Worship Him Freely with Self-Control

"He is worthy of all honor and glory, He is worthy of all our praise..." And so on we sang in the church or with the band or with friends. We forgot all about what is going on in our mind and in the world! We stood together to praise Him. Everything is so good so far! Then the song ends, we sat down or walk away thinking, is there more to this than that?

Here is the challenge: create a new song or cultivate a new way of expressing the song in our own unique way. One thing I love about signing language is that I have the privellege to use different signs to illustrate the lyrics in an unique way. Sometimes I led the songs too often that I needed to back out to be able to learn some new ways to express the songs through other signers. Or listen to the preacher's elaboration about the certain word or line within the song.

Why is it important for us to create new songs or express them in our own unique way?
Think about it, when we create something that had to be made from our own hands, body, or voice, then they are as rare as diamonds to Him!

How may we worship Him freely without being the barrier to the ones around us?
That is when the fruit of our self-control comes into the picture. We have the freedom to lift our hands and to possess the self-control to not spread our hands into the front of one's face. We have the freedom to be drugged by the Spirit and to possess the self-control to sit down before falling upon someone around us. We have the freedom to lay prostrate even throughout the sermon or the closing talk and yet possess the self-control to get up quietly and be seated or sit at the very spot. If we possess that self-control, then why are we afraid to step out and try something new?

Let us step out with our self-control and worship Him in our own unique way to experience His love in it's fullest form!

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When Will We Need To Shut-Up?

It is probably the longest time I've ever stopped to blog. I have been thinking about blog about several topics, but I held myself back from blogging. Why did I held myself back? When is it the right time to blog? Or the question should be like this, "When will we need to shut-up?" because we probably won't find the most accurate time to talk and leave things unsaid.

Let us take a look into Proverb 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." My youth pastor gave me this and I've memorized that verse ever since! But let me modify that verse a bit for us to link that verse to our thoughts, "Uppermost, we must filter our mind so that what comes out of our mind may lifts up one another."

I believe that it is our responsibility to filter our mind when it's cloudy or stormy before we talk. Sometimes our cloudy mind may last for a day, a week, a month, or even a year! How do we filter our stormy mind? I think Peter's story would metaphorically answer our question. When he sank into the stormy sea after he boldly walked on the water toward Jesus, he shouted, "Lord, save me." Is that it? Yeah our minds are full of complexions thus once we look at the complexions, we lost our eyes on Jesus. Just like how Peter saw the wind and sank. We saw how complex our mind is and we sank in our own attempt to understand our mind, our world. "Save us, Lord," we shout and He will reach toward us to plant us firmly upon the ground once again. And then we began to lift our eyes onto Him once again and continue to walk upon the water. In faith, we keep our eyes onto Him not onto the complexions of this world.

Like Peter, I once sank into a stormy sea for a lengthy morning. Thus, I decided to not blog on that day to be able to pray about the storm although I blogged almost daily at that time. After praying, a thought immediately came into my mind as the cloudy mind disappeared. So I got up from praying and blogged about my clouded mind. I believe that God wants us to be the steward of our own mind and heart so that He may allow the Spirit to flow into our creative mind to encourage one another. Authentic worship opens the heavens for the outpourings.

"But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." -Matt 15:18-19

Nicaragua Post-Trip Reflection

My cross-cultural ministry just ceased! Not exactly.

Upon my arrival, I realized that my ministry was in a revolution! It immediately jumped from a relationship oriented to a task oriented. My mind simply froze. My emotion swells. What can I do? Well, I definitely got to re-evaluate my life as my cross-cultural ministry continues here.

Several goals:
-Jumpstart ASL "hang-out" small group for the springtime without any specific time or place to continue cross-cultural ministry in DC between two worlds.
-Advertise about Deaf Awareness event (for info, check noahbuchholz.com) and start to prepare a short, 15 min or so, presentation about Nicaragua coffeehouse where the funds will go to.
-Reunite with Nicaragua team for a dinner
-Look for any opportunity to continue learning Spanish in literacy
-Start to plan the next trip to Central America. I'm praying about taking a bus from Guatemala after a week mission trip toward Nicaragua to stay there for 1-2 months (July-August) to be able to continue advocating the Deaf there.

"His love is like a hurricane, I am a tree [not knowing what to do], bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy"

Ministering Cross-Culturally

"When Micronesians get together to work, their social interaction is just as important to them as getting the job done. Unfortunately, many task-oriented missionaries fail to comprehend or accept such a value. As a consequence, they end up rejecting the very people to whom they feel called to minister." -Ministering Cross-Culturally

I love those Micronesians! They valued the people more than the success. That's what Jesus did. But he didn't value only the people, he also valued the time. In fact, he missed a meal due to busyness that his disciples had to tell him to get away from the people. What did Jesus say? He told them that they need to get away and find food to feed them instead of sending the hungry people away. Jesus didn't stop interacting with the people, but he didn't pause his task either. He valued both equally. Are we a task-oriented or a person-oriented?

Well, I'm seasonal task-oriented and seasonal person-oriented. When I faced the relationship barriers, I became task-oriented person. When I lacked the time of solitude or was filled with new people, I became person-oriented person. In fact, I think I've been person-oriented person for past 3 weeks in Nicaragua, I admit that I carried the Bible with me a lot in hope to catch up with my fromgardentocity.com reading plan. I've been lagging a book behind for the first time! And I think that means I just passed the test as a missionary.

"If we are not meeting people and loving them through interaction, we have lost sight of the Great Commission and our activities lose significance."

Who do you think you need to interact within your mission field?

Escuela Cristiana de Sordos en Nicaragua

"The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us" (John 1:14). Jesus was a learner of language and culture. Therefore, I must be unAmericanized. To be unAmericanized, I have to hang out with the students, teachers, and leaders a lot to learn more about them just like how Jesus hanged out with us to be among us. I ate with them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I talked with them during their free times. I joined staff for their morning meetings. I aided mathematic teacher and study hall supervisor. I went to church on Wednesday night with the students. I blogged some details of what I learned here.

Free times:

There are blue and yellow Gallaudet Intramural jerseys, that lived in Nicaragua for a year, on those boys. I learned that they sew some jersey to make them smaller and fitting. Last year, Jon Vaughan, athletic trainer at Gallaudet University, went on board with the last year team to provide some athletic equipments. The first thing we noticed was that the brand new soccer ball didn't exist anymore. Where was it? After few questions, I learned that the ball went out of the boundary over the fence, probably at the nighttime. Therefore, they couldn't retrieve it and barely play soccer games with the flattened ball, but they didn't care. Monday to Thrusday, they played after the breakfast- 6:30 AM to 7:30AM, during the 30 min recess- 9:15 AM to 9:45 AM, 15 min recess- 3:15 PM to 3:30 PM or during their free time- 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM. They go to bed at 8-9 PM and get up at around 4:45-5:30 AM from either on the top of the bunk or below. Whenever they are not playing, they will sit in the cafe or outside to chat or to simply enjoy the sun. Few of them will stay in the cafe to watch the non-captioned television news. Few of them would sneak out beyond the fence to grab some mangoes from the tree nearby and wash them before sharing them with everyone. Even they gave some to me and I munched some and then spit the skin out. I also heard few stories about worms within some mangoes on the dark spots. We don't need any knives to eat. We pretty much ate beans and rice for all meals along with some meat and sides, and we had mangoes for the afternoon snacks along with some purchases from the snack booth.

Leaders:

Escuela Cristiana de Sordos en Nicaragua have several wonderful Deaf leaders who led the kids in the school, especially Janeth and Genaro. In the picture, Janeth wore the traditional Nicaraguan Costume, dressed on long embroidered white dress and red ribbons, to dance along with the rhythm of the music. Genaro, seeing that everybody wanted him to dance, relcultantly joined the rhythm. He's a comedian and a storyteller who will make one laugh till the face turns red or entice one into his story as if one's watching a movie.

Janeth is currently taking some courses on Saturday to become a certified teacher and she aims to enroll in an university after this. She's a hard-worker. Beside the class, during the week, she's volunteering her time as a dorm and study hall supervisor at the school and as a teacher aide for the kindergarten- non-paid. She also teach the LSN (Nicaragua Sign Language) to the Assembly of God missionaries at the missionary school nearby the school (under the same Assembly of God board) once a month or so. She has the heart of the teacher and she is pursuing it. She is the one who patiently taught me some LSN before I came to Nicaragua with the team, enabling us to communicate with the students efficiently.

Genaro is currently a high school student at the school despite of his age. He was enrolled in the school when he was already an adult in 1998 when the school was founded. He knew how to joke about his age and strive to break himself away from the restrictions. Some rules are exception for him, he also supervise the students even though he's a student himself as well. He works at the school library in the mornings, except Wednesdays when he had to take high school classes. All high schoolers take classes in the afternoons, so he was able to work when his classmates do their homework. His heart beats for the evangelism. Part-time job, school, and responsibilities tarry his dreams. He waits and prays patiently before he is able to fully pursue his dreams someday. As of now, he would grab every opportunity to get out of Managua during the weekends to do the evangelism. He showed me some of his visually artistic-evangelistic works on the posters that are being rolled and stacked into his office like the scrolls.
One of them illustrate the verse in John 1:29, "the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" in espanol (Juan 1:29) and the artwork.

Students:

It's easy for us to fall in love with them! They are very patient with everybody. They are butterflies around the team, they will try to talk to any visitors and welcome them to the school even those who don't know any signing language. They reminded me of Watoto who came to National Community Church on the Valentine Day in 2009. I think it was the best Valentine Day I ever had beside the 2011 Valentine Day with the El Camino in Nicaragua.

I just learned that there are 111 students enrolled as of now and only 10 of them are hearing. Unlike America, Nicaragua allowed some hearing students to enroll into the Deaf school. There are only 40 students living in dorm, the rest went home after school on the bus at 12:30 PM for K-6 and 5:30 PM for 7-10. They don't have 11th and 12th grade as of now, but they plan to add 11th grade to the school next year. As the result, the math teacher doesn't have the 10th grade math textbook, to work effectively with the math teacher, I had to grab the 9th grade book and look for some 10th grade work that was being taught in the 9th grade book as well to plan the lesson. With the insufficient funds, they couldn't buy the 10th grade curriculum.

Nicaragua Team's Valentine with El Camino

"We ought to be someone who wraps a towel around our waist to wash dishes at the home of someone. We ought to be someone who hang out with someone of different culture, of different language, of different personality and career or of different age. We ought to be someone who sympathetically weep and laugh with someone. We are part of the community even in a country that is distant from our own or even in a language that is unknown to us."
-2011 Nicaragua trip, Kari =)

2011 Nicaragua mission trip is the era of where we all experienced the characteristics of a true missionary El Camino, "the Way", as a team. The Twelve saw how Jesus wrapped the towel around his waist to wash their feet, talked with Samaritan, embraced the children, formed the team of the uneducated or the rejected people, wept when he saw the others weeping for Lazarus, and wandered into every unknown places to bless the others. El Camino demonstrated Love.

On February 14th, twelve of us landed in Nicaragua for a special Valentine Week with El Camino as we abandoned our homes, families, and friends to follow El Camino. We met two missionaries, Matt and Eva Barlow, who welcomed some of us into their home and some into the hotel. Our discomfort begins. How may we share our lodging? How may we communicate effectively? How may we connect with one another? Our questions were eclipsed by our servitude in Christ.

For 7 days, we get together to:
-Eat meals together and share some of our thoughts and devotions.
-Hammer and paint the coffeehouse, La Puerta.
-Hang out with the Deaf kids at Escuela Cristiana De Sordos de las Asambleas de Dios, and paint some walls.
-Go on a few wonderful field trips: on the boat, see the volanco, and shop!

The unique characteristics of the Twelve:
-Have a deaf pastor from the team preach at a hearing church with interpreter and teach the people how to sign "Gloria a Dio" on Wednesday night.
-Have a Deaf ministry leader from the team preach in Nicaragua signs at a deaf church on Sunday afternoon even though she wasn't fluent in it yet.
-Have a multilingual person from the team speak in French to someone staying at our hotel to encourage the guy.
-Have three interpreters from the team intepret the languages surrounding us: American Sign Language to spoken English and spoken Espanol to spoken English.
-Have one Phd. "spy" from the team who sneaks out to learn more about the education system and etc.
-Have three non-signers blooming into a pee-wee ASL and Nicaragua signers, playing some pranks with non-voicers.
-Have two wonderful leaders from the team dealing with all of us, crazies, and make wonderful things happen!

Reliable Leaders Carry Out Untitled Duty (2 Tim 1-2)

"So my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me - the whole congregation saying Amen! - to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn't get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It's the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it plain."

Diligent is characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort. There is so much more for us than to just exist, more than simply getting up and eat and do our daily thing and go to bed and do that until we die. There is nothing as dangerous as becoming complacent. When we began to get ourselves settled, Paul is telling us, "Think it over. God will make it plain." Think over what Paul is trying to tell us through his writing, his holy calling!

The soldier, in Paul's writing, must have had an amazing undivided attention! He roamed into the marketplace without making any deals. He carried out his duty. He didn't ask the people about how he should do his duty. He just went and do it!

In National Community Church service last night, I was able to witness few reliable leaders carrying out Paul's writing. The scene replayed in my mind throughout the night. The scene begins when our campus pastor called all Nicaragua mission team to the platform to pray over us. Naturally, I hated to see anyone being left out, I asked the interpreter to step aside to join the team since he's part of the team. He suddenly stopped interpreting to join us as I began to think about the interpreting situation. My mind stopped processing when a reliable leader from the congregation suddenly stepped up. She didn't care about the people's opinion. She saw the need. She came forward to fulfill her duty as a leader. She filled in the position that is not titled to her. But it had been titled to her at this moment. This moment came beautifully in front of our eyes. God took care of it through the Body of Christ.

It's not about our title and our position in the church. As His soldiers, we are to carry out the duty by concentrating on the integrity.