Things that Remain

I am so thankful for Fridays!  The girls and I have just completed our 11th week of the school year.  That's hard to believe.  We were soaking in our summer break in May when I surprised the girls with the announcement that we would begin our next school year 4 weeks early due to Covid.  Being stuck in the house, it just seemed like the right call.  The only problem was that the majority of my curriculum was sitting in boxes at my parents' house in South Carolina. So I was forced to think outside the realm of what I would otherwise consider possible.  You know, that sentence I just wrote strikes me as so incredibly funny.  That has become such a normal way of thinking for me here! These past few years have turned my world upside down for sure.  Thinking outside the realm of what seems logical or possible.  Yep, I think I'm getting used to that, even though I am probably one of the most inflexible-by-nature people on the planet.  Anyway, so I spent a couple of weeks figuring out how to make our new school year work with what I had.  I had ordered the 10th grade curriculum in DVDs this year so that I would not have to teach Hannah all her subjects.  But without access to those DVDs, I am now the teacher for 12 different subjects for our three girls - 5th grade (Layla), 8th grade (Jordyn), and 10th grade (Hannah).  We follow a very full and tight schedule each day, and so far it's working out fine for us.  It helps that God prepared me for this by making me a total nerd.  I really do enjoy all the studying and learning I have to do in order to teach, and I treasure the time spent teaching our girls one-on-one.  But the workload is heavy, and Mondays through Thursdays consist of constant studying, teaching, grading, or whiting out more answers from pages copied out of my teacher editions (workbooks are also sitting in boxes in SC 😬).  Then we take Fridays off so I can help Joseph, taking care of financial and administrative stuff for the ministry (www.guate22.org).  I start each day by spending time with the Lord, reading His word, and surrendering myself to Him yet again.  I could not function without that time.  He amazes me at the way He is always faithful to be there ready to fill me up again.  I NEED to know and experience His nearness and He never fails!  If you do not know God personally like this, we would love to tell you how you can have a relationship with Him through Jesus.  Please get in touch with us on Facebook or by email at jdsaleeby@gmail.com.  God has made a way for you to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Him!

Prior to this pandemic, Friday nights meant dinner out as a family.  We would go to our favorite restaurant in the local market (which has since been completely closed down putting many people out of their jobs 😢), where the most delicious caldo de gallina in all of Guatemala is served.  It was usually prepared by our adopted son, Charlie, who would also usually be at the restaurant working.  I should explain that we have not legally adopted Charlie, but he has nevertheless become a part of our family.  He grew up in an orphanage here in Guatemala.  The Lord brought our lives together through our Friday nights at the restaurant, and since then, Charlie has become a spiritual son, working faithfully alongside Joseph.  He is a major blessing to our family, and we love him dearly.  All that to say we are feeling the loss of this Friday night tradition.  Now, Friday nights are spent at home like every other night, except we make it fish taco night, which is my family's favorite meal (a.k.a. an excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of chips, guacamole, and salsa... nothing to do with the fish I prepare 😂).  I have realized, though, that as this pandemic has stripped away many things like this, the things that remain are truly God's good and perfect gifts to us.  We have lost the enjoyment of our Friday nights out, but we have not lost the daily enjoyment of fellowship with our very near Heavenly Father regardless of where we are.  We have lost the fun feelings of anticipation we usually feel over a night out or an upcoming trip, but we have not lost the ever-present anticipation of an inheritance waiting for us in heaven!  (1 Peter 1) A home where we will see Jesus face-to-face and live in that perfect city forever... free from sadness, sickness, grief, and every other effect of sin that we deal with as we are passing through this temporary life on earth.  I am increasingly thankful for these gifts that remain.  The satisfaction and pleasure that come from God's nearness and our eternal hope cannot be stripped away.  This life is temporary.  Our hope and our heavenly home are eternal.  By the way, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the 2019 "Pilgrim's Progress" movie!  I would love to rewatch that one, but it will have to wait.  Tonight, our family will be continuing our 2nd time through the Marvel movie saga with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."  😀

Here we are at our favorite restaurant, La Abuelita, with our friends Ben and Shelby McRoy during their visit last November.

Joseph and Charlie

Lockdown

Christy here.  It seems to me that the Lord wants me to write something.  I have felt His leading in this direction for some time now, but I honestly do not enjoy writing for the purpose of sharing on a somewhat "public" platform.  To me, it seems synonymous with standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone!  It is so much more comfortable to only share my thoughts in more personal settings.  But... I earnestly desire to be obedient to my King, and if He has plans to use me as His instrument in some way, I do not want to miss out.  I have no idea the direction this will go, but I am just going to share my heart and see what the Lord does!  This post will be of a personal nature... if you would like to know more about our ministry here and how we've been serving during the Covid-19 crisis, you can find up-to-date info at our website www.guate22.org or on our ministry facebook page https://www.facebook.com/guate22.  

So... this is quite an unexpected season.  Honestly, at the beginning of this, despite the presence of a nervous-knot-in-my-stomach kind of fear,  I was really ok with the lockdown.  I mean, Joseph can tell you that I am most definitely a hobbit (with the exception of the hairy feet - for some reason I feel compelled to clarify that 😂).  I am perfectly content with staying home, normal routines, and the lack of adventures..."nasty disturbing uncomfortable things... make you late for dinner!"  So staying home pleased my comfort-zone-seeking-self on a lot of levels.  However, as the reality of the long-haul we were in for started sinking in, so did the temptation to succumb to fear.  The unknown future of exactly how this virus may impact our family is scary!  I have had to wrestle with my fear and decide - do I believe God is strong enough to protect us or not?  And if He allows us to get sick, do I truly believe in His absolute goodness and promise to work all things for our good and His glory?  I absolutely do believe those things, but I am daily laying down my fears and asking God to help me KNOW what I know.  There are definitely emotional ups and downs, but He has been so faithful with me to help me trust Him more. His peace is truly guarding my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Due to the Guatemalan border closure, we had to indefinitely postpone our trip to the States that was scheduled for May.  We have lived here for the last 3 years, depending on our visits to the States every six months for refreshment from visiting family and friends.  Also, I restock on many things that are either unavailable or too expensive to buy in Guatemala.  The first thing we ran out of was zyrtec.  We have all struggled with seasonal allergies so much in the past, that 4 out of 5 of us have taken zyrtec daily for years.  I was sure that we would all be miserable as soon as our zyrtec ran out.  And it happened.  We were miserable.  Itching from head to toe.  I was asking the Lord to give us all a strength we hadn't known to endure this for who knows how many months!  However, after a couple of weeks, the symptoms stopped!  Never heard of zyrtec withdrawal before but apparently it's a thing!  I am so thankful to report that our allergies are only a minor issue on occasion but nothing like I thought they would be.  I truly believe the Lord is protecting us in this way.  Also, even when we were all miserable, I was amazed at the way He sustained our attitudes to endure it.  We have two teenage daughters (need I say more 😂) and being miserable has a way of causing emotions to take over (only for them, not for Joseph and me of course😉), but during the awful withdrawal phase, the Lord sustained them with incredible attitudes.  It was such a blessing to all joyfully decide together that we weren't going to endure this season whining and complaining.  And then we were super relieved when it passed.  This experience has reminded me that I really can trust God with EVERYTHING.  Apparently in my heart, I was still leaning a bit on my ability to keep us stocked in all the right meds.  But God is perfectly capable of sustaining our bodies with or without those things.  I am so thankful to know that I am leaning on Him a little more now than before.  He can bear the weight.  He is strong enough to be everything we need Him to be.  And we miss out on the joy of knowing how perfectly we are loved and cared for when we lean on anything other than Him!  

I think I'll leave it at that for today.  I intend to write more often as a way of sharing the things God is teaching me.  And He is always teaching me!  I hope He will use me to bring encouragement to someone who reads this.  Or maybe writing these things out is just for my own encouragement!  Either way is fine with me.