Happy 2017 from my home to wherever you are! I spent the holidays visiting family in both Honduras and Nicaragua. It was a wonderful time albeit far too many hours of travel! I am now back in San Juan and we have exciting plans at the Casa as we begin to do community education with the families and comadronas (indigenous birth attendants) and continue with prenatal care and deliveries.
To everyone who has supported this work, words cannot express how deeply grateful I am. On a regular basis I see very poor families, many single mothers with little to no money to provide care for themselves or for their babies. Recently, I accompanied a mother to the hospital for an emergency c-section, and I am so grateful for each one of you who help provide medicines, transport, and baby clothes, to name a few things in a case such as this.If you haven't see our website, please check it out at casamaternaatitlan.org. You can donate to our ministry directly from there and learn more about our work.
As I begin 2017, I've been thinking how the more life I live, the more I see the beauty of it and at the same time the pain and injustice of living in a broken world. The more I see the need of our Savior, the only source of true joy, peace, and hope. Everyday I see my need for strength to live in a way that honors God, to be sincere in asking for forgiveness and in the ability to forgive others. As I share life with others.. listening to the story of their lives and experiencing my own life, I am daily more grateful for the whole gospel and for God's great mercy. Because of the LORD's great mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3: 22-23, NKJV).
For my whole life, music has been of great comfort to me and it has always brought me closer to God. One of my favorite albums of all time, lyrically, is When I Was Younger by Colony House. As I listen to it now, I want to share one of the songs with you called Moving Forward (the whole record is worth a listen!) I hope that you find encouragement in it as you begin the great adventure of a new year!
I found life and I found laughter
In forgiveness, I found rest
On the shoulders of redemption
I found hope when hope was dead
I could lose it in a moment
So I dare not close my eyes
I'll watch fear fall with the sunset
And see hope rise with the tide
And when the pain is true
Sometimes the troubles prove that
I'm alive
My eyes are open, my heart is beating
My lungs are full, My body's breathing
I'm moving forward, I found my freedom
I found a life that gave me reason to live
As this dusty road now settles
And I see what lay before
Every tear that held a broken dream
Is now shattered on the floor
And now bursting forth in splendor
Are the blossoms of second tries
Because dreams that bare the mark of love
Are dreams that never die
Sometimes life can feel so unkind
But sorrow won't define me
Sorrow just reminds my soul
I know the sorrow
I know the heartache
I know with fear comes a tragic heartbreak
But I'm moving forward
I found my freedom
I found a life that gave me reason to love
