Pillar on the Rock

Some friends of ours from Norman started an online magazine called Pillar on the Rock as a result of their passion to see the church remember her foundation - Jesus Christ. They recently asked Chase if he would be a guest author for the site and his first post went up today. It's called "Self-Improvement vs. the Gospel" and it's the first in a series about how to do children's ministry well. Check it out if you have a minute!

As promised…

I had said that I would write again about my next pitahaya experiment, and I’m pleased to announce that it was a success (relatively speaking)!  The difference was in using limes (and not green lemons that I picked from a tree or oranges as a substitute) and lots of sugar.  I didn’t blend it long enough in the Vita-Mix to pulverize all the seeds, so it had a bit of an odd, lumpy texture to it.  I kinda liked that part of it—it was a little like one of those crazy Asian drinks.  Julie was less than impressed, and I think she has decided to write off pitahaya altogether.

Below are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 

Also, if by chance you find pitahaya and want to try to make an interesting beverage, here’s more or less the recipe I made:

1 pitahaya, peeled

8 oz. water

juice from 3 medium limes

1/4 c. sugar

Directions: Blend! If you don’t have a Vita-Mix, you may want to strain out the seeds after blending. Refrigerate until cold and then push on some unsuspecting soul after you’ve had your fill.

The Little Things

Lately, we have been praising God for some of the little things we have seen him do. One of which is that a volunteer that works with Camino de Vida recently had her cell phone stolen. As there was no money to replace the phone, she has gone without for the last month. Though the details are a bit muddy, her phone was actually returned this week! We are thankful that we serve a God who constantly provides for us!

Also, we have a boy, who is known as “El Gato”, who has been attending our youth group for quite awhile. A few weeks ago when we were visiting him and the kids in his neighborhood, we accidentally left behind our soccer ball. As he has been known as a thief and tends to be one of the causes of danger in this particular neighborhood, we didn’t expect to see the ball ever again. However, the following Saturday, he came running up to Jeremy to return the ball, proud of his honesty and good care of it. We are so excited to see God changing the hearts and lives of the kids and youth through Camino de Vida. 

Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom

I finished this book last night and I must say that it was an eye-opener. If you don’t know anything about it, here is a description which can be found on the book’s website.

“The sex industry enslaves millions of women, men and children, but Jesus’ followers are fighting back.
Dawn Jewell weaves the stories of individual victims with a careful examination of the realities that propelled them into prostitution in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Alongside, she highlights ministries that are reaching one life at a time through prayerful visits to strip clubs, bars and brothels. The transforming power of the Gospel shines in men and women who have left lives of sexual exploitation and started new lives of dignity.  
Dawn traveled to Athens, London, Amsterdam, Brazil, the Philippines and beyond to interview exploited men and women and hear their stories firsthand. She trekked alongside volunteers and leaders to red light districts to discover how Christians extend a hand to people without hope.”

There were several things I loved about this book. Here I will name a few…
1. How real it is.
They aren’t all success stories. Several volunteers would spend years praying with and for women in brothels. And yet the women (or men) couldn’t find the courage to leave. Discouraging, yes. Real, yes. This is life in ministry. Thankfully though, it is actually our God who is in charge of calling hearts to His. So we can rest in knowing that He is not done yet. The seeds were planted. And seeds grow. (There were also many success stories, including the story of Harmony, who supported herself through college working at a strip club, but now helps women in that situation to replace the lies they believe, and churches to support the women who are learning to replace the lies.)
[I’ve been blessed to witness a few seeds blossom like crazy since living in Nicaragua. Our ministry team for our Saturday morning kids services includes women and girls who used to prostitute themselves, but now invest their lives in serving, giving, and praying for our kids. Women like Bertha.]
2. How it encourages us all to do something.
And before we can, it’s essential to see people through our Father’s eyes.

“Look them in the eye and see what I, their Father, see. See their bright futures, see their beautiful lives, see them in their true home where they belong. Do not call them prostitutes because I have a name for them. I created them in my image. They are mine.”

This is not always an easy process, and a good first step is prayer – God is faithful to change our hearts and our minds if we ask him too. To learn more about how you can be involved, visit the book’s Action page.
3. How it reminded me who I am.

“Grasping God’s love for people mired in the darkness and shunned by society entails realizing our equality as sinners. Neither women or men in prostitution, nor the Christian who tithes regularly and worships in Sunday service can do anything to save themselves.”

I’m there with them. Stuck in the pit. Waiting for (and hopeless without) Christ to pull us all out and give us new life.

“The paradox of the church, Jesus’ witness this side of heaven, is its people – the greatest sinners on earth. When we grasp and accept our own stories of brokenness, we can welcome others with a full embrace instead of judging them from a distance.”

Sometimes we tend to think of ourselves as “doing pretty good” (which means if we are judging ourselves as far as how we are doing, we can only expect that we will judge others with the same standards we use for ourselves). We forget that we are, in fact, quite broken. And that this brokenness (and understanding the depravity of it) is essential to understanding the gospel, which is essential for sharing it with others.

Pitahaya, take 4

So I (Chase) have been entranced with this weird-looking fruit in season right now called pitahaya (pronounced pea-tie-ya).  I wrote about it briefly in our last newsletter, but I’ll go ahead and tell you the whole story.  Pitahaya, which is also called dragon fruit, is this baseball-sized cactus fruit with surprisingly colorful juice.

I was in the grocery store one day and saw a huge pile of them and thought, “Cool!  A big, pink alien-looking fruit!” or something to that effect.  I bought one and googled “weird pink fruit” to find out what it was called, as I neglected to read the sign at the store.

Since then, I’ve heard again and again that people revere it for its juice, but I’m beginning to think that they only like the juice for its color.  The juice is dark purple and gets all over everything: the knife, the cutting board, the counter, the blender, the hands.  I have yet to get it on the shirt, but I’m sure that once I do, it will stain.

Those of you who know me well know that I love making delicious drinks, especially smoothies.  My attempts at making drinks with pitahaya, however, have been less than delicious, which is severely frustrating for me, a self-made, self-proclaimed drink master.

Attempt #1: I just threw some things together, including coconut milk I had made myself from a coconut I bought, cracked, and shredded (pretty awesome, right?).  My thought was that two tropical fruits will obviously taste delicious together.  The initial product was palatable, not memorable.  Unfortunately, in throwing together this and that, I made a whole blender-full (and was too honest to convince Julie to have any), so I saved it in glass goblets in the fridge.  Every time I opened the fridge thereon after, I was enticed by the beautiful color of it in our fancy goblets (see the below picture).  What a terrible mistake to confuse color for flavor: leftover the next day, it tasted like bile.  I admired the rich purple as it washed down the drain.

 Attempt #2: I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and attempted it.  I gave it 3 stars out of 5 as it was bitter and tasted odd.  Not bad, but odd. 

At this point, I gave up.  Obviously pitahaya didn’t have the intriguing flavor promised by its beautiful appearance.  But a couple days later, as I bought food at a diner, I saw that they had pitahaya drink on sale.   I bought it and it was delicious, although it was mostly very sweet, purple lime juice.  Shortly afterwards, pitahaya was on sale and I had found another recipe.

Attempt #3: Added yogurt (per recipe) but substituted an orange for a lime since I didn’t want to go to the store.  Bad.  Added a lot of sugar and then a banana for some reason.  And then some ground ginger and cloves (it seemed a good idea at the time).  Palatable, like someone blended orange juice and corn syrup with your pumpkin pie.  Not worth repeating. 

Again I gave up.  After all, both my recipes ended up as disappointments.  I have wanted desperately to like this fruit.  I’ve read it’s a great source of calcium, fiber, and antioxidants, and I have never seen a more beautiful—yet less useful—fruit.

Well yesterday at the grocery store, it was on sale for 10 cents cheaper than it normally is!  Who could pass up a deal like that? 

In other words, I am now in possession of yet another pitahaya that I will attempt to make a drink with.  I am also in possession of a bag of limes and a couple kilos of sugar.  And if I fail once more, I’m sure I’ll keep trying again and again and again, until the Lord should return or pitahaya should go out of season.  I’m either determined or obsessed…but it’s so cool looking!

GHOP

GHOP, as you may have guessed from its name, is a local knock-off of IHOP.  Not satisfied with IHOP’s use of the term “International” (which apparently only includes Canada and Mexico) George, the “G” in “GHOP”, decided to come down and start his own House Of Pancakes right here in Managua.  His son used to work for IHOP in the States and consequently knows all of their recipes. 

Though hilarious in its shameless imitation of style, we find it easy to forgive because of the (usually) tasty food, the air conditioning and free wi-fi.

the reading list

Confession: I often start books that I do not finish. It’s not because I don’t like them, it’s not that they aren’t interesting…I’m not sure what it is really. But, I have recently made a list of all the books that I have that I haven’t read yet, or haven’t finished, along with the few that I purchased while in the States this summer. And in case you happened to be interested, I included the list for you below:

Crazy Love	Francis Chan
Created to be His Help Meet	Debi Pearl
Don't Waste Your Life	John Piper
El Caso de Cristo	Lee Strobel
Ending Slavery : How We Free Today's Slaves	Kevin Bales
Escaping the Devil's Bedroom	Dawn Herzog Jewell
Forgotten God	Francis Chan
Good News About Injustice	Gary A. Haugen
Good to Great and the Social Sectors	Jim Collins
Heavenly Discipleship	Michael Wells
Humility: The Journey toward Holiness	Andrew Murray
J. Hudson Taylor : A Man in Christ	Roger Steer
Mero Cristianismo	C.S. Lewis
Since Nobody's perfect…How Good is good enough?	Andy Stanley
The Jesus I Never Knew	Philip Yancey
The Kingdom Message	Gregory J. Dabel
The Power of a Praying Wife	Stormie Omartian
Too Busy Not to Pray	Bill Hybels
Too Small to Ignore	Dr. Wess Stafford
Treasuring God in Our Traditions	Noel Piper
Velvet Elvis	Rob Bell
Visioneering	Andy Stanley
When Heaven Invades Earth	Bill Johnson
When Helping Hurts	Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

If you’ve read any of these and really enjoyed them, let me know! I haven’t decided in what order I’ll read them yet, and would utilize any input you might have for me. (You might notice that there are a few in Spanish, and though those might take upwards of a century to finish, I do intend on doing it!) Also, if you have any book recommendations for me, I hope to get some new books next time we’re home (books in English are hard to come by in Nicaragua!)