The one with the important stuff

So the past few days have been fairly quiet, and I mean that literally. Vero is the only one in the house that speaks English and since she is still in Dakar, communication has gotten pretty interesting to say the least. My rusty French and rudimentary Wolof is no match for the Babel curse. So we've been picking up a side career in miming which has been entertaining for all parties. Also if you know anything about Andi or I, you probably know about our affinity for accents, which I'm almost entirely sure that the girls don't understand but along with the rest of our American ways they seem to find hilarious. This all goes to say that we've had a lot of very pointed "quiet time" and we've been praying the entire time that we've been here that we would
1) Reflect Christ well to the people around us
2) Serve as He did
3) Grow in our relationships with Him.
I hope that we have been doing the first, He is teaching us patience and to trust His plans with the second, and has been blowing. us. away. with the third. And I had a thought- shocking I know- but we share every other detail of our crazy lives here with all of you so why not share what we've learned about our Father since we've been here? I haven't really talked this over with Andi but she has full veto power with the delete key once I've gone to shower so it's worth a shot, right? I'm kind of hoping that every once and a while we can fill you guys in on what the Lord is teaching us through His Word, and we hope and pray that you will be edified and grow with us. It'll be fun. Promise. Mmmmmkay so here we go.

The book of James (the sparknotes version as interpreted by Marissa and Andi with a bit of help from our good friend Ben Stuart) (in order to make this less than a small novel we're going to stick to the parts directly applicable to our experiences here)

• Trials - Oh hello there Africa. I didn't know you would be hitting us head on so soon. good to know we have the greatest book of instruction, encouragement, and peace in the world to get us through the next 10 weeks. James tells us to "consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds" I don't know about you but having hives on my chest, neck, and face, having unintentional botox, and revisiting my meals about halfway through digestions isn't really my idea of "joy" but the trials themselves are not what we get our joy from. It's what the trials produce (perseverance, maturity, completeness, wisdom, and ultimately a closer relationship with our creator) that give us joy. Ben called it a "Severe Mercy" that makes you realize your own weakness so that you lean on God. It seems so silly that I keep trying to do things on my own without help when I have the Creator of the Universe telling me to rely on Him. As for temptation, the things I got from it were where it stems from and what to do when, not if, it comes. Where does it come from: Us, not God. He tests us but He will never tempt us. Check Genesis 3. The Fall. It comes from the wrong idea that God is holding out something good on us. He doesn't. He's a good dad.
• Faith and Works - This was hugely impactful to us which is the only reason we're even attempting to communicate something so easily misinterpreted with you. Things that we had to keep in mind when studying this (and ask you to do the same): 1) The Bible is a whole. Scripture can be easily twisted when taken out of context and read by itself 2) The Bible is "God-breathed"-2Tim 3:16. He wrote the Book. To say that it contradicts itself is to say that He contradicts Himself. Which is not true! With that in mind, James and Paul weren't at odds in their teaching of faith in Romans 3 and James 2. At first glance it looks like James is telling you that we're justified by our works. In fact vs 24 even says "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." But before you discount anything I say from now on lets look at some definitions of justify:  1) The action of declaring or making righteous in the sight of God. 2) The action of showing something to be right or reasonable. Ok now keep those in mind because they'll come in handy later. From Paul's teaching we see that some members of the church had misinterpreted his words (For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law-Rom 3:28) and were saying that because we are saved by faith alone, they could "do evil that good may result." Obviously, so that we could do evil on purpose was not the reason that Christ went to the cross. He did it so that we would see our sin and the pain they cause us and others and turn away from it and towards Him and by doing so, "began a good work in us" (Phil 1:6) Aka we don't become perfect the minute we're saved. We're still messed up, but God doesn't just watch as we duke it out ourselves, He gives us The Spirit and begins to mold us into His image. *Here's the part where you can reference the definitions from earlier.* We are justified (1) by faith apart from works.AND You see that a man is justified (2) by his works. Having faith in Christ and His Spirit in you is going to show in the way you love Him and His people, but it's not why we're right with God. " For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast."-Ephesians 2:9  We're still going to sin, we're a broken people, but we're called to in those moments look to God for our help out of it and not continue, saying "well I'll be forgiven for it later"  Justification (we're made right with God)-> Sanctification (God uses His Spirit to mold us into His image) -> Glorification (we get to spend eternity in the splendor, might, and overwhelming LOVE of our Father)
• Prayer in Faith - This was a super encouraging part to work through because basically what it's saying is that our Dad, the King of Kings, wants us to come to Him with Everything. This is directly from Ben's talk on the subject but its an image that really hit me.                                                           "When John F. Kennedy was President of the United States, Life magazine published photos of his children, John Jr. and Caroline, playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval Office. Those images captured the hearts of the American people like nothing before or since. Why? I think it's because it bridged a gap between two thoughts: Kennedy was the President of the United States, but he was also a father. He held ultimate political power in the Free World, but playing at this feet were two little kids who called him Daddy. I don't think your kids would have been allowed to do that. Nor mine. But his kids were. Why? He was their father. He was not only President of the United States; he was also their dad. In the same way, God is both our Father and the Lord of Glory. We can approach Him confidently in prayer because we are His dearly beloved children, but we must never forget that He is also the Sovereign of the universe.” (David Jeremiah, Prayer the Great Adventure pp. 89-90)                            So basically what it comes down to is this: When you're going through something hard, talk to Him, He will help you through it. When things are going wonderfully, praise Him because He did it. When you're sick, pray "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective"-James 5:16 Another important thing to get from this chapter is an understanding that we, as a species, have horrible vision. We can only see what is right in front of us and the funny thing is, the more unpleasant it is, the harder time we have with not looking at it. God sees the entirety of creation. All of time. He knows what's best for us and that is what He's going to do, but He won't leave you alone in hard times. So turn to Him. I know I've said this before but He is such a good Dad.

As for the rest of our days they really have been quiet. We had a few funny moments most of which had to do with the fact that we, as a household, can't communicate well. Sophee during one of our meals, I think, was trying to tell us to eat more but she did a gesture that cracked me up and prompted me to say "You're trying to make us fat?" and she, thinking I'd understood her, said yes very emphatically. We also went to the store and bought some yogurt, an orange, and a sprite yesterday. (Yay vitamins! -A) I am not kidding when I say that I felt super luxurious. Livin' da lyfe in Senegal.

Love and miss you guys,
Marsa and Andi