My outreach team!!

Isaiah 58:10-11a

"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always"

Just grow up already.

I really liked this week. Leslie Freeman was our speaker and the subject was Child Development. Leslie is Scott's wife (last week's speaker) and she will also be helping out with my outreach in Jaco, Costa Rica. I had no idea studying child development would be interesting. Just saying. It just didn't sound like my cup of tea. However, I really engaged in this week and asked a plethora of questions. We covered many topics but Leslie started her teaching off by asking this question: What do we consider a fully developed child (not necessarily physically)? Just soak that in a minute. I'm not sure if there is a "correct" answer (I'm pretty sure there is a wrong one) but what came to your mind? I answered the question by saying something like, "a mature, self confident individual who feels prepared for the world and is ready to become a parent themselves." Take what you want from that. But the point she was getting to was, "Are you fully developed? Have you achieved those qualities that came to your mind? Are you there yet? What do you need to work on?" We cannot hope to help and work with children if we have not matured. You cannot help a child with something that you are still struggling with. For example, a pathological liar has no right to tell a child what the importance of honesty is and that lying is bad. Makes sense, right? You following me? Smelling what I'm stepping in? Mathew 7:3-4 says, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?' How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?'" Ok, how 'bout a controversial example. Something to shake things up a bit. Leslie gave this example, what do we do when a child says, "Gimme!!!"? Often times we snap at them and demand a please and thank you. But how often are we this polite ourselves? Be honest. I'm not trying to convey that children should not be taught manners. But she gave this example of how we can be so disrespectful towards children. What happens if your friend says, "Hey, can I have a cookie?" Do you say, "Say please and thank you!"? Of course not. We give them a cookie. We respect our friend. So why don't we also show children respect? Are they not people as well? With feelings? I think so. And think about it. If we show disrespect to a child, what do they learn? Disrespect. Children are like mirrors. They act out what they see and what has been demonstrated in front of them. Just like monkey-see, monkey-do. Point is, respect gets respect and if you want respectful children you have to respect them first. We need to change our thinking and realize that kids are worth it. We cannot downplay their importance. They should be the focus of all our attention and the most important thing in our lives. You may be saying to yourself, "Oh, I'm not guilt of that. I work with kids. Or, I'm a parent. I know it all." Are you sure? Let's be detectives. How 'bout a test? If you've ever said one of these following comments--you've got a ways to go. Even if you've never said one, I know you've heard it. I've heard all of these.

You Will Hear Voices.

"Put him down or you'll spoil him."

"You don't have to meet all of your baby's needs."

"She's just trying to get your attention."

"She's so demanding!"

"He's just a baby; he doesn't have feelings like sadness or loneliness or fear."

"He knows how to get what he wants!"

"She's just crying for nothing. I just fed her and changed her. She's fine."

"Crying it out may be painful for a few days, but after that, it's worth it."

"Holding her all the time isn't good for her. It creates too much dependency."

"Picking him up every time he cries will makes him cry to get picked up."

"Don't go to her at night. She'll never learn to sleep on her own."

"Never bring him to bed with you!"

"Breastfeeding is a hassle."

"She's a little diva!"

"I can tell he's going to give you a run for your money!"

"Uh oh! She's going to be trouble."

"He has you wrapped around his little baby finger already..."

"Just wait until the terrible two's..."

"You can't give in to every whim!"

"Let her cry for a few minutes before you jump to her rescue."

"You will have no life. Just wait and see."

"Forget about sleeping. You are setting yourself up for problems for years to come..."

"Too much attachment is bad. He needs to know where the line is drawn from an early age, or else he'll take advantage of everything he can later on."

"Make your baby as independent as possible as early as possible. You'll be thankful you did."

"Babies are resilient. They'll adapt."

"They won't remember anything..."

-Lu Hanessian

Isn't it sad that this is what our culture has taught us? Let's focus on one of these for just a moment. How bout crying it out? How about letting a child cry until they fall asleep? Why do we think its better to leave a child in their crib until they've exhausted themselves from their tears? Is that how God intended? Being honest, I've put a crying kid in bed before. That's what I thought was normal. But is there a better way? Leslie says that she has never left a child to cry themself to sleep (she has four boys.) No matter their age. What if we put our desires aside for a moment and put our children's needs first? What if we missed the first moments of our favorite TV show to comfort a cry and desperate child? Could we sacrifice some of our own rest if we knew it was best for our kids? Would we be willing to put "life" aside for a few precious moments in order to calm down a sleepy kid? Would we be willing to sit and comfort a child until their tears subsided? No matter how long it took? I'm not writing this to condemn anyone. It's just food for thought and encouragement to start respecting kids. Children only cry when they feel distressed. Sometimes we blame it on their malicious and manipulative behavior. That they are crying to make us angry or annoyed. That they are crying because they are manipulating us to get what they want. Um... where did we get this idea? They cry because they are hungry, or soiled, or maybe just because they love you and want to be near you. Manipulation takes a lot of intelligence. Children are not capable of manipulation until a much older age. They do not have the cognitive ability to be manipulative or malicious. I told you this week was interesting!! There is so much to learn! And I haven't even mentioned any of the growing stages! Is that what you were anticipating? Too bad. I find this more interesting. It is so important that before we make assumptions we do thorough research. We need to know what children are actually capable of and what their real needs are. There are oodles and oodles of books you can read on this stuff! You could get a PhD in it. Doesn't that spark your interest? I am personally really excited to be a mom one day and study and learn more on child development! Yay!

Quote of the week: "There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children." -Marianne Williamson

On being yourself.

 

By Cathy Thorne. 

See more at everydaypeoplecartoons.com

Must love dogs.

Do you know what my favorite thing in the whole wide world is? My dogs. My puppy's name is Pickle and the old fart is Sally. They're both dumber than rocks but I love them. Do you have any pets? Do they seem to just chipper up your day? Make you feel relaxed and comforted? Well in Tyler, Texas the people of Smith County are using a dog's ability to sooth to help abused children. Check out the video below and see how a dog named Macy is bettering that community and helping children at risk.


Dog helping children suffering abuse.





Discussion Questions: How did this video make you feel? What is your opinion on this kind of therapy? How does it inspire you? Why do you think that Macy has such a positive effect of the children? Prosecutor April Sikes said (about Macy), "She does thing that we just can't do," what kind things do you think she is referring to? Why do you think Macy has this ability to console like humans cannot? Do you see this kind of therapy working long term? Why or why not? Is this something that you would want to implement in your community? How important do you think it is that Macy is of no cost to the taxpayers? Do you think this program is would be worth additional costs? In what circumstances would a support dog not work? Are there any other constructive alternatives you can think of that would make a child's time testifying more comfortable? 


*This is my puppy Pickle. She's out of commission do to knee surgery. Not that she is as well trained as Macy by any means but she's pretty gosh darn adorable.*

Frosty Strawberries.

How to unwind when working with children at risk:
1. Find four very silly friends.
2. Get yourself a can of whipped cream.
3. You'll need a table.
4. Sit directly opposite of a very silly friend with your chin on the table.
5. Fill your mouth as much as possible with whipped cream.
6. Say, "Frosty Strawberries," and try not to laugh.




*the end result may look like this*

Liz, Lisa, Bex, and Brittany

*Warning* Laughing and sheer silliness may ensue. You might even get life-long friends out of it. :)

Oh my God.

"God is bigger than the boogie man. He's bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV." Did you ever watch Veggietales? Well if you did I'm sure you have heard that song. This week's topic was The Nature and Character of God and our speaker was Scott Freeman. Scott is the one who will be "leading" my outreach in Costa Rica!!! (I'll talk a little bit more about outreach towards the end of this post, you'll just to wait!) So the first thing we learned was the difference between nature and character. Genesis 1:27 says that we are created in the image of God, so we are like Him (not equal to Him but like Him.) But in what ways are we like Him? At first glance, would you say we are like Him in His character or nature? Let me tell you the difference. His nature is His power and His character is His personality. Do you know now? We have His personality. Think about all the different people you know and all of their different personalities. They are all a reflection of the character of God. Does that tell you just how BIG  and complex our God is? How about a couple examples just for clarity? God's nature is that He is Alpha and Omega, sovereign, and infinite. Sound like humanity to you? I don't think so girlfriend. How bout His Character? He is love, kindness, and compassionate. Ah... there we go. That's what we are called to be. We were made to be gracious, loving, lovely, and full of compassion. God is the only one I know that has these qualities ALL the time but this is the example we are called to live out. But lo and behold, mortal man screws up. A lot. Sometimes I think I see more screwing up when I look at humanity than I see of mercy and love. Let's be honest, ain't nobody perfect. But you want to know something great? God uses screw ups. And big screw ups. Take a look at David (knocked up a man's wife and then whacked off the hubby) or Abraham (knocked up the maid and then abandoned them while they were banished in the dessert.) Can you think of any others? I bet you can. What about Peter? What about Paul? What about Adam and Eve? Get the picture? Do you ever feel like beating your head against a wall? I feel like that may be the most common feeling I have. I don't know about you, but I beat myself up for everything. But God NEVER stops loving us. Ever. We will always need His forgiveness but I don't think we realize just how willing He is to extend His grace. I don't think I realize it. We are not capable of understanding this divine and limitless grace. We are so finite and everything in us is programed to hang onto every little last thing. Know what I mean? How long does it take you to forgive someone? For me it's far too long.  I struggle extending grace to people. But I am not God. I am not like Him in this aspect. Isn't it encouraging to know that no matter what you do (no matter how "bad")  God will not, cannot, love you any less. If God is so gracious towards us, why are we so hesitant to extend any grace to ourselves? God uses imperfect people to glorify Him, we just have to remember it is a process. Just remember that God made us. Do you know why He made us? Most people say to worship or serve Him. And although this is true, He created us for relationship. He designed us for relationship with Him. We worship and serve Him because we have been in relationship with Him. When we begin to grasp who God is, we cannot help worshiping and serving Him. God just wants to hang out with us and Jesus made a way for that to be possible. And maybe you've heard all this before. I have. During my DTS and throughout high school (at a Christian school) and in church. But even if you've already "heard it all," a refresher never hurts. We will never fully understand who God is, and it is always beneficial to hear a talking about it again. Scott wanted to leave us with two principles, if we did not learn anything else, he want us to remember this: God is BIG, and God is GOOD. So, how bout that outreach? Well, I'll be going to Jaco, Costa Rica to help Scott Freeman and his family pioneer a new ministry. Jaco is a small beach town that is filled with evil and injustice.  Prostitution, alcoholism, and abuse are rampant in this tourist town. Men fly from all over just to indulge in fornicating. Sound like a need to you? Sounds like it to me. My friends Samantha, Lisa, Robbie and I will be heading there in April to come alongside the Freeman's ministry. We will be running a community development program to try to united the churches within this community. Please begin to pray for us. We are going to need it. We will need spiritual covering and finances in order to be able to go and minister in Jaco. I don't know about you, but I'm REALLY EXCITED!! 


Quote of the week: "But God could be funny at a cocktail party when listening to a good God themed joke or when the crazies say He hates us and they get so red in the head you think they're 'bout to choke. God could be funny when told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way and when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus." - Laughing With by Regina Spektor

You've been schooled.

What was your favorite part about going to school? Mine was coloring and drinking juice boxes all day. And then I grew up and the subjects got harder but I made friends that I like better than coloring. I was really blessed to go to an amazing school. I had wonderful Christian teachers who actually cared about my well-being and helped me in my spiritual walk. This is how school is supposed to be. Other than our parents, teachers have the most influence in our lives. Can you imagine having corrupt teachers? Maybe some of your teachers were. Read the following article and become aware of abuse that is occurring within the educational system in New Mexico.

22 teachers in NM lose their licenses.

Discussion Questions: What kind of a school did you attend (Public, private, home school...?) How do you think this influenced you? In what ways would your education have been altered had you been a student of one of these teachers? How do you think the students of one of these abusive teachers will ultimately view the educational system? In what ways do you think their view of authority has been altered? What do you think would cause these teachers to abuse their power? In which instances do you think it is appropriate to revoke an educational license? Who do you think has the responsibility to keep teachers in check? Who do you think could have intervened before these educators were given the opportunity to take advantage of the children? What might be some warning signs of a potentially abusive teacher? Why do you think the parents were oblivious to the abuse going on in the schools? Do you think they had an idea? How can parents become more involved in their kid's education and avoid this from happening again?

Reflections of time spent in a migrant camp.

I'm back! "Back from where?" you say while furling your eyebrows or eyebrow (I'm not one to judge.) Well, I spent the last four days in a migrant camp about an hour south of Tijuana. And when I say I spent four days in a migrant camp, I mean I spent four days in a migrant camp. We arrived Tuesday morning after I had taken a 'goodbye' shower (seeing as we had no running water in the camp) and returned to what we know as civilization Friday afternoon. Have you ever been embarrassed? I have. I'm a pretty silly and klutzy person so I'm pretty familiar with embarrassment. But Tuesday morning I experienced a different kind of embarrassment. When we arrived, I got out of the van I was clutching my pillow. The kids from the camp had flocked to see all the foreigners and a little boy pointed and laughed and said, "Oh look at the pillow." How ridiculous it was to bring a pillow. This was not the kind of place where people had pillows. How arrogant it was to bring my pillow. I did not intend this, but it was almost a way of flaunting just how well off I am. Do you know what I mean? It's an awkward feeling. Making people feel beneath you. This is not what I want to do as a missionary. But this experience in the migrant camp made me realize how blessed I really am. And what I mean by that is not that I am so blessed because I have things. Not because I have running water or electricity. Although all of these things are true, I learned that I am blessed because I was given the opportunity to go. I live this crazy adventurous life where I am blessed with opportunities to go to migrant camps. Have you ever been to one? Well I have. And I had an amazing time. I had so much fun. That is why I am so blessed. The first day I was there we cleaned the rooms that we stayed in. They were ten by ten shacks that were filled with trash and smelled like urine. We cleaned up all the trash and painted the room white. It's an amazing feeling to be able to see a room being completely transformed just by painting it a cleansing color like white. After lunch I spent some time trying to get to know the community and the kids. I sat on a plastic crate and began talking to two moms about their lives in the camps. Their names were Maria and America. America had a darling little girl and I tried to start a conversation with her. I quickly found out that she doesn't speak. Her mother told me her name was Monserrat and she was three. My friends and I continued talking to Maria but America went home. Little Monse stuck around and I asked her if she wanted to sit on my lap and she hopped up and sat down. Maria told us about her life in life in the migrant camp. She has seven children and her husband works in the fields during the spring and fall. He plants and harvests tomatoes and onions. He works twelve hour days and receives about ten dollars a day for his work. The rest of the year he goes into town selling tomatillos with the help of his eleven year old child. To live in their ten by ten shacks, they pay just short of thirty dollars a month. If they want to use electricity the cost is doubled. Seven kids. Ten dollars a day. We talked for about an hour and little Monse sat on my lap without saying a word. I began bouncing her on my lap and she would rock from side to side. I decided to make a game out of it. I told her that we were on a boat and huge waves were coming. We would rock back and forth till she was almost falling of the crate. Then I would tip her upside down and tickle her. After all of this I started getting some giggling out of her. In class we had been learning about developing relationships. I think I earned the giggles by simply letting the little girl sit on my lap for as long she needed. Relationship is meeting a little girl where she needs to be met even if that means sitting in silence. So what else was I up to? Well let's see. My team and I made a toilet. We dug a hole in the ground about fifteen feet deep. The deeper the hole got the more entertaining it was to watch the person digging the hole try to flop out of the hole. After the hole was deep enough for about ten years of feces (yup) we constructed a port-a-potty above the pit. We also dug trenches. Each 'home' has a spigot just outside the doors. Because a build up of trash, feces, and other nasty what nots, the water from the spigots did not flow into any outlet. The water would sit and fester. Clearly not sanitary. It was pretty stinky to say the least. So we dug trenches and canals so that the water could flow away from the homes and not sit stagnantly. Now, I'm not one to get all excited about manual labor. I'd much rather be playing with the kids. Usually people say, "Liz put down the hammer and go distract the kids that are getting into the paint." But this week I had a lot of fun digging that hole and making trenches. It's awesome to see water flowing because you were removing trash and making a trench deeper. Plus I got to use a pickaxe. Pretty cool eh? All this to say, this is the reason I am so blessed. I had a great week playing with kids, swinging tools that are taller than I am, and playing in dirt (and at my age that's not usually socially acceptable.) And you know what? I was doing it in the name of Jesus. I think that's the coolest thing ever. I love my crazy missionary life. I love this season that Jesus has called me to. Yay! 


Quote of the week: "When I was 5, he said, my family forgot & left me at the fair. I wandered around in the bright sounds & smells of hot sawdust & cotton candy for hours. It was already too late by the time my parents found me. I haven't been fit for decent society since." - Brian Andreas

A typical room where the families live. 

Monsita and I!

Face painting!

Photophabulous.

My fellow learners!

Tijuana, Mexico.

Some of the kids I work with in the Red Light District.

Playing Sharks and Minnows with some local kids.

*If you'd like to see more pictures look to the right and just click one of the pictures!*

What I learned from Lady Gaga....

Mah weeeek. This week our guest speaker was Philipa Laird from Kiwi-land. One of the most fantastic aspects about Philipa was that she was an awesome speaker and woman of God and most importantly she is small and fiery. The topic that she shared on was Dominions and Domains. The domains are government, family, education, arts, communication, economy, church, science, and technology. Although that was the topic for the week was about these themes, I'm not going to tell you about it. Because the great thing about this school is you always learn something unexpected and perhaps even seemingly irrelevant to the weekly topic. Here's what I learned this week. After God (of course), I have the most power and influence in my life. Crazy right? And by this I don't mean anything New Agey by that. What that means is that although outside sources may influence me, I am ultimately the one that makes all my decisions. The temptation and desire to conform is so strong in our culture. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Think about it for a minute. Think about any teenage girl. There. See what I mean? There is a deep part of all of us that is desperate to feel acceptance, and our fear of rejection is what feeds our desire to change who we really are. Who God made us to be. So what did I learn from all this? That you have no right to tell me who to be. To tell me what to do. I answer to God. And He gives me options and open doors. People don't. People tell me how to be, how to act, and where to go when it's none of their business. Isn't that freeing? Now, I'm not encouraging anarchy or rebellion. I'm just saying that I am going to be me and if I have God's approval I'm going to be ok. Just as long as I do have God's approval. Philipa said that I have the most power in my life because I am the only one who can give myself permission to meet my own expectations. Booyah. Want to know something else cool? God gives me choices. He doesn't have an agenda for my life. There is no planned itinerary for my life. It's not like if I mess up my life is over. God has not scheduled out my life so that if I miss this one opportunity I can never "get back on track." Do you get what I mean? God gives us options so that we go back and ask Him questions. So that we seek Him. That's how we form a relationship with Him. By seeking Him and processing with Him through our plans. We build our lives with Him. We come before Him and ask, "But God, who am I and what do YOU want me to be?" I think often times we are looking for a formula (I've done this) to follow. Do this, and this, and this, and you'll be fine. You'll be successful. You'll please God. But that's not how it works. We have to be conversing with Him. If we had an exact formula to follow, we would probably never talk to Him. Am I right? We have this thing called split thinking. We draw a line in our minds. We put things that are "good" on one side and things that are "bad" on the other. People tell me all the time that I should go to college. That I should go to a Christian one. That I should go to a secular one. That I should join YWAM. That I should be staff at this base. People tell me to stay in missions because living a "normal" life is secular. That I wouldn't be serving God there. That life outside of YWAM isn't as pleasing to God. People tell me to go to college because they think it's too dangerous here and I'm wasting my time. See what I mean? That line that splits our thinking shouldn't exist. It shouldn't say that one thing is better than the other. God will use me where ever I am. I can learn in every situation. This is challenging. Let's take another example of split thinking. How about music? Oh. Well of course Christian radio is good. And secular radio is bad. No brainer. But can we learn from the secular radio? Can we learn from Lady Gaga? Are you challenged by that? You should be. But what can we learn from her. She is gifted and she is USING her gifts! How many of us use our giftings to their full potential? God gave Lady Gaga many talents. She writes and performs her own songs, she designs her own clothes and helps create her music videos. If only she used them for God. She is herself. She is confident in who she is. So the point that I'm getting to is that we need to change our thinking. Take another look at that verse Romans 12:2. What does it say? We need to renew our minds. Split thinking is comfortable, but we're not called to be comfortable. It's not that we need to repeat scriptures senselessly over and over again -- it's letting God renew us. Asking Him to come and change the way we see the world, ourselves, the church, God and others. So would you like to know what I'm doing next? I'm planning on going to Costa Rica. And if you have an opinion about it, that's ok. I think I'll ask God about it. :)


Quote of the week: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” -Dr. Suess

It's Facebook Official.

How often are you on Facebook? Probably a lot. I'm on right now. That's probably why it's taking me so long to do my homework. That IS why it is taking me so long to do my homework. But did you know that unfortunately, Facebook is used for things other than social networking. The internet is a great resource but it opens a portal for evil that is extremely difficult to filter and monitor. Perverts are now using it to gain access to naive young girls. Read the following article about a situation in the UK where Facebook was misused. 


Child Rapist.


Discussion Questions: What kind of emotions does this article stir up in you? Did you know that this kind of perversion was going on? Did you you know that is occurred all over the world? Why do you think this man was looking for sexual interactions with such a young girl? Why do you think the girl was being persuaded for so long into being raped? Why do you think Robinson's manipulation worked? What do you think was the cause that made this girl have to search online for love and acceptance? Where do you think her parents were at the time? What do you think about Robinson's sentencing? How do you think Robinson will emerge from prison? Will he be the same as he entered or do you believe that his incarceration will change him? What kind of program or therapy should he be put in? How can we help his victim? Why do you think no one thought to search for the root cause of her eating disorder? How can we be active in preventing more rapists from encountering young girls online? What should the government be doing?