Sunday, February 19, 2012
Update
The last two weeks have been very busy and very eventful. We had an amazing work team come down from Crown Point Christian Reformed Church to build a security wall around the school property and now my mom and family friend, Ruth, are here to visit for a week and help us organize. I promise to post all about what's happening here when things calm down a little. In the mean time, my mom and Ruth have started a blog in order to keep people updated on what they are doing, so this week I will be helping them update their blog. It's called Grannies on a Mission, you may enjoy reading about their granny adventures here in the DR. Here is the link: granniesonamission.blogspot.com
Friday, February 10, 2012
Pieces of Home #2
In November, I discovered that one of the grocery stores here carried a generic brand of the pillsbury line of ready-made bake-only rolls. I was very excited. As I mentioned in the last post, it was fun to share my family tradition of Sunday morning cinnamon rolls with Eddy. I also found several awesome crescent roll recipes in pintrest. It was great! Then they sold out. Thanksgiving marked our last batch of crescent rolls. I had all but given up when last wednesday, we went to the grocery store and there they were! Cinnamon rolls, crescent rolls (big and small), biscuits, and breadsticks. This time I know, that when they sell out, that's it for the next several months, and they only have about 10-15 of each thing. Well, I had to drastically change my grocery shopping plan so that half of my grocery money now goes to stocking up on these wonderful rolls before they are all gone. Hopefully they will last me a while, but my husband requests them in one form or the other every day now. I have made pizza puffs with the crescent rolls 3 times, I have made cinnamon breadsticks, and yesterday was our first cinnamon roll Sunday since November.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
How Great is Our God
Last week I wrote a short post asking for prayers because of a difficulty at our school. Many of my readers are also my facebook friends and a couple days after that post, my status was the words to the song "How Great is our God." A few people asked me after that, if the difficulty had gone away and if that is why I put those song lyrics on my facebook. The answer to that question is "no". However, I can understand the confusion because had the issue been resolved, I probably would have updated my status with something similar to that. However, the question got me to thinking, and there is a story behind why I posted those lyrics.
On January 5 I celebrated two years living in the Dominican Republic. That day, I spent a lot of time reflecting. I remembered how I felt the day that I arrived, so nervous and excited and full of faith. I remembered all of the things that have happened since that day, both good times and bad. But most of all, I thought about how much I have been blessed in my time here. The lyrics to the song "How Great is Our God" came into my head. I didn't even have that song on my Itunes, but that day I went and downloaded it, and for the last month I have listened to it repeatedly and even when I am not listening to it, I am singing it in my head all the time.
A few days after that was when this new difficulty began. That song has helped me in these weeks. Because it's true, even when "things are bad", God is good. When we are worried and feel powerless, God is in control. God is great, and He is in control, and He WILL work everything out for His glory, and one day ALL WILL see how great our God is! The days that are the most difficult are the days that I need to listen to that song the most. That was probably the case the day that I posted the lyrics on facebook. When I listen to it, I can't help but close my eyes, sing along with all I have and I am filled with peace.
It is easy to praise and glorify God when times are good, but even in the middle of a difficult time, God still deserves our praise. In fact, He uses times of difficulty to bring us closer to Him. That has definitely been my experience over the last two years. When everything is going well, sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking we don't really need God, we've got it all under control. But in the midst of home sickness, cultural frustrations, and other struggles there is no denying that we need God and that He is the one who brings us through.
Last Saturday, we had a concert fundraiser for the school. We knew that what we needed the most was to praise God together in unity. That day was a stressful day, it seemed like everything was going wrong as we prepared. The praise team didn't even have time to practice. But we powered our way through and in the end it was an amazing night. We had such a great turn out of our students, their parents and families, and other members of the community. Our dance ministry performed, the combined praise team performed and a woman from sister church, Diana, sang a few songs as well. At the last minute we did a little bit of switching around of the schedule and the last song ended up being sung by Diana. I was busy figuring out the changes when she began singing, but then I realized, she was singing "How Great is our God" in Spanish. I was so excited, I didn't even know that there was a Spanish version. It was such a blessing to Eddy and me. Although Eddy had heard it several times in English and can basically understand the words, I think it really touched him to hear it in his native language. Also, it was so amazing to me that the song that had been "my song" for the last month was now being sung by this large group of people including children and parents from our school. And I took it as a personal reminder just how great our God is. Here are the lyrics, in case you are not familiar with the song:
The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end
The Godhead Three in One
Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb
Name above all names
Worthy of our praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
On January 5 I celebrated two years living in the Dominican Republic. That day, I spent a lot of time reflecting. I remembered how I felt the day that I arrived, so nervous and excited and full of faith. I remembered all of the things that have happened since that day, both good times and bad. But most of all, I thought about how much I have been blessed in my time here. The lyrics to the song "How Great is Our God" came into my head. I didn't even have that song on my Itunes, but that day I went and downloaded it, and for the last month I have listened to it repeatedly and even when I am not listening to it, I am singing it in my head all the time.
A few days after that was when this new difficulty began. That song has helped me in these weeks. Because it's true, even when "things are bad", God is good. When we are worried and feel powerless, God is in control. God is great, and He is in control, and He WILL work everything out for His glory, and one day ALL WILL see how great our God is! The days that are the most difficult are the days that I need to listen to that song the most. That was probably the case the day that I posted the lyrics on facebook. When I listen to it, I can't help but close my eyes, sing along with all I have and I am filled with peace.
It is easy to praise and glorify God when times are good, but even in the middle of a difficult time, God still deserves our praise. In fact, He uses times of difficulty to bring us closer to Him. That has definitely been my experience over the last two years. When everything is going well, sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking we don't really need God, we've got it all under control. But in the midst of home sickness, cultural frustrations, and other struggles there is no denying that we need God and that He is the one who brings us through.
Last Saturday, we had a concert fundraiser for the school. We knew that what we needed the most was to praise God together in unity. That day was a stressful day, it seemed like everything was going wrong as we prepared. The praise team didn't even have time to practice. But we powered our way through and in the end it was an amazing night. We had such a great turn out of our students, their parents and families, and other members of the community. Our dance ministry performed, the combined praise team performed and a woman from sister church, Diana, sang a few songs as well. At the last minute we did a little bit of switching around of the schedule and the last song ended up being sung by Diana. I was busy figuring out the changes when she began singing, but then I realized, she was singing "How Great is our God" in Spanish. I was so excited, I didn't even know that there was a Spanish version. It was such a blessing to Eddy and me. Although Eddy had heard it several times in English and can basically understand the words, I think it really touched him to hear it in his native language. Also, it was so amazing to me that the song that had been "my song" for the last month was now being sung by this large group of people including children and parents from our school. And I took it as a personal reminder just how great our God is. Here are the lyrics, in case you are not familiar with the song:
The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end
The Godhead Three in One
Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb
Name above all names
Worthy of our praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
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