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!
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.
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 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!
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!
I am reading a GREAT book right now! It's called "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. And this is an excerpt from it! Awesome!
The law says, This do and thou shalt live. - The gospel says, live, and then thou shalt do.
The law says, Pay me that thou owest. - The gospel says, I frankly forgive thee all.
The law says, Make you a new heart and a new spirit. - The gospel says, A new heart will I give you, and new spirit will I put within you.
The law says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - The gospel says, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The law says, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. - The gospel says, Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
The law says, the wages of sin is death. - The gospel says, The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The lawdemands holiness. - The gospelgives holiness.
The law says, Do. - The gospel says, Done.
The lawextorts the unwilling service of a bondman. - The gospelwins the loving service of a son and freeman.
The law makes blessings the result of obedience. - The gospel makes obedience the result of blessing.
The law places the day of rest at the end of the week's work. - The gospel places it at its beginning.
The law says, If. - The gospel says, Therefore.
The law was given for the restraint of the old man. - The gospel was given to bring liberty to the new man.
Under the law, salvation was wages. - Under the gospel, salvation is a gift.
I love putting puzzles together. When we lived in Costa Rica, Ryan bought me a set of puzzles. It was a box that had 7 or 8 different puzzles, each in individual bags. The box had the pictures of each individual puzzle, and also there was a poster included with the pictures of each puzzle. In order to down size for the move to El Salvador, we only took the bags and the poster. I can't seem to remember where I put the poster with the pictures of each puzzle. But I really wanted to put a puzzle together, and I thought, "how can I ever put a puzzle together without the picture?"
I love that God always wants to show me spiritual pictures through the physical. God showed how often we get "freaked out" when we can't see the picture that He has for us. We think and/or say, well, God there is no way I can do any of this without seeing the big picture. But the fact is, we can. Is it ideal? No. But surely it can be done. How? One piece at a time. To trust in the fact that God has a picture big, and that we just need to work diligently with each piece.
I always start with the straight edge pieces and obviously same colors go together. Once that was done I could see more of the context or structure of the picture. So then I started putting like colors and textures together. More and more I could the true picture.
We can trust God with each individual piece of the puzzle in our life because we trust in the fact that there is a big picture. So just work one piece at a time. Each step or piece of the puzzle is important for the next. Everything is connected and necessary to complete and see the whole picture.
The beautiful thing is we don't NEED to see the big picture! It can be done, just one piece at a time.
Throughout all my Christian walk, I have heard the verses in Proverbs 3:5-6 over and over again. I, at times have great times of trusting only in the Lord and not leaning on my own understanding. And other times....not so much.
Lately, I have been overcome with the desire just to trust. Praise the Lord, we don't have anything right now that is huge or trying in our world. But I have really seen even in the little things, just to trust!
I am reading Hannah Whitall Smith's book "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" (which is an excellent read) and she said something that I just loved and held onto...."The truth is, the only remedy in every emergency is to trust in the Lord. And if this is all we ought to do, and all we can do, is it not better to do it at once?" We don't have any "emergencies" right now, but we daily have opportunities to trust the Lord for something. It has been so awesome just to release everything into God's care.
While truly releasing things into God's care, I find I have fewer things to say. Does that make sense? There is nothing to say or to figure out because I have released it. Is it God's business now.
When I begin to worry or think on things, or lean on my own understanding of the situation, I have started to say..."Satan I know you are trying to convince me to doubt God, so you take these things to God himself. This is His business not mine!" How freeing that has been!
The girls have been out of school for 3 weeks. The swine flu alert closed all schools for 3 weeks. We all have gone a little stir crazy. The girls were sick for a week or so with a cold, which kept us at home to not share the goodness with anyone else. So tomorrow will be the first Sunday back in 3 Sundays. We are ready to be among the living again!
Weeding....Sometimes a very overwhelming task. I don't know how you feel about it, but for me, it isn't something I seek after. However, I don't like having weeds in my garden or yard. So as much as I don't want to tackle this task, I know it is necessary. Recently while I have been weeding I noticed some great spiritual principals that are worth holding on it.
Right now I am reading the book called "Las Mentiras que Las Mujeres Creen" (The Lies that women believe). I have been really challenged to pray and look inward at what lies I have been believing and those that hold me in bondage. Little did I know that God wanted to use weeding as a physical picture to bring about many spiritual truths.
There is no doubt, like I mentioned before, that weeding can be an overwhelming task. And most of us, let's be honest, hate doing it. But we know it is necessary.
We have a good sized yard here and so there are a lot of weeds, because nothing has been landscaped, there was just dirt. So when the rain came, so did the weeds and lots of them. Sometimes I didn't even know where to begin. And so, I started with the big weeds. Some would come out fairly easy and others would take a good tug. It always helped to have had rain the night before because the soil was much more soft. What I noticed when I got a lot of the big weeds is there were many smaller weeds down closer to the ground. So before I could really see the ground I had to clear out the smaller weeds. After seeing a little bit of ground, it encouraged me to keep at it because I was seeing progress.
In my process of trying to landscape, I am using rocks from around the yard to put in specific places. When I cleared away enough of the weeds and saw more of the ground I was able to find this type of rock.
So here are the spiritual things that God showed me in this process. God showed me the weeds are like the lies. In order to have a beautiful or pleasing garden you must get the weeds out. Just like our spiritual life, we can never have a pleasing, fruit bearing life if our live our lives overtaken by lies. But it is an overwhelming task to start trying to address the lies. Wow, where do you begin? As I mentioned the rain the night before was such an incredible help in pulling the weeds, I am certain this watering spiritually is prayer. Praying that God would reveal which lies to begin "weeding" out. Okay, the obvious place to begin is with the big lies, because then you will be able to see the smaller ones. They are sometimes hard to pull out and other come out with much ease. Definitely the easiest way to pull these weeds (lies) is to get your hand around the base, closer to the root. I know I have to get to the root of the lie to be freed from it. Lies like weeds come in all shapes and sizes. You can never see the truth, or all God intended until you get the lies out of the way. Being able to see what is really there, then you can see what is usable. Like I mentioned, I found the rock I was wanted to put in other places around the yard. I found what was usable. God wants to show me all that is usable. I wasn't able to see all that was usable before because of the lies.
Just like with weeds, lies need to be maintained or kept at bay. The beautiful thing is, is that if kept maintained I am much more likely to focus on the truth because it can be seen. A person has to be very intentional to keep truth the main focus. The lies will always be there, but we get to the point those are not what is predominant.
A couple of weeks ago there was a team from Alabama. There were such an incredible blessing. Their focus was spent sharing the gospel door to door during the day and then in the afternoon they had time especially for kids. They had piñatas, games and a time where they heard the presentation of the gospel. In the evening there was a service with music and preaching as well. There was fruit from this campaign and new people attending the church in Cacaopera.
Adventures in Odessy has been such a blessing for our home. There is a continual battle with watching too much tv and so one of the alternatives we have come up with is listening to these stories that are chalked full of moral and biblical principles.
For a long it was just Avigail listening to these during her rest time, but then Ella began to have an interest in hearing them as well. And to my surprise it holds her attention. She is now asking to listen them. So here they are listening to one of the stories.
Our girls spend a great deal of time in the hammock. This night they decided to sit in it together. How cute is that!
We have 2 hammocks in our living room. Because we decided against a traditional sofa with cushions, these hammocks serve like a couch. And they are much cooler than a traditional sofa as well.
The hammock has been good for me because I take time to rest during the day, which is not common for me. Down time is important, or margin time.
Here is a picture of Avigail in her Taek won do uniform. Like I said in the last post, she is really enjoying doing this. This past Tuesday they had testing to receive the next level (next colored belt), but she said she wasn't ready to test for it. She sat and watched her other classmates test for about an hour. I glad she is enjoying and we will do it until she doesn't.
Avigail is growing up so fast not just in height. I am so excited about the questions she is asking and the life lessons she is starting to understand. She is in a very inquisitive stage about the things of Jesus' death and salvation that comes from it.
She said the other day, "mom can you help me with the decision to accept Jesus as my Savior because I think I need help." She can tell you everything about the gospel, but it is not quite personal (yet)!
We told her it would be good if she prayed for God to show her why she needed a Savior. And she has done just that. Every couple of days she is asking more questions. It is such a blessing to watch and be a part of as parents.
On a much different note... Avigail is loving Tae Kwan Do. She gets so excited when she is given the opportunity to count out loud during the exercises in Korean.
Avigail is a really sweet big sister and daughter. We are so blessed to have her as our daughter!
In the picture above she is not drinking anything shady.....it is agua de coco (coconut water)! She wanted the umbrella that came with the water.
Ella has been asking for little arm floaties for the pool. I don't mean just asking, I mean ASKING. She would ask everyday when she got home from school. She would ask "mom, did you buy "flippies"? My sad response everyday "no sweetheart, maybe tomorrow. The issue is there isn't a great selection because it is rainy season and so the shelves are cleared out of this type of thing. And I wasn't aggressively looking because I had no idea how important it was. I honestly thought it was a passing thing.
Well the other day, Ryan and I were in the store and I walk down an aisle that had swimming stuff. And low and behold, there were some "flippies". And they were 30 cents!! And they were super cute. They are little ladybugs. When Ella got home from school, I said, "hey, I have something for you... she said, "what mommy?" I asked her, "what have you been asking for?" She responded, "Flippies!" I told her, "they are in the kitchen". She goes running in there and sees them, and just starts gushing with thankfulness. She must have said thank you 10 times right then. But the sweet thing is, she hasn't stopped. These are some of things she has said... "Mom, that was really nice of you to buy those for me. Mom, your the best mom for buying me those flippies." Now, I must say that we don't usually receive such gratefulness, but this time was very precious.
That is truly the best 30 cents I have ever spent.
I had the tremendous blessing having my disciple, Sarah come to El Salvador for a visit. We had a great time together. We laughed, ate chocolate, played cards, went sight-seeing, ate more chocolate, played cards, ate mangos, went to the beach, did I mention we ate chocolate? Seriously though it was so fun to spend time with my friend.
One thing that was really awesome for me was see how much Sarah had grown spiritually. Over the years we have know each other, we had the great opportunity to go through discipleship, and the woman's study together. What a incredible blessing to watch her grow over the years and now she is sharing with me and offering me advice. What a wonderful treat for me. In a sense, God gave me the opportunity to be her "spiritual mom" for a time. What a blessing to have been used as a tool in the God's hand to have a part in someone's spiritual growth. Nothing makes me more proud and happy to watch someone apply spiritual truths in their life and embrace change and growth. Praise God for giving such great increase!
Sarah, my friend I am so proud of you. I love you tons. And had a GREAT time and look forward to the next time. The beach is calling your name! tee hee
Here and pretty much all of Central and South America, Good Friday is celebrated much more than Easter. Everything is closed on Friday and people don't like to leave their house because they think it is a sin. But Sunday is back to business as usual. Very different.
Also, I asked if it was customary to buy a new dress or outfit for Easter. When they looked at me strange after I asked, I thought either my spanish was so bad that they thought I asked if you buy a new dog for Easter or they just don't have that custom. Turns out it is not their custom.
And they don't have a stitch of Easter goodies here. Like coloring to color eggs, no plastic eggs and no candy! How are you supposed to celebrate Easter without all that. Just kidding, we did just fine. They girls were very flexible and they were so grateful for all that we did. Sweet things (the girls).
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I'll be the first to openly admit, that this past Sunday while listening to a great message, I got distracted. I know that is hard to believe, but it happened. A verse caught my attention in Galatians 1, that I really needed to see.
Verse 10 says, "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
I have struggled and struggled with my confidence with my Spanish. A huge stumbling block for me has been what people are saying. How they compare me to others and their ability. I believe this is difficult for anyone to hear over and over again. However, clearly I am looking for the approval of men, who am I trying to persuade and/or please, men or God?
Then I remembered other verses that God showed me several months back. When Moses was basically questioning God about his ability (or lack of) to speak to the nation of Israel. God firmly asked him, Moses, Exo 4:2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
God constantly needs to remind me that I have somewhat of an ability. I have something in my hand. But, my response over and over again... is much like Moses....
Exo 4:10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And God says, my I remind you, Keeley
Exo 4:11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Exo 4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
God says to me: Now go, Keeley. You worry about pleasing me, not men and use what you have in your hand!
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.
