Here is a reason why everyone should live in Nicaragua. I’ve been kind of frustrated with vegetables lately, mainly broccoli. We eat a lot of broccoli (especially in soup), but the ones they sell in the grocery store are on their last leg, and if you don’t cook it quick, it goes bad. For a while they had frozen, but not lately. So today this guy comes by and knocks on the door and asks if I want to buy broccoli, freshly cut today. Well, yes I do (broccoli soup is on my meal list this week). Apparently he has a broccoli farm in Jinotepe and was out looking for new customers. Reason to live in Nicaragua: Fresh broccoli delivery!

We had a special year end service today. David got to teach the lesson, and he talked about making choices (Joshua 24:15 - choose for yourselves who you will serve…). He talked about how some don’t make a choice between God and the world. In Matt. 19:16-22 we find the rich young ruler. He know about God and obeyed the commandments, but this didn’t mean that his heart was right or complete. One part of his heart belonged to God, and the other to his possessions. A person like this is a sad person. We find that he went away sad because he didn’t want to choose. We feel sad today when we don’t choose, when we aren’t committed to anything. We feel lost, alone and nothing feels stable in our lives. Matt 12:25 teaches that a kingdom or a house divided will fail. David concluded here that when we don’t choose, someone else will choose for us, and we won’t be happy with the results. He also talked about choosing the world or choosing God. Simon the sorcerer chose the world in Acts 8:9-13, and he faced condemnation for that choice if left unrepented. When we make a decision, we can’t trick God. Rev. 3:15-16 talks about God knowing the works of a congregation and finding that they were neither cold or hot, but luck warm, and that sickened Him. Matt 6:24 - we can’t serve two masters. Moses is a good example of someone who chose God over the world (heb. 11:24-26). He could have become king of Egypt, because he was raised as the son of the princess, but Moses chose to be a mart of God’s people and refuse the pleasures of this world. He could have had all the treasures Egypt had to offer, but he refused them to suffer serving God. What did Moses gain when he chose God? He had to leave his home, risk his life, walk in the desert for 40 years, deal with complaining and murmuring of thousands of people, suffer for the disobedience of the people, intercede for the people, receive a reward! Eternal life - V26. See also Fames 1:2 and Phil 1:21 for other verses about choosing God. We need to make a firm decision liek Joshua did. Joshua 24:15b - As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

After the lesson, our kids got to do presentations. The 1st level sand “We are soldiers” and Yerling sang a song about children obeying their parents.

The 2nd level sang “I have peace like a river, I have joy like a fountain, I have abundant love.” The my 6 best students answered various questions about our recent classes on Jesus’ life and said their memory verses.

The 3nd level sang “Turn on a light,” a neat song about taking the gospel to the lost. Two of the students named all of the books of the Bible.

Some of the kids from each level did a skit of when Jesus talked about who will go to heaven, and who not. Those who fed, clothed, and helped those in need did it as if they were doing it to Jesus Himself. The “unloving Christian” who doesn’t help others, is really not helping Jesus.

Finally our youth did a fun skit about the “Bad Habit Club.” The kids played Mr. Looking (a womanizer), Mrs. Flirting, Mr. Lying, Mr. Drinking, Mrs. Gossiping, and Mr. Lazy. They all inhabited a man who let Mr. Conscious take over his body every New Years Eve, and so they all had to go out to the “Bad Habit Club.” They all planned to have a nice night out on the town, like they did every New Years, but this year Mr. Conscious decided to really devote his life to Christ, instead of just making a flimsy new year’s resolution like normal. They talked about how all of these things are really sins, but too often we call them “Bad Habits” so we don’t have to take them seriously.

Warning, this is not for the light of heart.
One of our kids, Jaders, from church chopped his thumb off yesterday.  And that’s no exaggeration.  He was pealing a coconut, and the knife slipped and hit his thumb.  They couldn’t find the piece that came off, so he had to have an operation to cut the bone straight and sew it up.  He’s 9 or 10, so this obviously will have life-long consequences as far as writing and working.  Poor kid, when it happened, the blood sprayed all over his face.  I can’t begin to imagine when his mom found him screaming with blood all over how she felt.  Please pray that he recovers well, with no infections or complications, and that he can overcome this.

Well, we had a really fun Christmas. Tradition here is that on Christmas Eve everyone pops firecrackers (well, they do that all the time anyway…) and stay up until midnight to eat a meal. Last year David made it until the meal, but this year he was home by 10:30. I didn’t go (not much of a firecracker person). Christmas day we had a special service for our ladies class (normally we meet on Tuesday, not Monday, but more people had off on Monday). For the month of December we’ve all had secret sisters and have been exchanging small gifts, like candy or cookies. On Christmas we bought a bigger gift and we got to meet our secret sister. We also played games. We sack raced. That was fun/scary since they were hopping in sacks on a waxed tile floor! We also played a game called bee/wasp. Both words start with an “a” in Spanish, so Carolina said “Aaaaaa” and then the word and the group she called had to go catch someone from the other group or free someone caught from their group. I won with three catches!! Another fun game was where we all had memory verses hung on our necks. Throughout the time, we couldn’t cross our legs or arms or touch our hair, or someone could rob our verse. But, if you could say your verse, they couldn’t take it. Whoever had the most won. We also had a pot luck.

Before we started playing, I got to bring the lesson. I talked about constructing our lives well. To open, we talked about how we wouldn’t feel safe in a building built without iron or cement to hold the rocks together, or with banana leaves instead of a metal roof. We also wouldn’t think that once our building was built, we never have to do anything - no painting, no cleaning, nothing. Finally, we wouldn’t never take paint remover and throw it all over the building, or break chairs or windows. We know that we have to build a building well, maintain it, and not do things that will destroy it. Even more so when it is the building where the children of God gather. But, do we apply this to our life as Christians? We talked about these three points in our spiritual life, our physical life and in our emotional life.

Spiritual Life - We all started our spiritual life well constructed. We were born without sin, pure and clean (Matt. 18:3-4). But, we all sinned and destroyed our construction (Romans 3:23). So when we talk here, it’s about reconstructing. Constructing Well: To reconstruct our spiritual life, we have to participate in the death of Jesus, because His blood cleans our consciences (Hebrews 9:14). How do we participate in the death of Christ? Romans 6:2-7. When we build well, when we make a decision to follow Christ, to submit to God (James 4:7) and to repent of our sins, we are readying ourselves to have success in our spiritual life. But, when we make the decision to follow Christ without considering the consequences, without realizing the sacrifices, y without eliminating our pride so we can submit wholly and completely to God, we are preparing ourselves to fail in our spiritual life (Luke 14:26-30). Maintaining: To maintain, we need to prepare ourselves for the temptations of Satan who will use our family, friends, and other Christians. How? Studying the Word of God (Ephesians 5:10), Praying and asking help from God (Hebrews 4:16), practicing, applying and changing (Hebrews 5:14, 1 Pet 1:13, 1 Tim 4:7). Don’t Destroy: We destroy our spiritual life when we return to our old life, a life full of sin, re-crucifying Christ (Heb 10:26, Luke 9:62, Heb 6:4-6).

Physical Life- Our body is the temple of God. What is the temple? It’s where God dwells (1 Cor. 6:19-20). There are times when we take care of and respect our building more than our bodies. We confuse where God lives - in us, not in our building. Build well: If we haven’t been taking care of our bodies, we need a plan to get healthy first. This is building well. We might have to eat less than normal to lose weight, or remove something from our diet until we are healthy. We might have to exercise more than normal until we are healthy. Even if we are eating well, if we aren’t exercising, we aren’t healthy. Maintain: We are never going to wake up one day and say that we are healthy and there’s nothing else to do. We always have to eat (well), exercise and take care of our hair, teeth, etc. I heard a story that helped me realize how we need to take care of ourselves: If you have kids, you can use them for your example. If not, think that you woke up one morning to find a baby on your doorstep with a note asking you to care for it. How many of you, if you were tired would say “Well, I’m too tired to feed the baby this afternoon. He’ll have to wait until the morning”? Or “Ah, there’s just too much for me to do today, I don’t have time to bathe the baby”? Or “I’m going to brush his teeth tomorrow; I just don’t want to do it today”? Or “I know the baby is thirsty, but I’ll give hims some water later”? I would hope that none of us! Now, who takes care of us? Who feeds us, gives us water, bathes us, and brushes our teeth? We do! God gave us this body, and it is our responsibility to take care of it every moment. How? Eat well - a variety of foods to get all vitamins. Exercise, bathe, brush our teeth, fix our hair and wear appropriate clothes. Don’t Destroy: Drinking and smoking. I think we all know these things aren’t good for us, and can cause sicknesses. But do we also know that too much of certain foods can cause sicknesses. Fat, salt, sugar, caffeine, etc, etc. These things, in excess, can cause sicknesses like diabetes, high blood pressure and cavities. Let’s not destroy the temple of God!

Emotional Life - I’m talking about how we like to feel, and our relationships with others. If everything is good in life, do we feel joyful, or bored? Do we try to fix problems as quickly as possible, or do we look for problems and don’t try to fix them so that we can have something to complain about? Do we win friends by an ear ready to listen, or by gossiping or talking bad about others? This is what I’m talking about here. Construct Well: We should build our relationships and emotions with God as our guide. How should we feel? Joyful (1 Peter 1:8), Thankful (Col. 2:7), Content/not complaining (1 Tim 6:8), James 3:17 lists others. We should meditate and practice these things to have a good construction, because in the moment of temptation, who has the self control to act well without the knowledge of right/wrong or the time to study how we should react. We need a foundation first to fight against Satan. Maintain: We temptation comes, we need a plan to conquer it. This is how we maintain our emotional life. Examples: Gossiping - When someone comes to your house and starts to gossip with you, how will you respond? 1 - This sounds like gossip and I don’t want to participate. 2 - Is what you’re going to say good or bad? I don’t want to listen to the bad (being a negative person is also an unhealthy emotion). 3 - If you have a problem with ___, you should talk to them about it. God doesn’t give me the freedom to listen to this story. Negative thinking - If a friend or you personally have a problem with always thinking negatively, about others for example, what can you do? 1 - Work to have compassion and try to understand how the person who offended you could have done what they did. Is that their personal area of weakness? Were they extra busy and not thinking? Are we reading too much into it? 2 - Look for the good in the person you’re feeling negative about. 3 - Work to fix them problem with that person. If you ask why they did something, rather than shouting accusations, you might find out you just misunderstood or were being selfish in your thinking. Don’t Destroy: When we like problems, gossip and other relational/emotional sins, we are destroying the emotions we should have. If I want a friend, and I win them over by talking bad about their “enemy” I’m delighting in the results of my sin. If I like to make problems grow by my gossip so that I have something to do/talk about, I’m delighting in an emotion created by sin (Prov. 26:20). If I’m always negative and look for bad so that I can complain, I’m delighting in an emotion created by sin (Prov. 17:22). These things destroy our emotional life. Example: On a call in show where two women help people with housecleaning and life arrangement, a woman called in asking how she could get her family to help her out more around the house. She wasn’t too happy when the women responded, “You can’t. You want the house clean; they don’t care; it’s up to you to do it.” The woman went on to say that she had a 16 yr old daughter who did help out, in fact, she made dinner every night for her family! What was this woman complaining about!?! Her daughter didn’t do the dishes after dinner! The two hosts stopped her and said, “Wait a minute! You have a 16 yr old daughter who is willing to make dinner every night, and you’re complaining she doesn’t do the dishes too!?!” The lady still didn’t get it. She kept trying to complain and the hosts kept shutting her down. This woman obviously was delighting in her negativity and complaining. She was delighting in her unhealthy emotion and destroying her healthy emotions of thankfulness and joy.

I was looking online to see what I could do to spice up my pot roast, and found this recipe.  Interesting.

PREPARATION:

Brown meat on all sides in shortening in heavy kettle or Dutch oven. Add tomatoes, coffee, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add onion and carrot; simmer for 15 minutes.

Add potatoes and cook until vegetables are tender; add peas and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.To thicken liquids: Make a paste with 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour and a little cold water; stir until smooth. Stir into hot liquid a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Pot roast serves 6.

I’ve sat down many times in the past few weeks to write a newsletter, but never can think of what to say! We’ve been busy, but it’s just with routine things. I was thinking about it last night, and I thought, “Hey, we finally are settled enough to have routines!” Only took us a year and a half!! We’ve got the farm all settled with Roger in charge of the workers and the harvesters, Juan Pablo in charge of farm maintenance, and Milton, a new worker, who guards the farm since we’re in the coffee harvest. We have church activities in order. I teach Sunday Bible class to 6-10 year olds, David teaches the youth. I teach women’s class every 3rd Tuesday of the month. David preaches about twice a month (though it’s been a lot more this month!). David is in charge of Wed. and Thurs. services and plans devotionals and prayer lists. We are in charge of the benevolence of the church, and we (thanks to my mom’s great idea) have bags of food staples in the pantry ready to give away when there’s a need. I have cold meds and pain meds and everything under the sun, and we make regular trips to the pharmacy to fill church members’ prescriptions. I”m in charge of the all the kid’s classes, and I’m working on curriculum for next year. I finally got all of the farm/coffee accounting organized and now I’m just working on upkeep. We’ve got all the systems in order! Yeah!! It sure has made life easier. I remember in the beginning we weren’t doing near as much, but it was harder because everything was new, and we didn’t know which pharmacy to go to, where to buy food in the market, etc. Now, we do MUCH more, but everything is smooth because we’ve learned where to go and how to organize tasks.

Not only are we getting it together at work, we’ve also been able to make routines at home now. I started working on FLYlady (www.flylady.net) a few weeks ago, and it has changed the home! She talks a lot about removing clutter, and we not only have our personal junk, but we have clutter from mission trips, kid’s class supplies, a big container of medicine, and on and on. Getting all that put away in a two bedroom house and still have walking space is quite a task! I read online that “they” are now advising 1 hour of workout daily, so I added 6 min of cardio to the end of my 40 min. pilates (I’m taking it gradually!). It seems like a lot of time, an hour a day, but I think it’s worth it.