​Just the other day, I was driving in the car with my 5-year-old granddaughter riding in the back seat.  As we drove, we played our usual games; “I spy with my little eye”, counting cars to a hundred at long traffic lights, and singing along to favorite songs.  She enjoys showing grandma how much she knows.  As we passed a particularly beautiful stretch of countryside, I asked my granddaughter if she knew that every tree we saw, and every blade of grass, every flower and even the sky was made by God.  Her answer was a surprised and emphatic, "I did not know that!"
 
It's amazing the things we assume that another person knows. This Christmas season, I’ve decided to stop assuming that those around me know the actual origins and meaning of Christmas. So, I ask, Do you know that God who created each of us loves us so much that he didn’t allow us to be lost under the burden of our mistakes, failures and sins? Instead, He gifted us with a substitute in the person of his son Jesus.  Jesus traded places with us and has paid our debt and taken our guilt and shame.  In exchange, we receive his righteousness and inherit eternal life with God our heavenly father.  Did you know that?!
 
Whether you already knew or have just discovered a new and wonderful truth, I hope you will join me in asking “Did you know” questions of those around you.  Share the good news of Christ to your family, friends and especially to the little ones in your life.  You never know who may need to know the true joy of Christmas.
 
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

​The Replacement
 
Hello Light Global Missions Friends and Family!  With today’s blog entry, I share a little about what has been happening since the new year started.  I continue to plan for a future “Prayer Train Across America”, Bible study and Mission events but have pushed both back while I recover. Here’s what’s going on.
 
After suffering for almost a decade with bilateral knee pain caused by osteoarthritis, I finally made the decision to have knee re-placement surgery.  My date was set for March 11th and I began a full regimen of doctor’s appointments, clearances, exercises and dietary changes in prep for the “big day”.  Deep inside, I was constantly praying and believing for a miracle. I daydreamed that I would come in for a preoperative x-ray only to find that my knee was miraculously restored.  All would be in awe and celebrate such a miraculous move of God. The reality however was that I would have to go through the full and painful process of a major robotic assisted surgery followed by weeks and months of still more painful therapy while re-training how to walk as a person who was no longer bow-legged and pigeon toed. 
 
An experience I had at therapy today and this past week’s celebration of Holy Week made me see Good Friday, and the glorious resurrection that followed quite differently than I had before.  It has made me see how sometimes, taking the painful path is the right answer. While doing one of my exercises, the therapist pointed out that I was swinging my leg from the hip instead of bending at the knee.  “You’re trying to avoid the pain” he told me. “You’re trying to circumvent it because you know it will be painful, but you have to align yourself to go through the pain.  It’s the only way you will correct what’s wrong and avoid further damage.”
 
Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t just show up on crucifixion day or even why He had to come and suffer at all?  Couldn’t he have just miraculously erased all sin and start us over at the “factory setting”?  Why come as a baby, be hunted as a child by Herod, be mocked and ridiculed by scribes, pharisees and at times even his own family?  Why go through the pain of the lash on his back and the nails in his hands and feet?  Why be pierced in the side and wear a crown of thorns?  It was because the process was completely necessary to set us all straight. 
 
Had Jesus at any moment taken a crooked path, If he varied from what was already recorded by the prophets and ordained by God, we would still be in our sin and lost eternally.  He had to take the painful path. He had to be perfect and holy to take the place of a fallen and sinful human race. Jesus was at one point tempted to take the easier road.  He prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane to his heavenly Father, asking if there was an alternate route but always ended his prayer surrendering to the painful but perfect will of God for purchasing our redemption. (Matthew 26:39-44)
 
While my experience won’t redeem or save anyone, It certainly makes me appreciate in some small way the cost of choosing to endure temporary hardship for a greater outcome, a new knee.  Because Jesus aligned himself with pain and suffering, I and all the world can have the miracle of new life and eternal life with Christ.  He made our crooked path straight. Christ is our perfect replacement!
 
 

My mission trip to the Dominican Republic this last Fall was amazing!  I have met some of the most wonderful people and built some relationships that are sure to last a lifetime.  I experienced different languages, food, cultural norms and some of the most scenic vistas on earth.  But it wasn’t all mountains, oceans and beaches. 
 
Some of you may know that about halfway into my 10-week mission, I contracted dengue fever, a disease that is spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.  The disease was spreading at an epidemic rate across the nation and I was among more than 6,000 who have been affected so far.  Thank God, I had the classic type which offers great hope of recovery after a short time as opposed to the more serious hemorrhagic variety.
 
Its crazy, at first, I didn’t realize I had it.  I thought I was suffering from eating food that didn’t agree with me.  However, the fever that accompanied my symptoms did not seem to want to break in spite of steady doses of the extra strength acetaminophen I fed myself.  I finally went to the free hospital which is literally walking distance from the mission house where I stayed.  I went for lab tests the first day and got the confirming diagnosis of dengue.  I returned for what I thought would be a simple dose of IV fluids for the purpose of treating dehydration caused by the fever and continual loss of natural fluids, but after talking to the doctor and sharing my symptoms, I heard the dreaded words; “Admit her!”
 
In spite of my pleas for a different treatment option, I was driven home to get a pillow and blanket- (the hospital didn’t always have such luxuries) as well as night gowns, toothbrush and any other necessities.  Upon my return, I was wheeled to the infirmary where I entered a room simply marked “niña”.   I learned that no one was allowed to stay in the hospital alone.  This was not a place with a handy “call button” that could be pushed when a nurse was needed.  Someone, a friend or family member would have to stay with the patient day and night to assist or to call for professional help when needed. It was in this place, with bars on the windows and green mats on the bed; such as I had seen in the county jail during my ministry visits in Illinois, I would spend my time healing and learning a lesson of love, sacrifice and humility.
 
While I struggled to get “comfortably” settled in this strange new environment, Veronica made herself at home and at my service.  “Siempre a su orden” she would often say.  You would have thought she was staying at the Hilton.  She made no complaints as she spread a sheet over the green mat and proceeded to stretch out on it for the night. If I even moved, she jumped up to see if I needed anything which I often did.  The IV drip kept me running to the bathroom through the night and with one hand and a fever still raging, I absolutely needed the help.
 
She wasn’t the only one.  Cherilyn, the mission’s director and senior pastor, Pastora Anna, Doña Digna, Louisa, Alexandra, and others took shifts, brought food and water and stayed to keep me company.  Anna, who prayed with me gave me this reminder. “You have many questions, but one thing is needful.  God is sovereign and he is here with you!” 
 
I can’t thank God enough for those powerful words and these precious ladies who showed such love and humility at a time I needed it most.  Now, well past the recovery phase of the disease, I look back on that time not as a set-back to the mission but as proof that God is indeed able to work all things together for the good.
 
I was soon able to return to teaching English to my 5th and 6th grade students at the Christian School where I served, as well as to the community members who came to the night classes I offered; however, looking back, my time in the hospital was a time for the teacher to become the student. There, in the midst of dengue, I learned that love is the most effective teacher!
 

​Hello Light Global Mission Friends!
 
Praise God! After seven weeks with the Women of Hope Guatemala and one week helping with a medical outreach and Vacation Bible School in Ecuador, I am finally back home in the United States.  I can only say that God is soooooo faithful! He is doing a wonderful work in those countries and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve with members of the body of Christ there.  I am especially thankful for the prayers, calls, words of encouragement, and generosity that so many of you here at home shared.  Through your generosity and kind acts of love, you have planted and watered and God is giving the increase. 
 
As you may have noticed, LGM launched before our Facebook page did. Well, It is finally up thanks to a lot of help from my son and I will be adding future updates there. Please like and share the Light Global Mission’s Facebook page with anyone who may have an interest in seeing the light of the gospel spread worldwide.  In the meantime, here is a brief photo journal of the last eight weeks.
 
Love & Blessings
​Pat