Romans 12:2

I’ve had this verse written on my note card for a while now, but it is just now making it to the computer.  Thanks, MeMa, for this verse!  I’m using one that you gave me.  Being transformed by the renewing of my mind is what I have been working on very hard since last January.

As you may have noticed… some of our technology resources around here kind of crashed.  Wes’ camera is currently at the repair shop, and after three weeks of a visit with applecare, my computer is back with a brand new hard drive.  Apparently, computers and hard floors aren’t such a good combination together, either.  That would be my fault.

Preposterous!  I was immediately infuriated… no way.  There’s no way there are that many rabbits in that field.  And, obviously, my question hadn’t been taken seriously.  I don’t remember exactly how I responded… I do remember being deeply offended.

Looking back, I don’t blame my dad at all for his response… in fact, it was quite brilliant.  Because, I don’t remember it, but I’m sure that question was preceded by the likes of… How many mice do you think are in that field?  Why? How many trees are in the world? Why? Why is the sky blue?  Why are leaves green?  What do ducks eat? Why do ducks eat that?  Did Adam have a belly button? Why? What if? How?

That endless stream of questions is just part of my make-up… I can’t help it.  And for better or worse, along with my hands and feet, I passed that on down to Jakob… it’s part of his make-up now, too.  Sometimes that endless stream of “why’s” and “how’s” from the Jakester leads to innocently profound questions like the teachable moment Stacy wrote about.  Sometimes it just makes you want to pull your hair out.

Not sure why I wanted to share that… but our little question asker is getting to be our big question asker faster than it seems possible.

Derek, on the other hand, is definitely in the midst of the language explosion that happens at his age.  It’s incredible to watch it happen in both English and Spanish at the same time.  He has things he knows only in English and stuff he knows only in Spanish… amazing.  When asked, “Como estas?” He proudly replies, “Bien!”  When we tell him to “Say Hi” to somebody new, he carefully looks at them and decides by instinct whether to say “Hola” or “Hi.”  And, he’s always right.

He’s getting so big so fast… and even though he’s got my body and my walk, I think he still looks like a little Stacy.  It’s wonderful how children can be their own unique individuals and yet we can look at them and, at times, see little reflections of ourselves.

Click here for more photos.

]]> http://theyoakums.net/blog/unique-reflections-of-us/feed/ 2 http://theyoakums.net/blog/unique-reflections-of-us/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theyoakumsposts/~3/1wyVK3amWoc/ http://theyoakums.net/blog/teachable-moments/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:35:00 +0000 Stacy http://theyoakums.net/blog/?p=644 The summer between my sophmore and junior years of college I spent about six weeks as a counselor at one of Kanakuk’s sports camp, KAA–the camp for inner-city kids.  Though I was missing my home away from homes, Camp of the Hills, where I had spent the last two summers as a counselor to the same type of kids, I came away from KAA with a lot of lessons learned and some valuable tools.  One of which is called, “teachable moments.”  A very simple tool, but one that has to be intentional and used on purpose.  In training the counselors at camp they told us to always look for those teachable moments.  For example…

When you are teaching them how to steer the sailboat, talk to them about how Jesus calmed the storm and controls the waves, and He does the same today in the storms of life.

When you are giving instructions on how to shoot the bow and arrow, looking at a target with a bullseye, tell them that the definition of sin is missing the mark.

Or when you are on the tree tops, a high ropes course, and they are afraid of falling, tell them that even though we may slip and fall, Jesus is holding on to us and He won’t let go.

Honestly, to most of us young college students at the time looking for these teachable moments, it sounded like “Jesus cheese.”  Like, do people really say this kind of stuff?  And if they do, it’s only because they are supposed to, right?  Even though I knew this was similar to how Jesus taught in parables, I felt like I never was very good at finding teachable moments at camp.  I think those are the only three I ever used, because they are the only ones I could ever remember and I had a hard time coming up with them on my own.  Besides that, who has sailboats at camp and knows how to work those things, anyway?  Not me.

Nevertheless, as silly as it sounded, I still wanted to be good at finding those teachable moments.  To a listening child, they never forget those concepts when they are coupled with real life experiences.

Well, fast-forward 10 years and here I am with two small children of my own. Finding teachable moments is even more important to me now that these are my own kids.  Tonight, I remembered to be intentional about it.

I had gotten the kids out of the bathtub and we were putting on pajamas and getting ready for bed.  Wes was gone, so it was just me, Jake and Derek.  Next thing we knew the lights went out.  It was dusk, so there was still a little light coming in from the window and I could see that it wasn’t just our house, but the whole neighborhood.  Jake was with me and started to get scared.  Derek was in the process of running away from me as I was trying to get his p.j.’s on, so next thing I heard was him crashing into some toys in the darkness of Jake’s room followed by some tears.  Gathering the boys next to me, we slowly make our way down the stairs while my mind searches for a way to find some light.  I can’t think of where a flashlight is, I know where some candles are, but I don’t know where any matches or a lighter might be.  The gas stove wouldn’t light.  So I find my phone and called Wes to find out if he had any helpful advice.  All the while, Jake is hugging my leg and wishing I was holding him in my arms instead of Derek, borderline crying, and saying that we need Daddy here and what are we going to do without any light!?!  Well, after about 10 minutes, the lights came back on and all was well.  We went back upstairs and finished getting ready for bed.  We had our routine “family church,” which is basically a little devo where we read a Bible story or two, sing a few songs, and then pray together.  During this time a little light bulb when on in my head and I thought of a teachable moment.

“Jake, do you remember how scared you were when the lights went out?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s what it is like for people who don’t know Jesus and don’t have Him in their lives.  Jesus is the light of our lives.  It’s a scarey place to be without him, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

A little bit later I was reading a short book to Derek, about to lay him in his bed.  Jake was sitting close by, playing with a toy, when he looked over at me and said, “Mommy?  How can we make sure that Jesus is in our hearts?”

Wow.  Jake turns four years old next month.  This is what Jesus meant when He said to become like little children, isn’t it?  With hearts ready and willing to listen, willing to receive a teachable moment.

It’s been a while since we’ve had some good pics of the boys around here.  Did you know that cameras and 3 year olds don’t get along very well?  And also,  cameras and hard floors don’t get along…  so, my weapon of choice, my Nikon, is currently in need of some TLC from an expert.  Anyways, Derek is 19 months old now… so we figured it’s time for those 18 month pics.  So, I borrowed John Mark’s camera and headed to the park on Thursday.  I am pretty happy with some of them… these are just a couple to tide over all those Grammies and Grans out there.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

I have been trying to focus on how God provides for us this month, so that’s why I have chosen these first two verses.  Sometimes, as we work on our budget and adjust to the changes we go through, we hit some financially rough times.   But it’s also encouraging to know that God also meets our spiritual needs and not just our physical ones.

My first verse is:

Philippians 4:19

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

So twice a month (the 15th and the last day of the month), post a new verse and add to your spiral card holder.  By the end of the year we’ll have 24 new verses committed to memory.  I’m a little late already…I love what Jennifer says about not being legalistic about it!  Better late than never!    And the accountability is GREAT.

Using Jenn’s words:

I encourage those of you who are participating to choose a short, one-verse Scripture this first time (unless you are proficient at Scripture memory). I also want to tell you to come here and record a new Scripture every time, even if you’ve not memorized the one before. This will help you to stay consistent, and you can work on all the Scriptures you’ve chosen. Just keep doing the thing and God will bless your efforts to be in His Word.

Now let’s hear your Scriptures! Let us know which translation you’ve chosen as well.

I feel very strongly that my first and most important ministry is our family.  So my biggest challenge right now is trying to be the mom and wife that God wants me to be (as it is for most moms, right?).  Only it’s so very different for me right now, because I am in a foreign culture where I am still learning the language and trying to figure out how to communicate our needs and wants on a daily basis.  Here are my prayer requests:

1.  In the midst of frustrations and figuring out how to manage my home on a daily basis, I want my first priority to be steadfast–raise our boys in such a way that they feel secure in our love and in God’s love for them, and that they witness our contagious love for Christ and can’t help but want to be a part of His growing kingdom.

2.  Learning Spanish (and being committed to learning Spanish while being a Mom at the same time).  Because of my personality, I need to have conversations with others on a regular basis that have more depth than just talking about the casual things of life.  If not, then I feel the life being sucked out of me.  For real.  I’ve been told that I need to give myself at least 2 years here, before I can get to that level of communication.  Man, that’s a long time!  I know it will go fast, but it is SO hard day-to-day.

3.  Staying healthy–body, mind, and spirit.  It is miraculous how the Lord brought me out of depression to where I am now, in such a short amount of time.  At the same time, Wes and I are keenly aware of the red flags and symptoms to look out for.   We need discernment when tough times appear and we are asking the question, “Is this a sign of depression or is this normal for adjusting to a new culture?”  (We are not paranoid about this, so no worries.)

4.  Choosing a school for Jakob.  Public school here is not an option, and we feel it’s best for our kids to go to a private school.  Because of the growing population, it is very difficult to ensure enrollment into many of the schools, so to guarantee a spot your best bet is to start them into the pre-school program offered by the school.  The cost and the location of the schools is also a big challenge.  The prices typically start around $300 per month, plus the enrollment fees.  The school year here starts in March (Jake turns 4 in March) and goes to mid-December (they are on summer break here right now).

Jake: Daddy! Wake up… is it daytime yet?
Me: Jake, yes, it’s daytime.  Today is Christmas!
Jake: No it’s not.
Me: Sure it is… why do you say that?
Jake: There’s no snow.  Where’s all the snow?

So, after a little explaining about how it doesn’t always snow at Christmas and a short lived but seriously disappointed Jake, our first Christmas in Lima was off to a roaring start.  Well… actually, per tradition in Latin America, our Christmas actually started the night before.  You see, the custom here is that the big deal happens on Christmas Eve.  Everybody stays up late and at midnight the festivities max out.  That’s when you open presents here… if the kids couldn’t stay awake that late, then you wake them up to open presents and generally join in the craziness.  Here lots of people have a Christmas tree, but just as common is a nativity scene.   It’s pretty common to wait until midnight to put the baby Jesus in the manger.  There are a lot of particular traditions about Christmas here that we find interesting but we pretty much decided to just have a normal American style Christmas.  Except for one major part that just can’t be ignored… the fireworks.  Yep, apparently somewhere between waking up kids and plopping the little golden fleeced porcelain baby Jesus in the little manger filled with easter grass every single person in Lima goes outside, or maybe on the roof, and lights off industrial grade fireworks.  No joke… Industrial. Grade.  Think 4th of July show in your town from every single block in a city of 8.5 million people.  Crazy.  Here’s a short video of the view from our rooftop… be sure and turn your volume all the way up to get closer to the real effect… it was LOUD.

Lima Christmas 2009 from theyoakums on Vimeo.

Ok, so after that settled down we went to bed and got on with our normally scheduled Christmas.  We really missed our families but we had a really good and relaxing day with just the four of us.  We just opened presents first thing and then Stacy fixed us some tasty french toast and then ate leftovers from our Christmas Eve lunch we had with our team the day before.  This was really the first Christmas that Jake could really appreciate and our first time to deal with things like Santa Claus.  Well, he’d been counting down the days and was so excited.  He got his first bike… a pretty awesome little blue bike that was way overpriced and then a little $5 siren attached to handle bars… that sealed the deal right there.  He was stoked.  Not to be outdone by big brother, Derek got a little tricycle.  The usual for two little boys topped off the Christmas loot… balls, toy trains, dinosaurs, cars with race tracks… stuff like that.  Sometimes it’s really great having two little boys… ok, pretty much always.

Jake with a new for real deal digital camera, just like Dad.

It’s really been great though… We realized in hind sight that we had sold off too many of their toys before leaving the country and they’ve been missing them.  The last couple of days have been nice… a lot less whining to watch TV and a lot more of happily playing like a 3 year old should.  All in all, it was a great Christmas… couldn’t have been much better without having all of our family with us.