Two Meals...

Here is a post from some friends at the organization "Divine Inheritance" that helps child soldiers in southeast asia.
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Friday, September 26, 2008 at 1:24am
Here are some thoughts that I hope will be helpful to you. Our great nation has clearly been under God’s blessings for many years, but it seems as though everything we once held onto for stability is being shaken…from financial systems to weather patterns! In times like these, we may rightly ask Father God, “What is happening?” What if all this chaos is God kindly giving us an opportunity to humble ourselves, experience something slightly radical for Western church and discover more of His heart?

Isaiah 58 gives us a very clear snapshot of the priorities of heaven’s economy. It describes people who fast, pray and delight in Him, yet forget the poor. God’s response, a “chosen fast,” is for us to divide our food with the hungry and to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and oppressed. The result of this fast is that God himself visits us and gives us overflowing life in those arid places where we feel blistered and even charred by adverse circumstances.

This reminds me of a story a dear friend once shared with me about a Chinese missionary to a tribal group in the Yunnan province. This man already had very white hair at the age of 30 because of his frequent incarcerations for preaching Jesus. But what intrigued me about this story was not the missionary: it was those who stood behind him. You see, his church in China fasted one week out of every month in order to financially support him. Now, that is radical! Would that work here in the West?

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) begins sundown on October 8th and ends at dark on the 9th. Some commentators believe that Isaiah 58 was a homily written for this special day of fasting. What would happen if you fasted two meals on this day as an act of humility before our heavenly Father, then took the money you saved in food and gave it to the most needy people you could think of? Of course, I would recommend child soldiers and marginalized kids, but you can respond as the Holy Spirit leads you. Fasting two meals can feed two orphans for two weeks.

As many of you know, our organization, Divine Inheritance, rescues child soldiers and children at risk in Asia. So, if you choose to sow the money you saved during your fast to feed these children, you can easily specify a donation in any denomination on our website: http://www.divineinheritance.com/p-37-two-meals-donation.aspx Alternatively, you might want to choose to sponsor a child soldier by clicking on the "Rescue a Child Now" button on our site.

May you encounter God’s grace and provision as you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry!

Some good friends & co-workers (and actually my boss) are in town briefly and staying with me (which is always fun). So, I'm trying to finish a book they lent me a little while ago. I've read most of it, but have yet to finish it (as unfortunately is often the case for me with books). The book is Exiles, by Michael Frost.

Anyway... I am reading the chapter entitled "Exiles at the Alter" and thought I might jot down some notes, some good points he is making in relation to Christians and worship. Some of this is what is written and some are my paraphrase, in fact, primarily the later.

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." Westminster Catechism

This statement implies a twofold action: glorifying and enjoying God. First of all, there are two components of God's glory - essential glory and declarative glory.

The essential glory is that of God's own self, intrinsic glory... it is impossible for God not to be glorious. God's glory cannot be added to or shared with another (Is 48:11).

God's declarative glory is that the glory that is ascribed to God, or that creation labors to bring to God. This is the bit we can "contribute". We cannot add a thing to God's essential glory, for it is who He is. To glorify God means to exalt God's name in the world and magnify God in the eyes of others.

The Westminster Catechism states that we glorify God in four primary ways: appreciation (admiration, respect), adoration (public worship), affection (to love, take delight in), and subjection (obey & serve).

As Micheal Frost defines them:

Appreciation: This is to esteem God, to value God above all in our thoughts and admiration, to venerate God in our imagination, thinking, and belief. When we admire and respect God in this way, we glorify God.

Adoration: This is to worship God in a formal, liturgical sense in a public, corporate setting. The Westminster Catechism, based on the Confession, makes copious references to Old Testament injunctions to worship correctly in the temple an in the exact method prescribed by the Lord.

Affection: This is to love God, to offer a love of delight, as we take delight in a friend. This is to love God indeed, with our hearts set upon God. It is an exuberant love. It is superlative; we give glory to God when we offer the best of our love.

Subjunction: This is to dedicate ourselves to serve God through our actions. This can take various forms... To obey the divine will through service brings glory to God.

"In other words, when I feed the poor or share my food with a neighbor, I am glorifying God. When I study the Bible, I am glorifying God. When I walk along a beach and pray, giving thanks to God for all his blessings, I am glorifying God. When I sit in the Impressionist Room (or the Reina Sofia) at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and feel deep affection and admiration for the divine beauty in Van Gogh's irises, Monet's haystacks, and Cezanne's apples, I am glorifying God. When I visit an orphanage in Vietnam, filled to overflowing with unwanted children dumped on the streets of Saigon, and I saddened, I am glorifying God. When I write to my government representatives demanding that they procure greater overseas aid, I am glorifying God. When I attend a gathering of fellow believers to sing or pray or undertake some other corporate worship activity, I am glorifying God. So although attending worship meetings is one of the ways we glorify God, it is not the only way." MF

I have to say that while there are a lot of things to think about, so far this is one of my favorite chapters, probably in part because it brings the focus more to God and less to what we DO for him. It involves loving and following Him, which will of course then change all that we DO and think.

"To love another person is to help them love God." - Soren Kierkegaard

Life & such

So... I haven't had much time to blog as of late (and really don't now). Unfortunately I am still studying like crazy for my driving test (you would think it was a college final or something a bit more weighty, but it is such a tedious and tricky test (and I really don't want to have to take it again)). Beyond that, I've been planning out the fall, meeting with people having to do with that, (and all the other prep work associated with that) preparing for both Oct 1st & Oct 6th - the first days of school on college campuses here in Madrid.

I definitely can't wait until students return to campus, so that I can spend much of my time meeting with people and doing things, versus just planning it and doing more admin stuff.

Beyond planning for the fall and getting things ready (which is the main thing I've been doing), I've been grabbing bits of time to work on the most recent seminary class I'm taking, dreaming of having a car again, and all the other things I used to associate with July/August. While I've been back in Spain for three years now, Sept/Oct here still takes some getting used to for me. I always am so anxious just to get things going and to return to normal life. Granted, I don't really stop until September from the previous school year, but still.

la naturaleza

So... Saturday I got on the train to go with a couple friends out to Las Matas to an AMAZING garden store. It's been a long time since I've been to one quite like this. It was definitely water to my soul. Since I feel much more at home in my apartment this year, I actually have the desire to decorate a bit more and make it a bit more like home. Praise the Lord! So, I've been sewing, when I have time, and thinking about what I want to add, rearrange, or change. AND thanks to Jan & Dave, this great garden store, and Jan's car, I have some wonderful new plants. Specifically I have a cool jasmine plant that will smell pretty and vine around the rod iron window balcony thing, I bought a bigger pot for my growing ficus tree, got some lavender :-), some thyme, mint (for good moroccan tea), basil, some heather (or erica as it's called in spanish), and some bulbs that I'm splitting with Dave & Beth to plant for some nice fresh spring flowers!!! I can't tell you how refreshing it was both to go shopping (and actually having someone with a car to bring me back, versus trying to carry it all precariously through the metro/bus/train) and then getting to dig around in the dirt and figure out how to make everything fit in my two little window balconies. Once everything starts to grow, I'll have to take some pictures. :-)

Oh, and I was going to add... going to this nursery made me think of my sweet dad. I remember quite vividly us going from time to time to a much larger, much more rural nursery outside of St. Louis (I think toward Warrensville). Somehow in his little two seater Honda CRX we would literally cram it packed with trees, plants, vegetable plants, flowers, the works... I remember that usually I didn't actually have a full seat on the ride home, but instead would be holding one or two trees, a couple trays of plants and somehow fit myself between all the other stuff we brought home.

This trip back from Las Matas we has a plethera of room in comparison. In fact all our stuff easily fit in the trunk, but then again, we're working with little balconies or not even actual balconies instead of full yards. Although I must say that I would love to figure out a way to fit a few more plants in and outside the windows. That will have to be the next trip (and probably in a few months).

God willing, I will finally take the written part of my driving test, 12:30 Wednesday, the same day that classes at the university begin. Hopefully all will go well and I will just have the physical driving test.

update on my driving test

so... i went to take my driving test this morning. a few of us met at the driving school, jumped on the metro then on a bus and arrived a half and hour early for the written driving exam. i grabbed a little bit to eat, drank the coffee i brought, and waited...

we then all packed into the foyer of the building while a man on the load speaker began to call names one by one who would walk to the back of the room, grab their scantron sheet and head into the exam room. one by one the names were called, minus mine and a few others. we then walked up to the front and he figured out what was wrong. finally he got to me, only to tell me that the id number he had written down was wrong. there was an extra "4" added to it, so i couldn't take the exam.

i called my driving school who said, "yeah, we knew we messed it up, but we called and fixed it." so then she got on the phone with the exam proctor and they argued for about 20 minutes to then conclude that she messed up and i'd just have to come back next week.

so, long story short, i have to wait until next week to take my written driving test and to hopefully pass and be on to the actual physical driving test. so, suffice to say, today was not my favorite of days - the driving test plus a few other not so happy things. i guess the bright side is that i have a week more to study.

Here are a couple recent things I read online that you might want to check out:

(1) From the Invisible Children Blog:

A few weeks ago, we posted an entry letting you know of a bill going through the senate. The passing of it would restrict U.S. military assistance to governments where children are used in conflicts.

A lot of you let us know that you made your voice known in support of this bill, but we’ve hit a snag: Congress goes on break after this week and the recent financial crisis has made it easy to ignore that this bill is even out there. It’s up to us to make sure our senators are aware that this bill must be voted on, and it must be voted on this week.

With over 250,000 child soldiers being used in 8 governments, and the U.S. providing some sort of military assistance to 6 of them, we can’t delay with this.

Here’s what you can do:

-Call your Senators. You can find their numbers at www.senate.gov
-Tell them your name and where you’re from.
-Let them know you want your Senator to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. (The House of Representatives already has!)
-Tell a friend to do the same.

Head over to World Vision’s website if you need any more information. Let our senators know what you stand for.

Congress closes for election season next week. There’s no time to wait.

(2) From the NY Times on the possible looming food crisis in Afghanistan.

It's SOOO nice

It's sooo nice to have some semblance of a team, to have others who are on board with my vision for reaching college students here with the Gospel and who are both fully capable and fully available to help.

Up until now I've been a bit cautious and haven't wanted to expect too much of them, in part for fear of being disappointed. Yet after our first two meetings of the year I am SOOO happy that we are all on the same page and I finally have some people with whom I can process & flesh out where we are going and how we are going to get there. And they are not just passive listeners, but active participants and co-laborers. Yippee!!! It is sooo nice. And it is much more easy to be motivated and to be excited about doing this together instead of always having to be self-motivated and know that most of the time I am headed toward a huge mountain. There are still a lot of areas where I'm not quite sure where the resources and people will come from, but at least there are some others with whom I can trust God for these giant things and who can remind me what is true. Thank God for my little, but very existent team this year. And, God-willing, there will be others (spaniards) who will join us in reaching the campus, madrid, spain, and the world with the powerful and freeing Gospel of Jesus.

My life the past week has been primarily consumed by taking a million practice tests for my written driving exam that I will have next Tuesday. It may seem crazy, but considering that this is one of the only times of the year where I actually have time to do so, since the semester doesn't begin for a couple more weeks, and since i have already paid about 300+ euros and to take the test again would cost between 100 and 150 euros more, I would rather put the time in to make sure i pass it (which basically consists of memorizing the entire book and making NO mistakes). It seems an insane amount of time for a driver's test, but i feel just about ready. thank God! I am obviously doing more than just this, but not much more. So, most likely when I take, and God-willing pass, I will resume blogging and such... :-)

some perspective...

so... here are some of the things i read today that helped me to gain a bit of perspective and, in addition to processing things with the Lord and him giving me some insight and perspective, reading his word (the Bible) always seems to help me step back and to breathe.

Matthew 5 "Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court..."

Colossians 3:12-15 - "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful."

Ezekial 36:24-36 - "I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you.

...Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it."

Psalm 15 - "O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;... and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved."

Psalm 24:1-10 - "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah"

thunder & lightening

today it has been a beautiful day, nice, warm and sunny AND from now and then it downpours with lightening, hail, lots of rain, the works... it is nice. and it is nice particularly since i've been in quite a melancholy mood today. there is just something about rain that is refreshing.

and i have to say that i love to hear the rain downpour. it makes me feel clean. it makes me feel safe. because (as does much of nature) it reminds me that i am little and that God is big and yet He loves me and is Good. thunderstorms remind me of His power and might and help me to remember that it really does make a lot more sense to entrust Him with my life instead of me trying to do it on my own.

fear of the unknown

waiting... can be a very hard thing, particularly when you don't know exactly why you are waiting, nor for what, nor what happened to cause you to be in the place you are. waiting... is much easier when what you know you are waiting for is good and that you have the assurance that it will come. i guess waiting involves faith. faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the certainty of things unseen (or not yet seen).

generally i am a positive person. generally i am a person full of hope and who almost too quickly gets excited of what could be... of the future... of hopes & dreams...

yet right now i am in the dark. i may be making way too much of the situation, but i am waiting for a friend to call me back, my best friend in spain. i have no idea what has happened, if it is just her being busy, if it is just that but it has been long enough and i have made enough effort that it seems like something must be wrong, either something in her life or something i did unknowingly or didn't do that offended her... i have no idea whatsoever. if she were not my best friend, i wouldn't make much of it. if she were a guy i liked, again i wouldn't make as much of it. it happens... but i am finding that i really need and want to talk with her. there is so much going on that i want to tell her about and so much i want to ask her about. and yet i am waiting... i'm not quite sure why nor for how long nor what the outcome will be. i don't know if i'm just making a bigger deal of this than it is... i have no information. i know she is alive and well and recently moved, but that is it... and i am finding that it is hard to not obsess about this and it is easy to be very sad about it all. i can't imagine living in madrid without my best friend. sorry if this sounds melodramatic, but i am definitely a but unsure what to do other than to wait... and pray... and to trust that God will work on my behalf and on hers and that His good will will be done... that whatever has happened or not happened will be resolved... and that things will go back to normal. or... i guess it that doesn't happen, that the Lord will be faithful to provide (as He always has been) for me.

let me just say that this is all very sad. i mean, really... okay, i really don't know what has happened and it might actually be nothing, so i need not jump to conclusions until i actually have real information. you can pray for me in this. and pray that if there has been a misunderstanding that it will be cleared up. i am just completely confused and taken back. and really hoping that i'm just making more of the situation than it actually is. i'm hoping that in reality she is just busy and i am making it into something much bigger than it is.

the highway, autopista

recently when i am on the highway, either in a car or on the bus, i think of the US and my life there and here. i try to remember what the highways look like in missouri or kansas and somehow in my mind i create a morph of the two. it's kind of a funny thing. i think of what my life is and what it would be life, possibly, if i were there. crazy. i usually end up thinking, i have a crazy but amazing life and while i miss home from time to time, i love where i live and what i do. i feel very blessed and honored. :-)

Glimpses of Revival

Here are a few pictures that bring me joy and give me goosebumps... they are of Italian students praying and praising God.

They give me goosebumps because more than anything I long for God to bring about revival in Western Europe, for students and people in general to be struck by who they are and who God is, kneel before him in repentance and in worship of an Almighty, Powerful and Loving God. These pictures seem to be glimpses of just that. And they are not just limited to Italy, it IS happening all over Europe, not quite in the magnitude I'd like, not quite yet, but I believe that the Lord is at work in MIGHTY, MIGHTY ways. In the hearts of students of Spain, in the hearts of Western Europeans, and in the hearts of the peoples of the world.

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” - Revelation 7:9-12

Come Lord Jesus, Come!

funny pictures of animals & cars...

Okay, one last post... it is fairly random... A friend was recently in Africa in an area that didn't have coolers, so after buying fish they just hung them over the side mirror and drove home. :-D

The other one is of a random goat somewhere in the middle east who decided to take guard on top of a car. Definitely random and probably much more funny since it is now 1:26 am and I am a bit tired & delirious.

prayer?

While I am up a bit late, here are some pictures from a friend of mine while he was in the middle east. They are unusual things people do to be heard by God. The first one is of a pole they must walk around several times in the hope of getting their prayer answered.

The second one is of some men who pray and then role down this certain hill to get their prayers heard. I don't know more than that about why this particular hill, nor the order nor form.

The third one is of burial grounds. The huts without ladders are where the women are buried since they have no hopes of making it to heaven, merely because they were born female and thus inferior and unsaveable. The men's huts have ladders so their spirit can climb to heaven from their burial ground.

While these things seem odd to me, I do see the reality that we as people long for something more, we desire for something not of this world and we know there must be something/someone beyond. I am no greater than these men, but I am so very grateful that my being a woman doesn't keep me from God, nor does my lacking in anyway. I don't need to earn His love nor to jump through any kinds of hoops to get into heaven. I merely trust in what He has already done. I allow Him to save me. I trust in His sacrifice alone. What a freedom!

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart" - Ecclesiastes 3:11

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything... that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,...” - Acts 17:24-31

Note: While not having to do with these pictures, I recently finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, by the same man who wrote the Kite Runner. Both talk about kids growing up in Afghanistan, although A Thousand Splendid Suns is a bit more sobering as it talks about the lives of two women and it goes through the time where women were free to walk around with their heads uncovered to the Taliban rule to present day, so you get a bit of cultural history. I would definitely recommend them both!

the EASY Camino... a brief recap

So, I shared the before of the Camino and figured I should share at least a few little thoughts about it on the other side.

There is so much I could say, but it was VERY VERY fun! 55 high school students have a ton of energy, but these particular ones were incredible.

Some of my highlights...

... the day I had the stomach flu (not being sick), experiencing everyone's care and love... having them carry my burdens for the day as they let me sleep, brought me Aquarius (Spain's version of Gatorade), fruit, bread, etc., and were super attentive and sweet.

... taking care of peoples' feet - from blisters to cuts to rashes, etc.,

... walking into Santiago

... hearing the kids share how God was working in their lives... one guy crying as he decided to forgive his abusive day... another guy sharing how he had chosen to trust God to overcome some fears and allow people into his life... a girl sharing how she now knew that God was really real... another girl talking of how she was choosing to now see herself the way God sees her... and many more

... hugs and kisses from the kids

... walking in beautiful NW Spain -- green, hills, little creeks, trees and forest...

... some good time with some good friends, Marc & Eva & Melissa & Marian & some new friends Natalie & co...

... realizing that all of my present belongings fit in a backpack on my back

... listening to some of the guys brag about how easy it was and how many backpacks they had carried that day, or showing the huge stone they had carried, or trying to outdo one another in being the greatest servant of others... the testosterone was running high, but i didn't mind being taken care of

... remembering memories from past Caminos -- times with the Lord, things I learned, people I walked with, friends, etc.,

... enjoying clean clothes, a WARM shower, and a REAL bed upon arriving to Santiago

Some of the funnier/less than glamerous parts of the camino...

... the vast quantity of cow poop we walked over and through

... wearing two pairs of clothes for 10 days (washing them of course from time to time)

... throwing up all night in an extremely stinky bathroom and having the stomach flu

... not being able to walk one of the days due to the fact that I couldn't keep anything down and was a bit weak

... looking at some of the very sad feet (one girl got 18 blisters the first day, don't ask me how) and not being able to do much more than ease the pain and give some advice

... 10 days of cold, sometimes extremely freezing showers and most the time group showers

Note: By the way, EASY doesn't really mean "easy". We did carry all our luggage on our backs for 8 days and we did camp out almost the whole way and we did walk somewhere between 20 and 30+ kilometers a day, so it wasn't exactly the "easy" route. EASY stands for European All Staff Youth. It began as staff kids from Western Europe and now is them plus their friends and many others.