But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. Job 23:13
Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever please him. Psalm 115:3
God is sovereign.
Jan 22, 2008
Jan 18, 2008
Ana Maria
I visited with Ana Maria, above, this past Wednesday after kids club. While all the girls are precious, Ana Maria is one of my favorites. I have written about her before--she has 8 other brothers and sisters. The picture above is taken after the Christmas Drama with four of her brothers.
The reason I am writing this post is to please be praying for Ana Maria. During our visit I learned that her dad was biten by one of their dogs last week Saturday. This dog is HUGE-- seriously. It's head is probably bigger than yours. The dog bit her dad in the leg all the way to the bone and is not able to work right now being hurt. Please pray for healing for her dad and provision for all her family needs during this time.
I also learned that one of her aunts lived with her family in their house and was seven months pregnant. Last week, her aunt was having a hard time breathing and the baby was having problems also. Her aunt had to deliver two months earlier and will be in the hospital for a couple weeks as will the baby be in the hospital for two months until it is more fully developed and weighs more.
Please be praying for Ana Maria as she takes on a big responsibity to care for her younger brothers and sisters. Please pray for peace as she worries about her family and for provision. Pray that Ana Maria grows in her relationship with the Lord and is set apart in her family to lead a different life than what is around her. That her family would notice something different about her and that they would come to our church this year. Please pray that she would know and experience joy in her life.
Jan 16, 2008
Fire Extinguishers
I remember learning about fire extinguishers in elementary school. They were always behind a glass case. I remember learning never to touch one until there was a serious fire or big trouble was to come if you touched one. I went on living my life, seeing multiple fire extinguishers every day I went to school for at least twelves years, never once even touching one. I then went on to college. Same experience. Never once using a fire extinguisher. Until Mexico.
Since we don't have smoke alarms here in Mexico, we have fire extinguishers, which was a surprise to me because I didn't even know where they were kept. Definitely not in a glass case. I learned last Sunday that fire extinguishers expire after a year and have to be emptied and refilled. Thanks to George, who is in charge of refilling our fire extinguishers, I had my first experience of not only putting out a fire with an extinguisher, but having a fire extinguisher fight.
Last Sunday, was our monthly FUN Day SUNday:) George took us out to the country, where we divided into teams of two, build fires and then each with our own fire extinguishers got to spray each other and put out our fires. Fun times if I do say so myself. I am now experienced in fire safety. Pull, Aim, Press, Sweep Side to Side:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVN0JSwrZKI&feature=related
Link to a little action movie shot above
Solamente Dios
My senior year in college, I lived in an apartment building called Argyle. Fall semester of my senior year, I met a Mexican girl named Rocio while I was during laundry. I saw Rocio often as she cleaned our apartment building and quickly figured out that she was new to the states and only spoke Spanish. For some reason, I thought about her often everytime I saw her and thought how much it would suck (probably not the best choice of words but that is what I thought:) if I couldn't talk to anyone during the day and didn't understand anyone. So, whenever I saw her I began to speak what little spanish I did know with her. Many times just smiling and asking her how her day was. However, one day while I was talking to her she told me her birthday was coming up soon later in the week. I had been praying for her and decided to take her out to eat for her birthday. After that we had more of a friendship and I talked to her more often. That semester she invited me to one of her aunt's weddings. That was the first Mexican wedding I had ever been to--with full out mariachis, cowboy hats, matching leather boots and belts and ranchero shirts. Also, the only English speaking, white girl in attendence. Rocio met my family when I graduated in May 2005 and then I moved to New York City.
While I was in NYC I would get e-mails here and there from Rocio in we kept in contact a couple times a year. I then found out that I would be moving to Fresnillo, Mexico for a year after being in NYC for two years. Within the same month of October 2007 I received an email from Rocio, who I hadn't talked to for months. I asked her at the time if she new were Fresnillo was and it turns out that it is five hours away from her home town of Durango, Mexico where the rest of her family lives. However, she continued to live in Minneapolis, MN. I had planned on visiting her family at some point while I was in Mexico; until, Saturday, January 5th I received a message from her on my computer via MSN messenger from Rocio asking me if I was still living in Mexico. I told her yes and she told me that she had returned to Durango, Mexico her home town for the next five months!!! Craziness!! We haven't seen each other for three years, I met her in Minneapolis during college and now we are five others away from each other in the same state of Mexico!! Solamente Dios se puede planear algo asi.
I saw Rocio the next day, January 6th 2008, in her home town of Durango spending the night at her aunt's house and meeting part of her family the next day. What a blessing it was to see her and to meet her family in her langauge in her home town. It still makes me smile and is hard for me to believe!! Only the Lord can plan things like this!
Jan 14, 2008
I am currently reading a book called, A Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers. She is also the other of, Redeeming Love, which is one of my favorite books. A Voice in the Wind is a fiction book. Last night as I was reading the following words jumped out at me. They are spoken in a meeting of Christian believers to encourage the characater Hadassah, who many think is a Jewish Roman slave.
"Ours is a struggle to live a godly life in a fleshly world. We must remember we are not called upon by God to make society a better place to live. We are not called upon to gain political influence, nor to preserve the Roman way of life. God has called us to a higher mission, that of bringing to mankind the Good News that our Redeemer has come..."
I am in the middle of reading the book of Job, who was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. The following words declared by him in the midst of suffering, losing all things, and trying to process and defend why he was suffering came to my mind while reading the above passage, yet as he believed in his Redeemer without knowing all the details (speaking this many years before Jesus came), waited for him-- we have the opportunity to know his Redeemer and to have Him change our lives...
"I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth." Job 19:25
"Ours is a struggle to live a godly life in a fleshly world. We must remember we are not called upon by God to make society a better place to live. We are not called upon to gain political influence, nor to preserve the Roman way of life. God has called us to a higher mission, that of bringing to mankind the Good News that our Redeemer has come..."
I am in the middle of reading the book of Job, who was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. The following words declared by him in the midst of suffering, losing all things, and trying to process and defend why he was suffering came to my mind while reading the above passage, yet as he believed in his Redeemer without knowing all the details (speaking this many years before Jesus came), waited for him-- we have the opportunity to know his Redeemer and to have Him change our lives...
"I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth." Job 19:25
Jan 8, 2008
Increible
I just got home from going over to a friend's house, Olga's, to celebrate her daughter Nancy's 21st birthday and Karla's 11th birthday, a girl who Olga has adopted into her home. I am still trying to process all that I learned tonight while sitting around the table at their house and pray Olga's example in what follows below makes each of you pray and touches you as it has me.
As we were sitting around the table talking, Olga began to tell us about her week. On January 2nd Olga was watching the news with her family and a story came on of a couple came on the T.V. about Paola, who is 17 years old and her boyfriend, Luis, who is 16 years old. This couple was approximately 6 months pregnant and just gave birth to twins. This couple had been sleeping in the hospital in Fresnillo as they waited for their newborn daughter who was born prematurely to gain wait. This baby was born weighing 2 pounds, 3 weeks early around December 16th when this couple was out in the country. Paola gave birth to this little girl along with another baby in the toilet when she was going to the bathroom. She did not know that she was having twins, and the first baby died when born from hitting her head in the toilet. The second baby was alive and they brought her to the nearest hospital, which happened to be in Fresnillo. However, this is their 3rd child. They have two other daughters. This would have been their fourth child had the first baby not died. They are seventeen and sixteen years old.
Olga is married and has four children of her own: Lalo, Liz, Nancy, and Sarai. She also has Karla who she has taken in and her son Lalo is married and has two children. Lalo, his wife and two children also live with Olga and her husband. This family has eleven people living under their three bedroom roof. Olga is a christian along with a couple others in her family. Upon hearing the news of this couple, Olga began to pray for them asking the Lord what she could do to help. The next day Olga decided to go to the hospital to ask them what they need. She ends up taking this couple from the television, Paola and Luis, into her home. To take care of them-- to feed them, to clothe them, to provide all that she can for them. Olga and her family struggle at times, yet she continues to say how they have never gone without food. Though they may have little at times, they have never gone hungry. Olga has the gift of generousity and hospitality. I was silenced, left without words upon hearing what she has done for this couple.
As Olga finished telling the story she calls for Luis and Paola, who are sitting in the other room to come into the kitchen and share their story with us. Luis enters the room, looks like a child of about 13 years old. He has the face of a little boy, yet begins to tell their story, looking at me straight in the eyes. His girlfriend,Paolo, sitting next to him also begins to speak. As I was listening to them tell their story again about their babies--giving birth in a toilet, having nothing, no money my heart continued to hurt for them, unable to believe all that they were saying. They leave to go to bed and she tells Olga that she will be walking to the hospital tomorrow to check on their little girl in the hospital. Walking about 8 miles that is, having given birth about three weeks ago, because she has no money, yet she doesn't ask for anything. Olga hands her 20 pesos for the bus saying though we don't have much, we have more then they do.
God used Olga's heart--who did not judge, but had compassion, who has little, but gives what she has to bless this couple. Olga continues to tell us, "I had to be obedient to what the Lord was telling me to do. When you hear the Lord tell you something, it doesn't go away. You must obey."
I am left without words of my own to add anything more to this story. It is my prayer that the Lord uses Olga's testimony and example to change each one of us. I know that God has a plan for this couple and a reason for bringing them into Olga's home. Please pray with me for miracles in their lives. That they may come to know Christ through Olga and her family's love. That they would leave changed people for Christ. That Olga and her family would be blessed abundantly.
As we were sitting around the table talking, Olga began to tell us about her week. On January 2nd Olga was watching the news with her family and a story came on of a couple came on the T.V. about Paola, who is 17 years old and her boyfriend, Luis, who is 16 years old. This couple was approximately 6 months pregnant and just gave birth to twins. This couple had been sleeping in the hospital in Fresnillo as they waited for their newborn daughter who was born prematurely to gain wait. This baby was born weighing 2 pounds, 3 weeks early around December 16th when this couple was out in the country. Paola gave birth to this little girl along with another baby in the toilet when she was going to the bathroom. She did not know that she was having twins, and the first baby died when born from hitting her head in the toilet. The second baby was alive and they brought her to the nearest hospital, which happened to be in Fresnillo. However, this is their 3rd child. They have two other daughters. This would have been their fourth child had the first baby not died. They are seventeen and sixteen years old.
Olga is married and has four children of her own: Lalo, Liz, Nancy, and Sarai. She also has Karla who she has taken in and her son Lalo is married and has two children. Lalo, his wife and two children also live with Olga and her husband. This family has eleven people living under their three bedroom roof. Olga is a christian along with a couple others in her family. Upon hearing the news of this couple, Olga began to pray for them asking the Lord what she could do to help. The next day Olga decided to go to the hospital to ask them what they need. She ends up taking this couple from the television, Paola and Luis, into her home. To take care of them-- to feed them, to clothe them, to provide all that she can for them. Olga and her family struggle at times, yet she continues to say how they have never gone without food. Though they may have little at times, they have never gone hungry. Olga has the gift of generousity and hospitality. I was silenced, left without words upon hearing what she has done for this couple.
As Olga finished telling the story she calls for Luis and Paola, who are sitting in the other room to come into the kitchen and share their story with us. Luis enters the room, looks like a child of about 13 years old. He has the face of a little boy, yet begins to tell their story, looking at me straight in the eyes. His girlfriend,Paolo, sitting next to him also begins to speak. As I was listening to them tell their story again about their babies--giving birth in a toilet, having nothing, no money my heart continued to hurt for them, unable to believe all that they were saying. They leave to go to bed and she tells Olga that she will be walking to the hospital tomorrow to check on their little girl in the hospital. Walking about 8 miles that is, having given birth about three weeks ago, because she has no money, yet she doesn't ask for anything. Olga hands her 20 pesos for the bus saying though we don't have much, we have more then they do.
God used Olga's heart--who did not judge, but had compassion, who has little, but gives what she has to bless this couple. Olga continues to tell us, "I had to be obedient to what the Lord was telling me to do. When you hear the Lord tell you something, it doesn't go away. You must obey."
I am left without words of my own to add anything more to this story. It is my prayer that the Lord uses Olga's testimony and example to change each one of us. I know that God has a plan for this couple and a reason for bringing them into Olga's home. Please pray with me for miracles in their lives. That they may come to know Christ through Olga and her family's love. That they would leave changed people for Christ. That Olga and her family would be blessed abundantly.
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