You Are Rich, Me Too

I know,
boy, do I know.  
Some of you struggle, and have some serious problems.  I cried before sleep last night as I let worry and fear get to me about some things that we can’t afford to fix. 
But WE ARE RICH,
and I was reminded of just how much yet again today.


Please, go read Amy’s blog post right now.  And after you have read it, let’s us consider today how we might become more poor and remember the words of Jesus,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew

She Has Gone

My Kalyn Meshell left today with my sister (in-love), Karla.  She will be gone for almost a month.  She will be in Texas with my family for a few days before she leaves on her mission trip to Guatemala. 
I am so very proud of her.  Please pray with us for safety and the work that she will be doing.  She was really excited, as always, to go on this mission trip.  
We will miss her!
And don't tell anyone (shhhhhhhh), but I might have cried as she drove away.

Guatemala

Thank you all for your patience in waiting to hear about Guatemala. I lost the pictures that I took while there and didn't want to do a post without showing you all what we did. So I finally have the pictures again and thank you all for your prayers and support while I was gone.

I had an amazing trip, I went with my wonderful grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousin. Another amazing family, the Porters made up the rest of our team.

We divided up into three different teams, one team was a medical team, who did a great job taking care of people that came in with all sorts of medical issues.
 








 Next was the eyeglass team, Doctor Rob would prescribe a prescription and then the people would walk out to a long table full of glasses that were lovingly donated where a match would be found. God was so good because rarely would a person have to leave without having their prescription filled.
And lastly they would head over to my incredible Gommy who would fit the glasses, just right on their face.




The last team was a construction team, this clever, good looking, group was made up of just two people, my Uncle Kim (the clever one) and me (the cute one).
We transformed this shack

into a, mosquito proof, water free, dry, one bed room house. We built this house for a man who is a crippled and can no longer work or support himself. A loving family from the church allowed him to live on their property. In some peopl's eyes what we built him would still be called a shack, but we built him what we could and the best building is the one built out of love. 

^Later that week we also fixed the roof on a house for a family of fifteen. We didn't do anything really big or grand or something that is going to impact thousands of people. But the whole point was to show them that we care for them, as individuals. That way over here in America they have brothers and sisters in Christ who are praying for them and who yearn to make a difference in their lives by one act of kindness at a time, for one family, one person, one child.

Guatemala is an amazingly beautiful place, the scenery there is just breathtaking. And even though we all worked hard we still had time for lots of fun.





 
I had a wonderful time and was so blessed by the people that I went with and the people and friends that I made there. It was a very memorable trip and one that I would gladly do again.

And who knows, next year just might find me on a plane heading back to Guatemala...

Baby Girl

My baby girl is leaving me - AGAIN!  In all fairness, I have left her a few times to bring home a new sibling (or three).  BUT still!  It’s not that I even hate that she is going...

...I just wish that I could be two places at once; here with my other babies and with her as she travels on her 5th mission trip.  She leaves tomorrow early to fly to Texas where she will meet up with Dandy and Gommy (my parents); then the next day they will meet up with the rest of the team (including my precious brother Kim, my sister (in love and his wife) Karla, and their daughter and my favorite red- head - Tiffany) and then will fly to Guatemala where they will be for almost two weeks.  

I wish I were packing for China!  And speaking of two little someones who are never far from my mind...we got the authenticated papers today, so we will send them to our agency tomorrow, and pray that the dossier goes to China VERY SOON!!!!


Today is hot, windy and smoky!  I have heard that there are fires burning in NM and the smoke is coming up here.  Corbin is starting to cough more (praying for no asthma), and our eyes are kinda burning.  The funny thing...the smell reminds me of the smell that I would wake up to in Liberia and Uganda as the families were lighting their fires to start breakfast each day.  I miss Africa!!!!


Thank you all for your prayers as Kalyn and my family travels and as we continue to pray our Chinese loves home!!!

A Story of 500 Tibetan Lama Priest

During a turbulent time in China's history, a time of war in the late 1930's, some 500 Tibetan priest waited.

Licorice herb grew in abundance on the lush side of the mountains where they lived on the Tibet-China border and every year the lamas collected it to sell in the cities.  One year the men who took the herbal harvest through a village happened upon a white piece of paper and brought it back to the lamasery.  Read by all the lamas, it became worn and in pieces, but was stuck to the wall where it could be read over and over.  What was on the paper?  John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  They learned from this that "somewhere" there was a "God who loved."   For 5 years, when the appointed lamas took the licorice herb harvest into the villages to sell they also were asked by the head lama to ask this one question of everyone, "Do you know where the 'God who loved' lives".  And for five years, they found out nothing.  Finally, the man who had first found the piece of paper vowed that he would not return to the lamasery until he had learned more about this God.
In Len Chow, he and his companion found a Chinese evangelist who told them all he could and gave them a copy of the Gospels.  Here the story continues as told by the head lama...
"Eagerly they hurried back to the lamasery and we read the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  We believed all that it contained, though there was much we could not understand.  But one verse seemed of special importance.  Christ had said, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel,' so obviously one day someone would come to tell us more about this wonderful God.  All we had to do was to wait and, when God sent a messenger, to be ready to receive him.  For another three years we waited.  Then two lamas, out on the hillside gathering sticks, heard someone singing.  'Those are the messengers we are waiting for,' they said.  'Only people who know God will sing.'"
One lama ran back to tell the others at the lamasery to prepare for the messengers while the one waited to bring them.
The messengers that the lamas saw that day and had waited 7 years for was the tiny little English missionary Gladys Aylward and her traveling companion and fellow Christian, Dr. Huang.
You can read more about her in the book The Little Woman, which I highly recommend.
Many know Gladys Aylward as the woman who, with the help of the LORD, saved hundreds of children when Japan invaded China.  However, many may not know that she worked the rest of her life with a passion to tell those who had not heard about the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  She willingly went where the LORD told her to go.  She loved China and would have stayed there the rest of her life telling the Chinese about Jesus Christ.
At a prayer meeting one day, a young Chinese student asked for special prayers for England.  When Gladys asked why England, a Christian country, needed prayer for revival and blessing, the man told her "England, the land that send us the gospel, is worshiping other gods." Gladys was very surprised by this.  She had adopted China as her home and had lived there for over 20 years.  She asked him how this could be and he replied that he had been reading about England in the Chinese papers.  He said that "To them sport, film stars, wealth, amusement - all are far more important than God.”  She felt that the LORD wanted her to go back to her birth land, back to England and she did for a time.  
These two stories really caught me.  Personally, I had to ask myself yet again, what might be more important to me than God.  I had to confess, again, that many things in "my" affluent world  have distracted me from my True Love.  Many good works, passions, ideas, ... all of them meaningless, unless they are first born from a heart committed to and in love with my God in Heaven.  And ohhhhh, the beauty of the faith of 500 hundred lamas who waited in China for the good news of the God who loves!!!  There are others that are waiting to hear and our real work from the LORD is to "go" and to "preach" this good news.  They are waiting for the messengers to come, and we are those messengers.  The places that we are to "go" may be in our homes, our cities, our country, or a foreign land ... but may we remember always what our FIRST work is - to tell them about the "God that loved."
Nice clothes, fun entertainment, elaborate meals...goodness, Lord God, forgive me for loving anything more than YOU.

Hola a Todos!!-From Kalyn

Or hello everyone! This summer I have been given the amazing opportunity to travel down to Guatemala to work with the Jacaltenango people.  Guatemala is rich in culture and history, with Spanish as the main language but over 22 indigenous languages. The Jacaltecos is manly a Mayan population with very few foreigner’s in the Jacalteco area. The Jacaltecos are considered very honorable and there towns are known for being safe and having very little crime. Jacaltenango is a rural area yet still has an above average education level. Agriculture is the main economy, coffee is the main product, but they also grow such things as fruit, peanuts, and hibiscus tea. 

  I will be heading down with my grandparents, my uncle, my aunt and my cousin, and a few other people. We be will doing an eyeglass clinic, which my grandparents also did last year along with my cousin.  I am so excited to be a part of this amazing adventure. 

I would like to ask all of you for your prayers, that we have a good trip and that that the Lord will move and bless the people of Guatemala. The cost is $1500 per person. The first half has already been paid, but the second half, $750 is due by May 1st. if you would like to make a donation and help support me you can send it to Kalyn Hassoldt 12375 woodlake rd. Elbert Co. 80106. In the memo line write Short-Term Missions trip for a tax deduction. Nevertheless, most importantly I thank each and every one of you for your prayers and your love. Because as much as I might need the funds none of this would be possible at all without the love of our Heavenly Father. So thank you all and I can’t wait to tell you all about my trip.   

“Rejoice always, prey without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Kalyn Hassoldt