Merry Christmas

First off I would like to wish everybody near and far a very Merry Christmas. I will make this one short as clearly everyone will be pretty busy with festivities; in fact I soon have the great opportunity to open my Christmas presents from my family.  Part of me still isn't sure that it is Christmas today mostly because almost everything that I familiarize Christmas with is not here; at least not concretely.  But what I have realized or shall I say what God is making me realize is that all these traditions and ideas that I have about what makes Christmas well Christmas are pretty much applicable where I am right now.  No I don't get to celebrate Christmas the way I'm used to but I get a glimpse of the traditions of other cultures and more than that I get a glimpse of Christ Jesus birth in a whole new light.  Stepping back from the traditions of Christmas that I usually have with my family has made me better reflect why I celebrate Christmas in the first place.  I am starting to realize I don't need my old traditions to make it feel like Christmas but instead I just need to bask in the presence of God's love that came in the form of a helpless baby boy named Jesus.  That is what I pray for you and for me; that we  not loose our focus on the true meaning of Christmas but instead we would bask in it.  Merry Christmas everyone!    

Deception

I was just reflecting on this song by Flame; this famous Christian rapper.  I realize not everyone appreciates rap like I do but everyone can acquire something from this song.  It's called, "The Great Deception".  In summery it takes about the story of deception that first started with Adam and Eve and ends with Jesus resurrection.  Adam and Eve were entrusted by God as the caretakers of the earth but only one condition; God was the caretaker of them.  He knew what was best for them and that they needed to trust him with that.  But Satin made them question their place in creation; maybe God was holding something back from them.  Do you ever think that God is ever holding something back from you?  I mean that is why we escape sometimes to our video games or movies.  We feel like we have to know what is going on in this world; the latest trends and media news.  The great deception started with Adam and Eve feeling like they needed to know all sides of wisdom; good and evil.  Now that we know God and evil we are confronted with deception daily.  Deception comes in all different shapes and sizes but we must address by pin pointing it out. Then we acknowledge that Jesus knows this deception and faced it head on.  First by going to the desert and being tempted by the devil for bread and power.  He reviled to us that it is possible to be human and to  overcome deception.  His secret is drawing near to God for protection.  He did this before the Resurrection to show us he knows deception is common to every man but that it is still possible to overcome it as a man since he already did it for us. You just have to listen to the song yourself, it has great biblical truth in it.

I am reflecting on this song because I see the truth it brings to my own life.  I am deceived in many ways by Satin but I do not address it very often.  I am deceived into thinking that I am not worth much in the eyes of God.  I doubt the gifts God has given me often and I long for other people's gifts.  I deceive myself into believing that I am missing out on things here on the mission field like music, movies, news, snow, etc.  When I know that I don't need these things and they are not a part of my identity.  I sometimes deceive myself into thinking more highly of myself than I ought to be; kind of like Adam and Eve did. I find these important to share with you because it is one of the hardest things to do even with fellow Christians.  Even when I share these with you I know they will not vanish and automatically disappear but that I will probably still struggle with them. The reason I do share them with you is because  

A Child of Christ

I should be in bed right now but for some strange reason I can't seem to fall asleep.  Part of it could be the fact that it is kareoke night for the bar right next to me and the other reason could be that I had three glasses of coke at seven in the evening.  For whatever reason here I am writting in my blog trying to catch up for the last few weeks of not hearing a peep out of me. 

I know my last blog was on quite a serious note and might even worried some but the fact is I felt like I had to write it.  I wanted people to know that those feeling were real and a daily struggle for most missionaries dispite how long they have been on the field.  I have been fighting with my identity since I have gotten here because I everything I believed to be right was questioned.  I did not want to think that the way Malagasy people were doing things were wrong so instead I starting reversing everything in my head and questioning my own culture, maybe everything I grew up to thing was right was actually wrong.  I started to wonder if my identity was at any value at all other than being the foriene one.  I mentioned this to my mother and these were the wised words I had heard since i have been here.  This is what she said to me, "Leah your identity is in Christ".  I got so mad at her at the time because I felt like she just did not understand how hard it was. The reality however was that she was right, no matter where I am in the world, no matter how much I have changed from my experiences externallly or internally I know that one thing will never change I will always be a child belonging to Christ. The thing is that I was right about my Mom, she cannot fully understand what I am going through because she's not here to experience it with me.  It is wong of me to put that kind of expectation upon her. I can give her credit for intrusting God with her only daugher to be doing missions halfway around the world while she is at the same time dealing with an illness.  I admire her faith and streagth.

I think I am finally getting a little more tired or maybe I am just tired of writting well either one gives me good enough reason to close with some prayer requests.

Prayer Request #1
Pray for my continual language study as I am getting further in my lessons but not so much on my progress which can be frustating but also humbling.

Prayer Request # 2
Pray for my continual growth in the Lord.  With all the busniss with my studies and ministry sometimes you get distracted with worrying and husling that you forget gving God time to spiritually prepare my heart for service for him.

Prayer Request #3
Pray for my new relationships with Malagasy people.  I praise God that he gave me malagasy people that I can have friendships with; now it is just maintaining them in the mist of my busy scheduale with langauge, ministry, and my Ethnography study (study of the culture for school). 

Prayer Request #4
Please pray that I will not get burnt out as I take on a lot of responsibilities at the school I help out at and as I continue my studies at Briercrest through many assignments that take up my time.  I would say that between ministry and assignments I do not give myself much time to myself.  For the most part I do not mind that because I feel I do not need to just do nothing or sit on the computer for the day.  I am just afraid that all the work will catch up with me and not get done by the time I leave in four months.

Prayer Request #5
Please pray for my family because I know they are going through a lot and I just pray that God will help me to try to be of good support to them dispite not being present with them.

Thank you for your continual prayer and support for me.  I love all of you very much.

Up Late Thinking

I may regret this tomorrow but here I am anyways writting away at half past ten at night. That may not seem late to all of you but for missionaries this is an hour and a half past bedtime.  I can say that this is a true statement for me because if I go to bed any later than 9:30 I don't want to get up the next morning for school.  I am told that this is due to all the thoughts that run through your mind all day long.  I know that after language all I can think about is how do I pronounce that or waite I just forgot the new word I just learned.  I also find myself thinking about the culture constantly like "will I ever understand it" or "will I ever grow to love it as my own especially in only five months?" These things are important to me because I see that even though it feels like a different world it is not, it is the same world that I live in.  It is one world just with different divitions.  I know that this part of the world is home for many people; just as I have a place to call home.  I know that when people come to visit my home I would apprecaite it if they tried to make it their home too, even if it was only for a short while. 

I wouldn't consider myself a missionary; at least not yet.  I feel as I have a lot to learn from other missionaries and a lot to grow in. My heart is still full of selfish motives and I was nieve to think that those selfish desires would leave when I got to Madagascar.  No I am not magically transformed into being this humble Godly saint.  But I do feel as if God has me here for a reason and he wants me to go through this cleasing period.  Well actually I think that will never stop but I hope that I will grow continually and my thoughts and actions will be tested constantly.  Thank you for your prayers and thoughts.  I love you all very much.

The Cookies That Had Gone Wrong

So just a little story to start off with.  For the last two weeks I have been craving chocolate chip cookies and I'm not sure what had first started this obsession.  Anyways I decied that I would be nice enough (I know how humble of me to say that) to make them and bring them to a missionary friend's house.  So their were two varibles that would make or break this recipe: the fact that I was using this fake margarine called Blue Band and the fact that I had this different kind of brown sugar that looked like white sugar but in a brown form.  So that is what I had to work with.  Well I went for it and just prayed because I really wanted Chocolate Chip Cookies, oh did I ever.  Well the batter did look kind of funny but it didn't taste too bad considering I suffocated it with chocolate chips.  The issue was that it would cook around the edges but wouldn't cook in the middle.  It was so sad; I had to throw them all out.

I am pretty  tired right now and have some company over but I promise to write again this week. 

Brownies, Birthday Wishes, And Goodbyes

This past week has been a trying week for all the mission team members. The beginning was not so bad; we got to celebrate Heidi's Birthday which was pretty exciting. I did not have any wrapping paper so I hid her gifts all over the house. Her Birthday gift consisted of brownies apon her request; the sad part is that she made them herself with the help of her roomate of course (me). I knew this was the first time she has spent her Birthday away from her family so I expected it would be hard. That night however an unexpected swerve in the road left the enter Missionary team devastated. We found out that one of the missionary families had to go home immediately due to their child becoming ill quite severely. Since they had only got to Madagascar about three weeks ago (just before I came) it seemed the best solution would be for their daughter to go to a doctor close to where they previously lived in the States. The missionary team was quite understanding as we all agree that the well being of your family is always first especially in this situation. We were saddened by being separated by a family we grow so close to in just a few weeks, especially Heidi and I since we lived in the flat just below them. The husband and wife were like second parents to us by looking out for us and giving us some much needed cooking advise. They should know though that they are in all of thoughts and prayers daily. We as their missionary family send many blessings with them as they follow God in his direction for them. We also thank the Lord for the friendship we made with them while they were here.

Hmmm with pains there are always blessings. A blessing for me was getting all those supportive emails from friends and family members. I get reminded that I have friends and family members that are here with me on this journey in spirit by the many prayers and thoughts. If I could now ask all of you to receive prayer requests for me at this time that would be great.

Prayer request #1: I ask that my spirit would be strong in the Lord at times; in times of sorrow, celebration and just those plain normal days. It is easy to forget who I am doing this for by getting caught of in the moment.

Prayer request #2: Pray for the Missions Conference that happens this week for all the AIM team members including myself. My we grow in knowledge and understanding in what it really means to be a missionary. May it also be a good time for team bonding.

Prayer request #3: Please pray that I can get retain as much vocabulary as possible through my language studies. I know that the best way to love the Malagasy people is by speaking their language. It is a difficult language to learn and for the most part takes a few years to learn it and I have just six months. Along with that request pray for my Ethnography study (study of the culture), as it is a big ordeal and requires some boldness on my part to interview people and put myself out there in order to understand their culture.

Prayer request #4: I have a week off from working at MCA (Madagascar Christian Academy) due to the conference but after that I will be teaching again. I just pray that the kids will be able to understand my speaking and learn was a native speaker of English sounds like so it can benefit them in when searching for future employment.

Prayer request 5: That I may push myself more and more to understand and love the Malagasy people as our heavenly Father does. I desire not to have the critical mind of a foreigner but to keep and open mind about everything.

 

 

Week Two

Sorry for waiting so long to create another post, Internet is kind of slow here depending on how many people in the building are trying to use it at once.  I may have a lot to update you with.  So the week I arrived I got right back into some more training but this time the focus was on training us for living in Madagascar specifically.  For the first three days we did this program called L-A-M-P which is basically this language training program.  We learned how to make lesson plans and do different activities doing our sessions with our language helpers.  My language helper is Florentine, this Malagasy woman who has been teaching missionaries English for years now.  She is very patient with me, which I am grateful for.

The second week which is the one I am currently working through has new challenges but at the same time they have been rewarding.  I moved in  my flat on Sunday with my new Roomate Heidi.  It is pretty nice in my mind, I never pictured a missionary living is such a nice place.  It is not fancy or anything but the everything works great and I have not seen any bugs yet.  We get a full kitchen with a stove and everything.  Now Heidi and I both confessed to each other that we cannot cook, which in turn has made things very interesting.  Thankfully the main meal that people cook in Madagascar is rice (although I have not perfected it yet) so we have a great excuse to cook the same meal over again and do not have to be too creative.

Well besides eating rice and listening to Adventures In Odyssey you may want to know what I have been doing during the day.  Well I may have explained to some of you that the main reason I am here is to be trained to become a full time missionary for after I graduate.  Basically that is what this journey is about; learning from other missionaries but also creating a new and different path for myself. This is a time where I figure out what full time ministry will look like for me in the future.  Every missionary has to make important choices that will affect the themselves and the people they are ministering to.  Every missionary has to decide what is most important to them.  Well right now I feel language is most important to me.  It is so draining and well humbling but I know that I cannot communicate the Gospel to these people without words.  To every culture words are important; they communicate love that actions cannot always express. Not when you are one of few white people on the entire island.

So as part of my training I have Language Studies, Cultural Studies, and Volunteer ministry.  The ministry I am doing is working at this Christian English speaking school known as MCA (Madagascar Christian Acadamy)  That is only in the afternoons, at least for now as I have language studies in the morning with Florentine.  I am working with the grade one classroom with their reading, teaching a little of Drama, and maybe helping with art class with the uper level grades.  I have been doing a little teaching which has been different for me as I have never done that before but I enjoy being around the kids very much so.

Well as much as I would like to go into more detail it is time for me to go to bed.  I go to bed around 9:30pm during the week but that is because I have to get up early to go and walk to school.  I will try to write again soon. 

 

Day 1 of trip

Hi Everybody,

I know I said I would do a video blog but I realized that wouldn't work to well because I don't know how the internet will be when I get down there.  So that means you have to endure my horrible spelling mistakes.  Please forgive me ahead of time.  So I am leaving from the guest house I have been staying at for the last couple of days in just a couple of hours.  Then we have to do some last minute details in the AIM office, then it's to the airport we go. 

I am experiencing a mix of emotions as I am not sure what I am supposed to be expecting when I get over there.  There seems to be a great amount of questions and not a whole lot of answers.  For the most part I am pretty excited because this is my first cross-cultural experience.  I know it is going to be difficult and I have been reminded of that through friends, family and my orientation but God keeps reminding me of his protection and I keep getting this unexplainable peace  I know that is from all the people praying for me because well I'm not always good and trusting God with my problems.  I am a bit of a worrier. 

So my flight is I think around 7 pm by the time we get into the plane and get settled in.  Then we get in London at I think 7am in the morning.  My parents are meeting me in the airport which will probably be a emotional time especially with all that's going on with them.  Again that's just another faith thing.  Sorry this is going to be pretty short today as I need to still get ready.  I love you guys and thank you all for your prayers.