Speaker: Matt Rawlins/Students
Topic: Understanding the Nature and Character of God/Child Development
This week our teaching was on the nature and character of God. How you can possibly describe something like that in words, I’m not really sure. The basic concept of the week is that it’s all about God. God is big, He is good and we were created for Him. He is worthy of my life.
You would think that these are all foundational concepts that you may have heard of before, but they are life changing. This week brought so many new questions about God to my head and so much new revelation about the selfishness of my own heart and how much it affects God.
I think one of the most impacting things that I learned this week came out of a quote. The end of the quote stated: “I am not the point, God is. I exist for Him. He does not exist for me.” So often, I find that I put myself at the center of the universe. Everything revolves around me. God needs to fulfill my desires. I’m hurt, I’m upset, I’m happy. Me, me, me, me, me. Well…the point is not me. The point is God. He put me on this earth so He could enjoy me, spend time with me, love me. But the point is that my focus should be on Him and using the love that He pours into me to give out to others.
Another thing we talked about this week was understanding value. As human beings, we tend to put our value in other human beings, in what people think and say about us, in our material possessions or our looks. But it’s funny, because the God is so much larger than man. He created billions of billions of galaxies, knows every single star by name and knows every single hair on the head of every single person on this entire planet. But instead of finding our value in this huge God, we want to find it in imperfect, finite, limited human beings. What is wrong here?
Something else our teacher said that was pretty impactful was that the “essence of sin is finding your value in anything else other than God.” So this hit me pretty hard, because, well…how many times a day do I find myself looking for value in things other than God? The answer is…a lot.
So I’ve been asking myself a lot of hard, challenging questions this week when it comes to God and myself. Things like, “Where do I really place my value?” and, “How can I let myself exist for God?” These are easy questions to formulate, but hard questions to actually answer. The challenge I’ve placed in front of myself is to remind myself of these questions everyday and to be constantly asking God more and more questions about His character, about who I am and what He wants to reveal to me.
Posted by
Amanda
9:19 AM
For outreach this week, we went to work with Metro Ministries again. I was able to go back to the same location we were at two weeks ago. I can’t even explain how much I love hanging out with those kids. There are two girls there in particular that I just adore and I’m excited that I’ll be able to build some friendships with them during these next two months.
Basically what we are doing is having a mini church service for the kids. Today consisted of playing soccer, worship (more like, jumping around with air guitars), a lesson and playing some games. I really love just being able to laugh with the girls and jump around with them. I want to give them the love and attention they deserve and let them know for at least an hour that day that they are important and cared for. It’s funny how they just rattle off to me in Spanish, telling me about their little brothers and sisters and even though I don’t understand most of it, they just love being able to talk.
One thing I’m realizing and something I was talking about earlier this week with another classmate, is just how important it is to build relationships with the kids. The lessons and fun things we do are essential, but the things that the kids remember the most are the relationships, the people they talked to and the ones that paid attention to them. So there is my mission: To get to know these kids, to pay attention to them, to love them and to show them Jesus through my actions, as well as my words.
This week we've been learning about the nature and character of God, but we are also having some classes on normal child development. All of the students in our class are assigned a certain age group and have to research and teach our class about the development of that age group. I get to teach about the emotional and social development of adolescence...how fun! :)
It is really cool though and definitely important information to know so you can identify "abnormal" behavior in children. I found a great website that not only gives information about child development, but also advice for parents and safety tips for children. I think it's really important for everyone to learn about child development, if not for any other purpose than to understand ourselves better.
If you would like to check out the website, it's here:
Child Development Institute
Within the past week, I've picked up a book that is totally changing my view of Justice. The book is called "Good News about Injustice" and it's written by the President of International Justice Mission.
International Justice Mission (also known as IJM) is an organization that works, case by case, to fight for justice, convict perpetrators and provide after-care for victims of abuse and injustices. They really have a passion for what they are doing and are doing it in excellence.
This book has really been showing me a lot about God and myself. In one chapter it says, "I have had to imagine what it would be like if I, like my God, had to watch, hear and witness every brutal act of injustice on the earth, every day." He talks about the fact that God is with every single person that is hurting and prostituting themselves and being beaten. He sees all of those people and feels the depths of their pain everyday. Now, since we are human we do not have the ability to do that, but if we want to understand God, we need to understand how much His heart is breaking for these people. In another chapter it says, "He doesn't need our "help," but he chooses to use us." We are the hands and feet that God uses to bring justice and love on this earth. So what has God given us to use that we can help those who are being oppressed and have no voice to save themselves?
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News!" --Romans 10:15
Posted by
Amanda
2:27 PM
My mind is absolutely blown away by this situation with the ten Americans in Haiti. I've been reading several articles about this situation, the most recent one talking about the children they took that were not actually orphans (click here for the link to the article). They were promising the parents a better life for the children and the parents sent their children with them, some even as young as 4 and 5 years old.
For me, this situation is hard in so many ways. I sit here and read the articles and I am not sure who to believe. I desperately want to believe that it was only good intentions within this group of people to help these children and that they were insanely naive. However, I know that child trafficking happens, as well as many other terrible situations in the world and just because someone looks like a "good" person does not actually mean that they are. It hurts my heart that these were Christians and that so many people are now pointing fingers.
I would really love to hear others opinions on this situation. I, myself, don't know these people personally and I don't know the story behind their intentions or what they have done. Therefore, the only thing I know how to do is pray for them and not judge them. I hope that others will be doing the same.
I'm praying that:
--the children would find emotional stability and peace admist the chaos and confusion happening to them right now
--the true motives and intentions of the Americans would be revealed
--people all over the world would keep their hearts open and not judge, but let the truth be revealed
--children would be safely returned to their families or another safe haven
Speaker: Christy Scott
Topic: Inner Healing
Wow. This week has been amazing. We’ve been talking about inner healing and the lies that we are deceived into believing about ourselves and God. All of our problems have a root and we have to go back to that root to get healing. The only way we can get healing is through the truth and the truth is Jesus. We also talked about strongholds and soul ties, as well as finding our identity in God first and then in ourselves. Really, what it all boils down to is God. If we look to Him, and only Him, we will find healing.
One of the most interesting things we learned this week is that your beliefs (about who you are, the world, ect.) are developed between the ages of 0 to 6. Even things that happen while the child is in the womb affect that child’s beliefs. If a woman was to get pregnant and didn’t really want the child, that child would be born already feeling rejected and would carry that feeling of rejection their whole life unless they get healing from that. This totally reinforces how important children are, because the things that happen to them when they are young are the things that shape who they are for the rest of their lives. We spend our whole lives trying to get past these things that happen to us when we are young. Some people even live their whole lives without getting any healing from their past and are stuck with those same insecurities and problems from when they were little.
When I was thinking about that this week, I looked at myself. I grew up with amazing parents, an awesome childhood, in a nice small town with a great school, but still I find myself with problems, insecurities and things that I still dwell on. How much more do these kids who grow up in homes where they are beaten, sexually abused or neglected need healing? How much more are their lives affected because of these things? For me, healing is such a hard, messy process. I can’t imagine what it’s like for those children.
Healing is such an important thing, not only for the children and adults still dealing with problems, but also for ourselves. We need to be healed so we can help bring healing to these children. This week I found myself asking, “What can I do?” “How can I help these children heal?” Even more so, “Can these children get healing even when they are in these horrible situations?”
God has really healed my heart this week and made me look even deeper into who He is and what He has for me in the future. I’ve been able to let go of so many things from my past and I feel ready and excited to start living in the present and looking forward to how I can help others in the future through what I’ve learned.
Posted by
Amanda
8:16 PM
Every week I feel like I love our outreaches more and more. This week we went back to play and hang out with the foster care kids. This time, we were able to take care of a baby who is about 6 months old. He was so adorable and none of us wanted to let go of him! It’s so cool because we have these four brothers and their sister who are all in different foster homes and once a week we are able to bring them together just to spend time with each other. We drive around and pick them up from their homes and get to see the joy on their faces when they see their brothers or sister. For me, that makes it worth it.
The kids are all so great though. One of the little boys is about five years old and this past week he made me smile so much. His two older brothers were kicking soccer balls outside and he wanted to play so badly. He and I started to play a game where he hid in the bushes and threw the ball out “mysteriously” from behind the bushes and tried to score a goal. It was so precious just to see his excitement each time he threw the ball and thinking that no one else could see him. To see his excitement, his smiles, his happiness…it makes me wonder how anyone could have ignored him, not wanted him, left him behind.
Also this week, we were able to go to Jaco (a beach town about two hours from San Jose) and see some of the different ministries they were doing there. Jaco is known for its prostitution and many children get trafficked into Jaco for this very reason. We were able to meet with a woman named Blue who is working with a poor community that is located on a river bank. She has started an after school program there, so we were able to go with her and meet some of her kids.
They all ran up with smiling faces and lots of hugs to give her. It was cool to see what she was doing there and the relationships she has with the kids and their families. She was telling us about all the changes she has seen in the community just since she’s been there and it reminds me how much friendship and love really can produce transformation.
We don’t know yet where our outreach will be after the lecture phase, but Jaco is another place that is open for us to go to. Some of us were interested after going there, meeting the kids and seeing the needs. I’m praying that God will show me if that’s where He wants me and if so, what I can do there.
