Love is a Verb

This past Saturday, I had the privilege to spend the entire day at "Casa Hogar", an orphanage here in Tegucigalpa. This orphanage is run by the CEAD church and is called home for 36 beautiful, loving children. Upon taking the hour drive to Casa Hogar, the children welcomed us with huge smiles and even bigger hugs. They adopted us as their "Tia" which means "aunt" in Spanish. We spent the day playing, dancing, singing and taking  fun pictures together. I have been longing to go to an orphanage since I was in high school. I loved the idea of being able to simply love on those children as much as possible. And that's what we did. It was such an amazing experience.

I've always wondered what children like that think, when they see a bunch of "gringas" or white people coming in and telling them that Jesus loves them. I don't think the concept is misunderstood because of a language barrier, but because some of these children may have never experienced love in their entire lives. These children don't know what it's like to be cared for, comforted, to feel the embrace of a hug after falling and scrapping their knee. They don't know the feeling of being able to run to their mother for a hug when they have a bad dream or someone who simply cares for their well being in mind. Even when playing on the playground, we would tell the children "be careful" as they would walk across the top of the monkey bars that stood about 8 feet off the ground. When we would say that, they would give us the strangest look and I believe it is because they are not used to the idea of someone looking out for them, helping them, caring about them..... loving them.

My point: When we go to these children and tell them the Lord loves them and talk about what Jesus did for them.... they might not get it. Most of them can't understand this concept because they have never seen nor experienced love. When they are told that Jesus loves them, they have nothing else to compare that to. So this is the conclusion that I came to..... We need to love with our ACTIONS, not only by our words. The children may not understand what it means when they are told that they are loved, but they will be able to recognize love when they are being hugged to the point where they can barely breathe, or when they have someone there to comfort them when they've gotten hurt or having someone to hold them while they cry about the fears and worries they have. To have someone there to tell them how beautiful and smart and talented they are. This is love.

I've always loved this quote.
"Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words"               -Francis of Assisi


This quote hits the nail on the head. Preaching the gospel isn't about just talking to people, telling them about Christ, love, or right and wrong. It's about how you live. Actions speak louder than words is such a true statement. I've been realizing more and more, that what makes you stand out in a world full of sin, guilt and shame, is the way you live your life. How you love others, how you serve, how you show grace.... that's what people can see..... and that speaks volumes.

I recently just started reading the book love does. And it talks about exactly that. How love isn't just a word that you say, but it's something that you do. The book contains various chapters and stories of situations where love was put into action. The stories are so inspiring, reminding me of the real reason why we're here.

 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
                                                                                                                     Matthew 22:37-40

That sums it up. That is the greatest commandment that the Lord gave us. To first and foremost, love Him above all else. What comes right after that? Love your neighbor. Love your neighbor as if it were you. This is very easy to say but not so easy when it comes to actually doing it. It requires giving up our money, effort and time. BUT..... love is sacrifice. To truly love someone is to make sacrifices for that person. When you love someone, you will do anything possible to help them, protect them and please them. How would it would it change this world we live in if we loved sacrificially. If we were willing to give up our time, energy and efforts to help someone in need.

This has really had me thinking. I want my life to reflect the love of Christ. It doesn't always, that's for sure. Actually, sometimes I feel that more often then not my life reflects the opposite. I do what's best for me, or choose to spend my money buying things that I don't need but would just like to have, using my time for my own needs rather than the needs of others. But that is not how I want to be. My desire is to live like Christ; to love like Christ. That doesn't come naturally. It takes a lot of dying to the flesh, denying ourselves of our earthly wants and desires and setting our hearts on something so much more than this world can offer. But it's worth it. Through the struggles and temptation... it is all worth it. We were meant to live for so much more than merely pleasing ourselves or living a comfortable life with the worldly possessions we long for. We are called to grow in a deeper relationship with Christ, to know what it's like to suffer with Christ and also rejoice in His resurrection. We are called to love. Not just tell people we love them.... but put that four letter word into action. Love does.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you"

 

                                                          ~John 14:18~

 

"For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in."

                    Psalms 27:10

 

 

 

Time Stands Still...

I really have no idea why, but time goes by so much slower here. I've only been here for three weeks, but it feels like I've been living here for three months! I mean.. I guess that's not a bad thing. Back home I'm always complaining that time goes by so fast that I never have enough time to just enjoy it and soak it all in. Well here.... I have time to do lots of soaking. Its not that I don't have anything to do (alright, sometimes I don't have anything to do) but I have plenty of work with school to keep me busy, but there's just something about it that makes it feel like I have all the time in the world here.

As each day goes on, I become a little more comfortable with my duties as not only a teacher, but a missionary. I realize that it is very easy for someone like me, blonde hair, blue eyes... to stand out in a place where everyone has dark hair and dark eyes. I have to be mindful of how I present myself everywhere, not just at school. Someone told me, "People come to Honduras for two reasons. To either teach or preach." I have a feeling that when most people stare me down in the grocery store they may have an idea that I'm probably a missionary or teacher of some sort... and I'm both! No pressure, right?

I feel extremely blessed to be living here, serving with the wonderful people I work with and having a chance to share the love of Christ with my students, co-workers and Honduran citizens. One thing I  try to do every morning is wake up and say, "Lord, how do you want me to serve today? How can I help someone? What would you have me do?" And by doing that, I become more aware of my purpose here. It's not just to mosey into school or just try to get through everyday struggles... but it's finding joy in those struggles and being aware of where the spirit is leading me.

Everyday I'm faced with two options. Option #1: Wake up, feel sorry for myself, be homesick, have a negative attitude towards work and my students, and wish my life away for the next 10 months.... OR
Option #2: wake up, thank God for another day that He's given me, show the love of God wherever I go, walk in His presence daily, take advantage of every opportunity given to me, serve others, and spend my days giving God the glory and praise for everything He has done/is doing/ and will continue to do in my life. I think we all face temptations like this everyday. To pity ourselves, complain about various situations... not that those aren't a big deal or that we all don't face challenges BUT we have a choice through every struggle that we face. We may not be able to change what is happening to us or what we're going through BUT we have the power to control our attitude towards that situation. We can choose option #1 or option #2 everyday. The choice is our own. I don't know about you.... but I'm picking #2. Option #1 will only leave me feeling more miserable than before. Option #2 allows me to see how much I've been blessed with and what my purpose is. It gives me a reason to wake up every morning. So what option are you going to choose when you face difficulties? Option #1 or Option #2....... the choice is competley up to you. Be blessed my friends.

P.S. To my friends, family, church family: I miss you all so very much! Your prayers are felt with me every day. I love you all so much and I'm so thankful for all of your support. Feel free to message me, email me or call me anytime. God bless you all!

I'm blown away by the beauty of this country. It has some of the most amazing view and sights I've ever seen before. The Lord is so majestic and full of beauty. What a blessing it is to us.

First Days of School

Well.... I did it. I have officially survived my first week at school as a 6th grade teacher! I mean technically it wasn't a full week because the students did not arrive until Wednesday, but three days has got to count for something. This week has been one of the most "exciting" weeks I've had in a long time. At any given moment, I felt between 12-15 various feelings all at once. I think my emotions are more worn out than anything else this week, but I loved every day of it. 

I have a class with 22 beautiful, brilliant, loving Honduran children. They are so full of energy and life, it's contagious! I can't explain the joy I get when I walk into my classroom and know that I am able to start off each day with them by reading a devotional, talking about what a great God we all serve and praying over the students and the rest of the day. It is such a blessing to be able to talk about God with these students without worrying about getting fired or even sued. Many of my students have a pretty good understanding of who God is and what the Bible says. It's amazing to see that in such young children.

Yesterday I was even able to teach the lesson of Samson and Delilah to the students. Afterwards, one of my students asked, "Miss. Jaggi, if Samson knew that his girlfriend was lying to him and she only wanted the money, then why would Samson keep being her boyfriend?!" Haha It's moments like those when I love being a teacher. The students ask such great questions; questions that I can't answer sometimes. But we all learn through it, together.

As far as life goes when it comes to living in a city with a massive amount of people and those people don't speak the same language as you and it's a completely different culture than what you've grown up in..... it's interesting. I love it, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't mean there aren't challenges. I'm still trying to get used to the idea that I can't simply leave my house to run to the store or grab a bite to eat. Or the fact that at night I have to watch where I step or else I'll have a cockroach stuck to the bottom of my foot. Or that I still have to wear dress pants and closed toed shoes, regardless of the fact that it's in the 90's. All of these little things may sound like complaints.... but they are really not. I'm so thankful for all of it. I'm thankful I have a way of getting around, it's not always the most convenient... but I'm able to get from place to place. I'm thankful that I have a nice house to live in, whether I step on a cockroach or not (which hasn't happened yet and I'm praying I don't ever experience that). And I'm thankful that I am able to work in such a nice school, with professional coworkers and be seen as someone who takes their job seriously. 

Has my life been easy living here for the past two weeks..... absolutely not. Do I expect my life to be easy living here for the next 46 weeks? Not at all. Do I want my life to be easy? Now where's the fun in that? I've realized through past experience that when we face those seasons of great difficulty in our lives, we are left with nothing else to cling to but Jesus. I know it sounds cliche but it's 100% true. Sometimes the Lord needs to turn our world upside down so that we are able to experience his love and his grace in a completely new way. And although it's difficult, frustrating and tiring while trying to survive in those long, dry seasons.... the outcome is all worth it. All the pain and the struggles that we faced are now nothing compared to the glory of the God of this world, who proves to us time and time again, that we can draw close to him, and he will care for us. 

It reminds me of the lyrics of the song "Don't stop the madness" by Tenth Avenue North. The lyrics say:
Don't stop the madness
Don't stop the chaos
Don't stop the pain surrounding me
Don't be afraid, Lord, to break my heart
Just bring me down to my knees


Don't stop the madness
Don't stop the chaos
Don't stop the pain inside of me
Do whatever it takes to give me your heart
And bring me down to my knees, Lord 

How amazing is that?! As scary as it is to pray a prayer like that or sing lyrics that consist of giving God the permission to do whatever it takes, even bringing us down to our very knees in an act of surrender.... it is worth it all in the end. Because in the end, we will have a deeper relationship with the Lord. We will learn what it means to trust the Lord with all of our Heart, all of our Soul and all of our Strength. So as crazy as my life is right now and the fact that 97.4% of the time I have no idea what is going on around me.... I'm going to cling to Christ. He's the only one that can take away my fears and replace them with joy and peace.  

28"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."          
                                                                                                  Matthew 11:28-30

 Here are some pictures of my classroom.

 Here is the courtyard or "gancha" in the center of the school. Everything is basically outside.










There's also the beautiful view of the mountains in the background.

And here's a picture of the door to my room. I want to make sure that the students know when they walk into my classroom that they are respected, important, authors, scientists, explorers and loved <3

Welcome to Honduras!

Well... I have officially spent one week in this beautiful country and I can't to spend many more weeks here. Although we weren't able to fly out Thursday because of Visa reasons, God blessed us with first class seats the very next day. (I would absolutely wait a day for first class tickets!) God began showing me that He would take care of me and every need I had while on this trip. He proved this right off the bat by allowing us to land safe in the Tegucigalpa Airport, which just so happens to be the second most dangerous airport in the world... but my God provides and protects!

This week mainly consisted of getting settled into our beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house and learning about how to get the necessities we would need. The water is undrinkable here so we rely on big 5 gallon jugs of clean water. After the first couple days, we ran out of that clean drinking water and had to go old school. That's right, we had to boil the water on the stove before we were able to drink it, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen again. We're more prepared for this second week (hopefully).

Our first week of training started on Monday and finished Thursday. It was a little overwhelming, especially being that all of it was spoken in Spanish, but praise God for wonderful translators. All of the teachers at the school are so friendly and welcoming. I'm so excited to soak up this culture and their way of doing things. I want to experience as much as I possibly can. The more I keep meeting people and becoming friends with my co-workers comes more opportunities to  see what it's really like to live here. I'm already learning what it's like to grow up in a city that has a population of 6,600... to living in a city that has a whopping 1.2 MILLION people. So it's just a little different then what I'm used to. ;)

With all of these people living in this city, you can imagine how many cars are on the road at any given time. I literally rejoice and praise God every time I make it to my destination without being in some type of accident. There's no such thing as tailgating here. You can ride as close to another car as you want, along with using your horn so much that it becomes a melody of sounds arising on the busy streets. But that's normal for them. That's what I need to remind myself. No matter how much my mind is blown at the fact that people live like this or drive like that.... I continually remind myself that this is simply how they live. It's their way of life. I love the fact that I'm able to go to another part of the world and see how similar we all are, but how we live differently at the same time. I love living in this place. I love experiencing new and exciting foods, people, stores, everything.

It is by the grace of God that I am here and able to serve in this beautiful country. God has plans that are unimaginable for us... but not for him. He can use anyone, but WE have to be obedient. We have to be willing to move, to take that step of faith and follow God into the unknown. Because if we aren't living our lives with complete obedience and surrender to the Lord and his perfect plans, then just what are we living for? Be encouraged my friends. Trust the Lord with your life. He's the one who gave it to you and who wants nothing but the best for you.

Jeremiah 1:5 : "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Here's a picture of our house!