Clay Pots

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8

 

 

I have been attending ClayHouse Alliance Church since I returned to the states last year.  Their explanation of what drives them is:

 

"In a word, JESUS! It is His love that compels us to reach out to a lost and hurting world. At ClayHouse, we’re not ok with status quo. We want to be fully-devoted followers of Jesus, willing to be reshaped by His Holy Spirit. We want to “BE CLAY” in the Potter’s hands!" 

 

 There are  pots that decorate the church floors.  I understood the connection between clay pots, God and the Bible.  So I thought.  But it hit home a little more on Easter.  I'm not sure that I will ever fully understand (because God is so beyond my understanding) . . . but let me explain what God has put on my heart.

 

I think I've understood this:

- God shapes us as a potter shapes their clay

- Every pot is different, not one shaped by someone's hand can be EXACTLY the same

- Every pot is made for a purpose, it's made to be used for something

- Allowing God to use us for His purpose is going to be the most fulfilling life we have as His creation

 

However, something that I didn't really think about in relation to us being pots is the brokenness factor.  This hit home when our pastor took a pot and tossed it on the ground and it shattered.  We're all broken to some degree.  You can't go through this life unscathed.  The more a pot is used, the more it's going to show wear, tear, and cracks.  This could be either being used by God or by being used by others.  We're going to go through tough stuff.  No doubt about it.

 

 

 

So what does this mean?  Do we become useless once we are broken?  Absolutely not.  But it's easy for us to think that way.  I go back to ClayHouse's explination of what drives them "We want to be fully-devoted followers of Jesus, willing to be reshaped by His Holy Spirit." 

 

It reminds me that we are never going to come to a point of perfection on earth.  We aren't going to be the same our entire lives.  Life is going to happen and our "pot," our life, is going to take a different shape. When this "reshaping" happens, I don't know if that means that we become so broken that he recycles us and makes a new pot with a new purpose.  Or does it mean he pieces together the brokenness and glues us back together piece by piece? I don't know that that's the important part even though I like to think about it.  I think about how even as we are "glued" back together and maybe even repainted, there will still be cracks.  We're not ever going to be the same.  But isn't that the purpose?  That the cracks, the imperfections remind us of where we come from, what we've been through and how we've been pieced back together?  And I think the most important thing I have to ask myself is:

 

Am I letting Him do the reshaping?  Am I letting my life be shaped and pieced together to allow Him to use me in His way?

 

 



I hope I'm making sense in my ramblings. Even if not, I am challenged to make more room for HIM to use me even amidst my brokenness (because there will be brokenness throughout my entire life, just varying degrees and types).



 

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

2 Corinthians 4:7

Phases

I've been meaning to post this for months.

I've been thinking about this lately.

We all go through them.  Phases. 

When I was a kid, I was in a long roller hockey phase  (and getting my ear cut open by a hockey puck slap-shot at my face still didn't make me change my love for roller hockey for a long time).

I went through one with playing the piano (for like 3 months).

I went through a crimpy hair phase.  (the best photo is when I was like 7 and have a shirt with large parrots on it - we're talking bright colors with the long crimpy hair and bangs = classic yet I still blame my mom for letting me out of the house like that, hehe).

Everyone goes through them.  Some of them stick.  Some don't.  Through phases, we discover what we're good at, what we're not good at.  What we like, what we don't like.  It's part of life.

The kids at our school go through them.  We notice this mostly with what consumes their recess time.  They last for a few weeks sometimes, sometimes shorter and sometimes longer. 

Instead of listing them, I thought I would provide pictoral (is that the correct word?) proof:

(to make the pictures bigger, just click on one and it should allow

you to scroll through the pictures in a larger form)

i would like to note that the basic recorder-learning song is still "Mary Had a Little Lamb" - even in a foreign country!  took me back to my elementary days.

   

 

While phases with hobbies and games and other interests are normal and natural, my heart cries out for a few things to NOT become phase for these kids that I have grown to adore.  Below, I have pictures of a few things that I pray that their hearts take hold of for the rest of their lives.  That these things go beyond a phase and become a way of life.



I never want them to lose their child-like silliness and God-given personalities.

I want them to always know the source of where to find answers and HOPE.

I want them to always remember that they have direct access to God at all times.  He listens.  He cares.  He's the source of life.



Whatever lies ahead of them, whatever life brings their way - I pray they keep their eyes fixed on JESUS.

Reasons We Are Here

My awesome roommate, Emily sent this out for her Oct/Nov/Dec newsletter.  She says it so well that with her kind permission, I am just cutting and pasting from her letter.  (when she says "yesterday" - she's referring to end of October time frame and she is referring to the 14 kiddos she has in her classes)

"Yesterday we had our first ever parent/teacher conferences. Talking with our students’ parents is always an interesting experience. We sat down with the father whose little girls were taken away from him several months ago because of his incapability of providing them with a safe and loving home. We talked to an ex-prostitute who is fighting cancer, the brother of one of our girls from the village, and a Buddhist father whose little girl is sweet and smart and not interested in Jesus. We looked into the eyes of the mom who married at thirteen and who doesn’t really speak or read Thai, the dad who slouched in the chair with his baseball cap back-wards and we didn’t wonder where his sons got their attitude, and the dad with the sunglasses to cover the emotion in his eyes and we learned where his son got his soft heart. In learning more about the parents we discover what has influenced and formed the students we have come to know.


We spoke with a grandmother who has taken in her grandson because the boy’s father and mother have both abandoned him. He shows evidence of that hurt and desperately needs to feel loved and accepted. He is generally first to school and last to leave, he would prefer to be at an empty school rather than at his home. We recently learned that this year if he hadn’t been moved to our school he would be living and going to school (as a monk) at a temple.


Our last meeting was with the caregiver of our little boy whose parents are in jail. It was heartbreaking. We talked about how he feels that he has no one to love him or take care of him. All things considered he’s been well cared for and loved but in his eight year old mind he’s been without. His mom hasn’t come to any Mother’s day celebrations at school, his dad never taught him how to ride a bike, and when he was taken to the hospital several weeks ago after breaking his foot at school the nurse asked him, “What is your mother’s name? What is your father’s name? Where do you live?” To which he responded, “I don’t know.”


After these meetings my Thai co-teacher and I reviewed what had been said and both ended up fighting tears because of the hurt these little kids carry. We’ve quickly come to love them and can’t stand the thought of them being hurt, alone, or unloved. It reminded us of our main mission here, loving these kids and these families. Sharing the hope of Jesus in this darkness. Reminded us of the truth that every life matters and that our efforts while small and imperfect may make a difference in these fourteen children’s lives...and we’d do it all if there was only one.


We are so thankful for the chance to love these kids and their families. I love this quote from a great book by a friend, Diana Fogel, “The personal touch is of such vital importance to God that he assumed the shape of his creation to be near us, to nurture personal relationships with us.” Please continue to pray that through these relationships our children and their parents would come to know the Lord."

Pass it On

Check out the new campaign The School of Promise is doing (through Hope International Schools).   A small one-time gift can make a BIG difference to the school and impact the community.

Click HERE to check it out.  

Also, after you read about the campaign, scroll down to the bottom of that page to see the new video of a few student stories!

Signs

My roommate Amy, wrote an awesome post that compiles signs that are translated incorrectly.  It's seriously like an epidemic in this country.  I truly would like to start a ministry that went around and proofread things before they were published.  However, teaching is more my calling - so I'll stick to that - I figure that has more of an eternal impact :). 

But seriously - go to her blog and read her post.
Click Here

P.S. here is one Brian and I found in Bangkok just a couple weeks ago.  Hahahaha.  This one needs no explanation besides the fact that there is an "in" missing.

Beautiful Things

Chapel is new to our schedule this year.  We have taken out English Club since they get that 1/2 the week anyway and have inserted an hour on Friday afternoon where the whole school gets together and we work on our memory verses and learn praise songs and dive more into the story of this man Jesus that they hear so much about.


One of the biggest challenges here (and in general) is explaining grace.  We are so used to the mentality as "there's no such thing as a free lunch."  The kids are used to the idea of karma and what goes around comes around and whatever you do to screw up now is gonna bite you in the butt later (and I am talking about more than basic consequences like you don't do your homework and you get a bad grade).


Grace. What does that look like to a 13 year old, much less a 6 year old?  And how does one have a relationship with the One who offers this grace?

In a land of idols and spirit houses everywhere, how do you show these kids the meaning, salvation and relationship that is found in the cross?

Marvel (one of the founders of the school) came up with a great idea. 

Show the students a tile.  A simple tile.  Explain how it's whole.  But because of sin, it becomes broken.  Enter hammer.  Enter gasps of students.  Talk about how life is full of brokenness. 

Explain that it doesn't end there.  There is hope. There is hope because someone came down to pay for that brokenness.  For that sin.

Give each student a piece of broken tile along with a marker and asked them to write on the back of the tile.  Write something that they know they've done wrong.  No one else will see.

Each child glues their tile onto the wooden cross.  Sporadically.  28 broken tiles glued on a wooden cross.  Kind of ugly.  Seems random. 

A couple weeks later (after some awesome work by our awesome friend, Rob), the cross is revealed to the students.  Other pieces put on to make it look whole.  It no longer looks ugly and random.  The brokenness is still there, but it's all combined like that's what it was supposed to look like in the first place.

Kids join together and say "beautiful" when their little elementary school eyes look upon this cross.  And that's exactly what they should see.  Something beautiful.  Not something that makes them feel guilty, but something that takes their brokenness and puts it together for good.   We talked about Jesus.  The symbol of the cross.  How His blood was spilled for our salvation.  For us.  Out of pure love.  The "no-strings-attached" kind of love.  The kind that gives grace freely.

The cross hangs in the hallway of our school.  The kids see it every time they line up throughout the day.  It's there to remind them of a God who makes everything beautiful in the end. To remind them that there is something personal with this God, THE God.  My prayer is that they would notice the difference between their connection to the cross and to the idols that are in homes, businesses, yards,  and temples everywhere. 

I leave you with my new favorite song (thanks Cait ;).  I think it sums it up pretty well.

Beautiful Things - Gungor

All this pain..

I wonder if I'll ever find my way.

I wonder if my life could really change, at all.

All this earth..

Could all that is lost ever be found?

Could a garden come up from this ground, at all?

You make beautiful things,

You make beautiful things out of dust.

You make beautiful things,

You make beautiful things out of us.

All around,

Hope is springin up from this old ground.

Out of chaos, life is being found in You.

You make me new,

You are making me new.

You make me new,

You are making me new. (making me new.)

Thing Called Love

We were super blessed to have Bob Bowling donate his time, talents and energy in making this awesome video of our school!