September 2017 Update

Undeserved Kindness  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord  Jesus Christ ~ Galatians 1:3

I've been doing a study by She Reads Truth on Galatians and I've been struck by this verse in chapter 1. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ~ Galatians 1:3 The study points out that the greek word used in this verse for grace is 'charis' and it means "an undeserved act of kindness". The greek word for peace used here is 'eiréné' which means "a sense of health, welfare or wholeness". 'Grace and Peace' Every time these words appear in one of Paul's epistles, we find them in this order. Grace then Peace. I love that Paul puts them in this order!  Apart from grace, there can be no peace. As the study puts it "There can be no wholeness apart from God's undeserved kindness." I don't know about you but I constantly find myself trying to find peace outside of the grace of God. My heart wanders and looks often  to the things of this world to satisfy my soul. We sang the song "Come thou Fount" the other week in church and these words really pierced my heart. "Prone to wander Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. " But yet God's grace and undeserved kindness continues to pursue me! I love the Chris Tomlin version of this old hymn. He adds the following chorus. How Your kindness yet pursues me How Your mercy never fails me Till the day that death shall loose me I will sing, oh I will sing All I have to do is rest in the undeserved gift of grace from a God that loves me more than I can imagine! And it's through this undeserved grace that I can in return truly show and demonstrate the love of God to those around me! What's Happening with Freedom! This summer, we were able to move into our new kitchen which is located in the multi-use! Thanks to these wonderful ladies, we got it all set up and ready to use in one day! It's been a huge blessing for school lunches and for the teams! Summer is always packed full with groups. This summer we had close to 200 people. Thats 1600 meals! As you can see, I was super excited to have a commercial 12 burner stove! It also comes in very handy for feeding 120 kids lunch everyday.  Gabe's been busy with getting our second 8-unit apartment building up and running. We just poured the first ceiling yesterday! Currently, all of our apartments are occupied so this building is essential for preparing for more people who are interested in joining our  ground team!  Gabe's also been busy finishing up this building! Not long ago, this building consisted of one shop (the lower right side of the building). Now we've added a second shop and also 2, two-bedroom apartments above the shops!  Austin and Laura will be occupying one of those apartments! They arrived on campus this past Monday and we are so excited to have them here! Please keep them in your prayers as they adjust to their new life in the DR. This summer we started having chapel every Friday morning for students in Kindergarten through 4th grade! We are currently focusing on how to love one another! Check to this short clip of the kids singing! We've had so many new things going on this summer! I think a favorite of mine is the new playground! These kids went from playing in an open field with a few beat up balls and jump ropes to this! What a blessing it's been! You can see the joy written all over their faces every time they get a chance to play on it. We are so thankful for everyone who financially and physically made this playground possible! As you can see, my kids and all the MK's are also loving that this is now in their backyard! It's definitely getting good use! (click the photo to see a short video of the zip line!) If you remember, these girls spent an extra 5 - 6 weeks in the states this summer while waiting on their visas. So many of you were lifting us up in prayer during that time and we can't thank you enough! While they missed about 4 weeks of school, they all got A's and B's on their most recent report cards and are continuing to speak more and more Spanish! Ava just turned 9 in August (she is a 3rd grader this year) and Blakeley and Karsyn will be 8 in November (they are currently in 2nd grade). I'm not sure where my babies went but it's been a joy to watch them grow!