The Buddy System

No, I am not just going to be talking about Lars' need for organization and order at Camp Hope.  I want to talk about what it means to be a buddy for one another, and the importance of interdependence. 

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach, if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."-Romans 12: 4-7

Many humans, including myself, have a pretty intense independent streak.  Personally, I hate appearing weak in any way.  I want to be seen as a strong, independent woman.  However, it is a mistake of mine and of others to view interdependence as weakness.  In reality, interdependence shows an allowance of trust, and in the end, that will make you stronger, because you will make up a unified.  It is a strength to be able to allow yourself to lean on another person, because it has the potential to backfire.  Sin causes conflict, dishonesty, distrust, malice, and pain in relationships.  It only takes one seed to build up weeds that could choke a healthy relationship.  That is the weakness of humans.  When we are letting that one seed consume our lives and effect our purpose, we are losing sight of fellowship and the reason God has blessed us with interdependence.    

The Bible is filled with pairs, especially in the New Testament when it comes to people spreading the church.  How many times did we hear about Peter, James, and John kicking it together?  My Bible class is going through the book of Acts, and I am just blown away by how many times people are in pairs.  Paul and Barnabas go off as Missionaries to Cyprus.  Peter and John traveling together to help start the church by performing miracles.  They were accountability partners.  The relationship between the disciples and deacons was also very interdependent.  The disciples found it hard to help serve everyone and their God when the church started rapidly growing.  They allowed themselves to be humbled, and appointed deacons for help.

The only person who could truly make an impact by himself without depending on others was Jesus Christ.  Even He though, chose to have 12 companions to help him through his mission field.  Jesus was, is, and ever will be the most powerful man to have lived, but still relied on his friends for support during his hardest times.  That is something that we should model.  No one is above help and support.  No one is alone.  No one should have the power to judge and reject another group, especially if that group has the same goal. 

In closing, a prayer:  Dear Lord, I am weak here by myself.  My heart turns to sin and is filled with pride.  Please give me the strength to fully rely on my faculty for help. Let us all rely on each other and stand as unified body through you and for you.  Amen.


In other news, I am participating in a dodgeball tournament today at school.  I am very nervous, but excited to be playing in it.  My team is definitely the underdog.  We are the youngest, and I am the only team with a female as the teacher representative.  I pray that we all have fun though!  In the end, that is all that really matters!

Volleyball, Locals, and Dancing in the Rain

This past week has been filled with some great moments.  It has truly been blessed. 

One big highlight:  Volleyball.
I played volleyball three times this weekend!  I played with volleyball with some people from the church for indoor and outdoor volleyball, and I got to play 2 v 2 indoor with some of the faculty members.  I tell you, I am grinning right now just thinking about all of the fun I have had playing this week.  Volleyball is by far and away my favorite sport to play, and it has been nothing short of a blessing to be able to play competitively here.  God has opened a door for physical activity.  Volleyball is nothing short of a stress reliever, and I am beyond ecstatic to be able to be playing it.

Another big highlight:  Interaction with locals
My house is in a great location.  It is right next to a church.  This church has an active congregation, and they use their parking lot as a place to play sports.  This has led to my roommates and I playing volleyball with some of the local people.  Because of this, we were invited to attend their church on Sunday.  Their service was all in Dutch, but we had a translator.  Although he was sick, he was able to help deliver the message on fear and how we should rise about it.  I sang "My Redeemer Lives" in Dutch, and am starting to be able to pick out some words in Dutch.
The locals at this church are amazing!  I was able to make contact with two people I had met previously during an outing to a beach area.  God has put them into our lives to help us with the transition of living here.  They are truly a gift from God, and I very much look forward to strengthening that relationship with that church and its members.

Another highlight:  Suriname orchestra concerts. 
Think about every orchestra concert you have ever been to.  Did you just feel a little tired?  I appreciate orchestra concerts, but I know that for some people, the phrase itself makes you want to go nap in a corner.  Well, Suriname orchestra concerts are certainly not the same.  They consist of "celebrity" performers from Holland, a couple of well-placed confetti cannons, a very entertaining Bollywood-esque performer with a tendency to swivel his hips with one hand raised, and music that had you wanting to dance.  I felt huge pride for Suriname during this concert.  What made this concert perfect, was the typical Suriname rain that accompanied it, and the lack of umbrellas from everyone in our group.  Somehow, whenever it starts raining, you just kind of surrender to the fact that you are going to get wet and just stop caring and dance.

As you can see, this week has been pretty great.  In addition to this, we also had praise night, awesome Bible studies, and fried chicken.  Another perk was a gift from America.  One of the teachers went to a wedding back in America, and he brought back things for the faculty that they wanted.  The practical side of me should have said Flaxseed Oil and Fishoil vitamins, but the childish side of me won out, and I was presented on Monday with several rolls of Sweetarts.  I am very, very thankful.

Please continue to pray for the faculty and students at my school!  A lot of the teachers are very much looking forward to Christmas break and time spent with family!

The Greatest Weapon: Love

Quick update before I get to the point of my blog title:

October has just flown by!  This could be because we have had several weeks in a row that have not lasted five whole school days.  Either way, this has probably been the shortest month on record.  During this time I ran another 5K.  This one was for Breast Cancer, and I was able to run it in its entirety.  I have set a new goal to run at least 50k by Christmas, not at one time, but as a whole.  That is about 30 miles.  I know it might seem easy for some, but I was not even able to run 1 mile less than a year ago.  So it is kind of a big deal.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to play volleyball with my neighbors.  So far, it has been the most exposure I have had to the Dutch language.  I learned the words for "out" and "line" enough so I could argue my point in English or Dutch.  One additional thing that I learned was that my name does not really work with Dutch phonetics, or at least with Surinamers.  When they asked for my name, I told them Anne.  After numerous failed attempts to correctly say the first vowel sound, (Ian), they asked me if I had any other names.  I gave them my last name, and they were able to pronounce that without a problem, which is funny because if you say my last name, you are essentially greeting me. Anyways, I hope to play more volleyball with them in the future!

Our school is going through the process for accreditation.  We are in the final steps and are quickly preparing for the arrival of the committee to observe us.  This whole experience has taught me just how much additional work teachers need to do for their classroom to make everything run smoothly.  Keep praying that all the work will be able to get done!

Now on to the title.
During my time with God I have spent time reflecting on relationships and how to deal with conflict.  There are many relationships in life that we have.  We have relationships with students, with coworkers, with friends, with family, and with neighbors.  Sometimes these relationships go through a rough patch.  That is life, we are all human, and we are all sinners. 

One of the greatest gifts and weapons that we have to combat sin and doubt is love.  Think about it; we are going to heaven because of love.  It was the greatest weapon God could use to save us.  1 Corinthians 13 stresses love's importance even more by stating that without love, great physical amounts of power and abilities are absolutely nothing. 

Now I am not trying to go all hippie with this love and peace talk, but I think I often just forget that this is what I should be fighting sin with.  The Bible says to love your enemies, turn the other cheek, and do not judge.  I struggle with these three things very much.  It is human instinct and our sinful nature to try and fight back and hurt someone who has hurt us.  In honesty, it is one of the places my mind goes.  "You caused me pain?  Well now I am going to cause you pain!"

That is wrong!  If Jesus had thought that way, he would have reigned down a bunch of hurt on everyone who had beaten him and tried to kill him.  Instead, he chose to love his enemies and die for them.  If we could have a Christ-like attitude toward others, maybe we wouldn't have so much disagreement. 1 Thessalonians states that we should "Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always be kind to each other and to everyone else.  Be joyful always, and pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances."

This has been my motto for the past week.  In fact, I made it my class memory verse.  I love all my relationships.  It is an actual physical effort sometimes to get past conflict or wrongs that have been inflicted on me, but God gave me love to fight sin.   I am glad for that gift, and for that weapon.  If anyone reads this, I hope that you will try and fight sin with love this week.  To me, that will show your true strength.  Pray continually to God.  God is good!