the green paint!

I almost did not make it to guatemala due to the fact i grabbed the wrong passport when i left! God was with me all the way though! He worked everything out so our plans where not messed up! Thanks to my wonderful husband who drove back to the airport and brought my new passport, a wonderful checkin agent named AnnMarie, and my neon GREEN PAINT on my suitcase, I am here! I can fill you in later, but thanks for your prayers!! Coleen

Stolen Away

OK, so I had another confession to make by the end of our first day at Ceracaif orphanage today. I told my wife that my affections have been completely and hopelessly stolen away by a 6-year-old girl named Paty who decided that I obviously needed a new best friend. Lynn took the news remarkably well, probably because her emotions had just as surely been laid claim to. We have fallen in love with all the children here - Eduardo, Carla, Jorge, Julia, Rosa, Santos... I wish I could remember all their names, but the lateness of the hour is starting to set in. The desire for affection that these kids have, coupled with an incredible resilience in the face of the trials they´ve had to go through, endears you to them like I would not have believed. Our pastor´s warning not to bring any orphans home with us was well chosen, because I want so badly to see them all placed in a home with a Christian family that can meet all their needs.

But although our feelings are important, they are not always trustworthy. God did not bring me down here to steal the children away, or even to daydream about it. He brought me down here to love them, to invest myself in them even though I know we have to leave all too soon, to provide for their physical needs as well as spiritual, and to keep them on my heart in prayer and provision when we go back to the States. God raised up a man with a vision for an orphanage in this city. That man gave up everything he owned to build the facility, and he died still giving everything for the kids he loved. His daughters, godly women who obviously know how to manage 65 children and give them the sustenance and mother-figures and discipline and education they need, are doing an incredibly good job with incredibly few resources. It is for me to support and encourage them in their work, confirming their authority and working to see their ministry flourish; and it is the deepest desire of my heart to do this.

For what they are doing is the most important thing in anyone´s life, orphan or no. Señora Theresa and her workers are teaching Paty and Eduardo and Carla and Jorge and Julia and Rosa and Santos - and all the rest of them - that they will only ever find true meaning and worth for their lives in Christ Jesus, that like the workers there Jesus truly loves them for who they are, and that in the miracle of redemption he will someday steal them away to live with him in the new heavens and the new earth, where no one will ever be orphaned or fatherless again. They are teaching the children that in Christ they are part of a family. And it is my honor to be invited into that circle with them, even for a short time.

Chicken coop construction is on tomorrow! :) Good times. Please keep us in your prayers, it´s been a wild trip so far but God has always gone before us.

Jeremy

Hope Surprised

Going out into the vast unknown of Christ's service is always a daunting thing, but I confess that I have tended to downplay what we have been sent to do in Guatemala. Putting on a Vacation Bible School for some orphan children, building a chicken coop or two, and doing a little painting and cleaning doesn't seem like all that big of a deal. But something happened today that brought everything into stark reality for me.

My wife and I adopted a baby girl and as a result were involved in a lengthy court battle that presented difficulties and trials for us in many different ways. This has gone through two courts and is now in the VA Court of Appeals, and we have been praying throughout this summer that the court would dismiss the case (i.e. that justice would be served) before we went on our mission trip to Guatemala. We were just talking a couple of days ago about how it looked like that prayer wouldn't be answered after all. I think we felt a little disappointment, but the outcome was kind of to be expected. After all, what's sacred about us going on this mission trip? Just because we pray for something means God will grant it?

I was in a meeting this afternoon at 12:30pm and my phone rang. It was our attorney leaving me a voicemail, and for a moment a wild thought rose in my mind: "What if God answered our prayer and the case has been dismissed?" As soon as the meeting was over I called him back, and he said, "I have just received notice that the VA Court of Appeals has dismissed the case against you. Everything is going to be OK." God had brought the case to an end, the day before we got on a plane to go to Guatemala.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Astonishment, gratitude, disbelief, adoration, anticipation, surprise - all these feelings came flooding over me in an impossible moment of supreme rejoicing. God had answered our prayer, and he had done it in a way such that nobody but he could receive the glory for it. And he did it that way specifically so that our faith would be strengthened and our unbelief rebuked. I gloried in that rebuke, for in it I heard the voice of the Lover of my Soul: "O you of little faith... why did you doubt?"

Hope is what gives us perseverance, as we read in our team devotional this evening in I Thess 1. It is the looking forward of a sure and certain knowledge that God will deliver us, a knowledge based on the surety of his very life. But hope is by nature temporary, and there always comes a moment when the desperate clinging of our faith to the promise of God is interrupted by the warm embrace of Jesus doing what he said he would do. That is what I felt today, and it is a reality that I want for this mission trip. I want my unbelief and sinful myopia to be shattered by the very presence of God, showing himself mighty among us to do what only he can. I want my self to decrease, and Christ to increase. I want others to know what I was sweetly reminded of: that we serve the true and living God, and that he is faithful even when we are not.

Please keep us in your prayers. They are spoken to a God who listens, who cares, and who will surely do all that we ask or need.

Love in Christ,

Jeremy and Lynn

Thoughts on Culture

A mistake that is often made when visiting another country, so I am told, is that of supposing our culture to be intrinsically superior to theirs. This can take the shape of looking down on others, of offering our culture to them as what they really need, or (worst of all) of presenting the Gospel to them in terms defined by our culture. For example, if I go to Guatemala and teach on the Protestant work ethic and how the folks there all need to have more Christian discipline in their life so that they can enjoy the material blessings God gives us, I may do more harm than good to the situation. Notwithstanding the false assumption I have made in saying that material blessings always come when you are diligent (the Son of Man did not have a place to lay his head), it may be that God has called his saints there to live in a time and place where material blessings are scant; and that instead of trying to attain to the American standard of industriousness, they should be seeking the face of God as he is revealed in Scripture for the good of their souls. And it may also be that a perspective which understands and values their culture, so much more laid-back and deliberate than ours, will be much better suited to minister to them than one which foolishly insists on other people "rising to our level".

Because if the truth be known, the American culture has enough of its own problems that the phrase "rising to our level" is almost certainly laughable in the sight of God. But after the One enthroned in Heaven laughs, he rebukes us in his anger, saying, "I have enthroned my King on Zion, my holy hill." This is not mere poetry. God is showing us something very important about where our true home is. If we were redeemed, if we were bought at a price, if we have truly turned our eyes from everything else in this world to follow Jesus, then our hearts will be at home only in the Kingdom of God. Our allegiance is there first and foremost, and it becomes necessary for us to see that we will not find our true happiness anywhere else. I am as patriotic as anyone, and I love my country, but because I love America I will be honest about her shortcomings. We in this country are poor, pitiful, blind and naked. We need to come to Jesus for our riches and clothing and the restoration of our sight.

That must be the starting point of our mission. But though we are so broken and needy as modern Americans, we ought not think that there is nothing we can offer. As a culture we have been given many material blessings; let us be eager to "excel in this act of grace" as Paul says and share those blessings freely. As a culture we have access to an incredible amount of knowledge, both knowledge about Jesus Christ himself and knowledge about how to live life in his presence; let us give thought to every possible way in which we can bless those we go to serve with these resources. As a culture we value title, and standing, and means, and power; let us see clearly that we are going to a tiny, struggling orphanage in a poor country, and let us glory in that. And finally, let this be the message we take to Guatemala: that we are great sinners, but we have a great Saviour. This is the truth which levels time and place and even culture itself, to bring all nations in wonder and worship to the feet of God.

Jeremy

The Home of Refuge: Called To Serve and Love

The Home of Refuge: Called To Serve and Love: "Missionary work doesn't require leaving the country, the state or even your home. It does require a willing heart. Willing to give what you ..."

Called To Serve and Love

Missionary work doesn't require leaving the country, the state or even your home. It does require a willing heart. Willing to give what you can, in any capacity, to help further His kingdom. Our team of 10 feels called ... called to serve and love the children and saints in Guatemala ....so off we go.I can't believe that it is right around the corner. At the end of January when the planning began, July seemed really far way but here we are only 7 days away from leaving. I am so excited and get more excited every time I have contact with someone from Orphan Outreach. Every new piece of information makes me smile. I keep hearing how much we are going to fall in love with the children at the Home of Refuge. Our team has been blessed beyond belief and we haven't even left Waynesboro. I can only imagine the blessings we will receive from 60 children! We have had tremendous financial support from our church, family, friends and acquaintances. Fund raising was even fun because we have been so blessed -we had unbelievable amounts of donated items for the yard sale, many volunteers preparing for the event prior to and during the day(and even at 5:30am), children doing face painting,tons and tons of people from the community shopping on a sunny day,loads of people buying Guatemalan coffee and eating a tasty Applebee's breakfast. But most importantly we appreciate all the prayers that are being lifted up for our team. We get the benefit of serving and loving in Guatemala because of the awesome support and encouragment that we have received. All I have to do now is 3-4 pages of my "to-do" lists. So, please pray that my focus will continue to be on serving and loving and that I won't be overwhelmed with the little details that still need to be completed before we head to Dulles on the 28th. God is in charge of this trip! In Him, Kristi

Getting ready

Hi all! :)
We are working through lists of stuff to do. Activities to plan, supplies to line up, songs to learn, devotions to write, packing to do, medications to take, childcare and transportation to coordinate, and it all needs to be done before the 29th of July. Add to that the anticipation of immersion in a completely new culture and the desire to make friends and minister to the children and workers at the orphanage (and in my case, a lot of stuff to get in order before I leave my construction projects for a week), and you have the potential for quite a bit of stress.
In my days as a field engineer in the shipyard I used to enjoy saying that stress was nothing but Mc/I, that is, merely the equation combining force and resistance. While edgy and satisfyingly obscure, that statement was not true in the physiological sense. Stress is the very real reaction that we experience when we have too much to do and not enough time, resources, inclination or support to get it all done well. It comes because we have expectations of the situation that we realize are not going to be fulfilled. It can be a useful thing (they say an expert is a drip under pressure), but more often it is a burden to those around us and a detriment to our Christian witness. Flipping out because things aren't going our way is declaring that we don't trust God to bless and protect us even though things look bad. And I am the chief of sinners, as anyone who works with me can tell you.
As with all problems in our Christian walk, the answer is not just to "get over it". I can no more get over my unbelief than I can save myself from my sin. What I can do, however, is have the humility to listen to a gentle rebuke by my teammates when I get stressed out about getting everything done. We need prayer for unity in the work God has given us, so that we can have the courage to speak into each other's lives. This will come when the people we are going to minister to become more important to us than the checklists we bring along, and when the people we are traveling alongside become more important to us than ourselves. That is the heart of Jesus, and I know it is the desire of each one of us on the Guatemala orphanage mission this year.
Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. More later!
Jeremy