una carta de una amiga...

This week I got a letter in the mail (real snail mail :) from Natacha and Benjamin, complete with a note from Benjamin (on which he drew a picture of the Ecuador jersey I brought him home this summer). So cute. He's a little futból fanatic with a smile and giggle that melts me from the inside out. Thank you Natacha. Your note blessed my heart. I love mail and I miss you. :)

daises, a stick shift, and a piece of cheesecake...

So, for whatever reason, I have been able to spend some extra time at the internet cafe this week. And I must say, it's really nice.

About a week and a half ago, I kinda went a bit nuts (my "people-0-meter" reached its max capacity), and I launched into a week of seclusion (well, obviously I still went to school the mornings I had classes) in which I organized my disaster-zone bedroom, dusted EVERYTHING, scrubbed the bathroom, cleaned the floor, cooked some yummy Ecuadorian dishes (vegetable soup and shrimp ceviche) ...and baked a cheesecake with Bethany. I don't know if my domestic hormones were kicking in (no such thing right?)...or if it had just simply been TOO long since I had taken care of "things" on the inside of life. :) Seriously though, me hizo bien. And not to mention the extra time I took to just "be" with God. Sometimes not even reading my Bible or praying, but just "being". For some reason, when the house is clean, the lights dimmed, the candles lit, Chopin in the cd player...when I can shave my legs, clean under my toenails and sit and read in the hammock uninterupted, it does something to me that I can't explain. :)

Somehow it brings relief.
And while whatever it is in me, gets relieved in those "still" times, there is rest inbetween. There is, because somehow I can go for months (sometimes) without this relief. Yes...there is rest inbetween. And honestly I can say that the LORD is that rest. The hour of quiet in the morning...before Carlos, our water boy bangs on the door, brings so much rest (even when the sink is piled high with dishes, my dirty clothes are all over the dusty floor, ants swarm the counter top, and the garbage can stench draws a buzzing family of fruit flies). And never in my life have I lived, feeling the need for that time with God each day, more. It's a desert here without it. And the days I sleep in and have to rush to school without sitting under the tap for a while, those days feel dry...and I am parched by the time I get home, mid-day. And it's not just because it is hot.

So yeah. Last week was a good week. And I am thankful to God for the small blessings and the big ones He pours into my life. A standard driving lesson early last Saturday morning...my first time behind the wheel south of the equator. A Mary Poppins cheesecake date with the roomie late Thursday night after we should have been at prayer meeting. Pink daisies on our kitchen table. Baby pigeons on the window sill. Etc.

I am just so thankful for the personal way the LORD shows up to say "Te amo hija. Janna eres Mía". And while I may run around like Martha, preoccupied with "many things" (and most times many people), I have been reminded so uniquely these last couple weeks of Jesus words to a couple of women He loved, "only one thing is necessary". Jesus affirmed the deliberate rest Mary chose, silent, expectant and waiting, seated at His dusty feet.

Or rather, I imagine that perhaps Martha had already washed those beautiful feet.

miguel

A few weeks ago now, about two
weeks after I got back to Ecuador, the senior high youth in block 6 went to the beach for the day. Before arriving at camp though, we took a little tour of some big rocks not too far from Playas, "el Morro". Everybody thought it was pretty cool, especially I think, because there was some risk invovled climbing to the top. At the top, the view was awesome, Playas in the distance, the Pacific coastline, the tallest palm tree in the world (the old camp :)...etc. There we prayed a little, sang to the LORD and Daniel gave a short talk about God's purposes in our lives. This is Jorge showing me just how delicious cactus is...

So, I want to tell you about this kid, Miguel. I've wanted to write about him for a long time. Before I went home to Canada this summer I knew him as "Arrozito", one of the "park guys" who came to camp this past March and made a decision to accept Christ. That's really all I knew about him, and that he had been attending the Sunday Bible study (specifically for the park guys) pretty faithfully ever since. I had kinda connected with him before I left for two months, just in a little small talk here and there, and a few smiles. (The truth is, that I have a roomate who is a natural at connecting with all these park guys, and compared to her I feel like God could never use me in their lives. I know I am wrong to think that way, but I just appreciate Beth's heart and the way God has gifted her.) So yeah, I came back from Canada and connected with Miguel (yellow hat) right away. This kid amazes me. And mostly because I can see God so at work, saving His life...
Miguel's mother abandoned the family when he was about six years old. He then lived with his father, who did odd construction jobs to support the 8 or 9 kids left in his care. Miguel told me that he always worked with his Dad to provide for the family. One morning, when Miguel was 11 years old, he woke up and found his father, who had been in the hospital sick, dead, beside him in bed. Since the death of his father, Miguel has lived with his older siblings (who now have families of their own sharing the same space), and continued to struggle to keep at least rice and eggs on the table. Thanks to the income and generosity of his two older brothers, Miguel began to attend school for the first time (grade one) when he was twelve years old. Just last year (17 years) he graduated from elementary and is now studying in his first year of high school, with the help of Timoteo.

I wish that you could sit and listen to him talk like I can. He is one of the most generous, kind and thoughtful kids I have ever met. He is friends with the park guys, but never drinks or smokes up with them anymore...usually only plays futbol with them on the weekends. And Miguel played circles around the guys in the beach futbol game, the weekend we all went to the camp. :) That same day, he and I talked all the way home on the bus. He gave me a friendship bracelet and later that week he gave me some of his drawings. I have been so thankful that he considers me a friend. He really struggles with loneliness, and seems to fight feelings of guilt and self-worthlessness constantly. So needy for affection, and just to have someone to talk to. He has also really connected with William (leader of the guys bible study) since camp, and talks easily with Bethany, so I am so thankful for that. :) He confessed to me the other night when we were chatting outside of the church after prayer meeting, how many times he thought of suicide when he was a kid. He said he used to plan to tie up a rope, write a letter to his brothers and sisters, and just end it all. He said, "janna, God has saved me so many times." And it is so true. Beth bought him a Bible last week, because he was getting frustrated at bible study that his little New Testament didn't have Psalms or Genesis. When I gave him the Bible, he didn't say much but the smile on his face... made my month. It's not fair what Miguel has had to live through, but God is in the middle of a resue operation that is so wonderful to stand by and witness.

This is Janina. A story for another day.