Change. Miracles. Provision.

I don't even know how to begin this blog post. If you follow me on social media, you probably will have already heard / read all of this. But this is the latest in the story of my life. 

On May 4th (NOT May 5th), I will be donating a kidney to my Mom. This is something that has been in the works for years. I started getting tests done in 2015, and I was cleared for everything to happen last Summer. But as you know, I went to Guatemala last Summer, because that is not when God wanted Mom to get her kidney. God wanted her to get her kidney now. In just about two weeks. In May of 2017. After I have finished my undergraduate degree. 

That's what is also crazy. Today I write my last exam of my undergrad. I cannot even believe it. It feels like just yesterday I started at Trent University, but it was almost four years ago now. So weird. 

Anyway, so 2017 is just insane. At the youth New Years Eve Eve all nighter back in 2016, we came up with words that we felt would define our 2017 year. So many students reflected that 2016 was a terrible year for them, and they proclaimed that 2017 would be better. I thought about this for awhile, and I came up with three words that I wanted to define and claim for my year. 

Change. 

Miracles. 

Provision. 

Right away in January, everything changed for me. At the beginning of my fourth year, I got this awesome job as the executive assistant of the student association. I loved this job; I got to spend time every day with my best friend, do work that was totally up my alley, and participate in tons of cool event planning. Plus admin stuff, cleaning, organizing, leading, customer service, etc. It was awesome. Then, in January, it was taken from me. With no warning. I was fired from a job that I loved. I was fired by a man who spread lies about me, and who treated others so unfairly. It was really hard. It was a big change. Also in January, I experienced the death of a friend that I had known well in high school. It was an incredibly tough thing to go through. So many emotions and so many wrestling matches with God. There was so much change, so much happening that was not part of anyone's plans. Things that were in place for me, things that I had planned and expected, all of a sudden weren't there anymore. Especially with work. I had planned and expected to have that income for the rest of the school year, and all of a sudden it was gone. 

Anyway, the months after that, I was still seeing change. But I also began to see miracles and provision. All three of these words (Change, Miracles & Provision) have already defined this year and it's only April. 

I mentioned some big changes in regards to school and friends, but another change for me so far, is style of surgery that I will be having for the kidney transplant. This change was made due to a variety of reasons, but ultimately it was God who made this change for me. I am going to be having laparoscopic surgery, which is not what I wanted all along. But God knows what is best for me, and that is what is happening. Another big change. 

And miracles. It is a miracle that my Mom and I are an exact match so that I can donate a kidney. We are an exact match down to our antibodies. That does not happen. That is unheard of. But it's true. And it's all because of God. There have been so many tiny miracles along the way, too. We are a match and we have been preparing for surgery for years, but my Mom has not needed to go on dialysis once. That is a miracle. She will get a brand new healthy kidney, without ever having to experience the pain and discomfort of dialysis. That is a miracle, and a direct answer to prayer. 

And provision. God has been providing for me ever since I lost my job. I did not expect to have no income these months leading to surgery. I have bills to pay. I can't guarantee what I can do post-opt. I know I won't really be able to work a normal job; yet I some how have to pay for school. But God has been providing. I nannied for a family in 2015, and in January they asked me to start coming regularly to babysit. This has been God's way of providing me with some money to get by, to pay those bills, and to save a little for school. It's been tough, but He has provided. And on top of my own things, God has been providing for our family financially. There has already been people who have blessed us with some money to help us with this next season we are about to go through. My Mom will not be working, and my Dad will not be working to the same capacity as he would like, either. 

And this is all just in past tense. This year is really only just starting. There is going to be more changes; I am graduating university, I am going to teacher's college, I am losing a working organ. That's a lot of changes in one year. We also are having the surgery soon; so more miracles will be coming in that regard too. I believe it. I believe we will heal quickly, and God will give us strength. Our story will be full of God's glory and all for His glory. And God will continue to provide and give us provision. I know that for me, a job will come. I know that some how, we will still be able to pay our bills and eat three meals a day, even when we won't be working. 

I know all this, because He has already shown us what He can do. We will call on the miracles that He has already done. We will remember those, and claim them for ourselves again and again. We know changes will come, but He will be with us through them. And I know He will provide financially, because He cares for the birds of the air and the flowers in the ground, so He will care for us too. 

We are ready for anything, 
In omnia paratus 

I have been blogging some real & raw, unstructured & unplanned thoughts over on another blog. That is where I have been writing day to day as I go through this year, and where I will be writing about this next season. If you so wish to read these, feel free to send me a private message and I can send you a link. 

Quilting Adventure

It's been a hot minute since I have posted on this blog. But today I wanted to share with you something really special that I have been working on.

You may or may not have already noticed that over the last couple of months, I was working on a quilting project. I finished this project at the end of February but I only now just completed all of my blog posts (journal entries!) from the whole experience.

A little back story as to why I decided to start this project. Being in my fourth year at Trent University in the Teacher Education Stream Program, I have had to take a class called Learning Styles. This class has been instrumental in helping me become a better future teacher; giving me lots of experience through my Grade 3 placement, opportunities to collaborate with my peers, administer my own self-directed learning project and gain knowledge of strategies and techniques for working with children.

The self-directed learning project was completely up to me. I was told to choose something I want to learn, go out and learn it - however I want and in whatever way I wanted - and then track my learning, so that in the end I can present this to a class of my peers. I was also instructed to create my own rubric / marking scheme for the project. When I was given this assignment, I was at a loss for what to do. There were so many things I wanted to learn!

At the time, I was working as an executive assistant for the student association at my school. While I was in the office one day, it dawned on me that I was working with a friend who owns her own business called Quilter's Workshop and even teaches sewing classes. I was so excited thinking about making a baby quilt for this project, so I asked her if she would be willing to work with me on this and she said yes!

I had such a fun time learning and documenting all the steps to making a baby quilt. I started on Pinterest, and ended up with a quilt that is so me. I got to choose the fabrics and the design and even the size. I used a visual chart I found on Pinterest to decide on the kind of quilt, and I ended up going with a 'baby crib' size one. It is 36 x 52" and perfectly imperfect.

If you would like to read about my journey, which is filled with pictures, you can find it over on the page called 'Quilting Adventure'!! I put my whole heart into this project, and it's a total reflection of me. I love the vintage look, the tiny imperfections, and the amount of effort and time spent on it that brought me closer to my sweet friend.

Today I did a little photoshoot with it though, as the lighting was just perfect in my parent's bedroom. That being said, I think I already know what colours and patterns I will be doing for my baby's nursery one day! hehe

So there you have it. If you want to learn something new, I want to encourage you to do whatever it takes. I knew that if I tried to teach myself something all on my own, whether I used YouTube or not, I wouldn't have been able to produce something as wonderful and beautiful as I did with a teacher. If you want to learn something specific, I suggest finding someone who is an expert in that area, and spending time with them. And document your journey like I did! Having to document, while also having a teacher, held me accountable and forced me to actually do the work. And I'm so glad for it.

In omnia paratus

Ministry in Guatemala

Ministry in the Schools 

Hector and Ruth Aragon are two PAOC global workers stationed in Guatemala. Hector is from Guatemala and was our translator for the duration of our trip. Ruth made breakfast, lunch and dinner for us most days - which is quite the feat. Everything tasted delicious! We all quickly fell in love with these two as they were extremely kind, generous, funny and passionate about Jesus. 

ERDO which is the humanitarian agency of the PAOC (Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada), has a program called ChildCARE Plus, and in Guatemala this program is overseen by Hector and Ruth. 

While we were in Guatemala, we were doing presentations in multiple schools a day. Each presentation started with the song Te Amo by Israel Houghton  and then moved into a memory verse game, a matching game, a powerful skit similar to this - we changed and adapted the skit for kids, and added words in Spanish from the game we played right before. After the skit we moved to an object lesson told through a testimony, and finally we ended with the song How Great is Our God played by Pastor Bobby on guitar, while we did sign language actions. 

The presentations went so smoothly each day, as Hector was translating for us the entire time. Hector is so animated and entertaining, so the children hung onto every word that he said. 

When we pulled up to each school, at first you wouldn't even know it was a school. We would be on a street and open a door that was just off the street and inside would be this whole other world. It amazed me! A lot of times there was a huge court yard with the classrooms and the rest of the school in buildings all around the yard. Other times you would walk in through the door and be in a small area that was open to the sky, look up, and see multiple balconies that were all different levels of classrooms. None of them looked the same, but they all had hundreds of smiling little faces that wanted to hug us. 

Every time we would walk into a new school, whether that was the courtyard, a specific room we were led to, or a different area, there would be children around! I remember at almost every school with children in grade 1-5, they wanted our autographs in their notebooks. This was so adorable but strange for all of us. We weren't anyone special, we aren't famous and we weren't there for that reason. But when we took the time to tell them our names, ask them what theirs was, and write in their notebook, it meant so much to them. 

Our presentations were super fun to do with the kids. For Te Amo we would go into the audience and dance with them and twirl them around - sometimes they were super shy and ran away from us while laughing, and sometimes they would absolutely love it and hold our hands the whole time. For the object lesson, we used this experiment to demonstrate how Jesus took away all of our sins and made us clean again. We used iodine to make the 'dirty' water which represented sin, we used regular water to represent us, and we used bleach to represent Jesus. It was so cool to hear their gasps and reactions to when 'Jesus' took away all the 'sin' (the bleach made the iodine totally disappear and the water turn totally clear). At certain schools, if the students were in high school (there were some schools that would have students in Grades 1-6 in the morning and then high school students in the afternoon), we had members of our team share their testimonies instead of playing the game. 

The best though was when we got to have time to connect with kids after. Even though we knew little Spanish, we were still able to communicate with each child. All it took was a smile, a high five, a fist bump, or a hug. Hugs were the best!!! After each presentation there were always so many kids that would come up to us as we got off stage and just wanted to hug us. Now just imagine standing there and having a huge group of children all around, and all they want to do is hug you. My heart was exploding and melting all at the same time.

There was one school that we went to that had a whole open court yard and over 600 children. After we did our presentations, we spent so much time there playing with the kids. In Guatemala there is a handshake that is known by everyone - a side high five that slides out and then you fist bump - so once I figured that out, I was in. Especially with all the boys! haha While we were at this school, I went up to this group of boys that were leaning against the wall and I did the handshake with them all, and just kept going up and down the line of them. They were loving it so much, giggling and getting more of their friends to come over to our group. It was so much fun. Then finally I said we should play a game, and the first thing we came up with was tag.

These boys chased me around for over half an hour - I would pretend not to notice this whole huge group of them behind me, and just walk casually. Then, I would turn around quickly with my arms wide and my smile huge and they would all run away, screaming and laughing, in a million different directions. We played this game for so long until we were all really tired, and I showed them how I just needed to sit and rest because I was super hot. Then they offered me water and my heart just melted.

These children have nothing - compared to our culture where we have literally everything and often more than we could ever need. These kids have next to nothing, and still they were so generous and wanted to give me water, water from the well that was only for those children at school. I had my own water bottle, but it just opened my eyes to what it really means to be generous and to give to others. 

We got to visit 2-4 schools (or do 2-4 presentations) per day while we were in Guatemala and only one of them was a ChildCARE Plus school. We had such a unique opportunity going into these public schools and sharing with them about Jesus. In Canada, that is literally unheard of, so it still blows my mind that we were able to go and do that. 

At the CCP school, all of the children had prepared special dances for us to enjoy! Our whole team was in tears as we watched them all preform - One song was Nothing is Impossible by Planetshakers done totally in English - we all started bawling.  The second song was in Spanish, but we all knew this song when we were children and so it just made us cry & smile with pure joy on our faces. Listening to it again makes me cry just like we did the first time we saw it. The kids also did a traditional Guatemalan dance where they each grabbed one of our team members and we were their partner for the dance. We joined hands & then held hands while we went through a tunnel of other partners holding hands. So much fun!!!! 

The same day we visited the CCP school, we also got to visit a trade school (William Cornelius) that Hector & Ruth helped facilitate the building of. They had a dream for young people that graduated high school in Guatemala, to have the chance to learn a trade so that they could use their skills to get a job to support their future families. This school took 10 years to build and over 75 work teams from Canada. The facility is absolutely beautiful and it was such a cool space to do our presentation in! The teenagers and young adults at this school are also sponsored by Canadians to go to this school. 

After we went to the last school and did our very last presentation, Hector introduced us to a gentleman named Jorge. Jorge wanted to bless our team with these handmade bracelets because he was so grateful for Canadians like us. His son is being sponsored by someone in Canada to go to the William Cornelius trade school. This dad was so thankful for how God had blessed him, that he wanted to give back the little that he had, to us. It was powerful, this image of giving that we were shown through this man. He had nothing, he could not even send his own son to school, but God provided for him & his son through a sponsorship, and all he wanted to do was give back anything he could. He gave all he had, these bracelets that he normally would sell for a little bit of money. He didn't want any money for them, he just wanted to give them to us because he was so thankful for Canadians. 

Working in the schools and spending time with all those children was an experience I will never forget and that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. 

This post has taken me weeks to write, and there's still so much more. Be on the look out for the next post which will be Ministry in Guatemala Part 2. 

In omnia paratus