I watched as my sweet missionary girls left this morning! Through hugs, gifts, and trying to figure out whose clothes were in what bag-they made it out the door.
There is something about young missionaries. They know that they have to go back, but the possibilities for the future are endless. They have been preparing the field for the harvest. They worked extremely hard to help us provide an ideal environment for our students. They were relentless in their vision of starting and completing each assigned task. I really can't wait to see what God does with the school and in each of their lives.
I attended a Portuguese church last Sunday. It was awesome! I recognized several old hymns and new praise songs. I met several girls that speak English and have agreed to help me along during the services! Yay! They are so sweet and eager to help me! I really like the pastor-through interpretation-his sermon was on the Bread of Life. He called us to evaluate our lives and ask ourselves-if we worked half as hard to obtain spiritual food as we do physical-where would we be? Hmm.
I worked with the group this week at the old building-painting, painting, and more painting! It took about five coats per wall! Also-they moved most of the furniture, curriculum materials, and other things to the new school!!! We will have a lot to do on August 5th (inservice starts) in order to get things organized, arranged, and ready for the students. The construction continues :)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
These are some pictures from the new school(my classroom) as well as the old one.There is tons to enjoy here, but the sunsets are completely mesmorizing.
I've been spending a lot of time with missionary kids-and I love them! Say Hi to Brody, Elise, and Melinia
The old building is exciting, amazing, and under construction. I visited twice this week and the changes were amazing :) Everyone is working so hard to get it ready for August 14th!
This week:
The group from Pennsylvania is completely amazing-I love the girls who are staying with me. I am going to be so sad when they leave! They have such a heart for God and the beauty of servanthood radiates from them! I absolutely have had an amazing time working, living, and laughing with them!
I learned how to ride the bus (funny-right?) and I was able to take it home by myself! That's exciting in a foreign country!
I'm not sure of the lesson I've learned with the laundry-all I know is that it is dripping (literally) dry in the service quarters after I have washed them in the machine.....
I'm working on establishing relationships with Brasilians and looking for a Brasilian church to attend!
Prayer Requests:
BIS-school construction, staff coming back, students, and our start date-Aug 14th
Michael and Aundrea Taylor-for their visa!
Mary Wolford-going to South Africa to serve God!
CrossPoint Baptist and Bro. Randy as they pursue serving Richmond and helping people to realize that God is the "God of their city"
Continual patience
Praises:
The walls came down at the old BIS building this week! It's beginning to look like a house!
All the new stuff at the new building!
Forming great relationships!
Friday, July 18, 2008
What can I say?
The lump of joy welled up in my throat as the last plane touched down in Brasilia. I wanted to scream and cry (for joy!)at the same time.
From there, the Boses, Jetter's, and the Livingston's greeted me. I began to put personalities with faces and faces with names.
Brasilia is beautiful-even in the dead of winter. It was love at first sight for me as I breathed the crisp/warm air and began taking in my surroundings. I visited (what is now) the old school and again placed familiar pictures with actual classrooms. The old school does have a wonderful view-just not enough wonderful rooms.
I have yet to explore the new school-I'm sure that will come very soon. We will begin the big move next week after the mission team arrives on Tuesday. I will be hosting 3 young ladies in the apartment-so that should be FUN! The apartment-is simple, safe, and has much character. The windows are HUGE and the rooms carry a breeze quite nicely. The children also brought to my attention that the floor is excellent for playing "skates". I'm sure I will kill myself on the "skating" floor before it is over :)
Prayer Requests:
**For the Missions team from Pennsylvania coming to help with the construction of the new school
**For the construction team and the swift finish so we can start school in our new building!!
**For boldness as I learn to interact with the people and speak their language in order to establish relationships with them.
**For Mary as she is getting ready for South Africa
Praises
**Well, I'm here!
**For wonderful families who are offering to have me over for supper :)
**For the Bose family-they showed me some wonderful hospitality in getting me the things I needed today :)
From there, the Boses, Jetter's, and the Livingston's greeted me. I began to put personalities with faces and faces with names.
Brasilia is beautiful-even in the dead of winter. It was love at first sight for me as I breathed the crisp/warm air and began taking in my surroundings. I visited (what is now) the old school and again placed familiar pictures with actual classrooms. The old school does have a wonderful view-just not enough wonderful rooms.
I have yet to explore the new school-I'm sure that will come very soon. We will begin the big move next week after the mission team arrives on Tuesday. I will be hosting 3 young ladies in the apartment-so that should be FUN! The apartment-is simple, safe, and has much character. The windows are HUGE and the rooms carry a breeze quite nicely. The children also brought to my attention that the floor is excellent for playing "skates". I'm sure I will kill myself on the "skating" floor before it is over :)
Prayer Requests:
**For the Missions team from Pennsylvania coming to help with the construction of the new school
**For the construction team and the swift finish so we can start school in our new building!!
**For boldness as I learn to interact with the people and speak their language in order to establish relationships with them.
**For Mary as she is getting ready for South Africa
Praises
**Well, I'm here!
**For wonderful families who are offering to have me over for supper :)
**For the Bose family-they showed me some wonderful hospitality in getting me the things I needed today :)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Newsletter 1
Dear Family/Friends,
I am so overwhelmed by your outpouring of love, encouragement, support, prayers, and gifts. Please know that each comment, card, call, and act of service is deeply appreciated. I recently acquired my visa and didn’t waste any time booking an airline ticket. Finally, after 9 months, I am scheduled to leave on July 17th from Cincinnati.
I attended training in Southaven, Mississippi with about 164 other missionaries and their families.. I learned about teaching, culture, communicating, transitioning, students, and resources-just to name a few. Through the training, God showed me some great things and really prepared me for the next two years at Brasilia International School. I am fortunate to be serving with the Network of Christian Schools.
I carry bits and pieces of you with me all the time. The beginning feelings of joy and excitement are conflicting with sadness as I’m missing you all. Thank you for all of the beautiful memories over the last few months and over a lifetime. I am so appreciative to God and to you all as He worked through your lives to impact mine.
Many of you have prayer cards. The address on these cards is no longer correct. They moved the three single girls into an apartment closer to our new school. I will send you the school address as soon as possible. It will be easier for me to get all my mail there (since I will be there the majority of my time). Thank you for your diligence to pray-God has blessed me immensely. Also, God provided a new school for us! We went from two small houses to a 53 classroom building!!!
I will be communicating through mail on a monthly basis. This will allow me to share what is going on in the school as well as relay prayer requests and praises as they occur. Please do not hesitate to drop me a note or send me an e-mail if there are things that I can pray about. I am definitely excited about staying in touch and hearing about how God is working in your lives. Please drop me notes, pictures, and e-mails telling me how you are doing. I will always want to hear from you. I don’t want to come home at Christmas and not know what is going on in your lives.
In Christ Alone,
Amanda Bolin <><>
Monday, June 30, 2008
Pre-Field Orientation
Well, the first week went off without a hitch!! I really love most of the sessions and felt challenged to embrace these things! I am completely amazed at the wealth of information being presented. There are several aspects of International teaching that I did not realize! I am truly grateful to the NICS for making us come and giving us a relaxed venue to understand these cultural, personal, and teaching differences. I'm glad that everything worked out this way-in order for me to attend this orientation. God knows what He is doing! (of course!). I think I would have been a bit of a mess without all of this!
I am also networking and learning how to be a roommate (like literally in the same room) with several (5) people at a time. I walked in unsure how this was going to work and questioning a lot of things. Upon giving it up to God-it works very well. Our personalities and lives seemed so different at first. (We all have Jesus in common-of course) Then-within a moment of mentioning a childhood favorite movie-"Anne of Green Gables"-we've begun to really spend the last part of our day (every day) watching this together-in community. We do lots of other things in community as well-Bible Studies (love them), corporate worship, our sessions, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then taking random "field trips-as i call them" to be good little tourists. This has been excellent for us as we realize what we will deal with overseas.
1 Peter has been the focus for Bible Studies this week. We've been looking at self-control, humility, hospitality, love, and hope. I think we're all walking around seriously evaluating ourselves in order to better serve others. That is what all of this is about-Who we are, how we can use our strengths, what we need to work on, and how God can use all of this to glorify Himself. There is glory in our weaknesses and shortcomings-when we see that these areas require much prayer. I find that I lean on Him more and more when assessing my weaknesses.
On Wednesday, we will talk about "suffering victouriously which brings many opportunities to think about great heroes of the faith in the Bible and today. :)
More Later!!!!
I am also networking and learning how to be a roommate (like literally in the same room) with several (5) people at a time. I walked in unsure how this was going to work and questioning a lot of things. Upon giving it up to God-it works very well. Our personalities and lives seemed so different at first. (We all have Jesus in common-of course) Then-within a moment of mentioning a childhood favorite movie-"Anne of Green Gables"-we've begun to really spend the last part of our day (every day) watching this together-in community. We do lots of other things in community as well-Bible Studies (love them), corporate worship, our sessions, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then taking random "field trips-as i call them" to be good little tourists. This has been excellent for us as we realize what we will deal with overseas.
1 Peter has been the focus for Bible Studies this week. We've been looking at self-control, humility, hospitality, love, and hope. I think we're all walking around seriously evaluating ourselves in order to better serve others. That is what all of this is about-Who we are, how we can use our strengths, what we need to work on, and how God can use all of this to glorify Himself. There is glory in our weaknesses and shortcomings-when we see that these areas require much prayer. I find that I lean on Him more and more when assessing my weaknesses.
On Wednesday, we will talk about "suffering victouriously which brings many opportunities to think about great heroes of the faith in the Bible and today. :)
More Later!!!!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon
:) I was reading up on Spurgeon today and came upon an online copy of his wife's biography. Beautifully written and eloquently expressed her feelings as well as his throughout their lives.
It is so encouraging to read about women like Mrs. Spurgeon and the experiences she had throughout her life being a wife to such an amazing man.
“Ah!” wrote Mrs. Spurgeon in after years, “how little I then thought that my eyes looked on him who was to be my life’s beloved; how little I dreamed of the honor God was preparing for me in the near future! It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else might we sometimes turn away from our best blessings, and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of His providence. For, if the whole truth be told, I was not at all fascinated by the young orator’s eloquence, while his countrified manner and speech excited more regret than reverence. Alas, for my vain and foolish heart! I was not spiritually-minded enough to understand his earnest presentation of the Gospel and his powerful pleading with sinners; - but the huge, black satin stock, the long badly-trimmed hair, and the blue pocket handkerchief with white spots which he himself has so graphically described, - these attracted most of my attention and I fear awakened some feelings of amusement. There was only one sentence of the whole sermon which I carried away with me, and that solely on account of its quaintness, for it seemed to me an extraordinary thing for the preacher to speak of the ‘living stones in the Heavenly Temple perfectly joined together with the vermilion cement of Christ’s blood.’”
Interested in the book as a whole? http://www.biblebb.com/files/SPURGEON/mrsspur.htm
I highly recommend it!
It is so encouraging to read about women like Mrs. Spurgeon and the experiences she had throughout her life being a wife to such an amazing man.
“Ah!” wrote Mrs. Spurgeon in after years, “how little I then thought that my eyes looked on him who was to be my life’s beloved; how little I dreamed of the honor God was preparing for me in the near future! It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else might we sometimes turn away from our best blessings, and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of His providence. For, if the whole truth be told, I was not at all fascinated by the young orator’s eloquence, while his countrified manner and speech excited more regret than reverence. Alas, for my vain and foolish heart! I was not spiritually-minded enough to understand his earnest presentation of the Gospel and his powerful pleading with sinners; - but the huge, black satin stock, the long badly-trimmed hair, and the blue pocket handkerchief with white spots which he himself has so graphically described, - these attracted most of my attention and I fear awakened some feelings of amusement. There was only one sentence of the whole sermon which I carried away with me, and that solely on account of its quaintness, for it seemed to me an extraordinary thing for the preacher to speak of the ‘living stones in the Heavenly Temple perfectly joined together with the vermilion cement of Christ’s blood.’”
Interested in the book as a whole? http://www.biblebb.com/files/SPURGEON/mrsspur.htm
I highly recommend it!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Notes from Nepal
My father sent this e-mail to me late last night. He is teaching in a seminary in Nepal and witnessing some pretty crazy things. I imagine that all the years of reading about Baal in the Old Testament has conceptualized for him in these days. I'm not sure of their choice of worship-but seemingly it is the same.
Deuteronomy 4:15-19
15 "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven
Carol and Amanda,
Just a small email to let you know that we made it to Kathmandu and things are going well. The filights went so good and the hospitality is off the charts. We are going to Cimara by small plane this morning to the place where we will teach the pastors.We went to a Hidu temple last night and watched Hindu people cremate the bodies of their loved ones. It was an eye opener. IN China the temples and altars were numerous but there wasn't a lot going on there because these where just museum peices and not real places of worship. Communism had taught the people that there is no God so tourist come and spend money to see these places but no real worship is going on there. Here they have the temples and the incense burning but it is not a show. They are serious about their paganism. I have so much to say that I will share when I get home. Keep Nepal in your prayers.I love you all and will email again soon.loveKen
I responded to Dad saying that these people may bow down and worship these things, but this is what we do as well. Ours is disguised in boats, clothes, ornate buildings, celebrities, and so many other material things. We do not bow down and literally worship-but we hold these things above God and allow ourselves to worship them by taking our attention and time away from God and the things important to God. It causes me to question what may be a crutch in my life.....
Deuteronomy 4:15-19
15 "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven
Carol and Amanda,
Just a small email to let you know that we made it to Kathmandu and things are going well. The filights went so good and the hospitality is off the charts. We are going to Cimara by small plane this morning to the place where we will teach the pastors.We went to a Hidu temple last night and watched Hindu people cremate the bodies of their loved ones. It was an eye opener. IN China the temples and altars were numerous but there wasn't a lot going on there because these where just museum peices and not real places of worship. Communism had taught the people that there is no God so tourist come and spend money to see these places but no real worship is going on there. Here they have the temples and the incense burning but it is not a show. They are serious about their paganism. I have so much to say that I will share when I get home. Keep Nepal in your prayers.I love you all and will email again soon.loveKen
I responded to Dad saying that these people may bow down and worship these things, but this is what we do as well. Ours is disguised in boats, clothes, ornate buildings, celebrities, and so many other material things. We do not bow down and literally worship-but we hold these things above God and allow ourselves to worship them by taking our attention and time away from God and the things important to God. It causes me to question what may be a crutch in my life.....
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