His goodness and grace.  And I am praying that as I rest in His promises for me that my life will be transformed and changed as the Gospel is applied to every area of my life.

Oh, to believe is the Gospel.  It brings humility and love for others.  It causes me to step back and consider someone else’s point of view because I’m not so busy trying to make myself look better than them.  It allows me to receive love and grace, first from the Lord and then from other people because I know that to receive these things is a gift.  It gives me peace and comfort because I can stop striving to make my good deeds outweigh my bad.  I am allowed to rest in the joy of loving Jesus and living for Him without worrying about how my checklist of goodness is playing out.  And it frees me from living for the approval of other people, and oh what a freedom that is.  To know my identity in Christ alone and be free from my own self.  I’ll take it.

The Quilting Adventure

Today I started teaching my host mom how to make a quilt.  Its going to be fun and I’m going to learn LOTS of new vocabulary.  Today we started cutting out the pieces together.  This is a great way for me to spend time with Josefa and I’m really excited about it :)

Also excited that tonight is a game night with friends! 

The language of my heart

I have a terrible memory.  I mean that.  Ask anyone who has been friends with me for any amount of time.  I tell people the same stories over and over again.  I tell people stories that they are a part of b/c I have forgotten that they were there.  I can’t remember actors or actresses.  I can read the same books, and watch the same movies and be surprised every time.  I often get 30 minutes into a movie and think, oh, I’ve seen this before.  But I still can’t remember how it ends. 

All that to say, there is one thing that sticks with me, and its music.  I know the lyrics to more songs than I can possibly start to name.  We had a hymn sing at MTW’s area conference and I knew most of the words to the most of the songs even though we don’t sing strictly hymns in the church where I grew up.  Music just gets in my mind and my heart and stays with me.  And I love that.

Well, I’m finally reaching that heart language with trying to learn language.  Listening to music in Spanish is something that I need to do a lot more.  I have said before that if they wrote the whole Spanish language into a song, I could know it by next week.  But, there is an awful lot already written into songs, so I just need to start learning it.

Today in my grammer class we listened to a song in past tense.  She had written out the lyrics for us with blanks where the verbs should be.  We had to listen and fill in the blanks with the verbs in the right form.  It was hard!  But so good and so fun!  On top of which, I learned a new song because we listened to it over and over again :)

So, here’s a great Christian artist to listen to.  She has a beautiful voice!  And it turns out that I’m going to see her in concert in December, what fun!

Headlamp to the Rescue

Today the power was out for no apparent reason.  Our house is dark anyway, but when you take away the lights, its ridiculous.  So, I was sitting outside doing my homework and squinting at the paper as the sun went down.  Eventually I gave that up and started playing word games on my itouch.  Then Josefa brought me a candle… back to homework.  Okay, nevermind, that’s impossible.  Finally when Josefa asked if I had batteries, I was fishing through my room and spotted it…

My headlamp!

It was the hit of the household.  I looked ridiculous, but at least I could see.  Josefa wanted to know where I got it. :) 

In the midst of the darkness, I was cold and needed to put on pants, so my grey sweatpants won the prize b/c they are the ones I could find in the dark.  They went great with my grey tshirt I was wearing.  In college when I would do this Krissie called me the grey monster and it’s a habit I outgrew when I left college.  Well, until today.  So please picture the grey monster with a headlamp.  Ridiculous.  Fine, the lights were off.  Well, of course Ariel brings a friend over and the lights come back on catching me in the midst of my crazy look.  She probably thinks I dress like this all the time.  But I swear it isn’t true!

Christmas

I have a new favorite Christmas carol…

Hacia Belén (Rin Rin)

It is so fun to sing!  We sang it at school this morning.  You have to sing it at about 1/8 speed to get all the words in, but by the end, we could sing almost full speed and it’s so fun!! :)

Weekend

This past weekend we our last long weekend of the semester.  Its hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left!  Its crazy really.  But at the same time I’m ready for the break.  Tonight I’m watching Spiderman in Spanish because its on TV.  I don’t understand everything by any means, but SO much more than before.  It gives me great hope for the future!

Here are some random things from the weekend.

1. I got to play with this sweet little boy… sadly he didn’t feel good:(  But we still had fun!

 

 

 

2. I got to hang out with Abby and Abbey, Ligia, Rodrigo, and Melissa
3. I explained and played Ticket to Ride in Spanish… if you don’t know this game, its great!
4. I got to cook, which I love
5. And lastly, Abbey and watched these great videos that are put out by a ministry in her town.  Here’s the website…http://www.cityonahillproductions.com/  The ones we watched are the H2O videos. Sadly, they aren’t available to watch online.  But they are a really great series that walk through thirsting for the Lord and being satisfied by Him as the living water.  They would be really good conversation starters because they deal with issues that we can all relate to.  Loneliness, anger, doubt, insecurity, searching, not feeling fulfilled… One thing I loved is that they talked about how some people really do feel fulfilled in their life without the Lord.  But could it be possible that, although content, you have settled for contentment in one thing when something far greater exists?  He talked about taking his daughter to the beach, but since the pool was the first thing she saw, she never wanted to go to the ocean.  But as soon as she saw the ocean, she never wanted to go back.  Could it be that sometimes that is us?  We are, as CS Lewis says, “content to build mud pies in the slums instead of having a holiday by the sea… we are far too easily pleased.”

Anyway, even though we had some sickness, church on the couch, and less sleep than we would have chosen, I know that I for one had a fabulous weekend! 

Galatians again

Galatians 3:1-5
”You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?  So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”

I was so convicted when I read this in my Bible study for this week.  This is far too often not just a Galatians problem, but a personal problem in my life.  Not that I mean to, not that I believe intellectually that I can do anything to save myself… But functionally I start acting like my hope for salvation depends on me.  I have a mental checklist for all the “things I need to do” and I feel guilty if they don’t get done.  I start thinking that God expects me to do something for Him, as if I can earn more of His approval.  I’m so thankful that this is not the case and that the Lord’s love for me depends on His faithfulness to me and not my faithfulness or perfect obedience.

“A conscience which is not fully enlightened both to the seriousness of its condition before God, and to the grandeur of God’s merciful provision of redemption, will inevitably fall prey to anxiety, pride, sensuality and all the other expressions of that unconscious despair which Kierkegaard called “the sickness unto death.” [So] we start
each day with our personal security resting not on…the sacrifice of Christ but on our present feelings or recent achievements… Since these arguments will not quiet the human conscience, we are inevitably moved either to discouragement and apathy or to a self-righteousness which falsifies the record to achieve a sense of peace.” – Tim Keller

One thing that I have been encouraged by is reading Genesis 15 where God makes a covenant with Abraham.  In this type of covenant, both parties should have had to make a promise with the consequence of breaking the promise being death.  And yet the Lord, knowing that Abraham was unable to keep his side of the deal, caused him to fall asleep while the Lord sealed the covenant Himself… knowing that to keep His promise would mean the sacrifice of His Son.  We get the reward of the promise without the cost.  That is grace.

Jesus is Enough

Today I’m just struck with this thought.  Its nothing new, but today I really am believing it.  And I started making a list.

If I have no friends, if my ministry fails, if I never get married or have kids of my own, if my Spanish isn’t good, if I say the wrong thing, if I live far away, if the internet crashes, if I lose people that I love, if I’m lonely, if I’m sad, if I have culture shock, if I feel out of place, if I’m misunderstood… JESUS IS ENOUGH!

The list goes on and on and if I wrote it out you would see my heart and all my fears and all the things that I try to control myself.  But the truth is so clear, it doesn’t matter what I do or what I don’t do, Jesus is enough.

Also, I have so many thoughts on my Galatians study that I’m doing, but I can’t put it as well as Tim Keller.  If you’re interested, this is a great article! (“The Centrality of the Gospel” here… its not quite the same one from my study, but has similar ideas)

Pad See Ew

Last week in my conversation class we had to give a presentation about a type of food that we like and then explain a recipe for one food in particular.  I talked about Thai food, because I LOVE it!  And then I looked up a recipe for my favorite dish, Pad See Ew, thinking it would be really difficult.  Well… great news… it’s not!  And the recipe came complete with youtube video.  So I was inspired.

Last week I bought the stuff and last night I took over Melissa’s kitchen to adventure with this new recipe.  As I was cooking the dinner crew kept growing until I was feeding Melissa, Anita, David, Joaquin, and me.  I kept telling them it might taste terrible, so not to get their hopes up.  But thankfully, it was delicious!

YUM!!!  Of course it was not quite the same as my favorite Thai restaurant at home.  I had the wrong noodles and didn’t use a variety of soy sauces like it calls for.  But we didn’t really mind.  I loved eating every bite :)

If you decide you want to make it yourself, check out this website…

http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/06/pad-see-ew-recipe-how-to-make-pad-see.html

Surprise

Okay, I know it.  Three blog posts in a row is too much.  I understand.  And I would be sorry, but I have to share.

Today I went white water rafting.  Super fun!  And also, because its low tourist season, much cheaper than normal.  It has rained all week and the river is full, so it was fast and fun :)

I get home… tired, sore, and ready for food and bed to find out that we are having a party at my house!  I debated going out to join the party fun, that I was sure would turn to karaoke at some point.  And we haven’t done karaoke in awhile, so I would have been sad to miss it.  Plus, I correctly assumed that if I wanted dinner, I would have to go join the fun.  So I showered, got dressed, and headed outside.

I was surprised to see people I haven’t met before and find out we are celebrating someone’s birthday.  Awesome.  So, when the birthday girl gets up to go to the bathroom everyone goes crazy.  Oh yeah, her boyfriend was proposing!  She comes back from the bathroom and he is on his knee with a ring.  It was precious.  And yet another Costa Rican first.  Actually, I’ve never been at anyone’s proposal, so it wasn’t just a Costa Rican first!  And then I got invited to the wedding :)

It was really fun, very sweet people, and of course, birthday cake and karaoke!

Friday Feria Fiesta

The Messicks are a precious family here in Costa Rica who are kind enough to let me be a part of their family.  It is so fun to sit around a dinner table with a family and read books to kids and hold a baby.  I’m so thankful the Lord put them in my life!

In the ever changing life of a missionary, you have to have some consistency… what better way than to have Friday Fiestas?  So last night I joined the Messicks for Friday Fiesta, fair themed.  How can you have a fair in your house in Costa Rica… well, I’ll show you…

First you have face painting... And you even let a two-year-old paint your hand. Then you play games... With prizes of course! Pause for a family photo… Eat food that is not good for you… And then try to settle everyone down for bed.  Good luck :) And fun was had by all… even Taylah :)

Muttering

I will really arrive in Spanish speaking when I mutter to myself in Spanish.  Yesterday I got corrected by a bi-lingual friend when I was talking to myself.  Really?  I’m talking to myself and I understand English :)

Better late than never... Newsletter October 2010

October 2010

oh, I can identify

I read this blog this morning and I can totally identify.  I would steal it and post it as my own if that was legal at all :)  You should read it.

http://ohandtheworldspinsmadlyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/calling.html

And then we had a party

Today just seemed to be “one of those days” for a lot people around here.  I’m not sure why… maybe because of the rain, maybe because we’re tired, who knows?!?  I stopped by Kristy’s house on my way home and found a handful of kids and a group of people desperately in need of a party.  So… what else can you do?

Impromptu party!

I only wish I’d had a camera :)  Elijah went with Louisa and I to get pizza.  Micah and Jonah blew up balloons.  Taylah slept (that’s about the most helpful thing a three month old can do!)  And Matt came and rescued us on our rainy walk home.  Together with Kathy and Jeff and guacamole, it was a great party and so good for the heart!

One of my favorite parts was singing the blessing with the Messick kids.  We sang the “amen” song and then when you pointed, everything had to say something they were thankful for!  We were thankful for family, pizza, God, grandkids, rain, friends… and I think we can all agree we were thankful for our party:)

The Lord answers prayer.  That’s all I can say.  Before this trimester I prayed for the Lord to give me families as friends.  And tonight I felt again that prayer being answered.  I was telling a friend about this the other day and she gave me this verse.

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land." Psalm 68:5-6

What an amazing promise!  God knows exactly what we need, and He WILL provide for us.  I cling to that.  Tonight I’m thankful for a God who knows me and loves me and gives me family wherever I go!