why, hello. = )
Another nice, and much needed relaxing day today as a family. My blessed body clock felt the need to wake me up around 6:30 this morning, so i woke up, had some devo time, and worked on a few letters im writting to some of the girls for when i leave. (i cant believe i only have 12 more days here..)
Around 10 we all headed to the beach and chilled for a while with our toes in the sand, then hung out in town for the rest of the day. Like i said, the day was relaxing, and pretty much uninteresting to you readers, but it was a special day that we got to spend together.
As i sat on the beach, the song "The Remedy" by David Crowder Band kept running through my head. (its the song that's in the backround of the baptism video, for those of you who watched it.) As i thought about the words to that song, i got excited. It starts off like this: "Here we are, here we are, the broken and used, mistreated, abused, here we are."
now, you're prolly wondering, why in the world would i get excited about such hopeless lyrics like those? Well, its not that part that gets me so excited, but the next part "Here You are, here You are, the Beautiful One who came like a Son, here You are." Thank the LORD for the truth of these words! cuz we all know that that those first couple lines are true. We've been hurt, we've been broken, and we've fallen from Grace. But the Beautiful One didnt leave us that way!!
The song goes on to say:
"So we lift up our voices
We open our hands
To cling to the love
That we can't comprehend
Oh, lift up your voices
And lift up your heads
To sing of the love
That has freed us from sin
He is the one
Who has saved us
He is the one
Who embraced us
He is the one who has come
And is coming again
He's the remedy
He's the remedy"
How incredible is that!?!? HE is the only one responsible for saving us from sin, HE is the only one whose embrace can truly bring restoration, HE came for us and He's coming back!! HE is our one and only Healer, the only hope to keep us from the despair we could be living, our REMEDY! Thank You, Jesus!!
That's not even the whole song, theres more to it that i could expound on and get even more excited about, but i ask that you go listen to it for yourself. The point of me writing all this, (aside from the fact that i could keep inside what an amazing God our God is!), is to ask for prayer. we have so many great things planned to teach these teens on this retreat, but all of it will mean nothing if they dont realize this one thing: HE IS THEIR REMEDY! Its my prayer that over the last few days i have here, if it be God's Will, He will use me and the rest of the Lakewood team to make real to these teens how real our God is and how incredibly, incredibly much He has done in their lives! How far He has brought them, how in love with them He is, and the wonderful, wonderful purposes He specificaly has for each one of them!! Please, make this your prayer as well! I know how peaceful and awestruck i feel every time i think about my Remedy. It fills me with joy and desire to make God famous and shout out His Love to everyone else, and that's what i want for these teens. I want to see them praising God, not because of some feeling or spiritual high, but because of the knowledge they have of the fact that He was, is, and forever will be their one and only Remedy.
Your Kingdome come, Your will be done, Father!! In Jesus name! AMEN!
Until Next Time,
Jo
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Time-Out
Hey guys! its been a while, hasnt it? This week has been so busy as last thursday Rob and I joined Copperfield Church in their ministry to the pre-teens and adults of the community. We has so many awesome things happen from baptisms to celebrating the one year anniversary of Grupo CEO's church, to people surrendering their lives to Christ, to a great time of fellowship and worship with the people of VQ! And all along the way, we made new friendships and were wittnesses to how much greatness God has planned for this community!!! Rob and i got on our knees and prayed for a lot of rather specific things going into this week, and with humility and praise i can tell you that God answered them right before our very eyes! We called on Him and His Will reigned throughout this entire week! Glory to our living God!
Thanks to all you guys who sent me birthday wishes. They had a nice little surprise party for me and Jamile, Gessica, Lais, and Cleonicia all choreographed a dance to a song about friendship and preformed it for me at the party. My purpose coming down here was to glorify God and bless His people here, but its incredible how greatly i've been blessed by knowing them.
If i took the time to tell you everything that happened these past 8 days, we'd both be sitting here for a while. Instead, im gonna take the easy way out and send you here: http://copperfieldchurchbrazilmission10.shutterfly.com/
Thats a link to several videos, a bunch of pictures, and a few summaries of what went on down here this week. John, one of the members of copperfields team, brought his camera and videod a ton of stuff that we were involved in and spent a lot of time putting all the clips together into videos. So, if you wanna catch a glimpse into what last week was all about, i suggest you check that out.
This weekend we get to slow down just a little bit, and prepare for the Lakewood team thats arriving on Monday to lead a 5 day teen retreat and do some work in VQ!! im so, so, so excited for this reatreat! God has so far provided for 22 teens from the community to be able to go, and my prayer is that their hearts are ready to accept the powerful message we've prepared for them!
All of us in the Moore family are pretty worn out from last week, so pray for our physical strenght and that no matter how tired our bodies get, our spirits stay strong and joyful! Satan is NOT happy with what has been happening and is about to happen in this community, and hes gonna jump at any opportunity he can to make this week take a turn for the worse, but we belong to an almighty King. We are His people, and He knows the plans He has for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to be our never ending hope and lead us into our life fulfilling future! Get it Jesus!
Until Next Time,
Jo
Thanks to all you guys who sent me birthday wishes. They had a nice little surprise party for me and Jamile, Gessica, Lais, and Cleonicia all choreographed a dance to a song about friendship and preformed it for me at the party. My purpose coming down here was to glorify God and bless His people here, but its incredible how greatly i've been blessed by knowing them.
If i took the time to tell you everything that happened these past 8 days, we'd both be sitting here for a while. Instead, im gonna take the easy way out and send you here: http://copperfieldchurchbrazilmission10.shutterfly.com/
Thats a link to several videos, a bunch of pictures, and a few summaries of what went on down here this week. John, one of the members of copperfields team, brought his camera and videod a ton of stuff that we were involved in and spent a lot of time putting all the clips together into videos. So, if you wanna catch a glimpse into what last week was all about, i suggest you check that out.
This weekend we get to slow down just a little bit, and prepare for the Lakewood team thats arriving on Monday to lead a 5 day teen retreat and do some work in VQ!! im so, so, so excited for this reatreat! God has so far provided for 22 teens from the community to be able to go, and my prayer is that their hearts are ready to accept the powerful message we've prepared for them!
All of us in the Moore family are pretty worn out from last week, so pray for our physical strenght and that no matter how tired our bodies get, our spirits stay strong and joyful! Satan is NOT happy with what has been happening and is about to happen in this community, and hes gonna jump at any opportunity he can to make this week take a turn for the worse, but we belong to an almighty King. We are His people, and He knows the plans He has for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to be our never ending hope and lead us into our life fulfilling future! Get it Jesus!
Until Next Time,
Jo
Thursday, July 1, 2010
So Little Time
Hello. = ) i meant to post this yesterday, but ran out of time. Here's what i had written down about tuesday and wednesday:
Well, Robert and i have both been on missions trips before, but the past two days we've learned all about the other side of a missions trip: the preparation!
Tuesday we woke up around 7:30 and Patrick, Douglas, Robert, Erika, Aurenice (one of the ladys that is helping take care of the campus while the americans are here), and i all started moving everything out of the dorm to be washed and dusted, and when i say everything, i mean every single thing in there except the bedframes which are bolted to the floor. (but dont worry, we got to clean those too!) (wow, i just had a random flash of what my english teacher Mrs. B would say if she saw my lack of grammatical integrity in all my posts...i shuddered) It took us most of the morning to get everything all nice and shiny inside the dorm, and then we took a break for lunch. I managed to get a 30 minute nap in after that, and then it was time to move the furniture and mattresses back in the dorm, and give the whole porch a scrub down. Now the dorm is spick and span and just about ready for Copperfield Church to arrive tomorrow morning. Only thing left to do is hang the hammocks. = )
Later Robert and i rode with Erika to Evair's house and gave the people that were working some juice and crackers. They've been working hard out in that heat! When we got back home and i realized there was no more work to be done for the day, i shot around for a while. Sadly, i only made 2 out of 10 freethrows..(sorry, Coach), which resulted in a lot of down and backs, sit-ups, and push-ups for me. not cool. At 4 we had playground time and the boys went to soccer. Then in between that and the Bible Study Rob and i took some time to go over our notes.
The study went really well. we talked about Idolatry and how it doesnt have to be a material thing, but it is anything that recieves more of your Time, Talent, or Treasures than God. (getting the Word into our words. Thanks for your wisdom, Coach Kruse!) At the end, we had everyone write down an idol that they had in their life, and they had an option to crumple it up and toss it away into a basket to simbolize that they were repenting from that in their life. While they were doing that, Erika said if we wanted to, we could have them burned, so we got a pot and some matches and torched them right in the middle of the church. We sang a song called "Com Teu Fogo" which talks about how God burns away the sin in our life with His fire. it was a great service by and for the glory of God!
When the study was over, we met with the teens about the retreat and told them how great the place we're going is. Its looking like about all of the teens want to go, but money is going to be a bit of a problem, and parents' permission is another big one. Pray that by God's power and will, everyone who He wants on that retreat ends up on that bus with us on July 12th! After the meeting we stayed outside for a bit while some of the girls practiced their choreography for a dance they're doing sunday. i had a good talk with Josefa for a while, and then when the practice was over we went inside. Amanda, Patrick, Robert, and i all had pizza together for dinner and sat around and talked, and before we knew it, it was 11, aka time to get to bed!
Today Erika woke Robert and i up at 5 and we went with her and Billiam to the fruit and vegetable market, and it was sweet, one of the reasons being that it simply smelled awesome there! We bought an insane amount of food (i think we bought like 50 lemons..) and got home around 8 with just enough time for us to get the truck unloaded before Bill and Erika left with Douglas and Amanda to take care of some stuff in the city. Pastor called Patrick and Robert to help down at Evair's which left me to do some lesson planning, Bible reading, and have a great time of prayer with God!
Rob and Patrick got back around lunch time, and after that we spent the afternoon planning lessons, playing guitar, shooting, and just hanging out. (i made 8 for 10 today, by the way. ; D)
I dont really have time to finish today, and since the Copperfield team arrived this morning, we're going to be super busy, so im not sure when the next blog will be. But God has some awesome things planned, so keep praying everyone up! thanks!
Until Next Time,
Jo
Well, Robert and i have both been on missions trips before, but the past two days we've learned all about the other side of a missions trip: the preparation!
Tuesday we woke up around 7:30 and Patrick, Douglas, Robert, Erika, Aurenice (one of the ladys that is helping take care of the campus while the americans are here), and i all started moving everything out of the dorm to be washed and dusted, and when i say everything, i mean every single thing in there except the bedframes which are bolted to the floor. (but dont worry, we got to clean those too!) (wow, i just had a random flash of what my english teacher Mrs. B would say if she saw my lack of grammatical integrity in all my posts...i shuddered) It took us most of the morning to get everything all nice and shiny inside the dorm, and then we took a break for lunch. I managed to get a 30 minute nap in after that, and then it was time to move the furniture and mattresses back in the dorm, and give the whole porch a scrub down. Now the dorm is spick and span and just about ready for Copperfield Church to arrive tomorrow morning. Only thing left to do is hang the hammocks. = )
Later Robert and i rode with Erika to Evair's house and gave the people that were working some juice and crackers. They've been working hard out in that heat! When we got back home and i realized there was no more work to be done for the day, i shot around for a while. Sadly, i only made 2 out of 10 freethrows..(sorry, Coach), which resulted in a lot of down and backs, sit-ups, and push-ups for me. not cool. At 4 we had playground time and the boys went to soccer. Then in between that and the Bible Study Rob and i took some time to go over our notes.
The study went really well. we talked about Idolatry and how it doesnt have to be a material thing, but it is anything that recieves more of your Time, Talent, or Treasures than God. (getting the Word into our words. Thanks for your wisdom, Coach Kruse!) At the end, we had everyone write down an idol that they had in their life, and they had an option to crumple it up and toss it away into a basket to simbolize that they were repenting from that in their life. While they were doing that, Erika said if we wanted to, we could have them burned, so we got a pot and some matches and torched them right in the middle of the church. We sang a song called "Com Teu Fogo" which talks about how God burns away the sin in our life with His fire. it was a great service by and for the glory of God!
When the study was over, we met with the teens about the retreat and told them how great the place we're going is. Its looking like about all of the teens want to go, but money is going to be a bit of a problem, and parents' permission is another big one. Pray that by God's power and will, everyone who He wants on that retreat ends up on that bus with us on July 12th! After the meeting we stayed outside for a bit while some of the girls practiced their choreography for a dance they're doing sunday. i had a good talk with Josefa for a while, and then when the practice was over we went inside. Amanda, Patrick, Robert, and i all had pizza together for dinner and sat around and talked, and before we knew it, it was 11, aka time to get to bed!
Today Erika woke Robert and i up at 5 and we went with her and Billiam to the fruit and vegetable market, and it was sweet, one of the reasons being that it simply smelled awesome there! We bought an insane amount of food (i think we bought like 50 lemons..) and got home around 8 with just enough time for us to get the truck unloaded before Bill and Erika left with Douglas and Amanda to take care of some stuff in the city. Pastor called Patrick and Robert to help down at Evair's which left me to do some lesson planning, Bible reading, and have a great time of prayer with God!
Rob and Patrick got back around lunch time, and after that we spent the afternoon planning lessons, playing guitar, shooting, and just hanging out. (i made 8 for 10 today, by the way. ; D)
I dont really have time to finish today, and since the Copperfield team arrived this morning, we're going to be super busy, so im not sure when the next blog will be. But God has some awesome things planned, so keep praying everyone up! thanks!
Until Next Time,
Jo
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