Weekly Lineup

Alright, welcome to a new week! We are both continuing in God's goodness and grace - truly amazed at the kingdom work in which we are invited to participate.

application to date my girls
Part of Christina's great new gig is to disciple girls. Recently after a high school dance, her protective nature was appalled at the stories her girls told. So... she decided the next boys wanting to ask her little flock out on a date would have to go through a very intense application process.

for the beauty of the earth
Discover with Caroline the joy of being active in God's creation. She will tell tales of her hike up to La Tigra, one of the best spots in all of Honduras and it's right up the road.

occupied with joy
After reading in Ecclesiastes, this verse emerged from all the "vanity" and "chasing the wind" ... "For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy in his heart." (Eccl. 5:20) This is amazing!

feelings of fall
A cool breeze, hot chocolate, sweaters... all these things remind me of fall.

grab bag
This could be anything:)

Many blessings to you this week in everything you do!

Money Management via SNL

Who needs Dave Ramsey- Money management info from SNL- good stuff! :)
Christina

Teacher or Friend?

Today I attended the ACSI conference for Honduras schools... and though I was tired toward the end, I left with many new ideas for the classroom.

I'm not going to lie, it's been a struggle to find ways to be interactive, yet still make it through the psychology curriculum. The longer I am here, the more I'd rather be chatting with these students over coffee instead of staring over furrowed brows at their antics.

I'm no stranger to high school teachers - my mom has been "stuck there" for 20-some years. But, I certainly never realized the struggle between maintaining order and having fun.

If there are teachers out there can give tips, please share!

I'm sorry this post is so short, but I am literally struggling to keep my eyes open.

Honduran Horizon - October Edition

The NEW edition of Honduran Horizon is now available at my webpage: Adventures in Tegucigalpa. Check it out to see what I'm up to here in Honduras!

The God of Small Things

Moving to a new country requires a certain amount of faith - some might say a great amount - but I'm finding that the faith the Lord requires is no less in the small things. In the past couple days, I've been blessed with a deeper understanding of the faith-filled relationship God desperately desires.

I just finished reading books by Elisabeth Eliot and Isabel Kuhn. Have you ever been in a place where you look at someone else's faith and say, "When God was dishing out faith, why'd she get such a big helping?" To be honest, it wasn't jealousy I felt, just a bit of resignation. Though I was reading and believing God for the faith he gave these two remarkable ladies, I was still meeting Him in the morning with sleepy eyes and a tired heart.

Well, last Sunday on the way home from church, we stopped for groceries at La Colonia (Honduran grocery chain). I ride with my church groupies Hayley and Tiffany in Tiffany's car every Sunday. As we're leaving, Tiffany gave her keys to Hayley to open the trunk to put our groceries away.

Everything seemed fine until the key did not come out. The only key on the ring was for the ignition and the trunk opens by a button. So, picture this: we are in the grocery parking lot, none of us are fluent in Spanish, our usual fourth (and fluent) church groupie went to the early service, and we have no idea where we are or how to tell someone to find us.

We jiggled, coaxed, consoled, lamented, brainstormed... asked two taxi-drivers and a worker for help, listened to scattered advice about oils and mechanics and directions to a place that wasn't open on Sunday, and heard endless solicitations for rides.

Hayley called Elisabeth (fourth, fluent groupie) to try to figure out how to have someone pick us up when Elisabeth responded, "This has happened before and here's the solution: pray and jiggle." Hayley told Tiffany, who of course had been jiggling. And in my mind I said, I am praying!! I was already on to the backup plan: let's call someone and figure out how to get them here so we can make a new key and tie down the trunk and go up the mountain and ....

But, Elisabeth was insistent on the phone: "Really, you need to pray and jiggle. Trust me, just pray."

As Hayley was relaying this same information to Tiffany, she closed her eyes and was about to give a final shove when the key all but dropped into her hand.

I know this story is hard to read from your side of the computer screen, but as we screamed delight into the phone and jumped into the toasty seats, I started to find perspective in the small things.

Nothing surprises God.

No accident, death, lottery winner, winning sports team, mountain climber, or new scientific discovery surprises our Sovereign Creator. His hand is in it all.

So, when I think about the 'huge' faith of some of my Christian heroes, I wonder at the little tests of obedience. Maybe a mustard seed is an obedient heart - a heart that prays about keys and conversations, impulse buys and interesting flowers.

Maybe the hearts of my heroes are made up of layers upon layers of these types of prayers - prayers that invite God to be Lord over the details.

Live in Central Iowa? Like Great Music? Poor?

Then you should come to the Starfield concert, Nov. 7th, Valley Church, for only $10. Yep, $10. See you there!

Print this off and bring a group!

Back to School...

You know this movie?

Well, it's about a woman in her 20s that, for an undercover story for the newspaper she works at, has to go back to High School for a few months. She has to endure trying to be cool again, finding somewhere to sit at lunch, and all the other fun stuff high school has to offer.

Well, although unlike Josie, I had a pretty great high school experience, I feel a little like her today. For I am, today, stepping back into the world of high school. Well, I'm actually just stepping back into the world of high school lunch, which is equally scary, but anyhoo. The High School youth pastor, Jon, has been visiting the freshmen school for lunch every Wednesday, and this week he invited me to join him. I love the freshmen girls I lead in my group, so I of course said I'd love to. But now the day is here and I feel like I'm a kid on my first day of school. What if they don't think I'm cool in a school setting? What if they pretend they don't see me for fear I'll grab their friends and force them through the Romans road?

Anyway, all this is just so uncharted. So wish me luck. I'm dorkily trying to decide what to wear to seem less uncool as I step back into the world of freshmen.