This last week has been great…. we’ve been teaching the boys Bible, Math, God’s World (Geography), and my personal favorite English. I’ve also been working on the Curriculum for here at Beacon of Hope, organizing it, filling in the blanks, and trying to figure out exactly what they have and where they need to or should probably fill in some of the blanks. This last week I’ve been focusing in the Year 1 Bible class and its reminded me of my childhood, of the Bible class I took at LAA and using some of the knowledge I learned there and helping to put it into their curriculum. Things like how to memorize the books of the Bibles, and how the Bible is divided; and as I look back on those first verses I memorized and ask my team and squad mates what some of the first ones they learned wear I’ve come to realize just how lucky we are to live in a country where we get to go to church every weekend, and while public schools may no longer teach the Bible, there are schools out there like LAA that still do. I was lucky to be able to grow up and know the basics so that as I’ve gotten older I could grow in.
This week has been a week of realization. Most people who have been on mission trips know that often the trip isn’t just about helping the people that you’re visit, but that often you as a person as the missionary grow more, by what the people show you or by what God shows you through this trip. This month we’ve had a lot of down time, a lot of time to have quiet time, and I’m not a very patient person, I don’t like a lot “quiet time” to be left in my own thoughts, and yet this last week God has taken the time to show me some stuff about me, and about life in general.
This week I realized that there are two types of anchors in life. The first is the anchor that holds you to your past, it keeps you standing still, doesn’t allow you to grow or move. The second is your anchor in Christ. If you have an anchor in Christ it keeps you tethered to him, this anchor gives you enough leeway to grow, to experience life, but it also keeps you safe. What Anchor do you live in, the one that keeps you standing still in your past or the one that keeps you tethered to Christ, that allows you room to grow in Him, that protects you, but gives you free will as well? This week I realized that my anchor is still in my past, but I hope with Christ’s help, that this year I learn to trust in God more, and rise the anchor of the past, and drop anchor with Christ.
This week wasn’t just about me learning about anchoring in Christ either, I also realized that dependent on where your anchor is impacts how you view life, what filter of life you view things through. Here are my thoughts from my Journal the other day:
“How often do we filter things? We filter out what we say so not to hurt people. Filter phases to make things look better, more beautiful, better to the eyesight. [we often filter out pictures to make them look better] I think we view the world through filters too. The filter before we acknowledge our sin; we think this is what life looks like, this is what the world is like. But the closer you become to God, the more you acknowledge the sin, your sin, and confess it before the Lord and see to find healing the clearer things are, but then there is the filter or rather “truth/reality,” this filter you see only once you let God truly in, letting him in opens your eyes to things you never thought were possible. God is the ultimate filter and through Him you can see the truth.”
What filter do you see the world in? I’m not 100% sure I know the answer to this question myself. What I do know, is that it’s something I’m learning to consider and take into account in my everyday life; how am I viewing today.
“ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain” (Hebrews 6:19 ESV)
Prayer Requests:
- Good Health for my team and squad, we’ve already had a few get sick and nobody likes that so just pray that we continue to stay in good health overall.
- Good weather- We’ve been fortunate to have good weather this month not to hot, and not supper rainy or dry, so just pray that continues for the remainder of the month.
- As always pray that I reach my next deadline of $13,000 before the end of February. I’m only about $2500 away from it.
