Family Update

Hello Friends, bear with me on grammar because all of my computer keys are not working.
I am updating you on what is going on with us and what is Shakin' here in the South of the world..
First thing is first, Jorge through his job here which is working with industrial floor care, same as he did in the states, has once again started his own business. His business is growing but if anyone knows Chile, things move slowly here VERY SLOWLY also he is now representing Buckeye floor care here in Chile as the only representative in South America, it's so exciting. I always say that a thirty minute task usually takes three hours, trust me its true, anyway things are happening. I am currently homeschooling although out of necessity only, as a halfway decent education here is out of this world expensive. The kids will go back to school in the states, probably a charter or semi private school as Moriah is excited for high school and graduation :]. I am enjoying the spiritual growth that has come from all of the hardship that we have experienced on our journey, I can honestly say that I am in a very balanced and happy place right now even if the whole world is crazy. Finding a healthy church in Chile has been quite the ummmmmm challenge to say the least, I think that this country was so damaged politically that it affected generations of people who just don't understand who Jesus is yet, even if they have been in the church for 40 years, there is definitely a spiritual shroud but honestly its not affecting us any more because we aren't allowing it to. The two main denominations here are Catholicism and metodista pentecostal and the relationship of church and state runs DEEP which causes a delay of spiritual and mental growth, but our family is moving forward as we refuse to adopt the pervasive attitude here and continue to love who we come across. Metodista Pentecostal is a denomination that has been built on church divisions, people get angry and leave and start a new church and so on and so forth, and never actually deal with roots of a problem, its really quite common and everyone here has a sense of pride built on their church titles, I just laugh it off, time to move on.
So the kids are doing excellent, Moriah is turning into quite the young lady that I am proud of :] She loves cooking etc. and is extremely smart and a logical thinker. She is so mature when she speaks about something, she is my little bookworm. Moriah gets to spend a lot of time with our friends Russ and Heidi who are missionaries here. She has been on a few trips with them and has gotten to explore Chile with GUSTO, seriously I am incredibly proud of her.
Emmanuel has been asked to be sponsored by several different pro skaters, by the companies that they are sponsored by, so we are attempting to put some videos together for him. Emmanuel is constantly active and VERY social so of course he has a billion friends in and out of our neighborhood.
Adan is usually with his brother although he also likes to crochet and cook and read, he really misses his friends in the states and sometimes we struggle with his little heartbreak because it is obviously an entirely different culture and way of life here, so pray for Adan. Adan and Emmanuel are very protective of their smaller siblings and I love that.
River is quite the little guy, he loves tinkering and taking stuff apart and putting it together, he likes working with his hands so much and absolutely loves watching experiments and how things are made. He and Adan recently asked me to buy a bunch of things so that they could do experiments but, alas it was a little too dangerous, to say the least...I can't wait until they get back to a school with a good science program.
Genesis, oh Genesis. She is a little fireball of smiles, laughs, giggles, and girl stuff. No, I don't think you understand, Genesis is a princess dressed in pink, who likes makeup, diamonds, dress-up and anything else that resembles a four year old imaginary kingdom. Also Genesis loves to eat, and she has absolutely. no preference, she will even down searingly spicy Indian food, yes she gets that from me, She is not picky at all.
Jorge and I live in a beautiful area in the foothills of The Andes mountains and we go up The Cajon Del Maipo quite often to breathe and feel free.....It is liberating to take time away from the small, dark, locked up homes in the city which really feel like jail cells to me. Luckily our home does not, I will get to that story another day... I will be blogging more of my personal experiences on my personal blog, right now you all can read about our family as a whole...
Miss you all so VERY VERY MUCH......

Pick yourself off of the floor....

As I was hiking up in the mountain this morning, I was thinking how hard things are in the world (obviously life is hard) and I thought about a period of time that I went through where I just wanted to give up and cry..A series of posts on Facebook went on for months of how I suffered I just couldn't get up, but God worked that completely out of my life, and I am incredibly thankful that I am strong, capable, and now ready to move forward into ministry....One day when I posted about something that we went through, a facebook friend privately wrote me a message about basically shutting up and moving on (that was love for another Christian on his part) I listened and I prayed and repented, and then I basically asked God to continue refining me and making me strong. I see FAR too many Christians walking around with a burden of self on their shoulders that they carry around that is holding them back from God's will, these are people easily offended and unable to take sound instruction from their leaders, they focus on small things unimportant how people dress,what food we eat, other peoples sin... they want to be renegades and do ministry on their own they have been to many churches and none of them suit their "prerequisites" they focus on small things such as food or outward appearance, If they cannot grow, thrive, and, move on because of offenses they have suffered I believe they are NOT ready to be in ministry....This is a despicable disease in many first world countries, lately I have seen so many attitudes about America going down the drain so people talk about it's time to leave...Listen If you can't handle it in the states then what the hell (scuse' the french) makes you think that you can handle life somewhere else!!?? The struggle that I had with my children when we first came to Chile was amazing, we saw the fruit of trying to shelter them from life while homeschooling, we saw the fruit of them having access to comfort at all times..Honestly the first few months were disastrous but all of our issues came to the surface and our very westernized way of thinking came out and we repented and dealt with it and have been working in love and honesty on these issues.Am I against homeschooling ...no way! I think that it is a great way to establish your children, but make sure that you instill in them a strength, a strength to live in society amongst everything because everywhere else in the world is harder than the U.S. but honestly you can never, ever grow as a human being if you cannot plant your feet firmly while pressing on towards our great goal, If you can only find fault with everything around you, If you shrivel at every criticism, at every difficult event then you should just give up because that is basically what you are already doing, If you ran away from your problems then go and face them and it will make you grow and flourish :) We have a GREAT BIG GOD backing us up!.We are not called to be easily offended or back away when confronted..(Thank you so much to my friends who loved me enough to speak the truth!!! and thank you God for preparing my heart to receive it) I really appreciate my pastors at Our greatly missed church The Adventure because since leaving, God has showed me a different view of things and I want to thank them for being an example of not giving up amidst so much crap...seriously that is strength. We are but dust in the wind, so in this world it is time to be a light to everyone around us. We are called to bring the gospel to people, to be all things to all men....to go out in Love and in Peace and in boldness and tell the people the good news of the gospel....We are not to focus on the illuminati or gun control, emergency preparedness or other political issues....... those things change when people come to Jesus Christ. Jesus will come back one day and there is no sense in worrying and giving up he will FIX things, so for me it's a time to REJOICE and be happy because my savior has already redeemed me and he is on his way... Until then Our family will firmly establish ourselves here in Chile and in the faith not moving to the right or the left, not being easily swayed or shaken we are in this world and this is where God has placed us...

Isaiah 40:28-31  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,   the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,   and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;   they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;   they shall walk and not faint

John 16:33  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Timothy 1:7  for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

A deep obsession with consuming to fill a void.

The whole world does it, but I think that Chile is trying so hard to keep up with the western world, and it is more pronounced here because poor Chileans associate stuff with success or even becoming rich, and here it is so much more evident because of the VERY LARGE divide of classes. What am I talking about?....consumerism, and I have never in my life seen people sell their families, their freedoms, and knowledge for some stuff like Chile does. The pursuit of a westernized life here is so pronounced, that marketing to Chileans is an art for the most artful of business owners. If you knew about the copyright infringement that was seen in large stores here you would probably laugh your butt off....When you walk around Chile you see everything run down and ill taken care of. Police stations and hospitals are run down. Homes are gated because if you haven't been stolen from, you will be. Public schools and libraries are not wonderous places of learning, and yet there are metro stops going straight to malls, not just any malls but some of the most luxurious malls that you have ever seen, in some of the poorest areas. People are trying to pursue an image that they see on television to make them feel better about themselves. A work week here is morning until night, most mothers work and families are very small.. Most wealthy families have a nana and barely see their children at all. Many kids are left to raise themselves basically on the street indulging in drugs and other "extracurricular activities". I can't help but think that politicians usually have pockets filled by big name stores instead of caring about the consequences of these actions on entire communities, echoing from generation to generation, the want is out of control. I have seen people pay for McDonalds food on six payments of credit. Never have I seen anyone pay for groceries at the Lider (bought out by Walmart) with cash, it is always with credit, and the person paying doesn't even have a clue about interest as they extend their payments again and again and again.The sad thing is if you ask the average person on the street how the economy is in Chile they usually rave about it, while they have no clue that this cannot go on forever. I obviously see a lesson in this and I think when someone accepts Jesus as their savior it should drastically change their thinking on some level, and I hope it does! But one cannot guarantee this in the church, as I actually think the church has a big role in continuing this cycle in many second and third world countries. How loving can we be if we support a company that moves to Chile and the prices of their product goes up but the pay of the employee drops DRASTICALLY.....American companies are here; Starbucks, Papa Johns, Walmart etc. etc. and pay employees on average about $2.00 an hour (USD) So for example an employee at Starbucks cannot even buy a Latte priced at about $6.00 after working two hours, only to make about $4.00........This is nothing short of modern day slavery....yes the whole system, and I hate to say that The United States plays a huge role in this whole sickness......but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord...what I mean by that is yes we have to live in this world but my walk daily should be in consideration of the "neighbors" around the world that I am hurting by my actions. I could write all day on this subject but I am so tired and I am just going to let you all pray and think on these things. I hope that your day is awesome and your spiritual growth uncharted. Let us look at what Jesus says about this Consumerism, this love of inanimate objects, this desire to have a piece of clothing return us some sort of affection:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
(1 Timothy 6:10)

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.   (1 Timothy 6:9)

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall. (Proverbs 18:11)

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:17)

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. (Psalm 39:6)

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. (James 1:11)

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
(Mark 10:23)

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
(Mark 10:25)

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you ... You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.  (James 5:1-5)

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Luke 16:13)