Showing posts with label Undesireable Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Undesireable Events. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2012

Lessons from My Ear

If you didn't see about our time at International Teams, scroll down to the next post, or click HERE to see some pictures!

The last few days at I.T. were a little rough, due to an ear infection I had coming on.  I'd never had one before, but ended up going to two urgent care clinics, getting a shot for pain (I NEV.ER. request a shot, but the pain won out this time!), and missing out on some of the fun that could have been had during our stay with Justin and Lluvia.  God blessed me with a few hours of good time to spend with them though - we hadn't seen them in over a year, so it was great to catch up and talk about good times!

Word to the wise - NEVER get on an airplane with a perforated ear drum.  Seriously.  Dude.  But that's what we did.  And I think God taught me a lot from that experience.  This may sound exaggerated, but I have never experienced as much pain for such an extended period of time as I did with this infection.  And on the plane from Chicago to Portland, I couldn't think straight.  All I could do was cry out to God that He would make it stop.  I remember that one of my college professors said one time that during a particularly painful child birth she decided to use that time to praise God that she was having a baby, and praise Him for who He is.  And that scenario came to my mind.  And I started to sing (in my head, not out loud!) praises to God.  Sometimes the pain was unbearable, and I cried, and I think JP was close to tears a few times, and the kid sitting in front of us definitely thought I was off my rocker!  But the phrase that kept running through my head was "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  I can't find that exact phrase in the Bible, although I'm sure something similar is there.  But I just knew that God was in control - He has the power to heal and the power to not.  It's His to decide, and if He decides not to heal when I want, I will still praise Him. 

Then I kind of hoped that after that revelation God would instantly heal my ear, but He didn't.  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.  A lesson - or TRUTH - that I will never forget.

We spent uncomfortable two weeks in Salem (I kept telling myself my ear was on the mend even though all signs said it was not) before getting BACK on an airplane to go to Colorado (will post more about that soon!).  I thought I was healed enough to go to Colorado, but apparently not.  The plane ride was a killer again, and our friends Walt and DiAne who hosted us in Colorado Springs changed our plans to go to Breckenridge to take me to the doctor, which ended in a minor surgery to get the *fungus* out of my ear.  The doctor was afraid that it had penetrated into the bones in my ear (I freaked out when I heard that!), so he put me under and cleaned it up, and it wasn't near as bad as he'd thought.  Then the rest of the time in Colorado was quite pleasant, since my ear quit hurting three weeks after it started!

Here's me and the nurse post-op in the hospital.  They gave me a Coke to wake me up!  :)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Seriously?!

Read even just the introduction to this Wikipedia description of Operation Fast and Furious
REALLY?! 
Correct me if my interpretation of this is wrong:

Give guns to bad guys so they can go commit MORE heinous crimes, then TRY to see if you can track them and the weapons you gave them down.  And make sure they all get sold in Mexico so our ridiculously high crime rate will sky-rocket even more. 

ATF FAIL.

Friday, March 25, 2011

The State of the State

Queretaro is the state in Mexico that has the most people who worship death, or satan.  There are a lot of churches here, and each one is dedicated to a saint - I think that's pretty normal to hear "St. Matthew's Church," or "Church of Saint Thomas."  But in Queretaro there is a "Church of holy death" in a town right by where JP works.  People make pilgimages from the city to the church.  One Christian girl from the US who came to study at the State University here was living with a family who told her "we worship death."  Before I moved to Queretaro, I would have imagined people who "worship death" to be creepy-scary-looking people who are outcast by society.  But not here.  That family that I know that worships the Santa Muerte is super "normal" - they have a cool house, good jobs, and the woman makes and sells yummy tamales in the house in the evenings.  I was going to put a picture of La Santa Muerte (holy death), but I don't want that on my blog.  But if you want to see what it looks like look it up in Google images.

Please pray for the people in the State of Queretaro.  Of course not all worship death.  But so many are lost, and worship things other than God.  Approximately 1% of the population of this state attends a Christian church.  And how many of those people actually have accepted Christ?  The family who I teach english classes to has an altar to their favorite saint set up in their living room.  Queretaro also has the highest rate of suicides in the country and the highest rate of single moms.  It would be a stretch to say "we're suffering for the sake of Christ," because Queretaro is (in my opinion, and the opinions of many queretanos!) the most beautify city in Mexico!  But even though this city SEEMS to be in good shape - athsetically, economically, politically - we are actually in a really poor state of being.  That's why JP and I are here.  And that's why we ask for your prayers - for us as we work with people here, and for the people we minister to. 

Friday, February 11, 2011

Fire

Just a while ago I was sitting here at the computer and heard sirens entering our neighborhood.  I could tell that they were really close behind our house, and went out to see what happened.  In the next condominium complex over there was a house on fire.  That particular house in the complex is at the very back, and there is no place for a vehicle to come within probably 30 feet of the house.  So the firemen went in with neighbors' garden hoses and buckets... they didn't even turn on the fire hose.  Some neighbors from our condominium complex told the firemen that they could get the truck right up next to the burning house.  One fireman asked to use my neighbors' ladder to climb the fence into the patio of the burning house.  I was there more than 5 minutes watching the house burn and the firemen try to figure out what to do.  They finally brought the truck around to our complex and put the fire completely out... after having to break windows and have A LOT of the family's stuff burnt.

This really takes away a lot of faith in the fire department for me...

One thing you have to understand about house fires in Mexico is that the houses are built out of concrete blocks, rebar, and plaster, so at least the house structure withstands most fires.  But I imagine that the family's furniture and most everything in their home is ruined...

Everyone got out of the house fine...  A small boy found a lighter in the house and went to go play in the closet.  With the lighter.  You can probably imagine that the clothes caught on fire, then the closet doors, etc.  The dad tried to put the fire out himself but it got too far out of hand and they called the fire department.  I feel so bad for the family because it took about half and hour for the fire to be properly put out!  And, most people who live in these condominiums don't exactly have a lot of extra money lying around in case of emergency, so who knows how they'll put their house back together.  JP and I are going over there now to see if we can help them...  donate bedding, clothes, etc...  Please pray for the family with the burnt house.  We also want to use this opportunity to share Christ's love with them.