Christmas at home

I may have lived in Lynden Washington now for 4 Christmases but I still think of Oregon as HOME. I get giddy as we cross over the Columbia River on the bridge that separates Washington and Oregon. I cannot even explain it, I just start squealing on the inside. STILL. But I love it. I love going home. I thought I would share some pictures of Christmas at my house in Lynden as well as some in Portland. Northern Washington certainly gets more snow.

So Miles and I have a lot of fun cutting down our Christmas Trees. A LOT OF FUN. I grew up having a fake tree so it is a big deal to me to have a REAL tree now that I am married. I remember Dad taking all three of us kids out to get a tree and it was always wet and cold and one of us would be fighting or have to go to the bathroom (as we were in the middle of no where) and then there was the picking of the right tree- and my poor dad would usually end up cutting down two or three other trees as some poor woman needed his help. By this time he was usually cranky- frozen- and this is not even to the part where they had to strap down the tree to the top of the tank of a Volvo that we had and that was always a chore. Needless to say it was onlya few years of that "nonsense" and Mom and Dad got a FAKE tree. I missed the smell of evergreen of Christmas-but even the fake tree was pretty and the tradition grew that the day after Thanksgiving we could set it all up. That was the fun part.

Well, now that I am married we ALWAYS have a REAL tree. We live in the country now so there are beautiful places to cut down trees and so far every year it has been snowing. VERY FUN! Miles and I usually have to find the one with the most personality. Last year we lived in a tiny place and got a very tiny squably looking thing....we named him Charlie because he really was a funny looking tree. Yes, that is right, we even name them.

1st Year 2004-Carol
2nd Year 2005- Chris
3rd Year 2006-Charlie

4th Year 2007-Yule

Every year after Christmas the Boy Scouts come around on the Sat. a week after and pick up the trees that you leave on the sidewalk. Well we left Yule on the sidewalk until a wind storm hit us that night with winds so strong Yule could blow into someones' window. I could not sleep so Miles got up in the middle of the night to throw it in the back of his truck. In the morning Yule was gone. It was pitch black and there is no way that the boy scouts could have seen it in the bed of the truck....Yule was GONE WITH THE WIND. I seriously hope that the dumb tree did not end up inside someone's living room. So funny. Silly tree.

Reflections of 2007 - Answered Prayer and Dreams of 2008

As we started off 2008 Miles and I have been thinking a lot of want God has in store for us. We have been doing a lot of praying and looking into our futures a bit these days. Miles is not yet finished with his thesis, not sure yet about PhD work, and still wants to try for a baby. Miles needed a better job for this to happen as well as God to do a miracle in my body as Endometriosis has its risks and I have been struggling a lot with pain this past year. We have tried for a year and no baby (yet), but God did provide Miles' a job Miles started yesterday at Logos Bible Software. No more Home Depot! Despite the wonderful new job, even if we did get pregnant, in order for us to make our rent I will still need to work - a lot, because Logos is not paying him much more than I make now. So baby may not be a good idea now. Or, our thought is, we could just move. AGAIN (?) Yuck I hate moving!! But we are now looking for a cheaper place. We are kind of hoping some people would move out of the house on Badger Rd at the Buys place(our landlords other place) because we need cheaper rent or that the Lord will provide us a mortgage on a nice little place we can call our own. We did go look at a condo on Aaron street because the mortgage would be about 300 cheaper than our current rent. Crazy…and it was super cute. But we cannot have a baby there (no one under 18 can live there as we found out it is a retirement community) so now we are back to praying. Maybe a baby isn’t what God wants for us for the next few years even, but that is where we are at. Thankful for what we have, and God’s provision, and wondering what the next step is. I suppose we just continue to wait for His direction and timing.

My dad is really struggling still with cancer. It seems that it is getting worse as his body is not recovering from all the “research” the doctors have been doing over the last year. We knew going into these “treatments” that the research is why he was there, and the doctors are very biased towards research, and that is alright, but scary. These studies really were killing him. It was really hard on his systems and his body is just not recovering from the latest dose. I just talked with my mom, and she gave me the latest CT scan results. Dad’s cancer was not lessoned by the latest treatments. Unfortunately it did nothing in terms of helping the cancer so he is pretty sad. Because this is the second round of basically no improvement they had to kick him out of the program. There is nothing more they can do, and he is pretty discouraged. So is my mom. They just thought that the cancer would be beat. She has the right attitude --that now we just allow God to take over the rest and thank Him for every day we have and pray that there are lots and lots but he is done with the medicines. We believe that they were starting to kill him, so I am relieved on that front, but at the same time a little bit sad. My brothers do not understand the seriousness and devastating news that this is. But is really really tough and I think it is harder when there is nothing left that they can physically do to stop the inevitable but allow God to have the glory in what time is left. You know what I mean? From the purely physical/human standpoint -it stinks.
Thanks for the prayers. Thanks so much!!!!

Back to some good things though, here are some more details of Miles’ job.Miles’ new job is amazing. He LOVES IT. And he just started. What an answer to prayer this is. He walked in the place is huge, brand new, and full of friendly faces anxious for him and the “new team” to get started. He is in training for this week, but in the first day computer programming was down just like another foreign language. I am impressed with my man. Logos Bible Software provides coffee, espresso, sodas, bottled water, Sobe, and various other teas and beverages free for the taking all day long. He is so stoked about that. Logos provides a locker room with showers so he can go for a run in downtown B’ham on his breaks and a Fooseball table so he is beyond excited. He also has his own cubical and he is anxious to get into it and make it his own.
Finally no more retail jobs for him! That means we have the same office hours, same holidays paid, additionally benefits, a discount, and weekends off together. There were some weeks I I felt I never saw him because our schedules were so opposite, but now I am looking forward to the same everything which means more fun, communication, meals, and just time-in general- together. His actual job title is Book Designer. He takes books and puts them into electronic format. He gets to use fun fonts and colors, and texts with indents…he is all excited about the indents…where he can use his own creativity to make these books user friendly and all coded correctly. It sounds too intense for me, as these books are in Greek or Hebrew or something and then you have to put them into another language…But he is so smart, and good at it already, so he will go far with this company.I am excited for him to be in the academic community again. He gets to read commentaries all day long. How perfect for Miles is that? Then he takes those commentaries and put those online. This job will keep Miles in the world of scholars which should encourage him to be on top of his own academics. Hopefully in the weekends to come he will remain completely focused and actually finish his MA and then he can decide whether or not to then go on for his PhD. I am excited for him and it is soo good to finally see his excitement in what he is doing. It is so neat!

Oh my goodness, I am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!

We are continuing to praise Him and may He bless you all in 2008

History of the Mission

Charla's vision

"October 1966: Chuck and Charla Pereau and Roy and Nell Bean were lost in the Baja Peninsula. Seeking help, an elderly man led them to the old adobe buildings once used for a gambling casino and brothel. Charla heard children's voices where there were no children...and was given a vision of a waving field of grain. The four joined hands and prayed that God would use this place for the homeless children that roamed the streets and forged for their daily bread from the garbage dumps in Mexico. They interpreted the waving field of grain to mean that one day this would be the site of a great harvest of souls. Charla said, "Someday there will be a Bible school here, like the one I attended, where Jesus became the Lord of my life." They never believed that God would use them as part of the fulfillment of the prophetic vision."

http://www.ffhm.org/
This is what the mission ministies include..... click on the following links to learn more about each ministry. With all that God is doing, how can one NOT want to be involved in this ?

Nursery
Children's Homes
Student House
Day Care
Schools

Helping the Poor
Food & Clothing
Medical Center
Drug Rehab
Literacy Program
Ministry to the Disabled

Outreach
Adult Evangelism
Child Evangelism
New Churches
Bible Institute
Television & Radio
Reaching the Unreached

Locations
Baja Morelia Oaxaca

Vicente Guerrero MEXICO

August 4th-12 2007

Sunrise Baptist Church

Mission Trip

28 total

(20 High School youth 8 Adults)

This is the mission in Mexico where we stayed. This particular building is the visitors center where all 28 of us roomed. This mission is an orphanage but has many buildings and outreach opportunities happening on a daily basis. Of course the orphanage which is several houses, each holding 10-12 kids living with 2 house parents who watch over them 24/7. There is a church, a kitchen, a bible college on the campus, an orchard holding 2000 macadamia nut tress, and a nut shop to harvest them. There is a metal works shop which manufactures wheelchairs for handicapped people in the community, a daycare which cares for children in the community, there is a fire station at the mission, a sewing center, and a warehouse full of "things" and food where people in the community can come and get the things that they need.

This is our group. A Beautiful group. These people worked so hard, and served the Lord with amazing attitudes. Every day we woke up early and had breakfast at7 o'clock sharp. We only had 15 minutes to eat our food, so you were not late and you ate quick or you received nothing. Then there was Sala. Church every morning, where we praised God in both English and Spanish and heard the Word of God. I could get used to Sala every day here at home. It was so wonderful. After Sala we received our work projects. I worked with Miles every day on the construction team building a block cement wall building a room that will be used for a laundry facility. It was hard work. It was not too warm but the sun was hot when it was out. The ground is very dirty -very dusty- and dry.

We got a break every day at 11 to eat a snack and remember to drink water...lots of water. Then back to work until 1 = LUNCHTIME. Lunch was the main meal of the day. We got a half of an hour to eat! YEAH! And it was usually really good food too. Then back to work until dinner time unless you had child evangelism. The child evangelism vans went out three times a week and we got to play with kids in these little villages and they were told a Bible story by a 'teacher" and then we handed out milk and peanut butter. The kids had so much fun and we enjoyed them.

CHILD EVANGELISM

After dinner on Monday night we got to House Sit for the kids in the orphanage. The orphange is broken up into small "houses" with 6-12 kids in each house. Each house has a set of "house parents" who are the sole care givers and "parentes" for these kids. Each of us was assigned to a house for the evening and we got to basically babysit the kids while the house parents got to go out to dinner together. This was really the ONLY times that the house paretns ever got to get out of the house. So they really appreciated us doing this, but we were thrilled to spend the evening in these houses. The kids were so fun. I volunteered to house sit for a lttle girl named Chabella. She was diagnosed with Autism. That being basically my major in college i was thrilled to be there with her. Chabella was 7 years old and loves balls. Bouncy balls were her favorite thing in the world. We colored and blew bubbles and played with balls all evening long. She was sucha joy. Chabella I found out was born and left at the dump. The mission found her and the blood trail of the mother and took Chabella after they found the mother was obviously not in the position to care for her.
See signed too. So i got to tell her she was beautiful and that Jesus loved her and I did too. By the end of the evening she signed it all back to me. I got an "i love you"! She knew "beautiful" and "good girl" and I was thrilled to be able to communicate with SOMEONE from the mission because i did not know Spanish at all, and that was a small frustration for me. I desperately wanted to communicate with the kids. Chabella i could sign to. I could not have been more thrilled.

Adult evangelism

This happened twice a week in the evenings. Us girls had to wear long skirts and pull back our hair out of respect for their culture and keep the lice from attaching themselves to our hair. Adult Evangelism was my favorite part of the entire trip. Here we went deep into migrant
camps.

Sometimes 30-41 minutes off of the main road and way up into the mountains. These remote areas you can imagine were pretty bumpy in the vans, but the scenery was spectacular. The dry, desolate looking landscape was breathtaking. Through hundreds of tomato plant fields and strawberry plantations we finally would come to a clearing of tangled up metal shacks. A camp. These camps were crawling with people living in ruins in appeared. The kids would come running. They knew that love and attention had arrived when the white vans pull up. New faces every week, they did not care. They grabbed you and hugged you with all their might. These little ones were covered in dirt, tattered clothes, lice, and very few of them had shoes. –NONE OF US MINDED how dirty or lice ridden they were. These precious children had us by the heart. Their smiley faces did not care if we knew the language. A few of them were not smiley…a little shy and standoffish. Very downcast and sad. These ones all were filled with hope by the time we left. One of these was a little girl. Stephanie. I fell in love with Stephanie. This precious child just wanted to be held and swung around and around and around. She smiled when I handed her a small toy. We gave out a few gifts of toys to the kids. They had fun. We had fun.

In this time, the children were invited to watch a movie about Jesus. Then the adults were invited to watch a movie about Jesus. These were very moving times. Very emotional. Afterwards many came forward to be prayed for and accepted Christ. It was absolutely incredible how many raised their hands and wanted Jesus to save them. It was so neat to see this and be a part of it.

It happens often that a migrant worker will take a woman and have several children with her, then when the work is done, he will move on to another camp for work and find another woman and have many more children. There is potential for there to be 5 or 6 different families to one man. Sometimes they send money to help support them, but most often not, that is why he moved on because he figured they were a lost cause. He could not help them. Thus the woman left behind must work to feed all those children. So the babies are left at home all from dawn to dusk on their own and in charge of caring for each other.

None of us wanted to go back to the mission. I wanted to smuggle these children home with me. It was difficult to watch them hurting, suffering without nutrition, and the attention of loved ones. I cried when I left.

This trip to Mexico was amazing. We learned so much here. God is working. He worked here in our lives. WE learned how thankful we are for what we have. How blessed we are that we have running water. I learned that the mission once had a river next to it (several years ago) and their well was always full. Now that the water has dried up there is not reason for them to have water at all, and no one can find the water source. A few people told me that they belibelieveus fills up their water tank every day. How cool is that? It taught us that God really does look after and takes care of all. One can argue that these kids seem to be forgotten but they are not. God brings people to the mission to look after them and make sure that they are getting food, and toys, and it brings laughter. It taught me to be quieter. To listen. To slow down to be able to look for and therefore see what God is doing in my life and in the world surrounding me. The people we met at the mission rely on God for absolutely EVERYTHING they have and EVERY NEED. A need comes up, they pray, and the Lord provides. EVERY TIME!!! It was incredible and life changing. This was an experience I will never forget.


Miles and I at the airport in San Diego. We are on our way home. We left a piece of our hearts there in Mexico. WE are not sure what that means for our future, but we know that we will return. Long term/short term is the question. Much thought and prayer are going into searching for God's will in regards to this mission, and our involvment there. This is an amazing place. God is at work here, it is so evident, and so amazing to see. It was an honor and a priviledge to serve here in Mexico.