Come Away With Me

A new Jesus Culture song called, "Come Away," has given words to something God reminded me of in a recent mission trip with Back2Back to our new site in Cancun. During that week, I was reminded again of what God has done to transform who I am in the past 5 years so that He can use me to minister to orphans everyday. Everyday of my life is an adventure. Ministry to orphans can be emotionally draining and physically exhausting in the heat of Monterrey but my heart has never felt fuller. I have never felt more reaffirmed in my calling than in these past few weeks. Right now - right here - this - this is exactly what God wants me to be doing. But when God first asked me to open up my heart to him and to let him in - I didn't want to. I was afraid. When God first started telling me to move to Mexico to work with Back2Back I thought it was crazy. It seemed too crazy to be the right thing to do so I avoided it for months. Raising support to move here was scary and I didn't want to do it.

During the Cancun trip, I told our group an illustration of my spiritual life. In college, I went skydiving once with some people that I had met the week before. I got a group discount to go skydiving with about 20 guys from Kappa Sig and 2 girls who invited me to join them. What was I thinking? On top of that - I had just met these girls that week.

the week I met Lindsey and Jess in 2006 - right before our big jump

When it came time to jump out of the plane with the instructor dude strapped to my back - I had both of my hands securely holding onto the plane. He told me to let go of each hand - one at a time- and then he'd push us out. I stood there looking out the open plane door for a good minute yelling at the guy and arguing with him and saying that I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't let go. Well eventually I did and it was one of the most insane experiences of my life. I'm glad I jumped. But I couldn't have jumped out of the plane if I didn't let go completely. Deciding to say, "YES!!" to God and follow Christ with my life and not just one hour of my Sunday mornings felt like jumping out of a plane all over again. I am so so so glad and thankful that I did jump with the Lord. I don't think we can fully know what God has for us unless we jump with him. To give the Lord your life - your career - your bank account - your free time - your stuff - your car - your friends --- it's scary. It can feel like jumping out of a plane. Will your parachute even work? Will you land? That's the adventure God has for you. Bible tells us that God has wonderful plans for our lives. I believe that for each of us - that involves our decision with whether or not we even want that plan - God's plan for our lives. But in order to have God's plan for your life - you gotta jump out of the plane because you can't have 2 lives - your plans and also God's plans all at the same time. They are different plans. So pick one. Go all in.

listen to the Jesus Culture song by clicking on this link ----> Come Away

The song says - "Come away with me, Come away with me. It's never too late, it's not too late. It's not too late for you. I have a plan for you. I have a plan for you. It's gonna be wild. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be full of me. Open up your heart and let me in."

Amen

King for a Day

Yesterday one of my boys turned 9 years old. He has lived at Casa Hogar Douglas since he was in diapers. He's been through a lot and in the past has been described as an incredibly angry, frustrated, and aggressive child. These days, he is softening up. You see him smile all the time instead of frowning or scowling at you. He is more controlled and gentle and patient with his younger brother.

Living with the boys at Douglas this past summer opened my eyes to sad reality that birthdays for these orphans are probably the worst day of their year instead of the best. They are a reminder that they are thrown into a group, not celebrated as individuals, that their mom or dad didn't make their birthday a priority, that they are not a priority to mom because she didn't visit on their birthday or bring them anything, no one notices it is their birthday, etc, etc. It is an emotionally disturbing day for them. I was shocked once I realized this awful truth.

Since then, I've tried my best to make sure that each of my boys is celebrated like an individual and treated special on the exact calendar day of their birthday whether it is a special movie we watch with snacks or ice cream just for them on their birthday and we sing happy birthday and make them feel special. Every now and then, one of my boy's Shelter Sponsors gets involved in this celebration and witnessing this yesterday warmed my heart because at least for one day - something was right in this messed up situation.

Adrian turned 9 yesterday on April 4th. But about 6 weeks ago, his Shelter Sponsor made sure that he'd be celebrated on his birthday with some gifts and a card so that he wouldn't be forgotten. His mom didn't come. His full-time caregivers hadn't checked the calendar to know that it was even his birthday (I don't blame them - this has happened to me before). But his Shelter Sponsors were right there celebrating him even though they were thousands of miles away through their words on encouragement in a card reminding him that he is loved and important to them and to the Lord.

The day before his birthday, I wrote out a quick check list just to make sure I wouldn't forget anything. When I was done, I looked at it and it hit me that this is the kind of check list a mom would make for her 9 year old. This is what it is supposed to look like. But then I could hear the enemy tell me, "that's excessive. He's an orphan. Why go to all that trouble for just one kid? Don't bother." But that's all lies and I knew it.

We sang to him, celebrated him, let him pick the movie that day, and then we ate the biggest cake ever. For one day... he was happy all day and for just one day he was king of his dorm.

Always playing dress up

Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2 are always playing dress up. On this particular day, they came home from pre-school and I changed them out of their uniforms into play clothes. They then tried to hide from me and put on costumes below their play clothes so I wouldnt notice. Oh I noticed and then I made them pose for pictures while I giggled. They ran around outside for about 6 hours on this day pretending to be spiderman and attack stuff.

Jahir is pretty much the coolest kid ever. He thinks he is some kind of thug and talks like one. Well he came home from school dressed like this and with electric green hair (hard to see in this photo but trust me) and I about died. He also could then not explain why he was even dressed like that and what role he had in the school assembly.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 - above - will wear whatever I want them to. Now they are professional soccer players. Vamos Tigres!

So Star Wars is in production daily at Douglas in case you like that sort of thing. Luis' mask changes his voice to sound like Darth Vader and really freaked me out the first time.

David got hurt really bad in pre-school about a month ago and then couldn't go to pre-school for about a week while his finger healed. So he would come to my house and dress up like pirates and build trains. Arrggh!!