Saturday, January 10, 2009

Things that make me smile…

B01-03-2009

I can’t believe that it’s 2009 already- 2008 seems to have flown by. It was nice to sit back this morning and reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. God has taught me so much, especially just in the past month, and His blessings never cease to amaze me…

A Christmas Morning Miracle:
On Christmas morning (Christmas morning for me, that is… the 25th), I decided to take a little excursion with my Bible, my journal, and my ipod up the little dirt path behind our house. I ended up at the top of a beautiful ridge, sitting on one of the white horse fences with the majestic Guatemalan mountains surrounding me. It had been raining all night, so the fog was gently resting atop the ridges and crests of each mountain peak. Simply breathtaking…

After I had spent some time in the Word, I decided to listen to some music, Ronnie Freeman to be exact (I know, surprise, surprise). ☺ The sun was beginning to rise and shine in my eyes, so I closed my eyes and enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment. A few songs later, as one of my favorite songs began to play, I opened my eyes… and as I did, God revealed to me the most magnificent rainbow I’ve ever seen. Here are the lyrics of the song that began to play while I stared in awe…

God Speaking
By Ronnie Freeman

Have you ever heard a love song,
That set your spirit free?
Have you ever watched a sunrise,
And felt you could not breathe?
What if it's Him? What if it's God speaking?

Have you ever cried a tear that
You could not explain?
Have you ever met a stranger
Who already knew your name?
What if it's Him? What if it's God speaking?

Who knows how He'll get ahold of us?
Get our attention to prove He is enough.
He'll do, and He'll use whatever He wants to.
To tell us, I Love You.

Have you ever lost a loved one
Who you thought should still be here?
Do you know what it feels like
to be tangled up in fear?
What if He's somehow involved?
What if He's speaking through it all?

Who knows how He'll get ahold of us?
Get our attention to prove he is enough.
He'll do and He'll use whatever He wants to
To tell us, I love you.

His ways are higher,
His ways are better,
And though sometimes strange
What could be stranger than God in a manger?

Who knows how He'll get ahold of us?
Get our attention to prove He is enough.
Who knows how He'll get ahold of you?
Get your attention to prove he is enough.
He'll do and He'll use whatever He wants to,
To tell us I love you
God is speaking, I love you.

On Christmas morning, God used a beautiful rainbow to get ahold of me, to get my attention, and to prove that he IS enough… And to prove that it wasn’t just some “coincidence” that the rainbow appeared at the same time as that song, toward the end of the song the clouds came back and began covering up the rainbow, and literally at the exact second that the song ended, the rainbow disappeared behind the clouds, not to be seen again (not by me at least)… There have been many times throughout my life that God has made His presence known to me, but never in such a powerful and miraculous way. In a very unique and special way, God spoke to me on Christmas morning, and it is a 4 minute and 21 second moment that I will never forget…

New Years Celebration:
Guatemalans LOVE fireworks. They shoot them off on Christmas, New Years, and on birthdays (at 5am outside the person’s window). At the ranch, we decided to wait and shoot off our fireworks on New Years evening, rather than at midnight (we were all pretty tired), but the rest of Rio Dulce didn’t pan out. I was soundly sleeping when all of a sudden it sounded like a war broke out outside. SCARED ME TO DEATH! It literally took me about a minute to figure out just what was going on, but once I realized that it was just fireworks, I laid back down and went back to sleep…

The next day, it was our turn to have fun with fireworks. After dinner, Lettie’s family and the whole gang over at our house went outside and watched as Oscar and the older boys put on quite the show for us. Everyone but Danny thoroughly enjoyed it (he gets freaked out over loud noises, which is understandable- because after all, we have no idea what he experienced before coming here, such as guns going off and such). While the fireworks were fun to watch, the kids favorite part of the evening was playing with sparklers. Here are some pictures of the event.

Michael Jose
Angelica
Francisca
Pedro
Suleidy and Judy

Dancing at the Ranch:
One of my favorite moments so far was when Karen (“Kahlee” as some of the kids call her, because they can’t say Karen) and Danny danced together in the living room. To see Danny being so “suave,” gentle, and calm and with a HUGE smile on his face while being twirled around the living room made my heart smile. Here are some pictures and a video (sorry that it’s flipped the wrong way, but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it) of “The Dance.”








“Hello, United States…”:
Pedro wanted some camera time as well, so this is a video of him trying to say “Hello, United States.” He's a ham…



Other random pictures that make me smile:

Esperanza reading... All of the kids LOVE to read, but unfortunately good Christian children's books are expensive and hard to come by. Thankfully, Karen found 5 awesome bible story books for Christmas gifts... at the dollar store no less!!!

Michael Jose pretending to read.

A shot with Pedro
Hilda's 20th birthday party
Michael Jose's smile in this photo shows one of my favorite things about Guatemalans... They don't just smile with their mouths, but they smile with their eyes as well.
He's constantly doing silly things that make us all laugh...
Until next time, love to you all...

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