Summer Activities

Our family; my husband, me and two teen daughters had the blessing of going to Casa Aleluya on a mission trip at the beginning of this summer.  Upon reflection of that trip, I couldn't help but contrast it with my mission trip to London.  This time serving with my family instead of leaving them behind gave me an undivided heart.  I had them with me so I was not as homesick.  Another stark contrast was the physical fertility of the ground in Guatemala.  We travelled to a small town, Patzun, which was very agricultural.  The ground was not the only thing fertile and prepared.  It appeared that the hearts were very open and ready for the gospel as well.  It seemed the hearts in London were drier. As with any ground, it needs to be prepared, softened and tilled to ready it for the planting season.

While both areas are in desperate need of Jesus Christ, the work of a Christian travelling to these areas needs to be prepared to serve those in all conditions.  All lands need to be worked so the ground is softened and same for the hearts.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to just love on the orphans.   One of the little girls called me Gringo Momma.  I just melted every time.  I love being loved by them as much as I loved loving them.  What a blessed trip.  Serving along side the full time missionaries was such a privilege.  Coming along side of them, encouraging them and lifting them up is really something that those coming for short stays should keep at the forefront of their thoughts and hearts.  I was blessed to be with a small group that represented 4 different local churches from our area.  We were all bonded together and now are a part of a special family as a result of serving together.

After we returned from the Guatemala trip, our family headed our separate ways.  My high school senior had a youth trip to Kentucky and my high school freshman had a soccer tournament in Baton Rouge that Marc and I travelled down to witness.  We came home to head out again to go white water rafting down the French Broad and Nantahala.  It was a wonderful time.  I have enjoyed every bit of it, but all this travel time gave me time to catch up on some reading.  I have been reading Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerich and The Daniel Plan by Rick Warren.

I was able to finish the "Love and Respect" book and just scratching the surface on the "Daniel Plan".  While it is my utmost recommendation to take care of your temple and I am always looking for ways to help advise you how to do that, I must say that everyone needs to read the Love and Respect book.  Although I had studied it before, this time really brought much more clarity.  The bottom line is this: Wives RESPECT your husband and Husbands LOVE your wives.  These are commands from the scripture not suggestions.  It actually explains how God didn't have to command wives to love because that comes natural to them, and He didn't have to command husbands to respect because that comes natural to them.  It talks about the Crazy Cycle of wives withholding respect to motivate the husband to show love, and husbands withholding love to motivate the wives to respect them; so no one's needs are getting met.  It only takes one to be the MORE MATURE one in order to break the crazy cycle, and start the energizing cycle where his love motivates her respect and her respect motivates his love.  So the question is: who will be the more mature one in the relationship.  I believe the argument that it takes two really does apply here.  

The summer is not over and I am sure we have more adventures ahead, but for now I am slowing down in order to take care of my senior whose 4 wisdom teeth were surgically removed yesterday.  At least it gave me time to sit down, study the word, and catch up on my blogging time.

Hope you all are finding the summer as fun, exciting and educational.  

Be blessed and may the love of the Lord fill you today.

Bev