The Big Picture in Detail

When you look at a tree, what do you see?  Is it the texture of the bark that catches your eye? Maybe you look at the shape of the leaves.  Sometimes it is the ants crawling over the roots that grap your attention.  If you are like me, you wouldn't see any of these things at first glance.  You would see the tree as a whole organism in relation to its surroundings. I look at things holistically.  But sometimes I miss the trees because I am looking at the forest.  God is helping me to see the trees a little more every day. 

One of the privileges I've had while here in Costa Rica is attending local worship services.  What I saw was quite different than the kind of church I have grown up in at home.  During the service all ages were singing, dancing and taking turns playing percussive instruments.  Everyone was part of the service.  I was even asked to share my testimony and something else with the congregation.  So I sang the only song I knew in Spanish. It shares how Jesus is our Rock, King and Savior.  What a meaningful opportunity.  

One of the services was part of a denominational conference.  I participated with a youth choir in leading a song during worship.  I was the only blode haired blue eyed one present, but I didn't mind.  All of God's children are the same. We know that we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).  People from at least 5 different countries were present and we were all worshipping the Lord together.  Here I was experiencing the details of what the big picture will be like in heaven.  

In Revelation 7:9-12 we read 

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,  saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

  (NIV) 

We cannot have this big picture at the end unless the details are present.  I was only witnessing 5 nations and maybe the same number of languages.  Can you imagine what it will be like on that day in heaven when all the details join together?  

The big picture is meaningfull but how much more meaningful is it when you know the value behind every detail?  It is our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ add the details.  If the big picture includes people from every nation, tribe and language those are the details to gather.  Jesus has all the authority and we have been given the task of bringing the details together.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20) - NIV

Living with New Lenses

C-O-S-T-A  R-I-C-A,  Costa Rica!!  I have been teaching here for about two weeks and I am learning so much. God has been showing me His costant provision and encouragement.  I will let you know now that I will not be able to include pictures in the blog posts I write here in Costa Rica.  When I get home I will have a post just with picutures and captions :) 

To start off, all my travels went well.  I got to sit next to wonderful people on the airplane and bus.  This was an answer to prayer.  Both were encouraging and they were willing to help me with my Spanish!  My Costa Rican host family is very nice and I am learning a lot from them.

The weather here is very humid since we live right off the Caribbean Sea.  This is the first time I have seen teal green water.  It is beautiful!  Most houses and buildings do not have air conditioning.  All of us survive with open windows and lots of fans.  The school where I am teaching is also this way.  There is only glass in some of the windows and the rest are open to the sea breeze. 

I didn't have too much time to transition between Wycliffe and teaching here in Costa Rica.  I got to spend two days with my family between the end of my Wycliffe experience and before this one.  I arrived late last Sunday night and jumped right into teaching an hour and a half lesson the next morning. Phew! 

Right now I am teaching at the lower level school.  This includes preschool through 3rd grade.  I am teaching classes in English language, grammer, spelling, reading and oral English skills.  I have been able to work with 1st-3rd grade.  I have worked with third graders before but first and second have been an adventure. God is giving me the patience and strength to work with them every day.   

I can see how God is working in my heart.  In the two weeks I have been here I haved gained an even greater passion for teaching, which I didn't think was possible.  God is teaching me to rely more on Him  and to let go of things that are pulling me down; things that don't really matter.   

The biggest change for me is my view of God's Word.  For two months I worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  Their whole mission is to show the importance of having God's Word in your heart language( this is the language you think, dream, and pray in).  However, it wasn't until I was here in a culture where English was not the national lanuguage that I realized the impact of this truth.  I read God's Word with news eyes.  I know that God understands me and I can understand Him. May God continue to speak to all of us in our heart language!  

Walking from Wycliffe into the World

It is hard to believe that this is my last day at Wycliffe!  These last two weeks have been fun filled and stretching.  First I participated in Wycliffe's summer day camp called "Around the World with Kate and Mack".  Every morning I got to lead at least 20 fourth and fifth graders through all sorts of interesting activities that challenged them to think globally. 

God showed me great room for growth by allowing a child with social difficulties to be a part of my group.  I realized my patience levels were not where I thought they were.  The first day was hard but by the end of the week this child made me smile.

God taught me about loving people even when they are different from us and especially hard to manage.  God gave me his love for this child even though it wasn't easy.  On the last day of camp we got to dress in cloths from around the world.  I represented China. 

That week I also got to eat dinner with Dan Moury and his family(from my home church).  I had a great time fellowshipping with them and being able to talk about home.   I found out that they too have pet chickens like my family!  I was glad to hold a chicken again :)

This last week was full of final meetings and a presentation about the project I have been working on with Alisa all summer.  In the busyness I still had the opportunity to work in the call center for a radio campaign Wycliffe was doing through Moody Radio.  I answered many calls and got to hear stories from donors.  It was encouraging to hear the stories from the other end of work being accomplished on the field.  I got to share one of the stories on air.  It was my radio debut :)   

The last few weeks have allowed me to meet and interact with interns from Wycliffe Associates .  I have enjoyed hearing their stories and learning how God brought them here to Orlando.   It is incredible to see how God brings people together from all over the United States to serve Him in this capacity.  

Though my time here at Wycliffe has come to a close, the journey is not over.  While here,  God opened the doors for me to live in Costa Rica and teach English there for a month.  I will be leaving on Sunday.  Each step of faith I took this summer has lead up to this jump in faith.  I am seeing how my job at Wycliffe has prepared me for this coming adventure. Each day God has been giving me a heart for the people living in Central America.  I appreciate your prayers as I lean on God and continue to seek His will for my life.   Stay tuned for... Costa Rica!

The Challenging Path = Reliance on God Rather than Self

Three weeks.  In only three weeks I will be packing my bags to leave Florida.  My time here at Wycliffe Bible Translators(WBT) is quickly coming to a close.   It seems that each week is busier than the last and each week I feel like I am being challenged more in my walk with God. 

 Both God's Word and people here at WBT are challenging me.  For my internship I am working on research and writing and thankfully I am not doing this alone.  Another intern (Alisa) is working with me.  She has encouraged and challenged me in my writing skills and my spiritual life.  I am incredibly blessed to be working with her.   

Alisa

My mentor Janet is supportive and sensitive.  She notices when I am struggling and when I am joyous.  Every week we talk about what is going on in our lives, challenging  each other to learn from God in whatever circumstances He places us.  Nothing learned is ever wasted when placed in God's hands.  When we give Him full control of our lives we will see the blessings more than the trials. 

Janet is in the back row, third from the right 

Nancy, one of my prayer partners here at WBT, has shared her life experiences with me, helping me to see how God works things out according to His plan and not our own.  God knows our hearts.  He knows our deepest hurts and deepest longings.  In His timing He reveals how those things are important to our life. 

In the last two weeks God has also given me opportunities to experience His peace and majesty seen in creation.  For the Fourth of July weekend we did "Sunrise-Sunset".  This is when we watch the sun rise on an Atlantic beach and then drive back across the state to watch the sun set from the Gulf of Mexico.  I am including one picture from each. 

                             Sunrise

                                                                                           Sunset 

I also was able to take a pontoon ride on four of the many lakes in Florida.  We rode out into the middle of one lake, turned off the motor and just drifted as we ate our dinner.  It was so quiet and refreshing, just what was needed in the middle of a busy week. 

                           Me and Julie

                                                                 View from pontoon just before sunset

 A Bald Eagle flew over us during during dinner and for a moment I thought about the thrill that early explorers must have had when coming to this country.  Just as this great bird symbolizes freedom in America I thought about the freedom we have in Jesus Christ.  We are freed from the penalty of sin, which is death. 

What a great and Holy God we serve.   I pray that I would never forget the sacrifice that was made on my behalf that I may have the freedom to approach the throne of grace with confidence.   

Walking on the Water- A Shift in Focus

Peter; doubter, denier, disciple.  Do you ever have Peter days?  To be honest, there are times I doubt God's plan.  I don't trust him the way I should. I don't keep my eyes on Jesus.  There are days I am confronted with issues and challenges in conversation that should be biblically addressed, however I remain silent.  There are days I feel close to God, like his best friend. 

Last week was a Peter week. However, just as Jesus lifted Peter from the waves of doubt, forgave his denial and blessed him, God refreshed me.  

Last Saturday night all the interns and their mentors came together and had a painting party.  I would be the first to say that my preferred art form is drawing stick figures but God used the calmness and slow pace of painting to get me thinking. 

As I painted an African sunset I was reminded that even though our lives may look like they're out of control, God is ultimately in control of the situation and makes it into something beautiful.

The paint we see on the palette runs together and gets very messy. The paint is not in control, the painter is.  God is painting beautiful pictures of our life but we miss it when our focus is on the palette instead of God. 

We may never see the canvas until the painting is finished but when we look at God he tells us about each little thing that he is adding to our life and we can trust that the finished product is better than we can imagine.  

  

Below is the finished painting. Mungu Anatawala is Swahili for "God He rules".  God is ruler over all the earth and is control of everything. 

The next morning  a few of us went to the beach and had an individual time of devotions.  As I read through Scripture and thought about all that I had been learning that week I realized that I was allowing the business of life to take away from what God was trying to teach me.

God brought everything together with a thunderstorm.  As I sat on the beach a storm began rolling in over the coast.  Dark clouds, lightning  and thunder where visible in the distance, the wind picked up and the waves became stronger. 

However, blue sky and white clouds graced the sky.  The contrast was  quite obvious. We had to leave the beach but God allowed me to see how this was a picture of my life.  At first something was missing from the scene but God told me exactly what I needed to do.

"Be still and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth"  -  Psalm 46:10

The following song filled my heart as I walked away from a rough week  but moved on in God's grace.

  

God made Gators too!

It is hard to believe that I am starting my third week of work here at Wycliffe.  So far I have been keeping busy by researching for the 75th anniversary of Wycliffe coming up in 2017. 

I am meeting all kinds of people with various gifts and talents.  It is neat to see how God pulls His children together to work at a greater capacity for His glory.  I have not only been challenged but also encouraged by these new colleagues.  Their genuine interest in my life and the life of the other interns is inspirational.  I hope I can be the same to someone else someday. 

Despite a full schedule, our group of interns were able to travel to Gatorland this past Saturday.  I'd have to say that I was not too thrilled about the idea.  But surprisingly the gators did not seem as scary when a fence separated us :)  - I cannot say the same for the Pythons. 

The best part of the Gatorland experience was the birds.  I love birds and God gave me the chance to get up close and personal with them.   Since I also love photography I was not shocked when I realized I took over 300 pictures that day.  I am including a few in this post so you can experience a part of my day. Enjoy!  

  

Stepping Off- Learning to Walk Strong in Weakness

My first step towards Wycliffe involved stepping onto a train.  God answered my prayers and provided a wonderful Christian lady to be the person I traveled with those 18 long hours.  The train ride not only taught me patience but also gave me an opportunity to see God's creation from a different perspective.  This was my first experience seeing palm trees outside of a picture.  They are a beautiful testament to God's glory and design.

I arrived in Orlando safely and once I settled in God gave me another up close experience with His creation.  The Sandhill Crane is just over 3 ft. tall and has a trumpeting call.  As I was walking down the sidewalk, five of them were walking down the road.  They didn't seem to mind me so I took advantage of the opportunity to get a picture.

During this first week at Wycliffe I participated in their TOTAL it Up course.  I learned the basics of Bible Translation such as: Literacy, grammar, phonetics, phonology, translation and semantics and language learning ( I got to learn Tok Pisin a language from Papua New Guinea)  .  

We were also got to hear about current work being done in ethnomusicology and technological developments that aid in the translation process.  One of the highlights of the week was hearing from Wycliffe missionaries .

I was challenged by two things said by these missionaries.  

First, apart from God only two other things last forever; God's Word and people.  The place where a person spends their eternity is directly related to their knowledge and understanding of God's Word.

Second,  what we may consider a weakness God may consider a strength.  For example, a translator shared how in school he was always slow at reading, trying to gather all the details.  He could never keep up with anyone.  He had seen this as a weakness but God showed him otherwise.  As a translator he has to read slowly and carefully to make sure everything is being translated correctly.   

You may see weak parts of your life and think they keep you from walking well.  However, God is more concerned about the attitude behind your walk.  Will you take a strong step of faith even if you feel it is hopeless?  Will you allow God to work through your weakness to bring glory unto Himself?   

As I learn what this means for my life, I encourage you to consider what it means for your own.  Take that step of faith and learn what it means to live with the knowledge of  2 Corinthians 12:9

^'But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'  

Walking Worthy... to Wycliffe

 Step 1, step 2 .... step 198.  Every step of the Christian walk requires faith.  We start as infants but that truth never changes.  As spiritual infants we find it hard to leave our comfort of crawling.  Learning to walk means facing our fears, admitting our need for help and experiencing painful growth. 

At times, pride gets in the way and we think we can face challenges on our own only to find ourselves falling in the process.  God, our heavenly Father ,wants us to put our full trust in Him.  He is ready to help us when we stumble.  When we reach out to Him He will not disappoint. 

Carrie and Dad

We as Christians can also focus too much on the wrong things.  We can get so caught up in the details and logistics of "walking" that we take our eyes off the one who trying to teach us to walk in His steps.   Jesus is right beside us the whole way, teaching us the way of life.  God wants us not only to walk but to run in the race.

Just as a child moves from walking to running so do Christians.  Running brings new dangers, but the focus is the same.  Keep your eyes on the goal. 

I'm the one in pink (3rd grade)

Keep your eyes on the Father who waits with open arms at the finish line. Learn the Father's ways through the Son who accompanies you on the journey.  Trust and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your steps and give you the power needed to press on. 

In the Bible we read

 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.          1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.       Hebrews 12:1-2

I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet  and a light to my path.      Psalm 119:101-105

It is my prayer that we all learn to walk worthy of the calling we have received and that we keep our faith in Jesus Christ.  

Be rooted in His Word and obedient to His calling.  Each step is a step of faith that teaches us something new and leads us to a life beyond our past experiences.  A life of walking with Jesus Christ brings joy unexplainable. 

Join me as I take the next step in my walk as I prepare to work this summer with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  Only God knows where this road will lead.