Don't worry! Jesus is still King. Everything will be alright!

One of our prayer requests this past month was for us to be able to catch a breath and just have "normal" time with a little less chaos. Well, a lot of life has happened since then, but God has just granted a little perspective. Our pastor was preaching this past Sunday and said something to the effect, "Don't Worry...everything will be OK...Jesus is King!" That seems to sum up what our journey over the past few months has been.

As I'm sure many of you experienced this winter, we had our share of sickness and gloomy days. It is amazing how a week long of dark, cloudy days can change your mood! And it seemed like every family was dropping like flies around us with the flu and stomach bugs. God was gracious to us and thankfully only Santi got the flu this season. And Ximena has been on weekly allergy shots, which have been exhausting on her system, but she hasn't had a big asthma crisis like she had while Richard was in Korea. Thank you guys so much for praying for that! And a special thanks to Howie for installing a UV light filter in our house for free, for Dr. Fahoum for all of the free medical care, and so many people here in Memphis who have taken care of us (Amy, Eric, The Millers, Andrea...just to name a few!)

Richard had the chance to attend a Bible Based Trauma Healing training. It was a 3-day event, focusing on how to guide people through the process of discovering their trauma and go through the healing process. We dove deep into listening well, discovering how to be there in the grief and anger of trauma without needing to "fix" the situation, lamenting the situation to a gracious God, and being able to start on the path to forgiveness. It means not always having to share how "God is good" and "God works everything out for good" after a trauma, but giving time and space to cry out to God even when it feels like life isn't worth living. It was a heart-wrenching training, as it forces you to deal with your own issues, and was definitely overwhelming at times. But it was such an incredible tool that he can use as he provides pastoral care to our missionaries. The end of the training ended with a somewhat difficult test to see if you truly "learned" everything that went on. It felt like being back in college and trying to remember everything after only a few days of so much material. But he passed! He is really excited to begin to implement some of the things learned with those he serves.

Ximena was able to see the end of a huge project that she has been working on at Orphanos. The finance department recently moved everything into the "cloud" which was a lot of work after using the same software for the past 20 years. Ximena decided that she was going to help by calling each donor to make the switch to the new system. Yes, the only person in the office who's first language isn't English took it on herself to call the donors!!! She was so nervous at first and had a few stumbles here and there, but she was able to help everyone to make the switch so that all of our missionaries continue to receive their monthly funds for the orphanages they are at. And she even went back through the system to edit the information for over 8,000 donors to make sure that everything in the system is correct! Yep...pretty much a rockstar! But she took this process very seriously and tried to make sure that each donor switched, since we personally know what living by faith is like and how hard it is to lose a financial donor.

We were also able to help out at a ministry that our local church here in Memphis participates in. They have adopted a local school called Ross Elementary and provide resources to the school throughout the year. In Christmastime, they were able to hold a Christmas Toy shopping experience, where people donated toys and the parents were able to pay a small fee to buy Christmas presents for their kids that they wouldn't have been able to afford. It was such a beautiful experience! It gave so many dignity back to the parents as they were able to pick out the gifts and wrap them. And when their kids asked where it came from, they were able to proudly say that they bought it for them. It really was an honor for us to be able to participate this year and put our Spanish to good use too!!!

At the same time, we were finally able to have Austin and Wilson back over. It had been over 2 months since we had last seen both of them and we had missed them! One of our missionary families who is preparing to move to South America had one of their daughters, Daniela, from the children's home there in Colombia come and visit for a few months and so we used the time to have a "Spanishy" night to just hang out and mix languages. It was an awesome time to just relax and spend with people that we have missed a lot recently. Plus, Ximena made some amazing chicken wings!

We were also able to help out with a local ministry started by a friend of ours, which is called The Power Plant. Andrea Gehrett, who also works at Orphanos, started this ministry to pour into the lives of women, specifically targeting mothers who are raising children with special needs who usually never get a break. She just recently was able to purchase a house that will be used solely for this purpose and we were able to go and help for a few hours. It involved a lot of leaves!!!! We had finished about 10 bags or so and then looked up...the kids were like, "How much longer are we staying?" It was a great lesson of service for them and we really did have fun doing it. It was satisfying to see the yard "leaf-free" by the time we left and over 25 huge bags filled! Then we just had our yard to do...

Then, Richard headed down to Belize with Santiago and Leilani to visit his sister, Rebekah, and new nephew, Malkiel. Malkiel was born on New Year's Eve and we had been itching to meet him. Richard's parents had some extra airline miles and wanted to see their grandkids too, so they flew us down to Belize for a week. It was a great time to just spend time talking to Rebekah, holding Malikiel a lot, and helping out as much as possible at the house. It was also great to be at Samuel's Sanctuary Ministries after about a year and a half to see all the changes that have been made. Santi especially like the Mennonite cart that they have now and getting to drive it by himself! The trip ended with a day trip to the beach with his Mom and a boy from a local orphanage, Omarion, that they are providing respite care for on the weekends. It really was a beautiful time and so great to be with family for a few days, which is definitely something we don't take for granted.

One quick resource that Ximena found that we can't stop talking about are comic-style Bibles from a Brazilian artist that worked for Marvel. They are called the Action Bible and they have them in both English and Spanish!!! Our kids have loved them and are so interested in the Bible now. We have also given away so many of these Bibles to kids over the years, and had so many people share how it got them interested in the Bible. But it got increasingly more difficult to find them in Spanish. Thankfully, we stumbled upon a site that had a whole box of them for sale and at a really good price, so we jumped on it. We have already had opportunities to share a few with the Spanish-speaking kids at the kids school and we are so excited to see who God will put in our path to give them away!

Well, this is just a little bit of what has happened the past few months. There has been a lot of worries, a lot of things to do, a lot of driving....a lot of life that has happened! But even during some of the stressful times, God has really given us the ability to not get so hung up on busyness and being worried...but to just trust in Him...Jesus is still King! So we thank you so much for your prayers, because we really have felt them the past few months and continue to greatly appreciate them.

Here are a few prayer requests from us:

1. Wisdom in creating rhythms of rest and time with God, while also seeing clearly which relationships God is putting in our path and who we should respond to....especially how God wants to use us locally in Memphis. 

2. For spiritual growth and emotional maturity for Gustavo (our oldest). Pray also as we start to look forward to a few big decisions that he will be making in July.

3.  For Ximena and Santiago and their allergies. They have had extreme reactions to living in Memphis and are getting treatments and allergy shots. Please pray that they will be effective. 

4. For all of our kids education, but specifically for Nico who is looking at potentially studying in Brazil and Mayumi who is looking at possibly studying a year of English in the US for her tourism major.

5. For Leilani and Santiago to deepen their desire for God and to make that heart decision to follow Him in such a way that there is no turning back or confusion when they get older.