Enviado soy de Dios

We sang this song in church on Sunday as a sending song for those of us who are going to El Salvador.  My favorite part has been an answer to a question, I think, from people who haven't understood our faith: Why does God allow bad things in the world?  The answer that this song gives is that the angels can't make the world a better place - only God's work through our hands can do that.  The angels can't fix it without our willingness, to put away the greed and pain of this world.

Here's the song:

Spanish:
Enviado soy de Dios,
mi mano lista está
para construir con El
un mundo fraternal.
Los ángeles no son enviados a cambiar
im mundo de dolor por un mundo de paz.
Me ha tocao a mí hacerlo realidad;
a yúdame, Señor, a hacer tu voluntad.


English:
Sent out in Jesus' name,
our hands are ready now
to make the earth the place
in which the kingdom comes.
The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain
into a world of love, of justice and of peace.
The task is ours to do, to set it really free.
O help us to obey, and carry out your will.

Lord, you know how busy I must be this day.  If I forget you, do not forget me.

~Jacob Astley

A Prayer Request: Being The Persistent Widow

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? - Luke 18:7

I do have a prayer request, if you would be willing.  And if you would be willing to share it all around.  I have a friend and I'm going to call her MB.  If you would like to know a little bit about her, she has a blog too! 

 MB and I, discussing the value of $100 shoe that's not FDA approved.

She's really sweet - she's married to my husband's best friend (friends since they were both in their mother's wombs!  Seriously). 

 Womb Friends.

God knows her needs and wants and I would really appreciate if you could just say a general prayer for her.  I'm working on being the persistent widow for her and I'm hoping that others would be willing to join in.

Thank you!!

A Few Photos From This Weekend

My friend was confirmed this weekend and I went back to Ohio for it.  We had a good time.  So proud of her!!

God said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12.9-10)

44 sticks of butter.

34 egg whites.

12 cakes.

2 weeks.

Totally worth it!

Oscar Romero: Bishop of the Poor

We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways.   --Archbishop Oscar Romero, December 24, 1979

I'm headed to El Salvador soon, to be part of a delegation from the Lutheran Church in America to the Lutheran Church in El Salvador.  I just found out that I'll be going to a Salvadorean wedding!  Part of our mission is to come back with a project that my church (Advent Lutheran Church) can help with and partner with the church in El Salvador.

In preparation, we are being told to read up on Oscar Romero, a Catholic priest who was assassinated and who is considered one of the greatest martyrs of the 20th Century.

If you would like to know more about him, there's a really good article here.  I think my husband and I are going to try and watch the movie Romero tonight.

First Dance Lindy Style!

These are some friends of ours from church.  You can actually hear our pastor in the background.  Ha! This was the best first dance I've ever been witness to!

Maggie Doyne — Why the human family can do better from The Do Lectures on Vimeo.

To learn more about Maggie, click HERE.