Brain Dump

Alack and alas... we started out so well on writing on the blog regularly. :) But, these things tend to happen. Lately it's been hard to find inspiration and time, and especially the two simultaneously. We've also really hit the wall where our daily life is, well, just daily life to us now, so we don't ooh and ahh over the little things nearly as much as in the past. However, it is important to keep our faithful readers updated, and to ruminate on our ministry and all of its blessings and challenges. So, here goes - another brain dump of ins and outs of our life on the mission field.

• This year we've had more visitors than ever before, and we're super stoked about it! It started with fun times with some old friends from a church we attended several years ago, continued with an amazingly encouraging time with our dear pastor friend from our home church, then the fun kept rolling with an impromptu visit from the son of a friend of  friend. (You know how that works...) Within the next week we're having family friends (including kids - yaaaaay!!!) visit us, and then another faithful servant of God a month later. What's so fun is that all of these folks come with a heart for (or at least curiosity about) missions. It's really cool that we get to be a link in the chain of God's plan for their lives and in wooing them into walking out the Great Commission even more. We hope the visits can continue!

• It took us 12 hours to drive 306 miles last week. Part of it was rough mountain roads. Part of it was construction. Most of it was the fact that most Guatemalan drivers don't follow rules or practice courtesy. That gets old. 

• Graduation for the Bible school went super well - the best of the four we've attended, in my opinion. Honestly, there is a sense before that it is soooooooo much work, and can be something I kind of start dreading a little bit. BUT - there is nothing quite like the looks of pride and accomplishment on the faces of our students as we help them into their robes and hats and see them walk across the stage and receive that diploma. For many, this will be their only graduation. In Guatemala, only 59% of people finish the equivalent of 9th grade. The disparity between rural and urban populations, indigenous and ladino, and male and female is especially alarming, with only 30% of poor, rural, indigenous girls enrolled in junior high or high school. (Source) Our Bible school is rare in that it accepts people regardless of education level, so our graduates are defying the odds in earning a diploma, and choosing to do so in the most important area of all - the Word of God! 

• Our Thanksgiving will probably be just another day of home schooling, etc.. Or, maybe we'll buy a live turkey at the market and butcher it. Could go either way. 

• Having a kid in the U.S. is strange - for her, and for us. She's currently being drenched in the decadence that is America. The struggle is real. Sometimes she feels like she's drowning in it. It is hard for any parent to see a child experiencing the bumps and bruises of early adulthood, but our situation adds another dimension. Some days I am tempted to pray she can just "fit in," but what I really pray is that she never will. I don't mean that as a judgment, but the reality is that third-culture kids (TCKs) learn a lot of things that many adults never do, and I don't want her to lose that bone-deep wisdom, even though it makes life harder there. I am afraid that we've made our kids perpetual outsiders, yet I rejoice that we've made our kids perpetual outsiders. Hmm...

• The money part of ministry is still hard. I was hoping at some point it no longer would be, but that's not the case. Prospective missionaries - just be aware, prepare yourself, build your faith.

• God is expanding our vision. Refining? Clarifying? Not sure which verb to use - probably all of these and more.The long and short of it is that we wake up every day increasingly aware of the people who need Jesus in the world, and we ache to do something about that. To do more. Always more. We pray for more resources, more wisdom, more time, more spiritual gifting, more open doors to walk into the areas He's showing us. The mere fact that we own Bibles (let alone multiple Bibles) is an absolute miracle, and knowing our Bibles well, and having had the chance to study and teach the Word of God, and being able to gather and talk about it with others - these are rare, precious, amazing things. May we never, ever take that for granted!

• Xela is cold in the winter. Today I left at 7:15 in the morning to go deliver bread to the shelter, and it was 39 degrees. It does get down cold enough to frost. That's not awful compared to where we come from, but it does make for a cold house when you have no heat or insulation or carpet. 

• I'm super pumped about what's happening at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala! We have a friend who used to work for the State Department whose job it was to visit and assess embassies. She told us about two years ago that Guatemala ranked way down the list in terms of service, and we had experienced that ourselves and heard MANY horror stories from friends as well. This weekend we attended a meeting of the ambassador and embassy staff here in Xela. They are all new - there's been a lot of turnaround the last few months - and they are awesome! They listened. They cared. They are already making changes. It's super comforting to know that these folks in particular are there for us if we need them. 

Happy Reformation Day!

Yeah - I know. Today is more commonly recognized as Halloween, and not Reformation Day, but the former is not exactly a holiday I embrace. (Not judging - just stating. For what it's worth, I am still a bit unsure of Christmas and don't even observe Valentine's Day at all, so holidays and I have a complicated relationship in general.) However - one holiday I'm excited about this year (by which I mean I'm blogging, not making special food or dressing up or anything) is Reformation Day - and I'm not even Lutheran!

I am a home schooling mom, though, and we're knee-deep in European history right now, so the battle for the very hearts and minds of medieval European people has been a big topic around our house and table lately. You can't study Europe without studying the Reformation after all, and our timing couldn't have been better. (Totally didn't plan it, but will totally capitalize on it, like any home schooling mama should.)

You see, it was 500 years ago TODAY that Martin Luther - a man totally and completely devoted to God and the Roman Catholic Church - nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, and changed everything. What would prompt a man like this to do such a thing? In short, the Bible. It was not long before this that Luther was tasked with teaching Biblical studies at a religious institution, and was given the right/responsibility of thoroughly reading the Word of God himself instead of just repeating and teaching church doctrine. And what was he so upset about? Briefly, the corruption of the Roman Catholic church, starting at the Vatican (which he had visited and was shocked by the decadence he found there) and filtering all the way down to local monasteries and churches, at which he had lived and labored for many years. Most specifically, he railed against the practice of selling Indulgences, or papal-approved pieces of paper that people could buy to save their own souls or those of their loved ones.

In some ways, what Luther did was inevitable. After all, the runaway train of debauchery and anti-Biblical teachings of the church at the time were bound to be noticed and stopped, on a natural level if nothing less, but especially because of God's desire that people should know the truth of salvation and have access to it. Jeremiah 1:12 says that God watches over His word to ensure that it is done, and He is not endlessly patient with those who stand in the way of that happening. On the other side of the coin, though, what Luther did was impossible. The Church was wrapped up in, nay, at the very heart of literally everything then. Government and politics. Birth. Marriage. Death. Planting and harvest. The natural, spiritual, and eternal were all absolutely controlled by the Catholic church throughout all of Europe. When the pope excommunicated Luther for his refusal to recant, that left him destined to hell, but also open to arrest at any time and for any reason from any religious OR secular law enforcement body or official. I'm sure there are better ways of putting it, but I can't help but think that Luther sure did have a lot of chutzpah! 

So, now I'm pondering, on the 500th anniversary of this important event - do I? Do we? As Christians, do any of us still have that chutzpah today? After all, we have unfettered access to the same life-changing Word of God that stirred Luther to radical change, and there is certainly still room for improvement in the modern church. Please don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that we should head to services this Sunday with a hammer and nails. But, maybe there are things we can do and places we can start to at least keep that same spirit of reformation alive and well in our times just as it was in Luther's heart five centuries ago.

Here are just a few suggestions:

• Write your own theses about things you know you can improve or change in your own life. (Note - this is NOT about changing others...)
• Create a family purpose statement together. Stir up your vision!
• Read (or re-read) your church's mission or vision statement or statement of belief. Pray over it, and get behind it with your time, talent, and treasure. 
• Write a scripture-based declaration that you read aloud each morning. Remind yourself of who you are in Christ and the promises He has for your life. 
• Be honest about the things you've been critical about in your marriage, family, or church, and then commit to praying instead of griping or gossiping about those things. 
• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if you're are trying to "buy" forgiveness for something instead of taking it to Jesus. 
• Consider what unBiblical or unspiritual "indulgences" you have in your life. Are you willing to let God show them to you? Are you willing to give them up if asked? 
• Nail (or tape) scriptures up around your house - even on your front door! - as a reminder of what matters most in your life. 

It may have been 500 years ago that Luther changed the world, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to do so each and every day!