My Family Away from Home

"But He answered them, saying, 'Who is My mother, or My brothers?'  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.'" - Mark 3:33-35

In this passage, Jesus is not disowning his family.  He is simply saying that his relationships with people go beyond the physical into the spiritual.  Living abroad, I have learned a little more about what that means.  I love my family.  However, they live very far away.  Actually, I live far away from them.  Since living here at the ranch, I have learned more about how the Body of Christ becomes your family, no matter where you live.  We are off from school today and tomorrow for spring break.  This morning I had a relaxing morning at home with my roommate Sara.  I enjoyed just spending time with her.  After lunch, I took a grocery item to a friend's house that was left in my cooler yesterday.  On my way home, I stopped at a house where one of the kids has opened his own "pulperia" (store).  I sat and talked with him and a couple of the boys that live in his house.  Shortly after that, a few of the other teachers came and joined us.  We sat and talked until the Children's Services Director came and sat with us.  From there I went to a meeting.  I ended my day riding the busito with our Honduran staff to the city to go pick up my car.  That's not true.  My day ended about 9pm after I had my Girls' Bible Study.  Throughout the day, I interacted with a lot of different people.  We all live and work together.  I realized that in my time here, THEY have become my brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.  While I am away from my physical family, God has provided the love and fellowship of other believers to be my family here in Honduras.  What a blessing that is!  It is the responsibility of all Christians to reach out and love one another.  There should never be a lonely Christian.  We should always be on the lookout for anyone feeling lonely or isolated, and then lovingly embrace them into the family of God.  After all, we are always to model Christ's example.

Randomness

"Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, 'If You are willing, You can make me clean.'  Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed.'  As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed." - Mark 1:40-42

Grades were due today.  There was a mixture of really excellent grades and not so good ones.  At least this is just the mid-quarter grades, so there is still time to improve.  My math students are doing well.  They all have either As or Bs.  Tomorrow I will make copies of the progress reports, and then send them home on Wednesday.

My car went in today for repairs.  It needs a lot of work, but hopefully it won't be too expensive.  The road from the ranch to the city is pretty rough, so my car needs repairs fairly regularly.  It also doesn't help that the car is 12 years old.  :)

Finally, this evening I was invited to a dinner given as a thank you to all the people who helped with the Valentine's Day dinner.  I was invited because I had babysat a house of kids.  The dinner was lovely, followed by games.  I learned a new game called Wordsters.  It is similar to Scattergories, although you have to make words using three letters in the order they are given.  It was more complicated than it sounds.  The words can have the letters in a row, or they can have other letters interspersed.  I liked it, but I enjoy games like that.  I liked it even better because I won.  :)

Ok, I guess that's the end of my randomness for the evening.

The Weekend in Review

"And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." - Mark 1:10-11

It's been a good weekend.  Friday night I went and hung out at the teacher apartment.  It was a relaxing end to a busy week.  Saturday I drove the preschool teacher to the airport to meet up with this week's medical brigade.  We try to have all of our teachers experience the other side of the ministry, so she will be spending the week at our Mission House and doing community outreach all week.  While at the airport, I ran into a group from another ministry with which I am friends.  It was great to see them, as I haven't seen them since Christmas.  I got back to the ranch early enough to read for awhile, and then sit in the rain to watch the guys play soccer.  It was a fun game to watch.

Saturday evening, some of the teenage girls hosted a special dinner for all the house parent couples at the ranch.  I hear it was very lovely.  I babysat a house of boys so the parents in that house could attend.  They didn't get home until almost 10pm, so I was pretty tired.  However, I had a lot of fun with the kids.  One of the boys is the same one in my profile pic on Facebook.

Today was a typical day in the city.  The sermon in church was on the importance of having discernment.  Afterwards, we went to Chili's for lunch.  We hadn't been in a while, and decided it would be a fun treat.  We got our shopping done and were back at the ranch by 3:30pm.  Again, I had time to read some more.  I am currently reading the Baxter series by Karen Kingsbury.  It's not actually called that.  There are several different series that follow the Baxter family.  All the female teachers at the ranch have been reading it, and I got sucked in too.  The books are really excellent, if you are looking for something good to read.  WARNING:  They are DEFINITELY chick books.  

I am looking forward to a short week this week.  We are taking Thursday and Friday off for a mini spring break.  I decided that since Easter is not until April, we would have a spring break.  The schools in the city are taking the whole week off, but we find the kids at the ranch get bored very quickly if they are out of school too long.  I would rather give a break and yet keep them busy.  :)

Girls' Bible Study

"Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." - Psalm 33:18-19

Praise the Lord!  Tonight I had NINE girls show up for my Bible Study!  That is EVERY girl in 10-12th grades.  I was just floored!  God is working in their hearts, I truly believe that.  I am hoping they will all continue to come.  We had some really great discussions tonight.  Tonight's session was entitled, "Says Who?" and talked about the way Satan takes what is good and perverts it.  We talked about how the spiritual world impacts the natural world.  That led to an awesome discussion on the evil things that occur in this world.  I am excited to see where God takes us over the next several weeks.  Please be praying for these girls!  And of course, for me as well as I try to point them to Christ.

100th Day of School

"Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints!  For the LORD preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person.  Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD." - Psalm 31:23-24

It's hard to believe that today was our 100th day of school!  Where has the time gone?  The primary school celebrated this afternoon with their 100th day party.  I was unable to attend because I had my weekly leadership meeting.  I bet the kids had fun though!

This evening we had our weekly family night with the singles.  We each contributed chicken and apples to have a wonderful meal of chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and homemade applesauce.  It was yummy!  I was a little distraught when I had two different people today tell me they dreamed of me last night.  I was mean in both of the dreams!  I like to joke that I am mean, but maybe I need to reevaluate the way I really treat people.  I don't want to be mean for real!  :(

After dinner we played a fun card game called golf.  I just learned it about a month ago, but it is a fun game that can be played with as many as seven or eight people.  We had lots of laughs this evening.

A Relaxing Weekend

"And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" - Matthew 25:40

Well, the movie fell through on Friday night.  The only showing was at 9:00pm, and we decided that was too late to start a movie in the city.  We still went for a nice Chinese dinner, but then came back to the ranch and watched the latest episode of LOST.  I love that show.

Saturday ended up being a relaxing day.  I slept in, which was nice.  I had the opportunity to talk to my best friend in the States for about an hour and a half.  It was great to catch up with her.  Unfortunately, in order to talk I have to be outside to get signal.  Without thinking about it, I ended up getting REALLY sunburned on my face and arms.  I guess next time I want to talk on the phone, I need to remember to put on sunscreen.

Last night my next door neighbors invited some of us over to play games.  We played Guitar Hero for a little while, and then played the game Sequence.  Sequence is a board game that uses cards too.  You have to match your cards with the cards printed on the board.  The winning team has to get five in a row.  It was actually a lot of fun.

Today was a regular Sunday in the city.  We went to church and had a great message from the pastor.  He preached on Jeremiah 2:1-13.  His main point was that "God is the Fountain of Living Waters, and longs to be the source of His people's joy and satisfaction, and hates to be replaced by anyone or anything else (competing affections)." (Quoted from his sermon outline). 

We got back relatively early (3pm) so I had time to read before making dinner and starting my evening routine.  Overall it's been a relaxing weekend.  I am ready to face another week! 

Moral Principles - Twisted

"You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.  If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry;" - Exodus 22:22-23

Tonight I had my first girls' Bible Study of the semester.  I had one new girl join the group, and three others said they would come but could not come tonight.  If all that said would come really do, we will have eight all together.  Please be in prayer for them and for me as I lead it.  I decided we are going to start with a video series by Andy Stanley called "Twisted."  It talks about how the truth has been twisted and how easily we believe those lies.  There are six sessions in this particular study.  I haven't decided what we will do after this.  It was really great to be back with the girls.  We were able to rejoice with one of the girls, a senior, who found out today she was accepted to one of the colleges to which she applied.  She is still waiting to hear from her first choice, but at least now she has a backup if that falls through!

Tomorrow a group of the singles are going to the city for dinner and a movie.  We are going to see Valkyrie with Tom Cruise.  I have heard it is an excellent movie, so I am looking forward to it.  It should be a fun night out.

The Ten Commandments

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  You shall have no other gods before Me." - Exodus 20:2-3

So many people think that if you keep the ten commandments, you will stay on God's good side.  The truth is, none of us can keep the commandments.  The ten commandments were given to us to show us our sinfulness.  The purpose of the law was to show us our need for a Savior.  As I struggled today with several disappointments, I continually thought on God's goodness and sovereignty.  Despite that, my human emotions were unable to rejoice in the situations.  Oh how I need a Savior!  Even though I know that God works all things for good, my sinful nature rebelled against God's perfect will.  Even when we try to be good, it is impossible for us to do!  Anytime we desire something more than just simply God's presence, we are disobeying the command, "You shall have no other gods before Me."  Anything placed above the Almighty One becomes an idol.  I am so thankful that I not only recognize my need for a Savior, but that I know who He is personally - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Which is the First Commandment of All?

"Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" - Matthew 22:37-39

I am still trying to learn how to love people well.  It's hard to do.  So often my selfishness gets in the way and I want to meet my needs before those of others.  If we truly love God with our all, this commandment should get easier.  We are able to love only because God loved us first.  

I had a good day today.  My math classes went well, which is always a blessing.  So far all of my students are doing well to start the semester.  When I was not teaching, I was writing notes home in English and Spanish to let the house parents know what's coming up in the school.  We have a Spelling Bee coming up at the beginning of March for our 2nd through 6th graders.  We also have a spring break coming up in two weeks.  I think the teachers are as excited about that as the kids.  The first midterm progress reports go home the same week as spring break, so grades are coming due.  Finally, one of the high school classes, Socioeconomic Development, is having a baked goods sale on Friday to learn about overhead costs and sales.  In addition to cookies and brownies, they will also have traditional Honduran foods.  It should be fun!

Tomorrow we have a medical brigade coming for a tour of the ranch, followed by our usual soccer game with the kids.  After lunch I am headed to the city for my regular shopping day.

An Exuberant Declaration of Faith

"The LORD is my light and my salvation;  Whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life;  Of whom shall I be afraid?" -Psalm 27:1

The LORD is in control of all things.  He is sovereign!  I keep reminding myself of that whenever I start to feel down or discouraged.  Right now I am re-reading a book I read about five years ago.  It is actually a collection of three books written by Arthur W. Pink.  I just finished the first book entitled, "The Attributes of God."  It goes through the different characteristics of God, and how each one is absolutely perfect.  One of those attributes is God's sovereignty.  It has been an awesome reminder that God is sovereign over ALL things.  His perfect will is always done.  The next book that I am just beginning is entitled, "The Sovereignty of God."  How appropriate!  It is so much easier to place your faith in God when you can accept that He Himself is faithful!  David recognized that when he wrote his psalms.  Even when he begins down and discouraged, he always returns to a place of faith in God's goodness, mercy, and sovereignty.  The LORD is reminding me that His will be done.  I can rest in that, knowing that no matter what happens, it is all for God's glory and my good.  Praise the Lord, my light and my salvation!  There is no reason to fear!