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You Might Not Prosper….And Other Surprises From Context

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On January 14, 2016

In Other

If I want to be blessed, I need to pray for Israel, right?



What about the verse “by His stripes we are healed?”  Doesn’t that mean physical healing?  



Won’t God grant us physical healing when we take communion?

These are just a few of the questions that have come up this week as Gil has been teaching Bible Study Methods in our pastoral training program.  We are excited because we have a new class of 14 students this year–all who are already involved in ministry!  Gil is teaching them, Look carefully at what the verse is actually saying.  Consider the cultural implications.  And most importantly, Context, Context, Context!  

Then yesterday, I was reading an excellent post called God May Not Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life.  The comment section disturbed me, as commenter after commenter used Jeremiah 29:11 as proof that God does, indeed, promise us a wonderful life.

Excuse me?  I know that the Christian community in general has an infatuation with Jeremiah 29:11, as it’s probably the most printed verse on Christian greeting cards and refrigerator magnets.  I wonder if those who have made Jeremiah 29:11 their life verse have happened to read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29.  For example, verses 17-18:

This is what the Lord Almighty says:  ‘I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.  I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror.'”  

Hmmm.  I’d like to see someone make that their life verse.  Like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten just doesn’t look nearly so good on a coffee cup as plans to give you a hope and a future.  As Gil always tells his students, it’s all about Context, Context, Context!   

I’m not going to get into what this passage really does mean, because that’s not my point today.  Suffice it to say that there definitely are applications in Jeremiah 29 for our lives today, but I’m confident God has promised you a wonderful life isn’t one of them.  The truth is that just about all of us can use a bit more of Bible Study Methods in our lives, whether we live in Tanzania or America.

If you are a parent, this book is a fantastic place to start.  Gil is taking our kids through this great book, but I think that many Moms and Dads will benefit from it too. (I know I am!)

When Life Feels Like Drudgery

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On January 11, 2016

In Other

Some days, it’s hard to get going in the morning when I am not looking forward to anything I have to do that day.  Drudgery, I think to myself.  

Maybe it’s the weather these days.  I feel like a sticky, slimy slug most of the time.  Whoever invented the word sluggish must have lived in Dar es Salaam in January.

Maybe it’s because the particular set of tasks assigned to me right now are not really my first choice in life.  I am in currently in charge of slogging through the paperwork to process our mission personnel’s visas.  On our ministry team, I am responsible for accounting and marketing.  Both of which are not my strengths, and almost not even my weaknesses.

Of course, just trying to live in a developing country doesn’t help.  It can take half a day to find the right-size light bulb.  The electricity doesn’t always work.  The roads don’t always work.  The water doesn’t always work.  All my best laid plans for productivity often go to waste.

Some days, I just feel so tired.  I give up.  You win, World.  Congratulations.  Just let me lie on the floor in peace.

But I do get up.

This I call to mind:  Faithfulness in drudgery is what faithfulness is all about.  Most of life is drudgery, isn’t it?  The messes, the commute, the weeds that keep growing, the bellies that need feeding, the clothes that need washing.

But the messes and the crying children and the electricity problems are just the individual puzzle pieces.  Alone, they seem endless and pointless.  But when I step back and give myself perspective, I remind myself that the visa applications and the search for working copy machines are part of a wider, much more glorious picture of what God is using us to do in Tanzania.  When I step back, I see that the cooking and the homework and the messes are part of the much more glorious picture of what God is doing in our family.

Every trudging step has meaning.

There will be an end, and there always is a point.

Wherever you are, be all there.  Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. (Jim Elliot)

This life is the will of God for me right now.  So here’s to living to the hilt.

And Now She’s Ten.

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On January 9, 2016

In Other

This girl……this girl made me a Mommy.  And now she’s blessed us with her sunshine for 10 years.  

Ten is a great age.  Self-doubt hasn’t hit her yet; she believes she can do anything without self-consciousness.  Her friends are the same; they love each other and cheer for each other without competition.  She loves her siblings, she loves sports and reading and crafts and trying out just about anything.  She can actually help me in the kitchen without being a liability.  She is a peace-maker and an includer.  She still holds my hand.  It’s pretty amazing that I get the privilege of being her mom.  

Photo credit for both of the above:  Rebecca Laarman

We celebrated yesterday with her friends.  They made their own picture frames, their own pizza, and their own ice cream sundaes.  (Can you tell Grace is all about making things?)  They made a huge noise and a huge mess but it was a party to remember.  But I think my favorite part was when a Korean friend brought an entire plate of sushi rolls and all the girls scarfed them down.  True Third-Culture Kids.  

Sometimes Heaven Looks Like This…But Just a Little Bit

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On January 3, 2016

In Other

The week after Christmas is probably our favorite week of
the year. 

Just about the time when we can’t stand the heat and
humidity any longer, we head to the mountains of Lushoto with our best
friends.  It’s tradition now; we’ve done
it almost every year we’ve lived in Tanzania. 

There’s clean, cool air, long, deep conversations, obsessive
board game-playing, soccer, wiffle ball, Kindle reading, and no responsibilities
of cooking and cleaning.  The kids play
all day together outdoors, creating imaginary worlds and new games and getting
fabulously dirty. 

It’s a little piece of heaven.  Except, this year we were reminded that it’s
not actually Heaven, when one of the teens came down with Typhoid, and one family’s
room was robbed of their valuables on New Year’s Eve.  So we all left a little bit sad, because even
when we try to set up the Perfect Week, and even when we all really do have a
great time, the brokenness of this world still gets in the way. 

On the way back down the mountain, we listened to the audio
book of The Last Battle, our favorite Narnia book and perhaps, one of the greatest
books ever written.  It was perfect
timing.

“'[T]hat was not the real Narnia,” [said the Lord
Digory].  ‘That had a beginning and an
end.  It was only a shadow or a copy of
the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here:  just as our own world is only a shadow or
copy of something in Aslan’s real world.’


It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was
feeling.  He stamped his right fore-hoof
on the ground…and cried:

‘I have come home at last! 
This is my real country!  I belong
here.  This is the land I have been
looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.  The reason why we loved the old Narnia is
that it sometimes looked a little like this. 
Come further up, come further in!’”

Yes, we love our Decembers in the mountains of Lushoto
because it looks and feels a little like Heaven.  But the brokenness reminds us that it’s
not.  So even during great weeks like this one, we remember we are still in the Shadowlands.  We look forward with
anticipation to Aslan’s real world.  

It’s really not that cold….we just like to pretend.

Our New Year’s birthday girl….more about her later.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful, but the Air Conditioner is So Delightful

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On December 26, 2015

In Other

Medina Christmas Season, 2015

The best part of this Christmas season, hands down, was having my parents here with us.  In a distant second was the air conditioner, since the week before Christmas is the only time of the year we let ourselves run it during the day.  

4th Graders being silly
HOPAC’s Annual Christmas production:  The only year we’ve had grandparents here to watch it!
Our annual Christmas celebration at Water World with co-workers and friends.
Johnny and his buddy Aaron

Johnny’s first time ever decorating a gingerbread house. Didn’t take him long to get into it.

At Dar es Salaam’s only revolving restaurant.  Except that it wasn’t revolving that day.  We really weren’t that surprised….
We hosted a party for our mission team.
Johnny had just received the photo book I made him of all his pictures, past and present.  He got it out and showed it to just about everybody at the party that day.  “Yook!  John Jeremiah Medina!” he would say, pointing at the cover.
Daddy’s homemade racetrack keeps Johnny busy for hours.

Skyping with people we love:  a Christmas tradition.  

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