Mother's Day and blessings!

Pura vida!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and I’m so excited to share that our Mother’s Day event was a wonderful success! Renate and I started our day around 6:30am in the kitchen with a great group of volunteers from a short term team from Colorado. We went to the church Friday afternoon with a volunteer from the community to set up the tables and decorate because we had a lot to do to prepare early the next day. This is one of the many great ideas from the director (Renate) of Metro Ministries, who is super organized! It was also such a blessing to have so many students and staff from YWAM come with us and love on the moms and kids. We could not have done it without them!

We had about 30 moms and 37 kids show up for the event, and had more than enough food, gifts, balloons, and suckers to go around! The moms were served a nice big breakfast, complete with ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad, cinnamon bread, coffee, and juice. We originally had bananas and cookies for the kids, but they ended up getting the leftovers from the moms, and to be honest, they didn’t know what to do with all of the food and juice we gave them! Considering the food we gave them might be their only meal of the day, it was great to see God’s provision for them and their moms. One of our staff women shared some encouraging words with the moms, and then we had several ladies lined up outside to do their nails. They even got a hand massage by one of my Discipleship Training School friends and she prayed for them and their families. Before they left, they received a beautifully package coffee mug, stuffed with a few beauty items, a piece of jewelry, and some candies. Almost all of the items for the gifts were donated, including 12 really nice mugs with a Bible verse on them from a Christian card and gift company here called Pechi. Renate had originally contacted Pechi to donate about 100 small cards with Bible verses on them to attach to the gifts, but when we showed up last week to get the cards, they brought out the mugs, in addition to about 50 agendas that we are going to give out this coming Saturday at the second Mother’s Day event. Renate and I were so excited to see God’s blessings that day!!!

Karen( a student, long term missionary, and Aggie) and I were in charge of the kids program outside. She is fluent in Spanish and is absolutely amazing with the kids. We did a normal Metro program, with the exception of several more games and the food. We had a blast singing songs and doing a puppet show before we brought the snacks out and they decorated cards for their moms. We split the kids up into 2 groups for games, and the little ones played with playdoh, and colored, while the older kids played games with balloons. The kids were super excited, and after the water balloon toss, we just let them grab water balloons and launch them at each other ( and us). Some kids were so polite as they asked Karen if they could smash one on her head!! How cute is that???

We all had a great time with the kids and moms, and I was really excited since Renate got to spend the entire time with the moms. Even though she does visitations each week in that community, she by no means gets to see every mom each week, and spend quality time with them. They all hugged and kissed her as they were leaving, and told her that the event was really nice. All of the hard work was truly worth it to see the smiles on the mom’ faces! We both took a nap once we got back and had a bite to eat. I got a lot of sleep this weekend, but please keep Renate in your prayers as she is ill, and can’t sleep at night because she is coughing so much. I went over to her house this evening and cooked a nice vegan meal for us. I brought some quinoa, and have really been wanting to make a pilaf with it like I do back home, so it was a win win situation for both of us! I bought some spinach, and she had some veggies, so we also had an awesome salad. We had a great time of fellowship, and then I left around 8pm so she could get some rest. As most of you know, no one can rest when I’m around, so we made it an early night!!

Renate and I have a lot in common, and we make a great team. I honestly never imagined working with Metro would be so amazing! She is not only a co-laborer, but she is one of best buddies here! I am incredibly blessed to not only have Renate as a new friend, but many other girls here on the base as well! God is truly blessing with “sisterships”, not just friendships. One of the girls here is only 20 years old, but she has a poise and spiritual maturity beyond her years. She and I give each other the biggest and longest hugs ever! She went back to Colorado for her grandpa’s memorial service, and I asked her if she would get me some gluten free granola if I gave her money. I asked her to bring back 2-3 bags if she could fit them in her luggage, and she brought me back 4 bags! This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is huge to me! I’m eating primarily vegan (no animal proteins) and gluten free, so that limits my food options significantly. This is one of the many blessings in the last 3 weeks, and it has been so neat to see that God cares about the “little” things that make me smile! I also needed to get a very special card, and get it to the PO ASAP.  God brought me right to Pechi where I found an awesome card, and Renate needed to go to the PO to pick up packages soon after, so I was able to mail it quickly.

God has also been so faithful to provide for me through friends back home, and through my Juice Plus business. He keeps reminding me that He is my Provider, and if put Him first, He will take care of me. Sometimes I am tempted to send out e-mail to prospects for the business before I spend time with Him, but Matthew 6:33 keeps coming to mind, where Jesus says that we are to seek Him first, and will He add everything unto us. Please pray that I would seek Him above all things, and that I would trust Him to take care of all of my needs. Also pray that I would have the self-control to eat vegan, and that God would honor my food choices and heal my GI tract. God has been so awesome to place vegetarians and my other vegan buddy, Montana, here on the base, so we can encourage one another to eat healthy.

I will have to post some pics from this past weekend another time, as it is already late here, and I need to get some sleep.

God Bless your week!
Living for Him,
Stephanie