1. School is going really well. I received an A on my last Greek test and I have a test coming up this next Thursday. It never really ends, but I am enjoying every moment here. My classes are difficult, but I am learning so much, being stretched so much, and I am getting better at being thankful to God for all things, even the thorns!

2. I have a friend here at the Master’s who is a model and this past week, I volunteered at her runway show. It was my job to help the models get dressed from outfit to outfit (a very different experience for me) and it was chaotic! I have never been so aware of my shortness!

3. I tried out for the worship team at my church here and made it which is exciting. My first Sunday is November 29th.

4. I have had 5 bloody noses in the past week! I think I was made for more humid climates : )

5. A couple weeks ago, I met with my advisor and it turned out that all of my freshman courses were not counting as anything. I made an appeal to the registrar and received credit for 6 major courses, which means that I will graduate on time!

6. I am still wearing flip-flops, which is not that strange for me, but it is weird that everyone else is still wearing sandals.

7. Looking forward to T-day!!

Recently, a couple of my friends have mentioned to me that they love certain people in their lives. I asked them then if they would be willing to die for those people and they said no. I thought to myself for a few moments and proceeded to ask: “Is that even possible?” They were sure that it was, but I think that the Bible is very clear about this.

Sometimes when I hear a good song on the radio or on my computer, I exclaim that I “love” it. However, I usually end up taking it back vocally as I test my love by asking myself if I would die for whatever song I just heard. The answer is always no. Would I die for one of my favorite songs “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles? No, of course not. This may sound like a ridiculous comparison to a love for God or for people, but I think that it is valid point to consider as the word is constantly being overused to communicate that we enjoy something like a song. The use of “love” in this way is to downplay the actual meaning of love, which leads to a misunderstanding of what love really entails and I think that it helps to explain why my friends think that they can love someone or something without having the willingness to lay down their lives for them.

The greatest command given to believers is love God and the second greatest command is love people (Matthew 22:36-39).  Now, what does this really mean, to love God and love people? Does it simply mean that we offer to pay for a friend’s drink at a coffee shop, or that we talk to a person when no one else does? These actions could possibly be signs of love, but I do not think that they are enough to demonstrate the love that is clearly defined by Christ in the cross. The apostle John writes to the Church across Asia Minor in 1 John. He clearly presents in this short book right Christian living and how his readers are to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. He writes, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 2:16-18, ESV). These verses reveal that it is not enough to love in word, but that we must love in our actions of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters. It is not enough to just say that we love someone. It is a lie if we are not willing to unselfishly give up our lives, our own desires, or even our lifelong dreams for the sake of another’s well-being, whether that means supplying him with worldly needs or ultimately dying for him so that he might live in our place. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

This must be taken one step further. It is good to recognize the full weight of love. It is also good to understand that we may not truly love the people that we are consistent in saying that we do. However, this does not mean that we just need to stop proclaiming our love when we do not truly mean it. It means that we must fulfill that love as we have been commanded to as children of God who have been saved because of love. In other words, it is not an end in itself to just understand what love means. The understanding of love must lead and will lead if it is a real comprehension into acts of love demonstrated by Christ.

It is my hope and prayer that the Church (not only the direct recipients of John’s letter, but even the Church today) might learn to love with a dying love and give God all the glory since it is by Him that we love at all (1 John 4:19).

Elliot and Carla

we are not very good doctors i guess

a few of the girls

late night trip to Leo Carillo

The past 2 years of college have been the most difficult years of my life, but each for different reasons. My first year, even though it was filled with hard lessons, was by far a favorite in my life. I met lifelong friends through the INSIGHT program as we faced hard things together and through my church who are still continuing to encourage and build me up in the faith that has been set before each of us. The people that I met my first year are the reason that I remained in Minneapolis for my second year of school. I do no regret my second year for one second, especially because of my family there (the Waldemar’s, Martha, etc.) whom I had the opportunity to get to know in a much deeper way. Needless to say, each person changed my life in some way or another that brought me closer to my Jesus and I thank God everyday for that. At the end of last year however, the Lord was leading me in a new direction, towards a new school: The Master’s College, and towards a new vision: Bible translation.

I have now been at TMC for 2 months and my time so far has been filled with grand encouragement. I not only have excellent teachers who are trustworthy in teaching the Word of God by the grace of God, but I have met several women on my hall and elsewhere who are after the same thing that I am: lives that are filled-up by God’s grace and poured out for His work amongst the nations. I thank God so much that I am in such a place where spiritual growth is nearly unavoidable and where the word of God is pursued by so many.

~I want to thank all of you who have been praying for me and my time here at the Master’s and I plead with you all that you would continue to pray (especially as I am moving through my Greek classes) and ask God to continue His work in me and through me.

My brother Colin is in med school at the University of Cincinatti and here is his blog: http://medicalstudentchronicles.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

My brother William is in the Navy and here is his blog: http://williamcbrown.blogspot.com/

both of these sites are very profitable of your time I assure you of that. They are the experiences of two men, following after God’s own heart. Be blessed!

This song is my prayer especially the chorus, which I italicized:

VISION of YOU

shane & shane

Come meet us, King Jesus
Oh wind of change blow through this temple
Sweet Spirit of God, come and mend our hearts
For all we have are songs
Unless You come

Awaken what’s inside of me
Tune my heart to all You are in me
Even though You’re here God come
And may the vision of You
Be the death of me
And even though you’ve given everything
Jesus come

Come free us, King Jesus
It’s the only way that freedom’s given
From You and You alone
In the work You’ve already done
For all we have are songs,
Unless You come

Here we are, Lord
In this place
Crying out for
Your embrace
To hear Your voice
More than songs
Please come
Jesus come

When I first came to the boys home 5 weeks ago, I thought that I knew who God was and what He would do amongst these boys. Now, as I am reflecting I have realized that I had no concept of God’s love in the lives of these boys. I know now that I made Him to be smaller than He is. The faces that you see now in these pictures do not reveal the pasts of addictions to paint thinner or glue. They do not reveal the deep gashes in the sides of their faces and they do not reveal the lost hope that once guided their lives. They reveal recovery, new life, replenished hope, and brotherly love.  The term “steadfast love” appears roughly 116 times in the Psalms alone and just in Psalm 136, it appears 26 times. I am still unsure of what it means when the Bible says that “God is love,” but I can at least say now that I have lightly scratched the surface of the height and depth and breadth of my God’s great and steadfast love.

Psalm 136

136:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

4 to him who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 to him who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
7 to him who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

17 to him who struck down great kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
18 and killed mighty kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
22 a heritage to Israel his servant,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
25 he who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Dear Dad,

I recently heard a sermon here in Bolivia on leaders in the church. With everything that the speaker said, I thought of you. There is one thing that he said in particular that I think was quite profound. He said “A leader is almost synonymous with loneliness,” and I think that he is correct. Jesus had an inner circle of friends, Peter, James, and John, but even so, when he was facing imminent death, he did not pour his heart out to those three, but to God. Despite the human companionship that Christ had on earth, his disciples would never understand his loneliness or the weight of sin that he carried so obediently. I have seen that you also have experienced a taste of this kind of loneliness and a taste is sometimes more than some experience in a lifetime. Even with human friends nearby, there are obvious things that you could never share with them and that they might never understand.

I know, that I am first and always your daughter and I love that, but just for a moment, I ask that I might also be your friend so that I might stand alongside you, encourage and comfort you, understand and love you in a way that only a friend is capable of. But, after our brief moment of friendship, I wish to offer you something on your birthday that is always quite within reach, but as humans, we often forget that the opportunity even exists. I desire to offer you something greater than any several moments of human friendship that I could ever provide. In John 1:14, it says that the Word, God, became flesh and lived amongst us. He was fully man and fully God. This is an amazing combination because it tells us that he knows exactly what it is like to be human, to be weak, and to be frail. And yet, he knows the exact weight of the burden that you so often and uneccessarily carry because he has carried it. He is what I offer to you. He is waiting for you to call his name so that he might relieve you of your burdens. He is vastly more capable than you or I could ever be in carrying such a weight of pain and loneliness. Why not let him?

You are not alone in that there have been many leaders before you who have experienced loneliness in their own ministries. I am sure that you stand amongst some of the finest including, Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, and Samuel Wesley, names that you gave to three of your sons. I leave one son for last because even though he is named for no one in particular, his middle name, David, is shared with a man after God’s own heart who often shared of his loneliness in the psalms including the following passage:

Psalm 25:16-18, ESV

“Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.”

My dad and my friend, I pray that you will be like David, that you will call upon the Lord to bring you out of your distresses, forgive all your sins, and carry your burdens throughout your ministries. I also pray that this year on your birthday, you will not feel loneliness, but friendship and wholeness in Jesus Christ.

Love you,

Emilie

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

slide #1

slide #1

On Friday, I was able to go with the boys on a field-trip to a beautiful park in La Paz. The park was fairly new and set on the side of a mountain. We climbed up the mountain and once at the top, we realized the kind of fun that awaited all of us. In front of us were 5 gigantic slides. Gigantic is not even an appropriate word. I am not sure if there is a word, at least in the English language that could describe the slides properly. They were constructed out of cement and they were extremely smoothe, which added to the high speed on the way down. I even have battle wounds from the experience: one cement burn on my elbow, a bleeding cut on my hand, and a bruise on the side of my leg. The reasons for these war wounds were not the result of clumsy accidents on my part, but rather, they were because of the boys who enjoyed pushing people down the slides when they were not ready. They even pushed a few nervous girls down whom they did not know. It was actually really funny.

slide #2

slide #2

Throughout my short stay here in Bolivia, the language learning has been my most difficult challenge. There is a lack of all confidence that comes with not understanding another language sufficiently, which only adds to the struggle of understanding. It is frustrating to only have a small list of Spanish that I have to work with in order to convey my thoughts. However, the most difficult aspect of the language learning has been with the encounters that I have had with Americans. There are several Americans that I have met during my stay here who are either fluent or almost fluent in Spanish as their second language. Along with their confidence in the language, there tends to be a level of arrogance that they have added to their knowledge. I do not think that this is specifically an American trait, but a trait that many people share, myself included. As humans, we often forget the hardships that we have faced along the way to accomplishing anything of consequence and unfortunately, this forgetfulness is never helpful to anyone who is experiencing similar hardships at the present time. Interestingly enough, the people that have been the most patient and the most encouraging to me, have been the Bolivians who have not attained a second language. They are humble and that is one of the most helpful traits a person can have if the desire to encourage a language learner. For me to point out the distinction of pride accompanied by knowledge and humility accompanied by the lack of knowledge is not to say that learning a second, third, or fourth, language is not to be attempted. I only want to point out that with knowledge, arrogance often follows, but it does not have to. We all need to realize that even with as much knowledge as we think that we might have, how ever many degrees that we may have attained over years of sweat and pain, in the grand scheme of God’s plans, we know nothing. We must be reminded all too often that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 3:23-24, ESV emphasis added). There is no one on this earth that can save themselves with their earthly knowledge. NO ONE. I am convinced that the only reason why people are capable of learning other languages at all is because of God’s grace, not their own superhuman powers. I pray that the Lord will be humbling humans left and right so that through language, He might reveal that it was by His power that we have obtained the abilities to communicate with others in even the smallest capacity.