GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

All our girls have been asking when we will all go to spend time at the Arms of Love homes installations in Jinotepe, to share it with the older boys and younger children there. We told them that as vacation extends until the end of January we should spend Christmas here in Managua at Las Palmas home inviting them to Christmas dinner and joy, and then afterwards go to visit them.

They enthusiastically accepted and were asking us to start getting our home ready, and we chose yesterday to do so. This big task required gathering strength and fueling enthusiasm, so a hearty breakfast was the order of the day. We decided to have a mixed American-Nicaraguan one.

Gladys loves pancakes! I love eggs! As usual, giving ourselves up to some personal desires requires digging into our personal pockets because it is unconceivable for us to buy for ourselves and letting our children just watch.

Three pancakes for Gladys mean at least 75 pancakes for all. Usually more because they all ask for seconds! Me? I am happy as always with my usual 2 eggs, hot sauce, coffee and cremora. It is very cheap to satisfy my cravings. The only problem is when I want to have my other favorite Nicaraguan meal, nacatamales, as they are more expensive and heavier on my pocket.

After they cleaned the tables and did the dishes they asked my wife to lead them and give them a chance to clean our silverware, as well as floors and walls all over the house. WOW! They know how to clean when they want to.
All participated, from the older to the younger one, and then, after playing around all afternoon, they sat down, very satisfied and tired, to watch TV.

While we, the Abuelitos (grandpa and grandma) even more tired than them but joyfully satisfied, watched the nativity set and the Christmas tree!

How many fond memories come to our hearts and minds! These nativity figures, Christmas tree and ornaments have been in our family for many years, from the times we lived in Guatemala and in Arkansas. They are intimate parts of our past, of the sad and the happy days of our lives!

TRULY I SAY TO YOU, UNLESS...

Who can resist the rejoicing of a child?

Who is the greatest in the kingdom?

Truly I say to you, unless you ... become like children

you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven

and whoever receives a child in My Name receives Me...

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE SPIRALING CYCLE OF LOVE!

In my last posting I was talking about visions, ministries, houses, homes and institutions. In the institutional part of the equation I placed “love”.

Love, Godly Love, Love from God, Love to God above all things, Love to ourselves and Love to others but specially to the downtrodden, the helpless, the abused and the orphans and abandoned children of this world.

Love, unselfish and timely Love is the Alfa and Omega of the spiraling loving cycle of God´s plans for our lives.

I also talked about hearts and minds. About good intentions, personal intentions, and God´s intentions for us to follow and obey! About processes and growing pains! About timetables, tests and trials that are the foundation of spiritual growth in ourselves and those we serve!

It comes to my mind the many times overlooked fact that trying to hasten or to interfere with this process, especially when we have not been appointed to oversee it and direct it can cause more damage than benefits.

It is like seeing a "butterfly to be" in our neighbor’s nursery home struggling to come out of its cocoon and then someone trying to hasten it by easing his struggle with their intrusive help or support. The "butterfly to be" will never fly as it was intended to. Its wings will be weakened because of that hopefully well intentioned but uncalled and untimely support.

This morning I was wondering again about all this because we have some teenagers and young adults who find themselves in crucial crossroads of their lives who probably will find themselves with weakened wings because of these particular circumstances. I was wondering why and had to be reminded by the Lord that He is in control and I just had to follow and obey.

At this precise moment some messengers from the Lord came through my office door and a message through my computer, telling me…

STAND STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!

read the message below!

Just How Big are your concerns in the scope of things?

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3

Lk 12:22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life... 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Lk 12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

I CERTAINLY THOUGHT THIS WAS ENLIGHTENING. BEYOND OUR SUN ... IT'S A BIG UNIVERSE.

ANTARES IS THE 15TH BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY. IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY. NOW HOW BIG ARE YOU?

HUMBLING, ISN'T IT?

NOW HOW BIG ARE YOU? AND HOW BIG ARE THE THINGS THAT UPSET YOU TODAY?

And Immediately the Lord clarified to me His Vision and My Mission while serving Him through this ministry. Take care of all my children and do your best. I know what I have planned for each one of them and I am a jealous and zealous Lord who will not let anything nor anyone interfere with my plans!

The older ones are in my hands and will become adults very soon. Help them, guide them and correct them, but concentrate and focus on the younger ones.

See the messengers and the future focus below

ABOUT VISIONS, MINISTRIES, HOUSES, HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS!

Last March 2007 I was asked what I would prefer… the Heart or the Mind of God?

The connotations were Heart equal love, compassion, caring, giving, and the whole gamut of good intentions and deeds while Mind was equalized somewhat as detached analysis, programming, organizing, building, provision, and again the whole gamut of good intentions and deeds, but this time external, visible, tangible ones.

I said that I would prefer to have both, that everyone should prefer it that way. The Heart and the Mind of God at our level of servanthood and understanding that inevitably will raise our level of commitment and the purification of our flesh, mind and spirit.

This is the only way to really understand God´s plans and timetable for our lives so we can become a blessing for all people of all ages and circumstances all around and we do not get lost in actions without a purpose or consequences, no matter how great or significant in terms of scopes and resources they could be in fact or in imagination.

Habakkuk 2: 2-3 gives us all our assignment as prophets of the Lord God! “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail, though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay”

What it means is fundamentally the vision, that will take the form of ministries materializing it into houses (churches, orphanages, shelters, whatever) that is necessary to turn into homes for the needy (brethren, faithful, disciples, orphans, widows, whoever) within the parameters of God´s institution which is LOVE besides the human materialization of the vision, if we really want to become the prophets of God and be able to tell HIM “I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what YOU will speak to me and how I May reply when I am reproved” Habakkuk 2:1.

Visions must be congruent with the spiritual need of the societal environment where is to hold itself, steadfastly and true. The vision comes from God´s plan for that societal conglomerate and it is not what we want to do but what he wants us to do, what will become HIS VISION IN ACTION, not ours. Different groups require not different visions but specific and compatible approaches and actions.

If we do not pay careful attention to this, we, Christians, and all good faith people, can easily become the “useful fools” that will pick up the pieces of the corrupt, the abusers, opportunists and intermediaries, without being M.A.D.(Making A Difference) as I stated in a former article.

Visions require servants, servants become strong under the spiritual covering of the ministries. Visions then turn into projected houses that we need to turn into homes where God´s institution of LOVE becomes a tangible experience.

And this God´s institutional love is so different from the human ones. Just human actions only lead to entitlement, opportunism and ungratefulness. God´s led human actions become joy and laughter of the servants and the served ones. See them in the following mementos of a Christian routine living in a Christian home environment.

School vacation has arrived. Time to relax and enjoy

Our Miskito Indian heritage children also relax in the cozy environment of our homes

Our friends and volunteers come and pitch in

And the order of the day is to relax and enjoy and sure they know how to

Isn´t all this what Visions, Ministries, Houses, Homes and Institutions are all about?

REFUELING STOPS ON THE WAY TO THE FUTURE!

These 2006- 2007 years of the Lord has been plentiful harvest years.

We have reached the goal of 39 children in 3 homes! We hope to have another home ready for more in 2008! We have seen them studying hard and climbing the steps of the educational ladder. Through all its ranks! From Pre-school to High School graduation!

As our local AOL Board President Spencer Manners says, children are resilient and, if given a chance, will bounce back from adversity and seek a better future.

We are seeing, we are helping and we are enjoying the fruits of our and their sacrifice! Blessed be the Lord!
Here you can see them at their refueling stops! Keep on cheering and supporting them!

Pre-School and 6th. Grade 2006 Graduations!
Katherine Carolina – Eliezer - Diana María

AND THE GIFT GOES ON IN 2007!
Pre-School 2007 Graduations in Jinotepe!

Hector – Estrella Guadalupe – Fabián Antonio – Deyling Franklin

6th Grade 2007 Graduations in Jinotepe
Marcos – Jerry Alexander – Wilber Alejandro

6th. Grade 2007 Graduations in Managua

Jéssica Jazmina

And Luz Esperanza

High School 2007 Graduation in Jinotepe
Juan José who is already enrolled in College to study Architecture

High School 2007 Graduation in Managua
Juanita who is also enrolled in College to become our future psychologist!

And Marling, the next in line for 2008, who led the folklore dance team as a gift for Juanita and her graduating class girls in 2007

Followed by 36 more children distributed all along the ranks of the school structural system or our own home tutoring one

Pre-school: two; 2nd. Grade: eight; 3rd. Grade: four; 6th. Grade: three; 7th. Grade: six; 8th. Grade: three; 9th. Grade: two; 10th. Grade: two; plus two home tutored girls.

The Lord is a wonderful and loving God!
Blessed be Him! And for Him all the glory!

WHAT A MIGHTY GOD AND LOVING FATHER WE SERVE!

Dear AOL board members, Juanita sponsors and friends: Last Saturday was a spectacular day for us, as individuals and as a ministry! We had 3 girls graduating. 2 from 6th. Grade, Jessica Jazmina and Luz Esperanza; and Juanita graduating from High School! These girls, as well as all the rest of them, and the boys, are dearest to my grandfather´s heart.

But, unashamedly I have to recognize that 2 of them have appealed to my father´s one. We had no girls of our own, only boys, and Gladys and I had always longed for daughters.

The first one was Scarleth, who, holding my hand while coming back from school about 3 years ago, confided to me some very painful experiences she went through when she was only 5 years old, and then asked me if I wanted to be her father.

Now, Juanita asked me the same, while presenting to me her ID document showing she is finally an adult, and asking me to walk her down the aisles at her graduation ceremony.

I love them all, all the children the Lord had entrusted to my care with your indefatigable support, but these 2 girls will be always in my heart, my father´s heart, and a prideful one.

The 3 girls and us, the AOL people with Spencer and his wife leading the group, as all our girls went with us to the graduations, were as people say “the heart of the party”. Share our joy. It will last me forever, in the good and the bad times to come.

Check the other blog entries so you enjoy the details of all the graduations at AOL Nicaragua.

They were Juan´s High School! Jessica Jazmina, Luz Esperanza, Wilder Alejandro Collado, Marcos Contreras and Alex Cortez 6th. Grade! And Fabián Antonio Pavón and Hector Collado from Pre-school!