I Won!

I have been entering blog giveaways for quite some time, thanks to Amy, my blogging friend who seems to always win the coolest things.  I am proud to announce that today I won a really cool book!

I entered a while ago on Noel Piper (my pastor's wife)'s blog, and had forgotten about the giveaway.  What a pleasant thing to come home to!

Especially now that I am living in a neighborhood where poverty is a daily reality, I think Aaron Armstrong's book will be good for me to read.  Can't wait to open it up and dig in!

Deeper than the day-to-day

I realized at the end of last year that I was really missing being challenged to think about what I believe.  Four years of Bible college had me thinking every minute.  In contrast, teaching fifth grade has me cramming facts into my head.


So I've been trying to feed my brain information that makes me think.


- My friend's friend Jenny writes a blog.  This post made me think about my desire for acceptance and what identifies me.


- I am listening to my MN church's sermons every week before I go to bed.  This sermon by John Piper was about textual criticism (a linguist's dream!) and the woman caught in adultery.  This at the end caught me, "Come to Jesus for grace, and set your face to sin no more."


- I am reading Changing Tides: Latin America and World Mission Today by Samuel Escobar. I've been wanting to read Escobar's work for a long time, and I found one of his books at a garage sale here for less than a dollar!  :)  I'm just starting, but so far- very interesting.  Here's a quote I liked, "Today, at the beginning of a new century, we are more aware than ever that missionaries are vessels of clay, bearers of the glory of the gospel, who are themselves weak and likely to break...the missionary task as an enterprise [is] carried out by persons who are fragile and weak, subject to contingencies like perils, suffering, and persecution."


- And from the Word: Isaiah 44:22- "I have blotted out your transgression like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." and Isaiah 44:5- "This one will say, 'I am the Lord's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's,' and name himself by the name of Israel."

3 Books in 2011

Ok, I am completely stealing this idea from Missional Mama, my friend Amy's blog, but it's just because I LOVE reading!  So, the top three books that I want to read this year:








I've been waiting to read all three of these books for at least a year now, some of them for two.  By December 2011 they will all be read!  

Simplicity vs. Christmas Spirit

I just got the majority of the Christmas presents that I'm giving this year wrapped today.  It made me excited about Christmas for one of the first times this season.


Of course the reasons that I haven't been in the "spirit" are that:
- I am in 90* heat instead of -10
- There is no snow on the ground
- I have not just finished finals (although with turning in grades I feel a bit like I have)
- I haven't had the screaming American advertisements about Christmas pumped into my brain for the last two months
- I am not with my whole family
- The whole weather thing again.  It deserves to be mentioned three times


Still, it should not take presents to make me excited about God becoming flesh to live a human life and then die a human death for my sins.  With my time off school I've been doing a bit more reading, and the book Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard Foster has been making me think a lot about where my consumer mindset comes from.


A few thoughts from the book-


Foster speaking about holy obedience:


We are to discipline ourselves to "seek first the Kingdom of God."  This focus must take precedence over absolutely everything.  We must never allow anything, whether deed or desire, to have that place of central importance.  The redistribution of the world's wealth cannot be central, the concern for ecology cannot be central, the desire to get out of the rat race cannot be central, the desire for simplicity itself cannot be central.  The moment any of these becomes the focus of our concern, it has become idolatry.  Only one thing is to be central: the Kingdom of God.  And, in fact, when the Kingdom of God is genuinely placed first, the equitable distribution of wealth, ecological concerns, the poor, simplicity, and all things necessary will be given their proper attention."


Personal finances:


Today there is a heretical teaching that is an absolute plague in American Christianity.  It is the dogmatic and unexamined credo that whatever we gain is ours to do with as we please...In no way can we twist the Scripture to justify such a belief.  Our lifestyle is not our private affair...The Gospel demands more of us: it is obligatory upon us to help one another hammer out the shape of Christian simplicity in the midst of modern affluence.


I have much to think about as I live here as a missionary on support and then as I go home in August as a very poor but also very privileged young American.

Great Finds

I am a bargain shopper to the core. There are only a few items that I own that I have paid full price for.  Sadly, Bolivia isn't big on sales.  HOWEVER, yesterday there was a GARAGE SALE here!  A giant one in our school gym!  And my big find was....three great books for 10Bs. ($1.40)!!!  I'm really excited about two of them.


First, I got a book by a famous Latin American theologian, Samuel Escobar.  I first heard of him from Ruth Padilla, a speaker at Urbana 09 last winter, and I've been hoping to find one of his books for cheap.  Can't wait to dig into this one, but I'll have to wait awhile until I finish a few on my shelf.




The other book I can't believe I found is by Helen Roseveare.  A missionary to the Congo, she lived through things I can only praise God I have never had to face.  But these things strengthened her faith in a way that mine will probably never be.  I couldn't wait to start this one, so I read the preface last night.  So far so good!



I'll let you know how these treasures turn out.  Yay for garage sales!

Food for Thought

I breeze through some books, while others I chew on while I read.  One that I've been reading since July is Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster.  







Since I had a few free minutes on Sunday, I lay in the hammock behind our house and absorbed some goodness.  Foster is talking about the beauty of obedience in simplicity, and he says this, "Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience...It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride....Utter abandonment to God is done freely and with celebration...Hold this work lightly, joyfully."  


Living in a different culture, working in an environment where I always feel weak, sometimes I think it's only through sheer grit that I will survive.  But since I'm obeying God in being here, I need to remember that God has already filled me with His joy.  In obeying Him, I should be the most joyful.  Lord, help me to find strength in Your joy today.