Angie leading devotions with several of her younger siblings.Angie, our eldest daughter, who is 17 years old, has begun an activity the last several weeks that has truly left me marveling at the Lord's work in her heart over these last 6 years she has been a part of our family. She has begun evening devotions several times a week with several of her younger siblings: Jocelin, Caleb and Ruth. Once a week, our three oldest daughters have youth group with the Marshall Family. Well, Ruth has been asking to have a "Little People's Group", so Angie has started one! They get together, in my office or in Angie's room, and Angie has Jocelin and Caleb read several Bible verses. They are both learning how to read and now enjoy participating in family devotions, also. Four year old Ruth "follows along" in her Bible! Part of their devotional activities include reading a chapter out of a book that highlights different countries from around the world in order to pray about them. The book tells about the country, shares testimonies from that place and prayer requests. I couldn't believe it when I heard Ruth say to me the other night: "We prayed for Afghanistan tonight."!
Last week, there was an evening in which Angie's homework was taking much longer than usual and she was unable to have her devotions with the kids. Both Caleb and Ruth began to cry! Wow! How many pastors could say that their church members cry when a Bible study is cancelled?!
For me, what really impacts me are several aspects of this: 1) Angie spends A LOT of time in school everyday (roughly 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. with breaks for meals) as she is trying to do two school years in one in order to get caught up (she didn't start formal school until she was 11 years old!). 2) Therefore, her evening hours are when she has to practice piano, prep her Sunday School class for Sunday and when she could have a few minutes to relax by herself, but she uses that time to lead devotions with her younger siblings! 3) There is no way that I would have tried to get my younger brother to do devotions with me when I was 17! (Granted, he was 15 when I was 17, maybe THAT was the problem! :-)
Last week, there was an evening in which Angie's homework was taking much longer than usual and she was unable to have her devotions with the kids. Both Caleb and Ruth began to cry! Wow! How many pastors could say that their church members cry when a Bible study is cancelled?!
For me, what really impacts me are several aspects of this: 1) Angie spends A LOT of time in school everyday (roughly 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. with breaks for meals) as she is trying to do two school years in one in order to get caught up (she didn't start formal school until she was 11 years old!). 2) Therefore, her evening hours are when she has to practice piano, prep her Sunday School class for Sunday and when she could have a few minutes to relax by herself, but she uses that time to lead devotions with her younger siblings! 3) There is no way that I would have tried to get my younger brother to do devotions with me when I was 17! (Granted, he was 15 when I was 17, maybe THAT was the problem! :-)
We are proud of all that the Lord has done,
is doing and will continue to do in and through Angie's life!
is doing and will continue to do in and through Angie's life!
Ruth "reading" her Bible during devotions with Angie.One of Ruth's outstanding characteristics is her spiritual knowledge and faith. (Maybe the fact that she shares a bedroom with Angie has something to do with this!) She knows her Bible stories like a little four year old theologian. Each evening, as I read her children's Bible to her, I can never get all the way through the Bible story without her interrupting to add some fact that wasn't included in the children's version of the telling; to inform me as to what happened before or after that particular story; or to apply the principles learned from that story to real life ("So, that means, we should....")
The kids take turns praying for meals and after devotions. Whenever it is Ruth's turn she ALWAYS prays: "Heal Danny's heart more." What is interesting is that she used to just pray: "Heal Danny's heart." Two or three months ago she added the "more" at the end. Does she have the faith and the belief that God has already begun to heal his heart and it just needs to be healed a bit more? I don't doubt it! Why do I think that? If you recall, when we first got the call about Daniel and were ready to go to Veracruz to pick him up, we got a second call telling us not to go because there was another couple interested in adopting him. For the next 6 weeks we did not know if Daniel would be adopted by the other couple or if he would eventually become a part of our family. However, during that time, Ruth would pray for and talk about Daniel as if he were already a part of our family. I thought it was just her limited 3 year old vocabulary and understanding, at the time, that prevented her from fully comprehending what was going on and expressing accurately that Daniel may never come to live with us. But, each time that I would correct her and try to explain that we didn't know God's plan for Daniel's life, Ruth would insist that he was her brother and was coming to live with us. That is exactly what ended up happening!
Ruth LOVES learning and adores school! She is ready to start kindergarten, but we have to figure out a way to make the school schedule work so that Lucy, Vero and I can cover all of the different students, levels and activities. Please pray for creativity in solving that problem so that Ruth can start school soon! She is now in a stage where she identifies the first syllable of nearly everything we say! That makes conversations with her take just a bit longer!
The kids take turns praying for meals and after devotions. Whenever it is Ruth's turn she ALWAYS prays: "Heal Danny's heart more." What is interesting is that she used to just pray: "Heal Danny's heart." Two or three months ago she added the "more" at the end. Does she have the faith and the belief that God has already begun to heal his heart and it just needs to be healed a bit more? I don't doubt it! Why do I think that? If you recall, when we first got the call about Daniel and were ready to go to Veracruz to pick him up, we got a second call telling us not to go because there was another couple interested in adopting him. For the next 6 weeks we did not know if Daniel would be adopted by the other couple or if he would eventually become a part of our family. However, during that time, Ruth would pray for and talk about Daniel as if he were already a part of our family. I thought it was just her limited 3 year old vocabulary and understanding, at the time, that prevented her from fully comprehending what was going on and expressing accurately that Daniel may never come to live with us. But, each time that I would correct her and try to explain that we didn't know God's plan for Daniel's life, Ruth would insist that he was her brother and was coming to live with us. That is exactly what ended up happening!
Ruth LOVES learning and adores school! She is ready to start kindergarten, but we have to figure out a way to make the school schedule work so that Lucy, Vero and I can cover all of the different students, levels and activities. Please pray for creativity in solving that problem so that Ruth can start school soon! She is now in a stage where she identifies the first syllable of nearly everything we say! That makes conversations with her take just a bit longer!
Martha cleaning the warehouse/kitchen/dining roomthis past Sunday.
As some of you may know, Victor is leading a crusade to the state of Guerrero this week. About half of those who live and work at Refuge Ranch went on that crusade, along with our three largest vehicles! This meant that Magda went to church this past Sunday in our Ford Focus (and this coming Sunday) only with the older girls that HAD to go to church due to their ministry commitments, while I stayed home alone with the younger children. The crusade team had pulled out early that morning, after spending all day Saturday in the warehouse area of the main house preparing and packing things for the crusade and after having eaten breakfast (all 30 or so of them) early that morning. Needless, to say the warehouse/kitchen/dining room was not a pretty sight!
After taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep in, Martha got up, got dressed and immediately went directly to the warehouse and started cleaning! She is 12 years old! Cleaning the warehouse was no small task - it was a mess! In fact, earlier that morning I had cleaned up our house and then thought: "I really need to clean the warehouse! Forget it! I want to relax today some too! I'll have the older girls do it when they get home from church!" Surpise! Martha took care of it! She did a stupendous and thorough job! Can you tell I was impressed? With 12 children, plus four staff children around all day, I actually spend most of the day making sure that they are all doing what they SHOULD be doing: making their beds, doing their chores, studying, putting their laundry away, etc. I feel like an official "make sure you do what you are supposed to do" police officer! So much of the time they haven't done what they were supposed to do and must be told to do what they already know they have to do, that when they do something that they don't even have to do without being told - that is about as close to parting the Red Sea as we get!
When Martha joined our family 6 years ago, she could not speak Spanish or read or write any language. Her right hand was nearly useless due to some kind of defect that has never been identified. So, she couldn't bathe herself, button her clothing or cut her own meat. Severe dyslexia made learning her numbers from 0-10 a tearful experience for both of us! Now, she reads and writes in both Spanish and English, if I hadn't told you about her difficulties with her right hand you would never even notice any difference now and she is learning how to multiply! Her life's dream? To be president of Mexico or a missionary!
After taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep in, Martha got up, got dressed and immediately went directly to the warehouse and started cleaning! She is 12 years old! Cleaning the warehouse was no small task - it was a mess! In fact, earlier that morning I had cleaned up our house and then thought: "I really need to clean the warehouse! Forget it! I want to relax today some too! I'll have the older girls do it when they get home from church!" Surpise! Martha took care of it! She did a stupendous and thorough job! Can you tell I was impressed? With 12 children, plus four staff children around all day, I actually spend most of the day making sure that they are all doing what they SHOULD be doing: making their beds, doing their chores, studying, putting their laundry away, etc. I feel like an official "make sure you do what you are supposed to do" police officer! So much of the time they haven't done what they were supposed to do and must be told to do what they already know they have to do, that when they do something that they don't even have to do without being told - that is about as close to parting the Red Sea as we get!
When Martha joined our family 6 years ago, she could not speak Spanish or read or write any language. Her right hand was nearly useless due to some kind of defect that has never been identified. So, she couldn't bathe herself, button her clothing or cut her own meat. Severe dyslexia made learning her numbers from 0-10 a tearful experience for both of us! Now, she reads and writes in both Spanish and English, if I hadn't told you about her difficulties with her right hand you would never even notice any difference now and she is learning how to multiply! Her life's dream? To be president of Mexico or a missionary!
She is a powerful testimony to the transforming power
of the presence of Jesus Christ in somebody's life!
of the presence of Jesus Christ in somebody's life!
Fidel working on one of his inventions/creationsThis past Sunday, Fidel was infected by Martha's burst of helpfulness and he joined her in cleaning up the warehouse area! Then, twice throughout the day, he took the broom out of my hands as I was sweeping in order to finish the job himself! He did so in normal Fidel style...no words involved! Fidel is a quiet guy and so many times I pray that the Lord would reveal his thoughts to me to know what is really going on in his head!
Besides being an excellent soccer player (pray that we could find a good quality team to put him on with no Sunday games or practices and with a coach that emphasizes character more than winning!), he is also very creative! Fidel could win a prize for recycling! His bedroom looks like a recycling station! So many odds and ends that we throw away end up in his room to be used to make something else! He is a great artist, loves to take broken electrical appliances apart and also enjoys building "things" out of cardboard, styrofoam and any other materials he can get his hands on.
Besides all that....he is seriously a world class Connect Four player! If you ever come to Refuge Ranch I challenge you to challenge Fidel to a game of Connect Four and see if you can win! I highly doubt it! Grandpa Claassen (my dad) tries every time he is here and is very rarely successful - although the 6 months between each of his trips to Mexico provides the time for him to get hopeful and pumped up, only to be beaten by Fidel.....once again!
Besides being an excellent soccer player (pray that we could find a good quality team to put him on with no Sunday games or practices and with a coach that emphasizes character more than winning!), he is also very creative! Fidel could win a prize for recycling! His bedroom looks like a recycling station! So many odds and ends that we throw away end up in his room to be used to make something else! He is a great artist, loves to take broken electrical appliances apart and also enjoys building "things" out of cardboard, styrofoam and any other materials he can get his hands on.
Besides all that....he is seriously a world class Connect Four player! If you ever come to Refuge Ranch I challenge you to challenge Fidel to a game of Connect Four and see if you can win! I highly doubt it! Grandpa Claassen (my dad) tries every time he is here and is very rarely successful - although the 6 months between each of his trips to Mexico provides the time for him to get hopeful and pumped up, only to be beaten by Fidel.....once again!
We pray that the Lord would plant in Fidel's heart
a vision, dream and passion for his future!
Bonus Pictures!
Daniel, Ana and Ruth taking a bath together:I love the rainbow effect with the skin colors!
I wanted to include this picture on my last blog about Caleb, but I forgot! This past Sunday built this "water park" all by himself and I thought that it was very creative!
1 comment:
Carl & Jean Wadsworth, Dundee, Mi., formerly of S.B.C., still love the Zaragoza Family and Rev. & Mrs., Classen.
Though, I have neglected to keep up with the blogs, I've asked the Lord to help me be more faithful to stay "In Touch" with this special missionary family.
God loves you and so do we.
Carl & Jean Wadsworth
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