It's all about LOVE...

As I was about to begin this letter I was going to start by saying “Happy Easter,” but I then began thinking about what that means and implies…..so instead I would like to say “May you be able to remember the true reason for the season, that Christ not only was crucified, but the best part, that HE ROSE AGAIN and is living today!”

Last night we celebrated the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. We read verses from the Bible talking about light and that when Christ is real inside of us, when we are walking with Him and enjoying a relationship with Him, light shines through Him out of us! WOW! I don’t know about you, but I have met many people whom I know are Christians and living out their faith because I see it in their eyes! I've also met people for the first time and seen a spark in their eyes, a joy….wow I want to be like that! I want Jesus to be so real to me, so vibrant in my life that it can’t help but shine through all my faulty cracks. To be known as someone who glows for Jesus!

We have a full weekend with our students coming up, and then our last week with them. It’s crazy how 14 weeks can fly by! I am sad to see our time together coming to a close, but I am excited to see how the flame is going to catch as they leave this place…..just like last night. 

We as staff are busy as we get ready for the small graduation ceremony we’ll be holding on Friday, and all the ending activities and classes we have this next week.  We’re also thinking of our next term that we’re already starting to plan and thinking how we can better do what we do. How we can better facilitate those the Lord brings to us at the school. Pray for us as we have evaluation meetings after school ends, as we seek the Lord and what HE has in mind for next year! Exciting times, and yet a huge responsibility…..we don’t want to take it lightly but be wise with the positions God has placed us in for such a time as this.

May this find you blessed in remembering the sacrifice the Son of God made on our behalf….humbling Himself to death, not just any death, but death on a cross. Oh how He loves YOU and ME!

A scripture that has been repeatedly stuck in my head these days is the following….well known, but are we living it? Do we love others like Christ loved us?

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end."

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

I Will Never Forget THIS for the Rest of My Life

Date: January 19, 2012

Place: CEC classroom/living room area

Preface: Class on Spiritual Discipline of Service

Previously that day, in class, Eric and Roxana (our head teachers) shared from Matthew 13:4; 13:14-15 on Jesus washing his disciple’s feet. They shared how he did not come to this world to BE SERVED but to SERVE. Eric and Roxana showed this example like Jesus did, putting on the towel then washing the feet of two students. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. The impact of this class will forever change the students and will forever be remembered by all who were there.

Present/Evening Class: Sharing the Lord’s Supper

If one was looking in from outside you would see people gathered together in a small living room. You would see what looked like a large family, even though different cultures are represented. You would see joy, tears, sorrow, and especially a light shining in the eyes of each face.

This is what was experienced from inside the room.

Jesus Miranda spoke first, which is different because he's usually really quiet. But he went on to say that when Eric and Roxana were washing Mary and José Luis's feet, he was changed. He saw this action at this time for what it really meant, how Jesus at one time had performed this same service and humbled Himself with a towel around him, washing his disciple’s feet. Jesus Miranda said that he sees people in a new light, that he saw how much the Father loves his people, and that he (Jesus Miranda) will love people in a different way because of today. “I will never forget this for the rest of my life.” 

Then Beny shared that this last week has brought to his attention the need to forgive people in his past. Family members and close friends who have hurt him incredibly. He started contacting them, letting them know that he's forgiven and loves them.

Luis shared that he was touched by the feet washing, and that for him was special, that these teachers would lower themselves in this way....he went on to say that it brought an even clearer perspective on Christ lowering Himself and how much He went though, and what all He did for him.

Noé, another student, through tears and sobs led the Lord's supper. He was so broken, humble, and in agony over the pain Christ went through on our behalf. I have never seen a more broken group remembering together what Christ did on the cross for OUR sins. The price of HIS perfect life paid for OUR sins. I will forever remember this sacrifice, and forever remember the night we shared with these precious students.....a night of openness, honesty, brokenness, humbleness, and joy.

This is what we're experiencing here at CEC...God is doing awesome things and I count it a privilege to be a part of training up missionaries and workers to head out into our world to share the life-changing news of what Christ did for each and everyone one of us.

-katie