Rain, street kids and Jesus

Yesterday, being wednesday and all, dawned cloudy, rainy and cold.  Luis and I however were determined to go on the streets, as we have made the commitment to be out there every Wednesday morning.  Long story short, fast forward a few hours and picture and African bus terminal.  People everywhere, vendors selling mushrooms, fish and second hand clothing, Mothers with their babies, street kids coming out of the woodwork, old men, me and Luis.  There is a group of tables at the back of this cacophony where we decided to "set up shop".  We were about to end our time there when Luis gathered the children around him because he wanted to address them.  It was one of the most incredible moments I have witnessed here in zambia.  I sat at the back and watched roughly 30 street kids get QUIET and STILL and some of the surrounding vendors stopped what they were doing to listen.  Picture everything in mid-town manhattan going still for 3 minutes and you get the idea.  For only the briefest of moments Luis spoke to them about God's love and plan for their lives.  About how precious they are to Jesus and that is why they are precious to us.  He reminded them of his time spent on the streets before he knew Jesus and what god has done in his life since.  He prayed and that was it.  Life started to move around us again.  It was surreal to be sure and the Holiness of the moment was weighty.  

As we have begun to move forward in this call to work with the street kids the advice given to us by a woman from England was this..Listen to what they want.  Don't be quick to jump in with your good ideas and plans and money.  Take things slowly and prayerfully and be a good listener.  That came to us a year ago.  Interestingly enough Luis was talking with Joe last week.  He has lived on the streets for 11 years!!  He told Luis that he hates it when white people come with their projects and plans but don't stick around, or they don't build relationships and listen.  God help us!!  I feel it would be the highest form of arrogance on our part to assume that we know the kids and then force feed the gospel and our good ideas on them.  

We are praying for several things as we move forward. 
1. Does God want us to get a bus to ministry out of?
2. Does God want us to get a store front to ministry out of? 
3. We want a network of Zambian churches that we can send the kids to for church.   They come from ALL over Lusaka!!  Who are these churches?
4. When do we start a feeding program and what are the laws pertaining to it?  We need to build relationships with people in government who want to help.  
5. Pray for the health and safety of our family
6. Pray for the funds to do the work 
7. Pray about how god would have you get involved.  Is it financially?  Is it with your time?  How?  Do you send a package as a way to offer encouragement?  

We love you all so very very much!!!!  PLEASE keep in touch!  We love hearing from you!

Myranda, Luis Amira, Hannah, Brooklyn Rose, Homer and apache. 

I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR!!!

A friend of mine was just recently informed that in order to catch a man she needs to ask God to show her what needs to change about herself!  Basically the idea was this "Something MUST be wrong with you or you would be married by now".  UMMMM............HONEY I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!!!!!!  Double snap Z formation and all that good stuff! 

My friend is lovely, talented, godly, generous, humble and very very brave.  She is a good friend!

She called me frustrated because the same person also informed her that men want to be the leaders and that basically she needs to play the role of a helpless female.  HWUT!?  She said "Myranda, is it true!?"

PLEASE DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, I completely agree with the leadership part.  Luis is the leader in our home. I am called to respect and honor him!  It is biblical. (And if I may be candid, that has been very difficult for me to learn.) There is an order and a peace that comes into the life of a home when everyone's God ordained roles are respected and kept sacred. 

Something I have learned in 10 years of marriage is this...Growing as a woman, wife, mother means that I learn to give of myself, see to the needs of my family and support my husband unabashedly.  I am his biggest fan!  (And he is mine!)  In that I discover and am enhanced in who I am in Christ, walking in the fullness of who He has called me to be.  That might look different for different women...homeschool mom, career mom, single mom, single missionary,...the list is endless but I think you get the point.  I can never expect someone else to fit into the role God has called me to and visa-versa. 

I am a mother of 3 beautiful girls...Amira Janice', Hannah Lissette, and Brooklyn Rose.  It would be the greatest of disservices to them, I feel, if they learned from me that who they are as women doesn't matter, that they have no voice and no opinion.  If they feel they have to give up aspects of who God has made them to be to get a husband!   Our personalities are a gift from God!

I want my girls to grow strong in the knowledge of who God has made them, of how to reach out to those in need, to be generous.  I want them to live a life for Jesus that is bold, courageous and distinct to the honor of the One who paid such a high price for their precious little souls.  WHATEVER that looks like for them as individuals!!!! 

Ladies, lets walk BOLD in who we are in Christ!  No hiding or changing it, BUT KNOWING as we keep our eyes of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, He gives our life meaning and purpose, he gives and fullfils the longings of our hearts and makes all things beautiful in His time. 

Being a co-dependant missionary is hard work

I was sharing a difficult conversation that I had and something hit me between the eyes.  I am not responsible for others issues!!  I have always taken very close to heart when someone  I love is going through something difficult and carry it as if it were my issue!  But how often have I carried weights that weren't meant for me and I end up exhausted, burnt out and frustrated?   Not only do I suffer for it, my family suffers for it because I turn into a cranky you know what to  live with.  

 Luis shared with me about the ephod that the priests carried into the presence of God.  That garment represented all the burdens of all the people in all of Israel.  Thats a lot of ALL!  But when Jesus took the burden on himself and became our great high priest he took that away to carry it on his broad and very capable shoulders. It is not a burden that I wish to carry and am not meant to!   I know that it is talking about the burden of sin, but could it also be speaking to us co-dependants?  Don't we take on cares and worries that aren't ours to take?  We don't have good boundaries and we get walked all over all the time!  That doesn't sound like a life of freedom and promise that Jesus won for me on the cross does it?  

When there is tension is a relationship I am involved in it is my responsibility to go to them and try to clear the air, scripture is very clear on my responsibilities there.  But where I have always gone wrong is that I feel I am myself responsible for their response.  WRONG!  How often have i avoided issues in order to "keep peace"?  Isnt it true that peace sometimes comes with a sword?  Lance boils and cut of dead crappy junk?  

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts

When Helping Hurts

When it rains it pours on a Sunday here in Lusaka, and I aint just talking a bout RAIN, you know what I mean!!!??  It was back to back excitement all around for the Morales family yesterday.  Luis and I crashed in bed EXHAUSTED at the end of the day and wondering “WHAT JUST HAPPENED?”  Ever had a day like that?  

Here in Zambia it is totally cool to just drop by on someone unannounced for a visit.  It is a sign of friendship and true respect.   We always love the visitors and it is fun to host people.  However WHY do they have to come on a sunday after noon when the house looks its worst and all that could be going wrong is going on at that moment?  Ever had a day like that?  

We also learned a BIG lesson yesterday.  You get burnt in ministry!  We helped an ex street boy find a place to stay and he ended up stealing a bike and money from the gentleman who opened up his home to him.  UGH!  He had all of us going about his story and all of us, included the zambian gentleman who helped him believed him!   (There is a common understanding that a zambian knows when a zambian is lying, but it is harder for everyone else to see it.)  Luis even believed him, and he is usually the more skeptical one, being that he grew up on the streets and he knows how these kids are thinking.  Ok, so what do we do?  Do we become cynical and jaded?  Or do we ask God to teach us from this and show us how to avoid it in the future?  We are not responsible for other people’s choices.  We are responsible to show them the love of Jesus and to listen to God’s direction when we reach out to them.  What they choose to do with the love and generosity being shown is between them and God.  I want to be able to say at the end of it all “I did the best I knew to do with a pure heart to honor my Savior”.  

Yet, I don’t want my helping to hurt those I am reaching out to!  GOD GIVE US WISDOM AND EARS TO HEAR YOU!!!!  

SOOO FUNNY!!!

forgiveness is a process

I think one of the hardest aspects of being a Christian is when you are called to forgive and walk in grace and love toward those who have hurt you.  I know that I have been writing so much on this topic, but...hey, its where I am at!  It is actually keeping me accountable before the Lord about what is in my heart to put it out there in the great vast world of the internet.  So, thanks for rolling with my punches.  

It is a difficult thing to realize that there are those who are a part of the body of Christ, yet will purposefully do you harm.  WHY!?  I don’t understand it, truly I don’t.  All I know is that the scripture is SO CLEAR on the mandate to love and show mercy and kindness.  The battle my soul is facing right now is the temptation to NOT defend myself, but to simply keep my mouth shut.  To take simple acts of obedience and to PRAY!  God has made it is clear to me that this is going to be a defining moment for me.  Am I going to let God be God in all things....the hurt, the pain, the betrayal, the heart ache....or am I going to take matters into my own hands and try to make all things right when they have gone wrong?  The fact of the matter is that it isn’t my responsibility to make things “right”.  It is my responsibility to LET GO!!  Flesh dictates that it is my RIGHT to hold onto the hurt and make the other one suffer, but when I become a part of the body of Christ I have relinquished my right haven’t I?  So, therefore doesn’t that mean that I have relinquished my right to hold a grudge?  

What happens if the hurt comes again?  Do I have the right to bring it all up and start rehearsing it all over again?  Or do I take a step of obedience and pray for those who hurt me?  PRAY FOR GOD’S LOVE AND GRACE TO BE POURED OUT ON THEM!  NOT FOR GOD’S WRATH!!!!  I have to take my thoughts CAPTIVE to the obedience of Jesus Christ!!!  

I want to be free in Jesus!!  I don’t want to take up a yolk of slavery again!  The price that was paid for my freedom was to precious for me to just toss it to the ground and stomp on it in a fit of rage and anger.  

Free is Jesus!  Free to walk whole and pure and in the plan God has for my life, that is my goal and my aim!  Free to be more like Jesus!!  

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I AM FREE AT LAST!!!  

Forgiveness in a genocide

Just this morning I was reminded of a story I read.  There was a certain  young woman whose family was butchered during the genocide in Rwanda.  She survived the three month journey into hell by taking refuge along with some other women in a local pastor's bathroom.  There she stayed for the duration of the war, forced to listen to the brutalities being played out on the other side of her little fortress.  

After the genocide was over and she began to rebuild her life she was given the opportunity to confront one of the men responsible for her families death.  

Before the war this man had been a part of her families life.  Taking part in celebrations and just being part of their life rhythms.  Her family had been very influential in the community.  

Did she rant and rave and try to hurt him as he deserved?  NO!!!!!  She FORGAVE him!!!!  SHE FORGAVE HIM!!!!!!!!  And then she simply walked away.  

The man wasn't released from the consequences of his actions.  He still had to "pay the piper".  BUT this incredible young woman was able to go on and live a free and productive life.  Life full of LIFE, joy, new family, adventure........She was able to be free from carrying the awful burden of bitterness.  

What that man did to her family was NOT her responsibility to make right. It was hers to release him to God and let the One who is wisdom, love, justice, grace, mercy and holiness deal with it. 

Chew on it and tell me your thoughts