Guest Post- My Missions Trip

Traveling internationally is quite an adventure! I did not know what to expect of traveling alone and I was slightly nervous; however, I soon found myself enjoying all the little details and watching people from many nationalities.

By the time I finally landed in Nepal I was tired, dirty and could barely feel my feet from how much they were swollen. Going through customs was an adventure in and of itself. There were no instructions of what all I needed to do. I knew I needed to fill out the application, but every time I went up to the desk the man would tell me of something else I needed. I remember thinking, "Why doesn't he give me a list of these things to do and I'll do them all before coming back up there?"

Baggage claim and going through security was chaotic. There was a man rattling off instructions for security, but it was all in Nepali. This was the first real instance of a language barrier for me. Finally, after much confusion, I made it outside of the airport where I would wait for my missionary contact. It was much darker than I was expecting and I was flooded with men asking me if I needed a taxi. Once they realized I was not going to use their services they pushed me behind the crowd of people waiting.

"You have friend coming?" They would ask.

"Yes."

"You wait here." And they would motion for me to step behind the crowds. More than once they told me to move. I remember wondering if April would be able to find me.

It wasn't long until I did see her coming my way. We drug our bags through the puddles and over the rockey parking lot. After a little elbow grease, we got all of it in the car. We made our way to their apartment (on the "wrong" side of the road) and they got to unpack the bag of goodies from family and friends. It wasn't long before I was ready for a good shower and sleep.

 

They have a good view from their apartment. I remember commenting on how nice it was to see the "mountains", and then being corrected that the people call what I was seeing "hills". I very much enjoyed watching the people plant rice. They do almost all of it by hand. In the states we hear how much we take our conveniences for granted, but we don't fully comprehend what that means. Now, after being here for just a short three weeks I see how much I really do take for granted.

The most common question I have been asked is, "What has shocked you the most." I have found this very difficult to answer because I came not knowing what to expect. However, I come from a very busy lifestyle and the slower paced lifestyle here was the most unexpected. The people here go from sun-up to sun-down and then their day is generally done. They do and make almost everything by hand. And, traffic is so bad that going out to do anything very easily could take up most of your day.

 

Recently, my pastor has placed a lot of emphasis on praying for the safety of our missionaries. I have always prayed for their physical, emotional, and spiritual safety. But, after seeing the dangers of simply crossing the road, or even driving through traffic, I understand even more the importance of praying for their physical safety. After seeing and hearing of a spiritual warfare that we don't understand in America, I can see how vital it is to pray for their spiritual safety.

 

For example, we were riding in a taxi and their almost four-year-old daughter asks about a little idol setting on the dash. In America, little Budhas and other religious symbols are often just a decoration, and doesn't mean anything to the person who has it on display. But for this taxi driver, and for the majority of the people here, this really is an idol. Can you imagine being faced with this on a regular basis and your little girl, who continually asks "why this?" and "why that?", asks, "Mommy, look at that elephant (this specific idol had an elephant head) up there, why does he have it up there?" If this were you, how would you respond? Before this trip, I thought I knew how to pray for our missionaries, but in reality, I had no idea what they face. I may still not fully comprehend their needs, but I understand the pressing need to pray for them.

 

Some of my favorite things you ask? I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with this missionary family. They have been so welcoming, kind, and helpful. I came hoping to be a blessing, but in return I have been the one who was blessed.

 

A couple other favorites. I love the natural food! April has made American dishes, but the flavor is unreal. No preservatives. Fresh produce is exactly that, fresh. They don't spray their crops, they don't enhance their chickens with anything, she has to pasteurize her own milk. With this blessin, however, comes much added work; hence the slower lifestyle. I have also enjoyed seeing and getting to know their church family. This is another matter of prayer. People in America may be faced with some opposition from family after becoming a Christian, but here once they have made this decision they are basically losing not only their family and friends, but even their sense of community.

 

I could keep going, but the greatest thing I have learned is the importance of understanding the culture and lifestyle of the people to which you are ministering. The McTagues have observed the culture, the religion and lifestyle of their people and through this God has enabled them to better reach the people. I can tell you this, I will go back to America with the goal of re-observing the people in my hometown, to better understand them and reach out to them. I can't focus on results, just simply trust God and do what He has commanded, leaving the results up to Him. Another valuable lesson I have learned is the importance of a balanced scheduled. Knowing what God expects for me to accomplish and being ok with not always accomplishing what "I" think or others think I should accomplish.

 

Even if you never get the opportunity to go visit a missionary on their field, take time to get to know them. They are normal people in an land full of the unfamiliar, simply obeying God.

 

Malissa Arsnoe

Malissa, is a faithful Christian at our home church in Nepal. Last year she requested to come visit us this summer. We thoroughly encouraged her to make the visit. While I didn't know her extremely well personally I expected a good visit. But it far exceeded my expectations. It was a wonder visit; full of blessings, encouragement, lots of chats and plenty of I Love Lucy:) I was excited to hear her perspective on visiting Nepal. I hope you will enjoy her Birdseye view of our little country of Nepal.

 

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Seeking God {Guest Post}

This month has been a bit of a struggle with what I should write. I have had conflicting feelings on what to write if anything. Mostly I am struggling with feeling inadequate to even do a blog. However, as I was thinking about it, I realized something major. I have not prayed about it. In fact I have not really given much spiritual thought to it. That is where I realized I have gone majorly wrong. How in the world can I encourage others spiritually if I am not listening to God’s leading? Yes, I am following God and yes I love Him but recently I have not been as close to Him as I should be. Of course my inner self has no desire to admit this, but the realization hit me that I have a strong feeling I am not alone. I think we have all had those times when we haven’t drawn as close to God as we should. We have let our personal time with God kind of fall by the wayside, or we do it without much thought. It tends to just be something we do because we know we have to. My responsibility is to live my life for God. After all it is my “reasonable service ”(Romans 12:1).  It is only reasonable that I spend time with God, the one who created me and died for me. Jeremiah 29:13 says: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” So this month’s blog is going to be short for the main reason its time I start seeking God again. Thank you for your understanding. I pray that all of us continue to follow close to God each and every day!

3... 2... 1... Furlough! "Driving Us Crazy"

I know what you are thinking.

I know because I used to think it, too.

You are thinking that learning to drive on the right hand side of the road is the hardest part of driving when we come back from the field for furlough.

It is true that where we live we drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car. But I must tell you, learning to drive on the right side is the easiest part.

Trying to remember American driving culture?

Now that's torture.

Driving Us Crazy

While my reverse culture shock hits overload in the grocery store, Jason's struggle is actually behind the wheel of the car. Unfortunately for him, a major portion of our time on furlough is spent in that seat.

Now we will tell you that there are several things about driving in the States that we love. We love smooth roads and organized traffic, clean streets and traffic lanes.

We love drive thru windows and getting cups with lids and straws... and driving down a road that doesn't sling the drink everywhere!

We absolutely love driving up to a gas station and pumping our own gas... and getting as much as we want! (After a 5 month fuel shortage crisis on our field, we have learned to appreciate this more than ever.)

We have caught on pretty quickly to stopping at stop signs, driving on the right side, and using the turning signal. But what throws us into a tailspin isn't the rules of the road. It's the driving culture. For example, look at this picture.

Don't you see something wrong?

Remember me talking about Americans having a 3 foot imaginary bubble around them? No one likes people to intrude in their bubble. Well, apparently when Americans get in their cars, the bubble suddenly wraps around their vehicles, too. Americans like their space on the road, even at stop lights. We were scooting up really close because that's what we do in Asia. I think we upset a few people. (Sorry!) In our country, if you leave that much space between vehicles, two taxis, seven motorcycles, two scooters, a cow, and a pack of stray dogs will jump in there. When we come to a stop, we get within a few inches of the vehicle in front of us... and occasionally we play bumper cars.

So we now leave more room in front of us. I wish that were the only problem.

When we drive, we are used to threading through traffic, pedestrians, and livestock of all kinds. It is a way of life-- a driving culture. The pedestrians are used to it, too. Even the chickens pay us no mind as we pass by. We have gotten so good at it that we can do donuts and figure eights around pedestrians without us even breaking a sweat.

But in America? Apparently "yield to pedestrians in crosswalk" doesn't mean "dodge pedestrians with skill." Americans do not like parking lot pinball. We, however, approach it with the zeal of a seasoned gladiator preparing for an epic battle. (To the sweet, blonde lady in the Walmart parking lot: We promise you were in no danger, but we are sorry we scared you so badly. On a happier note, you had some pretty awesome disco moves as you were running for your life.)

Sigh...

We have often told our national friends how little Americans use their horns on the road, and how when an American actually uses his horn that it means something bad. In America, we can usually count on one hand how many times we use our horn in a year. On the field, we would have to use every finger and every toe to count our horn's honking just going to the grocery store right down the street.

On the field, the horn means:

I am passing you.

I am here, don't pull out.

Comin' through...

I just feel like honking, because I am bored.

In America:

GO!!!

It's my turn!

What is wrong with you?!!!

... And a few other things I shouldn't type.

Let me interject here that since we have been in the States for one month, people have honked at us... a lot. Prayers appreciated.

Library Love

We have been enjoying having access to an amazing library system again! Yes, we came out of the library with our arms loaded down!

Hints:

For those on the field without access to a good library... you may still have access to many free digital books through your library system in your passport country. We have "checked out" many books through our library's digital library.

For homeschooling families and families with children on deputation or furlough... take advantage of your library for road trips. There are books on CD that you can pop in your CD player in your car. Also, check out books related to the state you will be traveling through. Leave them strategically placed in the car for your kids to find when they are bored. If you are going to stop to do some sightseeing along the way, how great it will be if they found a book (conveniently placed by mom) about it along the way!

College Countdown

It finally happened.

Our oldest son graduated from high school. Our sending church held a graduation celebration for Ben. It was an amazing service with sweet memories.

But along with graduation comes the next step. Ben is college bound! We traveled to see Ben's college for the first time. It was a great experience, but I must admit that the reality is becoming more... real!

We have been asked by many people how we are doing with the upcoming separation. We will be leaving Ben in the States when we return to the field. Honestly, my heart aches just thinking about it. I will be 10,000 miles away from him! If I allowed myself, I could wallow in self-pity for weeks. But isn't this why we have been training and preparing him? Our goal has always been to train our children how to independently glorify God. They cannot do that if we are always there.

Either way, my mommy heart aches, because I know the parting is coming. Our whole family is learning how to grieve the separation but celebrate the victory. Ben is becoming a man, and that's a good thing.

I trust God's grace will be as sufficient on that day as it has always been.

If you think about it, please pray for missionaries all over the world who make this same sacrifice and commitment. It isn't easy, but our sweet Saviour is worth it.

Be a blessing to a college missionary kid. They, too, grieve the separation. Many of them grieve the loss of the place they feel is home. When you love on MKs, don't forget to love on the MKs left behind.

Red Party Punch Recipe

Missionaries can often be found planning parties for baby showers, wedding showers, their own children's birthday parties, etc. For quite some time, I have been on the hunt for a good punch recipe which does not require many special ingredients so that it can be made on the field. With the need to plan a high school graduation reception for our daughter, I was happy to find an easy punch recipe that everyone enjoyed. I tweaked the recipe a bit from the original recipe I found online so that is the version I will share here. It reminds me of red Hawaiian punch to give you an idea of the flavor of the finished product.

Just a stock photo. :)

Ingredients:

Better to allow the ingredients to chill a few hours before mixing. 

8 cups orange juice (2 liters)
8 cups pineapple juice (2 liters)
2 cups grapefruit juice or grapefruit lemon juice blend
1/2 liter of Grenadine
1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries (optional: we did not use the cherries)
1 (2 liter) bottle Sprite

Combine the ingredients into an 8.5 or larger punch bowl. Stir lightly and serve!

Her Story Quotes by Shari

Psalm 78 is a song of remembrance of the many times God in His mercy chose to have compassion on the Israelites instead of bringing down His judgement which was rightly deserved. Verse 38 says, “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:  yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.”  

As Christians it is easy for us to judge others whether we mean to or not. I can always tell when I’m in a “judgy” mood, and I hate that it controls how I feel and think. I remember hearing a preacher say once, “We always judge ourselves by our intentions, but we judge others by their actions.” I’d take it a step further and say, "We often judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by our expectations." This is completely unfair. One of the pastors I used to serve under taught me an invaluable truth one time when I was in the wrong. As I stood there bracing myself for the telling off I knew I deserved, he said, “Oh, that’s okay. I always judge on the 90% and not the 10%.” His mercy surprised me. It surprised me mostly because if the roles were reversed I might not have been as merciful and so, therefore, it never crossed my mind that I might be shown mercy. The mercy he showed me that day effected me in several ways. Not only was a weight lifted off me because he wasn’t upset, it also made me want to do my best to live up to the 90%. It also challenged me to show more compassion to others. Since that time I have always tried to live by the rule “Judge on the ninety percent not the ten.”

Loving the Small Stuff

Everyday Life isn't full of momentous triumphs or floods of tangible blessings. But there is no doubt everyday is flooded with more blessings and beautiful moments then we deserve. Throughout everyday there is difficulties. Plans rarely go as planned. There are plenty of things that tempt us to complain. The devil would love to steal our joy and draw our focus to the small things that plague us. A small fox can truly spoil the vine BUT ,also as powerful, small blessings can encourage beyond measure.

Today was nothing special but just another day full of many small blessings. Just another day when I felt blessed to be a child of the Lord and in His service. We are blessed to have a friend visiting us from our home church. It has been a great time of fellowship, fun and service. Today we ventured out to the zoo.

We all enjoyed seeing the animals as the raindrops fell intermittently. We met with friends and laughed and played.

The kids enjoyed seeing the zoo for the first time. I feel happy every time I get to experience my child discovering something new and the joy it brings. Then we introduced our friend to one of our favorite restaurants. We ate as much as we could handle and carried tired babies to the car. We counted our blessing to have a car on such a rainy day far from home.

 

On a day like this white clothes on a 1 yr old boy isn't the wisest choice. As I soak his tiny once white clothes, now covered in sand, dirt and Mexican food I count my blessings the Lord has blessed me with a small boy who runs, throws, yells and growls. For I know I am blessed to raise such a little boy for the Lord.

As the sun begins to set and this little tired boy has fallen to sleep, Daddy decides we VERY much needed a dessert. The clock was ticking on the amount of electricity we thought we had, so all hands were needed. Little hands and big gathered in the kitchen as we raced to get our treat done in time.

Daddy also decided we should make the cookies green for our little princess who loves all manner of color. They sadly turned out looking more like spinach flavored cookies than the bright green we imagined. On spontaneous moments like this I'm thankful for family and friends. A spouse who is loving and true, friends who sacrifice and travel great distances to be a part of your life and a beautiful child whose only goal in life is to do everything with you.

She joyfully awaited her creation to come out before bed time came. Leave it to a child to show you how to find joy in anything.

The cookies are done. The babies have fallen asleep and all is quiet in our home. Just another normal day. Nothing extraordinary has crossed my path. Just this extraordinaryly blessed life the Lord has given me. Today I choose to love the and take joy in all the small blessings He sends.

 

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Chunky Homemade Peanut Butter

Yield: About one jar of chunky peanut butter

Ingredients

4 cups (1 lb.) roasted, unsalted peanuts - divided

1 teaspoon honey

1/2 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbsp. canola or peanut oil (Optional - it makes the peanut butter much easier to spread after it has been refrigerated)

Instructions:

1. Blend 3 cups of the peanuts in a food processor for up to 10 minutes, until the peanut butter is very creamy and well-blended.
2. Roughly chop the remaining one cup of peanuts.

3. Mix in the one cup of roughly chopped peanuts, oil, honey, and salt. Adjust to taste.

Enjoy!

Note: If you prefer creamy peanut butter you can process all four cups of the peanuts in the food processor. The amount of honey are salt are adjustable, so feel free to add more or less to change the sweetness or saltiness of the peanut butter.