The best part of being here…

We love feeling like we are here for a reason.  That is what keeps us going.  Lately I have been just spending time with kids that don’t have much in the way of money or life.  I find it really fulfilling to see hurting kids just being fed and loved.  Here are a few photos.

 

Pierce Dahlia and Angelina enjoying some popcorn at night before we walked her home.  She even stayed for bedtime stories.

My kiddos and with the other kids at preschool while we had a New Zealand team in to volunteer that day with puppets etc..

The three musketeers at the park in Port Vila.  We took Angelina and it was one of the first times in a REALLY long time she had ever gotten to go to town. 

  Angelina on the slide.

One of Rachael the teachers daughters up our coconut tree getting us coconuts to eat with the kids we had over that day.  Yes she climbed that tree and it is VERY TALL!

The preschool watching the volunteers use puppets to tell stories.

Dahlia, Nicole, and Jimmy at our house playing in the back yard one day after preschool.

 

Rachel the teacher holding Dahlia in preschool.  We recently found out Rachel often does not have enough food to feed her family so we along with my parents try to help out whenever we can with food.  Please be praying for her and her 6 kids.  She is due with the 7th in July.

Jimmy is a sweet boy who is not getting the love and attention he needs at home and still needs help with daily necessities.  We are finding that to be very common in our preschool. 

We are working on creating a sponsorship program to figure out the amount needed monthly to cover school fees, uniforms, food and help with their  families rent.  Please be thinking about this as we work out how much it will be.  We will taken NONE of it for overhead and ALL will go dirrectly to the kids families.  We will also be working out a way to check in to see if it is being properly spent on the children.

“Confessions of a Christian hedonist”

That is the title of a book by John Piper that has this as its theme…and yes hedonist does mean pleasure seeker…

“God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in him.”

 

l have been thinking about what God is wanting to teach us in our time right now, and also reading a book called “Marketplace Christianity” that my dad recommended (by Robert Fraser).  (A MUST READ FOR ANYONE!!!!)

In this book one of the things they talk about is the realm of spiritual giftings in the marketplace or business world.  So like the church sphere has apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists the business world has areas of spiritual giftings as well.  God is using the other millions of christians (97%) that are not in the church sphere to serve God and influence people for the kingdom of heaven

 

One of these giftings that stuck out to me was the one about treasure bringers.  It is a funny thing to say while we sit here with less than $30 cash to our name, but I really believe through a series of events that God has spoken to us that he will use us in this way. 

As Robert Fraser puts it “treasure bringers are anointed by God to make money and to do great deeds of compassion and mercy for the nations.”  They are totally motivated by seeing God as a benevolent father and they are free from greed and selfish ambition.  They want to make money to use it to bless others.  One guy like this was about to become a missionary but felt God lead him to start a business.  The business makes multi millions but they choose to  live in a modest 3 bedroom home and drive used cars.  He says “God has called me to make all the money I can and live on as little as possible”. 

(These are the local wood bunk beds my dad,Sam from the base and Josh have been busy building)

WOW!! I was totally humbled and realized that God needs to refine us if we are to be truly useful to God in that way.  I realized that living here with no money and very few things and surrounded by need is exactly the place to learn

TO BE COMPLETELY CONTENT WITH LITTLE, AND TO FIND GREATER JOY IN GIVING THAN KEEPING.

I realized now is the time to ENJOY GOD regardless of personal wealth.  To live here with JOY, Hope and Peace right now, not when we get a job. 

My AHHA moment came today when I saw that breakthrough is not when we can suffer through with little but when we can TRULY BE CONTENT because life really is not about things.  The great joy comes not just by being content but also by having the opportunity to GIVE. To see a need and meet it or help in some way. 

God doesn’t ask us to be completely satisfied with little and it stop there.  He lets us participate in BEING A BLESSING.  what an opportunity to experience real joy.

And so it is very true that “GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED WHEN i AM MOST SATISFIED IN HIM”

We are not meant to suffer through, but to ENJOY!!

So I am off to enjoy the rest of my day and I hope you will too.

(the photos are with some of the kids I bring home from preschool to play and have a meal…Angelina is the oldest, then there is Nicole her cousin and Jimmy.)  It really is a joy serving those guys.  I pray God will continue to use us to bring Joy and love to their lives.

What is going on at Preschool

 

A photo of us at preschool (notice even Bella is with me in the sling!)

Betina and Dahlia playing a game.

We had a Discipleship training school here from New Zealand that volunteered at our preschool recently.

Jimmy needs alot of prayer right now as his dad has lost his job and the land owner where his family has built a small shack has threatened to burn it down and cut all the trees down if His family doesn’t catch up on the rent!  Please pray because the same land owner did just burn down his cousins house right next door a few weeks ago for the same reason.

Well Pierce is singing his heart out but I think Dahlia is looking a bit tired.

Jimmy singing motions and all!  Please pray for his situation.  He will have to leave our preschool if all continues on the same track with them getting kicked out of their home for back rent.

Puppets with the New Zealand team.  The kids LOVED it!

Rachel the teacher is about to have a baby (her 6th!) In July.  She needs a better living situation so we are really praying for answers.  She currently lives in a 2 !/2 meter by 21/2 meter square room with only two small mats for everyone to sleep on.  Which just means most of the family sleeps on the hard ground.  They are behind in their rent, and I just found out have often been going hungry when their food runs out.  Of course now that I know that we are sharing whatever groceries we have and will make sure her family always has food, but it is still a hard situation for them.  Her husband works 6 days a week at a resort near us doing manual labor and only makes the going rate of the US equivalent of $10 a day.  With the cost of food here that is simply not enough.  Their room costs $50 a month and that does not come with a toilet a yard or anything!

We are trying to come up with some creative solutions for them, like helping her get supplies to make necklaces she can sell at the YWAM base to traveling teams and we are talking at YWAM about organizing and setting up a breakfast club in the village so that no one goes with out breakfast.  In the meantime we bring peanut butter and bread to the preschool  and let the kids know that if they have no breakfast (which is very common) they can come early to eat breakfast. 

We will keep you posted as we progress.  Right now we are overwhelmed with need and opportunities, but God is great so we know we can come up with some solutions.  blessings! Kristy