Ehem . . .

Hello there.

BAJA COMPASSION MINISTRIES GOT HELP!

And other good news going on . . but I need to type up a newsletter right now .. so I'll be back later . .

Promise!  In the mean time  - in our bible study with other missionary women it encouraged us to write a "psalm" of our own that played with words that started out with the same sound.  I chose "H" and here goes . . . penned by your's truly:

Hark! Heaven hears His heirs shout 

HOSANNAH in the HIGHEST!

He Healed His own!

Halleluja!

Like a hen to her young

so He Holds us in Hand.

Holy is He! 

My Help,

My Hero!

Hesitate not to hide in his hugs.

Happy - oh hear it! - Happy 

my heart is humbled, 

and in Him I find 

my Home.

Quotes from our Bible Studay.

I'm not going to be able to go to our ladies bible study this week so I want to put down some quotes that I like here;

" . . . one is pronounced blessed when God is present and involved in his [her] life."

"Trying to be our own God is exhausting."

How do I even start?

Update! I found I was misinformed - it was Miriam's sister, Mitzy, who passed away.  She was 3 years old. 


This was good news only to Sarah, who didn't lose her best friend. Apparently after Miriam recovered from chickenpox her little sister came down with it.


It's a different child, but the same sorrow.


Miriam died last night.

She was 6 years old.

The doctors prescribed bad medicine.

She was out of school for a couple of weeks because she had chickenpox.  But she was back in class with my daughter, Sarah, on Monday.   After school Miriam's mother and father were hosting, in their very humble baptist church that he pastors, a VBS put on by a visiting church group.

So thrilled was Sarah to be romping around hand in hand with her best friend.

At the surprise baby shower for Sarah's and Miriam's teacher today we noticed that Miriam and her mother were absent - but it wasn't dwelt on.

Then later at the VBS I was talking with the youth pastor's wife . . . she told me the news.

And I grieve.

I'm actually surprised at how my heart hurts for Augustina - Miriam's mother.  I came home and just sobbed on my husbands shoulder.  Then I asked him to tell Sarah - which he did, and she came out of the room all red eyed and we hugged and cried together.

They have two younger children than Miriam - the youngest has down syndrome.  And they are a humble, poor, family.  How does a Pastor continue after burying his daughter?  How does a mother function?  If you remember, would you please pray for this family?

I'll be hugging my kids a little tighter tonight - that's for sure.

I posted on our ministry blog.

GO HERE and see what happened to me today!

For all my Colorado friends!

You're from Colorado if: 

 You'll eat ice cream in the winter. 
 When the weather report says it's going to be 65 degrees, you shave your legs and wear a skirt.
 It snows five inches and you don't expect school to be canceled. 
 You'll wear flip flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature. 
 You have no accent at all, but can hear other people's. And then you make fun of them.
"Humid" is over 25%. 
 Your sense of direction is: Toward the mountains and away from the mountains. 
 You say, "The Interstate," and everybody knows which one. 
 You think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard or ice storm. 
 You buy your flowers to set out on Mother's Day, but try and hold off planting them until just before Father's Day.
 You grew up planning your Halloween costumes around your coat. 
 You know what the Continental Divide is. 
 You went to Casa Bonita as a kid, and again as an adult.
 You've gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities. 
 You always know the elevation of where you are. 
 You wake up to a beautiful 80-degree day and wonder if it's going to snow tomorrow.
 You don't care that some company renamed it; the Broncos still play at Mile High.
Everybody wears jeans to church. 
 You actually know that South Park is a real place, not just a show on TV. 
 You know what a "trust fund hippy" is, and you know its natural habitat is Boulder.
 You know you're talking to a fellow Coloradoan when they call it Elitches, not Six Flags. 
 A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you. 
 Your two favorite teams are the Broncos and whoever is beating the Raiders. 
 When people out East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.
 You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels "sticky," and you notice the sky is no longer blue. 
 Received from Mike Hillman.

Jealousy- red or green?

In our study of "A Heart Like His" this week we looked at jealousy - the very sour type, of envy that King Saul had of David, and the good kind like the kind of jealousy that God has for us.

you can biblegateway.com your way through the word jealousy and find how it's used throughout the bible - but this is what our bible study pointed out: the difference between the word OF and FOR


jealous of= bad, envious, spiteful, hateful, coveting
jealous for = good, protective, sense of belonging, love

And where the study pulled out several references from the bible that pointed to the 'jealousy for = good' idea, it didn't take into account one of my favorite verses :

Song of Solomon 8:6
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame

Jealous like RED hot!

I like the idea that God jealously protects us.  I like it very much - and it is right that he do so since we belong to him.

I'm just saying.

Bible Study: A Heart Like His.

Me and some fellow missionary gals are in week one of this bible study that focuses on David.


And I will not promise to post every week about it because that was such a dismal failure with the Boundaries book study - but if something stands out for me I will attempt and have the best intentions to get it posted here. Promise.


Today's insight wasn't from the study, per say, but how the Lord spoke to me - and I'm excited about it.


It's the idea of David being a man after God's own heart - my workbook asked what that meant to me. I've always understood it to mean that David had a heart like God's - so I was trying to define what that meant as I read over the verse again:

1 Samuel 13:14 (New International Version)

But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command.

As I mulled on it the word "after" really popped out.  It didn't say "like" - not even in the King James Version, but "after".  I looked for any other reference like this in the bible and came up with Acts 13:12 

Acts 13:22 (King James Version)

. . . and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

That little word gives me the sense of pursuit - David was a man that pursued God's heart.  Like in woo-ing. A seeking out, a desire to win favor, a passionate persistence . . .


Just stop and think of the implications of that!


(If it helps; think of your significant other first. "Prince Charming is a man after Princess's heart." or "Prince Charming has a heart like Princess" . . . see the difference?)


God makes it clear in the Bible that we are pursued, and wooed by Him.  And that is beautiful - but what if we did the same?


So- go ahead and do what I did: put your name in there~

~Michelle is a woman after God's heart.~

Doesn't it just blow your mind - or is it just me.  If it's just me, I'm OK with that . . . 

How to Clean the House

How to Clean the House 

1. Open a new folder on your PC. 

2. Name it "Housework." 

3. Send it to the Recycle Bin. 

4. Empty the Recycle Bin. 

5. Your PC will ask you, "Are you sure you want to delete
Housework permanently?" 

6. Calmly answer, "Yes," and press the mouse button firmly. 

 Received from Doc's Daily Chuckle.

John Carroll - Balance Beam

zSHARE video - h205.avi.flv

zSHARE video - h205.avi.flv

It's freezing!

I used to wonder why people would send blankets to Mexico.

I don't wonder no mo'

SEND BLANKETS!

I'm only partly jesting . . but just yesterday in the house after baking, my hubby told me that it was 45 degrees!

We can all see our cloudy breaths and we go to sleep and walk around the house with hats and multiple layers.

My hubby often choses to point out "see, aren't you glad your not in Minnesota right now?  We couldn't survive the cold!"

Yeah, but in Minnesota they use the radical technology called "INSULATION"!

Mommy has been very naughty!

I have a 2 year old that will not eat any veggie of any kind.

So I got me a "Sneaky Chef" cookbook . . .

and this morning he had sweet potatoes

in his pancakes

and he just ate cauliflower

in his grilled cheese sandwich!

*delightfully wringing hands*

Muahahahahahaha

D'oh

I am generally a photogenic person.  This picture was specifically picked out to show a more "accurate" me.

I am a low maintenance mama.  I tend to keep hygienic - mostly.  But - you know, I do TRY sometimes - like Christmas parties, family gatherings . . .I might shave.

That reminded me - I think the reason why European women got in the habit of not shaving is because all those parts remained COVERED most of the year.  Also in the same vein it explains the excessive de-hairing that is so rampant in Brazil.

Back to the point.  Today was a running day since 6:30am.  I had to get up,  all 3 kids dressed, and spaghetti prepared for a classroom of 25 by 8am.  I was teachers helper in today's Christmas party.

For the love of humanity, I took a shower -

Only later in the day - as the mothers were arriving, all prim and lovely like their decked out kids, did I notice that I did absolutely NOTHING with my hair.  It wasn't even pulled back in a pony tail!  NO head band- Nothing!

Thankfully I did brush it - but beyond that I pretty much looking like the drab mama of the photo shown above.

Yup.

Speakerbox Signmark

HDA LA NOTA EN LA VENTANA

A most AWESOME song by a gREAT band! ;-)

How to make my mother *GASP* from laughing . . .

Ode to Forgetfulness

Ode to Forgetfulness

Justin Nozuka - Save Him (ASL)

"Boundaries" study

Let me 'splain.
[pause]
No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

This study has been entirely too cheeky for comfort .  . . . As I said to our study's leader " These questions seem to ask you not IF you've violated a boundary but WHEN!"

So allow me to focus on a major theme; being that we each have our own responsibilities to shoulder, and we are to help others but are not responsible for others.  In the book they call this boulders (situations too big to handle alone) vs knapsacks (everyone's individual responsibilities). The bible calls us to help with one another boulders- and to ask for help when we are faced with a boulder- but each one is to carry his own knapsackand then defining the difference between the two.

Big idea here: Boundaries get infringed upon but we can only work on our own boundaries - not on others.  And we must aim to not infringe on other's boundaries.

People may get offended or withdraw from you if you have to say "no", but you need to be OK with that - why? How? Because our primary relationship is with God so we are not dependent on other's for their good opinion - we know God's opinion of us.  In the same matter - you need to be OK if someone says "no" to you - again, because we are rooted in God's hand.  So let us aim not to take it so personally - ladies - please.

The flip side of this is that for some of us we need to be able to say "yes" to help, and to be able to give help without attaching any sort of strings . . . but because we honestly want to help.

Face it, any situation where there is a potential of resentment is because something was given with an expectation.  Remove expectation and you have the removal of resentment.

Next week we will be looking at the myths of boundaries where there is a big one I look forward to tackling: "If I set boundaries I'm being selfish" . . . so stay tuned!

I *HEART* having a family in ministry.

I love my brothers and Thank GOD for them . ..  and I PRAISE GOD because they both have AWESOME ministries . . . My brother just posted this on facebook of one of the things his ministry does - feed the kids of Tijuana.
This is Reflect Ministry 

Untitled from John Alvarado on Vimeo.

I've heard him mention that he loves to give these kids the best stuff too - so it's not just powdered eggs and powdered milk and the day old bread . . . but the good stuff!  If you've been in children's ministries you know what I'm talking about.


My brothers don't read my blog - they have their hands full already!  But J&P - I love you guys so much!  I Praise God for you and am so humbled and proud to be your sister!