"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, 'How do we rob You?' In tithes and offerings...Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Malachi 3:8, 10
In our idea of economics, if you put more in one area then you must be taking from another area. In God´s idea of economics, if you give more, God gives more, and there is more to give.
Pray for us in our work
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
God's Camping Ground
The Journey Begins...
So Jeremy is developing a new branch for our mission teams, and it is a combination of "adventure" and service...this is the exploring and testing for the adventure part...
The crater and then the campground:
Now as we were climbing, our Nicaraguan friend Tomas, slips into a crack, but not to worry, here I am to the rescue, except soon I fall in...uh oh.
uh oh
Me walking:
The beautiful arco iris! God's promise...
So Jeremy is developing a new branch for our mission teams, and it is a combination of "adventure" and service...this is the exploring and testing for the adventure part...
The View:
The crater and then the campground:
Now as we were climbing, our Nicaraguan friend Tomas, slips into a crack, but not to worry, here I am to the rescue, except soon I fall in...uh oh.
uh ohThis is awesome. Jeremy had been planning this trip up to the volcano Telica for a while. We were supposed to camp out in this little crater area about 15 minutes from the main crater (it is still an active volcano). He had gone before and said that the campground was so beautiful and was set up by God. We were giving him a hard time asking if God actually camps out there, in His free time. That's why its set up like that. Well so finally we are going up, and when we get to the top and look down to where the camp ground area is, Jeremy was right, it was beautiful. But it was funny because we start to make fun of him, asking Him again if God's there waiting for us, and then Melissa shouts out from behind to Katie and I to look up at the sky, and there is this beautiful rainbow across the sky. And we were all just amazed...
Me walking:
The beautiful arco iris! God's promise...
So in coming down to Nicaragua, one of the most unexpected surprises has been the beauty of the country...as you have seen, and also the surprise friendships that have come along the way...
katie and i...
Working with UT Tyler
This is us and the kids. We spent two days working out in the rural parts of Chakraseca. We slept out in a little compound about an hour from the community and about an hour and a half from our house. We took the group out there from day one and brought everything we would need for the next 5 days.
So we are helping this community dig so that they can eventually have clean water. Here you can see me overseeing one of the Americans digging this ditch...I swear, I am normally a hard worker, I don't know who tool this picture.
And then in the picture with all the kids, we gathered with all the kids at the local school and made face masks and then had a big airplane fight.
Before heading out that day we got to pray with the group, and also thank them for letting us take part in helping them.
So we are helping this community dig so that they can eventually have clean water. Here you can see me overseeing one of the Americans digging this ditch...I swear, I am normally a hard worker, I don't know who tool this picture.
And then in the picture with all the kids, we gathered with all the kids at the local school and made face masks and then had a big airplane fight.
Before heading out that day we got to pray with the group, and also thank them for letting us take part in helping them.
Here are some pictures of us with the last group. They were a group of business majors. There were about 7 of them and we had a great time.
Kiki the one to my left is an amazing woman. She is about 30 years old with one child, and still working hard to get her business degree. She has a heart for women and she worked so hard climbing to the top of the volcano, and touched our hearts with her strength and courage once she had reached the top.
The Cross
The other day I was running and it seemed as though song after song was just about the cross. I listen to the same songs over and over, so I found it strange that "the cross" just kept standing out in my mind.
I had some time to myself when I was sitting in the Miami Airport and was reading a book by Rob Bell, and I knew at that point why God kept brining "the cross" to mind.
This is what the passage said,
"This is what I mean by the sheer poetry of the Jesus story. Jesus is God coming to us in love. Sheer unadulterated, unfiltered love. Stripped of everything that could get in the way. Naked and vulnerable, hanging on a cross, asking the questions, 'What will you do with me?"
This is why for thousands of years Christians have found the cross to be so central to life. It speaks to us of God's suffering, God's pain, God's broken heart. It's God making the first move and then waiting for our response.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and had your heart broken, you know how God feels.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and found yourself waiting for their response, exposed and vulnerable, left hanging in the balance, you know how God feels.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and they responded, they reciprocated with love of their own, you know how God feels.
The cross is God's way of saying, "I know what it's like."
... the cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. (Bell, 105-106)
Here is another passage about God's humility and softness towards us:
"If you're God and you want to express ultimate love to your creation, if you want to move toward them in a definitive way, you have a problem, because just showing up overwhelms people.
You wouldn't come as you are.
You wouldn't come in strength.
You wouldn't come in your pure, raw essence. You'd scare everybody away.
The last thing people would perceieve is love.
So how would you express your love in an ultimate way? How do you connect with people in a manner that wouldn't scare them off but would compel them to want to come closer, to draw nearer?
You would need to strip yourself of all of the trappings that come with ultimate power and authority. Thats how love works. It doesn't matter if a man has a million dollars and want to woo a woman, if she loves him for his money, it isn't really love.
If you were an almighty being who made the universe and everything in it, you would need to meet people on their level, in their world, on their soil...like them.
This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of Jesus."
This is some of what has been stirring in my heart and mind.
I spent this past week in Ohio and now I am home with my family! And it has all been wonderful!
Here are recent pictures of being with my family and climbing a big volcano. Being outside doing activities like this and running is the most peaceful thing for my mind and heart...
I had some time to myself when I was sitting in the Miami Airport and was reading a book by Rob Bell, and I knew at that point why God kept brining "the cross" to mind.
This is what the passage said,
"This is what I mean by the sheer poetry of the Jesus story. Jesus is God coming to us in love. Sheer unadulterated, unfiltered love. Stripped of everything that could get in the way. Naked and vulnerable, hanging on a cross, asking the questions, 'What will you do with me?"
This is why for thousands of years Christians have found the cross to be so central to life. It speaks to us of God's suffering, God's pain, God's broken heart. It's God making the first move and then waiting for our response.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and had your heart broken, you know how God feels.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and found yourself waiting for their response, exposed and vulnerable, left hanging in the balance, you know how God feels.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and they responded, they reciprocated with love of their own, you know how God feels.
The cross is God's way of saying, "I know what it's like."
... the cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. (Bell, 105-106)
Here is another passage about God's humility and softness towards us:
"If you're God and you want to express ultimate love to your creation, if you want to move toward them in a definitive way, you have a problem, because just showing up overwhelms people.
You wouldn't come as you are.
You wouldn't come in strength.
You wouldn't come in your pure, raw essence. You'd scare everybody away.
The last thing people would perceieve is love.
So how would you express your love in an ultimate way? How do you connect with people in a manner that wouldn't scare them off but would compel them to want to come closer, to draw nearer?
You would need to strip yourself of all of the trappings that come with ultimate power and authority. Thats how love works. It doesn't matter if a man has a million dollars and want to woo a woman, if she loves him for his money, it isn't really love.
If you were an almighty being who made the universe and everything in it, you would need to meet people on their level, in their world, on their soil...like them.
This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of Jesus."
This is some of what has been stirring in my heart and mind.
I spent this past week in Ohio and now I am home with my family! And it has all been wonderful!
Here are recent pictures of being with my family and climbing a big volcano. Being outside doing activities like this and running is the most peaceful thing for my mind and heart...
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