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!

Rainbows of Hope: Day 1!

We are currently at the Rainbows of Hope Office which is located in a beautiful old farmhouse in South Carolina. We have not yet met the three Westmont interns who are in California at the moment but we are excited to meet them when we arrive in Guatemala on Friday! Right now I have known Kyla, Carol, Sarah, and Sarah Bollinger (our team leader who we call Biz) for just barely 24 hours and I can’t believe how much laughter has filled this house since we all met. This week is dedicated to training which includes everything from learning the rules of Casa Bernabe to a training in the practice of prayer. But the training also is a chance for us as interns to be intentional in getting to know each other better, and this morning we each shared how the Lord lead us to this awesome opportunity. He has brought this team together from so many different places but as we shared some of our stories this morning, I realized how God has taught us each to surrender our plans to Him and  learn every day how to live life in thankful praise in light of the Lord's faithfulness.   

Although I've experienced it before through the amazing communities that I've experienced at places like my church, and Kanakuk, and Joni and Friends, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly people with a shared love for our beautiful Savior can get to know each other deeply. One of my very favorite verses is John 4:11-12 which says, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love in made complete is us." God doesn't need us to make His love complete, but He has chosen to give us the joyfully duty of loving each other so that they world will know that we are His! What an awesome God we serve!

I can barely contain my excitement for these upcoming months!! I am glad y’all have read this far, I hope y'all will continue to read, and I pray that you might be encouraged by what you read here in the coming weeks!

You are the God of this City

How do I begin! I have so many memories and stories from our journey to Haiti and I am still processing all that I experienced in that country full of strong, perseverant, beautiful people. Beginning at 11:23 am on the day that we expected to depart California, I learned to give up my expectations and instead learn to rely completely and joyfully on the plan God had for us. In succession we were told to check out of our hotel rooms 5 hours earlier than expected, leave the hotel an hour earlier than expected with bags that quickly became 10 lbs lighter that expected, leave LAX 3 hours later than expected, leave from Miami instead of Ft. Lauderdale to arrive in Haiti over 24 hours later than expected, figure out activities for 3x as many kids as expected, and I could go on but I think y’all get the idea! God blessed me with an absolutely WONDERFUL team of girls who prayed with and for each other, looked out for one another, learned from and with one another, served our Savior together, sang His praises together, and loved His children together. There is a quote by Henry Ward Beecher which says “Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven” so I want to tell you about several Haitian children that took hold of my hand and taught me to do the will of God on earth as is done in heaven.

Kevin: I met this sweet little boy on the first day when he was searching for a place to sit on the front row bench. His big dark eyes were filled with tears. I held out my hand to him and he hurried over and grabbed it and soon wanted me to hold him. After that if I ever had set him down, he followed me around and grabbed my hand as soon as it was free. I loved having a little shadow but I wanted him to get involved with the various games and crafts and I really wanted to see him smile. The next day we were up at the front leading some songs and I saw my little friend wandering down the center aisle scanning over all our faces. When his eyes reached mine he hurried over to me again and held out both of his hands, wanting to be picked up. Of course, my heart melted right away and I quickly scooped him up and sang the rest of the songs, encouraging him to do the hand motions and sing along. After the songs and Bible story, our team had decided to try running the activities in stations which ended up being rather chaotic. Since I was in charge of one of the craft stations, he kept getting pushed around in his attempt to follow me. I was a little worried about him till I saw that Rachel had picked him up and was looking after him. After the stations were finished, I looked around for my little friend and I saw him sitting on Victoria’s lap. I went over to say hi and he reached out his arms towards me again, completely forgiving the fact that and hour or so earlier his attachment to me had caused him to be smack dab in the middle of an energetic and rather chaotic mass of kids. So I picked my goal back of to try to make him smile. On Monday my little friend found me again and I finally figured out that his name was Kevin. He was much more talkative and was very interested in the prizes that some kids were winning through some games so I got him to participate a little bit. After a while I saw him looking around so I went over and scooped him up and gave him a hug (just like I had many times before) and for some reason this time he broke out into a big bright adorable smile. I was so surprised I burst out laughing and his smile got even bigger. I don’t know what clicked but after that he would often flash his bright adorable little smile when I came over to him. One of my teammates said that she had learned that it must bring God pleasure when we cling to Him as she thought about how she loved when these precious children clung to her. I love thinking about that and little Kevin taught me about the joy that comes from seeing someone take delight in our presence. It our privilege to smile in the presence of God and it is amazing to think that when we delight in Him, we bring Him joy!

Sophanie: I fell in love with this precious little girl at the Delmas 31 orphanage where my half of the team was blessed to spend our last day in Haiti. She has a heart-warming smile and contagious laugh and it was my joy to make her laugh and smile all day long.  I never heard her speak a word but thank God that laughter is universal! She does not let her body or her physical abilities, which others may deem limited, hinder the way that she spreads joy and invites others to smile with her. God has given Sophanie an unquenchable spirit of joy. She is a sweet reminder to me that we are called to set out mind on things of the Spirit for they bring life and peace. When we keep in step with the Spirit we are free to receive and spread the love and joy that Christ lavished upon us!

Carlo: Carlo is energetic, curious, persistent, and playful. He came into the church on the first day looking to have a good time. His mother came with him but sat on the side resting and watching us interact with Carlo. Although there is not much capacity to diagnosis the disabilities of many of the children in Haiti, Carlo displayed many qualities that are characteristic of Autism.  At the end of the first day I was playing catch with Carlo with a brightly colored ball.  Carlo was laughing and just consumed by the thrill of throwing and bouncing the ball. Carlo's mother came up to me and, by pointing to the ball and then to her son, she asked if it were for him. Before I really understood, I responded positively and she got the ball from Carlo, wrapped it in a scarf that she was holding, and denied Carlo’s efforts to get the ball back. At first I was confused but I worked to interest Carlo in a different activity and began to process what had just happened. To the best of my knowledge, the mother had seen that her son took joy from this simple toy and was concerned that he might lose it as he threw it around in a church full of 100+ children. She was willing to let her son be unhappy for a moment so that he might later re-receive the gift that had brought him joy in a more protected environment. This made me think that my perspective, so often limited and narrow-minded, hinders me from understanding why God may take something away or tell me to wait. But this interaction with Carlo’s mother was a good reminder of how God has the best in mind for us. Later on in the week I was able to describe to Carlo's mother some of the strategies that I used to help Carlo focus and interact with us. Becca and I were also able to provide her with some simple training on sign language that might help ease communicate between her and her son. More importantly, we were able to encourage her and tell her that she and her son were loved, by us and by The Lord and that His love gives us strength and honor!

I learned so much from such a short time. I firmly believe that God has a plan for the country of Haiti. As we drove through one of the tent cities one day, Becca started singing “God of this City” by Chris Tomlin and I could not think of any better summary.

You're the Light in this darkness 
You're the Hope to the hopeless 
You're the Peace to the restless 

There is no one like our God 
There is no one like our God 

For greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City!

Wake up, Today is the Day!

“We wake up every morning needing Jesus desperately. What changes our life is when we wake up every morning realizing that we need Jesus desperately and living in His strength every second of the day” –paraphrase from Joni

The second week of my internship consisted of travelling to a Joni and Friends Family Retreat in northern California. I have served at 9 JAF family retreats in the past 6 years so I know that camp is too amazing and surprising to get used to. However at family retreat, I have always encountered a beautiful picture the body of Christ as it was meant to be because camp is a place of complete acceptance and genuine love. It is also a place where I wake up everyday realizing my desperate need for my Savior and realizing that I can only serve in the strength that He provides. Many people talk about JAF camp as a glimpse of heaven, but I agree with one father who said that he saw it as the genuine body of Christ in action on this earth. (if you have any interest, hear more about family retreats! http://www.joniandfriends.org/television/joni-and-friends-family-retreat/ ). I only wish that it was not only at camp each year that the body of Christ displayed this type of acceptance, but the only way I can change that is to start with myself. Family retreat inspires me to persevere in praying and seeking to genuinely accept all people through Christ’s love as He has accepted me!

Marlin was my buddy at Family Retreat this year! He is twelve years old, has a hilarious sense of humor, and loves everything to do with water (from swimming to drinking to washing hands). Marlin has autism and is comforted by schedules so we always went over the plan for each day. But that meant that sometimes we struggled to focus on what was happening right in front of us. So I decided to try to teach him a song that we could sing to help focus on the present. I tried out a few which he quickly dismissed (probably in part because of my below par singing voice). But then, while we were playing at the pool one day we found a song that he liked: “Lean on Me”. I would sing it to him while we played with some of the toys in the quiet room or while we were sitting taking breaks from running around on the lawn. One of the highlights of my week was when I was singing quietly to myself and suddenly I realized Marlin was softly singing all the words with me! Needless to say, after that we had lots of sing-alongs much to both of our delight. The song “Lean on Me” is a touching example of how we can support each other in our times of need. Two are better than one for each can help the other succeed (Ecc. 4:9-12). I have been blessed to experience this type of community in the team of interns with whom I have been learning and serving these two weeks!

 These past few days we have been debriefing and preparing for Haiti and I can finally say that today is the day!! When we arrive, we plan to lead VBS and parent training at a special needs orphanage and at churches in the surrounding area! We have gathered and prepared all the supplies but more importantly we have been preparing our hearts and minds for the work that God will do through us as we seek to strengthen His kingdom in Haiti! We are so excited! Please keep us in your prayers, that we may live according to the Spirit for “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6), that we will wake up every day recognizing that we need Jesus desperately, and that no matter what obstacles we may face God will shine through us so we might share the hope that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”!! (Romans 8:37)