Blessings beyond difficulty ... awesome time in Mexico!!!!!

"How is it possible to have such fun and enjoy myself so much while being so sick and injured?" ... this was my question while in Mexico.  My wise little sister replied: "Because you're in the middle of God's will".... This summarizes my time there.  I was blessed beyond measure and not without difficulty, but the presence of the Lord made it an unforgettable time!!!

Primary home in the Ranch where I stayed

What did I do?

Chelsea and I ... she is really my little sister!

While in Mexico, I was so blessed to be part of a ministry that reaches out to the surrounding communities with Bible Studies and meeting practical needs.  What a privilege to meet such amazing people and make new friends!  I also had the sweet blessing of being able to witness how the Lord uses my dear friend and sister Chelsea as part of this ministry.  It was a joy and in some ways it produced Godly jealousy.  I was challenged ... I have such a deep need to learn to love with God's love!!!!!  We had devotions together every morning, we went to Bible Studies, I had the privilege of sharing at a ladies study one day and leading at worship at another study another day.  I helped out (loosely using the term) at a children's Bible class.  We went shopping for a groceries distribution ministry ... I had so much fun with that!!!!  What a privilege to visit amd bless those in need and be hands and feet for the Lord to bless His body!!!

Osobampo - one of the nearby communities where there are Bible Studies

Ladies Bible Study at Osobampo where I was privileged to share

Preparing for worship at Tesia

Church at Tesia

Sunday Morning Church at Navojoa

Why was I sick?
Well, I must have picked something up on the flights down or at the hotel where I spent the night or something ... I got there with a sore throat and compounded with the dry dust in the air and everywhere, I ended up with a sinus infection.  Last time I went, I did too, so I am not surprised.  I didn't sleep much the first week, at first because it was a new place (as usual), then because of the sinus infection.  So, I became a clutz and I kept injuring myself!!  It was just laughable ... and we did laugh a lot!!!!!

Mourning with those that mourn and Rejoicing with those that rejoice
One very difficult time during the trip was when a young boy, 8 years old, went to be with the Lord.  He loved the Lord and was a sweet boy that I was able to meet while I was there.  He had been born with a heart defect and had one surgery that had been successful and had improved is quality of life such that he could walk and have a bit more energy.  As he went for his second surgery, we were all hopeful of great results.  It was completely unexpected, but he had complications and didn't make it more than a day after the surgery.  There was sorrow for the family and friends left behind as he rejoiced and went on to be with the Lord.  The cultural and also close knit family experience was priceless.  The gospel was shared during the burial and it is evident that the Lord has been glorified through the life and death of this boy.

Burial: Written in Spanish "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

As the family mourned and prepared for funeral, Chelsea and I got to babysit and have a blast with Aaliyah and Obed.

There are so many impressions and blessings that are hard to express, but I hope this gives a bit of an image.  I can't express why, but I find myself longing to go back, fellowship with the people, see the places.  It is unclear in my heart if the Lord will have me be there long term, but I do long to return and I am praying for the Lord's guidance for the future.

For my best pictures of the trip (I am still missing a couple more days), check out:
https://picasaweb.google.com/principlepassion/MexicoTripMayJune2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIyPjJX_0f-y1wE&feat=directlink

What is Grace?

This is a question I have been mulling over for the past several weeks.  I am sure that it will take a lifetime to learn the answer.  I can answer it with "unmerited favor from God", but I feel like this answer is no more accurate and precise than answering "what is a derivative?" with "a mathematical formula", or "what is a car?" with "a machine to take me places".  I am barely scratching the surface and I don't really understand it. 

As I look at my life and what is going on, I feel myself asking the Lord as when Keilah (not quite 3) comes up to me and asks in her sweet high pitched voice "what'cha doooin?" followed by a myriad of "whyyyy?" to every statement after the first answer. 

The first attempt at selling the house fell through.  I had another potential buyer interested that appeared in what seemed to be a miraculous way, but it also fell through as he was dramatically low-balling me.  It has become so discouraging that I am not sure what I should do next.  Try another realtor?  Try for sale by owner and cragislist?  When to re-list?  I am going to Mexico in 6 days and I don't want people calling and emailing when I can't reply, so I had taken the for sale sign down.  I just got rear-ended in my car and didn't notice the damage so barely got info from the other driver and now I am needing to go to the chiropractor for my neck and back and I need to figure out what to do next regarding the damage I noticed later.

My closest friend and her husband have just 2 weeks ago moved to Bulgaria led by the Lord.  In many events leading up to their departure I could see the hand of the Lord in favor toward them and myself.  They had planned to leave the day before my birthday and as the day approached and I struggled with the timing of it, I felt the Lord speak to my heart saying "Can you believe I can make it special?".  We had unexpected changes of plans that resulted in us celebrating my birthday in NY City the day after their original departure date.  The Lord poured out grace upon grace as we dealt with unexpected events and a bonus birthday week for me of fellowship together to treasure as we are far away from each other!!!

Do I know what He is doing?  Do I understand grace?  Not really, not yet, not deeply.  I can honestly say that I don't know what the Lord is doing, but I am learning to trust in Him with my little understanding of Grace, believing and knowing that what He is doing is good ... that the outcome of what He is doing will be good ... that I can be hopeful and excited because He plans nothing but good!

New Trip Ahead ...13 days to Mexico!!!

I have done much praying and for a long time of fervently desiring to go see my little sister, Chelsea Rae, and several other brothers and sisters in Christ at Rancho Maranatha in Mexico.  I was blessed to have gone to visit over 7 years ago when Chelsea's entire family was serving there.  Since Chelsea has returned, I have been privileged to be involved in prayer and I have been longing to get involved in person.

I was blessed beyond measure to go to Haiti and I wouldn't trade it, but I knew that going then would mean that I couldn't go to Mexico just yet.  Even then, I was able to embrace the Lord's fully trusting that He would open the door in the future.  Well, now is that time!

On my way to PR (when I was going to Haiti) I was able to sign up for a special deal for airline miles and now I got a ticket practically free to take me into Mexico for the dates that I wanted!!!  This saves a lot of time on the bus and gets me closer to my final destination!  The ticket would normally cost about $900, so this is huge!  The cool thing is that shortly before I was able to get the tickets, I had a dream in which I was going to Mexico and after landing I was already past the border, which normally wouldn't be case if I were to take the bus from Tucson (12 hrs overnight), but it is true with this itinerary.

I will be flying into Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (A on map) and traveling by bus or car to the ranch (close to Alamos - B on map).  It is somewhat close to the gulf of California.  This is the map of where I will be:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Hermosillo,+Sonora,+Mexico&daddr=%C3%81lamos,+Sonora,+Mexico&geocode=FaLduwEdTt1i-Snlrt96aITOhjH5f4jplVM9sw%3BFSxonAEdILWB-SkDsMcbBWe4hjHr3rvHKyQOXA&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=29.084977,-110.950928&sspn=8.194378,13.348389&ie=UTF8&ll=25.621716,-108.632812&spn=16.872222,26.696777&z=6

I leave for Mexico May 21 and arrive there May 22 a bit before noon.  I will be leaving Mexico June 5 and arriving in Rochester June 6 in the morning.

I long to see what the ministry is involved with and to refresh my brothers and sisters there.  It also appears that the Lord is opening the doors for a lot of once in a lifetime opportunities that I am very excited about, although I know that I will go from cool weather to extremely hot!  The Lord will help me through the adjustment.  I couldn't be more excited!!!!

Jesus loves the little children ...

As I walked back to my desk in the office having just left a meeting where uncertainties at work keep building, I was recounting my frustrations to the Lord.  Suddenly on my mind, all I could think was the Sunday School classic "Jesus loves the little children" ... but this time, not with the familiar lyrics in English or Spanish for that matter, but rather lyrics I can't fully understand or know how to write.  The song played over and over in my mind in Haitian Creole "Jezzi remen ...".  I only know it because they sang it at the church with the kids from the community.  I typed the phrase in Google translate, but it doesn't seem to be what they sang.  Anyway, the Lord's comfort and maybe direction at a time of frustration and discouragement comes through the simplest of Sunday School classics about the love of Jesus for the helpless ...

Here is the video clip I had captured of that time in Haiti:

Aftershocks ...

Since my trip to Haiti, I have been going through some aftershocks of my own ...

Health
I lightly experienced this before and a bit in Haiti, but once I got to PR, I started experiencing some stronger dizziness.  After praying, research and a lot of conversations with a couple of doctors and friends, I am pretty convinced that it is due to the anti-malaria medication.  I was taking a pill weekly and took the third pill the day I got back to PR.  Unfortunately, it appears that although it has been 2 weeks since I took the last pill (and I am not finishing the treatment), I am still dizzy ... the half-life is supposed to be 5 weeks!!!  I guess it will take a while!  I then had a sore throat and what felt like strep combined with a cold.  Most symptoms are gone now, including my asthma, for which I was using my nebulizer.  So, between the albuterol and the anti-malaria effect ... well, I am swaying and shaking!!!  But I am now back to work, although not very coherent!

House
Well, after many shocking discoveries and disappointing conversations, I am forced to cancel out of the sale of the house ... now back to square 1.  We shall see what the Lord does next ... What an adventure!

Work
I have had 6 roles in Xerox since I joined again in 2006 ... we just had yet another re-org (it feels like we have one almost every 6 months) and I have a new role, new boss and a whole new set of processes that are being defined as we speak ... all around me is swaying and shaking ...

We shall see what the Lord makes of me in all this!

Serving the Lord - a week in Haiti

I have been back from PR now for a week and it's been about a week and a half since I left Haiti, but the impressions from the time there have not left me.  It is hard to put to words so many impressions about the time there.  I will try to answer the most common questions and share some things that touched me very closely.  We were a very small team ... 5 from CC Puerto Rico, 2 that joined us from CC Fort Lauderdale and myself. 

 What did I do there?

For me, it was mainly children's ministry. The picture to the left was at a school orphanage. These two boys wouldn't let go!  After a while, my arms were going to fall off, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!!!  The one in blue even fell asleep on me ... so I was able to put him down.  In that same place, there was a group of older kids, maybe 8-10 years old (the school seemed to have a large age range together).  One of them tried to tell me something that I couldn't understand. After the translator finally understood what he was saying, he said that I should take one of them home (pointing to himself and his friends)!!! It was heartbreaking and there was really nothing to say...



Calvary Chapel Haiti Initiative Property and Big Tent



There was also construction work that the men did at the Calvary Chapel Haiti Initiative property, and we all helped sort mattresses, boxes of clothing, shoes and hygiene products from donations that would later be distributed to churches for people and families in need.  We also got pretty muddy when it rained and the photo doesn't do it justice!  This was one of those crazy shots when we got on the tap-tap, but I just love it (especially with the verse)!  Sorry I didn't get you in here, Josephine.  Do you want to crucify me?  We called the truck "tap-tap" because you tap it on the sides to get the driver to stop :D  
 

 I also helped out with some computer work one afternoon, but primarily it was about the kids.  For the children's ministry, we would visit schools and orphanages and Sam (one of the long term missionaries from CC Fort Lauderdale that knows Creole) would lead the kids in worship and share a story from the Bible (Paul and Silas & the philippian jailer) while we acted it out.  Then we would color and draw with the kids images relating to the story, or anything that they wanted us to draw ... I did a lot of cars and flowers! :)  I also learned to say and write on their pictures "Jezzi Remen Ou!" (Jesus Loves You!).  The kids just loved to have their picture taken and see themselves, thanks to modern technology ... disposable cameras didn't quite have the same effect :) ... sorry Sandra, God knows my heart!  I have so many pictures of kids!



How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:7



I got to hang out with the kids and even hold the baby!!! :) 

This was at a school and the baby belonged to one of the teachers.

 The worst of days was a day we went to an orphanage with babies (from infant to what would appear to be 1 year old, but they were probably older due to malnutrition) where we were not allowed to take pictures.  The best of the babies were in rooms lined with steel cribs dying to get picked up, while others would not even have eye contact with us and just stare into space.  Some of these kids may be orphans, others have parents that dropped them off.  I was holding a little girl that I thought was about 18 months and she had a sister who was about 1-2 months old.  It was so hard to see these little babies that were desperate to receive the physical touch they didn't regularly get.  It was also hard to see even bigger kids that also were in another room lined with cribs that didn't even fit in the cribs.  They would go to school in the morning and come back to lay in the cribs the rest of the day.  So many kids and adoption being so hard to impossible!!!  There were so many heartbreaking impressions here ... how much can one person really do?  All I can say is please pray for these kids.

That afternoon, we joined Eric (a long term missionary from California) on a soccer outreach.  We played soccer with the kids from the community and then shared the gospel with them. We felt so beat down from the morning and so unqualified because most of the men were doing construction ... what could 4 girls do to help out at a soccer outreach with not quite enough men???  Well, the Lord chooses the weak and the foolish ... At least 8 kids accepted the Lord!  Eric said that girls normally don't join the games and there were quite a few that came and were playing with us, even if we looked more foolish than athletic in a culture where all of them are great at soccer!  We met a boy whose parents had died in the earthquake and he also accepted the Lord when one of the girls shared the gospel with him!!!  We also met Pierre.  He is the man in the yellow shirt.  He came with a strut and beer in his hand, showing off and kicking around the ball.  After raising his hand, praying and becoming very broken in tears, he left with a gentle walk and a Bible in his hand!  It was a glorious afternoon on the worst of days and best of days!  Please pray that the fruit remains.

Eric (on the right) sharing the gospel, while Brisso (in green) translates to Creole.

Was there still a lot of destruction from the earthquake?

There was a lot of poverty and broken buildings ... but it was hard for me to identify what was poverty vs. earthquake impact.  There are many still living in tents and the contrast of nice buildings, poverty, tents and garbage is very marked.  I have many  pictures available at the link below.

What did the Lord show me on the trip?

There were many things the Lord was speaking to my heart and changes that I don't even understand ...



The Ladies! United from many places :)



When I left for Puerto Rico to begin this trip, I knew only one person (Jason - the assistant pastor from CC PR) and two of the girls I had met on facebook shortly before the trip.  By the end of the trip, I had many brothers and sisters that were close and I now love and miss.  They love me, they really love me!!! ;)  Some of them are missionaries long term in Haiti, others are local Haitians involved in the ministry and others are short term missionaries and have left as I have (some even going back soon).  The Lord has a way to bring a unity in the Spirit that in the flesh would not be possible.  I am learning that wherever the Lord takes me, He will establish the friendships and comradery that I will need and that will be essential to accomplish His will.

Jason shared a story when our trip was drawing to an end.  I hope I quote it close enough...

A boy is walking along the beach and it is covered in starfish that are dying. Moved with compassion, he grabs a starfish and throws it back into the sea, then another, then another.  A man that walks up asks the boy: "There are so many starfish that are dying. What makes you think that you are making a difference?  How many can you really save?".  The boy reached down, picked up another starfish and as he threw it in, he said: "There's one".  He picked up another one and as he threw it in, he said: "There's another one".

Do I think I made a huge impact with this trip?  No, I know it was not much at all ... and that is a statement of the obvious, if ever I've heard one! ... but ...

One by one, we can make a difference.  Let's pay no attention to sheer volume of need, as we would become discouraged.  Let's keep our eyes on Jesus, go out and obey the Lord with the one by one He has for us to impact!

If you haven't already seen them, please check out more pictures of the trip (they are the same as on facebook). I have descriptions to help understand what was going on:

Updated link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/principlepassion/CCPRTripToHaiti2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCICIroO_rrOhigE&feat=directlink

For additional information on the ministry, see:

http://www.calvarychapelhaitiinitiative.org/





On the Way

I am now in Puerto Rico, enjoying the warm weather after having frozen in Webster at 6 and 7 degrees with wind chills in the negative digits for the past couple of days ... as I sit here, it has started to rain and the beautiful sound will shotly put me to sleep :) ... sorry guys :) 

I am so blessed and excited as the trip has begun.  It is an answer to prayer that I am here with no delays and no loss!!!  The Lord has granted traveling mercies from Rochester to here and tomorrow morning I meet up with Pastor Jason to go over trip details.  I am also thrilled to meet the rest of the team and hear how the Lord has brought us together!  I am so blessed with so many people praying and being part of this mission with me.  Remember ... those that stay back and watch the camp are just as partakers of the blessings as those that go to the battle!  We are all in this together!

I will be meeting the team at the airpor bright and early (5:30am) on Saturday and from there we leave for Haiti.  There are a lot of details I do not know.  Some I will learn tomorrow, many more only as the days go by and it happens.  Flexibility is the name of the game!
Upon arriving at my Grandpa and Mom's house, I met a sweet couple that have been missionaries for many years and their grown children are missionaries.  It is such a blessing to meet others that are invested in the Kingdom!!!

A couple of weeks ago in some prayer time regarding the trip, the Lord gave me Exodus 33, particularly verse 14: And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”.  What an awesome promise!  He is going with me!!!  If He does not, like Moses exclaimed: "don't get us out of here", but with the Lord ... now that is exciting and the ultimate promise! 
 
My remaining Itinerary:

Saturday 2/12 – Haiti via American

1.       Flight 4804 departing SJU at 7:30AM arriving SDQ Santo Domingo at 08:35 AM

2.       Flight 4804 departing SDQ Santo Domingo at 09:10 AM arriving PAP Port Au Prince at 09:08 AM

3.       Travel to Jacmel, Haiti where we will be ministering

Friday 2/18 – Return to PR via American

1.       Flight 4807  departing PAP Port Au Prince at 09:45 AM arriving SDQ Santo Domingo at 11:42 AM

2.       Flight 4807 departing SDQ Santo Domingo at 12:15 PM arriving SJU at 01:27 PM

Tuesday 2/22 – Return to Rochester via US Air

1.       Flight 1033 departing SJU at 3:40 PM arriving CLT at 6:29 PM

2.       Flight 1430 departing CLT at 7:54 PM arriving ROC at 9:38 PM

Prayer requests:

1. I have been somewhat fighting a cold with irritated throat and a bit of congestion.  Please pray that I am healed and have no distractions with this.
2. Pray for wisdom and safety as we travel
3. Pray for the base ministry we are meeting up with. Feel free to check out their web site and Facebook account: http://www.calvarychapelhaitiinitiative.org/ and http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/CalvaryChapelHaitiInitiative They often post on fb pictures and what the visiting team is doing, so you may get updates from what I am doing that way.
4. That the people in Haiti would come to know Jesus
5. The children in Haiti that don’t have parents would be protected and loved by the Lord
6. That the Lord would use me and the entire team and speak to us
7. Help with the language so we can share with people
8. Protection for myself and the team from danger and getting sick
9. Unity between the team and the ministry in Haiti

Once I go to Haiti, I don't think I will be able to post updates, but I will upon my return.  Please keep up the prayers!  I definitely feel them!

I recently heard a phrase by Pastor Chuck that blessed my heart: "We are indestructible if we are in the will of the Lord and He is not done with us."

God bless you and make your days count for the Kingdom!