Torches

Now that we have our work permit we are fighting to temptation to DIVE into work head first.  At least I am...Luis is more easy going than me, which is why we balance each other and are happily married after 10 years!  LOL  All God has told us to do is walk the streets every Wednesday and pray.  DONE!  Simple enough! 

Had a good chat with my DAWLING friend Amy today.  We were talking about how so many of us missionaries get involved in the project and forget the people.  Because we are surrounded by so many people who are doing so many great works, it is easy to try to find a project to get involved in.  To be honest with you, it is easy!  I mean, WE ARE IN AFRICA FOR PETE AND PITY'S SAKE!  You wanna work with marganilised children, EASY, just walk three blocks down and you will find them!  You wanna work with AIDS patients, simply walk into the local clinic and volunteer.  You wanna work with orphans.  Take your pick of orphanages.  The project isn't the issue, it is the individual person!!! Amy was just asked what her vision for Zambia was and she said "I don't have a VISION, my heart is to help and serve the people!  If I can help you build a vbs I will, if I can help you develop a sunday school program I will." 

I think she nailed it!  Is my vision to simply serve or to make a name for myself?   Do I spend my time with street kids because it looks good on a monthly report or because it is God's will for my life?  Are we willing to do the thankless and un-noticeable for the glory of God? 

This was read last night at our Bible Study and it shook me to the bones.  I don't want to end up in torment because I got ahead of God and didn't wait for him to light my torch.  

Isaiah 50:10-11

New International Version (NIV)

 ¹⁰ Who among you fears the LORD
   and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
   who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD
   and rely on their God.
¹¹ But now, all you who light fires
   and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
   and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
   You will lie down in torment.

Forgiving is RUFF

:
Why is forgiveness easy one day and hard the next?  I must admit that I have been struggling with this one very hard today.  We get hurt and our natural instinct is to protect ourselves and defend what has been harmed, usually our sense of preservation and our rights.  Someone we love is falsely represented and the mommy bear in us wants to fight back with all we are worth and protect those we hold dearest.  After all we are humans right?  HOWEVER, what does God's word have to say about all this??
 Turn the other cheek....
Forgive or the Father can't forgive you....OUCH
if at all possible LIVE AT PEACE
> Here is the peace that I am finally coming to in my heart...something I have always known in my heart, it has just taken a while for it to travel to my heart.....forgiveness is about me, not the person who has harmed me. God requires me to forgive because he knows that if an hold onto the pain and want revenge that it will eat me alive and keep ME from the peace that Jesus won for me at such a great price.  God sees the wrong  that is done and he isn't happy about it.  However he is very clear on the fact that dealing with wrongs is his problem and NOT mine.

Could it be that when I hold onto bitterness and anger that I am throwing the work he did on the cross for me back in his face and telling him that I don't care?

> I read a good quote the other day
          " holding a grudge is allowing someone to live rent free in your head."

Brookies face

I know for many of us 2011 was TOUGH!  And many of us can say HALLELUJAH IT IS OVER!! 

What does 2012 bring for us all?  We heard an awesome sermon on Sunday about challenging ourselves in our walks with the Lord.  If we keep Jesus the priority, if we give him the first and the best of everything then we will have the best year spiritually.  He didn’t say anything about it being an easy year, but the most prosperous SPIRITUALLY!  Isn’t that what we want anyway?  

In light of this I made a list of resolutions for the year. 

I am going to read my Bible everyday.  Cause, honestly, I DON’T!  

I am going to read the Bible with my kids everyday!`  Cause, honestly, I DON’T

I am going to drink water EVERYDAY!  ( thought about giving up coffee, then thought,,NAW!)

I am going to loose 20 more pounds.  I would love to be in a size 14 by May.....can she do it folks?

A couple of days after Christmas I read this

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,  whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them THE LORD, who remains faithful forever.  He up holds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.  The Lord sets the prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind.  The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.  The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the father less and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.  The Lord REIGNS FOREVER!  You God o Zion for ALL generations!  Praise the Lord!!!!                               Psalm 146:5-10

I think that this Psalm is an excellent definition for who God is.  

The maker of heaven and earth 

He remains faithful forever

He upholds the cause of the oppressed 

He feeds the hungry

He sets the prisoners free!  HALLELUJAH!

He gives sight to the blind

He gives us hope and love

He protects and is a father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow

He doesn’t put up with whooey from the wicked

Let me leave you with a photo of brookie, it will brighten your day

Moses, sweating and snow storms

As I sit here at 7:30 in the morning sweating, YES THATS RIGHT, sweating.....I am
actually jealous of your 16 inches of snow!!!! The average temperature here has been
roughly 100 to 105 F. BLAH! My daughter Amira and I went to the grocery store the
other day and stuck our heads in a freezer to cool off. Rainy season is coming soon
and we are thrilled. I plan on standing outside and rolling around in the streets for joy.
It hasnʼt rained here in almost 10 months.

Sunday as we were driving home from church I saw something that melted my heart.
Some of you may remember me mentioning Moses? He has been on the streets most
of his life, is totally world weary and is desperate for change, but still the pull of the
streets for him is strong. You can see the tug of war going on in his eyes. Anyway, he
was sitting under a tree with one of the girls who lives on the street. The girl had a baby
and she was trying to calm the baby. Moses had his arm around them both in a
desperate attempt to protect them. He was planting a gentle kiss on the girls head. I
caught a glimpse of his eyes as we drove past and saw a futility in his eyes. If he will
allow it, I will take a picture of him and send it to you so you can pray for him! Moses
caught my heart when we first moved here in ʻ07 and has found a snug place there.
Godʼs hand is on his life. I know when Moses makes the choice to leave his life behind
and begin a new one in Christ awesome things will happen!

How can you pray for the Morales Family?
1. WISDOM! How and when do we move forward?
2. A continued a deep hunger for Godʼs word! We want to use this time God has
us in a holding pattern wisely to stay in his word.
3. Unity in our marriage and family
4. Protection for our kids
5. Finances. Lusaka is an expensive place to live
6. Pray for Moses

We love you all and appreciate all you have done for our family over the years! Please
keep the letters and pictures coming!!!!! We love the connection to home.
How can we pray for you all?
YOU ROCK AND YOU KNOW IT!
Luis, Myranda, Amira, Hannah, Brooklyn Rose and Homer the Dog

If you would like to give to the work you can send a check or money order to
TSC MISSIONS FLOOR 4
1657 Broadway
NYC, NY 10019
Put Morales Family/Zambia in the memo
Or you can go to tscnyc.org, select donate and specify “DONATE TO SOMEONEʼS
TRIP” Put in Morales Family Zambia

a mad fat woman gets real!

Lately the full weight of the decision to move to Africa has been hitting me. All romantic
notions I have ever had about living on the mission field have been burned out of me.
They say that it takes about 2 or 4 years before you can officially be considered a
“missionary” to a particular country. That is because it takes that long to get your feet
under you when you move to a new country. You loose all your bearings and basically
have to re-learn life. Nothing that is normal and consistent to you is available. There
are no Targets or Walmart, you canʼt call 911 if you need help, online bill pay is a thing
of the past, and there are no drive through Wendyʼs or McDonald to take advantage of
when you need a quick fix. When you get pulled over by police you have to do a sort of
mental dance to figure out if they are trying to just get some lunch money out of you or
are they legitimate. Basic things like grocery shopping and going to a park become an
exercise in patience and sometimes insanity. Every thing is negotiable. Everywhere
you go people think that you have all the answers because of you skin color so being
anonymous is a thing of the past. You know when you have those days when all you
want to do is just sit in a quiet place with a good book and not be bothered?
Relationships are also a thing that become effected. It is a strange world a missionary
lives it. You have to maintain friendships in two worlds that are VASTLY different from
each other, yet you feel a deep and profound connection to both. In your home country
peopleʼs lives move on with out you and in your host country people are constantly
coming and going at a rate that makes your head spin. So, as a missionary you feel,
sometimes literally, torn in two. Like a floating amoeba bouncing against the walls. Can
you understand why it is stressful?
The temptation in the face of all this is to shut the door to your house and pray for the
second coming. To allow life to move on an its brisk pace and to try really hard to keep
your sanity. BUT, that isnʼt healthy or good is it?
Why am I writing all of this to you? Would you please pray for us as we re-discover our
African feet? Would you please pray for us as we learn how to walk through the daily
stressors of living here? Consider some of the daily things that we face here
1. Our water gets cut off regularly because it hasnʼt rained in 9 months and it is reaching
100 degrees daily. How is a mom to do laundry?
2. Electricity sometimes gets cut off at dinner time while I am cooking. So I have to
break out the peanut butter and bread.
3. Bad roads
4. Corrupt Police (We were driving home with our kids the other day and got pulled over.
It took us 1 1/2 hours in the HOT sun with NO water to get out of there. Luis came
home and slept all the next day.)
I think you get the point....
We need your prayers!!!!! Pray that we can find healthy ways to release stress and to
live lives that are joy filled and full of peace.

worship when it makes no sense

Today I could feel the devil breathing down my neck.  I could feel the weight of everything piling up and weighing me down so hard that I thought I was going to suffocate from the pressure of it.  “JESUS I AM IN THE STORM AND I CAN’T TAKE MUCH MORE!”  There was a sense that my hearts cry and my burden wasn’t getting past the ceiling, let alone making it to heaven’s ears.  And on top of it, I had to see to my children’s needs.  Not an easy thing to do when you can barely breath or put one foot in front of the other.  

Luis was experiencing the same thing and we finally shut ourselves into a room and began to cry out to Jesus.  You know those times when you get before God and have these gut wrenching, heart wrending prayers?  GOD I WANT TO BELIEVE YOU AND YOUR REPORT BUT I AM REALLY STRUGGLING!!!!  GOD I DON’T WANT TO DOUBT YOU NOW OR COMPLAIN!!!!!  GOD, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE BUT TO PUT MY EVERYTHING IN YOUR HANDS!!!  I thought of Job sitting on an ash heap with his entire life in ruins PRAISING GOD!  Would you believe the only thing that God told me was that I needed to go to the store and get the ingredients I need to make muffins?  HUH!?  

So, I did it and GUESS WHAT!?  GOD MEET ME IN THE CAR!!!!  He flooded my heart with such peace and such comfort.  It was unbelievable!  I could FEEL the war raging and FELT the victory!  The Lord simply spoke to my heart that it is all going to be ok!  No direct answers, no need to understand, just that it is all going to be ok!  That He is in control!  The lyrics to this song were playing on my Ipod and they really hit home to me....if you don’t have it DOWN LOAD IT!!!  

I Lift My Hands lyrics

Songwriters: Christopher Tomlin;Matt Maher;Louie Giglio

Be still, there is a healer

His love is deeper than the sea

His mercy, it is unfailing

His arms are fortress for the weak

I lift my hands to believe again

You are my refuge, You are my strength

As I pour out my heart

These things, I remember

You are faithful, God, forever

Be still, there is a river

That flows from Calvary's tree

A fountain for the thirsty

Pure grace that washes over me

I lift my hands to believe again

You are my refuge, You are my strength

As I pour out my heart

These things, I remember

You are faithful, God, forever

Maybe God puts us in these hard valleys to test how we are going to react.  Do we shut down and pout (which is usually what I do), or do we worship the King of heaven and earth NO MATTER WHAT!?  He didn’t change our situation, BUT he flooded me and Luis with PEACE!!!  And the FAITH TO WORSHIP!!!!  Peace that is beyond any comprehension.  It makes no sense, and guess what!?  It doesn’t have to.  

Sometimes we like to talk about “going deeper in Jesus”, but maybe all that means is letting go and allowing Him to be Lord no matter what.  Maybe that means that we can have the ability to worship the one who shed his blood for our sins EVEN when things are going on that make no sense.  

CLING to Jesus!  STAY at the cross!  and DON’T LET GO!!!!