When it gets personal.

This is a post from Medical Team week back in November.  For more information about what that week is like on a practical level, I'll have to write a separate post.  =) 

. . .

This week made me think about what a difference it makes to have a connection to the people we work with, not just to the work we’re doing with them.   For example, I came to Guatemala to work with a ministry that helps girls and their families heal from life-shattering abuse.  Easily said. 

But I know Mercy*.  She came to us after spending a week in the hospital thanks to her abuser.   At the same time as we started praying for her surgery and recovery, we started praying for her sister Mara* to be rescued as well.   The sister that then came every visitor’s day for months and comforted Mercy when it was time for them to leave again, “You’ll be ok, Mercy.  It’s so nice here! Don’t cry, let’s go swing for a little bit.” 

 Now I know Mara, and when she showed up at the Oasis on Wednesday, what we do here became a thousand times more real.   I wanted to do a happy dance and cry at the same time.  I was a ball of excitement that broke down sobbing and ended up jumping, laughing, dancing.  How can you put words to it?  You’re safe, little one!  What you’ve had to live through to come here breaks .  my .  heart .   But tonight…  you’re safe.  

She’s not just a name.  She’s not just our 49th bed.  She’s an answer to prayer and a piece of my heart.   Abba, let the healing begin! 

* as always, the names used on this blog have been changed to protect our girls.  

12 hours later, we were back in Zapote.   In comes the woman we'd just seen yesterday.  The sweet, tiny, young mother of 3 whose womb has been bleeding for as many years… and whose soul has been bleeding for 30.  She asks the doctor about symptoms and medicine, but we all know there’s more to the story.  

Photo Credit: Stacy Carter-Studios

He asks the question and I pray desperately for ears to understand as she whispers out pain, and shame, and guilt, and desperation, and heartbreak, and hopelessness that I’ll never know.  She falters when the past is too much to remember, and surges of pain from the womb that weeps for her sometimes silence her altogether.  But she pushes on into a story of hope and power and faith and the miraculous hugeness of God Almighty, with redemption so beautiful that I want to sing!  But still there’s the look on her face every time she throws out a new evil that has blackened her story, wondering how we’ll take it.  The way she says that most people don’t believe it was ever that bad… nor that God was ever that good to her.   

We believe you, sister!  We’re not going to judge you.  How could we?  It is for this that Jesus Christ died. 

God's mission is so much bigger, so much more personal than I ever would have imagined.  It happens one person at a time, and every time it takes God himself stepping in to redeem what is broken.  It's absolutely amazing. 

Losing Control

I scheduled the next day at 11:59 pm, jam-packed for 14 hours out of the next 20.  Nothing big or significant, just a crazy end to what had been a stressful week.   Our girls were off in so many different directions that we’d plum run out of tías!   So I had agreed to play back-up, but everyone seemed to have a different idea of what that was going to look like... and none of those ideas seemed to consider the to-do list I had for myself that day.  To be perfectly honest, the official hour-by-hour plan included an optional 15 minutes to go cry in a corner.   

But can I tell you something?

This day that God gave me to live has honestly been one of the sweetest yet!  After pulling in to work way too early in the morning having forgotten both my computer and my phone (two things I always remember…) I got to spend the entire morning cuddled up on the couch reading children’s books & picture Bible stories with some of our younger girls.  We ran around outside in the cool, breezy sunshine.  We made up goofy line dances to Christian a capella music.   And that was how God gave his daughter four solid hours of quality time in one morning!  Wonder of wonders, there was no drama, no ugly words, no testing all the limits, and no serious medical emergencies.   

It was the day that God resolutely cleared my plate of things I didn’t need to do (even things that I really love doing) and filled it up with significance, unconventional productivity, and unexpected joy. 

We have such a wonderful Abba!  He really knows how to love his kids. 

Footprints

A very wise young woman encouraged me a while ago to choose special markers of God's love, little "mini altars" if you will, as a way to remember his faithfulness throughout the day when they show up in my life.  For her, it was hearts; heart-shaped leaves, heart-shaped rocks, heart-shaped spills, reminding her in every situation how much God loved her. 

For me, it has been footprints; in the wet sand on a beach, on decals stuck to the front of a bus, even little footprints of "Renae, I just couldn't hold it" tracked through the entire house, reminding me in every situation that God is with me.  It's like having a secret handshake with a close friend; the littlest thing can really make my day! 

That said, sometimes God goes beyond the simple-minded limits we so often choose to be satisfied with.  He is loving and faithful, but that doesn't necessarily mean predictable! 

Just the other week, on my way back from a short visa-renewal trip to Costa Rica, I was sitting at a familiar gate in Juan Santamaría International airport thinking about how odd it was to be flying from "not my country" to yet another "not my country".  Usually, sitting in an airport means that I'm about to see my family or that I just got to see my family for at least a little bit, and while I'd just spent a wonderful week with an old friend, there's nothing quite like the comforting feeling of home.  This was the first trip I've taken from one relatively unfamiliar place to another and back again, and it was a rather odd feeling!

Hiking Volcán Barva in Costa Rica

As I sat there talking to God about this temporary homelessness that is living in a foreign country, I started daydreaming about how nice it would be to see someone from home, from church maybe, because there's just something about being with someone who knows where you're from, not just where you are.  I racked my brain for reasons why anyone I could think of would be traveling through that tiny wing of Juan Santamaría . . . finding none, I settled back down to reading my book. 

Except it seems that God wasn't through with our conversation, because who should show up just then but the pastor of the little church I call home in barely-a-dot-on-the-map San Lucas!  God sent a kind greeting not from Ramsey, not from my physical family, but something better.  It was as if he had put his arm around me and whispered, "You have a new home now, with me, and your family is bigger than you could ever imagine!  I am your Father.  I take very good care of my daughters." 

And it's wildly true. 

Beautiful Things

We've been singing this song a lot lately at the Oasis.  It rings so true against the backdrop of our girls' stories that some days, I just cry.

And then there's God whispering hope through Isaiah, promising that it really is possible to redeem unimaginable loss.  In fact, He already sees the world as it one day will be. 

Isaiah 35:1-2

Imagine the wilderness whooping for joy, 
the desert’s unbridled happiness with its spring flowers.  
It will happen! 
The deserts will come alive with new growth budding and blooming, 
singing and celebrating with sheer delight. 

Just imagine it!  It will happen!  As far as God is concerned , it already has. 

The one where my friends do the leaving...

Goodbyes are hard, terrible, beautiful things.  

Letting something go that you'd rather have stick around,
the death of something that will never be the same,
the opportunity to welcome something new and do some growing yourself,
and a unique place to realize how much you appreciate people.   

All in all, I'd say saying goodbye is a pretty interesting process.  

Our girls say many goodbyes: to teams, interns, missionaries and even tías on occasion.  For the newer ones and the younger ones, all this coming and going takes a good deal of figuring out.  Every time someone leaves the Oasis, a sweet little pair of dark eyes looks up at me and asks, 

"When are you leaving?"

. . . and I don't know what to tell them.  

It matters, because loving and loosing hurts.  
 I want to say, "NEVER!  I will be with you forever!"  and I want to fly to Ramsey, MN like, oh, you know, YESTERDAY.  How long exactly am I going to be here?  Fantastic question. . . one to which I have absolutely no answer and for which I can't plan.  Right now, I'm living what is and trusting that God has the next steps taken care of.  But I still ask Him what the plan is at least once a day.  

In the mean time, I get to learn what it's like on the staying-side of leaving.  These girls are teaching me a lot.  

Lots of love from far away,
Renae

Take a Chance!

I wish there was a magic fairy-dust that you could sprinkle on yourself as soon as you decided to "work for Jesus" that would take away all the bad habits and false motives and lazy attitudes and leave you with nothing but joyful selflessness, good favor with everyone, and an extra heap of wisdom.  But at the same time? I'm very glad there isn't!  There is breathtaking beauty in the journey from Point A to Point B and it has a lot to do with depending on God every day because I don't have it all together!  

Sometimes I think we expect moving to a different place to come with at least a free sample of some such fairy-dust, but... it doesn't.  Wouldn't ya know, I moved all the way to Guatemala and I’m still the same Renae.  In a lot of ways, my life looks a lot like it did in the States.  Some nights, I stay up too late and sleep through my alarm in the morning.  I leave dirty dishes in the sink for too many days and it takes twice as long to clean them.  I wear my hair in odd up-dos at night so it will dry curly but some days it just doesn’t.  I spend too much time on some projects and then I have to rush to finish others.  I can’t decide which brand of peanut butter to buy at the store and just last week I let a sweet old lady at the market talk me into buying way too much broccoli for any one single person to consume and it’s going bad in my fridge because I just don't know what to do with it all!

Dance party in the kitchen! 

In a lot of ways, not much has changed! But at the same time, little by little, I’m learning about how trauma affects children and what we can do to help them.  Little by little, I’m learning how to love people who are really difficult and confusing to love, how to set good boundaries for myself and also for the girls I interact with who don’t yet have their own moors.  Little by little, I'm learning how to share truth when it’s time to share truth and how to listen when it’s time to listen.   And in the learning, I mess it all up.   
Mucho.  
Often.  
Because as much as I would like to get it right the first time, I’m quite human.  I quite honestly don’t know what to do in many, many situations every single day. But even there… there’s something fragile and weak and dependent and beautiful about who God made me to be. At the end of the day, I’m a recovering rebel who is loved by a holy God. In each and every daily, boring, exciting, overwhelming thing that comes up, I have a chance to see God’s strength perfected in the filling of my weaknesses. Am I willing to take it?
 

Love from a very weak, very happy 23-yr-old!

“My salvation and my significance depend ultimately on God; the core of my strength, my shelter, is in the True God.”   Psalm 62:7

Leaving the Domain of Darkness

Today I got to play with some really fun girls.  Someone had a pair of very child-sized orange plastic glasses that came to represent a character we’ll call la maestra , “the teacher.”  Whoever had the glasses on was responsible for worrying about the behavior of everyone else, preferably out loud, and preferably in a crazy teacher voice.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  ( I was very thankful for my training in the school of Mr. Bradley Kent Fiddlesticks! )  

 
We spent the hour between homework time and dinner time running around outside , playing chinese jumprope , and swinging higher than today’s clear blue sky.  

And then a little friend asked me to play make-believe.  

“Let’s say I was an invalid and you were my mom.  You go get that stick over there--to hit me with.” 

My heart dropped a little bit.  I laughingly told her that I would never in a million years hit her, even if she were the worst-behaved child in the world.  To which she replied, “It’s just a game…” 

Except it’s not just a game.  Every kid grows up playing house and teacher and cops 'n robbers and orphans, but this is different.  This isn’t “pretending our parents abandoned us so we can make-believe that we live in the adult world.”  This is life for our girls before they come to us.  And it doesn’t magically go away with the first hot shower and fresh change of clothes they receive at the Oasis.  

Why would she want to re-live it?  Maybe it’s a need to process her trauma, maybe she's learning that things can be different, maybe she's trying to figure out what normal is because her experiences say one thing but her heart longs for another.  

 

And because it’s most likely more than all of the above , I pray like a desperate mama that our girls will hear their Saviour whisper this “other” truth : that they are loved , that they are wanted , that they are forgiven. 

“The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  --Colossians 1:13-14

And I cling to the hope that they can be made whole :

Though we be dead… He makes us alive.  ( Colossians 2:13 )

the power of relationships

Working at a home for emotionally wounded girls has me thinking about relationships … a lot .  Recently, my mom pointed me to this amazing resource by Leslie Vernick, and it voiced something I’d been trying for a week to put into words:

“The way someone treats you, whether it be good or bad, has little to do with you. It reveals something about who they are.” 

Umm… read that again!

This rings true on so many levels.  I want to live this way, and I want our girls to be able to live this way!  


First of all, God loves us. Greatly. This in spite of our obvious flaws and shortcomings. His loving response to us reveals more of His endless goodness than can anything else!  I can trust His character.  Despite mine. 

Secondly, if someone hurts me, physically or emotionally, it is not my fault. In the same way that God’s love depends on Him, not me, another person’s response to me depends on their character, not mine. That’s frightening and freeing at the same time. I did not cause it, and I can not control it. 

That brings me to number three: No one else is responsible for how I respond to them. They do not have the power to control my reactions. I may choose to be happy, angry, afraid of them, or what have you, but I am always responsible for what I think, say, and do.  That choice reveals my character, not theirs.

The vast majority of our girls come from places where this truth has been sabotaged since Day One. A healthy understanding of relationships just doesn't grow out of the soil they were planted in.  Part of the miracle that God does when they come here is to transform their sweet, wounded hearts from

frightened,
weak,
needy,  
o v e r - d e p e n d e n t ,
dishonest,
manipulative,
controlling,
angry,
violent,
b i t t e r ,
indifferent, (or a progression of a l l of the above) 
 
into confident, 
loving,
strong, 
g i v i n g , 
kind, 
honest, 
caring, 
p a t i e n t , 
compassionate, 
open, 
forgiving, 
passionate young women.  

It's a long process.  

When a girl spills kind words instead of bitter ones, my heart jus wants to praise God for the miracle He is working in her!

 

When a girl pushes the limits of my patience and understanding, I can thank God that she is here, and that He loves her, and that this is a good place for her to heal from the ugliness that’s pouring out. 

 When that girl is me… God’s grace becomes that much more personal.

 

God is working. Please pray for us. We need it!

 

When white looks black, Part 2

God almighty offers me LIFE! 

and all He asks in return is my complete trust and joyful, satisfied surrender.  I need a new word to refer to what I think of as “my life” - This thing I’m being asked to hand over is much too insignificant to deserve the title.  

from James 1

Every good gift bestowed… is from God. 

He calls us to life by His message of truth so that we will show the rest of His creatures His goodness and love. 

It is possible to open your eyes and take in the beautiful, perfect truth found in God’s law of liberty and live by it. If you pursue that path and actually do what God has commanded, then you will avoid the many distractions that lead to an amnesia of all true things and you will be blessed. 
- the Voice -

Abba, save me from the many, many distractions that cause me to forget for Whom I was made . . .  Open my eyes and I'll open my hands - what my flesh considers precious, let me value as rubbish - that I might gain Christ!

When white looks black, Part 1

Sometimes, God’s best for me comes wrapped in a package that I don’t want to open. 
Sometimes, I forget just how fully God can be trusted and I look for another way. 
Sometimes, I want to know “Why?” more than I want to know God.

How many times have I said, “No, thank you!” to a deeper, more satisfying love of God because I didn’t want to risk a lesser thing?  

For example, I don’t like being lonely. At all, really.  In fact, I kind of hate it.   BUT, if loneliness was what it would take to know God , would I accept it?  Or would I hesitate , ask questions , try my own way?

“When I feel lonely, I am feeling powerful theological truth in my soul… Loneliness acts like a divine sticky note that says, ‘Don’t forget for whom you were made.’” (source)  

The same Jesus who gave up equality with God to become human, walk this broken earth, and die says that there’s a good reason to sign up for hardships: to gain something better.

“If any of you want to walk My path, you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’ll have to take up your cross every day and follow Me. If you try to avoid danger and risk, then you’ll lose everything. If you let go of your life and risk all for My sake, then your life will be rescued, healed, made whole and full.” (Luke 9:23-24)

One thing is Essential

I'm more convinced than ever before that one thing matters in life: 

to love the Lord my God 

with all my heart, 

all my soul, 

all my mind, 

and all my strength.  

Granted, my main purpose for coming to Guatemala was to more effectually love these "neighbors" as well as I love myself (which if you think about it . . . is a pretty tall order!)

But quite frankly, loving anybody is impossible if I don't first love God with every fiber of my being and learn from him what real love looks like.  Love for others is the natural overflow of obeying the "first and greatest" commandment.  

Striving for results if I don't have the Source is merely an exercise in futility.  

1 Corinthians 13 translated into my daily life might read something like this : 

If I pass my Spanish exam with flying colors and a perfect accent but do not have love, I'm wasting my words.  

If I teach my 4 students with excellence in the absence of their regular teacher, explaining science and Guatemalan social studies and grammar with perfection, and if I can translate and prepare 100 thank-you cards for mailing to sponsors in the US but do not have love, it all means nothing.  

If I play with the girls for hours on end, help them with homework, and even watch them at night so the house moms can take a break but do not take the time to meet with God in the secret place, I might as well be playing Farmville because I have nothing of His light and love to pass on to the very ones I claim to be serving.  

"Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about.  There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; rather, truth is love’s delight!  Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.  Love will never become obsolete."  

As for the cluelessness of being new here, it will pass.  Hanging out my laundry to dry without clothespins will get easier.  The loneliness of missing friends and family can be filled with the fullness of God, and new friends will come in time.  

" I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God."  

. . . The greatest 

                  . . . is love.  

Let's go get lost in God's love!  Amazing things are sure to follow!  

Sights & Sounds

Neal, they've found him.  Squatch lives
about 46,814 miles from Panajachel. 

Last Saturday, a few of us Kids Alive folks went with a team from New Hope, MN to Panajachel on Lake Atitlán.  It was fun to see a little bit of Guatemala beyond Antigua/San Lucas, and we had a great day with the team!  

Every friday during lent, the catholic churches in Antigua take turns putting on a velación which is best described as a very big, very elaborate nativity, except the story is different every time.  It might be the story of Job, the second coming of Christ, the creation of the world, whatever each church picks for that year.  Whichever church has the velación on Friday has a parade on Saturday that goes all over town and lasts for as many hours as a Green Valley work day in Spring!  

Velación
The story depicted above is "The Second Coming of the Son of Man"

Also in front of the “nativity” is a large alfombra, or carpet made of dyed sawdust, sand, fruit, and/or flowers.  Sawdust alfombras show up all over Antigua on the weekends and are super pretty!  The piles of fruit creep me out a little . . .  maybe it just looks too much like a ritualistic temple offering.  Anyway, after it’s done being used to decorate the church, the family who made the alfombra takes it home to eat or donates it to charity.  I'm trying to suspend judgement on which things are syncretism and not; for now, it's a huge part of catholic culture in Antigua and something worth learning about!  

The alfombra in the Merced church

For those of you who love corny little one-liners (ahem*Dad*hem) there's a great one about the carpenter's phone and the Spanish word for sawdust.  Ask me about it and I'll tell it to you!  


Well, even barring the hour I didn't lose today, it's time to sign off.  An all-too-familiar sound awaits me tomorrow morning!
  
Lorenzo . . .  before 7 . . .  every .  morning .   This bird cracks me up!  Enjoy =)

Glory and Grace

This week has been one of many things learned! I forget just how much changing countries is like starting over as a baby and trying to "grow up" as quickly as possible, but it really is!  You exit your comfy, familiar home and enter another world where you now need to learn what to eat, how to speak, where to walk and how to get around, how to relate to others, and generally what the set of norms is for the people with whom you now live. Learning is both fun and exhausting - I find myself wanting to sleep like a baby too!

This week I learned . . .

One of the new things I could really get used to!
Even socks and undies come back from the
lavadería sorted, folded and tied with bows.

. . . how to eat on a pretty strict 7:00, 1:00, 7:00 meal schedule.
. . . that calidad or “quality” means “cool” in Guatemala and that saber or “to know” really means “I have no idea!”
. . . that walking in the middle of the street and/or right next to moving vehicles is completely normal, expected and often necessary.
. . . how to push my way through a crowd of 200+ people in a comparatively small space and back again.
. . . that market day is Thursday, Saturday, and Monday. Yaay! (But expect to make your purchases elsewhere on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday! :) 

My full-length mirror, the sholders-down half...

... and the shoulders-up half!  

With the amount of energy that it takes at first to do the most basic of activities, it’s challenging to make time for other things that are more important but more easily pushed aside. After 5 hours of one-on-one Spanish school and homework, etc. for a few days in a row, I found myself wanting less to study my Bible or read a deep, thought-provoking devotional or devote serious time to praying and wanting much more to just sleep. The only problem with that is that it totally unplugs me from the only One who has the power to sustain me and keep me going! 

The view from my window - I love this indoor/outdoor house!

So, this week my prayer has been that I would find space in my life to delight in God, to revel in his glory, to bask in his grace, to lose myself in something greater than day-to-day living, to be reminded of my smallness in the presence of someone who sustains the whole world. 

Simply put, to enjoy God for who he is!  Every day. 

And as always, God has been faithful to remind me of his grace and to fill my heart with his love and to provide “all things pertaining to life and godliness” because he’s God and he can. I read this week that discipline is “making room for God to work.”  This is truth.  Nothing I can do on my own will fulfill me like making my time and energy and affections available to the Lord!  

These are just as awesome as they look, and they hang from almost every balcony I've seen... including at school and in the downstairs hallway of our house!  Beautiful!   =)

Live for His glory!

Love every minute of it.

Home is where Jesus is

¡Saludos de Guatemala!

The last few days have been rather a whirlwind of meeting new people and getting to know new places.  I have yet to sleep in the same bed all week!

Wednesday morning, I was wide awake 3:30 with no hope of sleeping for the next few hours.  Excited much?  God sure has a unique way of working himself into my schedule.  =)  It was definitely not so much the magical best-morning-of-my-life that I had anticipated, but it was real, and I'm here, and I'm loving it, and I had a good long laugh at myself for those wee hours of the morning that I was wishing I wasn't awake yet.  

Thursday morning was better.  I woke up well-rested in this beautiful little cuartito, with my nose as cold as ever.  Ahhh, a little taste of home!

Partially moved in to my new apartment!  

Anything that was at the bottom of my checked baggage is definitely still at the bottom of my checked baggage, but I have a cozy little place to come home to after these 4 weeks at language school.  ¡Dios es bueno!  God is good!  

The comfy couch and spare chairs - all are welcome!  The girls are allowed to come visit as a treat, provided they're on good terms with their house moms.  

The view from my windows!  

(There's actually a pretty sweet view of the volcano, but I like this one better.  Still can't believe I'm here.  yyyaaaaay!)

Besides meeting the Oasis crew and getting oriented in my new job, Wednesday's biggest highlight was having dinner with one of the houses.  I don't think it matters what country you're in, family time is family time!   

We went to Zapote on Thursday with the Canada team, and I met all 136 of our littles there at once.  They're precious.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them better!  

Spanish class is going to present it's own set of challenges, but I'm looking forward to working the kinks out of my sentence structures and building my vocab.  (I know, it's nerdy.  The nerd in me wants to know how to say "nerd" in Spanish - there's so much to learn!)   =)  It's a blessing to have this time to re-focus on the language, even when all of me would rather stay put in the Oasis bubble.  

Please pray with us that the girls who live here would see the protection of their authority figures in el Oasis for what it is - a gift of love and a blessing from God!  Sometimes it's hard to transition from calling your own shots and surviving in spite of your "authorities" to submitting to a family system and believing that they have your best interest at heart.  More than ever, these girls need their Daddy!!

Love you all!
Renae  

In the Land of Eternal Spring!

Thank you all so much for your prayers, hugs, and awesome goodbyes.  <3  

¡ya por fín estoy en Guatemala!  
I'm finally here!!

I met a wonderful friend on the second leg of my flight who pretty much adopted me as her daughter and went right through customs and out of the airport with me to make sure I managed.  I had to smile :) it was pretty great.

¡Mañana, al Oasis!  I still have to pinch myself that I'm here.

A pair of ducks at home in the land of lions, foxes, turtles, owls, and … teddy bears?

MTI snippets

... a.k.a. the last little pre-Guatemala nugget :)

One of the really cool things about MTI is that kids go through the same training as their parents, only at their own level.  It’s amazing really, I mean,  have you ever tried to explain the concept of a paradox to 5-9 year-olds?  Well, let's give it a shot!  You see, there are these two ducks, Yaay Duck and Yuck Duck.  During times when everything is changing, there are some “Yaay!” moments that can make us really happy and some “Yuck.” moments that can be really painful.  Funny thing is, the two ducks always swim together; in order to have Yaay Duck, you have to welcome Yuck Duck… 
...hence they are a pair-o’-ducks! 

These two ducks have been quacking away in my life lately, but it has been a rich and rewarding experience.  Leaving hurts and going is wonderfully exciting.  Paradox!

The other animals in this zoo only come out during times of stress or conflict.  You're probably familiar with these guys already, if you think about it!  

The lions usually come out first, since they revel in the opportunity to fix a good problem every now and then.  They're great at telling it like it is and coming up with a solution.  

Next, you might notice the foxes striking a sly deal to make sure that both parties give a little and take a little equally.  We might be in a tight spot, but... "hey! what about this?"  

Hanging back are the teddy bears, making sure that everyone feels loved regardless of the outcome of this troublesome interruption to their relational harmony.  

Up in a tree somewhere sits an owl or two, with a great perspective of everyone’s wants and needs and feelings, ready to put together a perfectly pleasing plan for all involved.  They love sensitively solving problems, but speed isn’t their specialty… sometimes the other animals move along without them when they need a fast solution.  Hence, most owls learn how to speak a second language or two in the animal world  :) 

Oh, the turtles?  Those little critters pulled back into their shell a long time ago!  You won’t see them until after all the facts have been gathered and it has been made abundantly clear that there really, actually, indeed is a problem to solve.  Why dive into an unnecessary conflict?  Some will stay in their shells until the last of the lions sits down and takes a nap, but don’t worry, the teddy bears will keep an eye on them and do their best to coax them out eventually.  

Obviously there's a lot of humor involved explaining conflict styles via animal stereotypes, but I've found it so helpful!  I hope you do too.  


Well, folks... this is it!  I will check in next from closest-internet-cafe, Guatemala!  Thanks for reading!  

all AND nothing

MTI snippets

Here's a little treasure for today:

First of all, let’s take a look at “my world”.  This is where everything seems normal, natural, right, and good.  It is a fantastically comfortable place to be, I know the right script to read at the right time and I fit in well. 

Now let’s peer into “their world”.  This world is different.  I don’t know the script here and I am uncomfortable.  Shoot, these crazies breathe water like it's air!  Everything seems abnormal, unnatural, wrong, and bad. 

Welcome to the definition of cross-cultural missions!  The funny thing is, “their world” can exist pretty close to “my world” before I even leave my country; I don’t know about you, but I live with a couple of “their worlds” right here in Ramsey, MN!  
The key to crossing a cultural difference of any size is taking on an attitude of learning instead of teaching, listening instead of telling, choosing to get into uncomfortable positions, and develop a childlike fascination with the other person’s way of seeing the world, for the sake of more effective communication and understanding.  

It’s totally not easy.  

In fact, sometimes the best I can do is to just sigh, “God, help!”  But when mistake after mistake and stupid question after very obvious stupid question brings about a sense of, “I’m finally starting to get this!” and “their world” becomes my new home, it’s totally worth it. 

The MTI battle cry goes something like this: 

If you’ve got to make a million mistakes before you figure this thing out, then get going!!  
(…but try to make 10-20 point mistakes.  Don’t blow all 1,000,000 at once.)

As Paul encouraged the Corinthians, let's do all things for the sake of the Gospel, and nothing that would hinder it!  

(1 Cor. 9:19-23)