Every ministry when it is from the Lord, becomes the hands of the sower, HIM, not only dispersing the seeds of his word and mercy but also taking care as much as the free will He has given to every one of us, His children, allows us.
Revising our memory files of these past 5 plus years with Arms of Love Nicaragua we so vividly realize it that it humbles you so deeply and opens your spiritual eyes to discernment and wisdom.
We are just the hinges! He is the door!
The ones who come and go it is because he allows them to come as well to leave!
Children! Donors! Supporters! Friends! Relatives! Self motivated or oriented ones! Volunteers! Bystanders! You can take your pick of the seeds.
His is the glory! Ours is the privilege to serve!
In Mark 4: 3-7 he tells us to listen,
or in other words to pay attention to the fact that we must not become too set in our ways
especially if we see some success springing up from our deeds
or from the soil of the souls of those entrusted to our care
nor despair because of apparent failures on their part.
In the end, the lesson to learn is that He is finally the one in control and that His planning and timing is different than the ones sprouted from our human understanding or preferences.
This is so evident in our ministry. We receive hurting and many times emotionally and spiritually maimed children and some adults as well.
The only thing we can do is to love them and in righteousness lead them unto the right thinking and ways.
The decision to change or persevere is theirs, not ours.
We can only pray and hope for the best leaving them in the hands of the Lord!
If their past experiences have turned them into rocky ground, we can only love, protect and pray.
And if they leave, to pray even more (Mark 4:5-7) and realize that as I wrote some time ago…
The majority of children who come to Arms of Love have been rejected by other "protection centers" as unmanageable, uncontrollable or unacceptably behaved.
They try their best to control and manipulate as they see adults do.
They want to wear us down, until we throw the towel and send them back to the streets so they can continue living the only life they had ever known, even if abused.
Though they often persist, we do not despair.
We believe in the power of God's healing love. There are always relapses, times when the children seem to lose everything they have gained in just a second.
Some of them will even leave us for good to live back with their parents in their former environments, but we gain strength in the assurance that God is in control.
We know their strengths and weaknesses.
We love each one as if they were our only child.
We laugh and cry, chastise and correct them as well as encourage them.
We face the challenges with patience, flexibility and endurance.
We aim to replace the distortions inadvertently imprinted into the minds and hearts of our children by their previous fathers, mothers and relatives.
And if they leave we pray for them even more!
What we cannot fail to do is to keep on digging with our bare hands if needed, and with all our heart, spiritually and emotionally, so we give them a chance to become fertile or good soil so they grow up and increase.
It is not for us or any good faith but only humanly understanding helpers to decide how to do it.
It is the Lord´s leading who will close or open the doors of the hearts of those we serve and of those called to serve alongside us,
and in this us I refer to all those who have given their lives to the service of God in the neediest parts of His Kingdom.
And we will see that sometimes the good soil he tells us about in His parable are not only the children but the volunteers and supporters who come and serve alongside us the local laborers in the Kingdom fields, so we see that what he says is so true…
“And other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold..."
and this is just a sampling of the taste of the rewards for our efforts
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HERE BELOW IS THE OTHER FACET OF THE MINISTRY!
Its influence on some of our visitors and volunteers!
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I saw the smile of God in the joyfulness of children who have been rejected all their short lives, yet remain joyful and responsive to Love. I caught a glimpse of God Himself in a humble man who worked for the shelter, who brought every conversation back to the amazing attributes of a God he regarded and talked about as if He were a friend standing right next to him. …
Experiencing God working in so many unexpected ways helped me to evaluate my own outlook on life. I have been struggling these past few years with finding meaning in my life. I’ve been praying that God will provide me with direction, to give me a sense of calling. Although I’ve had a lot of experience in the past with seeing God use my spiritual gifts of service, evangelism, discernment, and loving people where they are in life, I was single then.
Since I became married, I’ve had to learn all over again how to use my gifts. I had been praying for direction, and through this ministry trip, I believe God finally began revealing it to me. As I used my gifts during this trip, I realized that all of these gifts are still alive in me and that I just need to break the season of apathy and enter a new one of joyful service, one where my gifts are still being used alongside those of my wife.
During this trip I also got a renewed sense that God is always with me. It is not any different when I’m at my seemingly meaningless job or rushing through traffic to get to the next “important” event. I just have to trust God with my time and energy instead of trying to own and manage every bit of “my” time, “my” money, and “my” life. It’s amazing what God can do when I trust Him with everything that is mine. I want to learn to give up “my” things in the daily routine of life to make room for what God has planned for me
Rob Joseph
A Universal Language: The Language of Love: I know this must sound extremely trite, but this is
one of the most important lessons I learned. These children – their beautiful faces, their innocent smiles, their powerful hugs, their soft kisses – have been burned into my memory, and I hope that I never forget the feeling of being honored to have been a part of their lives… Every time a child came and hugged me or looked up into my eyes with an expectation for love and affection, I began to realize that I was using the gifts God has given me and that I was fulfilled in doing this. . .
Asa Joseph
Confirmation that a program is only as good as the people who implement it. The staff is extraordinarily kind.
At a quick glance, they make running a children’s home look easy. It is sort of like watching Olympic figure skating, those double axels and dizzying spins seem like mere strolls on the ice, until you put on a pair of skates and find that it requires massive effort just to stand up straight and keep your ankles from turning inward. In reality though, whether you are a champion ice skater or an Arms of Love staff member, there are countless hours of hard, unseen, unglamorous work.
Day after day I see the girls being taught the vital life skills of structure, self discipline and the knowledge of how to care for themselves. There are good days and there are bad days. Nonetheless, it is life changing to see healing and wholeness built piece by piece.
There are many more lessons I have learned and probably a greater number that I am learning and just do not recognize them yet. The children have a very structured, simple, constant rhythm of life.
I want to fit seamlessly into this rhythm, caring for them, loving them and building relationships with them as best I can. Ultimately, I am just another square in the quilt of support that is being woven into the lives of the children at Arms of Love.
Jessica Rivera
Elizabeth Dawson: God brought me to Nicaragua to heal me. God really brought a sense of peace into my life. The hardest thing for me was that I had no source of comfort. No part of life was the same for me in the girls’ home. Many of my insecurities were revealed. It was quite scary. It didn’t take me long to learn that the only constant in my life is God. As painful as days might have seemed, He always brought me joy.
My experience at the girls’ home and in Nicaragua truly opened my eyes to seeing life as it truly is. I’m young, so I’m sure that will continually change, but I finally was able to view the world as a fallen world.
In regards to the girls’ home, it is a great place for a female to “get away.” It is a great place of rest. In the past, I have been quite the workaholic. It was a great place for me to find a proper balance between rest and “work.” My morning routine involved reading, exercising, and spending time with the Lord. My evenings were spent with the girls. With proper balance, I was really able to face some hard issues in my life that I couldn’t face in my home environment.
Gladys and Emilio were both an incredible counsel to me. They provided me with a lot of prayers, wisdom, and insights on life that made me trip a complete Godsend. They made my trip that much more heavenly perfect. It’s really hard for me to express in words how much of a blessing the Arms of Love ministry was to me.
The ministry in Nicaragua has changed lives far beyond the thirty or so boys and girls. It has definitely changed my life, and I have been blessed with the opportunity to share my experience with my family, friends, and fellow church members.
I thank God for all the staff and the children at Arms of Love every day!! I will keep them all and the ministry in my prayers.
Elizabeth Dawson
There were other girls who came and stay with us and allowed us to become temporary parts of their lives
Nicola Morgan and Elizabeth Ramsden
As well as others that not only served but praised our humble efforts to make them feel at home and welcome.
Kat Sandors
Friday, October 26, 2007
A walk in the parkSo every morning, I’ve been getting my daily dose of exercise by walking around the park with Gladys for about 45 minutes. And what a blessing that time has been. It gives us a chance to start our day off on a good note and to spend time in fellowship, talking about anything and everything.
She and Emilio have been so blessed in their lives and I am blessed in turn by hearing about their stories.
I am reminded that in the US, family is not valued all that much. Once people hit their 60's, they are immediately discarded as useless and a drain on society, and put away to live in retirement homes. Here, family is of utmost importance and children would never let their parents be treated in such a manner, even if it means giving them a room in their own house.
Those generations that have gone before us have so much wisdom and insight and my listening skills are coming in handy.
I am learning so much from them about their lives and what it means to live faithfully devoted to the Lord. I only hope that when I’m their age, I have half as many stories to tell someone who's willing to listen.
She came to my office as she is getting used to so she can watch me working at the computer. She has a fixation with the images. This time she saw some sunglasses on it and whalla; she sat on it and put them on.
