tshirts!

I am so excited to introduce you to some of our favorite kids!  Also excited that Bethany has a camera :) 

This is the first family that ever came to our door… there are 8 kids in their immediate family and their cousin also lives with them.  They live with their mom and their dad is not around anymore, which sadly is pretty common around here.

This is Ricci Mabel (14), Lilian Teresa (12), Selvin (12), and Franklin (10).  Selvin is their cousin and they have a 16 year old brother plus siblings ages 6,4, and 2.  We’ve met some of the others, but not all of them.

Today when they came by I brought out some tshirts for them to decorate along with Mac and cheese and vitamins.  It was so much fun.  They had a blast and I really loved talking to them.  I got to tell Ricci about the home I’m starting and told her to think about if she had any friends who needed that kind of help.

These are the finished product, front and back…

Love them…

Ministry Help

Here’s a little update from the week…

Some of the ladies came over to the house to sort the baby stuff that Lindsey left.  It was a great.  They were really helpful and now I have a list of all the things that we have so I can figure out what we need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, we hadn’t seen many of the street kids recently, but I think its because we have had teams and not really been around.  Over the past few days we’ve had lots of visitors at our gate, given lots of food, read some Bible stories, and made some new friends.  Please keep praying for these precious kids. :)

A Little Car Update…

So, if anyone is living in suspense as to the car’s post-lake-driving condition, I will enlighten you.

It runs :)  Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!  I got to drive it back to my house tonight.  However, it sounds terrible.  I’m quite literally not running on all cylinders.  Although as I said to Kathy tonight… “one of my cylinders isn’t running… but I still have 5… that’s good right?!?”

I’m going to take it to the mechanic this coming week to find out how bad the damage is and then decide whether to fix it or just drive a really noisy car ‘till the whole thing gives out.

But in better news… my AC works and I have a new alternator so it should start every time I turn the key!

I’m just so thankful for the men the Lord provided this past week to work on my car… it was a huge blessing.

The Four Loves

This morning I started reading “The Four Loves” by CS Lewis.  Those of you who know me know that I’m not really a reader when it comes to books you have to really think through.  I’m more of a reader of fictional fluff.  But this is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time… so I’m praying I learn something!

This really struck me today…
M. Denis de Rougemont says “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a God” 

To which Lewis replies…
"If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God… Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority.  Its voice tends to sound as if it were the will of God Himself.  It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which is sincerely done ‘for love’s sake’ is thereby lawful and even meritorious.”

Wow.  I can’t even begin to explain how important I think this message is for myself and the generation in which I have grown up.  The fairy tale idea of love is romantic, idealistic, and idolized.  People live for the idea of loving another person and even believers turn that back on truths of Scripture for the sake of love.  People also do all kinds of harm in the name of “just loving people”.  I think of all the harm done overseas because people go and give and overwhelm impoverished communities with their giving in the name of love.  But it doesn’t help anyone long-term except to make them dependent.

I’m not pointing any fingers because I will say that I am guilty of believing this fairy tale love is enough in friendships and ministry… to the point that it has been detrimental to my walk with the Lord.  And I have had to really wrestle with how the truth of Scripture really does enrich love and teach us how to let God define love for us and trust that His love is the best kind of love.

Just thinking today… thankful that God is patient with me as I learn to trust that He is love, totally and completely.

A Blessing

(imagine a picture here of 2 men working on a 2001 Red Ford Escape)

Joseph and Miguel are awesome!  Joseph comes from Arizona and Miguel from Mexico both here working with the short term team.  3 days this week they are providers in our medical clinic.  Today… they are mechanics.  Joseph has lots of mechanical experience and they both have huge servant hearts.

This morning I got the good news that after having water in 4 of my 6 cylinders… the car actually started!  (Be warned, the factual information in this post about real car stuff is probably wrong.  Most of the stuff the guys have told me this week hasn’t stuck in my brain… but I’ll stick to the truth as best I can :) )  It is still making a funny noise… but we’re going to pray that it just goes away before we try to start up the car again.

I still needed a new alternator, and apparently an oil change, and a new air filter b/c mine was wet and moldy after its swim.  So the guys did all of that for me!  They have a couple things to finish up tomorrow… then we wait with baited breath to see if the car is actually going to really work… correctly…

Today, they are my heroes.

Reading

One of the things that didn’t make the first load from Costa Rica was my Spanish kids books, and I’ve been missing them.  But since Mike and Ashley brought them when the came… thanks guys… I have a new favorite activity!

Some of these kids just eat up books like you wouldn’t believe.  This is Samuel who hasn’t ever been in school a day in his life.  But let me read about 4 books to him this morning and loved looking at the pictures!

There is another girl named Nagele (I have no idea how to spell it!).  She is 4 years old and absolutely loves books!  She would probably sit calmly on my lap for hours if I would keep reading.  I love it.

And one day my pronunciation might even get better with all this reading practice :)

I want to give them nametags…

It just kills me that I don’t know all their names.  I’m learning slowly but surely, but there are just so many kids.  But relationships are so important and I want to know them.

It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Scripture…

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  Isaiah 40:26

If He knows the names of all the stars, He definitely knows all their names.  And He holds them in HIS great power and mighty strength!