Photo of the Week: Field Trip Hangover?

The ride home was certainly a lot quieter than the ride to town.  Like a sugar crash, I wanted to label this 'field trip crash' - but I thought that might give the wrong idea and make people worry...  ;)

Journal Entry - January 20, 2014

Note: I love to journal.  Sometimes it's just something brief, and other times I go on for pages and pages.  The following is a journal entry from last month.

It seems that in this time of great struggle for me – adjusting to this role I felt called to but unready for – many things take on deeper meaning for me...  This morning it was this song – "Just Another Mountain":

This life is so temporary, so I will treasure my time.

I spend my days bringing comfort to the lost and left behind.

The struggles that I face, some days they weigh me down.

And all this tragedy I just don’t understand.

So love is the song I keep singing, preach it to my soul.

And love is the gift that God keeps giving, He is in control.

When all is lost and seems forgotten, it feels so out of reach.

It’s nothing He has not seen before, this is just another mountain.

When I’m deep in the valley, and still have so far to climb

I won’t give up, I will not back down, this fight is not mine.

Wonderful, Counselor, God of all the Ages, how your grace fills me with hope

So I will keep on singing, and I will share it with this world.

Photo of the Week: Here Comes the Sun

The sun was just about to come over the mountain as I walked to school, so I hurried to take a good picture from the steps up to the second floor.  However, as I passed by, I noticed the reflection in this classroom window...

A Word on Ministry

“Why do the kids sit in bird poop?”  This was a question asked recently by a mission group member.  Took me a little by surprise, but, ok, I can see how that would be a valid question.  

The simple answer to the question is that the students choose to sit in it.  The kids have 15 minutes of morning devotions on the porch (where there is a fair amount of bird poop from the birds that like to chill out in the overhanging eves at night), but to be clear, no one ever makes the students sit down – they’re actually supposed to be standing up...  

Here the students stand with the teacher in the sun 
because the morning was quite cold.

Yes, I wished there was no bird poop on the porch.  However, to be real honest with you, that question made me a little upset, because I only wish that bird poop on the porch was my biggest problem.  I won’t go into detail, but I think if that mission group member had spent just a day – or even an hour – inside the school, they would’ve seen much deeper issues that need to be addressed.

God can do amazing things in a week.  He can do amazing things in just a moment.  But generally speaking, I think God works among us through the drudgery of regular relationships.  Ministry is hard, it can be quite rewarding, but it is often very hard.  Israel was called to spend themselves on behalf of those in need – and I think we are too.  

But I think that we forget that spending yourself is, by definition, exhausting.  Often, we just want to fix what we can see and feel good about it.  And so, the problem of the bird poop was immediately dealt with by the visiting mission group.  There is now foam filling the eves, dispelling the birds, and leaving our porch the cleanest it’s been in quite a while.  It really is nice to have a cleaner porch – but so far as I can see, it didn’t change any of the real problems, the ones that matter most, one bit. 

If you’re not careful with short-term missions (or with ministry in general), you end up just going around putting Band-Aids on top things that are actually really infected deep down and need greater time and care.  I think lasting ministry happens in relationships.  You shouldn't do ministry to people, instead do ministry with them.  Walk alongside.  Love when it’s hard.  Yes, the pain will indeed be greater, you will be spent – but I think in the end the joy will be felt more deeply too.

  

"...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday."

 Isaiah 58:10

$?

Yesterday I went to town.  Can you guess what cost the most?

-45 minute taxi ride to town

-groceries

-band-aids for my foot (I stepped on a huge thorn)

-tub (to wash my foot in)

-post-it notes

-lunch for 2 downtown

-1 hr. 15 minute bus ride home

Photo of the Week: Beautiful Garbage

This bit of leaves fell off the poinsettia tree outside our front door.  When the evening sun hit it with it's golden glow, it was quite a beautiful sight - even if I had to look down to see it. ;)

A Ragamuffin

I really like movie trailers.  So, when I saw this link, it caught my eye and I clicked on it.  It actually looks like a pretty good movie, but it left me wondering, “Who is this Rich Mullins?”  As it turns out, Rich Mullins had a big influence on my life, and I didn’t even realize it.

So many of the worship songs I learned in my youth, from Awesome God to Creed to My Deliverer, were written and performed by this man who wrote from the heart..  They still mean a lot to me today and it's rather comforting to hear them again.

The movie trailer indicates that Rich had a unique approach at concerts, spending much of his time speaking, rather than just singing a lot of songs.  From the videos I’ve found on YouTube, I have found that to be true.  But even though I’d enjoy hearing more of his songs, I found that I also really like what he has to say and how honest he seemed in his faith.

Here's an example of how much he talked during his concerts, along with another favorite song of mine, Step by Step - a song that has especially meant a lot to me over the past year:

It's too bad he passed away at an early age, but with the little bit I know about him now, I somehow think he would've been ok with that...

Here are some quotes of his that I have enjoyed as well:

“Never forget what Jesus did for you. Never take lightly what it cost Him. And never assume that if it cost Him His very life, that it won't also cost you yours.”

~~~

“A faith that moves mountains is a faith that expands horizons, it does not bring us into a smaller world full of easy answers, but into a larger one where there is room for wonder.”

~~~

“The longer I live, the more I have the feeling like God looks down, like when you've just bitten into a vanilla ice cream cone, you just get the feeling God's going, 'Yes! He enjoys it, and I made his taste buds and I made vanilla and he's putting it together and he's experiencing what I created him to experience.”

~~~

“The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart... it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.”

~~~

“So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.”

~~~
Rich Mullins

Photo of the Week: Good Morning Sun

Can you tell my window faces east? :)  Usually I'm walking to school at the moment when the sun comes over the mountain - but on weekends I'm still in my room and get to enjoy the warmth the sun brings.

Lost in Translation: part 1

I was hoping I wouldn't do a very good job today...  You see, on Wednesday I was asked to translate the evening service, but I was thankfully able to bow out.  The pastor knowingly said, "Ok, but you're translating Sunday."  Later I felt bad about not being willing, but I also looked at the person translating and thought about all the words she understood that I wouldn't have known.  I felt like I really would've messed things up if I had been up there.

 

Some people seem to mistakenly think that knowing two languages automatically makes you a good option for translating.  In truth, the one definitely does not equal the other.  First of all, you have to pay constant attention - and let's be honest, there is often some point during a sermon when something else crosses your mind.  You also have to understand all the words being said, process them through your mind, and find the correct words in your own language, and then get yourself to say them.  You also have to not mind standing in front of people with a microphone.  None of those things made my prospects look very good.

So, this weekend I found it rather appropriate that my through-the-Bible-in-one-year schedule found me reading about Moses' reticence to do as God asked because he felt slow of speech.  I thought, "Well, at least I'll be willing...  If I'm asked to translate, I will do it.  Perhaps I will do as poorly as I think I will and I won't be asked to translate real often :)  ...or perhaps the Lord will sharpen my mind and bless my tongue and somehow I will spit out the right message..."  I decided not to worry though, or to try not to worry at least, for that would not do me much good.

And this morning I tried to be willing.  In truth, I wanted to ‘accidentally’ be late so they wouldn't get a chance to ask me - but who would I be kidding?  Definitely not the One who wants me to be ready to do His Will...  So, I came in on time, and thankfully unnoticed.  The service began and the pastor didn’t seem to be looking for me.  I thought, "Alright, maybe I just needed to be willing to translate, and now I won't really have to..."  Then during the opening prayer, the pastor came over, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked if I was ready to translate.  I found myself nodding and heard myself saying, "Yes..."

"May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord."

Psalm 19:14 

Lost in Translation: part 2

Alright Lord, here we go.  I kind of wished Moses’ hadn’t backed out of it and made his brother Aaron do the talking – that way I could’ve identified with his trepidation and drawn strength from his example of being able to overcome his fear and do it anyway.  But then, as we spent time in worship, I looked at the members of the Canadian mission group in front of me.  I began to realize that God might have an important message for them today, and I needed to have a willing spirit that they might be able to hear it.  I needed to let go of myself, and ask that God take over and make His message clear through whatever came out of my mouth.

So, I translated.  And – as it happened when I translated a pastor’s testimony in Guatemala, so it happened again this morning – I somehow begin to translate kind of on top of the other person talking.  It is not intentional at all, but it actually seems to help the flow of the message go better.  It’s kind of exciting and scary when it happens – it’s fun to be able to get the message out so smoothly, but I’m also very afraid that I’ll miss something.  I kept my eyes on the pastor the whole time, because when I couldn’t see his face, I couldn’t understand what he was saying nearly so well.

And, I guess it went pretty well.  There were some errors.  There were a few words I had no idea on.  There were numerous times I had to have him repeat his words for me.  But afterwards, there were people who came up to me and said the message was much easier to understand or that they really liked the way I translated.  My friend jokingly said too bad I did such a great job because now I would be asked to translate a lot.

Like I said, I was kind of hoping I wouldn't do well, but to be honest, the affirmations from others were nice too.  I must remember how ill-equipped I felt going up, how I had to put aside the pride that kept me from trying for fear of making a mistake and looking foolish, and trusted God to take over – it was His message, after all.

"I can do all this through Him who gives me strength."
Philippians 4:13