Privilege of Prayer

At first I thought I might title this post: The Beginning of the End, since we only have 4 full days more at Casa Bernabe but I can't make myself- I'm in denial. I am going to miss these kids and this place so very much. I am figuring out how to sponsor one of several girls in my house need a sponsor so I will be able to still be connected to my house in that way but I will so miss seeing their beautiful faces and hearing each of their hilarious and unique laughs every single day.
The Lord has been teaching me about prayer and how to pray for these children even when I don't always know their past and I wont know their daily life when I leave. Hector (the house dad of Casa Alabanza) was telling me the story of how the Lord has glorified His name through his and Laura's marriage and through the Lord's strong calling on their lives. First off praise the Lord for allowing me to comprehend enough Spanish to understand his story. I wish I could write it all down here, but in short, God has blessed Laura and Hector's marriage as they have gone through times when they had no option but to trust in the provision of our Savior. But then when a time came when the world told them they had other options, they gave it all up to serve the Lord by enlarging their family and teaching these broken kids love, obedience, and joy. God has abundantly blessed them by answering their prayers for wisdom and energy. They are so full of love and SO undeniably dedicated to their children. Although at times, praying for them kinda seems like the least I can do, I have learned this summer that prayer is absolutely the heart of ministry. For even despite all my precaution, even my love can be dis-constructive if not done prayerfully as I humbly ask for wisdom for how to show love. What a privilege to pray for this incredible family and to have prayerfully watched God working in and through them this summer. 
Truly He is strong when we are weak, and His peace is beyond comprehension. 
He is close to the broken hearted, the defender of the orphan and the oppressed. 
He is big enough to have a plan beyond my imagination and beyond my understanding. 
He is not afraid of my questions and he comforts me in my confusion. 
I know that if my heart is broken by the pain I see that He is grieving as well. 
He is patient because the fulfillment of all his promises is worth waiting for, 
the joy to come will make every present difficulty fade away. 
He loves us so much that even though he knows our every thought and is in command of the entire universe, he wants us mere humans to come to Him in prayer.

I know this passage is a little long but it has been so encouraging to me as I prepare to leave this place and I don't like taking it too out of context so here is all of Romans 8:18-27

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Fiestas

Wednesday was the 30th anniversary of the founding of Casa Bernabe! We had a special worship service that night with singing, prayer, a few people sharing short messages, and some houses getting up on stage to dance or sing a song. Then afterward the service we all took our chairs downstairs and sat together in a big room, each house to its own table, for an absolutley delicious celebration feast of salad, rolls, pasta, and cupcakes. It was such a fun, uplifting, and laughter-filled evening, everyone was beautiful and thankful and serving. What a wonderful glipse of heaven, it so reminded me of the parable where the Lord fills his banquet with people from the streets, broken people whose hearts are thankful. I talked with one young woman the night before and she told me stories of when she learned English many years ago when the entire school was in the dining room that the short term mission groups now use. God has abundantly blessed this place with incredible men and women who serve as house parents and teachers as well as the resources to help add rooms to the school and build a new house.
I am so thankful for these house parents! I really believe God has prepared each of them and gives them the wisdom they need to serve their chldren well! Not only do they provide a loving and Christ-focus environment, Casa Bernabe plans special meaningful experiences like the anniversary festivities for the kids to have fun and to learn. Another awesome event that Casa Bernabe puts on once a year is a fundraiser called Family Day (Dia de la Famila). They have the day off from school and each house participates as a team in a bunch of different group activities and races. There is one extra "family" group made up of all the students who come to Casa Bernabe's School but who do not live on campus. Then after the activities are through, most of the house moms and some of the teachers have set up booths to sell food like tamales or nachos, chocobananas or icecream, and all the money raised goes to Casa Bernabe. This time the short term group that was here were so generous to buy food for all the families and even some for us as well! It felt like a field day and a fair and a mini World Cup all combined and all the Alabanza kids (and everyone else) absolutey loved it.
It is crazy to think we only have barely two weeks left but I am so grateful for the ways that Casa Bernabe has taught me how about family, about to be observant, about the joy and strength that fills us when we are broken, and about the many various sometimes surprising ways that God can use me to show love to His children. All praise to His name for His powerful presence in this place and the ways that he uses us to show His love!
"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds." Psalm 9:1

Let us exalt His Name together!

Last week was a different week for our team for many different reasons.
First, I am just now posting this because the internet has been down for almost a week so sorry for the late update but here it is now!
Secondly, it was different for me because 4 of the people at Casa Bernabe whom I have become good friends with left to return to the states.
Two beautiful women visited Casa Alabanza for the past 2 weeks, to see the child that one of them has been trying to adopt since he was born a little over 7 years ago. They have showered the boy and all of Casa Alabanza with the joy of their loving presence as well as with their many generous gifts. These ladies spoke such beautiful, honest, and Christ-centered advice into my life as they shared their stories with me and I am so very grateful to have met them. But the family that is adopting this little boy is from Texas, so maybe the Lord will let our paths cross again!
The other couple that left last week had been in Guatemala for almost their entire first year of marriage and were only a couple years older than me. They were so generous to share their time and their stories with us. They were both full of contagious laughter and good advice about the culture of Guatemala and of Casa Bernabe. Casa Bernabe is already so different without them around and we were sad to see them go, but I'm so thankful that they became our fast friends!

Finally, last week was different because our team got to travel around Guatemala! Last Monday our group spent the day in Antigua, a beautiful historical city about 2 hours away from Casa Bernabe. The couple that I just mentioned had lived there for language school earlier in the year so they volunteered to come with us and be our tour guides! We got to experience some incredible sightseeing, eat lots of delicious food, shop in the artisan markets, and experience an very different part of Guatemalan culture.
This past weekend we spent time in an incredible place named Panajachel, a lake surrounded by 3 volcanos and many many mountains. It was pretty surreal sometimes and definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I couldn't get over the fact that wherever I turned, I would be staring at a volcano or a vast mountains range. The first day after we checked into our hotel, we rode a boat to a village to watch some weaving and swam in a hot spring that flowed into a little part of the lake! Our boat driver was wonderful and seemed to know everyone no matter where we stopped. He was constantly cracking jokes (in Spanish) and he got plenty of laughs as we swam through the cold lake water to reach the hot spring. We made sure we hired him for the next day to take us to the other side of the lake to hike the Volcano in San Pedro.
He set us up with an amazing tour guide whose sincerity and care and laughter made the 5+ hour round-trip hike just that much more wonderful. This volcano is inactive so no lava sightings or anything quite as crazy as that but the views were absolutely stunning. The last day we went to a nature reserve to go ziplining! It was such a thrill and gave us yet another incredible view of one of the biggest volcanos. We got to hike around in the reserve and down to the lake, and even got to see some monkeys while we were hiking!
The whole weekend was a time to soak up all the incredible beauty that was undeniable and all-encompassing. It can be hard sometimes to trust in God's plan for this world when I see so much pain in the lives of many of these kids, and even harder when I think of the many more children who are not living in a place of safety and healing like Casa Bernabe. But I was reminded this weekend of the verse that says "If I so clothe the lilies of the field, which are here today and gone tomorrow, how much more will I clothe you, oh you of little faith?". If My God holds volcanoes and mountains in his hand, and even in this broken world can speak His glory so undeniably through His creation, I can be confident that His a plan for this broken world is worth waiting for. And some how we are to help each other to "consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because we know that the testing of our faith produces perseverance," and when we learn to let go and let the power of the Spirit, which raised Christ from the grave, work through us, then we will indeed be "mature and complete, not lacking anything". I have been desiring and praying for wisdom in the day-to-day, that I can know how to let the Spirit's power work in me and through me. But it can be hard not to be "double minded, blown and tossed by the wind" because such a steady faith requires a lot of patience and surrender. But I know that even when I grieve over the brokenness of this world that I am close to the heart of God for He too is being patient, wanting and waiting for His children to trust in Him and find rest in Him alone.

Thank you for reading, thank you for praying.

"Oh magnify the Lord with me,

Let us exalt His Name together!"

Being Watchful

There are so many little things about my experience here at Casa Bernabe that have made it so incredible, not always stories but just simple habits, or moments, or things that I've observed that are meaningful to me.

I noticed quickly when I arrived that the kids know very well that Casa Bernabe is a safe and joyful place. But as I've been here longer, I have come to know that the safety and joy are not because of the work of man, but because of the work of God. I love the way that they pray; one child (or adult) will pray aloud and the rest of the children repeat each sentence in unison. It might sounds a little strange, but I've seen that it is a beautiful way to thank the Lord together and be involved in really knowing what you are saying Amen to. In every prayer the children thank to Lord for their Mami and Papi and often they pray for los ninos de la calle (street children).
I so admire the way I see my house parents interacting with the children and reminding them to thank God for each blessing. I am so grateful to them for being gracious with me and also with the short-term volunteers who come through Casa Bernabe. I've learned a lot about how they run their house and I've found that it is a challenge and an honor to be able to explain some of the cultural norms and rules of the house to the short term groups.
I like knowing that at least one soccer game happens per day on campus. I like seeing rain at least a little everyday. I like that the kids here are obsessed with Frozen just like my pre-schoolers in Texas. I like the comradery from talking about each of our night shifts at the baby house. I like being able to dive into a culture that doesn't put such a huge emphasis on schedules or time. I've loved getting to know other longer term volunteers and hearing their stories and advice. And Oh there is so much more that I could say.

Sometimes it can be easy to see Casa Bernabe as a sort of camp or boarding school, but it is important for me to remember that it is so much more than that because these children have nowhere else to go, no other place to call home. These past few days have been a reminder of how beautiful of a refuge this is, but it has also been a hard reminder of the great demand for places like this. A child returns to an abusive home because a court case took an unexpected turn, the police bring a newborn that they found abandoned in the dump, two sisters go to court to continue an investigation and maintain their 'adoptable' status, and suddenly I'm shocked into the reality that each of these children has a crazy story of rescue. Although it breaks my heart that there is such a need for homes for children who have been abandoned, orphaned, or abused, at the same time I can not help but to praise God for the fact that this place is full of beautiful lives and that is well known among the police and the court as a place where they can send a child in totally confidence that they will be loved, cared for, and taught, all in the name of the Lord.
I've been taught to not ask about a child's story (and even the ones that I have learned I am not allowed to share specifics on the internet). And my prayer request for my team and I is that we would be observant, remembering the importance of watching to see how each child responds to others and to their house parents so that we can learn how to best love them.

ALABANZA

I can hardly believe my first week in Guatemala has already gone by!

Casa Alabanza is AMAZING. My schedule is kinda subject to change from day to day. But except for the fact that I sleep next door, my life here looks like an adopted older sister for the 11 little ones that live in
Casa Alabanza. I've been so impressed with the house parents Laura y Hector, they are some pretty incredible people. They are full of joy, generous but firm with the children, and so patient with my Spanish. I've been in the house for a few of the daily family devotions that they have and Hector expresses his thoughts with such passion and yet in a way that the kids understand even though they are young. Even when it is not necessarily devo time, he and Laura are always pointing the children to the Lord. One night they were practicing for a Despedida which is a sort of good-bye ceremony to help the kids understand that a short-term group that has been at Casa Bernabe is leaving. Four of the children were learning a short dance to preform in the show. They had practiced it a couple of times in front of the rest of the family, with various children calling various instructions about how to to it better, when Hector stops them and says something to the effect of, 'We aren't doing this dance to make people think good things about us, we don't preform to make people think we are talented or pretty, when we dance, we are dancing for God, we are dancing because He has made us glad! So let's try it one more time.' And they did, full of energy and with lots of smiles.

I've learned so much this week, but it's crazy that the more I learn, the more that I realize that I don't know. I think that goes for most things in life, but Spanish has definitely brought that to the forefront of my mind right now. Another thing I'm learning is patience. I've had lots of practice being patience with little ones so that part isn't usually too hard for me, but learning patience with some of the other short-term teams that are here has definitely been challenging. But I have already seen God's faithfulness both in prompting me to be a patient and encouraging presence and then in showing me the awesome things that can come from following those promptings. God has even helped me see these short term groups as an encouragement to me of the Spanish that I do know. Lots of them don't really know any Spanish so I have been an unofficial, but by the grace of God a sufficiently effective translator all this week in Casa Alabanza. Who would've guessed, but what an awesome experience to feel totally inadequate and then realize that God just used me to help people communicate and be unified!

My prayer requests are still for discernment to know how best to serve Hector and Laura and the children of Alabanza, for continued patience with the other teams here, for confidence to start conversations in Spanish, and to praise my Lord for every single one of the abundant blessings that He pours out on me!!

Nosotros llegamos!

We have arrived!!
The Campus of Casa Bernabe (CB) is BEAUTIFUL. The equatorial climate makes everything so green and it is rainy season so tons of flowers are in bloom. Below is a picture of the beautiful Casa Fortaleza, the dorm the we will call home for the next few months! and then a group picture on the basketball/futbol court!

I realized that I have not explained much about what CB is exactly but I'm gonna direct y'all to http://www.foce.org/?page_id=9 to read what they say about themselves, as well as explaining it a little bit myself.
The houses are all built along one edge of the campus. They are on a hill (which would easily pass for a mountain in Texas), right next to/below each other along the incline. These past couple days have been unscheduled in true Latin American fashion, a time for us to get to know the kids of Casa Bernabe and listen to the Lord's guidance about which house we will be adopted into for the summer!
There are 8 houses total, the baby house and a young kids house (with mixed genders), then 3 houses for the boys (separated into 3 groups according to age) and 3 for the girls (mostly mixed ages). You can see the names of each house and an adorable picture of each child if you go to http://www.foce.org/?page_id=81
Our role in our house will be to assist the house parents and today we determined which team member would be assigned to each house. I am in Casa Alabanza which is girls and boys ages 3-6! I spent one evening playing with those kids already and I can't wait for tomorrow when I will really begin spending my time with them! My Spanish is better than I expected ...but still not awesome, so I'm still working hard at that! Oh and one of the older girls in Casa Alabanza already assigned herself as my Spanish teacher when I told her (my thus far most used phrase) "Hablo un poco de espanol, pero yo estoy aprendiendo"
Today we also learned about the shifts that we will do in the Casa de los Angelitos (the baby house)! We (volunteered) to each take a night of the week so that the house parents and other workers can get full nights of sleep and one of us per night will stay up and get to care for a houseful of 13 babies once a week! Sounds insane but I'm really excited about it!
In church this morning, there was a visiting preacher who spoke about David and Goliath and (from what I understood of it) about about God's strength through us. He also spoke about how David acted based on his conviction, not based on the reactions to which our human nature is prone. I want to take that to heart this week; I want to learn for every day how to follow Christ by loving with the unconditional, unfailing love of the Lord and by working hard out of my conviction of his calling to humility and service, all for the Glory of His name!

Never Once Did We Ever Walk Alone

6/5/14

Tomorrow's the day! We leave at 4:30 am, will meet with the rest of our team in the Atlanta airport, and head to Guatemala from there!!
I wanted to share one of the verses that we have been dwelling on this week.
"Have I not commanded you?
Be STRONG and COURAGEOUS.
Do not be terrified,
Do not be discouraged,
for the LORD your GOD
will be with you WHEREVER you go"
Joshua 1:9
As we talked today about actively surrendering our plans and our cultural mindsets that may hinder us from serving in humility, we talked about the difference between desiring success and desiring to bear fruit. I kept thinking of how Joshua 1:9 related to John 15, specifically verse 4 which says,
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me"
We ind life when we abide in Christ who is our life! He calls us to abide in Him so we will be attentive to His voice and courageous follow wherever he leads. Please pray that we will be listening to His voice and abiding in His love, forever for the glory of His Holy Name!