Adjusting

We returned to El Salvador just a week ago and we are still trying to adjust. It was interesting for me to watch the girls settle back in. They both have very different personalities and as expected they respond differently to life situations. This past Saturday there was Christmas party for all the Taekwando students and Avigail just jumped right back in to Spanish and being around people. But Ela probably didn't jump back in as quickly. It was fascinating to watch her hang back and watch the goings on. I am always amazed at their different responses to things. And also to see they go through a time of adjustment too.

Gratitude

I was thinking the other day while I was making dinner, how everything bit of food we have in our house is because of people supporting us. Everything! That is a very sobering and humbling thought. We have been allowed and blessed to live outside our own country for more than 3 years, because people support us monthly. My words can never express the amount of gratitude that is in me. I am also very grateful for a home church that teaches the importance of missions and supporting those that are serving around the world. I am humbled to be one of those recipients.

Another humbling thought is to know that people are praying for us, some of those we have never met. One Sunday we visited a church and I walked up to someone to introduce myself and the young man greeted me by name. I thought wow, how did you know my name. Then Avigail and Ela walked in and he named them by name as well. He told me, "we pray for you every Tuesday" Whoa!!! Now that is humbling!

Just a "shout out" to you all! Thank you!

I had a dream

Last week I had a dream about one of our neighbors. In my dream I was teaching Sunday School at church. The classroom was full and with a lot of activity. In the very back was my neighbor and I think her sister. My neighbor started asking some great questions about the gospel. As I am doing my best to answer her questions, all the other students in the class left. So it was just my neighbor and I talking. Everything in my dream was so clear, it was unbelievable.

When I woke up the next morning, I thought, I need to tell her about the dream I had and use it as an opportunity to tell her about what Jesus Christ has done for her. I said to myself, the next time I see her I will tell her.

Maybe a week later, I was going through my "do list" for the day and next thing on my list was go to the store. I so did not want to go, but I pushed myself to go right then. As I was about to open the gate, guess who walks by? that's right, my neighbor. (Now, I will share the ugly truth about myself). I thought, Oh Lord, I don't really have time right now to talk to her. I don't have a track with me. I don't speak well enough. She won't understand me. Not now Lord! With all this processing in my yucky heart, my neighbor has now passed by our house on her way to the little store next door. So I said, Alright God if she passes back by, I will talk to her. Just as I finished saying that, I see her coming back down the hill. Okay, here it goes...

I get out of the truck and tell that I have to tell her about a dream I had about her. I know from meeting her younger sisters that their family is very Catholic. I proceed to share the gospel with her using the dream as a spring board. To be honest, I don't remember everything I said, because it was like someone else was talking (know what I mean?). I do recall telling her that according to the Bible all of us are sinners and born separated from God. The only way that we can fix that problem is by realizing our sin nature and that it separates us from God and ask Jesus forgive us of our sins. I explained that none of us our good enough nor can we do enough good things to work our way to heaven. I used the example if someone wants to travel to another country, one thing that is required to enter into their country is a passport. You can do your very best to explain why the official at the desk should let you in, and say, "but you see I am a really good person, I do good things, I try to be kind." All that is fine and good, but the answer will still be the same, "You must have a passport to enter". I explained to her that Jesus Christ is our "passport" into heaven and into a right relationship with a Holy God. In our conversation she stated that she goes to church and God helps her. She was very grateful for me sharing with her. Now all I can do is pray and ask her what her name is and continue building a relationship with her.

I share all this mostly to encourage everyone to listen and to obey God. But don't do it like I did this particular day grumbling and complaining and doubting that she would listen to me. It is a privilege to share with others the most important thing in my life.

Going Gray

For quite some time, I had been coloring my hair to cover up the gray. I would get a little weird when I would start to the see the gray hair starting to show. Honestly, I started getting a little "crazy" (in a funny way) about when and how soon I could color my hair. Almost to the point of obsessing about it. The fact was that I wasn't ready to be gray yet.

About 3 or 4 months ago I was reading The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, and the author told a story about a man who loved to read the paper. He faithfully retrieved and read the paper every morning. One morning this man went to retrieve his daily paper, only to find that there was no paper in his drive way. After first, he thought, "oh maybe it was throw into the bushes". After looking, there was no paper to be found. As he continued to look, his could feel his heart begin to beat a little stronger. Panic was setting in. "Where is my paper?" he thought. With his heart beating more rapidly now, he noticed in his neighbors driveway a newspaper. In his mind, he began plotting how he could take that paper without anyone noticing. At that very moment something inside this man's conscience snapped, and said, "What are you thinking? It's a stinking newspaper!!!" He immediately went inside, got on the phone and called the newspaper company and proceeded to tell them, "I need to cancel my subscription. The lady working that morning, asked if he just wanted to change his subscription to weekends. He responded, "No, I need to go cold turkey." This man realized that his reading the newspaper was out of balance and he needed to make a change.

You say...what in the world does that have to do with coloring hair, for me, everything! When I read this story, I could replace the newspaper with hair color and there you have it. I had become very out of balance with being preoccupied in coloring my hair. I could totally relate to this man's feeling of panic.

Now please hear my heart... This is in no way is a "Don't Color Your Hair" campaign. That is not the issue for me. The issue for me was my own personal view toward it.

So now here I am going gray and learning to be okay with it. I'll get there. But it was a good lesson along the way of moderation in all things. God is really teaching me about this in many respects. More blogs to come in that area.

Joelito or Little Joel

This is Joel (pronounced Ho-el). With a little attention and time, we have become quite good friends. Everytime we show up at church he is there to greet me asking lots of questions. He is a high energy little boy that sometimes finds himself in trouble. We when we first came to Gotera, he would "bother" our girls. They would come to me and say that he wouldn't leave them alone. Well as I watched, he was trying with good intentions to be friendly. But being the 4th of 5 boys and no dad in the picture, he didn't know how to relate and play with girls. Our girls have both come to appreciate Joel as well.

Joel reminds me a lot of me when I was a little girl. I found myself in a lot of trouble frequently. I know for me it was solely for attention. I had people in my life, thanks to God, that saw through all that neediness and were able to see something worthwhile in me. They invested in me in despite of me. I am so appreciative of these people in my life. All these people that I can think of that made those investments were all Christians. I truly can't imagine where I would be without their impact in my life.

God has given me the chance to see a very sweet little boy in Joel. I praise the Lord for the opportunity to hopefully love, accept and encourage the life of this little boy. Pay it forward!

My Other Disciple

This is my other disciple, Arely, we are currently on lesson 7 (The Will of God). I had the tremendous blessing of watching her be baptized last Sunday night.

Arely has been saved for about 2 years and has been in the church here in Gotera for about a year. She lived in the capital for many years and then moved here to be closer to her husband. Walter, her husband, has worked at the hospital here in Gotera for many years. He would commute every week to Gotera from the capital to work and then return to spend time as a family on the weekends.

I have had the incredible blessing of discipling this sweet lady. I have been able to watch her grow in amazing ways. It has been so fun to watch her prayers being answered so specifically. One of which being the salvation of her husband, Walter and son, Eduardo. Ryan is discipling Walter too! Also Walter is the Taekwando instructor. Also Arely, has the great opportunity to stay at home and support her husband and his second job as an instructor. It is neat to see the increasing joy she receives from ministering in her home.

How great and humbling it is to be used in the Hands of the Master to play a part in the growth of this sweet friend.

My Disciple, Ingrid

I wanted to take a minute to share about my disciple Ingrid. About a year ago, I met Ingrid and we immediately had a connection. Ryan had mentioned that she needed a disciple and I quickly asked if I could disciple her. And now here we are on Lesson 16.

Ingrid already had a very solid walk with the Lord and very good understanding of the word of God when we started. The neat thing is she really desired and desires to know more and is diligently seeking the Lord.

Ingrid is a single mom with 2 children, Astrid, 14 and Fernando 11. She works for the hospital here in Gotera and has for over 20 years. Ingrid is very administratively minded. A very sharp gal all around.

In discipleship there is always a mutual teaching that happens. There are so many things that both people learn from one another. One thing that Ingrid has taught me alot about is prayer. She is a woman of prayer. When she says she is going to pray, she prays!

It is really neat to watch her really start to become involved with some of the events at church. She has organized a couple of food preparation events. As I stated before, she is very adminstratively minded.
This past year has been such a tremendous blessing. I look forward every week to spending time together in God's word.

Two World's Collided!

Two world's collided for certain! This city girl to the core, learned how to cook beans on the fire. It is a fairly easy process, just time consuming. The pot is made of clay and able to cook about 4lbs of beans at a time. Once the fire is steady, you have to feed it wood for about 2 hours.

The most common way to eat beans here in El Salvador is puree (refried). They eat beans for almost every meal, either as a main dish or the beans accompany something.

The flavor of beans cooked over the fire is so much better than those of stove pot. It is so worth the work!

Transitions

Tomorrow, we have a very big adjustment coming in our house. We have decided it is time to "help" Ella with her thumb sucking and blanket holding habit. We have said that when she turns 5 years old we would put away the blanket. It was very sweet, when she told us that she would put her blanket in a bag and save it for daughter. Isn't that precious??? I would think her daughter would not really want that big ball of gray yarn that was once a pretty white knit blanket. But very sweet nonetheless.

We are starting tomorrow. I have been praying in advance for this day for a long time. That the transition would be smooth. But part of me is really anxious about it. She is really attached (addicted) to that blanket and with the blanket always comes the thumb sucking. But like all things I need to pray it and leave it! I'll let you know how it goes!