Guat's up? Guatemala

³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3

Upon Arriving at Casa Para Ninos I was met with a complex paradox. Stories of how many of the children ended up at Casa... babies in trashcans, kids who got sick and the family didn't want them, little girls raped, and so on. We were warned that many of the children might be tempted to steal stuff so keep an eye on everything. Typically you would expect delinquents at a place like Casa, but yet...I saw 400 children, one big family. All 400 worshiping Jesus and loving one another.

People so far have asked me "What was the best part?" and I can't really answer because everyday was the best, and no words can really describe what happened there.
The other question is "What did you do?" so now I will write down what I did in a complete schedule manner.
Sunday was our first Complete day there. On Sunday, work crews and the school kids are off, and we just got to love on the kids. I loved starting the week off with Church there at Casa. Mike "Papi" preached a great sermon and all the kids were jumping up and down and singing their little hearts out. (Sidenote: little is right, only a couple of the kids there were taller than me and I'm only 5'5") We spent the afternoon playing with kids and looking around Casa on our own. Another thing was that the group that I was apart of (Lubbock) stayed with a group of Mennonites from Pennsylvania and Maryland. They were great people and many of them were on their 3rd and 4th trip to Casa. Therefore, Sunday was spent meeting our bunkmates and some of the Casa girls that lived near our "Gringo Dorm"
Yes they called us Gringos, though this is more of a "foreigners" term than "White People" Funny, I barely heard my name at all the whole week, I was "gringa" to the kids, and "Texas" to the other team.

We started off the week a little slow because we were all waiting for tasks to do. However, Papi told us that whatever we can do to help is fine, but the most important thing is to love the kids. So love we did!

Monday we got the whole shebang tour of the place from a longterm Missionary named Adam. He was from Alabama, it was evident through his accent, his Alabama T-Shirt, and his "Jesus loves you, Roll Tide!" disposition.
He showed us where everything was and what projects they had going on, and what needed to be done. First thing was the showers at the Baby dorm were not working and needed repair. We had a bit too many people so I and a few others were keeping the little ones out of the way. With not much to do, after lunch it was play time with the younger children. (Children through Jr. high age went to school in the morning, and HighSchool went after lunch) We made little string bracelets.. and I learned that I'm really not that crafty of a person.

Tuesday started off a bit slow since we all did not have a job yet, but then the girls from the Mennonite group and I went to paint the pink walls that were over on the boy side. The afternoon was once again spent hanging with younger girls and my new friends from PA and MD. Then that evening we threw a Pizza party for the Vocational age boys. These boys are in highschool and preparing for college or vocations. Ric entertained them with some ridiculous "magic" tricks while Doug sang out some background music. (A much funnier scene than is described by words).

Wednesday, Ric Thomas and I started the day off learning Kachiquel, the local Mayan language, and it was the good morning, afternoon, evening, greetings. Then we went over to the transition house to hang a ceiling, in which I worked real hard at handing stuff up to the hard workers. Wednesday night, Doug Chapman (Missions pastor at FUMC LUBBOCK) filled in for Papi and Jacob (local kid)  translated the message.

Thursday continued the work on the Ceiling and artistic painting of the formerly pink wall. Some of the vocational boys dropped by and expressed approval at their new lightblue psalmy tree wall. I then learned that I have some serious ceiling hanging skills, and I was the master tile hanger person. And off course! We played with the kids more than we worked. That night we all went over to the boy side to hang out and I met my buddy Ivan there, and we hung out while dodging stray soccer balls that were flying from the game.

Friday was the last morning we were there, on Friday we said our goodbyes and nostalgically looked around and soaked up all we learned and gained from our time at Casa.

People ask me what was the best part... there's not a best part, there's just a best lesson... or 2.

First, is that all you need is Love. Mike had buried 3 children of his own and hadn't cried at any of the funerals. Yet... when he visited Guatemala and was walking the city in the wee hours of the morning, he stumbled upon piles of orphans cuddling for warmth, and he couldn't STOP crying. Upon his return home his wife Dottie asked him "How was it" and he started crying again. His wife knew him well and asked "When are we moving to Guatemala?" So they moved to Guatemala and Mike went to the Judge in charge of the children of Guatemala and asked for the children. The judge told him off, he didn't have property, food, clothing to provide, and he was a tourist. Mike knew she was right so he just started bawling. She told him to come back in a couple days after he had time to think about it. So 2 days later he went back and she had agreed to give him around 30 kids to take care of. Knowing her previous attitude towards him, he asked why, and she told him "When I saw you crying, I knew you would love them." God used the tears of a man who'd never cried to do his will.

Secondly, I learned that God does in fact provide. I learned this lesson from my own experience and Mike's testimony. When I saw the Guatemala trip in the church bulletin at FUMC Lubbock I knew I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure God wanted me to yet. So I signed up for the trip knowing that if it was God's will, it would happen. Sure enough, the information email was sent and I was excited to go, however, at the time my family didn't have the money and as a poor college kid who didn't make enough money to pay my own rent, I didn't have the money to go on my own. So I sent in the question "How much?" and the answer was 1200$ but each individual would be responsible for 600$. I found that to be manageable, but the kicker was "If you come up with 100$ by May you are going" I opened my desk drawer and pulled out a 100 dollar bill that was a gift from God himself. The story behind that was I reached into my back pocket one evening and I had a mystery 100$ Bill. Being a gift from God, I knew it shouldn't be spent needlessly. That was the sign that God wanted me on this trip.

Mike in his testimony reiterated the lesson. Ever since he came to Guatemala to do God's will, everything he needed, happened. The Guatemalan government does not fund Casa Para Ninos, but they endorse them. Every penny for Casa comes from God in some form or fashion. Apart from money, God blessed Casa with clean healthy water and enough resources to increase room for more kids.

Seeing this truly hit me that when God makes a promise he keeps it. He stays faithful and when you do his will he provides everything you need.

I highly recommend Casa Para Ninos for a life changing experience. :)

What Church Should Be

I hear all the time "I don't like those religious people"
well, neither do I. However I don't make the mistake of associating true followers of Christ with "religious" folk.
Religious folk go to every service offered at their "church", write out the offering check, and have a Holier than thou approach to everything. They are the Pharisee's that Jesus told that they should have love without neglecting what they were already doing. They were doing things right, just without love, just as "Religious" Folk tend to do many things right, just without the love and grace of God.
Church is a building, their little club.

However,
The Church is the followers of Jesus.
We (Christians) are the Church, the Body of Christ, his Bride.

Church should be our family, Jesus himself said so "Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark:  3 34-35

This past year I witness my home church ravished by 2 bad choices. The first was the result of my church going "Religious" and being selfish. The second wasn't an obvious bad choice at first, but I believe God was using this second bad choice to teach a lesson. Lo and behold, my home church is now a family again. I see this on the rare occasion that I make it back home for a visit.
I've also been blessed to witness this community and family that is the Body of Christ at Ceta Canyon.
First I saw it in the interaction between the counselor/volunteers, if any issue came up, there was immediately a circle of volunteers to pray for them. It was incredibly powerful to see so many people in my age range just loving and praying for people they've known all of a few hours.
Secondly, I saw it in my senior high small group (SG1 Holla!)
This group banded together and became a family faster than I've seen anyone do. The amount of love and understanding I saw in the group can only be greater if its by God's own Love. I'm so proud and awed by the devotion my small group has to one another.

That's what the Church is supposed to look like.

Father's Day

Daddy, the words of love spoken to the father from his children.

Its been a long time since Daddy was what I called my father. Dad just always seemed to fit him better. I on occasion heard other girls call their father Daddy frequently even after leaving the toddler ages. I guess I always felt that it made me extra girly to say "mommy" and "daddy" instead of the mature sounding "Mom" and "Dad". But I never felt like calling them Mother and Father, that sounded too impersonal.

However, I recently have on occasion used Daddy while talking to my Dad. I don't know why, because I've never been prone to adding that extra DY. I can only guess its my way of saying that just because I've flown the coop, doesn't mean I'm no longer his little girl. I no longer feel that I have to prove that I'm independent and tough.

As for Father's Day, I love having a day to go a little extra on the honoring and showing some extra love.
Dad is a little more difficult than Mom when it comes to love languages though. Though neither of my parents are materialistic, I can always think of a neat little gift to give her to show her I care. I love giving gifts, but the giving or recieving of gifts is not my Dad's love language.

The best gift I can give him for Father's day, Birthday, and Christmas, is excelling in life, living the lessons he taught. "Be aware of your enviroment" and "I can do whatever I set my mind to", and my personal favorite "You can talk a squirrel out of his nuts' not that I do talk to squirrels. From what I know of my dad, if I succeed in life, then its the best gift I could give.

~~~~~~

Now I shall mention and honor some of the other men in my life. These guys would be there for me just as soon as my own Dad. My Daddy holds a special #1 place in my Earthly Father slot, but I love these guys very much as well.
Stan Carter
James Hinton
Papa
James Merrit
David Gerhardt
Bob Banks
Dan Swanson
Kenny Smith
Brother John
Walt Eads

I love my Men, Happy Fathers Day to them and all other fathers out there, each of these has shown me reflections of my Heavenly Father. By showing me the love of an earthly father, I can better understand my Abba Father and the sacrifices he's made, as well as the unconditional love.
Thank you Abba for my Dad and my Men.

Spiritual Gifts

Today's Sermon at FUMC Lubbock was amazing. Spiritual Gifts and how they are necessary to the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ itself is a simple, yet Amazing concept that always interests and awes me.
God created us in his image, yet we are diverse, even radically so at times, so when the subject of diversity is brought up we can look further than just the simple differences that makes us as humans diverse.
God's creativity made us diverse in appearance, personality, culture, and that list goes on and on, but looking past secular differences, we can see that God also gave us diverse spiritual gifts.
We are not meant to go about God's will headstrong and self important, just like how the eye can't do all the functions of a body, but instead works in tandem with the hands, feet, nose, ears, etc.
This is the same as one with the gift of Leadership doesn't get the job done without organizers, prayers, healers, teachers, and other gifted people.
Everyone has a gift of some sort, God doesn't give you coal in lieu of presents like Santa does to naughty kids.
There are many many spiritual gift assessments online, and most people know themselves pretty well and can discern (that is also a gift by the way, discernment) whether or not it fits them. Who knows, maybe you'll be surprised.
There are many more, but today I used this one from the Methodist website
http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1355371/k.9501/Spiritual_Gifts.htm

I Challenge you to discover your personal spiritual gift, then I challenge you to use it.