Red Letters - Part 2

FINALLY! I have a few moments of peace and quiet to finish writing about this wonderful book! Here is the link to my post about the first half of the book.

Chapter 6 is entitled "The Sanctity of Life". Tom spends time on two passages of Scripture - Matthew 25:41-45 and Jeremiah 29:11-14. In the Matthew passage God tells us that He IS that hungry, thristy, homeless, sick and imprisoned person. He doesn't just care for them He IS them. This is something I am still amazed by and again am realizing that it will be hard to "See God" as I so often ask and live my life "not seeing" the people He indwells!
The Jeremiah passage is special to me because it is the verse we claimed over Rebecca at her dedication before our church family. Verse 11 says the Lord has "plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for". These words from Tom really pierced my heart when I read them.
"Does the Jeremiah passage apply to everyone or just to those of us who live in weathly countries? Does it pack the same kind of meaning to people in developing countries; do they get to look forward to a hope and a future? Does it apply to the infant who was just infected with HIV through her mother's breast milk?"
I agree with Tom's conclusion that God makes that promise to every person and He desires to use US to embody that promise to a person in need. When we adopted Rebecca I felt like I had done my part in helping God in fulfulling this promise for her. Now I am realizing that it is MUCH more than that - there are many more that I need to help.

Chapter 7 is "Justice". God is obviously trying to open my eyes to the idea of JUSTICE. I can't wait to write about Gary Haugen's book about the International Justice Mission. Tom mentioned how his 7 year old has a strong sense of justice. I also have a 7 year old and this is very true. The phrase I am hearing a lot lately is "that's not fair". When did I grow out of it? When did I decide that I am entitled to a secure, comfortable life, but too bad for the rest of them? Although I would never say that out loud - I sense that God is shining a spotlight into my soul and helping me see that I don't see all His people as equals as having the same hopes and dreams. As Tom says
"Jesus believed that each person living on the planet has the right to be free, to live with dignity, to be safe, to receive care for their sickness or disease, and to be loved by the community".
Do I really live like I believe that statement? OUCH! It hurts to even write it out - although I may not be doing anything to actively oppress someone, by doing nothing I am an accomplice! Tom again quotes Mother Teresa,
"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you or I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. We have refused to be instruments of love in the hands of God to give the poor a piece of bread, to offer them a dress with which to ward off the cold. It has happened because we did not recognize Christ when, once more, he appeared under the guise of pain, identified with a man numb from the cold, dying of hunger, when he came in a lonely human being, a lost child in search of a home."
That quote is just ringing through my head and heart!
I thought I would blog the whole second half today, but I am just deciding to stop here for today. I sense I need to pause here awhile for myself and let this sink in to an even deeper level!

I miss blogging!

I was really hoping my next post would be the second half of the Red Letters Book Review. The week before last the book was at hubby's office. This week is has been home, but I have literally not been able to find enough time when I am not in a vegetative state (after 8pm) to be able to write a coherent post.
I know only a few people even read this - but it's very theraputic for me and I love having a place to try to put words to what I am thinking and feeling (so many others do it so much more eloquently than I do!)
It's frankly been a really tough few weeks. My eldest son is REALLY ready to be back at school and he has required MUCH more of me than he usually does. We've had some good times together and some really good talks. We've also had some really ugly moments and I am finding that he is currently draining A LOT of my emotional and mental energy! MANY other people are dealing with MANY LARGER SCALE issues! What I am coping with PALES in comparison - like not really on the charts - to so much of the suffering in the world. And I am mostly able to keep this perspective. But sometimes I fall into that whole selfish pity party mode too!
I am really hoping that things will even out with him when he gets back to school. I am looking forward to having some quiet times in the afternoons with both boys at school and Becca napping (I am hoping she hangs on at least until Christmas).
I am in the middle of the Beth Moore Believing God study and it has been FANTASTIC! I am also reading Just Courage by Gary Haugen with the International Justice Mission. I will be starting BSF in a few weeks and studying the life of Moses. SO MUCH good stuff! So many thoughts and places that God is taking me that I haven't been able to process yet! Hopefully soon!

Food for thought and prayer

Here is a article that Steven Curtis Chapman wrote for CNN.

A post from Jason at the Abba Fund

And Shaun Grove's wrote this post that really challenged me!

Thanks to all 3 of them for lighting a fire under me!

The Chapman Family

I've been pretty quiet lately. It's just been a blah couple of weeks. I am frankly just trying to keep my head above water to keep my 3 children from screaming at each other all day (keepin' it real again). So that has involved becoming an activities director and not much time to myself! Which is all part of the package!
Anyways...I did manage to steal some time this afternoon (i.e. - the boys were both in front of a screen and every toy that Becca owns is in pile in our living room) to watch the footage of the Chapman family on Larry King Live last night. They were discussing the accidental death of their 5-year old daughter - she was run over in their driveway by their teenage son. There story is amazing - their faith is REAL and inspiring!
I have the utmost respect for this family. I believe they are the "real deal". They have adopted 3 girls from China and are HUGE advocates for adoption. Probably every adoptive parent mentions how they were inspired by the Chapmans and we are among them. We went to a day-long marriage conference in Colombus in November of 2003. We had dinner with the Allen's the night before and wanted to talk to them about their adoption and let them know that we were considering adoption. The next day at the conference - Steven Curtis Chapman did a mini-concert. At that point they had adopted and I was completely unaware of it. He and MaryBeth spoke about adoption and my tears flowed. That weekend confirmed for Chris and I that we would adopt!
Here is the link to the first part of the interview last night and then you can navigate to the other parts!

Wrapping it all up

We've been back from Guatemala for a week now. Frankly the past week was awful! The kids were all having a tough week, and I was SICK! It's hard to keep up with our life when I am well, and having me sick all week was hard on everyone! I ended up at Urgent Care on Friday evening. As I figured, all they could tell me was that it was viral and to wait it out. Today I am finally feeling human again. As I eluded to in an earlier post I had times this past week where I wondered if it was all worth it! Well I can say with confidence that IT WAS WORTH IT! I can't imagine not having had the experience that we did!
What I most hoped for from this trip was to truly experience the culture and people of Guatemala. The wonderful thing about a mission/work trip vs. a vacation is that you have the opportunity to interact with the people in their real lives. I LOVED being with the people. What I learn from them is that "things" don't bring happiness. Did I know this before? YES! But it's one of those lessons we learn over and over and at different levels. I was very struck by the sense of community at the elementary school. The place seemed to be always filled with music and laughing. The kids were so willing to work right along side of us and they worked HARD and were enjoying themselves! They don't have a lot compared to what we have, as far as possessions go, but they are CONTENT! How I long to live in a place of being consistently CONTENT!
Space in general seems so different there - personal space, home space, etc. It's all smaller - hmmm...maybe that's why their relationships seem deeper, more cherished, more prioritized. I am still processing this aspect too!
Some things that have come out of our time there -
Chris and I both feel that we'd like to try to go to Guatemala at least every other year. We see this as a long-term relationship - an on-going partnership between our family and this beautiful country. We still don't know what that will look like - at what point can we start taking the kids? Will we always do missions? Will we partner with one organization? We are still sorting through that part of it.
I am inspired and motivated to improve my Spanish skills and to have the kids learn Spanish. I was able to speak enough to communicate, but not enough to converse. I feel that I missed out on some great relational time with the students & teachers at the school and with the "mamas" at the orphanage. I am working on getting Becca started on some Spanish classes for this fall.
My heart and mind were full as the plane lifted off in Guatemala. I asked the man sitting next to me if he was from "here" or "there" - his response was "both". I have tears even now when I realize how strongly God has bound my heart to that place and how I want that to be the answer I would give as well.

Below is a 3-minute video I put together of our time there. If you have read all the posts, you pretty much have it all. I did this mainly for our church famiy, so they could see the impact of their gifts and donations!

Guatemala Day 3 - Saturday, July 19th

So when I left you at the end of the last day...we had gone to bed at the apartment at Eagle's Nest in Solola. When I got up in the morning I couldn't wait to go out in the living room and check out the view of the lake! When I looked out the window I could see NOTHING! That's right - we were completely fogged in! Well, it was only 6:30am - so I figured it would burn off - more about that later. We walked over to the orphanage at 7:00am and the place was already hopping! They have about 50 kids there - most are under a year and then there are just a few older kids. I believe that about 40 of these kids are matched with adoptive parents and just waiting for the process to be completed. New adoptions are closed for now in Guatemala, but those cases that began before the end of the year are grandfathered in, although the process has been quite SLOW! Most of the babies had been fed already, but I was able to give one baby her bottle "pacha". The local women that work with the children are called "mamas". The mamas were busy one-by-one taking the children back to be bathed and changed. As the kids came out, we and the other helpers (from the church group) were interacting with the kids. Reading stories, walking around with those learning to walk, etc. Chris and I looked at the clock at 9:00 and couldn't believe it had only been 2 hours. As much as we loved it, it was tiring work! The children are very well cared for, but you can tell they just crave that individual attention. Before we left, I emailed an adoptive mom that I met at the Orphan Summit, whose son was at EN and she got me in touch with several parents still waiting for their babies to come home. We were able to hug these precious babies and take some pictures to send to their waiting parents. I remember that during the waiting every picture was like GOLD!




Around 10:00 we went over the conference center. A church plant started at Eagle's Nest last December. They currently have a pastor, 6-8 women and 20 some children. The youth group from Illinois ran a VBS from 10-12 that they advertised through the church plant into the village. Several youth had gotten sick, so they were thankful that Chris and I were there to fill in some gaps! Around 80 children came and we followed one group of 23 kids from station to station. At the first station we sang songs - I was so excited when we sang "Yo tengo un amigo que me ama". My kids know this song from the Fiesta VBS CD we love to listen to. We also taught this song to the kids at Life Church. At the next station we helped them make a craft on a Meijer reusuable bag (felt just like home). The third station they did a story/skit and explained how to ask Jesus into your life. At the last station we (we meaning Chris) played soccer (futbol). It was great interaction with the kids! Once that ended we had lunch with the Illinios group.





It had been misting during the whole VBS time, but it cleared up a bit after lunch. We at least got a few glimpses of the incredible view from the "point".



Then it was back to the orphanage. By that time, it had quieted down a bit, as many of the babies were napping. We stayed there until our shuttle came to take us back to Antigua.
It was a long way to go for a 1/2 day, but the time was full and we really enjoyed learning about the ministry there!
We got back to Antigua just in time to meet the group for our final dinner. They all cheered when we arrived at the restuarant and were anxious to hear about our time at Eagle's Nest. Then we got to hear about their volcano hike and the tour of the coffee plantation. After dinner we went back to the hotel and debriefed about the trip. It was hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful group as it felt we had connected so quickly. Everyone had to catch early shuttles to fly out the next morning.
I'll do one more post tomorrow about all my final thoughts as I have still been processing it all!

Re-entry has been brutal!

I was planning to blog about our last day yesterday - but it didn't happen. I am hoping to later today.
We got home around mid-night on Sunday. We had a sitter here with the kids til we got home - so that we would be altogether in the morning. The boys came bounding in at 6:15 - with lots of hugs and snuggles. My seven year old told us that
"Grandparents are great, but nothing makes up for mom and dad"! Chris took Monday off - thankfully - I would not have made it! I felt really tired all day, but figured I was just recovering. Tuesday I felt a bit better in the morning, but still really tired and achy. The kids are all having a rough time. Becca has been whiny and clingy and I think she is getting her molars. The boys have been unable to get along for more than 2 minutes and just seem out-of-sorts. Yesterday I started feeling worse, my throat went from irritated to PAINFUL and around dinnertime I realized I had a fever. I am guessing I picked something up from the kids in the orphanage as a few of them were sick! I have gone to bed at 8:00 the last 2 nights!
I would not trade our trip for the world! But I am stuggling with how hard our being gone was on the kids! In my heart I know we were supposed to go, but it's hard to have it be like it has been this week! Just continuing to keep it real!