Psalms 145

Every time I see the sun set it makes me realize how small I am in comparasion to God, and it makes me all the more grateful that He would reach down into the filth to pull me out!!

001: I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
002: Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
003: Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
004: One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
005: I will speak of the glorious honour of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works.
006: And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
007: They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
008: The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
009: The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
010: All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
011: They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
012: To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
013: Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
014: The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
015: The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
016:Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
017: The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
018: The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
019: He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
020: The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
021: My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

PErsoNAlitY tEst

Well, I found this on a blog while I was wandering around, and I thought it was kind of comical. I mean, you can't rely on a survey to tell you who you are. Only God can do that. He's the only one who knows who we really are (and believe me He knows us well!). I still thought it was funny though, so here you go. Read this if you want to find out who I really am ;^).

Your Personality at 35,000 feet says

Deep down, you prefer spending time alone to spending time with others. You enjoy thinking more than talking. You are good with your place in the world. You are confident and comfortable with who you are. Your gift is having a good eye. You take amazing pictures and have the natural talent for most visual arts. You are inspired by what is possible. Real life is often too ordinary for you. It's very easy for you to feel happy. You can find peace with any situation.

The Personality Test at 35,000 Feet

What Your Handwriting Says About You

You are a fairly energetic person. You know how do pace yourself, and you deal well with stress. You are somewhat outgoing, but you're not a natural extrovert. You think first before you act. You tend to be independent, rational, and logical. You are balanced and grounded. You know how to get along well with others. You need a bit of space in your life, but you're not a recluse. You expect people to give you a small amount of privacy, and you respect their privacy as well. You are a free thinker. You are unique, open minded, and artistic. You don't care what other people think. You are a decent communicator. You eventually get your point across, but sometimes you leave things a bit ambiguous.

What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?

I especially liked this one. Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda and Root beer is one of the sodas I detest the most. I actually kind of like 7 up!

You Are Dr. Pepper

You're very unique and funky, yet you still have a bit of traditionalism to you. People who like you think they have great taste... and they usually do. Your best soda match: Root Beer Stay away from: 7 Up

What Kind of Soda Are You?

It had to have something to do with red...

Your Native American Name Is...

Meoquanee Alaqua Your name means: Red Wearing Sweet Gum Tree

What's Your Native American Name?

All you have to do in this one is change the phrase "firmly grounded" to firmly grounded in God.

Your Power Element is Wood

Your power colors: green and brown Your energy: generative Your season: spring Like a tree, you are always growing and changing. And while your life is dynamic, you are firmly grounded. You have high morals and great confidence in yourself and others. You have a wide set of interests, and you make for intersting company.

What's Your Power Element?

Sticky Business

This was definatelly a new thing for me. Honestly I always thought that bee hives looked significantly different. I'm not sure where the idea came from (might have something to do with all of those "Whinney the Poo" movies I always used to watch ;^), anyway, we'd had this bee hive out in the bushes for months without doing anything about it. We kept saying things like, "Tomorrow," or "Next week," but it never happened. Finally my Dad and brother (Andrew) made the leap and suited up (literally suited up, even though all of the sites we checked out said stuff like "bees are harmless" and "they only sting when threatened" they had both been stung enough times not to want to take any chances!).

I'm not going to explain too much. As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, but I do want to comment that straining, cleaning and packaging honey is not as easy as it seems.... Oh yeah, and Honey comb is absolutelly the best. God definatelly knew what He was doing!!!

Here're the pictures, I'll put captions under them to kind of explain, but most of them are already pretty self-explanitory...

The guys suiting up for battle with the so called "man's best friend" Duct Tape!!

BBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......


Next we Smoke them out...

We cut the honey down...

We hung it to drip...

And, voila, honey (there's more but I didn't get any other pictures)!!!

Let the little children come unto me...

"At this time His disciples came to Jesus, saying,"Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:1-4

Just this last Saturday I had the opportunity to fill in for the teacher of the kids class (that would be Karen) while she was visiting her mom. It was kind of intimidating- -being my first time teaching anything in Spanish- - but I loved it and God gave me the grace to not forget anything or get nervous. The children in the class are very sweet and most very willing to learn. It's precious to hear them repeating the verses and concepts from the Bible. One little boy in particular made a comment that I'll never forget... The lesson on Saturday was about Jesus' death and resurection. The first thing I asked them was, who is Jesus? We went around the table and each one of the kids said who they thought He was. When I got to the little boy I told you about (his name's ian) and I asked him who Jesus was he said, quite innocently, "Diosito." (basically "Little God" though, it looses some of it's meaning translated). I corrected him, but it was just so precious I had to write it. Lord willing I'm going to be taking over the kids classes full time in another month or so, I love working with the kids and watching them grow and learn, it's very rewarding.So, until I write again!

The Challenge

Hey, I just finished reading this awesome (well, maybe not awesome, but cool) book and I just had to recommend it. It's called The Challenge and it talks about Biblical courtship based on prayer. I really enjoyed this book because, rather than being set up in lecture for it was written as a story. It really made the concepts come alive for me and has been a turning point in my life. It's only the first in a series (the others are: The Choice and The Question) which deals with many different types of relationships and how to make a fresh start. It opened my eyes about prayer and has given me a new resolve to have God's will done in my life. If you haven't read it, you should!!!

Mission Team

Just recently we had a mission team come down from California to work with our church. While they were here we did some outreaches, had some fun days of hanging out at the river, were able to include them in a volleyball tournament, went camping out by the river, and I experienced something new . Up till now it has usually been the case that when a team came from the States the pastor of our church would be the one to translate when they give their testimonies or when we go out and evangelize (he's American). Well, a few weeks ago when the team came down our pastor had to leave on a trip only halfway through their stay. This, of course, left our family as the only ones who spoke both English and Spanish (some of the members of the team spoke a little Spanish but not enough to give their testimonies in front of a lot of people). The Sunday after our pastor had left three of the team members were asked to share their testimonies with the church. They agreed readily, and my Dad and I offered to translate (he for the guys and I for the girls). God really blessed us in the translating and it all flowed smoothly. When we had finished with the service, my Dad came up to me and asked me if I would mind translating on Tuesday for the outreach we were going to be having in a nearby village. I said I'd pray about it, but inside I was panicking and imagining myself going blank up in front of 200 people (that's an exaggeration of numbers). Well, I prayed about it and felt like God was telling me to go for it, so I said I would. We had a blessed time ministering and evangelizing in the village. A few people recieved Christ and we're hoping will continue strong in the Lord. God gave me the words to say in the translating and, like always, was continuing to teach me to simply rely on Him in ALL things. It hasn't been an easy lesson but as it says in
Pillippians 1:6 - " And I am confident in this very thing, that He who began in you the good work will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ."
And I trust that He will!!
Here's the Send mission group that came down

Blueberry Syrup

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about the wierd foodstuffs they have here... So, here's some. Honestly I think that you could probably find this in the US, but I've never seen it. It looks gross but tastes fine!! Still, my first thought when I saw it was hand soap!

Mmmm, Mmmm, Good!!

Power in Prayer

Have you ever wondered why God does always answer prayer? Why would God put all those verses in the Bible about ''...asking in the name of Jesus and it shall be done..." and then not. Are we lacking faith? What's the fine line between the perfect will of God and our faith that He will answer our prayers? Then taking into account spiritual warfare (example found in Daniel when he prays and it takes 30 days for the answer to arrive). And then His timing is not the same as our timing... Yesterday I was listening to an espisode of Down Gilead Lane. It was about a little girl named Hope who decided that she was going to ask God to heal someone she new who was blind. Kind of wierd that the first thing that entered into my mind was, "it will never work," but then I really began to think about it. Why not? Why wouldn't it work? The God we serve today is the same God who Paul served 2000 years ago. Did God favor Paul more than He favors you and me?
I personally believe that if we have faith, our prayers have power, and that as the Bible says, "...ask and you shall be given..." Of course, that doesn't mean that we can have anything we want just because we ask, but merely that God listens to our prayers and WILL answer. Perhaps not in the time or way we desire, but He will. I serve a great God who gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Hair Cuts

Okay I've finally done the unthinkable... I've cut my hair. I know I wasn't going to, but it was so hot and I was so sick of having so much hair that I finally gave up and decided to cut it in layers (I'd never done it before so I thought it would be fun). Well, as you can see from the picture I did, but after a few days I got sick of it (it didn't seem much different than it had been before) so... I asked my Mom to cut it again this time in a different style of layers. And again, I wore it for a few days and in the end decided that I didn't like it that way either. Returning to my Mom I told her that I just wanted her to cut it all off (that would be a little shorter than my shoulders) and... She did!!! My friends, the people at the school, and even the ladies in the church are all upset that I cut my hair, but oh well, hair always grows back!!!! And I must say, it's so nice not to have to brush it all the time! Now, a few weeks later, I kind of regret having cut my hair, but only kind of.

~ That's what I call a lot of hair

La Langue Nouveau!! (new language)

So, now what's up in my life... Good question, let me just fill you in a li'l bit. Well, I've just started taking French classes in Guasave (that would be the large city here-abouts). Then again I suppose "just" is a relative term, I mean about 2 monthes ago. It's been interesting trying to learn another language, I mean sometimes I think that Spanish is quite enough, but I think that it's God's will for me to learn and hey, I enjoy a challenge!! Though I must say, it's been fun trying to stuff half an hour of French homework into my "schedule" everyday!!!
Arevoir!!
(at least I think that's how it's spelled. Crazy scholars who invented the written part of the language sure didn't have easy in mind :)

Ultimate Slug-Bug

In the States, as most of you know, Volkswagon quit manufacturing the old-style VW Bug (aka Herbie:^) in the late '70s. Here, however, the manufacturing of the Bug continued until about 2 years ago. Since the VW Bug is such an economical car (and Mexicans are all about saving money!) and since Bugs look good no matter what condition they're in, lots of local businesses, city police, and individuals use the VW Bug as their transportation. At this point most of you are probably saying, "Alright. So what?" But I'm just getting started...

Since there are so many Bugs crawling around the area -- and more so in bigger cities -- the game "Slug-Bug" is WAAAAY more fun! Recently, I was on a trip to Culiacan, and one of my friends and I decided it would be fun to play this popular travel game. Neither one of us had taken into account how many more VW Bugs there are here than in the States. Most of you have probably played Slug-Bug at least once in your life. I don't know about you, but whenever I've played, I usually got bored after 10 minutes of not seeing even one Bug. Here, however, you need not fear boredom! The only thing you need fear here is that your arm might be immobile the next day! My friend and I really got into this game when, after 10 minutes, we had seen more than 30! Of course, the next day I regretted having suggested the game in the first place, (my arm was not immobile, but was certainly sore!) but it was still a lot of fun!!!