It’s Sunday and I have a powerful verse to share from our study at church (I bolded words that I found to be key):
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” –John 5:24, Jesus speaking
The truth is that once we believe we have eternal life. From that one moment or over those few years it took us to believe we have crossed over from death to life. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like I already have eternal life. But truth doesn’t always follow feelings. The truth is I believed. The truth is I will not be condemned. The truth is I have crossed over. The truth is I am no longer dead. The truth is I am alive in Christ.
What a miracle.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Things I Love
Some things I love about being here at Grace Children’s Home in Mexico:
-Shamelessly watching kid movies (i.e. the Barbie movie…see one of my previous blogs for this story)
-Carrying little girls up to their beds when they fall asleep watching aforementioned kid movies
-Somehow fitting 3 kids on my lap at one time
-The other Tias laughing at my Spanish… and me laughing at their English
-Tortillas
-Dinners in the trailer with Tia Helen and Tio Lionel
-Trying out new hairstyles on the girls when I do their hair for school
-Shamelessly watching kid movies (i.e. the Barbie movie…see one of my previous blogs for this story)
-Carrying little girls up to their beds when they fall asleep watching aforementioned kid movies
-Somehow fitting 3 kids on my lap at one time
-The other Tias laughing at my Spanish… and me laughing at their English
-Tortillas
-Dinners in the trailer with Tia Helen and Tio Lionel
-Trying out new hairstyles on the girls when I do their hair for school
Seeing God
The other day I learned of some of the craziness that goes on in the surrounding area where I live. Apparently we are in one of the main drug lord areas—which is basically all of Tijuana. A few months ago they hung a decapitated body from one of the bridges to “make a statement.” And a body was dumped in the valley below where we are located. But the funny thing is I feel completely safe here. And I don’t think it’s a naïve sense of security. I think it’s because God is protecting this place that He has set up here. In a way, I am glad to hear about the happenings of this community—because it makes me more aware of the expanse and extent of God’s protection. It’s always hard for me to explain, but the brokenness of this world is where I most tend to see Christ—or come to appreciate what He’s done for every one of our painful, hopeless, messy, broken lives. That He has come to bring healing, hope, cleansing, and repair. For me. For each of the kids here in the orphanage. For Mexico. For the world. And I can’t help but smile when I think about how each of the children here will impact this country when they move on from the orphanage. Those that have accepted Christ are already a light in the great darkness of this community.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thoughts and Sunday Ponderings
Today (Sunday) I am grateful that I live now and not back when Jesus was walking around in human form on the earth. Because I’m not sure I would have wanted to follow Him back then. I am by nature a rule follower and He always seemed to be changing those up. I say all this because today in church we were studying John 5:1-15 when Jesus tells the man at the healing pool to get up and carry his mat on the Sabbath after He healed him. And I get that healing is more important than the rule of no work on the Sabbath. But it got me to thinking that most of the time Jesus was telling people to do all kinds of things that differed from what the Church told them. So, I was also thinking, I wonder what practices of the church Jesus would counter if He was walking around today. Then I realized that He is here, and that we can and probably should be asking Him to speak to our hearts about what we need to leave behind as religion in order to follow Him the way He intended us to. It’s kind of like what I’m reading in the book Crazy Love—that often we say we are following Christ, but we really aren’t leading the kind of radical lives that He would have us live. If our true love was Christ and we were pursuing Him with ALL we have, what would that look like? All I can say is that I am asking God to change me into that kind of person—a person who gives extravagantly, who loves with mind and body and actions. So, friends, hold me to it.
Provision
One of the coolest things about being here at the Orphanage is that I get to experience how God provides for my needs. Every day here He provides us with clean drinking water. Every bite of food we eat is donated. Each Thursday a man comes in a truck to deliver food. If one day he just decided not to come, we wouldn’t be able to eat for very long. And not only does God provide, but He provides in abundance. We have so much food that we are able to give some to our neighbors here who really have nothing and who don’t have a food delivery every week. It is this daily miracle of food and clean water that I have never experienced quite like this before. And I like it. And this is just one of the ways it’s pretty amazing to be here and to be a recipient of God’s provision.
Monday, February 1, 2010
My Mexican Menu and Some Rambly Thoughts
Some of the interesting foods I eat here:
-Eggs that were cooked the night before, were left out on the counter overnight and reheated in the morning
-Mexican version of marshmallow ambrosia salad: lettuce, pancake syrup, cottage cheese, pineapple, apple, grapes, multi-colored marshmallows. Really the lettuce and pancake syrup are what made this… interesting…
-Expired milk and various other dairy products. I’ve only seen chunky milk once.
While here I am beginning to think I may be more of a missions mobilizer than a full time missionary. I am good at getting people excited about things and helping them to do things. I wonder if there is a job like that where I help people arrange trips and where I still get to go to a lot of different places, but where I am based “at home” still. More and more the idea of (gasp) living in Southern California again is appealing to me. But I am working lately on maintaining dreams and having a loose idea of what I want, but leaning more on God’s direction. I don’t want to plan my life. I want to follow God’s plan for my life. Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t made a lot of things happen without really listening for God’s voice and direction.
-Eggs that were cooked the night before, were left out on the counter overnight and reheated in the morning
-Mexican version of marshmallow ambrosia salad: lettuce, pancake syrup, cottage cheese, pineapple, apple, grapes, multi-colored marshmallows. Really the lettuce and pancake syrup are what made this… interesting…
-Expired milk and various other dairy products. I’ve only seen chunky milk once.
While here I am beginning to think I may be more of a missions mobilizer than a full time missionary. I am good at getting people excited about things and helping them to do things. I wonder if there is a job like that where I help people arrange trips and where I still get to go to a lot of different places, but where I am based “at home” still. More and more the idea of (gasp) living in Southern California again is appealing to me. But I am working lately on maintaining dreams and having a loose idea of what I want, but leaning more on God’s direction. I don’t want to plan my life. I want to follow God’s plan for my life. Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t made a lot of things happen without really listening for God’s voice and direction.
Barbie Movies Anyone???
I never thought that at age 25 I could say this, but I own the Barbie movie “Barbie: Princess and the Pauper.” How did this come about you ask? Well, I was looking through the movie selection at the house and saw that the girls didn’t have this movie and having heard from Nicole’s little sisters that the Barbie movies are fantastic I thought I would buy it for $5 at Walmart when I was in San Diego. When I returned home I unwrapped it and wrote my name on it—If somebody doesn’t regulate DVDs they get ruined really quickly here. Then, two days later when I was about to gift it to the girls what do I see lying beside the DVD player but TWO, not one, but two copies of “Barbie: Princess and the Pauper.” Now, being that I had graffitti’d my name all over the DVD I had purchased, I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I, Emily Huebscher, at age 25 and of my own free will am owner of a copy of said Barbie movie. Sigh.
Aside from that, a recent God sighting: I went today, Friday, to San Diego for the day. I woke up feeling like I was fighting a cold (again). We went to SD and could only stay until 3pm instead of 6pm or so like usual. When I came back I was exhausted for some reason, oh and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to go to Jerry and Linda’s (the pretty beach house) this week to use the internet and spend time with a smaller group of kids. Instead, I was going with all the kids (around 30) to the worship concert at the church, which would normally be a cool thing except when you are somewhat responsible for 30 kids and when you are an introvert and in a busy, jump around and sing and have fake fog float out of the ceiling kind of place (they really did the fake fog thing). So, I was perceiving all this as somewhat negative. And I guess feeling kind of entitled to a full day off. I hate that feeling of entitlement. That’s probably why I was so tired. I feel like sin makes a person more tired than usual… Anyway, and this is where God comes in (though He was there all along I just wasn’t paying Him a ton of attention)—I actually had a really great time and was able maybe for the first time since I’ve been here in Mexico to worship. It was also a good reminder to see the kids dancing around and singing in the front of the church that God wants all of us like that—no inhibitions, just dancing and singing our hearts out to Him. Another way I was really blessed by the service was that there is this song that I love that I don’t have on my computer and I have been longing to hear it and they played it tonight!!! I felt like it was a specific gift from God to me… kinda like He knew I “needed” to hear that song. In the end, after feeling tired all day I left the service smiling and feeling rejuvenated. What a great and intimate God I am serving here in Mexico—even in my ungratefulness He gave me what I needed today in a place I least expected to find it.
Aside from that, a recent God sighting: I went today, Friday, to San Diego for the day. I woke up feeling like I was fighting a cold (again). We went to SD and could only stay until 3pm instead of 6pm or so like usual. When I came back I was exhausted for some reason, oh and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to go to Jerry and Linda’s (the pretty beach house) this week to use the internet and spend time with a smaller group of kids. Instead, I was going with all the kids (around 30) to the worship concert at the church, which would normally be a cool thing except when you are somewhat responsible for 30 kids and when you are an introvert and in a busy, jump around and sing and have fake fog float out of the ceiling kind of place (they really did the fake fog thing). So, I was perceiving all this as somewhat negative. And I guess feeling kind of entitled to a full day off. I hate that feeling of entitlement. That’s probably why I was so tired. I feel like sin makes a person more tired than usual… Anyway, and this is where God comes in (though He was there all along I just wasn’t paying Him a ton of attention)—I actually had a really great time and was able maybe for the first time since I’ve been here in Mexico to worship. It was also a good reminder to see the kids dancing around and singing in the front of the church that God wants all of us like that—no inhibitions, just dancing and singing our hearts out to Him. Another way I was really blessed by the service was that there is this song that I love that I don’t have on my computer and I have been longing to hear it and they played it tonight!!! I felt like it was a specific gift from God to me… kinda like He knew I “needed” to hear that song. In the end, after feeling tired all day I left the service smiling and feeling rejuvenated. What a great and intimate God I am serving here in Mexico—even in my ungratefulness He gave me what I needed today in a place I least expected to find it.
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