A New Normal

Today, as I sit here in the quietness of this house, I am reminded that we can so easily become dependent on someone to help us along the way.  We have had the JOY of having a young lady stay with us for the last 5 weeks.  Yes we had another young lady stay with us but this time for a shorter time.  Alex was able to plug in to different ministries while she was here.  She made such an impact not only with the girls at the Emmanuel Home of Protection but on our family as well.  She helped us with learning the language more and loving on our kiddos.  We are truly grateful for the time we had with her.  This Saturday will be my first day doing the bible study with the girls at the home by myself so this is my new normal.  Also, over the last two weeks I have been reminded that our days are numbered.  We are not guaranteed tomorrow so we must live as though today may be our last.  Don't get me wrong, it is so nice to have friends and family around but we can't become so dependent on them to things for us that we forget WHO we should put ALL our trust in....God.  God is our ROCK and our FOUNDATION.

I said that I have been reminded that our days are numbered, well here is the reason.  A missionary family that is serving here in Nicaragua had to experience the unthinkable...the death of their child while serving on the field.  It was a freak accident and even if they would have been right there with her, they could not have saved her life.  Taellor's mom believes she died instantly from the fall.  Her hammock was tied to a palm tree and the tree broke.  When Taellor fell, her head hit the cement in just the "right" spot.  Yes, this is very tragic but the joy that this family has in knowing that Taellor loved Jesus more than anything else in this world.  She was only 19 but the life she lived was incredible.  She showed God's love to those who did not know what LOVE was or what LOVE could be.  I have enjoyed watching this family show God's LOVE through their tragedy.  What a testimony!  They are continuing to fulfill Taellor's calling in areas of Nicaragua that most people would not go willingly.  She chose to serve because she felt the call as well as her parents!  How awesome is that!  What joy as a parent to know that your child wants to be serving on the mission field alongside you.

So the new normal for this family is to continue serving in the same places they would go with Taellor and know that they are bringing glory and honor to God and keeping Taellor's memory alive.  I pray that when you accepted Christ not only as your LORD but as your SAVIOR as well, you discovered a new NORMAL.  LIVING EACH DAY FOR CHRIST AS IF IT WAS YOUR LAST DAY TO BE ABLE TO BRING GLORY AND HONOR TO HIM!
As Psalm 139 says:
16Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; 
 And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

Clinging to Life

Do you find yourself clinging to life right now?  I have to confess I am clinging to life.  Clinging to things I miss.  Clinging to relationships with friends back home.  Clinging to things familiar.  Clinging to my first language.  Clinging to everything but what I should be clinging to...the TRUTH of God's Word!  Josh and I had a good discussion last night, which was a major milestone for me.  I have found it difficult to have in depth conversations with my own husband for years.  Why?  Maybe from fear of really sharing my heart and those thoughts being out there vulnerable to what I don't know.  But I felt like a light turned on last night for me not only in this area but in the area of where I am having difficulty.

This step of faith, in coming to Nicaragua, has been one of the hardest things I have ever done but I can probably guarantee will not be the last.  I have had to depend on things other than myself which is what we all should be doing everyday!  We should be clinging to the very foundation of what our life is about - Christ!  Josh reminded, which I knew already but so need reminding everyday, me that I am here in Nicaragua for a purpose.  I have discovered that in the missionary community it is a lot like the military community in that people have reservations of making deep friendships with others for fear of them moving away.  If you know me, really know me you know that is so not my nature.  That is the complete OPPOSITE of my personality.  I want to develop deeper relationships and am not afraid of sharing my heart, all my heart with others.  I have felt God nudging me to get closer with the ladies in our neighborhood but definitely need God's help with this.  Another mom in the neighborhood talked about when she first came it was hard to get into a group that already looked so tight.  We must be willing to open our hearts to have others be a part of our groups.  Because who are we to say someone would be a part of the group or not.  Think about the movie, "Yaya Sisterhood" (one of my favorites) and the diversity of the ladies who were friends.  We need diversity because we can all learn from each other.  We learn how to be a better daughter of the King, a better wife, a better mother, and a better friend when we let down our walls.  Jesus calls us to LOVE but how can we love others if we put up walls and cling to things in this life, instead of clinging to HIM.

God uses the daily things in our life to bring us closer to Him if only we will allow them to do so.  Don't look at the trials as something bad but as a chance to go deeper in your relationship with others and with God.  Cling to the TRUTHS found in God’s Word.  Cling to the PROMISES that He has given.  Cling to not only the CROSS but to the EMPTY TOMB.  

A Week Off

A week can be a good thing but it can be a bad thing as well.  The good is that we have time to catch up on office things...newsletter, receipts, finance program.  As well as trying to get everything lined up for the kids to begin their new school on May 5th.  The bad part is not being in language school for a week.  You know the saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it", well I must practice speaking in Spanish this week!  I must!  I must!

A week off can be a good thing.  We have had a great week of getting our to do list completed which is a load off my shoulders.  I have realized this week the importance of rest and how often we go, go, go and ignore what our bodies are telling us.  WE think we are invisible and can go ninety to nothing and not have consequences to our physical, mental and spiritual well being.  Each morning I have had the privilege of sending a devotional to friends back home and this had provided me such an opportunity!  Not only to strengthen my relationship with Christ but to encourage others as well.  If we are willing to be servants for Christ, you never know what doors he will open for you.

A week off can be bad thing.  I have gotten out of the "normal" routine of going to language school each day and practicing my Spanish.  I guess looking at having a week off, this might have been the only bad thing which I guess is okay.

Last night we found out that the schools will be closed again this coming week!  They have been closed for the last three weeks.  The first week was because of Samana Santa (Holy Week) and the following two weeks was a safety precaution as far as all the earthquakes we have been having.  The weird thing is we have only had two small, and I mean small, earthquakes this past week.  So to close school for another week is not logical to me but I am not in charge.  This really messes up schedules for everyone when the kids are not in school.  Can you imagine the chaos this would cause in the US if they closed schools for 4 weeks?  BOY!  We will looked to neighbors to help watch Sydney and Noah while we go to school each day from 9:00-11:30.   Well, the one thing we have learned here is you go with what you are given.  Make the best of every situation.

Praying for Wisdom and Understanding

     Oh, how I have prayed for this many times since coming on the field of Nicaragua.  I find myself praying it even more now since beginning language school.  As you read in my post several weeks ago, my tear ducts sprung a leak and I have to admit they continued to leak that very next Friday in Spanish class, Saturday morning and that afternoon.  I just didn't feel adequate.  I didn't feel like I could do anything right much less learn to speak another language.

     Well, as I began this post on February 18th I didn't feel as if anything had changed but today, March 21, 2014 and I can not say the same thing, I can now say something has changed...... my perception and my attitude.  I am where I need to be.  I am doing just fine in language school.  I can do many things right.  I must look at each day differently but I need God's help with that every day....more like every minute of every day! There are still days that I struggle with giving everything over to God.  My human, selfish side pokes its ugly head out and that is when I have to retreat back to my room for some down time before I show more of that selfish side than I already have shown (which if you know me, it's not pretty at times).
     I am not perfect and feel as if I am very transparent, probably to a flaw but I  know that God continues to use me in ALL my flaws to do His work.  The past 3 months have been very challenging at times and very rewarding at times.  We have had to truly rely on God with so many things - learning a new language, maneuvering around a large city in a foreign country, speaking enough Spanish to be able to get our point across, homeschooling our children, and the most difficult for me is our finances.  Can I just share my heart?  Well, of course, I can...I am the one writing, haha.  Anyway, it seems like since I was in college I have struggled with money.  Not in the sense of having a love of money or managing my money but being able to give our finances over to the Lord.  This is where trust comes into play.  DO I TRUST GOD?  Yes I trust that He will take care of us and provide for our needs but for some reason it seems more difficult when we are living in another country as missionaries.  It is not like I can go out and get a job to make up for any difference in our support given for the month.  So this is where we have to 1) TRUST the Lord and 2) humble ourselves to make phone calls, send emails or messages via Facebook to supporters who have not given.  The later is harder than the first.  But we know that God has us in Nicaragua for such a time as this so I know that HE will provide in ways that we can never imagine.  So, please continue to pray for us as we continue to follow where God leads!

Have you had a boo hoo moment?

     The answer is YES!  Today!  Let me set the scene. Imagine, you are in a foreign country.  You moved here just 5 short weeks ago with your family.  You do not speak the language.  You have not learned to drive here yet.  You feel like you are with your family 24-7.  You go to language school 5 days a week for 1.5 hours a day. You homeschool your 7 year old twins (who by the way are not enthusiastic about school or even you being their teacher).  You are suppose to be practicing your spanish with the  housekeeper and the gardener......YIKES!

     Okay, now that you get the picture. Today was the day that I cried but I have to say it was not uncontrollable.  It was just a few tears streaming down my face.  My brain had just had enough.  Enough of being the mama; enough of being the teacher; enough of being the student....just enough.  We got home from language school today and began to prepare lunch, like normal.  But today was different.  I was on edge and feeling like I should be able to speak the language (Spanish)  more than I am doing.  Well, you have to practice in order to be able to speak it more.  DUH~  But the thought of this today, terrified me and just made my stomach hurt.  Josh was taking time practicing with Franklin, the gardener and I was not so much.  I can't seem to remember words as easily as Josh and it is very frustrating.  I just want to wake up tomorrow and  be able to spit out the words and it make sense.

     After much practice and time I know this will happen but for the time being I will just have to settle on having a few boo hop moments as my friend Stacy Knight likes to say.  I must admit I miss my family; I miss my friends; I miss being able to just hop in the car and go somewhere; I miss having lunch or dinner with my girlfriends but for such a time as this God has me here to do His work- NOT MINE.  I am reminded of that each and everyday.  And I must remind myself that it is not about me....what?!?!?!?

     The last 2 weeks I have sent out devotions pertaining to love to my former co-workers and today spoke about faith: "Help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.” (Romans 1:12 NCV).  So today I choose to have faith in what I can not see about my future and trust that God knows what He is doing and does not need my help.  On the contrary, I need His help with everything- with speaking the language; with learning to drive here; with living with my family 24-7; with going to language school 5 days a week; with homeschooling our children; with studying and with communicating with others around me.  

     Will you choose to trust God and have faith that He has you right where He wants you to fulfill His kingdom purpose?  

30+ DAYS

I can not believe that we have been here over 30 days.  We have gotten settled in and have made our house a HOME.  We still need to purchase a few more items like a bed and side table for our guest room,  side tables for our room, office desk, and two student desk.  We are planning on getting the guest room ready since we will have a young lady from the states staying with us from February 10 - April 7.  Her name is Sarah Howell.  She is from Tupelo, MS.  Sarah will be attending language school with us each day.  She plans to assist with some medical teams and visit with other missionaries to see into the life of a missionary.  We look forward to having her with us!  I know Sydney and Noah are looking forward to having someone visit.  It will be just like when we lived back in the states.

Little did I know how much God was preparing me for the mission field over the last few years.  I know these are little things and we take them for granted at home but when we moved into our home in MS our ice maker on our refrigerator was broken so we had ice trays.  Well it is too expensive to have your ice maker make the ice here so guess what ice trays it is, which is not  big deal unless someone does not empty the ice into the container, not naming any names. Then back in April 2013 our dishwasher broke and that was the last thing on the list to fix so from April-December we hand washed dishes (even when Bethany, our MK(missionary kid) lived with us from May-August)).  Well only the families who have money have dishwashers so we hand wash our dishes. I think the thing I enjoy the most is washing and drying our clothes.  Really drying more than washing....I get to hang the laundry on the line to dry.  This is such a peaceful time.  To be outside in God's creation.  There are nights when I go outside to get the laundry off the line that I find myself singing my favorite song, "My Redeemer Lives".  I just love this song and feel so close to God when I am outside and of all things doing the laundry.

There were many days in the beginning where the time has flown by but since starting language school not so much.  I am just exhausted!  Not physically but mentally, well let me take that back I am physically exhausted as well.  Bailey, our Corgi, feels the need to bark during the night at every thing that moves.  And, I mean everything from leaves to dogs and cats walking by.  She does not care what time it is, just that she feels the need to bark.  Since we do not have a fenced in yard for the dogs to stay inside we have to walk them every morning.  So after a good (semi-good) nights rest I awake at 6:15 to take Buster and Bailey on a 1-mile walk.  I enjoy this time because I am getting my exercise in for the day as well.  If I waited to do it after all our schooling I would be good for nothing.    We were told that we would be tired but words can not prepare you for this kind of exhaustion.

We leave for language school at 9 a.m. and return home at 11:30 a.m. Once we get home it is time to prepare lunches and then the dreaded thing to Sydney and Noah....HOMESCHOOLING!  This has been a HUGE adjustment for all of us but we are realizing that we need to scale back the amount of work that we do because of already having 1 1/2 hours of Spanish classes each day.  So we look forward to Wednesdays....NO HOMESCHOOL!  WE all need a break so we picked the middle of the week.  But a normal day is homeschool from 1-3.  I have spoken to several moms here and trying to have more that 2 hours of homeschool on top of language school is hard on the kids.  So we are focusing on Math, Language Arts and Reading.

Once we have completed homeschool, this gives me about an hour to hour and a half to relax, fold clothes, answer emails, write thank you notes,  etc.  then off to begin dinner preparations.  We got to talk to Mimi and Pop (Josh's parents) last night and Mimi asked if the bowls she saw via FaceTime were ours.  I replied no.  The bowls were the Crabtree's, the plates and cups were the Brassfield's  but the silverware and place mats were ours.  You work with what you have but I will say that I will be glad to have our second shipment.  Unfortunately, that will not be until April or May.  So until then we will use what we have and continue to borrow from our friends.

I have to admit that I am missing my family and friends!  I miss being able to just hop in the car and drive somewhere by myself.  I miss being able to call up a friend from home and say do you want to get lunch or a coffee.... I am grateful that I have become friends with Beth Brassfield.  I look forward to us having time to be able to call each other and say do you want to go get a coffee or lunch today just to have some girl time.  I am reminded each day of what God has called me to here in Nicaragua and am thankful for the new relationships I am making everyday.  I pray that I can be a light of God's love to those who I meet, whether I can speak the language yet or not.

Welcome to our blog

First, let me introduce myself.  My name is Laurie, a daughter of the King, a wife, mother, sister,  and daughter.  If you asked me 5 years ago, where do you see yourself in 5 years....Nicaragua would not have been the first thing out of my mouth.  I would like to think that we would still be in the military stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY.  This is where we made our home for 5 years until my husband was grounded from flying Kiowa's due to the medication they put him on for migraines

However, since I know God is everywhere, He had a perfect plan for the calling on my husbands life. God used a time in the "desert" to bring my husband to his knees.  Literally, God used my husband deployment to Afghanistan to draw him closer to God.  This is where our lives forever changed.  My husband was being molded into a vessel that God would use for His kingdom.  Once Josh returned from deployment we found out the military was going to let my husband out of the army, so we would have to move.  We moved to Hattiesburg, MS on January 2, 2010 where we lived with his parents for what was suppose to be 6 months.  NOT!  Eighteen months later we were able to move into our own home.  During those 18 months, God continued to use family, jobs, and friends to mold not only Josh but myself as well.  

In March, 2011, we began attending Hardy Street Baptist church for my husband to take the Children/Youth/College Pastor position.  In June of that year, we began a two day a week mothers-day-out program where I became the director.  We wanted to meet the needs of the mothers in the downtown area by providing an affordable preschool where their children would be in a loving, Christian environment.  Though we only had dozen children, God would use our preschool to make an impact in so many families.  In January 2012, we expanded to become a 5 day preschool for children ages 6 weeks - 5 yrs.  We grew from 13 to 40 in a matter months and then grew again to 70+ children in the fall of that same year.  God was using us to make an impact in so many lives.  However, God had other plans for our family.

Late September 2012 our lives would begin to change.  My husband approached me about what he felt God was placing on his heart - missions.  In my head I was thinking he wanted to really get started in his non-profit organization, Mercy Aviation, that he had started years before, so I asked him was it that .....no; then I asked was it that he wanted to do more in the downtown area where our church was located......No. OH NO, please don't let it be international missions.....YES.  Yikes!  This is not what I wanted to hear.....I had already felt like I was taken out of TN before I was ready.  And after we found a church home at Temple Baptist Church, where I got involved in women's ministry and bible studies with a wonderful group of ladies Josh shares about feeling called to work at the East campus of our church, where I did not go very happily, I might add, but God molded me yet again.  I grew to love our church and the sweet people of our church.

Now it is September 2012 and God is molding our family yet again.  International Missions, you have got to be kidding me!  No, God was not kidding.  The next year would fly by faster than a speeding bullet to me!  It is like I blinked and we raised our support to be on the mission field December 31, 2013.  We knew that when we were able to raise $85,000 in 9 months it was confirmation that this is what God wanted for our lives and Nicaragua was where he wanted us to be.

As we look back over our lives we see where God was in all of our struggles, trials, joyous occasions, and our disappointments.  He has a perfect plan and the plan he had for our life, for such a time as this......is to be serving as full time career missionaries in Nicaragua.  You can follow us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/themoudymission.  If you would like to join us on a mission trip, partner with us in our ministry through prayer or financially please let us know or want more information about our Mission organization go to www.bmdmi.org.