Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

It seems like an oxymoron to say that it is blessed to mourn! I’m especially feeling that way tonight after visiting two homes not too far from our ministry offices today. I asked Maribel (pretty girl in photo), Lucy’s mom, to take me to see her house and visit her grandmother, Francisca, who is sick. On the way, Maribel asked me if I wanted to meet her aunt. Sure, why not? So we stopped at a very decent-looking house (for Flor), and there was a pathetic woman sitting on the porch. I thought she was looking through the bars, but I was wrong. She can’t see. I stepped onto the porch to say hello how are you, and noticed that she had something wrapped in medical tape hanging off her left shoulder just above the breast. She smelled like betadine. This aunt, Suyapa, began to tell me about her medical problems: high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney malfunction. She is on dialysis twice/week – except that she didn’t make it yesterday because her ride didn’t come. She explained to me how they hook up the tube hanging out of her shoulder to a machine, and that she is in the hospital from very early in the morning until seven or eight at night. She can’t walk by herself. She said, “I want to get well. I don’t want to die.” I prayed for her, and we left.

Next stop: Dona Francisca and Maribel’s house. We parked next to a narrow opening on the road, and began to walk down a labyrinth of cement steps. I thought, “The worst of this is that we are going to have to come back up!” The house was indeed at the bottom. It’s a shack by anybody’s standards, and Francisca was lying in bed. In contrast to her daughter Suyapa’s remark that she did not want to die, Francisca almost immediately, in a very flat tone, said, “I have been thinking that I’ll soon cross over to the other side. I’m glad you got here in time to visit me.” I visited with her for awhile, brainstormed about how to make her house more livable, prayed, and we left.

These visits happened after I’d spent almost three hours listening to Maribel tell her story. I took seven pages of notes. I’m not going to tell you what she said because I want all of you to buy our book! However, I did not notice that Maribel felt blessed to be mourning so much loss and pain. I searched for adequate words to encourage her, someone who has suffered continuously for almost all of her twenty-five years.

We have all known the blessing which can come after the mourning. Somehow we have to learn how to reap the blessing while the mourning is still going on. HOPE IN GOD is how we do that. Please join me in praying for Suyapa, Francisca and Maribel, that the Lord would restore their hope so that He can turn their mourning into dancing.

Saying YES to the World

All of the readings today in the Episcopal lectionary dealt with the theme of holiness. It is a concept and a reality which many Christians misunderstand. When God says to Moses in Leviticus, "Tell the people to be holy because I, Jehova God, am holy," He is not asking for an impossibility. He is also not expecting that every Israelite will become an ordained priest. All believers are called to be holy, and the lesson from Jesus in Matthew 5 amplifies for us some of the behaviors which characterize holiness. We must forgive our enemies, go the extra mile, give to the poor, and a number of other equally difficult things.

I shared with the children today about the little girl in the Old Testament who was a slave in the house of rich Naaman, a powerful man. Sadly, he had leprosy. However, a more natural response from this little girl might have been, "So what! I hate him! He keeps me as a slave! I hope he dies!" Instead she wants to help him: "I know somebody who can heal him . . ." Now that's holiness!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, developing a Karl Barth theme he liked, wrote a sermon on "saying YES to the world," in which he basically affirmed our involvement in human relationships and other "earthy" activities. God wants us to be fully involved in this world, he said, and yet living according to Kingdom principles. That, too, is holiness.

We must drink deeply of the holiness of Jesus if we decide to make an earnest attempt at inviting His Kingdom to come into lives. We can only be holy as He is holy if we allow His Spirit to permeate and penetrate our being, and then we can truly share the Living Water with others.

I want to say YES to the world, but in HOLINESS, the pure, transparent, cleansing holiness of Jesus.

Contagious Generosity

It's "group season" at LAMB!   We have people coming down almost non-stop through July.   What a blessing it is to be with old friends, and to make new ones, working side-by-side in the Name of Jesus!

Yesterday I was translating for Dr. Jim Warmbrod as Dr. Laurie Harrell's medical brigade was serving the people of Colonia Emanuel.   We were crowded into a small cement block house which had been divided into two "rooms" by a curtain of sheets pinned together.   The front part was the waiting room, and the back part was the consulting room (four doctors, their translators and patients!).    It was HOT.   I got a phone call from my friend, Engineer Elsa.   She had been to my house to see how the roof repairs were coming along:   "Suzy, I know you don't want to hear this, but you really need to change the whole roof."   Ugh.   My heart sank.   We were going to replace all the ceiling tiles, the wood supporting them, and treat the large beams with anti-termite stuff.   We weren't going to change the beams or the roof tiles.   But the beams are also rotten, and the roof is asbestos.    I told her to let me think about it.

I didn't really need to think about it.   It was a no-brainer:   replacing the ceiling under a rotten roof??   I just needed to accept it.   I needed to ask Jesus about how we were going to pay for it.   I felt sad and anxious.

The next morning, three friends emailed to say they wanted to help with our roof!   THREE.   A friend on the Atlanta team which had just left had already said he wanted to help, too.   FOUR.    Once again the Lord was showing me:  You are not alone.   You have family.   I know what you need.

Today I felt as if I had caught "the love bug."   I sat down on the bleachers up in Flor to watch Don Wilbur's soccer clinic, and three scruffy young boys sat down near me.  I was munching on something.   I said, "Are you hungry?"   They all nodded.   I gave them money for lunch.   While I was treating them to lunch, Amanda was taking off her tennis shoes (see photo above) because there was a girl playing soccer on the field barefoot!    Then we went to Lydia's to say goodbye to Diana Collins' group from Vermont.   A woman was digging in the garbage across the street.   I went over to her, greeted her with a smile and gave her some money, too.    



Although I can't be generous in as big a way as some people, I enjoy giving, and I know you do, too.   It is truly more blessed to GIVE, although when you are in need, it is also a huge blessing to RECEIVE.

Generosity is contagious.   Let's all catch "the love bug"!

Making Crooked Roads Straight

At church two Sundays ago, we were asked, “With which Bible character do you most identify?”  I thought immediately of John the Baptist.   I love the idea of making crooked roads straight; it’s one of my favorite images of what God’s justice and mercy are all about.   Another characteristic of John the Baptist which I admire is that he not only understood the focus of his mission, but was very clear about who he was not, i.e. he was not Jesus.    There are days when I feel as if I need to step up to the plate more, have more faith, do some miracles, walk on water.  J    And then I remind myself that I’m not Jesus -- not in order to justify passivity, because I know that I am not passive.   I remind myself of that because Jesus’ followers were (and are) empowered to do great things in the Name of Jesus, but we are not encouraged from Scripture to take God’s place. 

How all of this works out in daily ministry can be a little complex.   Today Social Services called about a 13-yr-old girl with a 1-yr-old baby.   The girl was abused by her grandfather.   Mother and baby need a home.    We have had two similar cases at our children’s home, and I feel close to both teenaged mothers and their little girls, so my heart immediately went out to this little girl and her baby.   Could we do something to straighten out the crooked road created by incest?  

Yes, we can do something.   We can offer them a safe haven and the love of Jesus.  However, I have learned that the healing process is different for each person, and that as much as we would like to, we cannot control how long it takes.   We cannot “define outcomes.”   Only the Lord Jesus can transform lives.   We can do all that we can, by His grace, to “make straight the way,” but at the same time we are trusting in God for salvation and liberation.   Mother and child will also have the incredible opportunity of trusting in God.   He can bring healing and freedom if everyone involved is faithfully committed to the process without trying to control, force or define the fruits. 

John the Baptist was a radical disciple, but he wasn’t Jesus.   Living into that Truth sets the Holy Spirit free to turn mustard seeds into mountains, and to straighten the many crooked roads in our world.   May it be so for this young girl and her baby boy.

Household Gods

This morning in the shower I had a thought which struck me as True:    I was thinking about how difficult it is for people to give extravagantly to God’s work, particularly in regards to financial gifts.   I am convinced that the reason has more to do with fear than with selfishness.    My thoughts turned to the ministry of James Fraser among the Lisu people of China.   The one sure sign that a family had turned to Christ was that they would destroy their household gods.   Fraser would not baptize them until they had done so.   Destroying the household gods was a huge decision, considered extremely foolish by many onlookers.   In fact, Lisu observers were certain that the gods would wreak vengeance on the offending family, and perhaps even kill them.    In Fraser’s ministry, conversion to Christianity was a family decision, and if the family decided to follow Christ, the men of the family would destroy the household gods with fear and trembling.   For a poor family particularly, this was a true step of faith away from their only (perceived) security.

Maybe you see where I’m going with this:   We, too, have household gods.   If we become extravagant in our response to Jesus’ call on our lives, we are often considered foolish, and onlookers await our “ruin.”   We have become devoted to the point of worship in regards to our finances.   If we manage to save a good bit, then we feel proud, wise, safe.     If we pitch perilously close to bankruptcy (or worse), then we don’t need anyone else to tell us how pitifully we have failed.    And to consciously “burn the gods” (become poor, or much poorer, for Christ’s sake) is even worse in many minds.   As one of my relatives said to me years ago, “Why would you choose to be poor?” 

Of course I’m not poor, not in any sense of the word.    As I was packing up my house today, I set aside “a few treasures” to bring to Casa Lamb for safekeeping.   My few treasures filled up the back of my car – not counting my children, the six puppies and their mother, and my guitar.    On my way to Casa Lamb, my mind was roiling with the Truth about “household gods”:   how much is too much?   How attached am I to material things?  Am I being extravagant in my response to the Lord?

Although some Christians claim that money has nothing to do with spirituality, the  Scriptures are clear that how we “handle our finances” is perhaps the most visible and telling expression of our devotion to Christ.     May we respond extravagantly to the extravagant love of Jesus towards each of us! 

Rat Evac

Some of you might remember that last year the ceiling in my bedroom crashed in, and a huge pile of bat droppings and nesting materials turned the room into a code five health hazard.   Wheelbarrow loads of yuck were carted out.   We were able to replace that ceiling, as well as the ceiling of one other bedroom and the two bathrooms.   The rest of the house had to wait.  

We went to the States for five months.   While we were gone, lots of creatures moved back into the house:   mosquitoes, spiders, mega ants, and RATS.   I don't even like cute little mice, so the rats were hugely unsettling, especially at night when they would run around over our heads on the fragile ceiling.   They sounded like fifteen Garfields having a party.   Needless to say, sleep was interrupted.

We fumigated the house twice, and treated the rats to a deadly banquet inside the ceiling.   The overhead night life stopped, and we could sleep without insect repellent.   However, the "victory" came at a cost:   Between the fumigations, the poison, and the very contaminated roof situation (dead rats, rat poop, rat nests), the girls and I have been sick almost non-stop.   Tonight Sallie has a temperature of 103.   We have evacuated to Casa Lamb, our missionary guesthouse, and the ceilings will be torn out next week.   I really do not want to be there for that!    The ceilings, by the way, are asbestos.   How do you say multiple contamination in Spanish??     Grosero!!

And after putting four children into school, carrying everyone continuously to the pediatrician, and now replacing a roof, I also need to apply for a Gates Foundation grant!  

Needless to say, while all of this has been going on, we have been trying to get to school, take care of teams, etc.   Today we had a wonderful Open House at the school in Flor.  194 children are enrolled this year, and there was a spirit of excitement in the air.   Beautiful.   I had been invited to give "a short spiritual talk" (I love our school director, Jacqui; she is very specific!), so I talked about how a quality Christian education is more than a useful tool; it is an instrument of healing and liberation.   Leamarie True, who is here for three months training teachers and encouraging our two school staffs, said afterwards, "Being a part of this makes my heart sing."  (smile)    Me, too.

Rats or no rats, evac or no evac, my heart sings when I am on our soccer court with about 200 children, their parents, visiting teams, and our wonderful teaching staff joining them in worship:  "Lift up your eyes and behold:  the harvest is ready!/The time has come!   The field is ripe!/Rise up and proclaim:  Jesus is Life!"   

YES!!   JESUS IS LIFE.

Thank you for your prayers for our home, our continued displacement, the girls' health (especially Sallie), and funding for our school (see the 20/200 Campaign on our website:   http://www.lambinstitute.org/).  

And rejoice with us that our hearts are singing, come what may, because of Jesus, whose Presence brings healing, liberation, and life itself.

Photo Gallery

Here are some photos to supplement recent blogs:

This is Christi Maria, the baby I fell in love with at the hospital.

Jan Kramer from Atlanta made a new banner for our church: "The Good Shepherd Anglican Church"!

Baby Moses needs an adoptive family!

Elsa is enjoying a "Spanish churro," which I did not see in all of my travels stateside.   I guess you'll just have to come down here to enjoy one!

"Group Season"

"Group Season" was officially heralded in on Saturday as two teams arrived:  one led by Son and Helen Trask from Mt. Pleasant, SC, and the other led by Al Thompson from the Atlanta area.   Among its members, Son and Helen's team has a couple (Steve and Debbie) from Pennsylvania, and a couple (Rick and Gale) from Montana!   LAMB is truly expanding its borders, which is very exciting.

Yesterday our children attended church elsewhere, so the Atlanta group went to Cristo Redentor, and the Mt. Pleasant group joined me at the Baptist Church I attended for awhile years ago, and where my son Noah plays guitar with the praise team.   We saw Betsy, "the walking miracle," a cancer survivor, good friend, and truly a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ, heard a great sermon on running the Christian raise with patience, courage, and faithfulness, and of course enjoyed beautiful praise and worship.

Afterwards, both teams went to Valle de Angeles to shop.   Sallie and Elsa were stuck like glue to Helen Trask, so off they went, too, and came home very tired and happy.  

I spent most of Sunday afternoon at the hospital visiting babies.  Actually, to be truthful, I picked up a little girl (4mos) whose mother left her there last Wednesday, and carried her around for two hours.   I left my card with the nurses and a social worker:   "I would LOVE to help with this baby."   Her name is Christi Maria, and she is a doll.   We'll see.   Only God knows how to work these things out, but when I first saw her last Thursday while visiting Moses, I definitely felt that she wanted to go home with  me.   ha. 
For the next two months, we have groups coming down non-stop.   We 're so blessed to have tons of friends!!   And I am praying praying praying that we can finish the boys' cabin by the end of summer, and also get the water situation well on its way to being resolved.   I have set up my office in the church, and am hoping to spend lots of time at the children's home as a support to the staff and children, and also to be with our friends from the States as much as possible.

On the home front, Mary is loving college and doing great.   Sallie and Elsa love their little school, too.  Elsa is even wearing her skirt on Mondays without complaint!    Lety starts school next Monday at a Christian high school.   I'm praying that she will experience a fresh wind of the Spirit there.   Sometimes you just can't fully appreciate the spirituality of your mother, if you know what I mean.   I pray she'll find someone with whom she can connect, and begin to develop her own relationship with Jesus again.  And Lucy . . . well, Lucy is all about playing and being LOUD.   I can't wait until August to put her into kindergarten!   I'm praying for a dynamic, patient, godly, strict teacher for Lucy.   :-)   

Oh, and we have six new puppies!!

Thank you for keeping all of us in your prayers.    Without prayer, we are definitely a ship without a rudder.    Much love in Jesus, Suzy

Jasmine, Linda . . . and Moses!

Trusting in the unseen, having faith without visible evidence -- these are spiritual exercises described in the Scriptures.   God is at work in the spiritual realm where the real battles are being waged.   Our part is to trust Him, and to go forward as if the victory were already won.

I'm trusting God for Jasmine and Linda.   Jasmine took off late yesterday afternoon, promising to return today.   She did not.   I didn't really expect her.   She's back on drugs, high on street freedom, and not interested in attempting once again to make her way to freedom in Christ.    What can I do?  I can visit her on her turf.  I can pray for her.   I can remember that God's eye is on the sparrow, and that He will not forget Jasmine.  

At Social Services today, I spoke frankly about Linda's case.  I was given an explanation.  In the end, we made peace.   I was then told about FIVE babies who need a place to go.  Oh, my.   One of them has a serious medical problem.  Dr. Ken Holden is here, and we have talked about this baby, whose name is Moses (see him above).   Please pray for little, 4-mo-old Moses, who needs quite a few miracles.   

In the end, I said, "If you consider moving Linda again, please think about giving her back to me."   The social worker said, "You want her back?"  What a question!    It is very difficult to work at Social Services, and these people are worn out from trying to figure out how to manage children's lives.   I pray that we will never "grow weary from well-doing" as we care for our own littlest lambs.   Lord, refresh us each and every day as we love Your children in Your Name.

And strengthen our faith, "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11: 1), as we ride out in Jesus' Name for Jasmine, Linda and Moses.