Journey, an update from Rachelle Sperling 12-23-06

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: “The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with Us." Matthew 1:22-23

Every year I marvel at the Christmas story. God became man. More than that, God became a helpless baby, dependant on His own creation to care for His needs, to feed and cloth him.

I recently read the comments of another missionary musing over the humility involved in language learning. We go back to being like a small child, unable to communicate what we want to say. We have this message, which is life itself, and we are unable to share it with others. We wait and we study the language and we are humbled by our mistakes and frustrated by our weaknesses as we long for the day we can share the message of Hope with the people around us.

Now think about the WORD of God, born in that manager. He was born to bring us the message of salvation. He was born to teach us the truth about God’s love. But the Word had to wait. In the moment of His birth he couldn’t speak the message we needed to hear, he could only coo and cry. He had to grow up. He had to learn to speak first. He had to grow into a man. He had to wait for the Father’s perfect timing. In humility He lived among us until it was time for Him to share the message He had been born to bring.

Immanuel – What a beautiful message.
May you be amazed this Christmas at the sacrifice our Lord made to bring us salvation.
May you worship Him for His goodness. May you be enfolded within His love.

Apassionata

This afternoon I got a chance to go with some friends to a really interesting horse presentation. There were groups of professional riders, olympiads and champions who came together to present the history of Hungary on horseback. The show was very interesting and the riding was spectacular.

This was an "Extra" program by Apassionata created especially for Hungary. Generally the Apassionata show covers horse breeds and styles of riding from around the world. I really enjoyed this "Hungarian horseback-riding cultural Christmas gala."

You can see the English website about their general program at:

http://www.apassionata.eu/HOMMAGE/english/index.html

You can see the photos about the Hungarian program with Hungarian text at: http://www.apassionata.atw.hu/ and then click the GALÉRIA link for more photos.

Almost Christmastime

and It's Cold Outside!

After weeks of wonderfully mild weather, it turned cold overnight. No snow, but lots of fog. It makes me feel like I'm back in Shafter where I grew up. Of course the cold came the evening that I had free to go the Christmas market.

My friend Tracey and I bundled up and headed out braving the chilly temperatures. It was fun and this year they have a display of small nativity scenes that I really enjoyed. It was late in the evening (the only time we had available) but about half the booths were still open and we enjoyed the kolbász (sausage) and kürtös kalács (a sweet bread made over an open fire). I hope that you are making holiday memories with your friends and family!

Cats and Christmas Continued

Finn still loves the tree and climbs it whenever I'm on the phone or busy with something that doesn't involve giving him my full attention. I changed the type of lights on the tree so at least now he only tries to eat the branches and I don't have to worry about him chomping on light bulbs. (The small LED bulbs never got hot and were perfectly bite sized. The new ones are too large to munch and get warm enough to deter his interest).

Gus is still being so good in regard to completely respecting all of my decorations. It gives me hope for Finn.

Hey, if anyone tells you that citrus keeps cats away because they don't like the smell I wouldn't believe it. Finn chews on the dried orange peels and Gus lays right next to the fresh oranges. Oh well, it was worth a try.

I am planning on taking the tree down before I leave. I can't imagine what it would look like if I left Finn alone with it for a couple of weeks. :) Do you have any pets and Christmas stories?

Journey, an update 12-11-06

Paul replied, "Short time or long - I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains." Acts 26:29
Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar." Acts 26:32

I read these verses the other day and I started thinking about all I had recently read in Acts and Paul's response to his trials. Paul had been in prison for years without being formally charged. He could have bribed his way out, but he didn't. I wonder if he got discouraged, if he ever questioned what God was doing, leaving him in prison when he could have been set free. God's plan included serving while in chains. I imagine that Paul would have rather been serving in freedom. The same day I read these verses in Acts I got an e-mail with the following quote.

"Since the Lord often does the unexpected in our lives it is easy to think of him as being undependable instead of uncontrollable. Just because he doesn't finish our plans our way doesn't mean that he can't finish his plan his way." Roy Wisner

Sometimes I wonder about God's plan. It doesn't always seem to make sense to me because it isn't the way I would do it. But God is in control and He will finish His work in and through me. It is comforting to know that when God does the unexpected and takes me down unknown paths that He has the end in sight and that He knows exactly what He is doing.

Cats and Christmas Trees

It has been a very long time since I had a young cat at Christmas and to be honest I’ve never had a cat that was particularly interested in the Christmas tree. I usually put the soft ornaments on the bottom of the tree and they would play with those but this year I have an eater and a climber! In fact, Finn could care less about the ornaments but He loves to climb the tree, eat the branches and chew on the lights.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

Cute, cuddly and Christmas tree destroyer all in one.

Maybe he’ll grow out of it by next year, you think?

BTW - Gus is a perfect angel as far as the tree in concerned. Amazing!

What is Success?

This morning I was praying for several people that are going through tough times. I realized that I was running late for school and I started getting ready while continuing to pray. Then I looked in the mirror as I was putting on my mascara and realized that I was crying. (One thing you have to know about me is that I often cry when I pray. Prayer is a beautiful thing where all of my emotion can be released before the throne of grace because I know that God hears and He cares.)

Sometimes I get so involved in life and in my routine that the hurts, the burdens, the frustrations just get tucked away where I don’t see them. Kind of like applying mascara without first seeing the tears. I don’t want to miss the reality for the routine or choose the safer path to avoid the hard things.

And one of the hardest things about where I am at the moment in living in Hungary and learning a new language is that I am making more mistakes. The more you take a step forward and try, the more you make mistakes and fail. I’ve always been a perfectionist and honestly I’ve spent a good portion of my life avoiding situations where I did not think I would excel at doing what was expected. If you don’t try, you can’t fail. It was far safer to only try things that I had a good chance of succeeding in.

But one of my favorite quotes by CS Lewis reflects that God isn’t safe, but He is good. God asks us to do things that aren’t safe or comfortable or easy. We might not succeed in men’s eyes, but if we are obedient, then we succeed in God’s eyes. And that is the success that matters.

Journey, an update 11-30-06

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. Psalm 116:7

Last week was Thanksgiving and I spent some time counting my blessings. Sometimes in the midst of struggles, challenges and changes it is easier to count trials and situations of trouble than it is to remember all of the blessings of the Lord. But I have been abundantly blessed and I am so thankful to God for His faithfulness to me, for His kindness, His mercy, His grace, His patience, His love....

Last Wednesday I was getting ready for Thanksgiving. After a miscommunication getting home from school I arrived home a little tired from school and language communication misunderstandings. I started bread dough for the Thanksgiving rolls and sat down at my computer. My computer shut down and told me Windows was recovering from a serious error. Not words I particularly wanted to see. I read the windows help on the error message and started to work on fixing it. In the meantime I was still getting up to work on the various stages of the bread. One batch had especially active yeast and overflowed it's bowl. Bread dough is sticky, no fun to clean up. In between running from the kitchen to the computer Gus got sick, twice.

Then I got the computer working again (after three more shut down errors) and got the bread in the oven, started the carrots and noticed that the kitchen rug was all wet. This led to the discovery that the water heater in the kitchen had broken and was standing in a cupboard full of water. God was faithful to protect me as I worked to get the heater unplugged without electrocuting myself. I was standing at my kitchen sink - water to the kitchen finally shut off, 12:30 am now, and thinking about how Thanksgiving day had arrived.

I wasn't feeling particularly thankful at the moment. I was thinking of all the things that have broken and gone wrong since I moved into this apartment. (The list is amazingly long). Then I started thinking about the timing of each one and how it often seems strategic that things happen when they do. That is the biggest reason that I ask for prayer for peace and protection in my home. I don't believe in coincidence. Trials come and they often come at times when I am trying to focus on something else, like a ministry need or God's goodness, etc. I need the full armor of God and His powerful presence not only in my life but surrounding me in my home. God has protected me from many, many dangerous situations this past year. I am so thankful for His protection. It was a reminder to me as I entered into Thanksgiving day that I need to choose to look at all that God is doing and be thankful rather than just focusing on the frustration of the moment.

God has truly been good to me and it is a message of rest for my soul even in the midst of challenges.