Be All There - (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

“My heart goes out to you, and I long to see you all coming constantly to God for a fresh supply of love.” 

 D.L. Moody

“Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.” 

Corrie Ten Boom

Strong desires

We are starting a teacher training on Monday.

Here in Ecuador, due to recent changes, there is a two weeks vacation from the schools at the beginning of February.

So, at FACE (Fundación Adelanto Comunitario Ecuatoriano, local partner to Finnish Free Evangelical Church for which I work) we're trying to make the best of the time and use it for teacher trainings.

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 

C. S. Lewis

Education department agreed for us to do an inclusive teaching training for teachers from 5th till 10th year of education (4th till 9th grade).

And we have a whole month to work with Special Education teachers.

These teachers aren't really Special Education teachers, some of them aren't even teachers but just High School graduates.

“Faith’s most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain.” 

Elisabeth Elliot

They all have severe reading comprehension problems and difficulties in logical thinking.

So, how come they are working in Special Education?

Because before 2011, when we started to work with Napo Province's Bilingual Intercultural Education Department, there did not exist Special Education in the bilingual (indigenous) teaching system.

The students with special needs stayed at their homes, hidden, ashamed, afraid, and abandoned.

Life provides losses and heartbreak.  But the greatest tragedy is to have the experience and miss the meaning.  I am determined not to miss that meaning.

Robin Roberts

I have so many heartbreaking stories of children and youth crawling on the floor, eating like animals, hidden in closets, bind with ropes, beaten, abused, and unable to ask for help or mercy.

In Amazonic Kichwa culture disabled people are supay wawa, demon children, born from a woman and a demon, sent to torture and damage the people around them.

But I have witnesses, O Israel, says the Lord!  You are my witnesses and my servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am God.  There is no other God; there never was and never will be.  I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.

Isaiah 43:10-11
The Living Bible

Or they are ghosts, souls of tortured people, raised from the grave, who have killed the real baby in the womb.

Only way to dispose a child like this is burn them alive or bury them alive next to a river.

There are no Kichwa Special Educators, because no Kichwa would have wanted to study to teach a child with special needs.

One of the most powerful concepts, one which is a sure cure for lack of confidence, is the thought that God is with you and helping you.  This is one of the simplest teachings in religion, namely, that Almighty God will be your companion, will stand by you, help you, and see you through.  No other idea is so powerful in developing self-confidence as this simple belief when practiced.  To practice it simply affirm "God is with me; God is helping me; God is guiding me."  Spend several minutes each day visualizing his presence.  Then practice believing that affirmation.

Norman Vincent Peale

It has been a long and painful road, but people are changing, the attitudes are changing, and there is hope for these children.

There are over 40 Special Education teachers in our program in Napo province.

And we are working with over 400 children and youth with special needs.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.

James 1:22
The New International Version

The teachers might not have graduated from a University but they have learned that God loves ALL the children.

They have understood that God has a special love for those who no one else loves, those who are the smallest of the smallest, the most insignificant of all.

And they have brought children to the sun, children who were hidden in holes in the soil.

Christianity must mean everything to us before it can mean anything to others.

Donald Soper

They have taught their students to walk; they have been there to hear them talk, to see how they eat with a spoon for the first time in their lives.

They have been there when a youth who used to wet him and throw stones to other people, smiles at them and calls them by name, and gives them a hug.

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:  "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets."

Luke 6:20-23
The English Standard Version

Kichwa culture is communal.

Everything affects the community.

Everything revolves around the community.

Before the disabled people were seen as a threat to the community.

Now they are seen as a part of community.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jim Elliot

And what is part of the community must be integrated, included in the life of community.

And those who are members of the community must be helped, their live must be made, sumak kawsay, good life.

When I go to a community where a baby was burned just four years ago and see the people taking care of their disabled community members.

How far away is heaven? It is not so far as some imagine. It wasn’t very far for Daniel. It was not so far off that Elijah’s prayer, and those of others could not be heard there. Men full of the Spirit can look right into heaven.

Dwight L. Moody

Worrying about their happiness, health and safety.

Looking together into solutions and ways to improve their lives.

It's not just the people with disability that have found a new life, it is the community.

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.

Psalm 68:3
The New International Version

Together we have found God who healed the blind man and made the lame walk.

God who told us to love everyone and take care of the most insignificant person.

God who said that it is not the fault of the parents, nor the person who is disabled.

God who gave us life and freed us all to live it. 

My hope comes from Him

My life is filled with beauty and I have so many excelent things in my life.I have my son. He is the light of my life, my biggest joy, my true reason to be thankful.I live in a beautiful house. It is not mine but it has tall rooms and ceramic tile floors that are really important in the heat.I have running water and electricity. There is even internet at my house.I have clothes and shoes that I can even combine with each other.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 (New International Version)

Two things that really have brought me joy and made me thankful are my camera and the iPad my parents gave me for Christmas last year. I love taking pictures and showing everyone what the life here in Ecuador is and who the people are. I also love reading but it has been so hard to find books here. In Tena there isn't even a one bookstore. In Quito there are few but the books are expensive and usually it takes time before a book appears in Ecuador.Now I can download any book I want. And since most books can be found in electronic form, I truly can download any book I want.There is another reason why this has made me thankful.I don't need big bookcases that fill my small house anymore. No more clutter, no more dust, no more insects running around, eating paper and hiding behind the books.

PSALM 62:5-7 “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God;” (NIV)

In Matthew 6:33 we are told to seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and then we are going to be given "all these things". What are "all these things"?

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

New International Version (NIV)

It seems that all these things are what I am thankfull of. Should I feel bad, be anxious? Is it a sin to enjoy "earthly things"?

"Most laws condemn the soul and pronounce sentence. The result of the law of my God is perfect. It condemns but forgives. It restores - more than abundantly - what it takes away.” - Jim Elliot

Jesus tells us not to worry about our food, drink or clothes but about our immortal soul. It is true, we can spend a lifetime running after finer food, drink and clothing, or any other mean to show our status. Maybe a bigger house or an expensive car?

Jesus also tells us that God knows that we need these things. We just shouldn't spend our time worrying about them, or about tomorrow. If we seek God and his kingdom, we shall have all this. And this is the reason to be thankful of everything I have. Because all that I have, I have because of Him.

PSALM 62:8 “Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

I am thankful because He has given me these things. He has given me the opportunity to work for Him, to do His work. A work that I truly love and enjoy every day. A work that brings me hope and brings hope to other people also.

He has given me an opportunity to live in a country that I love, with people that I love, doing what I love and even having things that I love. Like my iPad and my books and my camera. At the same time I walk on a tight rope, so that I would not love the things but the opportunities they give me and the possibilities to do God's work with them.

PSALM 62:5-7 “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God;” (NIV)

I think we should be thankful for what we have. Or else we would be proud and vain. But we should first be thankful to the one that has given us all this and made it possible to have good things in life. This is not a new thought, it can be found in the Bible and excessively large group of people have said it before and better. But it still is true.

As it is true that too many people care about the "eartly things" and not about the giver. Sometimes we're just too busy muching away the popsicle when there's a whole lake of chocolate waiting.

“[God] is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him.”-- C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain

I'm thankful God is not proud and He will have me, as imperfect as I am. Even when I forget to thank Him for the good things that I have. Even when I think that the good things come from me.

And there are still so many good things to be thankful of. Like my parents and my siblings. My sisters family. My aunts and uncles, my grandmother, my cousins... God has blessed me with a family that loves and cares, people that, even thought they are imperfect, have been there for me and made my life more complete.

I am thankful for my education and for my experiences, even thought many have been painful, because they make me who I am.

But most of all, I am thankfull for God's grace, love and forgiveness.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”