Well, there you have it. Hope you enjoyed! And make sure to send us along your e-mail address for future updates at dan.kari.straley@gmail.com. God bless!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Newsletter Time!
So I've been avoiding working on our Newsletter! I finally finished and was super excited to send it out to everyone... but I then I realized that e-mail was the only platform I had to share it through...boo. Sadly, I have very few of those for all of you who I am most excited to share it with. But did I let that stop me!?? Of course not! I took some screen shots that I'll share with you here...
Well, there you have it. Hope you enjoyed! And make sure to send us along your e-mail address for future updates at dan.kari.straley@gmail.com. God bless!
Well, there you have it. Hope you enjoyed! And make sure to send us along your e-mail address for future updates at dan.kari.straley@gmail.com. God bless!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Offering a Sacrafice of Praise
This passage comes from "Common Prayer" by Shane Claiborne, Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma. I am simply copying instead of summarizing or rewording because they have done a better job then I could, but to be fair there are three of them.
"
There is an old saying many Christians use: "Offer the Lord a sacrifice of praise," refering to Hebrews 13:15. In many circles this notion of a "sacrifice of praise" almost becomes cliche. (Perhaps because worship does not often come at much cost, especially compared with the sacrifices of saints who've gone before us.) But when we worship with folks of various traditions, there are times when we may hear a prayer that uses language we might not naturally use or sing a song that isn't really our style. That is part of what it means to be a member of a community as diverse as the church is. And perhaps that also helps shed some light on why it might require some sacrifice for us to give up ourselves.
When a song isn't working for you, consider praising God, because that probably means that it is working for someone else who is very different from you. Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather then requiring others to sacrifice for your pleasure or contentment. There is something to the notion of becoming one as God is one; it doesn't mean that we are same; it just means we are united by one spirit. After all, we can become one only if there are many of use to begin with.
Liturgy puts a break narcissism. Certainly, there is something beautiful about comtempory worship, where we can take old things and add a little spice to them, like singing hymns to rock tunes or reciting creeds as spoken word rhymes. But liturgy protects us from simply making worship into a self pleasing act. So if a song or a prayer doesn't quite work for you, be thankful that it is probably really resonating with someone who is different from you, and offer a sacrifice of praise.
I wish I was more like this. Please pray that God would challenge me more with this in mind.
Daniel
"
There is an old saying many Christians use: "Offer the Lord a sacrifice of praise," refering to Hebrews 13:15. In many circles this notion of a "sacrifice of praise" almost becomes cliche. (Perhaps because worship does not often come at much cost, especially compared with the sacrifices of saints who've gone before us.) But when we worship with folks of various traditions, there are times when we may hear a prayer that uses language we might not naturally use or sing a song that isn't really our style. That is part of what it means to be a member of a community as diverse as the church is. And perhaps that also helps shed some light on why it might require some sacrifice for us to give up ourselves.
When a song isn't working for you, consider praising God, because that probably means that it is working for someone else who is very different from you. Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather then requiring others to sacrifice for your pleasure or contentment. There is something to the notion of becoming one as God is one; it doesn't mean that we are same; it just means we are united by one spirit. After all, we can become one only if there are many of use to begin with.
Liturgy puts a break narcissism. Certainly, there is something beautiful about comtempory worship, where we can take old things and add a little spice to them, like singing hymns to rock tunes or reciting creeds as spoken word rhymes. But liturgy protects us from simply making worship into a self pleasing act. So if a song or a prayer doesn't quite work for you, be thankful that it is probably really resonating with someone who is different from you, and offer a sacrifice of praise.
I wish I was more like this. Please pray that God would challenge me more with this in mind.
Daniel
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Summer's Almost Gone...
... well, kind of. The fact is that with 365 days of sunshine here a year, summer never really goes away, but sadly, summer groups do. And what a summer we had! We had teams here from all over, painting, mixing cement, laying block, playing and sharing Jesus with innumerable amounts of children and helping many, many more get healthy. We played softball, hiked waterfalls, saw rock concerts, survived a flood and a nation-wide strike, pushed buses out of the mud, danced merengue with our sponsor kids, saw the lame walk again (thanks to our prosthetic team), hosted one of the most incredible worship nights that I've ever been a part of and we grew and we loved and we were forever changed.
Sometimes the repetitious things about our days (laundry, dishes, toilets breaking, grocery shopping) make life seem so mundane... but then you look back and WOW! Look what God has done! Look at this adventure! And in spite of my weariness or ignorance- he's working and he's moving and LIFE is happening! What a cool and overwhelming story he's telling- and I'm a player in it! Shame on me for ever forgetting that or for ever letting a moment slip by when I'm not caught up in the awe and wonder of it all. God is so good. Life is so good.
Sometimes the repetitious things about our days (laundry, dishes, toilets breaking, grocery shopping) make life seem so mundane... but then you look back and WOW! Look what God has done! Look at this adventure! And in spite of my weariness or ignorance- he's working and he's moving and LIFE is happening! What a cool and overwhelming story he's telling- and I'm a player in it! Shame on me for ever forgetting that or for ever letting a moment slip by when I'm not caught up in the awe and wonder of it all. God is so good. Life is so good.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Today's top priorities: Build an ark, bake a cake.
"Hispaniola's weather goes downhill Tuesday night and Wednesday with heavy rain, flooding, land slides and strong winds."
That's what weather.com says about tropical storm Emily that apparently is on it's way towards us as we speak in all of it's impending doom. It's hard to believe that a tropical storm will most likely hit tonight when I look outside and hearing the birds chirping and the sun shining down and everything seems pretty... perfect. I guess I'll believe it when I'm up to my knees in it, haha. Either way, I'm making my way around the guesthouse this morning, moving important things to higher ground and getting us "hurricane ready" (as if a girl from Minnesota knows a thing about how to prepare for a hurricane- not really a skill I thought I'd need in life).
In dryer news, today is Jhonny (one of our translator's) birthday! Kamanda and I dreamed up a "drum" cake that I've been working on... I'm pretty sure that it'll taste better than it looks. Here's my progress...
That's what weather.com says about tropical storm Emily that apparently is on it's way towards us as we speak in all of it's impending doom. It's hard to believe that a tropical storm will most likely hit tonight when I look outside and hearing the birds chirping and the sun shining down and everything seems pretty... perfect. I guess I'll believe it when I'm up to my knees in it, haha. Either way, I'm making my way around the guesthouse this morning, moving important things to higher ground and getting us "hurricane ready" (as if a girl from Minnesota knows a thing about how to prepare for a hurricane- not really a skill I thought I'd need in life).
In dryer news, today is Jhonny (one of our translator's) birthday! Kamanda and I dreamed up a "drum" cake that I've been working on... I'm pretty sure that it'll taste better than it looks. Here's my progress...
 |
| It started off well... the shape was right(ish) |
 |
| But then I tried to make red frosting and it ran out too quickly...I ended up with pink |
 |
| Then the heat got to it and it started going all alice-in-wonderland on me! |
 |
| Tried to add blue candles to make it look slightly more manly... definitely gave up on it looking like a drum at all. Haha, good thing it at least tasted delicious! I think I'm sticking to flat, boring cakes from now on... |
Monday, August 1, 2011
Catching You Up:
Important things that have happened in the last few weeks:
* We've hosted the biggest group(s) in Solid Rock history the past couple weeks in the guesthouse. This week we have 50 med students from ONU staying with us and they are doing FOUR barrios a day! Whew! Can you imagine how many patients they will be able to see in the next four days?? Thanks to Nicole Eby and some awesome group leaders, we are hoping to have one of the most organized and smooth Monday's ever!
* These weeks have been a TON of work, but we've had some really great times too! A few people from the group stayed for a couple weeks in a row and we spent the weekend going out to eat, seeing an AMAZING concert by some of our friends, and going hiking up in the mountains.
* A couple women last week came down with the purpose of conducting interviews about health around the community here in San Juan. The talked with nurses, doctors, community leaders, water purification plant owners, herbal healers, health department employees, etc. They hope to use the information that they gathered to create a health education curriculum to bring down with them next year to be implemented in the barrios and health clinics in the areas that speaks directly to the issues that are most concerning and pressing to the Dominican people. LOVE it! Way to go ladies- thank you for all your hard work!
* I have met my new favorite person in the DR and his name is Bam-Bam.
Bam-Bam is a taxi driver that took a small group of us into town for a tour of the local hospital. In a culture of even the poorest of the poor doing everything they can to look their very best, Bam-Bam stands at about 4-11, rocking a saggy pair of grey sweat pants and a stained t-shirt that doesn't quite cover his protruding gut. Once at the hospital we were surprised when, instead of dropping us at the curb, he hopped out of the taxi and shuffled into the building after us. It got even more hilarious as Bam-Bam proceeded to slowly take over the tour. Before the doctors could respond to any of the group's questions, Bam-Bam was there with the answer (whether it was the correct one or not). While the rest of the group shyly peeked into patient rooms wondering what condition they might have, Bam-Bam wasted no time guessing and simply walked up to the patient and lifted the sheets to examine their swollen foot. A-mazing.
He then sealed his place in our hearts later that evening. The group had gone out to dinner and ice cream in town, and just as we were starting to take loads of people back in the bed of the truck, the sky opened up and it started raining... hard. We were just starting to wonder how we were going to manage to get 45 people back to the guesthouse in the cab of a truck, when (dah da-da DAH!) Bam-Bam pulls up, out of nowhere, slides the door of his taxi-van open and we piled in like a clown car. haha- he's the best.
* As of 8:00 last night, Dan is down 3 wisdom teeth. We have an oral surgeon down this week who offered to take care of them for him! He's a little loopy on drugs this morning, but otherwise doing great- What a HUGE blessing!
* Jeff and Kamanda are leaving us this week :( They've been here with us for 8 weeks now and become part of our family here at the guesthouse. We're bummed they are leaving- it will feel so strange not to have them around anymore! There is no way that we can thank them enough for all the help they've been this summer as well as just being awesome people and great friends. We love them lots and are hoping they will be back again next summer???
* We have so much to look forward to this fall! We have a small break coming up that we are hoping to fill by spending lots of time with our friends here in San Juan, as well and doing a little bit of traveling here on the island with Nicole. My sister will be getting married in October, so we will be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks, then we'll be blessed with another visit from Dan's folk's for Thanksgiving. We've also had a few friends who have expressed interest in coming for a visit sometime this fall. Woo-hoo! We LOVE visitors and we have so much great stuff to look forward to!
* We've hosted the biggest group(s) in Solid Rock history the past couple weeks in the guesthouse. This week we have 50 med students from ONU staying with us and they are doing FOUR barrios a day! Whew! Can you imagine how many patients they will be able to see in the next four days?? Thanks to Nicole Eby and some awesome group leaders, we are hoping to have one of the most organized and smooth Monday's ever!
* These weeks have been a TON of work, but we've had some really great times too! A few people from the group stayed for a couple weeks in a row and we spent the weekend going out to eat, seeing an AMAZING concert by some of our friends, and going hiking up in the mountains.
* A couple women last week came down with the purpose of conducting interviews about health around the community here in San Juan. The talked with nurses, doctors, community leaders, water purification plant owners, herbal healers, health department employees, etc. They hope to use the information that they gathered to create a health education curriculum to bring down with them next year to be implemented in the barrios and health clinics in the areas that speaks directly to the issues that are most concerning and pressing to the Dominican people. LOVE it! Way to go ladies- thank you for all your hard work!
* I have met my new favorite person in the DR and his name is Bam-Bam.
Bam-Bam is a taxi driver that took a small group of us into town for a tour of the local hospital. In a culture of even the poorest of the poor doing everything they can to look their very best, Bam-Bam stands at about 4-11, rocking a saggy pair of grey sweat pants and a stained t-shirt that doesn't quite cover his protruding gut. Once at the hospital we were surprised when, instead of dropping us at the curb, he hopped out of the taxi and shuffled into the building after us. It got even more hilarious as Bam-Bam proceeded to slowly take over the tour. Before the doctors could respond to any of the group's questions, Bam-Bam was there with the answer (whether it was the correct one or not). While the rest of the group shyly peeked into patient rooms wondering what condition they might have, Bam-Bam wasted no time guessing and simply walked up to the patient and lifted the sheets to examine their swollen foot. A-mazing.
He then sealed his place in our hearts later that evening. The group had gone out to dinner and ice cream in town, and just as we were starting to take loads of people back in the bed of the truck, the sky opened up and it started raining... hard. We were just starting to wonder how we were going to manage to get 45 people back to the guesthouse in the cab of a truck, when (dah da-da DAH!) Bam-Bam pulls up, out of nowhere, slides the door of his taxi-van open and we piled in like a clown car. haha- he's the best.
* As of 8:00 last night, Dan is down 3 wisdom teeth. We have an oral surgeon down this week who offered to take care of them for him! He's a little loopy on drugs this morning, but otherwise doing great- What a HUGE blessing!
* Jeff and Kamanda are leaving us this week :( They've been here with us for 8 weeks now and become part of our family here at the guesthouse. We're bummed they are leaving- it will feel so strange not to have them around anymore! There is no way that we can thank them enough for all the help they've been this summer as well as just being awesome people and great friends. We love them lots and are hoping they will be back again next summer???
* We have so much to look forward to this fall! We have a small break coming up that we are hoping to fill by spending lots of time with our friends here in San Juan, as well and doing a little bit of traveling here on the island with Nicole. My sister will be getting married in October, so we will be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks, then we'll be blessed with another visit from Dan's folk's for Thanksgiving. We've also had a few friends who have expressed interest in coming for a visit sometime this fall. Woo-hoo! We LOVE visitors and we have so much great stuff to look forward to!
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