Goodness Challenge

On Tuesday nights we have a kid's Bible class we call "English Bible Class." We typically learn some words, songs and Bible verses in English as we go through our Bible study theme. Currently we are studying the fruits of the spirit, and Jonathan set a challenge to the kids last week. He gave each kid a pound of beans and challenged them to give it away to someone in greater need than themselves. We encouraged them to tell the recipients this gift was because of the goodness of God.

Last night, the kids came back and told their stories.

This class is a cross section of our city that skews towards the poor side. There are some kids in the class, who I legitimately wondered how they would be able to find someone more in need than themselves to whom they could give the beans. Jonathan made the point that each one of us can look around and find someone with more than us and with less. Whether that "more" is financial, social, intellectual...

Here is some of what they shared.

B--age 5: I gave them to an old woman who is so old and lives all alone. She is always lonely. When I gave the beans to her I said "goodness of God" and she kissed me and kissed me and said "God will bless you."

J--age 12: There is a family in my neighborhood with so many kids There is never enough for everyone. I gave them the beans and I said, "God bless you. Take these because of the goodness of God." and she could not believe it. She said, "Truly?". I felt so happy and full of love when that happened. 

B--age 11: I know a woman who can't see well and she doesn't have anything. She always sits alone on a chair. So I gave her the beans and she was so happy. She was crying. I felt a little happy. I felt like I wanted to give more.

It crashed down on me so heavily: how often when I "do good" I feel content with myself. I feel justified, satisfied. But "doing good" or sharing in the goodness of God is meant to make us hungry for more. We are supposed to "feel like we want to give more".

Both Galatians 6:9 and 2 Thessalonians 3:13 exhort us not to get "weary of doing good". These are familiar verses that I turn to frequently.  Like this time. But I have always focused on the weary = exhausted part, and hadn't really considered that sometimes weary = bored. Sometimes we are bored with doing good. We have let it lose all its magic. Sometimes our "good works" are so rote that we forget that they are an opportunity to show and be shown a part of who God is.

It isn't always easy to say and believe that "God is good."

In these last months as we try to cope with the death of our daughter, a phrase that seemed so obviously simply true can choke me on it's way out of my mouth. Standing in front of that class, telling them that God is good, knowing all the very very bad things we are all suffering every single day, can sound so empty.

But I think that is why for 'B'---a girl with so few resources her family's only response to a simple case of lice has to be shaving everyone's head... for a girl who pauses at a  puddle in the gutter to cup water in her hand and wash the mud from her feet and legs as she enters the church building...for a girl who has been hungry and in need...for a girl who knows loneliness and neglect...for a girl who knows so much of the "bad" of the world...for a girl like this-- watching someone experience the goodness of God makes her hungry for more.

I want to be like that.
She, and I, need to know, to be shown, to be proved over and over again that God really is good.
I want to say with more than just my mouth that "God is good."
And when I see a glimmer of that goodness, I want to hunger for more of it.  For more of Him.

January Update

It has been almost 4 months since my precious partner in crime and comedy joined her paternal grandparents and a host of other friends and family. I miss her more and more each day, but find joy in a closer bond I share with Sheila and time with an extremely active 6 year-old! So, if you are one of those thinking, “get over it, already” please understand we will never get over it. I’m not Job. Thankfully, law enforcement and the local prosecutor’s office closed the case against me and families signed off on seeking no further legal or civil action. Thanks to the Mision Para Cristo construction team for their work in completing the cemetery work.

We completed 2015 having screened vision of the children at 24 of the schools Misión Para Cristo is affiliated with. That adds up to about 2,337 pairs of eyes. Of that number 57 children received new glasses. We also screened vision of approximately 280 children who are part of the One Child Matters program based out of the mission.

Sheila and various crews from the US saw approximately 710 clients in the clinic. Of those she dispensed glasses to 630 of them. That makes about an 89% success rate. If you add to that those who were referred to the ophthalmologist or optometrist, her success rate would be closer to 96%. The clinic did not begin seeing clients until April and operated sparingly during the months of October and November. We will resume school-based and clinic screening once school begins in the next couple of months and after I have finished some much needed remodeling in our clinic.

Sheila, the boy and I went to Managua on Dec. 14 to sign the official documents at the ministry of family giving us permission to go to the family court to legally change the boy’s last name to Holland. This week we hired an attorney to represent us and he is anticipating that this final process will take about two months. Then there will be another legal Holland! Watch out world! I am very excited to begin sharing pictures of this entertaining, compassionate and bright little boy. Wait until you see the two of us together. You will think we are twins separated by 45 years.

Sunday programs for children are beginning the registration process. Two of the talented young men here in Jinotega gave free haircuts to children of the market and staff in preparing for the new school year.

Sight For Sore Eyes Foundation, Inc. is now registered as an official charity with the Amazon Smiles program. Please consider including us in your Amazon purchases. There is no additional cost to you, but Amazon donates a percentage to the charity you choose…Hopefully us! Go to Smile.Amazon.com and start giving without hurting.

The year-end activities, such as Smile Box distribution went very smoothly once the containers were released from customs. The customs process here seems to change yearly. Nevertheless, the boxes started getting to the hands of the children and everyone has been very happy.

We had a chance to celebrate with the youth who facilitate the children’s program in Apanas. This is a group I’ve mentioned before – about 10 to 12 young ladies (and a couple of guys who pop in and out, based on which girls are there to help on any given Saturday) ages 13-16, who live in extreme poverty. During the holidays, these kids gathered clothes and vegetables and took them to about 15 families who live in the municipal dump. THAT is the spirit of Christmas.  

 

   

We were blessed in December to have Sheila’s parents, John and Elma Clark, of Deming, NM, visit for about three weeks. We were honored to share in celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary with a dinner Sheila and her mother cooked up for about 75 guests at our home. We also celebrated her mother’s 81^st and father’s 82^nd birthdays while they were visiting.

 

We also enjoyed time visiting the beach in the San Juan del Sur area of Nicaragua, which has become a surfers’ paradise. No, we didn’t. We did, however, get to see endangered Green Sea Turtle hatchlings being released into the surf one morning.

To get the close up pictures I wanted of this baby I named, “Spot,” I sat down low on the sand. At one point I moved into the surf to get photos of him/her entering the water. As is the way waves work, I got swamped while my attention and camera were pointed inland. When I gathered my senses enough to recognize there was a buzzing in the crowd and shutters were clicking I realized the excitement I thought I was missing was actually the crowd reacting to what they thought was a beached whale. It was just me.

We have had some unexpected expenses (repair, storage and towing costs of borrowed vehicle breaking down on vacation and having to rent a vehicle for a few days, for example) and are looking for some additional financial assistance. While our ultimate hope would be to find an additional congregation for more permanent support, we have some mediate to intermediate needs to address. Below are brief explanations.

·         Computer $550: On the way to the beach with the in-laws my computer was accidently baptized. It is useless and we are holding on to the hope that the hard drive can be recovered.

·         Adoption $1200: This is what the attorney fees will be. He has said there will be no further expenses by him so with his fee and a couple of months the adoption process should be over.

·         Cemetery $1200: While all other funeral-related expenses are paid, the cement work at the cemetery, which is in the final stages of completion at this writing, still need to be paid. The mission provided the labor, saving several hundreds of dollars.

·         Eyeglass Clinic Office $200: With the addition of the eyeglass inventory system Sheila began using last year we are needing to make better use of the office space the mission gives us. That means adding wall-to-wall shelving.

·         Vehicle $5000: Obviously our vehicle was a total loss after the accident. Initially we anticipated sharing mission vehicles but are concerned about the practicality of that. While workable, it is not completely feasible for a family to have total access and for the mission to have the vehicles needed to do their work.

We continue to strive for peace in difficult times as our faith is shaken and our beliefs are challenged. Even the simple prayer is difficult. Please continue to pray for us as we attempt to adapt and continue with life and the daily struggle it presents.

Jonathan, Sheila and “the Boy” Holland

Learning a new name

I remember a church classroom when I was a young teenager. Hanging on the wall was a poster listing many of the names of God. Different names of God were in various fonts and sizes. Obviously, some were going to draw your eye more than others.

I have heard many sermons on the names or the attributes of God. We are wise to study how God describes Himself if we want to know Him. But maybe, you are like me—maybe some of those parts of God draw your eye more than others.

There are many Hebrew names for God that are some version of El, Eloch, Elohim (which can be translated  “power”) with a second part added to describe a particular attribute of God. God the Creator, God of Peace, God the Provider, God the Healer, God of Justice, God of the Beginning, God of Forgiveness, God of Heights, God who is Near, God of my Strength, God of my Praise, God of my Salvation, God of Truth, God of Eternity, God of Knowledge, God of Heaven and Earth, God who Sees, God who is There, Living God, Holy God, God of gods.

As you read quickly through this list, I imagine a few of these descriptions tug at your heart while a few feel like just words.

As I approached my twenties, (when I knew absolutely everything) I did some reading of “classical” Christian authors. I noticed that in the hymns and  teachings of our brothers from hundreds of years ago there was a much greater emphasis on the sovereignty, awe, might, wrath, justice, and power of God. This contrasted deeply with what the brothers in my time and place were singing and talking about: the gentleness, grace, friendship, care, and comfort of God. Now, I would have confidently answered you that all of those attributes describe God, that He Was and Is all of those things in perfect measure.  Which is the proper “Sunday school answer” and legitimately what my mind believed. But at some unspoken level, I think there was also a part of me that, while not quite able to describe it, felt that those parts of God’s nature so emphasized by historical Christians, was somehow a more primitive view of God. That we, in this modern enlightened time had built on the understandings of those that had come before to know God more personally, more intimately, more fully—and that is why we spend our time singing Him love songs more often than trembling in awe of Him.

And then I wasn’t 20 anymore.  More of life happened. There were all the difficulties and trials that come with the years. I met and loved people from a wider range of backgrounds and learned about their troubles and learned from the many different ways I saw them respond. I lived in some difficult places, places including Nicaragua, where the trials of life aren’t merely internal stresses but physical survival.

And then I lost my daughter.

And my heart was broken in new ways I never imagined.

And I am learning how helpless I am— I can’t change what has happened. I can’t take away the pain my family is feeling. I can’t survive this on my own.

And I am learning why people from very difficult places and very difficult time periods have cried out to the Powerful One.   Living so many years with the deceptive veil of my own agency over my eyes, I never had to confront my need for a sovereign God. Living so many years verbally acknowledging God, but subconsciously believing my own actions are responsible for the situation of my life. Living so many years where it was within my power to choose the temperature of a room, the food I will eat, where I will go, who I will be with, what I will wear, if I’d prefer it to be light or dark…everything about my environment seemed to be with my power. It was so easy to ignore the part of God that is in control of everything and assume I am that part. It was so easy for my understanding of God to be limited to the parts I want Him to be.

But someone living in a plastic shack with their family of 5, is aware every time it rains that they are not in control. Someone watching their neighborhood succumb to war, knows that they are powerless to create the environment they dream of. Someone using all the money they have to buy food for today, without knowing what tomorrow will bring, knows that need to rely on more than themselves. And someone burying their little girl begins to understand how completely helpless each of us. 

I am learning that those verses that seemed like “such a downer” to my younger self, are in fact sources of hope. I am learning that the “negative bits” of passages I previously read quickly past, are the parts that might bring peace. 

Singing to some celestial buddy seems somehow hollow when you are sitting helpless in a nightmare that you can do nothing about. In circumstances so dark that all you want is some glimmer of escape, calling upon a God whose mysterious power is far above this dark world connects, even if only briefly, to a shattered heart.

I begin to feel a little closer to my brothers and sisters who have cried out with Faith through difficulties beyond my imagining. Who worshiped with words that I wish I didn’t, but am learning to understand.

“Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;

the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;

earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see. 
O Lord who changes not, abide with me.

I need your presence every passing hour.
What but your grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like yourself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe with you at hand to bless,
though ills have weight, and tears their bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, your victory?
I triumph still if you abide with me.

Hold now your Word before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. 
--Henry Lyte

  

Summer Update

The Latest Update from the Hollands in Nicaragua

GLOW PLUGS

My truck, a 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, is a diesel. It uses a glow plug. A glow plug is like the filament in a light bulb, except it takes a little more time to get hot. The purpose of the glow plug is to make sure the mixture of air and fuel are warmed so they will ignite. Without waiting for the glow plug to warm up the engine will usually not start. If it does start, it may not run well or may cause damage to the engine. (I got these facts from the Internet. I know nothing about glow plugs – or engines in general, except one has to wait for the squiggly light on the vehicle’s instrument panel to go off before starting a diesel engine.)

The glow plugs slow me down in the morning. Yet without it, I might not run at all. I have to take time in the morning to let it do its job. Sure, I could start the day without it and everything might turn out okay, or I can wait as I should and be secure in how things are intended to work.

When I wait on God’s timing everything works out better. When I force it, things go awry. It’s all about timing and as a confirmed impatient person I need a few more glow plugs to make me pay attention…and wait...and listen.

Lamentations 3:25-26 (CEV)

²⁵ The Lord is kind to everyone who trusts and obeys him.
²⁶ It is good to wait patiently for the Lord to save us.

INTERNS

Each year we have interns come and serve alongside us. These are college-aged men and women who provide leadership, muscle and youth that we lack. I cannot imagine trying to make it through a summer without them. In addition to the three contributions I noted above, they are a Godly example and Christian friends. I love them, miss them and look forward to seeing them again. Include a word of thanks to God for Jamie Rea Capri, Jamey Grimsely, Ben Tinsley and Logan Price - living examples of God’s blessings.

GUESTS

Misión Para Cristo has hosted 681 people this year. That is down from last year at this same point but is doesn’t physically feel like it.  J That translates into over 16,000 hours of labor for the Lord. By serving medically, constructing homes and taking the smile of Jesus into many schools, senior centers, maternity homes and day cares. These are doors North American guests open up for our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters to reach into.

VISION CLINIC

Sheila has continued to open the vision clinic each week. She has screened the vision of 578 this year and matched 514 pair of used prescription glasses. That is a success rate of 97.4%.  Nice…very nice!

CHILD VISION SCREENING

With the assistance of many of the North Americans, and one of our gifted translators, Amada Quintero, we were able to go to 32 schools, most of which are in the remote countryside of the Jinotega Department. We have screened 2,529 children. We have referred 143 of those screened and provided 78 pairs of new glasses for children. We are blessed with workers like Amada. She has done this so much of this she could take the equipment and run the program without me!

CHILDRENS’ PROGRAMMING

We continue to work to provide support in both curriculum and more modern teaching methods to churches looking to improve teaching techniques. We are striving to teach methods that are paperless as some old habits have led to a rut in how a lesson is presented. Specifically, the children, who love to color, are often given a color sheet that has nothing to do with, well, anything. We are working to provide items more on topic as well as teach that color sheets do not have to be king of the classroom.  Now, when we use a color sheet it is a vehicle for getting a Bible story into the child’s home.

·         The Apanas community hosts between 75 and 90 children every Saturday for their “Sunday School on Saturday.” In addition to writing (modifying) curriculum for them I work with the 3-to-5 year olds, of which there are normally 20 to 25. It is exhausting! The Girl has made several friends in the community and it has provided some great teachable moments as many of these new friends live in plastic shacks. We are seeing a compassionate side of her develop nicely. The preacher, Juan Carlos, leads with great energy and is teaching about 12 youngsters, ages 12 to 16, to lead the children. He then requires them to stay an additional hour for a Bible study just for them.

·         The Jinotega group currently hosts 55 to 75 each Sunday afternoon. My role with this group is strictly as the disciplinarian, trouble-shooter and financial resource manager. They call me when they need money. They operate pretty much without me and they do so very happily and very well.

·         “Desfile” [dez FEE lay] is the Spanish word for “parade.” At mid-term and at the end of the school year all the children march in the desfile with their school. There is always a host of photographers who, for about $2.50US will take a picture of your child. We do this at no charge and attach an invitation to the back of the photo. When the parent comes to the office, or we find them after school on the school grounds, we invite them to the Jinotega children’s class on Sunday. This week we had two new kids who came as a result of the invitations and three returned who had attended at the beginning, but had dropped out.

·         Sheila and I host from 25 to 45 each Tuesday night for Children’s English Class. English is being taught by way of Bible stories, songs and memory verses. Last week they presented the Spanish and English versions of “Trust and Obey” and quoted verses in both English and Spanish before the Jinotega congregation. We invited parents of the children who do not attend and were joined by eight parents who had never visited before. We are planning to have dinner with them next week.

RIO COCO WITH HARDING UNIVERSITY

I was granted another opportunity to visit the indigenous Miskito people of the Rio Coco. I escorted five Harding University students from the School of Leadership and Ministry. It was a blessing in that I had some insight into a younger generation – their humor, their commitment to God, and their interests in how God is working through us on the Rio Coco.

Here is the dilemma the students witnessed: One goal was to see that children in the six communities we visited received parasite medicines. To prevent parasites the local Ministry of Health has said that one 400mg tablet of Albendazole should be administered every six months. However, many of the children we saw already had parasites. The treatment for an existing condition is one 400mg Albedazole tablet a day for three days, taken with an antibiotic. We didn’t have enough Alebdazole and had no antibiotics to treat existing conditions.  I spoke with the local doctor and told him we need to come back with full regimens of parasite treatments. His response was, “Until you can clean the water, the parasites will always be an issue. And until the livestock can be contained, there will always be parasites in the water.” This is not a new problem nor is it one restricted to the Rio Coco of Nicaragua. It is just the one I have experienced. My charge to the next generation: Use the wisdom that God can do anything and everything and help solve the water issue in places like the Rio Coco.

THE TWO

We are in a holding pattern with the Ministry of Family and the adoption process. Although our patience is again being tested, we really are more at a pace the Ministry told us to expect. I guess we got spoiled by the way we flew through the initial steps.

The Two are improving with their school studies. The Boy is at the top of his class and The Girl made marked improvements over the last recording period. Sheila continues to teach them English daily. The Girl celebrated her birthday with friends, cake, a piñata and water balloon games. A good time was had by all! We have great photos we are anxiously awaiting finalization to share with you. The Two are enjoying the 5 not-puppies our cat had a month ago. The kittens are cute and I am excited that they will have new homes in about a month, but I will miss seeing The Two interact with them.

They also were excited to meet Tia Leanna (Patterson from Scurry, TX) and Prima Char (Charlstie Patterson of Searcy, AR is my sister Leanna’s eldest) who came for a visit the end of June. The Two have also spent some time visiting with the grandparents in New Mexico via Skype.

Other firsts for us since the last update: my first Father’s Day, our first family vacation, their first written words in English, and my first time getting to be the Tooth Fairy.

We are blessed. We know that any children with a history such as these who lived in minimal care homes and group home settings have a lot of adjusting to do. The Two are adjusting extremely well. We are new to their lives. Even though they fuss like all siblings, they also protect each other in unbelievable ways. We are blessed.

Our concert of prayer:

Prayers of Thanksgiving-

·         the rapid adjustment of The Two

·         the monthly financial blessing of so many individuals and families that aid us in our work here

·         the church families in Deming, NM and Eureka, IL who have chosen to include us in the mission programs

·         a dry home during this rainy season

·         small bumps in the road that remind us that our God is so big

Prayers of Supplication-

·         Deylin’s Mom, Cecilia*

·         Continued bonding and development as a family unit

·         A few additional donors to help fill the financial gap our family growth has created, and to cover the changes in the giving abilities of others.

·         Clean water for villages along the Rio Coco

*DEYLIN’S MOM

Meet Deylin. He just turned 10 and is a star pupil in both our Sunday class and Tuesday English class. He is regularly the first to have verses memorized. In the last series he was the top student and was awarded a bilingual Bible. Deylin plays on the Mission’s youth baseball team. In this photo he is wearing the glasses we were blessed to help him get. Deylin is quiet, respectful and sweet. He comes from the poorest neighborhood in Jinotega. We have just recently learned that his mother, about 35 years old, is suffering from cancer, and not just a little. We are proud of who Deylin is and his impressive work ethic. He is a special young man. Please include him, his mother, Cecilia, his older brother and father in your prayers as we minister to them.

APOLOGY…AGAIN

I know this sounds like a broken record and I am sorry to do this again, but…I apologize for the tardiness (which leads to the lengthiness) of this report. I make no excuses, but ask for forgiveness and understanding. So, until the next apology, blessings to you all.

Jonathan, Sheila and The Two