God is Faithful

Making friends was never hard for me. Or so I thought. When I went to Mexico it was a little-NO VERY HARD to make friends. I mean, have you ever placed yourself in a different country with 25 different people from different countries or states? It’s not initially easy to make friends. In fact, it’s a lot easier to just go home. And two weeks in that situation, and that’s exactly what I wanted. I was so shy and nervous around people-I didn’t even know myself. I found myself at a loss for words in conversations and I was so lonely. However, after much desperate prayer God showed me that He wanted me to love Him more than a need for friends. So by grace, I fell in love with Him in Mexico. And God was faithful-after first giving my heart & trust to Him, He blessed me not only with friends-but sisters in Christ.

After six beautiful months of growing in the Lord through mission work and godly friendships I was headed back home. Only to realize that all my best friends were scattered in far off cities and different states. BUT God was faithful-after humbling me God put me in a small group where I was soon to meet one my closest friends ever and future roommate.

Eventually, we moved in with some friends to finish college in Fullerton. I wasn’t extremely close with the friend I shared a room with-but I knew God had plans for us. It was our prayer that God would connect us to a community of friends there. There were many unexpected trials-so many, many trials. But God was faithful. Again he created for me (us) a community of women who wanted more of Him and the roommate that I only a friend became my best friend. God is so faithful to me.

Starting to see a pattern here? ;)

After two years of growing intimate friendships with godly women I was going to get married to my very best friend-James. I was excited but nervous. Excited to get married and live and love God with my husband but SOOO nervous that I would not find a community like the community that spurred me on to live more like Christ in Fullerton. I knew God was faithful so I asked the women “please pray that I will get plugged into my new church, please pray for community there.” 

They prayed. We prayed. And there were trials, hard trials, God-glorifying trials.  So here I am because today and once again I am reminded of God’s faithfulness. James and I are in a bible-saturated, Christ-centered church and not only that but we are in a bible study (MC) with people who are desperate to know Christ more. That, my friends, is an answer to prayer that I’ve been praying for about almost a year now! God is faithful. He has created for us a community that we could never have created on our own.

God is faithful. God is faithful. God is faithful.

Are you lonely? Maybe in a far-off place & away from other believers? Are you desperate for God? Are you desperate to live in a Christ-centered community? Pray. Start right now. God wants to glorify Himself through showing you His faith-fullness no matter where you are! He wants to place you in that community where you will desire to live more like Christ.  God is faithful…He will hear your desperate prayer and show you again and again his faithfulness. Just you wait! It is a beautiful, beautiful thing!

          

You're A Grand Old Flag

Ms. Amy (the teacher for whom I am an aide) taught the children the song “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” You remember right? You’re a grand old flag, you’re a high flyin’ flag and forever in peace may you wave. Sang it all the time when I was little. These kids have a ton of fun singing it, and will definitely be ready to sing it next year in kindergarten. I’m just not sure if some of them know that the name of the thing with red and white stripes and white stars is more commonly referred to as the “American Flag.” This is what one of the preschoolers told me today.

Katie: Ms. Heather can you draw the grand ol’ flag for me?

Me: Yes, you mean with stars and stripes?

Katie: Yea, I really like the grand ol’ flag. I saw a grand ol’ flag in some one’s yard the other day.

So some of them may not know it’s technically referred to as the “American Flag” in casual conversation but for now I like hearing it from them as the “Grand Ol’ Flag.”

Learning to Sew

On Friday night Katrina took me to Joanne's and got me started on the road to sewing. First, we choose what we wanted to make. After many pages of cute purses, stuffed animals & tops we decided on aprons.

Next was the hardest part of all: choosing the fabric. Can you believe we were there for  2 whole hours?! I could not make a definite choice! I wanted a floral print but not too bright and it needed to be large, but it had to have warm colors. One was almost perfect but too much pink. Another was pretty but maybe too light for cooking in. Yes, that went on for a literally a couple of hours. There were way too many patterns!

Eventually we both found ones we liked and after having our fabric measured and cut we finally headed back to her place. Katrina was a good teacher. At first I was nervous for the fabric to through and I couldn't make a straight sewing line but it got better as I continued. It was a ton of fun! I got so carried away on the sewing machine I picked up James nearly a half of an hour late from work! Here are a few pictures of my unfinished work...

Here's a close up of the pattern

Still got some work to do!

Can't wait to finish!

The Holy Spirit & Batteries

Easter weekend I was blessed to spend time with my 4 y/o nephew. As we were in his room playing with toys, he found a toy that didn’t work. He asked Grandma to get batteries. I briefly mentioned that the batteries currently in the toy-phone were dead, didn’t work, and had no power. Grandma came back and together they placed the new batteries inside. He pressed the number one and a voice said “ONE” He pressed the number two and the voice said “TWO.” He questioned, “The new batteries have power?” I said, “Yes, Danny the batteries have power and they make the phone work.”

Later as we were driving back home, the light bulb went on! Awhile back I wrote the final “Essential Gospel Truth.” It was basically describing that Christians live to please God and have received the promise of living forever with God for eternity. In that blog were illustrations to emphasize the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of a believer. Thanks to God for giving me eyes to see, He showed me a better illustration than the one I previously wrote. Here it is:

In Illustrating the Holy Spirit’s role in a believer’s life:

Battery Powered Toys:

While talking to a child you could say this: "This toy cannot do what it was made to do unless there is power inside of it. We can push it to make it move, or even pretend the buttons work. But it needs power to work and do what it was created to do.  We can give the toy power by putting new batteries in it. Then it will do what it was made to do. You know what, that is a little bit of what it’s like when God gives us the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives it helps us to do what we were created to do. Without the Holy Spirit it is hard to please God on our own-we don’t have the power to do what we are supposed to do. With the Holy Spirit, we have the power to love God and love others."

Why is this important-especially for young ones?

As I write, I still don’t have all the answers to the work and role of the Holy Spirit. However, as I learn more about children and think about my life as a believer I’ve seen the sneaky trap of “salvation by works.” When I don’t read my bible everyday or my Christian duty in some area, I am so quick to get burdened with my sin. As I try to shake this wrong attitude, I see more and more the importance of not just teaching children that it is good to share, good to be honest, good to give, good to be gentle and good to believe the bible. And while those things are good to talk about, (Lord-willing they will learn to love doing those things for the glory of God) if the Holy-Spirit and his work in their lives is not emphasized it seems we could be leading them into either pride for doing so many good things, or leave them full of burdens because they are not able to do good things. Speaking this essential truth to them will teach them humility and dependence on God to do good works. 

Should I Tell My Child He Was Conceived in Rape?

Russell Moore's Response response is so beautiful. It brought me to tears.



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The Cost of Discipleship

For Christmas my best friend Sarah gave us the book “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I’ve only just recently been able to pick it up and let me tell you I’m only the 2^nd chapter into it and it’s amazing! I was trying to read the 3^rd chapter today but I couldn’t stop thinking about the 2^nd. Thus I thought I’d quote some of it here to give you a taste…

“It is Jesus who calls, and because it is Jesus, Levi follows at once. This encounter is a testimony to the absolute, direct, and unaccountable authority of Jesus. There is no need of any preliminaries, and no other consequence but the obedience to the call. Because Jesus is the Christ, he has authority to call and to demand obedience to his word. Jesus summons men to follow him not as a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as the Christ, the Son of God….”

p 58

In relation to the call of Christ and obedience to being called Bonhoeffer talks about Peter the disciple in this way…

“Peter knows he dare not climb out of the ship in his own strength-his very first step would be his undoing. And so he cries, ‘Lord, bid me come to thee upon the waters,’ and Jesus answers: ‘Come.’ Christ must first call him, for the step can only be taken at his word. This call is his grace, which calls him out of death and into new life of obedience. But when once Christ has called him, Peter has no alternative-he must leave the ship and come to him.” (italics added) p 66

So excited to read the rest of the book. Makes me want to see the movie on him even more! Thanks for the book Capa!

Mighty Acts of God

A good Bible Story Book recommended by Noel Piper 

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Mudslide in Rio

Just finished skyping with one of my best friends. Christy and her husband Giulian are church-planting in Rio de Janeiro right now. It’s been pretty crazy over there lately due to the high-amounts of rainfall they’ve had. (They were trapped in their house for a couple of days because the streets were flooded) The rain has passed but there is still the aftermath to deal with. I posted some pictures so you can see for yourself the suffering going on right now. On April 8^th (last Saturday) there was a mudslide that killed over 200 people, ruined homes and displaced many.  There is great need here. Coming soon will be more information on what’s going on and how you can help. If you’d like to help now check out Christy and Giulians’ most recent post.

This is the mudslide. By looking at the two white specks you can see how big this was. Christy says it’s 3 foot ball fields long.

Here you can see the length of the mudslide and how it could’ve easily killed over 200 people

Two women embracing as they mourn the deaths of loved ones.

Thrifty finds

Our studio-flat is very tan. At first, it seemed a little boring with tan couches, tan walls, tan furniture, tan bath room, etc. However, on the other hand, it’s a great color to work with! With tan, I can add all the color I want to our little place and experiment with the colors whenever I please! So I’ve been moving blankets around, picking flowers from our landlords’ garden (with permission of course), and finding great deals at thrift stores! Here’s a few of the items I purchased for the grand total of $8.00! (Not shown are the 50 tea light candles that I got for only 1 buck!)

Loved the colors on these old bottles! I love it when the sun shines on them in this window every afternoon & evening.

James called these “retro” candle-holders. However retro, they are full of my thirst for color J The vase is actually an old salad dressing measurer.

***Thrift store shopping tip: Find out the days of the week that there is a 50% discount. They usually all have at least one day.***

2 movies of interest

I’ve seen these previews here and there. Can’t wait for when I can see them. Maybe they will spark some interest for you too!

Temple Grandin

Bonhoffer-Agent of Grace

American College of Pediatricians: Homosexual Attraction is Neither Innate Nor Unchangeable

American College of Pediatricians: Homosexual Attraction is Neither Innate Nor Unchangeable

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God's Wonderful Surprise

Found this video on Justin Taylor's blog. I wish I had found it last week! But maybe you could still could watch it with children in your life.

Easter & Children

As I reflect on this week, I have really been able to feel & see answered prayers. I am so humbled and thankful to God for that. One of those answered prayers was being able communicate to the preschoolers more about the character of God. You may have read my “God, the Boss of Ouwies.” God was gracious to let me teach them a few ways that God is Sovereign. Also, our class was really blessed by one of the moms. She came in and went through the visual story of Jesus with Resurrection Eggs. 

It was especially a blessing to hear her communicate how Jesus took our sin and punishment on the cross. Through using a preschool level illustration she was able to communicate this big truth to these little people. She said something like “it’s kinda like when we get into trouble and we have to go to time-out. But instead of us going to the time-out that we deserve, mommy or daddy goes to our time-out instead. On the cross, Jesus took the place of all our time-outs.” It excited me so much that she really put it down to their level! 

As I was looking on-line I found a couple of cool things that could be real great traditions for families/teachers/aides (JI say that as if I am a mom or something J) in keeping a Jesus-centered Easter. Working as an aide I’ve seen the struggle of trying to kinda’ keep the fun tradition but also make it centered on what Jesus did. 

Here are a couple of cool ideas that I found (click to go to the links):

•        Tell the Easter Story with a Playdough Mountain
•         Finding Easter in Bunnies and Baskets 

Thankful for this work week & the job He has give me,

Heather

[As far as completely throwing out all mention of Easter eggs, bunnies, Santa, etc when talking about Christmas & Easter. I am still undecided (thus the "Finding Easter in Bunnies.." link). James & I have discussed it before but seem to come to the conclusion that conversation between real & fake is of upmost importance.]