God’s Provided Some Baby Clothes!
God’s provided some baby clothes for use through “Word and Deed”, including wonderful newborn home-designed and made CLOTH DIAPERS for single moms and their newborns in the hospitals, for “Saturday Afternoon Babywashing” outreach in the central plaza, and for the new pre-schooler’s nutrition and Christian education center/daycare, in the jungle.
Praise the Lord!
Hail
Months ago, more than a year, I think, we had a sudden and unexpected heavy hailstorm that covered our yard and roof with iceballs that, from a distance, looked like snow, brought down a car tarp and caused some roof drains to clog to the point where a little back room in our apartment, that was being used for storage, flooded and ruined a bunch of Betty Lukens felt flannelgraph Bible teaching materials.
In the longer run the hailstorm was great because it brought much needed moisture to the cracked, drought-ridden mountainous soils of highlands Bolivia, caused the corn and wheat to grow, the haba beans to blossom and the sheep and goats to flourish, thus providing for the livelihood of tens of thousands of rural people.
My life was like that Bolivian highland landscape before the hailstorm – going along okay, even pretty well to the outside eye. Then my Loving and Lovely GOD allowed some pretty overwhelming HAILSTORMS to hit my life.
You know, hailstones, if they are big, can REALLY HURT! There were times during God’s allowed hailstorms on my life that I thought I was going to just about die from the pain! We never want to have to go through the hard stuff. And while we’re in it and even afterwards for a long time, we can not understand the “WHY” of it all. That’s the point at which a choice must be made – am I going to TRUST God with all of this? Or not? Not easy stuff! But in the long run the pain, in the context of trust, drove me closer to my Loving and Lovely GOD! Now I can see that I’ve become stronger, and freer, because of going through the pain of the hailstorms that hit my life and because of trying my best to trust God – REALLY trust HIM, with all that was happening.
Two Things I Heard Today
Today there were two phrases I heard, that caught my heart. The first was a question: “How can I delight Jesus with my faith?” The second was actually a book title, as well as a simple phrase. It makes me think. It sounds very attractive, even enticing, to my mind and heart: “The Power of Full Engagement.”
Two Things I Heard Today
Today there were two phrases I heard, that caught my heart. The first was a question: “How can I delight Jesus with my faith?” The second was actually a book title, as well as a simple phrase. It makes me think. It sounds very attractive, even enticing, to my mind and heart: “The Power of Full Engagement.”
Happily mixed up, at age 6. A memory of a transition from my world to a new world.
We’d stepped off the airplane in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and been driven home to Grandma’s house, where we would live for a few weeks . Got out of the car, Grandma walks down the porch steps and out over the grass, past the hollyhocks (hock dollies to my blonde baby sister, later) approaches and gives me a hug! Her long, thin, shiny, pure bluish-white hair is pulled up on top of her head in a puffed-out tiny knot, 20’s suffragette-style. She has a crisp, ironed cotton button-down dress in white and pastel checks, very soft colors. She smells like fresh laundry.
There’s a pretty mama cat on the broken porch step with two half-grown kittens nearby, strolling and watching ; my sister and I rush up to them and start talking to and petting; Dad cautions us to be careful, they might bite, they’re barn cats, he says.
We all move slowly up to the porch, little by little, Mom and Dad and Grandma talking the whole way and us three little kids darting excitedly around, touching things, but staying close. In through the creaky old screen door, the small country kitchen with even smaller scullery, from almost a hundred years ago even at that time, beckons. Mom is lingering a minute on the porch, exclaiming over the fragrance and looks of the blossom-laden lilac bushes; Dad is wrestling our suitcases in to the house. Grandma is giving me another hug, and exclaiming over what she is calling my “‘shiny penney” HAIR. I am feeling so loved, so content, and so excited about my new home, my new world, with my GRANDMA.
Mixed up, and Happily, at age 6. A memory of a transition from my world, to a new world.
We’d stepped off the airplane in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and been driven home to Grandma’s house, where we would live for a few weeks . Got out of the car, Grandma walks down the porch steps and out over the grass, past the hollyhocks (hock dollies to my blonde baby sister, later) approaches and gives me a hug! Her long, thin, shiny, pure bluish-white hair is pulled up on top of her head in a puffed-out tiny knot, 20’s suffragette-style. She has a crisp, ironed cotton button-down dress in white and pastel checks, very soft colors. She smells like fresh laundry.
There’s a pretty mama cat on the broken porch step with two half-grown kittens nearby, strolling and watching ; my sister and I rush up to them and start talking to and petting; Dad cautions us to be careful, they might bite, he says.
We all move slowly up to the porch, little by little, Mom and Dad and Grandma talking the whole way and us three little kids darting excitedly around, touching things, but staying close. In through the creaky old screen door, the small country kitchen with even smaller scullery, from almost a hundred years ago even at that time, beckons. Mom is lingering a minute on the porch, exclaiming over the fragrance and looks of the blossom-laden lilac bushes; Dad is wrestling our suitcases in to the house. Grandma is giving me another hug, and exclaiming over what she is calling my “beautiful ‘shiny copper penney’ HAIR.” I am feeling so loved, so content, and so excited about our new home with my GRANDMA.
Kindred Spirit Books
Does anybody want to add any books or magazines or written resources in on this list? You are more than welcome to – I love community-made lists of resources! Please feel free to add ideas in, via “Comments”, if you want!
1. The Bible of course. Especially in the New Living Translation. Especially Psalms, the last two-thirds of Isaiah, Matthew, John, Phillipians, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians.
2. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
3. Finding Calcutta by Mary Poplin
4. anything by C.S. Lewis, especially “Til We Have Faces”, “Narnia”, “Letters to an American Lady” and his “Poems”. And “The Screwtape Letters”, “Mere Christianity” and “Surprised by Joy”.
5. everything by Amy Carmichael.
6. everything by Elisabeth Elliot
7. The Peacemaker by Ken Sande (really excellent. on personal conflict resolution.)
8. ” Missionary Methods: Saint Paul’s or Ours?” by Roland Allen
9. everything by Ravi Zacharias
10. “Jesus-Driven Ministry” by Fernando Ajith
11. “Simply in Season” (cookbook) (Herald Press)
12. “A Resilient Life’ by Gordon MacDonald
13. “From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya” compiled by Ruth Tucker
14. the Beth Moore Bible studies, especially some of the newer ones.
15. “Hidden Art” by Edith Shaeffer
16. The New Evidence (Josh McDowell)
17..Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
18. Warren Wiersbe (Bible studies)
19. CT magazine (monthly)
20. Sonlight Curriculum
21. More-with-Less Cookbook (Herald Press)
22. Where there is no Doctor (Hesperian Foundation)
23. Where there is no Dentist (Hesperian Foundation)
24. Living More with Less (Herald Press)
25. Extending the Table (Herald Press)
26. Bible studies from D. Martin Lloyd-Jones (word-by-word studies)
27.Loaves and Fishes (children’s cookbook)
28. Jungle Camp Cook Book
29. Wycliffe International Cookbook
30. The Bread Book by Betsy Oppenneer
31. Changes that Heal by Cloud and Townsend
32. Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend
33. How People Grow by Cloud and Townsend
34. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy
35. To the Golden Shore (about) Adoniram Judson by (his grandaughter, I believe)
36. For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer MacAulay
37. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
38. Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson
39. How to Really Love your Child, and How to Really Love your Teenager by Ross Campbell
40. Let’s Make a Memory by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson
41. Marva Collin’s Way by Marva Collins
42. Teach your Own and Why Johnny Can’t Read by John Holt
43. Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book by Jane Brody
44. The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler by Robert Payne
A small window into the airplane glue/rubber cement-sniffing situation here. This is Belen, and it’s her 3rd birthday, and her mom and dad are caught in the chains of yellow glue-sniffing.
Helpful Hint to Ourselves for Packing, plus Bees’ Wings…
I can snap PHOTOS of beloved mementos, and keepsakes (snap photos of family photos in frames, for example!) as I pack lifelong bulky treasures away into boxes, for storage that will go on for future months or years. These photos I can keep with me, on my phone or computer.
It’s a little way of easing the processes of transition. Another little thing I’m doing to manage my stress level right now as we get ready to move continents is I’ve written a few of my many favorite Names of God, found in the Bible, out in marker on colored slips of paper and have taped them all over the apartment, in places where I spend time. Above the kitchen sink. Beside my “desk” table. In the living room. “Inspirer”. “Healer”. “Nourisher”. “Faithful”. “Slow-to-Anger”. “Peace”. “God-with-me (Emanuel)” .When my eyes fall on these little labels my mind and emotions are led into worship, thanksgiving and prayer, for a few seconds each time. “Kind”. “Defender”. Ass I move around in the apartment sorting, cleaning and packing, I breathe, and I say thank you. “Queller-of-storms”. “Desire”. “Satisfier”.
I know that MANY PEOPLE face MUCH transition in modern-day life in our world, for a huge variety of different reasons. There are “transitions” on many different levels. It’s not just moving house, it’s not just traveling, and it’s not just me. I hope these two little ideas help somebody else to deal with transition in their life, today, with less stress, the way the little ideas and practices are helping me. We’re companioning each other in this day, which also reduces stress…
A Little Spot of Heaven in the “OLD” Cochabamba Downtown
back garden of the Jordan street guest home where we lived for five months after first arriving in Cochabamba, in the eighties
Letters, otherwise known (these days) as Messages, Texts, Emails and Phone calls.
“More than kisses, letters mingle souls.” – John Donne
Being Three Years Old in Cameroun in 1960
That two-storey cavern of a house at Sakbayeme. Accepting it and all of “Sak” as “normal”, as children do, and reveling, just REVELING in all that Sakbayeme was and had! Getting out the cotton sunsuits and the expensive leather high-topped shoes for my foot problems, with Mom from the tiny air-conditioned dry room. Running around the hilltop with Brother and Simeon, climbing and playing tag in the little guava trees. Mom and Rosalie, grabbing the ax, carrying it outside and killing the chicken and us kids watching, fascinated, while the chicken runs around headless in circles, then flops over. Mom boiling water in a huge pot, scalding the gaunt little chicken, then tweezering out the pinfeathers to make chicken stew with dumplings in the pressure cooker for noontime dinner that day! YUM!
End of 1973 trip from Congo to Cameroun
So, there we were in the Douala airport restaurant, stretched out on the floor, dozing off. I sat up, bleary-eyed, when a foreign-looking man, speaking English, approached us! M., the 17-year-old of our threesome was with him – I think he’d been walking around the airport. It was about ten thirty p.m.
The english-speaking man ushered us outside to a waiting vehicle; his wife, a smiling white face in the darkness, was there with him. The vehicle had a.c. and was large and newish – it smelled good! This couple were the Williams, an A.G. outreach family our parents had made a contact with on our behalf!
At their house, a night watchman let us in the gates and this friendly couple followed us in to the house – (more air conditioning!) – we felt revived more every second. Mrs. Williams offered us food but we were too tired to eat. They gave medication to J. Mrs. Williams made me follow her upstairs and led me into a comfortable bedroom, showing me, down the narrow passageway, a gleaming pastel bathroom on the right. Straight ahead in the end wall of the hall, to the left of the shining bathroom she reached out and opened a louvre door, revealing a linen closet and telling me to help myself to towels. I’d never seen anything like those towels – fluffy, bright, soft, new – American! Stacked in pastel towers and smelling of fabric softener and sunshine.
The next day they gave us bacon and eggs for breakfast and took us back to the airport, where we flew to Yaounde and hugged our families; J. was home at that point and continued on malaria meds, recovering fully, later. M. and I together with our families had another three-hour car journey, from Yaounde to Ebolowa, but that felt like nothing after what we’d already been through and because we were with our siblings and parents! Arriving home the following day we began long summer vacation in earnest!
Song of Songs, from God to each of us.
“You are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you.” Song of Songs 4:7
Monday, May 2, 2016
“Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150:6 NLT
At the center of the Bible is the Book of Psalms.
End of 1973 trip from Congo to Cameroun
So, there we were in the Douala airport restaurant, stretched out on the floor, dozing off. I sat up, bleary-eyed, when a foreign-looking man, speaking English, approached us! M., the 17-year-old of our threesome was with him – I think he’d been walking around the airport. It was about ten thirty p.m.
The english-speaking man ushered us outside to a waiting vehicle; his wife, a smiling white face in the darkness, was there with him. The vehicle had a.c. and was large and newish – it smelled good! This couple were the Williams, an A.G. outreach family our parents had made a contact with on our behalf!
At their house, a night watchman let us in the gates and this friendly couple followed us in to the house – (more air conditioning!) – we felt revived more every second. Mrs. Williams offered us food but we were too tired to eat. They gave medication to J. Mrs. Williams made me follow her upstairs and led me into a comfortable bedroom, showing me, down the narrow passageway, a gleaming pastel bathroom on the right. Straight ahead in the end wall of the hall, to the left of the shining bathroom she reached out and opened a louvre door, revealing a linen closet and telling me to help myself to towels. I’d never seen anything like those towels – fluffy, bright, soft, new – American! Stacked in pastel towers and smelling of fabric softener and sunshine.
The next day they gave us bacon and eggs for breakfast and took us back to the airport, where we flew to Yaounde and hugged our families; J. was home at that point and continued on malaria meds, recovering fully, later. M. and I together with our families had another three-hour car journey, from Yaounde to Ebolowa, but that felt like nothing after what we’d already been through and because we were with our siblings and parents! Arriving home the following day we began long summer vacation in earnest!
Such need everywhere! We believers, each ONE of us, CAN be involved in team helping to meet need! Each of us CAN! We just need to find our proper niche, in team, to do so!
Journal post from MPH
“Loving God shouldn’t have to be something I should have to work to do. It should be joyous, willing. I want to be a REAL Christian because I think that will be the solution to all my problems about wanting a boyfriend, friends, will power. Everything! But I don’t know how to change motives! I don’t WANT those to be my motives. Those are hypocrite motives. Maybe what I need to do is come in here just about every day, and pray really TALKING to God, really getting to know God, and all the time being completely honest with Him and with myself. Then maybe my motives will voluntarily change by me finding out once more – all by myself – without a councillor(sic) or a retreat or some emotional stimulation how great God really is and how much God loves me.
Principle of Bad Writing, at least in our Postmodern Age.
“I have made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. ” – Blaise Pascal
copyright La Nina de Sus Ojos by NinadesusOjos, 2012 -2013. Any and all unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, including all photographs, without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited by law.
A Feline Neighbor
There is this tiny black cat who belongs to our neighbor family in the flat downstairs from us. He reminds me of myself very often, NOT in the way I ACT, hopefully, but in the way I feel on the inside, every once in awhile! He doesn’t really fit in, either in the cat or the people world; although his people family is super kind and consistent with him – they actually saved him single-handedly from certain death, as he was an orphan kitten brought by some anonymous kindly person to an extremely kind and responsible woman veterinarian here in this dirt and weed-drenched anonymous city of two million human inhabitants. Our neighbor family downstairs got him from her, as a very tiny kitten who still needed to be fed with a dolly bottle! They nursed him back to health and growth and the three children happily named him Ninja.
Anyways, Ninja, who never grew big or fat, spends a lot of his time peacefully, happily, hesitantly wandering around outside in the yard, trying to stay out of fights (really, “getting beat-up” sessions, for him – NOT fights) with neighborhood stray cats, big scraggly toms, who live in the rooftops all around here.
Ninja seems to me a VERY little bit fearful and detached or, really, more as if he does not know that he is a cat. He does not know how to act cat-like. I think he thinks he’s a person! He lets his children dress him up like a baby girl and drive him around the yard in their doll stroller by the hour, and he never seems to bite or scratch or even run away.
Another strange thing about Ninja is, he only eats vegetables. He’s the first and only vegetarian kitty I have ever met – I think he must be empathetically trying to show identification with his human “mom”, my friend downstairs, who doesn’t eat meat either. He is a VERY loving – to everyone – cat, though not at ALL “cuddly”; like I say, he prefers to spend the vast majority of his time wandering around outside, alone, but very near any person who happens to be around, curious, peaceful, investigative. I think he’s intelligent because, he quickly taught himself to open the screen door to my home, if it does not happen to be latched with the hook and eye, and he loves to let himself inside, wander through the rooms, munch on a little carrot top from our compost bucket on the kitchen floor, move around with his little black paw some drying papaya seeds laid out on old newspaper in the corner of our study floor, then grabbing a mouthful of them, chewing, tasting, swallowing. Sometimes he rests on top of our bed for an hour or so, not sleeping but seeming to meditate, big yellow eyes wide!
GlobeRoamer 
