A new command in loving

Too often, I hear non-believers say, "I don't understand you Christians. Jesus was about love. Why do Christians judge and criticize so much?" Indeed, this was one reason I stayed away from church for so long: the perception of judgement and hypocrisy. As Christians, we want the love of Jesus, it makes us feel good. But our sin nature often means we don't always give the love that He commands of us.

 At the Last Supper, Jesus said: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:34-35  

When we went to Honduras, this verse was on the back of our t-shirts. What does it mean?  In our society, we think of love as something we feel. It's a warm and fuzzy feeling associated with romance or family bonds; how we feel about our children; how Hollywood and books tell us we should feel about our spouses, forever and ever, Amen. Or until we don't feel so warm and fuzzy anymore, and the world tells us to quit while we are ahead and move on.

So, when Jesus tells us to love everyone as He loved us - and we know He loves us greatly - we can struggle with that. We look at some of the unlovable around us and think, "but...."
Each of us has our own group of society that we don't feel warm and fuzzy about. It might be addicts, the homeless, gang members, thieves, people with different political beliefs, bullies, gossips, liars, victims, cheats.

Do you think of one of those groups and feel something very different to warm and loving feelings? Does Jesus even expect us to feel for them as we feel for our nearest and dearest? or was He talking about something else?
I sometimes class this as "Jesus-sized love" - that it takes His heart to love the unlovable. But that's a cop out. And Jesus said so, when He said "If we love only those who give us love, what is so great about that kind of love?"

So what do we do with that? 

"As I have loved you, so you must love one another." 

As I have loved you. Right there, Jesus is telling us how to do it.  Love is a verb. To love, to act, to do....something. The Gospels are filled with His instruction on how to love that way, both directly stated and demonstrated in the way He treated His disciples, friends, neighbors, strangers and enemies.
He loved by teaching, forgiving, serving, humbling Himself, giving hope, encouraging, chastising, correcting, explaining, healing, sharing, praying for them, sacrificing, helping, showing mercy, giving second chances.

Not by sitting back and feeling noble feelings. His love is an action.


The Apostle Paul gave us a great summary in 1 Corinthians 13. This is often read at weddings and quoted on Facebook on Valentine's Day, so again misinterpreted as something we feel or we are to get from others. Read it, even if you know it by heart.

"Love is patient, love is kind. 
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  
 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Now re-read it but where there are spaces, insert your name.

________ is patient, ________ is kind. 
________ does not envy, ________ does not boast, ________ is not proud.  
________ does not dishonor others, ________ is not self-seeking, ________ is not easily angered, ________ keeps no record of wrongs.  
 ________ does not delight in evil but ________ rejoices with the truth.  
________ always protects, ________ always trusts, ________ always hopes, ________ always perseveres.

 
How did you do?  Repeat it thinking of how you behave towards your spouse, then your family and friends. Then try it with one of those groups in society that you might not like.

When I do this exercise, it never fails to show me where I need to do some work on myself, both with my family and friends, and with strangers.

A week in the life of a team member at Manuelito Project

I wrote this post for general info, and for anyone who will be visiting the project for the first time. Although our team was really well prepared before we left, there can be anxiety when facing the unknown so this is really to help eliminate one of the unknowns!

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can join a team in one of several ways: join a specialized team through WGM or Hope Teams, example VBS, construction, medical or go with a team from your own church/ family that is more general. We did the latter so that's what this post will cover, but if you are visiting the Project with another type of team you will still find some information useful.

Typically the project takes 2 teams per month, with a 1 week break in between each group. Standard size seems to be around 12 people. Given that the project receives so many teams through the year, often the planning for the work is done very close to the time of your trip. Unless you are in a specific work team (example, VBS) then the work your team does may be determined by the team before you. This means you may not know exactly what you are doing until the week before you go when planning is done and supplies purchased. The project does get a list of your skills (from your application) so that will be taken into account.

Installing a steel mesh covering over
a food storage room

We were told we had a certain amount of leeway with our activities, too. If we saw a need that we could work on, then we could do so as long as budget allowed. One example is building the footbridges: in the rainy season, ditches to the school and the soccer field make it difficult to get around, so we built a couple of small footbridges to get across.


Teams are housed for the week in a team building with one male and one female dorm. The dorms have bunk beds in one large room, and a bathroom with a few toilet cubicles and a couple of showers. The showers are mostly cold, although that might change as this is a very new building and we were only the fifth team to use it.

Arriving at the Project

Our group arrived on a Saturday, and the weekend is fairly typical with no school or work going on. We started off from the airport with a stop for food (American fast food) then traveled the 1-1/2 hours to Talanga by bus with the US missionaries, Justin and Ashley. After getting settled, we took a brief tour, had orientation, dinner then we had introductions from the kids in the dining hall.

Sunday is a day of rest and play. Church service is on site. We were asked to lead the service so we used a few hymns in Spanish from our missionary devotions book and one in English. A few of us gave testimonies and Rob gave a short message, all translated by Justin. They love music so they also had their own time of worship music.

Sunday on the project is a great day to hang out and play with the kids. They love soccer so it's a great ice breaker. We also had a game of kickball, and took out some crafts to the dining hall.

A game in the hall

Brayan teaches the girls another version of the 'cup song'

Monday through Thursday: Meals run at 8am, 12pm, 5pm. The teams eat first, then the children arrive for their meal. I think our first meal was the same as theirs but after that we had something different. School runs from 7am to 1pm so this was our time for work projects.  We usually worked until mid or late afternoon and since we were also painting the kitchen (which is used all day), some stayed up till late, painting after the kids went to bed.

Monday: Tour of the school

Tour of the school. Jer 29:11

The afternoons & early evening are a great time to spend with the kids. They have time for chores and homework and sometimes other activities like dance lessons, but there are always some around with free time.

Evenings: During the week, curfew is at 8pm so it's back to the dorms for devotions and time to relax. Or blog. Or look for bugs.

Friday:  A short day. Work or visit the local town/ hill depending on the schedule. After lunch we left for Tegucigalpa, after a trip to Valle de Angeles. In Teguc, we stayed at the WGM guesthouse (hot showers!!), took a tour of the city by mini-bus (too unsafe to walk), ate at a safe restaurant (armed security and cameras) and wound down before our flight on Saturday.

If you are visiting for the first time, I hope you find this useful. We'd be happy to answer any questions, so feel free to leave them in the comments below or contact us.

How to join a volunteer missions team

If you are looking to be boldly compassionate and join a missions team as a short term volunteer there are many ways to go about it, and various organizations that can help you. I am just highlighting a couple.

• Through church (your own or another)
• Through WGM (1 week to 3 years)
• Through Hope Teams International
• Through other organizations

WGM and Hope Teams can help you join another team if you don't have one to go with. Groups might be general in experience, or they might have a specific focus, example medical or dental teams, construction crews, VBS (vacation bible school) teams. We were a general team.

Preparation - we used this book: Successful Mission Teams: A Guide for Volunteers. It's out of print but you can get second hand one copies online.We also spent time building teamwork and spiritual and emotional preparedness. If traveling to a place very different from home, research the area and culture ahead of time.

Finances - A week in Honduras can be $1800, further afield could be a lot more. This covers airfare, food, lodging and materials for projects. In our case, the lodgings were on site and so the money benefited the charity directly. Bigger projects may obviously cost more, depending on materials.
Additional costs might include passport & vaccinations. 

Churches may sponsor you, and fundraising is a great way to get the community helping. People donate money or goods to take with you and it's a wonderful way to forge relationships between your home church/ town and the mission project in another town/ state or country. Anything extra raised by our team went directly to the kids/ project for materials, kitchen equipment, fun stuff for the kids.


Background checks are often needed, especially if working with children.

True Beauty Tips

Source: CupCakeMonster2

Yesterday I posted about the story of a pastor who lived homeless for a week, and how an incorrect story circulated the internet, causing arguments over the validity of the story - all the while distracting us from the truth and the great valid message it teaches.

While I was researching that, I came across a poem that gets misquoted but has a great message of true beauty. It is often mis-attributed to the beautiful Audrey Hepburn. In reality, she didn't pen this but she did quote it often as a favorite of hers.

Time Tested Beauty Tips by Sam Levenson

For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things,
Have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed,
And redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,
You will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands;
One for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

How far does your compassion go?

The purpose of this blog is two-fold: to share our experiences of stepping out in faith from feeling compassion to acting upon it, and secondly to encourage others to do the same.

This week, a story has circulated the social media world. It was a great story about a new pastor of a church challenging the compassion of the congregation. He dressed down as a homeless person, mingling with the congregation before the church service to see how he was received. Then when the new pastor was being introduced, he shocked all by going up to the altar, reading from Matthew 25 (from which this blog sub-heading is taken) and revealed himself as the new pastor.
The sad thing about this story being circulated is that it is apparantly a fake story. The named pastor (Jeremiah Steepek) with the quoted congregation of 10,000 cannot be found. A pastor of a church of that size would surely be found in a directory somewhere. Around the arena of the internet, onlookers scoff at the gullible for believing and at Christians for being immobile.

So the message gets lost. Oh yes, nice in theory, but see: it's not true.

But isn't it?  Was it, perhaps, just a great story that someone felt the need to exaggerate for a point?  Because there is a rel story here. True and confirmed.  The congregation might be 200 instead of 10,000 but if enough report it then it gets the message to tens of thousands.

The real story can read in The Tennessean, of a Pastor named Rev. Willie Lyle of Sango United Methodist Church in Tennessee. Rev Lyle felt convicted that he was to live out what he preached, and for one week he lived as a homeless person: sleeping on the streets, getting food as and when he could in the same way as any other homeless person.
On the morning of his first sermon, he propped himself under a tree on the lawn of the church. He was unwashed, unbrushed and covered in a large overcoat.

The article doesn't state how he made a grand entrance, but he began his sermon in the same attire. From the article,

the sermon title was “The Least Used Parts of the Body” and based on I Corinthians 12:12-15. According to Pastor Lyle, “Often the least used parts of the body are the ones that mean the most, like our heart and mind. We need to understand that there are no small or least used parts in the body of Christ.
“Too many of us only want to serve God one hour each week. That doesn’t cut it. That is not God’s plan.”

As he preached, his daughter and daughter-in-law brushed his hair, cleaned up his beard, helped him change his shoes, took his overcoat and he donned his tie and suit jacket. He transformed from pitied or frowned-upon homeless man to respected pastor with the message - don't just talk about it. Be part of the solution. Do it.


Why anyone felt the need to change the story, the name, the location, the great details, I don't know. It does nothing but detract from the message; gets non-believers mocking that we have to make something up perhaps, and makes believers turn away embarrassed. So let's move on. I won't dwell on the schemes that cause division but look at the solution, plan it and do it.

Who will join in being part of the solution? Being the church? Taking the one hour a week on a Sunday and turning the world's stage into a 24/7 mission field?

Word of the year: Do

At the beginning of this year a number of people in our church selected a 'word of the year' for themselves. The word was to be something to focus on and act upon, and at the end of the year assess how they did.

My word was do.

Do.  Not "think about it", "talk about it", "dream about it", "plan it". Do.
Giving up the over-thinking, talking, dreaming, planning cycle I had gotten into for a few years, do seemed a little bold to me. What if there were things I couldn't do? Or turned out to be a bad idea?  Or I had to do something I didn't like? Despite my concerns, I felt compelled that do was the word.

Do boils down to obedience because I know full well there are plenty of things I should not do or just don't want to do. Was I going to practice discernment to weed out the dreams that were futile or meant for someone else? To put aside the many things I do selfishly? Open my heart and mind to being lead by something bigger than me? Would I relinquish the control of my ambitions and my plans and to trust in Jeremiah 29:11-13?

Do, then. Seek with all my heart and trust that the plans of the Lord are far greater than mine, even when I don't see that.

If I look at the trip from the point of view of "great plans", for some people God's plan might not seem better than my usual July plans. For the past few years, our week off work looked like this: Beach. Fun. Great food. Lazy days. No work. Reading time. Sleeping late. A glass of wine on the porch in a rocking chair. Amusement park. Sand and the ocean. Sounds like a great plan for a week long trip, right?

God's plan for 2013's week off work: Get no sleep for 36 hours. Get up at 6:30am every day. Take icy showers, if and when the water is on. Stay on your feet all day and get swollen ankles. Don't leave the secure compound. Withstand spiritual attack. Share bunks with 8 others. Stay up through the night to pray for the sick ones. Experience the beautiful smiles of strangers. Their hope in you. Hugs, because your smile brightened their day. Tears, because your heart broke for what breaks His. Joy, because you followed a nudge to overcome shyness, to speak to a stranger and listen to their heart. Because you gave a little girl a goodnight hug when she has no mama to do it. To have your own teenager ask, Can we do this again next year instead of the beach?

Several people have written to me recently saying they have been inspired by my family for taking this trip. I think it's great that they are inspired, but I cannot take the credit. We were simply being obedient. We had hopes for our trip, and we got so many blessings and rewards that I am still counting them. It doesn't feel selfless or generous when we surely received more from it than we put into it.  

Do has been my word this year and so far it's working out well for me.

Random thoughts and facts about the Manuelito Project

Over the coming weeks, we will share more about the project, our thoughts about it and about how we feel about the place, the mission and the kids. If you'd like to be alerted, you can sign up for email updates on the sidebar.


Overall we had a fantastic week at the Project. Although several of the team did get sick, we do believe that we were in the center of spiritual warfare. When you are doing great things for God, letting Him lead you, you can be sure that the enemy will try his best to sway you or stop you. But we didn't allow doubt to creep in and we had prepared ourselves spiritually in advance for something that would stop our work. After a night of praying over the sick members, I was really sure that we were doing God's work and we continued on!

A little more about the place. This is not an orphanage in the traditional sense of the word; it is more of a children's home. Most of the children do have at least one living parent, but due to abuse, neglect or homelessness the children found themselves either in Child Protective Services or the Project. CPS in Honduras is not a place a child would want to be. More on that another time!

The Project is on a plot of land around 40 to 50 acres, some farmed, some with animals. It is fenced in with a security gate and guard for protection. There are several buildings: boys and girls dorms, a school, a kitchen and dining hall, the new team building with office/ mini store for t-shirts and new clinic (not yet open), the director's house and the house of Justin & Ashley - the US missionaries.

The kids share the soccer field

The school has concrete floors and barred windows but they have no glass. Wind and rain can enter the windows. There is a high metal roof, but the side walls of the classrooms have no ceiling so there is noise from room to room. They have a small library. The kids are mostly keen to learn, but many have learning disabilities or behavior problems due to emotional or physical need. Although we had raised money for a new ceiling, the recent decision was made to put the money into a new school which will break ground in their next dry season.

While we were there we saw much activity. School runs from 7am with devotionals until 1pm. Although the project is home to 37 kids (max 40) it also educates another 23 from the poorest homes in town. The town kids eat breakfast and lunch there. After school they do homework and school projects, wash their clothes in the outdoor concrete pilas, take dance lessons from a local boy who visits or play soccer or other games. 
The boys are more outgoing. This seems to be cultural: boys get introduced first, get served dinner first. They are the leaders.

Washing dishes after dinner

Kids will turn anything into a playground!

Climbing on the back at every opportunity

In addition to kid activity, there was labor going on the new clinic, some farming, grass cutting. This is done by hand with machetes. Sand was delivered for cement by ox and cart, though bricks came by truck. The land is flat but filled with hidden holes and ditches. The kids seem to know exactly where to walk. Unsuspecting visitors can find themselves up to their knee in a hole.

As visitors from advanced countries, we may scratch our heads at some things. Some Hondurans prefer a machete over a lawnmower. Time is not important. I didn't see a clock for 7 days. Their ways are not ours, and while some ways could certainly be improved, other elements where preferable. I began to like not knowing the time. A conversation & developing relationship was more important than being on time to the next event. While I may not want to give up the courtesy of being on time, the lesson that relationships are more important than anything else is a lesson not to be missed.

Honduras child sponsorship

I will be posting more about the Manuelito Project, the kids and the impact it had on us over the next weeks. If you don't want to miss a post, sign up for email - see the sidebar for details.

In the meantime, you can get involved with the kids without leaving home! The kids always seek sponsors. You can help for $30 a month or more. The money itself gets pooled to cover the financial needs of supporting the child (it costs around $2,000 per year per child), but you pick a child to support directly with letters and prayer.
If you cannot do anything monthly, there is an option for one-time donations also. 

To do so, visit Hope Teams: http://www.hopeteams.org/#/child-sponsorship/honduras

Final morning in Talanga

A brief post as we are in a hurry... the bracelets are made by the kids, sales of these and t shirts benefit the kids directly with something fun. This week they saved for a trip to the water park.  Took a walk up a local hill to the cross statue. The kids ran up the 250 steps. I slumped my way up.  Took a little trip into the local town (pink store) where we bought baskets and trinkets. Between us we spend only $64 but the little old lady was in tears and came out for a group photo.  Sad farewells.... beautiful smiles and big hugs. Love and prayers. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Thursday on the project

We finished up painting the dining hall, kitchen, putting screens on windows, on the ceiling of a storage room, and building 2 footbridges over ditches. The afternoon was for fun. Some of us played basketball with the kids, some made balsa wood planes. That was a blast, with a few kids and Craig having to hop onto the roof to get some down. Adonis and Gabriel stayed out with the planes hours after everyone else had gone inside. We also had a small meeting with Pastor Pinto, the founder of the project who shared his passion for the project, the kids and the people who take care of them. The day ended with the kids presenting us with songs, dance, drama and beatiful words and testimonies. Too many photos of that to share in one post. It was our last full day here. Friday we will be hiking with the kids up a hill nearby and playing some football (soccer) before heading to Teguc and the WGM guesthouse. I haven't said much about the impact the kids have had on us. Typing these posts on a phone and in the few quiet moments hasn't given much chance for that but as I process those thoughts, I will share those here. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Sundresses and airplanes

Today was not just about laundry but also about the kids. Check out some pics of them in their new sundresses. The boys had some fun with their aviones de papel (paper airplanes). Pics of them playing to come! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Laundry day

For me, today is laundry day. As half of our crew have been sick, I am washing bed sheets and towels. For the kids that would mean using the concrete washing wells with washboard and cold water. In the pool of the well swims little fish and tadpoles. For me, I get to use a washer at the directors house, on the porch. 1 washer works, to a limit. I load with clothes, put in the hose then walk to the back of the building to turn it on. Back to washer to watch it fill, return to tap to turn off, back to washer to run the machine. Come back in an hour, repeat filling process to rinse. Repeat a 3rd time for extra rinse if clothes were dirty and extra soap needed (no hot water). It has taken me several hours to wash, and even with the washer I had to use the washboard for cleaning some things properly. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Tuesday - making purses at Manuelio Project

I type these posts from my phone, so please excuse typos and the non-captioned pics. Plus Tuesday's post is late because it was an eventful day! Some great, some just sent to block our work here. So, the great. We prepped treat bags for the kids before going on to finish painting the dining hall, and Jason made progress with the steel mesh for the windows in the kitchen. We had some really wonderful time spent with the girls on the project, we made the no sew totes that were a huge hit. Lots of fun, lots of grinning, posing for photos, sharing, hugging. It was a blessing to be part of it. A few younger boys wanted to join in but we have airplanes for them which we will do today (Wed). In the evening we had movie night in the hall, with peanut butter and crackers for a treat. We had little cups we'd brought from home. The kids also like to join us with painting, some have good English, others understand us but are to shy to speak it. Some of the delays... as we finished up the bags, some government workers came to fumigate for mosquito control. With little warning, these guys gave no chances for people to move or clear out possessions. The stink of diesel fumes lasted for many hours and we sat outside just waiting. One of the photos show it billowing through. In addition, several of the team caught a stomach virus that has been around the town and it has wiped them out, with Gretchen and I on nurse duty.  Today the sick ones are recovering and resting, hoping to be able to rejoin us tonight. Nothing serious but also not nice for them.Please pray for quick recovery and protection for the rest of us and the project, and that we can use our remaining time to serve well! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Monday at the Manuelito Project

Today was packed full with activity! We took a tour of the schoolhouse, a small building of various rooms and a small library that educated 60 children - 37 from the project and 23 locals from the poorest families. The kids seem to enjoy the learning and one teacher is a women who lived in the project herself, graduating college and coming back to serve. I forgot my camera for that so pics will follow when we return! After the tour we began work. Today we painted the dining hall, which is also the center for church, activities and movies. We will also be painting the kitchen, and our church donations will fund new windows, doors and bug screens to keep out the problematic flies. Tomorrow we paint the kitchen, and ours funds will cover a new stove as theirs is broken. Jason will be welding... more on that tomorrow. We were almost ready to stop for the day and play with the kids when a few came to join us and help. It gave us some energy to paint for longer and bond with a few of them, even with the language barrier. Games of Ninja, dancing and hanging out made up the evening. A great delight was visiting the dorm of the youngest kids, who pounced on us for holding hands and showing off with handstands on the couch. Water was off again today. We had a brief time with it tonight and we took showers in record time :-) Bible study was partly by flashlight but the electricity did come on again after a short time.