God's Latest Chapter and Spidey Powers!

I've been watching Netflix lately with the team. Guatemalan Netflix gives you more options than 'merican Netflix does. My only complaint is that they don't have Spider-Man!!





I like Mr. Spidey. I feel like Spidey a lot cuz I'm a loser but then when God came into my life when I was 14 (much like getting bit by that cray cray spider) I became a new creation, and with that came these huge changes in my life. When I was 17, all I knew was that God loved me and He wanted my life to be about telling others about His love, so I gave my life to missions.

I didn't know about how or where or what He'd send me doing, but I set off on a bunch of adventures to find out. Cuz with great power comes great responsibility....right???  Lately I've been reflecting on these adventures and how they've sent me on the road I think I'm heading.

First there was Camp Crestridge for Girls! Because of experiences I had with insecurities and self-esteem as a teenager before I gave my life to Christ, I wanted to help other girls with the same issues in Summer 2009!




But after I left camp that summer, I felt God telling me that He wanted me to major in Spanish and devote my life to working with Hispanic immigrants. In the meantime, He would develop my Spanish by doing mission work overseas until He called me home. So when I was 18, I was a summer missionary intern at Mission Centers of Houston, an inner-city mission that mostly serves Latino immigrant families in inner-city Houston. This taught me my love of immigrant ministry and teaching English as a Second Language.



When I was 20 I knew that God wanted me to use my love and gift of Spanish in South America to share the Gospel. So I spent Summer 2012 working with the indigenous Quechua people of Peru, living in a rustic village called San Jose de Quero. Through helping these indigenous shepherds in their fields, teaching English in the tiny village school, and Bible study, I built Christ-sharing relationships with the people there.

     

For the past two years, I've been involved as a leader in the Friends of Internationals ministry and through teaching conversational English at FSU. The purpose of both of these things has been to help international students and their families to adjust to life in a new culture and language. By making some of my best friends and having some of my most educational experiences here, I've seen how God has called me to do immigrant/international student ministry with my life.




Finally, this past summer I've been interning at a malnutrition center in indigenous Guatemala through Orphan's Heart (Florida Baptist Children's Homes). Seeing the conditions many underprivileged Guatemalans live in help me understand why many choose to immigrate to the United States..and how my loves of foreign language, ESL and hospitality can welcome these people and can show them the love of Christ.






I tell you this because a lot of people have been asking me "So are you going to the mission field next?" "Are you going overseas after you graduate this summer?" "You're definitely called to ministry!" and I feel the need to explain where I think God's next step is in my life.

First of all, I don't see myself overseas as a career missionary. To be a missionary is a lot more than liking a one week trip to the Ukraine. To be a missionary means the Gospel is the ONLY thing that sustains you. To be a missionary means you have a sense of church planting and effective witnessing. The only thing that satisfies you is knowing how you are bringing people to the Lord. To be a missionary is a very special calling.

Instead, I see God telling me that there are people from all over the world coming to my beloved homeland-the United States of America. People come to study, they come for better opportunities, they come for safety, they come for religious freedom-and they exchange their beloved homeland to be dubbed as a stranger to all. They speak a strange language-English-that makes communication a struggle every day. They are confused by our materialistic culture. These immigrants leave all they know and love behind for a better life. What better person to help these searching people out than an American?

Fear and embarrassment often drives the Christians away from these people who need friendship the most. People who love cross-cultural situations often overlook these people because you don't have the adventure of leaving the States to do this ministry. Because I love other cultures/languages, meeting new people, and mentoring people, I believe this is the ministry God has placed me in.

Currently my plan is to teach Spanish for the next two years as I get my Master's from FSU in Foreign/Second Language Teaching. From that point on, I hope to teach ESL in schools, non-profits and church ministries or to even lead a Christian ministry that helps immigrants and refugees adjust to life in the States. I will always love traveling and missions and God might even take me back overseas for a season of my life.




I know that the task that God has put ahead of me requires a lot of responsibility..but He gives me the power to do it yay! So Spidey Powers...away! Or something like dat!!

Guatemala Week 2-Brave?

I'm a ginger. I'm brave. Naturally, I look something like this.....

...NOT! This is what I really look like, particularly when I am hiking or doing something nasty involving bugs or snakes or that's really scary and dumb!

See, I have the tendency to forget which ginger I truly am. I sometimes think that I'm that awesome chick from Brave and then I get myself into a bigger situation than I can handle and then I run away crying like I did in the picture when we went hiking through the mosquito filled jungle. I get cocky. I get arrogant. And then I run away.

Because this week I've seen how small and silly I am. I'm the Spanish teacher in the group after all, but I accidentally translated that one of the babies escaped from their cribs instead of saying the baby just broke their crib. I'm weak. I often require water and potty breaks.  I'm overly emotional-I've cried three times in two weeks in front of the other workers for no good reason whatsoever.

My weaknesses make me want to hide from the world, like a turtle in its shell, and be safe from mistakes or awkward situations. But God has called me to love Him and to love the people He has made and died for.

Loving people the way God calls us to means getting out of our comfort zone and knowing that we're not perfect, but somehow God uses us anyway. And the best part? When we still do awesome things despite our stupidity, God get the credit for it cuz no one that lame like me could do these things anyway. So knowing that God gets the glory no matter what mistakes I make or how lame I might be makes me want to be brave.

Yay for a brave ginger!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqSs39C3LN8

Guatemala-David and Goliath

So if you read my last post, I promised you at the end I'd tell you a cooler story about how I saw God work through the classic biblical story of David and Goliath in the life of one of my girls this week..which is even cooler than Junior Asparagus as Dave! Can you say waaaaa???

Every night before the girls go to bed, we hang. We do stupid things. Two days ago we did the salsa. Yesterday we played an INTENSE version of Simon Says. Today we merely just took stupid pictures together like this.....

On Tuesday, I was just chilling and talking to the girls about life when randomly one of them asked me to tell them a Bible story. So cool. I told them the story of David and Goliath and added that "When we're small and we have to do something that we're too small to do, God gives us the strength to do it."

One of my girls, who's 5, started to tear up. "Do you have a mom?" she said.

"I do," I answered.

"And a dad?" she said.

"Yep," I said cautiously.

"You know something? My mom died two years ago. When my mom died, my dad abandoned me. He doesn't love me, so he sent me to live with my grandma. But so many kids live with her [that she couldn't feed us well and so I got sick from not eating] and she sent me here." I blinked back tears. This girl is only 5!

"Do you miss your mom?" I asked her.

"I do, so much," the little girl said, about to cry. "And my grandma lives so far away she doesn't visit me. But my godfather does. And I miss my mom very, very much."

"My friend died, too this year," I told her about my childhood friend and beloved classmate Brooke Rhoden. "But you know something, mi amor?"

"What?"

"When there's something we're too small to fight like David, God gives us the strength we need to fight our Goliaths. When you miss your mom, God will help you do what you can't do alone."

And the little girl smiled :) 

It's amazing how God just brought up a random story for this little girl who needed it the most! And if you feel like David trying to fight your Goliaths with just a measly pair of stones, remember that how small you are isn't important, but how big God is :) Doesn't that make you want to smile?!

Guatemala Week 1-With His help little guys can do big things, too!

Well kids, I'm about to wrap up my first week here in Guatemala! My kids call me "Seno Carolina"-which means Miss Caroline in English. They call all of the nannies that..so it looks like I've been upgraded from random gringa to nannyish kind of status. I better after the craziness these girls brought into my life today!!!!!!!! :D I was attempting to do the salsa with them here tehehe

And they are ALWAYS insisting that I push them harder on the swings! One of them even wrote a song about it. Ay yo........................

But even so, I love these girls like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet despite all of the fun that I've had, there have been so many times the past week that I've felt inadequate to do what God wants me to do here. Unlike most of the other interns, I had never been to the center before. I love children, but I have to work with a group of girls ranging from ages 3-10! There have been times when I have felt homesick, too. And while I speak Spanish fluently (I'm a Spanish teacher yo!) I make STUPID mistakes constantly, like saying "load" instead of "pregnancy" when I was translating for a doctor or saying "pepper" instead of "peanut."

But as I was watching Veggies Tales with some of the kids today, we watched Dave and the Giant Pickle (David and Goliath) episode. Junior Asparagus, who plays Dave/David, tells Archibald (King Saul) that with God's help, he can fight Goliath! He says (in the English version) about Goliath:

"He's big! But God's bigger!

And when I think of him, that's what I figure!

With His help, little guys can do big things, too!

With His help, I know that I can do big things, too!"

I can't do any of these big things. But God is bigger than them, and with His help I know that I can do big things, too!

Tomorrow I'll tell you an even cooler story about how God used David and Goliath in the life of one of my girls this week! But for now, it is time for a semi-hot shower and bedtime :) 

Guatemala 2013 Days 3 and 4-Compassion followed by Action

"I will go,
I will go, Lord send me
To the world, to the lost, to the poor and hungry
Take everything I have, I'm clay within Your hands
I will go, I will go, send me."-Starfield, "I Will Go."

Today has been one of the most physically, emotionally and mentally draining days of my life. I cared for 30 screaming 3-5 year olds for twelve hours. I translated also during that time in the midst of 92 laughing, crying,  chattering children. I burst out into tears as I saw some of the physical conditions that these malnourished children are in. I was broken.

And for me, this is life for the next five weeks. For the full-time workers, this IS there life.

But as a Christ follower, this is what we are called to do.

I'd say most of us have COMPASSION on the 92 malnourished children that live at the center and would consider its full-time workers to be heroes. But our compassion and admiration is useless unless it is followed by action and assistance. Compassion doesn't feed a starving child, but action does.

These past few days I've been completely encouraged by the other interns, volunteers and full-time staff workers who also believe that compassion without action will get you nowhere. Just like in a body you have so many different parts with different strengths that come together to do the same purpose in different ways.

I'm blown away by how I see this in the lives of our team. Howie, our director has an amazing sense of administration. Keith and Morgan are studying to be doctors and can help us medically with the needs of the children. Taylor, an aspiring social worker can encourage us when we're all feeling emotionally drained and continues to make us passionate about what we do. Megan, Brandy,  Lauren, Danielle, and Jessica are all elementary ed/kid related majors, and heaven knows we need someone to help entertain our babies! Art is retired and uses his gift of cooking and time sacrificially to feed us yummy things after a long day's work. And then you have me-the Spanish nerd-as I help with the language barrier.

So ready for what God does next!

Guatemala Days 1 and 2-Lions and Otters and Beavers and Golden Retrievers!

I'm on an adventure with a pack full of 18-20 something year olds to serve malnourished children in Guatemala this summer with this amazing Christian non-profit called Orphan's Heart. It rocks. And we interns, we rock. And starting now as my roommate Brandy is muttering in her sleep (bahahaha love you girl!), I'm determined to tell you all about what God does through me here.

On Friday, Andy and I chilled at the airport a bit before he dropped me off. He always HATES having his picture taken!!!

After I landed in Miami where we would begin our training before leaving for Guatemala on Sunday, I decided to indulge in my guilty pleasure of Spanish TV (Univision) while I chilled in the hotel . I kinda love El Gordo y La Flaca, okay?? Yes, I'm a weirdo. Anyways, for the rest of the night as my teammates arrived, we ate dinner at Chipotle and then started our first session of training at the Orphan's Heart/Florida Baptist Children's Homes Miami Campus!

Training began again early this morning at 8:30 and lasted all the way until 3. Then we stuffed packages for Howie (our director around these parts!) until 6. We were packaging BEASTS.

     


However, Howie didn't realize that he was putting me, Miss Clumsy, in charge of printing stamps for the packages. I may have messed up once..or twice..heh...sorry, Howie!!!!

Finally, we ended the day by eating at a DELICIOUS Cuban restaruant. The inner Spanish teacher in me has always dreamed of eating Cuban food in Miami. Yes, I am a SUPER dork, but dreams do come true!!! Here is my picadillo...mmmhhhhhh



So it's past midnight and I have a flight to catch to Guatemala tomorrow, yet I can't sleep because I'm thinking about the bunch God has placed together. We did this personality test thing where you're either a lion (a direct, outspoken leader), an otter (fun loving optimist), a beaver (an organized intellectual) or a golden retriever (a loyal friend)...and we have some of each. Such different people are crammed together for like 40 days and 40 nights or something like that. Ay yo. Sounds to me like Noah's arc!!!!

But I know that all of us have special and unique gifts that will allow us to serve these children in need this summer in a powerful way. We have future elementary ed teachers in our bunch, we have aspiring social workers, we have a doctor to be, and we have a Spanish/ESL teacher, too (that would be me!) All and all, I'm stoked to see how God will use us.

!Guatemala, por alla vamos!