That's a wrap! (for the Children at Risk School!)

Well everyone, I leave for Costa Rica next Tuesday. I'm really excited. But before I leave I have heaps of laundry to do, things to pack up, and beautiful friends to bid farewell. I'm not so excited about any of those things. Especially the farewell part. But before I get to any of that, I think it's time for a quick debrief. What did I learn and where am I headed? What I learned here really impacted where I (think) am headed. One of the most important concepts that I learned was the Child in the Middle Principle. Let's have a quick refresher. Way back in week one, my speaker Jana Moats presented this idea. Child in the Middle simply means that children are the most important blessings in our lives. Our focus should be on children. If you have children, your world revolves around them. This means that we do the best for the child. That children deserve the very best. And what is the very best for children? A family. A good, strong, supportive, Godly family is the very best thing we can offer a child. Nothing else compares. And nothing else can replace the love of a Godly mother and father. And nothing should have to try to replace it. Another very important concept that I learned was go big or go home. You have to be in for the long haul. Short term doesn't cut it. A child needs consistancy and commitment. If I want to get involved I have to stick it out. Do more. My second week's speaker, Steve Bartel, has been working with street kids in Bogota, Colombia for over twenty-five years. Wow. I'm only nineteen. Twenty-five years is a long time. And he is still going. That is commitment and that is why his ministry is successful. If I want a successful ministry I have to be in it to win it no matter how long it takes. Yikes. Finally, one of the last most impacting concepts I learned was in the weeks of Christy Scott and Leslie Freeman. They emphasized the importance of a healthy childhood and how ages zero-six influence the rest of a person's life. The hurts that we experience as adults are rooted in the lies we were told when we were between ages zero and six. Isn't that incredible? The challenge is to instill truth into kids at an early age. We are charged with telling children when they are young the truth about who they are, what the world is like, who God is, and how much they are loved. They need to hear truth. They need to feel loved, encouraged, and capable. It will change their lives. I hope to change lives. I will be an awesome mom someday. I will tell my children their value and teach them about God. And that is the truth. 

This school has messed with my thinking. Messed with my thinking for the better, that is. Coming here, I had a lot of presuppositions. I was not aware of that fact until this school challenged my thinking. I think I came here thinking about how I was going to change the world. How I was going to impact thousands of people. How I was going to open an orphanage in some miserably remote location. How I would only be successful if someone wrote books about my life. I don't think that way now. I will change the world, but only as an instrument of God. I will impact a few people's lives but in a big way. I will help those with an orphan spirit-- but I will do it outside of a government institution. I will be successful, even if no one writes a book about my life and no one remembers me when I am gone. My actions will echo. And that is how I think now. 

So, is there anything I didn't learn in this school?! Any unanswered questions? I think the biggest thing I'm left with is, where do I go from here? If there is so much need, where in the world do I start?! There's so much to do! It's rather overwhelming. But off I go to Jaco, Costa Rica. Off to initiate change and make a difference. I plan to fight injustice. For me, Costa Rica step one. So one last question: What is your first step?

Quote of choice: 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"

I thought this was pretty presh (presh as in precious)

Home is wherever with you.

Psalm 9:9, "The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." 
Refugee: "A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her home and seek refuge elsewhere."
This week was Refugee Relief with Phil Gazely. Phil is originally from the UK but currently residing in Cali. Pip pip Cheerio. Phil has been working with refugees all over the world. In counties I've never heard of. Like Mauritania. (It's in North Eastern Africa.) But do you know what I liked best about this weeks speaker (Aside from the British humour)? After all his traveling, he had so much knowledge about refugees! Even down to knowing things about Michigan! That is true passion. Being so involved in a cause that you can provide information about any given location that is relevant to your topic. I have so much respect for that. For example, did you know that Detroit has the highest population of Iraqis in the US? The population in Dearborn is 33.4% Arabic. How many of them do you think are refugees? Something we don't think about all that often. When I think of refugees I think of people living in tents in Africa. I don't think about my own state. Maybe it's because my hometown Petoskey is 94.18% white. We live in a bubble. Something that Phil said really struck me when he was talking about immigration. Controversial subject. But this is what he said, what if, what if immigration is God bringing the nations to us? What if God is bringing missions to us? If we don't go out, don't you think God would send the people to us? Our towns, where we live? I think so. Someone once said that immigration is the nicest form of flattery. We don't often think about it that way do we? I didn't realize how bad racism really was until I left my little 94.18% white town. What do you think about immigration? How do you think God sees it? Food for thought. What is communicated to us more: being a citizen of the United States or a citizen of the kingdom of God? So let's say we are living in the Kingdom of God. How do we bring it to refugees? What is more important dicipleship or evangelism? What do they need right then and there? Do they need to know how to shop for groceries, how to use the stove, and public transportation? Or do they need Christian-eze? I have to be honest with you, I am not an evangelist. I am not cut out for standing on a street corner and handing out tracks. That ain't me. And for a long time I struggled with that. I didn't realize that it's ok to be called to playing with kids and building relationship. So, back to the question, discipleship or evangelism? The Christian answer is both. But perhaps when working with refugees we should start with discipleship and build relationship. Maybe we don't like this answer, because discipleship is hard. You have to be in for the long haul. It goes beyond the five minute conversation about the track you just handed out. Discipleship and evangelism should go hand in hand. But I just like to throw in a few challenging thoughts. But why does this matter? Why should we care? It's not like Jesus was a refugee. Light bulb. Remember in Matthew 2 when Joseph, Mary, and baby-bumpkin Jesus fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod? That would make them refugees. He does care. Imagine that. A loving, caring God who's heart breaks for those who are forced to leave their countries. Did you know that 36.4 million people are forced into migration? And half of that figure are children. This means that 36.4 million people are forced from their homes, jobs, families, language, and security and into a completely new and untterly foreign situation. Shouldn't we do whatever we can to make their stay easier? We fight injustice in order to say, "I want to bring you the joy of the Lord to your heart amid all the grief and chaos you see." Sounds like a plan Stan. Let's go out and do it. If you're interest is sparked, you can give Al Horn a call and ask him about how to get involved in helping refugees in our very own Michigan. Click the link, make a call, pray, and go for it!


Quote of the week: "There are no refugees, no displaced persons here, ... They are our guests and we treat them as such.” - Mike Turner

In Laos, everyone likes the lunch lady.

Laos. At first glance how would you pronounce it? Lay-ohs or Louse? In my head I always say Lay-ohs just because I don't like the sound of louse. Or lice. Laos is a small country in Southeast Asia. Regardless of how you say it, something pretty cool is happening over there. The World Food Programme is feeding 1,000 kids living in rural areas of Laos. That floats my boat. To see more, read the article below and answer some of the following questions!


Feeding Programme in Laos!




Disussion Questions: Which part of this article made you the most excited? Which aspects of this programme do you anticipate working the best?  How do you think this project will change the children's lives? What other kind of opportunities could present themselves from this food programme? How do you see this programme affecting school attendance? Why do you think it is important that the rural areas in Laos were targeted? How do you think the villagers will respond to the food handouts? How important do you think it is that the food will be purchased from local sources? Do you see this programme stimulating the economy in other ways? How? What do you think about the rations of rice that will be given to the children's families? Do you think that handing out food will be sufficient for these communities? In which areas do you think that the rural communities in Laos will need discipleship? Could you see this kind of programme working in other countries? Would you be willing to get involved? 

Recap.

I leave for Costa Rica in two weeks! Yay! So before I go, how about a little recap of what I've been doing, what I'm going to do, where, and why.


1. Ministry Summary –  I am a missionary in Latin America. In two weeks I leave for Jaco, Costa Rica. I will be living in Jaco for six months with my friends Lisa and Robbie. Our goal is to see change in this small beach community. We want to accomplish this change by working with children. For the first three weeks we will be participating in a program and class called Celebrating Children. During this time we will be learning how to give teachings to communities on the importance of children and teaching them about God's heart for kids. We will also be spending this time getting to know the community and practicing Spanish. After these three weeks we hope to have a better understanding of the exact needs in Jaco and develop a specific plan for ministry for the rest of our stay there.

C.  Ministry Purpose – Why? Why am I going there and why am I a missionary? Well let's start with the obvious-- God told me to. I love working with kids, I love Spanish speaking countries, and I love sharing God's love with others! Perfect match if you ask me. Matthew 28:19 says, "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." This is why I am a missionary. I want to work with kids and disciple Jaco, Costa Rica.

D. Goals – I have some goals I'd like to accomplish in Costa Rica. First, I'd like to improve my Spanish.  In Costa Rica I will be completely immersed in Spanish for six months! Sounds promising to me! During my time in Jaco, I hope that I will gain experience and wisdom as I continue in ministry. I will be without staff and have to rely on God COMPLETELY. I think that this will be a great growing experience for me as I trust in God for my every need. I hope to gain experience and leadership as I work with these kids at risk in Jaco. I hope to bulid relationships and friendships with my neighbors in Jaco. By building relationships I hope to be a light of God's love and open up doors to discipleship. After the whole six months I hope to have impacted and change a community for the better and bring God to a dark community. Our resources are: Robbie, Lisa, and Liz. We will be equiped with the knowledge we have acquired from our Children at Risk School and the Holy Spirit. We have God on our side. We lack FUNDS. We need monthly support: in prayer and finances. I personally need five hundred dollars a month. Please contact me if you're interested in helping out! You can email me at lizm_10@hotmail.com. And remember to pray for us!

What I've been up to!

My ministry group and the kids we work with in the Red Light District!

Helping the kids with crafts!

Giving a lesson on Daniel and the lions' den. 

POOR Favor.

Well kids, it's that time again. It's liz's weekly blog post! Yay! This week was Ministry to the Poor with Kit Danley. Kit lives in Phoenix, Arizona working with Neighborhood Ministries. Neighborhood Ministries is a project that works in the poorest neighborhoods in Arizona. Needless to say, Kit knows what she's talking about. Kit asked us this question: What if poor communities could talk to us? What would they say and would we listen? Matthew 28:19 says, "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." We are to preach the good news. Right? But what is the good news? What does the good news mean to those living in poverty? Is it words or is it more? Could it be food, resources, and a way out of poverty? That is how I picture the good news. So how do we get there? Helping the poor is so much more than hand outs. Hand outs perpetuate the cycle of poverty. Hand outs do not command or communicate the need to get out of poverty. It takes a lifetime to break the cycle of poverty. It takes discipleship. If you provide a job you have to provide job training. You have to teach them how to keep a job. Make sense? Free clothes and free food don't cut it. They are a great door and opportunity to build relationship. Hand outs are square one. But just hand outs aren't enough. You have to do more. Just hand outs don't cut it. Hand outs without discipleship doesn't help anyone. This is the challenge: To do more. To go above and beyond. To meet the physical, social, and spiritual needs of those living in impovershed situations. Making sense? I hope so. Let's talk about the story of the Good Samaritan. When the Good Samaritan helped the afflicted man, how did he do it? Was he out looking to help? Or did it just happen spontaneously? Did it happen because he was trying or because care and kindness just flowed out of his spirit? This is how we should minister to the poor. It should come from the love we have received and the love we had for God. It should be spontaneous and not an effort. Kit also emphasized the importance of asking questions and getting know a community. You cannot plan to help someone without knowing what they need. Seems logical right? But how often do we actually do that? A lot of times misionaries waltz in and start a project without knowing the real needs of the community. And then they wonder why the project fails. So first things first. You gotta ask questions. You have to make relationships and get to know the community you're working in.  By asking the right questions. By talking to the pastors, residents, and leaders of that community. By making an effort. This is ministry to the poor. Go give it a try. I will be in Costa Rica!!!

Quote of the week: "Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness." -Kahlil Gibran

Note on my past week: So last week, I gave an entire kids lesson in Spanish! We went to the Red Light District and put on a kids program. I told the story of Daniel while my friends acted it out. We then taught them to always put their trust in God. We also got to check out a local rehab center and orphanage. We used Kit's method of inquiry to see what these ministries are up to!

Donation Pile Fun.

When one encounters a donation pile-- and very large clothes inside-- some fun is to be had. Especially when Lisa and Liz try to share a very large shirt.

Oh the fun that will be had in Costa Rica!

Stay silly my friends.

Kaspar the Robot.

There are a couple things in this world that I love unconditionally. Dinosaurs, the color purple, and robots. So, the idea of a robot that helps Autistic children develop, sounds pretty rad to me. Especially a robot named Kaspar with a Bristish accent. Because Austistic children have such a difficult time relating and expressing themselves, University of Hertfordshire has develpoed a robot playmate to teach Autistic children how to express themselves. I personally think that's fantastic and super interesting. Check it out and read the article below!


Kaspar the Robot.


Discussion Questions: What do you think about this type of therapy? How do you see it being beneficial? Why do you think the children have such an easy time relating to a robot? What do you think about a child spending so much time with a robot? Why do you think two children at the special preschool refuse to play with Kaspar? What do you think about these children being placed in a special school for Autistic children? Do you think when they leave they will be able to relate well to people without Autism? Would a normal preschool be more apporopriate? What do you think is best for the child in this unique situation? Where do you see this technology going in the future? How do you feel about implementing this theraputic tool in the home? How long do you believe it would take for this therapy to be effected? What other methods can you think of using when working with Autistic children?

Eden and Kaspar playing.

Ouch.

"I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us, Oh how He loves us."
Isn't that a great line from a great song (How He Loves Us - John Mark Mcmillan.) This week was Inner Healing with Christy Scott. Inner Healing is good. I think sometimes we all feel hopelessly broken and sometimes we don't even know why. This week Christy helped us get to the bottom of that. She said all lies and hurts are ingrained in us from ages 0-6. Now you may say to yourself, "Oh but I remember that so and so did such and such at age 15. That's when I got hurt. That's what ruined my life." For example, say your parents got divorced at age 14. You blamed yourself. You got down on yourself and became deppressed. And now you say THAT is when you were first hurt and that is the pain that you still feel inside today. However, why at 14 did you believe that your parent's divorce was YOUR fault? At what point did you begin to believe the lie that you were to blame? Probably between ages 0-6. Perhaps sometime when you were very young you were introduced to the idea that you were at fault, and you were not good enough, and you were to blame. And at sometime during your young years that lie was ingrained into your brain to stick with you whether you knew it or not. To haunt you until age 14 when your parents got divorced. To surface again to tell you that you were to blame. This is just a hypothetical example. Something to chew on. This principle helped me and maybe it will help you to. You just have to apply it to your own life and try to dig up the lies that you believed from 0-6 and replace it with truth. Christy also talked about soul ties. When I graduated, I walked off stage with my good friend Sarah Libby. Have you ever seen when people do that goofy thing when they pretend to go fishing and reel someone in? That's how we walked off our graduation stage. I pretended to cast a line and reel her in and she pretended to be hooked and pulled in just like a fish. This is kind of like soul ties. We get hooked to people. There's a tie that connects our soul to the influencial people around us. This is not always a bad thing. But often times it is. Because we let that fishing wire in our hearts act like a cable. We let things flow through these hooks in our souls. Most of the time the negative gets through and we become hurt and bitter. You know what I'm talking about? We have soul ties to that first girl in middle school who told us that we are ugly. That person who told us we were good for nothing. To that first person who broke our heart. Now you know what  I mean. We feel loss and hurt. And as long as we have those soul ties we will continue to feel that rejection. What about the feeling of loss? A break up, moving away, or death? Can we still really learn from any situation, like my speaker Philipa said in week four? Even a painful one? Christy said that we may lose a person or a place-- but what we felt from that experience is not lost-- because those good times and feelings are things that came from God. That joy that you once experienced is a principle of God. So with this in mind can we learn from these painful experience and grow? Can we forgive? Often times I find myself forgiving others. I forgive them but I continue to feel pain and hurt. Why is that? Soul ties. We did an Inner Healing week during DTS. I forgave but my hurt did not subside. I did not cut my soul ties. So how do we go about that? First forgive. Duh. You cannot find healing without forgiving. Secondly you need to get to the root. The lie. The lie that you believed during ages 0-6. That lie that let you get hurt. The lie that told you that you were to blame (see example above.) Ask Jesus to show you when you were first believed that lie and to show you how it changed your life. I would recommend writing down the name of the person or event that you have sould tie to. Ask Jesus to show you the lie that they represent. Ask Him to reveal to you the truth about that situation. And be freed. For example, Hurt: my parents divorce at age 14, Represents: I am to blame, It's my fault, Truth: I am not the cause of this, Jesus finds me sufficient and I am not at fault. Does this make sense? It will when you apply it to your life. Remembering that you are not cutting off the person. You are not cutting them out of your life or condemning them. You are merely cutting lies out of your life and choosing to believe truth instead, I would recommend doing it. Brings peace. And healing. Yay. We talked about so much more. It was a really good week. God is awesome. So is YWAM. I am blessed.


Quote of the week: But You say let it go, You say let it go You say life is waiting for the one's who lose control You say you will be, everything I need You said if I lose my life it's then I'll find my soul You say let it go. - Let it go by Tenth Avenue North

*You can listen to the whole song*

P.S. Note on outreach. 

I put my newsletters in the mail yesterday! Keep your eye on your mailbox! If you have any questions feel free to email me at lizm_10@hotmail.com

Quaketation.

I have a friend who is lovely and sweet. She is shy but funny. Her name is Ayumi. She is from Japan. And this is what is happening in her country right now.


earrthquake and tsunami in Japan.


Discussion Questions: Yikes.When did you become aware of this earthquake? What was your initial reaction? What did you find most shocking or appalling? Who do you know who might be affected by this earthquake? How do you think your reactions differentiate from their emotions and concerns? How do you think the Japenese are coping with this disaster? How to you think their lives are altered? How do you think the rest of the world will be changed? Who do you think will come to Japan's aid? How do you think this disaster will affect you personally? Will you let yourself by affected by it and let your heart break for the people of Japan or will you continue to go about your day without praying? How do you personally help this situation? What can your church do to get involved  and how can you encourage them to lend a helping hand? Do you think this earthquake will get as much coverage as the quake in Haití?


*Ayumi's family is safe. Please keep her in your prayers!*

When life is short.

HIV/AIDS. What do you know about it? Um... it's bad. Do you know much else about it? This week's topic was, yup you guessed it, HIV/AIDS. Our speakers were Larry and Joyce Sandberg, former missionaries to Swaziland. They have been involved in missions since 1960. How great is that? That's a lot of years spent serving the Lord. They still go to Swaziland every year. And they're in the seventies. How many people their age do you know who are that crazy dedicated to helping others? Talk about inspiration. So back to AIDS. What is HIV/AIDS? HIV stands for Human Immune Deficiency Virus and AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Larry is a physician and he spent most of the week talking about biology and all the technical and complicated aspects of the disease. Basically the majority of it went right over my head. Just being honest. Science was never my favorite. And this week was no different. But do you know what? I was inspired. First and foremost I was inspired by this awesome elderly couple who just wouldn't give a boring retirement plan the time of day. I was inspired because no matter their age, they are still dedicated to helping AIDS orphans and fulfilling the Great Commission. That's the kind of life I want to lead. The second way in which I was inspired was to go out and do my own research. I think that's the best thing any teacher can do: inspire their students to want to learn for themselves. So let's get a run down of HIV/AIDS.  "[HIV] is the virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce... [AIDS] is a disease in which the body’s immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system.When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are immune cells that normally protect us from disease. The hallmark of HIV infection is the progressive loss of a specific type of immune cell called T-helper, or CD4, cells. As the virus grows, it damages or kills these and other cells, weakening the immune system and leaving the person vulnerable to various opportunistic infections and other illnesses ranging from pneumonia to cancer. A person can receive a clinical diagnosis of AIDS, as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), if he or she has tested positive for HIV and meets one or both of these conditions: The presence of one or more AIDS-related infections or illnesses; A CD4 count that has reached or fallen below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. Also called the T-cell count, the CD4 count ranges from 450 to 1200 in healthy individuals (Source.)" HIV/AIDS is spread via sex, tainted blood (needle sharing, blood transfusions), to infants during pregnancy or birth, or breastfeeding (Source.) So how bad exactly is this whole AIDS things? 

"Statistics: Worldwide

LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 2010

• More than 33 million people now live with HIV/AIDS.
• 2.5 million of them are under the age of 15.
• In 2009, an estimated 2.6 million people were newly infected with HIV.
• 370,000 were under the age of 15.
• Every day more than 7,000 people contract HIV—more than 300 every hour.
• In 2009, 1.8 million people died from AIDS.
• 260,000 of them were under the age of 15.
• Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have contracted HIV and more than 25 million have died of AIDS-related causes. (Source.)"

Pretty bad isn't it? Every Thursday night my class gets together and watches a movie about injustice in the world. This week we watched a movie starring Tom Hanks called Philadelphia. It's a heart breaking story about a man suffering from the horrors of AIDS and the prejudice that accompanied his illness. I should mention that Hank's character is gay. Although this may be a seemingly controversial movie, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it. It shows that AIDS is not only in Africa and that people with AIDS are still people. Even if they are gay. Remembering what I learned in week four of this school, our speaker Philipa Laird emphasized the fact that we can learn from any situation. Even a secular movie that is pro-homosexual. I would recommend the movie if you're interested in learning more about AIDS in the USA. And this movie was inspired by a true story. So I would encourage you to read up and learn more on AIDS. I will be. May you be inspired as I have been inspired. Throughout the world there are over 15 million children are orphans due to AIDS (Source.) I hope to help some of them one day. Maybe even in Swaziland just like Larry and Joyce Sandberg. I hope so. Sometime very soon. Probably sooner than you think ;)

Quote of the week: “Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life - a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running wherever they are.”

Perversion.

A mother's love. Pure and unconditional. Right? One of the few good things left in the world. Unfortunately it seems that ignorance and lies can even corrupt how a mother interacts with her child. A man in Detroit apparently manipulated and deceived seven single mothers into molesting their own children. The following article gives more details on how he conned these women into distorting their interactions with their very own children. 


Man cons mothers into sexually abusing their children.


Discussion Questions: What was your first reaction when reading this article? Did you feel angry? At whom were you angry? Why? What made you sicker, his manipulation or the actions of the mothers? Why? Do you think Demink would have been able to deceive a married couple in the same manner? Why or why not? How do you think that the internet played a role? Why do you think these women were so trusting of a complete stranger? What do you think of the mothers? Do you think they were mentally sound? How do you think the relationship between the single mothers and their parents contributed to this disaster? Do you think that the women had been searching for advice on how to raise their children from legitimate sources? What do you think would have happened if they had received help and guidance? Who could have helped them during this time of confusion? What do you think of Steven Demink? How does God think of him? Does God still love him? Does God love Demink as much as He loves the children that were exploited? Why do you think Steven Demink did this? How did he become so perverted? Do you think he might have been sexually abused as well? What do you think will happen to the children? What do you think would be best for them?

I mustache you a question.

 

Don't you agree? 

by Marc Johns of marcjohns.com