Growing and Pruning

02 Feb Growing and Pruning

NOTE:  The government of Honduras frowns upon American non-profits using the images and names of children living as orphans or in foster situations.  As a result, we have chosen to use nicknames or initials to identify the beautiful little people living at our children’s home!

Can you believe it is February of 2016, where has the time gone? It was just 1 year ago this week that our family moved to Santiago and opened the Sparrow Missions Children’s Home!  In just a year, there has been a lot of change!  Shortly after getting settled, we began to welcome four beautiful babies to our home.  This year, we will celebrate first birthdays with three of them!  In June we welcome Chris and Alishia Weeks as our first house parents and just weeks ago they open their house to three new children!  Talk about life changing quickly!  Please keep them in your prayers as they transition into life with three kids!

Talk about time moving quickly! The past twelve months has been a blur.  I can still clearly remember getting up in the middle of the night with each one of the babies and trying to learn how to juggle this new life with six children, four of which were babies. Um, I’m actually still learning how to juggle it Haha!  But God continues to ever so skillfully craft me into the woman He wants me to be, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

All of the children here are doing great! Tara and Ella just recently made friends who live close by. This is an amazing answer to all of our prayers. We all really felt like Tara and Ella needed friends to feel more at home here in Honduras. I love to hear their laughter and see their pink, sweaty faces. I am also so thankful for Alishia, because if she hadn’t been giving English classes here Saturday mornings, they may have never met. God continues to use Alishia to bless us and the community of Santiago, Honduras. My heart is full over God’s attention to detail in all of our lives.

AB is doing well. She is working hard at trying to move around the house more. Recently, she has started trying to reach toys that are farther away and is doing a great job pulling up to stand with your assistance and the assistance of her crib.  Little Y is cruising all over the place and practicing standing on her own. Before I know it, she will be walking, not crawling.  Mimi is crawling all over the place. At seven months, I am not sure what to think. She might be walking far before 12 months of age!  Baby boy, is doing much better too. His reflux is under control and he is much happier and healthier than ever before. What a joy it is to watch them all grow and develop!

When I talk about the children’s home, I must mention our other wonderful staff – Lilian, Emy and Marvin. Lilian and Emy frequently bring their sons to work with them and it’s always fun to hear all the laughter and playing going on inside and outside. I am confident there aren’t many more sounds any better than the happy sounds children make when they are playing and having fun. Marvin has recently joined us to help around the property and he has done SO much in his first few weeks of work.  I am continually thankful for the addition he brings to our team. We can now see the beautiful mountains much better when we look out our windows and we are much less concerned about our children’s safety since he has been cleaning up a lot of brush around the property. Please pray for us as Marvin, Chris and Eric continue to look for the coral snake who is having babies on the property!! Yeah, snakes!! Marvin found a number of baby snakes around our houses a few weeks ago and they are still looking for the mother.

All this talk about growing, doing new things and pruning plants has me thinking about how I should be doing all those things in my Christian life. Every day, I should know God better than the day before and be able to put my faith into action more easily than in the past. 2 Peter 3:7-18 says,

“Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity” (HCSB).

I should be growing and maturing in my knowledge of Christ and the scriptures every day. When I look back over 2015, I can definitely see areas where God has taught me so much about Himself and myself. That said, I’ve still got a LOT of growing to do in 2016!

Lastly, it may not always feel pleasant, but God should always be pruning me too. He should be showing me places in my life where I need to trust Him more, areas of sin that I need to give Him control of and characteristics about myself that aren’t pleasing to Him. I have always really like the passage in John chapter 12 where Jesus talks about the wheat seed needing to die to produce more fruit.

“I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop. The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus was thinking about His own death on the cross. In verses 27 and 28 He says, “Now My soul is troubled. What should I say- Father, save me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!”

Jesus knew He would soon have to die and He understood that if He didn’t die, billions of people would die and go to hell. He HAD to die for the sins of the world. He wasn’t looking forward to His death with great cheer, but He did willingly walk the path because He knew it was what was best. God prunes me, He requires that the will and desires of Roxanne die, so I can bear a greater harvest. I must walk faithfully through the hard times because I know the end result, His glorification, is greater than any present pain I must endure.

These things don’t only apply to me because I am serving God in Honduras. They apply to me because I am a child of God. God needs missionaries in every part of the world, your city included. Wherever we live, we can continue to grow in our knowledge and love of Christ. We can continue to learn more about the trinity in His word and we can continue to practice listening through study and prayer. Let’s make 2016 the best year we’ve lived yet. My prayer is that we look back over it and see how God has grown us and pruned us to look so much more like His Son, Jesus.

Blessings! Roxanna