Nate & Jen's House

Here are a few up-to-date pictures of the house:

Kitchen cabinets waiting for paint.




A wall after two coats of paint - not sure which wall it is!!




The vaulted ceiling. Jen said on Facebook that Nate designed the screened opening in the vault, I assume to help remove the heat that rises.




The only room not open to the vaulted ceiling is the bathroom. They hope to be in their house within the next couple of weeks. The last I heard, they still had to install the solar panels, run water to the house, install the windows and do the electrical work. And finish painting, of course!!

Trica

The Call To Love

Occasionally, when the vehicles are up and running, I will bake banana bread for the sick children at the hospital. At first, I will admit, it felt weird, knowing the extreme differences in food preferences between the Ni-Van’s and an American such as myself. I have the usual insecurities of an inexperienced cook but as luck would have it, bananas are something loved equally by both sides of the equator.

This past Friday was a special trip. In times past, it has been slightly awkward and I wondered if the recipients found it awkward culturally to accept a gift from a stranger. This time was different. The nurses recognized me and smiled as if an old friend had come. The children were exceptionally outgoing and eager to receive. It made me feel so incredibly good just to do something for someone else, someone who was not a relative, not a friend, but a stranger.

The Bible teaches us that love “seeketh not her own.” It also says when you do something for “the least of these,” it is as if you have done something for Christ Himself. When we show others love, we are living examples. We are His hands and feet reaching out to those in need. So no, I didn’t build a pulpit and preach them a Sunday sermon. I simply took a little time out of my day to love.

God has richly blessed me with this opportunity. I know that missions is not about the missionary - it is about the people. But by loving a stranger, I was, in fact, loving God.

This was not a part of my assignment. This was an opportunity to do something on my own as unto the Lord. I am building relationships with the people, and building my confidence as a Christian worker. Who knows, maybe next time I will ask to pray with someone, or maybe they will be able to see Christ ‘s love in me and ask me to pray for them.

I am reminded of the five loaves and two fishes and how God made them stretch to feed 5000. So why couldn’t God use a loaf of banana bread and a chatty girl from Texas?

There are no cultural limits on the language of love. Some rarely speak it, while others rarely have it spoken to them. My goal as a missionary is not to prove how smart I am, how much knowledge I have about the country, or to have statistics proving my worth. My goal is to show Christ’s unfailing love to a people who have had their fill of a selfish imitation of true love.

It is a simple truth, but it is my greatest calling - the call to love.

Jennifer

Resting On The Workbench

Move. Move. Move.

Go. Go. Go.

Get to where you need to go and get there fast!

Born and raised in the U.S.A., these mottos have been implanted deeply in to my mind. I never thought that I was one of those people who had to be accomplishing things in order to feel good about myself. But, it turns out, I place a lot of my self-worth in the things I accomplish.

Looking back, it seems I have lived my life project to project; measuring my life by things accomplished.

I work hard to get things done. For what? So that I would have another badge on my mental merit wall, another trophy in my case of things I have done? Or does it go deeper than that; am I working just to prove that I measure up?

I have found that this mentality has been with me for most of my life and has even followed me onto the mission field. Though I say I am working for the Lord, I still feel I must keep a “to-do” list of things I need to accomplish. I have to prove to everyone that I can be in this ministry. If I am honest, I would even say I am trying to prove to God that I can do this work.

Key word: "I”.

Recently, while at a missions retreat, a phrase was mentioned in passing that caught my attention and got me to thinking. Four words, “. . . resting on the workbench”.

We as Christians sometimes use the woodcarver as a metaphor for God working in our lives. He cuts and shapes us, carving away what is not needed to bring out the shape He desires. As the knife moves, we become what the Carver wants.

In this whole process, where is the wood? Better yet, what does the wood do? There is only one thing for the wood to do.

Rest.

Where does the wood rest?

On the workbench!

I have tried so hard to prove myself, trying to take shape on my own. I work harder and faster trying to be useful on my own terms. I try to prove to my Maker that “I can”.

The truth is, I really can’t. Not on my own, anyway.

Sometimes God calls us to a time of waiting. During this time we often get very uncomfortable. We can think of a thousand things that need to be done. We make lists of thing that we need to do as soon as we can get going again. But the simple truth is this: if we would just take the waiting time to rest on His workbench, we would be accomplishing so much more that our feeble self-efforts ever could. Time spent on His workbench is never wasted.

I sometimes need to be reminded that my God is in control. He is working even when I am not. He who knew me before I was born knows what He is making of my life. I just need to relax and let the Carver do His work. You see, only when the wood rests on the workbench can the Master Carver do His work.

Let Him turn the wood as He wishes, let His tools move and do their work. In the end He will bring out everything He intended to.

I can move and go and try to work on a thousand different projects at once, but in the end I know what I will find: I can never accomplish more than when I allow myself to rest on the workbench.

Nate