September 12-17, 2015 my daughter, Janet, and I had the exciting opportunity to travel to El Salvador with 28 other women through Compassion International. We went to celebrate with a new child development center, visit other more established centers and, meet our OWN sponsored children.
Sunday, September 13 was our first full day in El Salvador. We were all up early, ready and quite excited about our first Child Development Center visit, to ES-952 Casa de Pan (House of Bread). Personally, while I was excited about seeing the children and meeting families, I was probably more excited that since it was Sunday, we would be worshiping together with the church, the children and their families. This type of fellowship inspires me deeply. To be gathered with believers of another culture, to hear the Scriptures read in their language, to enter into joyful worship as they sing their songs gives a peek into heavenly worship, when people from all tongue and nations will gather together. As we headed out I was full of anticipation!
For the last few years I have been praying for our family to have the opportunity and provision to travel to Africa to visit our sponsored kids who live in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. I have also prayed for the same thing to visit Laura in Bolivia and Johana in El Salvador. The prayers increased when I noticed that Johana’s graduation date had been moved up, to April of 2016.
Wow, 2 weeks ago I knew this would happen, and it sure did. I’m starting this week staring at the FRIDAY box on my calendar. So much to do, and so little. Just four sleeps from now I will be traveling with my 14 year old daughter to El Salvador. This will be my 3rd trip to that lovely area that connects us up North to those to the South. We are traveling with a group of women, all connected through our ministry to children through Compassion International.
It has been a whole 17 years since I traveled to Guatemala with my mom to do some work for an agency I was employed by, and to meet my first 2 sponsored children. Too long! And I am over the top excited to be heading back to Central America.
Meeting Edgar and his family in Guatemala
This time my 14 year old and I will travel with a group of women, none of whom we have ever met. This one thing has me quaking in my sandals. This mother daughter pair of very introverted ladies is going on a trip with a bunch of unmet ladies??? But we both know this is gift from our Father, so with quaking sandals we are going!
And that is where my courage is to come from, in every situation, knowing that the Father is the orchestrating my life. He knows the desires and passions of my heart, He ordains my steps, He is the keeper of my children. And now that I’ve written that last sentence I’m smiling big because, He gave those gifts as well, passions and desires that have been refined by Him, and my children, gifts, tremendous gifts each one. And one more thing, He has promised to always be with me. So I can look forward with courage and anticipation at what and who awaits in just 4 sleeps.
Who we are looking forward to meeting? In particular Johana and Kenia!
Johana, El Salvador
Kenia
Looking forward to all that God has for these next 2 weeks, and hopefully the words to be able to share some of it with you! Interestered in sponsoring a child through Compassion International?
As summer is winding down and the fullness of days that “back to school” will bring is on my mind. This weekend I can be found plotting out preparations for meal planning, house cleaning, fringe hours and exercise. In the last few weeks another concern has floated into my thoughts. I have began thinking about not forgetting to write to our sponsored children thanks to another blogger, Desert Violet, who recently wrote about pre writing letters.
Several letter writing ideas swirl in my mind often, but getting them down on paper isn’t always done before I forget the great ideas I have. Understanding that about myself, I began to be intentional about looking for an idea for a series of letters to pre-write.
Letter Writing Inspiration
Early in the summer I had made a commitment to myself to finish some of the books I started reading, but for one reason or another, haven’t finished. Perfectly Unique by Annie Downs is one of those books. As I read the book, I was looking for quotes and ideas to infuse into my conversations with my daughters. And I was also inspired to write a series of three letters to our sponsored children. This fall I will share them with you, here on By Quiet Waters. These letters are quite simple, but I hope the message is clear. Every child is planned for, loved, and has purpose. That is what I want each of my own children to know and believe, and each of our sponsored children well.Continue reading →
For this Sponsorship Saturday post I am excited to share that in June we were blessed by the opportunity to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. What started out as a plan to take another trip with my youngest daughter while her older teen sisters were away, turned into an exciting opportunity to wait and take all the girls to Grand Canyon. I was so excited about this trip, as I’ve wanted to see the Grand Canyon for as long as I can remember. Life has not ever had me anywhere near that part of the United States, until now. After playing with google maps for several days, I decided that “now is the time.”
What could a day with my Heavenly Father look like? Of course, as I try to write this post, the song “I Can Only Imagine” has started running through my mind. But I am going to try and meld together the two different streams of thought that this blogging assignment has stimulated in my mind.
It is said that most people relate to God the Father as a reflection of their relationship with their earthly father. That is certainly true for me. It is only in recent years that I’ve been able to even think about Jehovah God as a kind, gentle and loving Father. And now, I even wake each morning with “good morning Father” on my mind! A habit of saying it out loud was intentionally cultivated and I’ve discovered great joy in starting the day like that! Such a gift.
The other stream of thought that started rolling around in my mind with this assignment was what I think a day with the Heavenly Father looks like. Goodness, I’m not sure what this says about me, but when I imagine Heaven and those first moments with God the Father… I hope to crawl up on His lap like a little child and just hear what He has to say in those first moments. I know that my kids have great memories of that kind of thing and so much more. They each have wonderful times of bike riding, hiking, reading, and gardening, cooking and laughing with my husband, their daddy. So I do believe that as I continue thinking about this, more ideas will come to mind.
If you are interested in speaking life and love into a child who may be growing up with out the love and nurture of a father, whether because of the absence or neglect, due to the realities of extreme poverty please consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
Now I leave you with the music of MercyMe.
I Can Only Imagine
by MercyMe
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine
Chorus:
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
Sometime back this audio was shared with me, by some dear friends. I’ve been re-listening from time to time, as there are layers of applications in my life to consider.
Whether you are red, yellow, black, normal or blue, you struggle with some part of your identity. Right now I am in the throws of raising and walking along teen age daughters and all the questions that go with growing up from girl to woman.
There are racial tensions erupting all over our country. Suicides and murders. Exploitation of girls and of boys.
Because we fail to see the value of each and every human life.
I hope the following encourages you today, to remember where your identity, where each person’s identity, comes from.
“But this is not just a normal problem, many people, normal and abnormal alike fail to see the beauty in their own identities.
I’m happy how I am, not full of pride, but proud to know I’m made in the image of God, and God is far from normal.
So if every person is crafted after Him, there is no typical human, no normal ethnic group, no matter who you are, red, yellow, black, normal or blue, there’s something Divine about you.
But
I guess you can’t know this if you don’t know the God you reflect. You’ll go your whole life thinking you’re normal or worthless, never seeing which of God’s many attributes are present in you.”
Today, when frustration rises, I will quiet it with GRATITUDE.
Today, I will be the one to be reminded to speak only what is GRACEfilled, appropriate for the moment, that will help hearts in need, and bless all others who hear.
Today, I will HUG. and TOUCH. and DRAW CLOSE.
Not to be an example, but to love the ones better who love me, flaws and all.
These Moments, which are just a snapshot of truly delightful day full of family and friends celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We attended morning services, full of celebratory music and teaching from Hebrews 9.
Enjoyed a mostly gluten free meal (something that has been a real struggle, but I’m learning!), followed by this gluten free Empty Tomb cake made by Mae, with family and friends.
Spent a couple of hours at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, taking advantage of our brand new membership.
feeding the giraffe
This day was truly a delight to my soul. It is quite hopeful to me, that maybe I’ll learned the secret of being able to enjoy a family gathering or day of celebrating. Saturday I spent most of the day preparing “cold foods” for Sunday’s celebration. We used paper plates, and most of the foods were served in the dishes they were stored in. Score! Another bonus…the natural gathering place in our home is now the kitchen. It is big enough, after the remodel, to hold anyone and everyone, so even when I was washing a few dishes or putting away food, I wasn’t tucked back alone in the kitchen. All of those pieces made the difference in my being able to fully enjoy the day!
linking with Amanda and Jessica as I remember and celebrate a beautiful Easter Sunday.
Quick snacks are a must all the time with growing children, but add the warmer weather and those kids get even hungrier. And a house full of teens doing bigger and more things… even more so!
Warmer Weather
Spring has sprung, and the temperature is rising to lovely 60+ sunny degrees most days. A little higher, a little lower, it doesn’t matter. The kids are out the door running, bike riding, heading to the park. And all that fresh air and activity? Makes them hungry. I’ve been pulling out my hair just a little with all the “what’s for…” “when’s dinner” questions. Noon to 6 is a long stretch once the kids head outside so I began thinking about heartier snacks and healthy lunch fillers.
Mini Pizza
We often have home made pizza for lunch or dinner. Recently I doubled the dough recipe and ended up with enough pizza for dinner, with dough left over. Dividing the dough into 3 portions I rolled them out and made 3 personal size pizzas. These pizzas were then loaded with pepperoni and cheese.
After cooling, each pizza was wrapped in parchment paper and slid into a quart sized ziplock bag. The next day when people wandered into the kitchen looking for something to snack on, I pointed them to the fridge in search of those bags. The pizzas were gone in a snap, but they were a hit! One or two heated the pizzas, the other ate it cold. So I do plan to take a few hours in the next week to make up a double batch of dough and turn all of it into mini pizzas. Usually I put things like this into the freezer, but I really doubt that is needed or helpful in this season. The turn over rate in our fridge is pretty high!
This is the recipe I currently use for pizza dough. Normally we have bowls of chopped bell peppers, black olives and green onions, as well as pepperoni, turkey or ham to use for toppings. For sauce I often use Classico marinara sauce, a jar goes a long way in pizza making! This sauce is often on sale and when it is I stock up.
I’m looking for more fresh ideas for hearty quick snacks and simple, healthy, filling lunches. The house is now full of strong, active teens and while they don’t eat a lot at one time, they do wander into the kitchen OFTEN looking for something to eat. Surely I’ll get back into the groove, but for now, I need some ideas!
What ideas do you have for simple, healthy and filling snacks for these warm weather days?
By Quiet Waters 