Thursday, August 22, 2013

leavin on a jet plane?


I have been agonizing for weeks about how to present this.....so I have decided to just come out with it...no cute stories, no spiritual applications to work on your souls.....just gonna lay it out plain and simple like...

WE WANNA GO HOME FOR CHRISTMAS BUT DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO DO IT!!!! 

Would you just consider how you could help us out with this?  

Did I mention that it is going to be Luis’ 40th birthday in December?  Since he grew up in NYC, he would LOVE to spend that milestone with friends and family at home!  Don't you wanna help make a missionaries dream come true?



Did I mention that our youngest daughter Brooklyn doesn’t remember snow!?  She thinks that Santa Clause is a skinny Congolese man who speaks French.  Don't you
 
        
 It is going to be Hannah's 9th birthday in December and Amira's 11'th.  They would REALLY love to spend it with their Nana and Papa.

 Don't you wanna help make a missionaries kid's dream come true? 





In all seriousness, it has been a hard year and we really need a break.  Would you pray about how to help us?  We wanna get refreshed so that we can come back recharged ready to hang with kids who have faces like this.....

If God is laying it on your heart to donate financially .... go to
 tscnyc.org / give / contribute to a missions trip / morales family zambia
Or you can mail a check or money order to 
Morales Family 
Times Square Church 
Missions department 
1657 Broadway FL 4
NYC, NY 10019
earmarked Morales family / zambia

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Slow and Steady


STREETWISE OUTREACH is a ministry that has been birthed out of a desire to see the homeless, drug addicted and purposeless children of Lusaka rise up and take hold of their place in God...to recognize that they were born with a purpose and a plan. 

 FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE BABY!!!!!! AW YEAH! 

The reason we show up at 8:00pm every Wednesday night in the same parking lot is because we believe that in being a regular and steady presence they will begin to understand God’s tenacity for their souls.  You can’t imagine that alone is having on them.  

As I write this I am thinking of David.  He is an older boy who LOVES Mike Sampson.  Mike is a quiet, gentle, steady, solid presence.  He loves to stand at the back of the truck and hand out the tea to the boys.  David, with out fail, gravitates to Mike and simply stands right next to him the entire time.  He doesn’t move from his side for the full hour we are out there.  I don’t even think that they talk very much.  They just stand there with each other.  Slowly but surely David will give bits of his story to Mike as he learns to trust him.  But first he needs to believe that Mike won’t hurt him.  David has had to live a survivors childhood.  In order to survive the means streets of Lusaka he has had to shut parts of himself off.  HOW SAD!  

That is what STREETWISE is all about.  SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE!   There is no quick fix, no 5 step program to a greater you.  There is us being the arms and feet of Jesus extended to a dying and forgotten society of kids left to fend for themselves and wander aimlessly through their broken lives.  

How can you help?

We desperately need people to pray!  Would you consider committing to praying for us on a regular basis?  Prayer is the key to everything!  

 Would you consider coming over to help out for a bit?  That would ROCK MY FACE OFF!!!  

We need financial support.  In order to continue in what God is doing here we need you to consider giving up Starbucks for a day and sending that 10 bucks over here?  

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME AND YOU ROCK!!!

If God is laying it on your heart to donate financially .... go to
 tscnyc.org / give / contribute to a missions trip / morales family zambia
Or you can mail a check or money order to 
Morales Family 
Times Square Church 
Missions department 
1657 Broadway FL 4
NYC, NY 10019
earmarked Morales family / zambia

Monday, August 12, 2013

tapestries



Weaving our various threads into a tapestry is sometimes challenging and daunting.  Especially when our threads come in so many variations.  Some of us might be spun from llama fur, some from lambs wool and some from camels hair. 

What happens if you take a llama from Peru, a lamb from England and a camel from the deserts of Morocco?    Lets say that the tint of purple dye in Egypt is going to look a bit different from the purple dye in China because the process and ingredients used are going to vary.  (I actually have no clue, but flow with my thought here.) All this gets thrown into a big box in a tangled, knotted mismatched mess and somehow the contents of that box are supposed to work together to create a pattern.  Like the one in the picture above.

The weaving process takes a great deal of humility on our parts.  It takes a great deal of patience and understanding.  Say you are a nice butter yellow soft lambs wool and you think that your color and texture would be suited nicely next to a creamy pink, but Jesus thinks outside of the box.  He is going to put you next to the neon blue camels hair.  At first it seems as if it clashes and chaffs badly, but if we let humility and patience be our plumb line, and let the perfect work of righteousness to have its full effect,  the work is stunning!!!  It may not be what you had in mind, it may not be how you wanted it to happen, but it is better than you ever thought it would be!

As you can imagine living in Africa for 6 years, I have had to face many cultural misunderstandings.  The most recent one has really taken my breath away because it hasn’t been as clear cut as the ones in the past.  I felt comfortable in this particular situation to address things as an American woman would and I was W-R-O-N-G!   The responses I got in return was hard to swallow.  I got before God and was like “WHAT HAPPENED!? What went wrong??”  My emotions were raw and I felt like FORGET THIS, I QUIT!!!

To make a long story short, God is amazing!   I called my mom, cause she rocks my face off and she always is chock full of wisdom!   She calls a spade a spade and WILL NOT let me feel sorry for myself.  (Also she knows the challenges of working as an American woman in a male dominated society, India...makes Zambia look like a walk in the park)  Basically she asked me the question “Were you addressing things as an American or as Christian?  Was humility the plumb line or your opinion?”  As she spoke I felt the warm flood of peace wash over my heart and the hopelessness was gone.  I knew my heart was right before God, but I was filtering the situation as an American woman, not as a Christian being guided by the voice and standards of Jesus.  

Whats the punch line?  

Are you feeling misunderstood?   Do not let a misunderstanding drive a wedge in your relationships.  What we should be doing is taking steps back and getting God’s perspective and HIS cultural understanding.   

Jesus is the Divine Weaver who knows the best way to make all our colors and textures blend together in a beautiful pattern that will make the world take notice.   





meet John

Meet John.  We don't know much about John other than he was a child living on the streets of Lusaka.    John represents the face of cou...