Days Gone By…

No photoshop here. We really look that stunning.  Seriously. 

We have been spending our days up in the mountains.  Half the week we come back down to the valley every night, but the other half we just stay up there with some very dear friends.  

There are so many stories to tell.  And those stories could fit any movie category you would like…thriller, comedy, horror, family.  I hope to share some of those stories here (eventually)  but I know some of those stories will only be shared audibly, with family and friends, or over the decades Ashlyn and I will sit down and recount these days, or some of the stories are just “the ones you tell your grandkids” 

But we pray only eternity will tell all of these stories.  Of the lives that have been changed and the ripple effect that it has had. Yes.  Eternity will tell the whole story.  

Is that frightening or encouraging? 

And for now I say goodbye, because we will be staying up in the mountains for the next couple of weeks.  Next week we are having a kids camp, and then a missions team from my chapel is coming for a week, and then…well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

Nos veamos. 

Te tengo

Lord, I am fighting it….rage, anger, bitterness.  The urge to just run away. 

I pen these thought in my journal and pause.  Wow.  That does not sound pretty.  But how true.  I am deciding what to do about someone who I feel has wronged me, but yet I do not want to go to that person because, I mean, what will the say?  What will they do?

As I sit, contemplating, “VAMOS!”  interrupts my precious alone time with my Savior.  “What?!  Already?  But Lord, don’t you know I need this time to stew?!” 

But we leave anyways.  The morning is still new as we walk up a mountain to go visit a family.  They have prepared breakfast for us.  The air is crisp, but the sun begins to break through the clouds, warming the earth.  The whole way I say nothing but contemplate the injustice of my life, knowing what I needed to do, but asking God to let it be anything.but.that. 

We maneuver the hill to find the young girls of the family playing as though there were no cares in the world.  I join them.  I look at the mid-morning sunlight dancing in young four-year-old Dani’s clear brown eyes.  Her face fills with glee.  I pick her up under her arms, swinging her back and forth between my legs.  She giggles with delight.  I throw her up in the air.  She grasps for my hands.  Claws and pinches my arms. The joy leaves with rapidity.  I pull her close to myself.  As she lays her head on my shoulder, breathing deeply, I say with a little smile, “Te tengo.  No  te precoupes. Confia en mi.”

My breath catches in my throat, my eyes mist, and my heart says, “That’s what it is, right Lord?” 

I have you.  Don’t worry.  Trust in me. 

Oh Lord, make me like a child again.

Picture. Picture.

Remember when I said here, that a friend of mine was helping me develop children’s lessons?  Yes.  She was wonderful.  And still is.  But here is what we did and how it works.

I started developing picture stories for kids using some of the techniques I learned at The Ezekiel Project.   As a spring board I am using a little booklet called “Your Story”  that goes through and chronologically and logically tells the story of man and his relationship with the God of the universe.  I had wanted something simple and straightforward that offered a clear path into the gospel.  I mean, I know its possible to travel from "Daniel in the Lion’s Den” to the redeeming work of Christ, but considering my Spanish and that many times Spanish is the second language of my listeners, and sometimes I am translated, I wanted something that leads into the gospel without having to jump a few bushes to get there.   I also wanted lessons that could build on one another, because I most of the time I work with the same group of kids on a weekly bases.  However I also needed something that a one time listener could learn from as well and not be completely lost like if you watch one episode of the TV show LOST. 

I had started sharing the stories using sketch paper and markers….having to redraw everything each time.  Then it was suggested that I draw the base to the stories, laminate them, use dry erase markers, wipe it clean, and then reuse.  That’s where my friend the artist comes in.  I am not been artistically gifted at all.  So she is doing all the drawing for me.  Each picture also has a bible verse that is related to the story so if given time, we can memorize it together and if not, then I show it to them during the story time. 

We were together back in Georgia last week and worked on them together.  Since getting back here last Monday, I have used those little things every day, sometime more than once a day.  And it has been working great.  The kids are interested, I know were I am going, and we are all learning.  

So far we have four lessons (which means I have told the same story a lot of times this week!)  and we hope to make enough to cover the entirety of the booklet.  

For mom…

….just to prove that we are alive and well.  The picture was taken a few hours ago while we were in a truck coming down the mountain.

And we are getting along. I only mention it because the last time Ashlyn and I lived together we were 15 and 17, that was not.quite.the.case.  Perhaps the years have done us well.  

Snapshot.

…from my day.  Lovely.  And I am tired. 

What an Honor

Remember when I wrote a couple of times back about the fact that I was in the states enjoying time with my family?  And that there was more of it to come?  But I would write about it later? 

Well people, later has arrived.   My sister came with me to Mexico. In fact, as I am writing this we are on the last leg of our 15-hour journey, sitting on a bus.  As life normally is, this was one of those only-God-could-have-done-this things.  Through various situations some ok and some ummm, not so pretty, God worked it out for her to come.  She had been planning on coming during the first week of April anyways for a missions trip….so we changed here leave date and she  will go back to the States with the mission team.  That gives her six weeks here.  Six glorious weeks. 

Playing with kids, climbing mountains, experiencing a new culture… well two of them actually, two new languages, learning the bond of the body of Christ-not by words, but by actions.  In short viewing her God with different eyes and seeing this world has she never seen it before. 

And I have the privilege of being on the front row watching it all.  What an honor.