Provision (by Nate)

We recently received notice that there are roughly 90 boys in the two orphanages we visit. That’s roughly 25-30 more than we expected, which is okay with us. We usually plan on getting extra stuff and writing extra letters, but this time we had a wonderful surprise.

One of our high school Spanish teachers was at Wade’s, Rachael’s brother, graduation party. She had provided Spanish comics for the kids on for our last trip and just happened to ask if we needed anything else for our upcoming trip June 23-30. It came to me that we might have a perfect timing of events since her Spanish students were going through finals last week. Finals in high school tend to result in a lot of down time, the way I remember it. So I threw out the idea that she could possibly motivate some of her students to use their Spanish in a meaningful way by having them write some letters to these kids in Guatemala. By the end of day she had 19 letters waiting for us! They don’t require us to translate them like a lot of the ones from church do. I figure we saved at least a couple of hours just by bumping in to her!

Some people might say that we have good networking skills or that we were just in the right place at the right time. But I think faith in God is much more than just a few coincidences happening to a person. I think we willfully act in a certain direction, believing that God provides for the work he commissions. Perhaps the clearest story of this happening is with Abraham in Genesis.

In Genesiss 22, God tests Abraham. At this point he’s old and been through a lot that developed his faith in God. He’s already seen God make promises to bless him and make him into a great nation. Now he’s a wealthy man, the father of a great nation, and finally the father of his very own natural born son, Isaac. God’s test, at this point, is to see if Abraham will obey him even when it comes to the point of trusting God with his only son, which is arguably the most valuable thing to Abraham at this point.

In verse 2, God says, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

When they get up to the mountain, Isaac asks Abraham about the sacrifice: “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

And Abraham’s faithful response was, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

There is no way that Abraham knew the outcome of this situation, but I think he believed that God would come up with some way to fulfill his promise to Abraham. Whatever the outcome, it was more important to Abraham to willfully obey than to question or refuse God.

I think there are a ton of great lessons to be extrapolated from this story, but I think today I see that Abraham was obedient because he knew God to be a great provider for needs. I hope that through this whole Guatemala era of our lives that I become very obedient to God as I see and understand that God has provided for us and will continue to provide for our needs!

The Power of Stories–Guatemala Day 1 (Rachael)

In my opinion, there really is no better way to start a trip like this than with a visit to the babies’ home.  At the home, we got to see precious Mili (she is a beautiful 3-yr-old who was found in a dumpster when she was just a baby), and Celeste (Celeste is blind in one eye.  Her mom took her to a witch doctor because she had an eye infection, and the witch doctor put something in her eye that caused her eye to go blind).  And, to our surprise, Jose!  The five big kids (Jose (8), Estuardo (7), Juan Pablo (6), Danny (6), and Alejandra (6)) are in school in the mornings, but Jose’s teacher didn’t show up, so he came home.  (Don’t you wish that would have happened to you when you were in school?) Not only does Jose not speak English, but he also doesn’t speak Spanish either.  He has hearing aids that help him hear, but he communicates primarily through sign language.  Not too surprisingly, that didn’t stop Nate.  Unlike me, Nate seems to have no problems communicating without words.  The two of them looked like they should join a circus with all of their flips and cartwheels and tricks! 

 

 

 

 

I have to admit I was shocked by how the one-on-one attention affected Jose.  He was so calm, patient, and easy-going.  He didn’t scream or pull on our clothes or jump in our faces trying to get us to take a picture. It makes me wonder what Jose could achieve if he was with his family, a foster family, or some other situation that allowed him to regularly receive that kind of focused attention.

 

I was thrilled to see Jose, but I missed the other big kids.  The Wiggins have taught us a lot about loving the older kids, and I can’t wait to see them later this week and spend more time with them on future trips. 

 

We also got to spend part of the morning at the single moms’ home, because that’s where the toddlers from the babies’ home (namely Isabelle, Crystal, and Marvin) go for daycare.  While we were there, I met a lady from Texas named Robin.  She and her husband have custody of the girl they are adopting, but the paperwork isn’t finalized, so they aren’t able to take her home!  I had heard part of their story from Emily Wiggins, so I introduced myself to Robin and asked her if we could pray for her.  It was a bold move for me, and I’m thankful that she sounded like we encouraged her rather than coming across as crazy, weirdo strangers.

 

 

Jen and Isabelle at the Single Moms’ Home

Sophie tried to cover me with stickers.

We spent the afternoon at Elisa Martinez.  I think Jen described it well when she said that it seemed like there was more peace at the place than there has been in the past. I don’t know if it’s the new facility, the number of boys, or the fact that they have room to burn off their energy, but our time today at EM was truly fun.

The boys were in awe of Emily’s creativity.

 

Hugo and his elephant

Our lesson for the boys today was about self control.  We told the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39) and tried to help the boys see that any man who can run away from a naked woman who wants to sleep with him is definitely the kind of guy you want to study if you need some help with self control.  To end the lesson, we gave the boys model magic, and they were supposed to mold it into something that reminded them to be self controlled.  I was playing with the clay and watching the boys do their thing when Emily (Brown) asked me what I was going to make that would remind me of self control.  What?  You mean I’m supposed to do this, too?  I can’t just teach through words and not by example? Shoot.

 

Since I was obviously struggling with what to make, one of the other people in our group suggested I make a watch and tell the group how one time I got so mad I threw my metal watch at Nate’s head.  Oh great, now not only do I have to lead by example, but my friends are suggesting that I tell an embarrassing story to a group of friends, teenage boys, Buckner staff members, and orphanage workers.  Not cool.  But, I really do believe that vulnerability brings people closer together and is generally a good thing, so I went ahead and told them how several years ago I threw my watch, Nate ducked, it hit the wall, and my cool Australian watch broke. 

 

At the time, it didn’t seem like the boys were listening.  But later I sat down by one of the boys, and he smiled and started acting out the whole watch-throwing scenario.  Maybe, just maybe, he’ll remember that story and not follow my example but learn from my mistakes.   

Leverage (by Nate)

Most people have a seat-of-the-pants understanding about leverage from playground equipment.

Some people understand the physics behind the lever and have put it to great use.

In the financial world, leverage has more of a theoretical application than a physical one. Someone who might only have enough cash to buy enough bread for a week’s worth of lunches might talk his kind banker into loaning him enough cash to make 14 lunches by telling her that he will sell the 7 he doesn’t eat to the banker’s husband, who obviously has more money than time (sugar mama!) and needs to outsource the making of lunches. But this post isn’t about marriage or gender roles in banking or even sandwich making. It’s all about leverage and in this case the person has used Other People’s Money (OPM) to accomplish something he couldn’t with only what he had.

Of course if our sandwich man had thought ahead, he could have circumvented being in debt to his banker by eating one less sandwich per week and saving the extra money to buy a field and plant some wheat to make enough bread to sell sandwiches all next year, but let’s face it, the guy’s got to eat and there may not be enough time in his lifetime to save sandwich money to buy a field and he could starve waiting for the harvest. Which is why the saying goes, “Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime.” rather than “Give a man some bread; feed him for a day. Teach a man to farm wheat; and he’ll starve before the first harvest.” (Maybe we should update the saying, “Give a man a dollar; he’ll buy a double-quarter pounder w/cheese. Teach a man to borrow money; and he’ll buy everything in sight.”)

Although it can be entertaining, the problem of not-enough-time is universal and quite sobering. All of our days are numbered and every day we step that much closer to the finish line. So how have people applied the concept of leverage to time? Use some that another person isn’t! I think Adam and Eve might have figured it out first. Since Adam was a busy man, Eve should have the babies, saving him valuable time that he could be farming and killing stuff for their next meal- a classic example of Other People’s Time (OPT). Okay, so it’s not exactly classic and maybe just silly, but you get the idea and hopefully haven’t fallen asleep.

Since this blog tends to focus on connecting people to God and His work in general (some of you may think it’s too loosely focused- I’m working on that…), it wouldn’t be on target without bringing it all to a close with:

Leverage Pertaining to God’s Work

Why not use OPM and OPT to accomplish some really important stuff? It’s historically significant that groups of people rallied together to build great things, but one thing seems to really matter to Jesus. In the Bible, Luke chapter 10, there is a story that gives a very important insight into Jesus’ view of what we do with our time and resources. And that leads me to conclusions about how to use my time and resources. But first the story:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Apparently, it was more important to Jesus that Mary spend time sitting at his feet listening to him than for her to take care of all the preparations that had to be made. He’s not saying that they weren’t important. I’m sure Jesus realized that everyone had to have a place to sleep that night, a warm shower, and fresh-baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies with 2% milk. I know those things are non-negotiable for me.

But He told Martha that only one thing was needed and that was what made Mary’s choice better.

She chose the relationship over the task.

Now I suppose that this would seem like a clear choice to the guy who turned water into wine and made fish and bread reproduce like rabbits (and as the creator of the whole earth, he made rabbits reproduce like… well, rabbits).

But to get back to the concept of leverage, it seems that the previous examples, the speedy distillery and happy meal turned banquet feast, show Kingdom-sized solutions to problems that related to tasks that got in the way of people spending time with Jesus.

What resources were available to Jesus? Water. And some bread and fish . (Long John Silver’s anyone?)

What did Jesus leverage? God’s abundance.

Why hadn’t anyone else thought of this before? Jesus believed that the solution existed AND he had the audacity to order people to do what had to be done to put relationships over tasks.

I’ll admit that Jesus had the inside scoop on what God was able to do, but still he had to have known the impending awkwardness that comes from asking someone to do something they doubt will help the problem. And yet, I have to think that he also knew the delight that comes from seeing the light come on in someone’s head when they realize that what just happened was possible all along.

Jesus used other people’s resources (a.k.a. money) and their time to accomplish something I’m sure he could have done alone. But the key ingredient was the God-factor. I can’t explain it. But it seems like God suspends our understanding* of physics when people are seeking Him and doing his work.

Now that’s some crazy leverage that I think many in the business world wish they had (Madoff?) but ultimately just missed out on the greatest opportunity to multiply what God has given them.

So hopefully we can peacefully use other’s money, resources, and time to afford us the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen as we put relationships over tasks.

Now, I think I’ll go grab a pop-tart that someone else made and I bought with someone else’s money:)

* I could go into a lengthy discussion about how God was merely speeding up some natural processes, something that we do regularly in all kinds of chemistry with catalysts, but that would have taken away from the direction this post was going, so I conveniently located this stuff down here with a little asterisk that is only mildly distracting compared to what it could have been. Sorry for distracting you, but I think it’s important to reason things out and actually think about the most difficult things- otherwise we end up in a cult of belief in things that shouldn’t be believed.