Jehovah Jireh

Jehovah Jireh is one of my favorite names for God: God Provides. It reminds me not only of God's love and care for me, but of my total dependence on him and inability, as a fallen human, to provide for myself. This week I have been reminded in an enormous way of Jehovah Jireh. I sent out an email to my supporters this weekend explaining that my computer is very nearly dead and asking if anyone would be willing to donate an old laptop to me. God provided me with not one, but nine, offers of laptops and two financial donations! Jehovah Jireh! Praise God! I am overwhelmed by the generosity and support of my family and friends in the US, and I am overwhelmed by our great and mighty God. Thank you!

My Jesus, I Love Thee

I couldn't resist putting both of these up tonight. Lauren and I have each gotten some new hymns and other wonderful music from friends, so we've been listening to a lot of hymns lately. Man, I love them! So now, for your pondering, the hymn "My Jesus, I Love Thee." You can hear Avalon's version of it here. It's sort of a Lenten hymn but mostly just a really good one.

My Jesus, I love thee - I know thou art mine. For thee all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love thee because thou has first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death; and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath, and say when the death dew lies cold on my brow: if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight I'll ever adore thee in Heaven so bright. I'll sing with a glittering crown on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Depth of mercy!

Lenten hymn number two.

Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear, me the chief of sinners spare?

I have long withstood his face, long provoked him to his face, would not harken to his calls, grieved him by a thousand falls.

I my Master have denied. I afresh have crucified, oft profaned his hallowed name, put him to an open shame.

There for me the Savior stands, shows his wounds, and spreads his hands. God is love! I know, I feel - Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament, now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.

Lent

We are in the church season of Lent right now. I grew up in the Methodist church, where the church year dictates to an extent the hymns we sang, the scriptures we read, the sermons that were preached, and how the church was decorated. So you can imagine my surprise/shock/confusion when we sang "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" in church last week! I mean, Christ is risen - every day - but this is supposed to be the time of year when we are solemn, contemplative, and preparing for the death of Jesus.

So I have decided to share some of my favorite Lenten hymns with you all. First one up: And Can It Be (Amazing Love). I love the words to this hymn, its descriptions of both Jesus' sacrifice and its results for me and for you. You can listen to the traditional hymn tune setting by clicking here. BUT, I have recently discovered Indelible Grace Music, a group that is creating new settings for traditional hymn texts, and they have a really great setting of this hymn featuring Sandra McCracken. You can listen to that by clicking here. (Sidenote. I like to read hymn texts as sentences or thoughts, so this might look different than the normal layout of a hymn text.)

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me, who caused his pain - for me, who him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all: the Immortal dies! Who can explain his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. 'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more.

He left his Father's throne above (so free, so infinite his grace!), emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race. 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused in quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine. Alive in him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Smiles

This week I have been working on another part of sponsorship: photography. I am not really a photographer, but I have to take a picture of every student at the Care Center at least twice a year. One photo is their yearly update photo that goes to their sponsors, and the other photo is at the bi-monthly birthday party of them with their cake, soda, and gifts. Also, when a student first enters the Care Center, I take their picture to send with their history to new sponsors. That is my task this week: to take a picture of every child who entered the Care Center in the fall of 2009. Today Jessi and I photographed the kindergarteners, and I couldn't resist putting these pictures up! Jose Emilio is just PRECIOUS, but like most of the kindergarteners, has a little trouble smiling on demand... enjoy!

Easter!

It's that time of year again... time for a sponsorship project! This one is for Easter, so I decided to go with the simple yet classic "Tissue papered Easter egg" craft. The kids actually loved making them, and we got through almost all 250 of them in 3 days, which is great and meant that I only had to miss one day of teaching! Yep, that's right. Reading specialist by morning, English teacher by afternoon, and sponsorship coordinator in the in-between... you do the math! Needless to say, I have been a little busy lately, but I LOVE it!

So here's a little glimpse of the sponsorship coordinator part of my job. If you will be the lucky recipient of one of these eggs, know that the kids love you and love crafts!

(Disclaimer: I know it's Lent, but I have deadlines. Plus they don't do Lent here except for the carnival part... they don't really do Easter Sunday either, but Holy Week is a really big deal. I'll tell you all about it after I've experienced it for the first time!)

Clockwise from top left: Brayan working, eggs, Jonas - pro egg maker, the finished product!, me overseeing some hardworking students, little ones working on fine motor skills... crumpling tissue paper is harder than it looks when you're 6!

A Rainy Day Adventure

Today the road to the village was ESPECIALLY muddy. And in a valiant effort to dodge the world's biggest pothole, Junior drove the Care Center guagua (12 passenger van) full of all the teachers off the road into a ditch. This ditch was full of soppy mud - not just the kind you can get through, but really deep, wet, goopy, mud. After some attempts to get the guagua to go forward or backward, the guagua was tipped at about a 30 degree angle into the sugar cane field. All 15 of us climbed out through the driver's door and onto the road. Now it's about 8:05 in the morning and we are only halfway through our 3 mile drive to school. And it's drizzling. But we have to get to school - we're the teachers! So after a little debating over how long it would take the director to come get us in his truck, we started walking. In the cold mist, in the mud, with our bags and purses and notebooks. I walked most of it barefoot because I realized my flip-flops were going to get stuck in the mud on every step. You can imagine, by the time we got to school, what we looked like: feet covered in mud, wet, crazy hair, a little frustrated and tired but excited that we had had a good adventure! The school day continued as normal, with a few "we're walking, right?" jokes as we boarded the rescued guagua to come home.

Here are some pictures from our rainy day adventure for you! They don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea! Clockwise from the top left: my incredibly muddy feet and flip-flops!; the guagua stuck in the mud; Francina and me; a distant view of the guagua; Janeli, Jessi, and Francina; the rest of the teachers: Jury, Chichi, Sara, Dudu, Junior, Junior, and Paleta.