Good evening mes amis,
For those of you who know me personally this story will not come as much of a shock to you. For those of who do not, you are about to know me a little more personally. If you are familiar with my travel stories and dojo tales, you already know that I have a track record of... let's say intestinal malfunction. Be it parasites in Guatemala, an overdose on protein shakes mixed with a hard knee to the gut almost three hours into a jiujitsu test, or sprinting down the crowded streets of Vielle Nice, France on a quest to to find a public restroom during La Fête de la Musique, I could have saved many good times with Pepto. Now they are funny stories that I will someday publish on here. Today was yet another case.
I along with my butt;kicking colleagues from Nahuatl Team went on a local Nicaraguan news channel to promote the academy and inform the Nicaraguans of how we are representing their country abroad in competition. It was fun. They did interviews, we did exhibitions, and good times were had. However, this weekend I was told that I will have to put on ten pounds of muscle for my next fight. I was advised to drink protein shakes, and I have been downing them steadily for four days now. Recall example two of the aforementioned stories, and you will deduce how this ended. All day. Just before we went live, I prayed silently what is probably the most ridiculous prayer I have ever prayed: "God, please don't let me crap my pants. Amen." God answered my prayer, and as soon as I got home I went straight to the bathroom.
The great thing is that we got some exposure to our goals and what we represent in martial arts. We were asked to come back, and they will even let me talk about the missions projects I have which might bring in new students who are in need of the Lord. They even want me to bring some of them on the program next time. Also through the classes I have gotten five students who are looking to further dedicate there walks with Christ at a baptism service we will hold at Monte Horeb in June! Thank you God for your great works and answers to prayer!
Daiwan jaini mai mumbia,
Seth
Monday, May 14, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
La Canción de la Calle
Good evening amigos!
Unas las cosas que he escuchado desde comenzar a venir para trabajar aquí en Nicaragua hace casi cuatro años ya siempre ha sido, "No des dinero a la gente rogando en la calle." o, "No les mires en los ojos porque eso les llama la atención." Como cristiano eso me suena bastante feo, pero entiendo muchas veces que ellos pueden haberse metido en la droga, ser alcolicos, ser hábiles para trabajar, etc. Entonces encontré otra forma de tratarles: conocerles y conectarme con ellos. Pensé en lo que Jesús dijo en Lucas 4:18(El cotizó Isaias 61:1-4).
"El Espíritu del Señor está sobre mí, por cuanto me ha ungido para dar buenas nuevas a los pobres;" El versículo contiene más, pero vi que esto fue la primera cosa que dijo de todos y el más fácil hacer de todas la cosas que él cuenta que haría. Pues ahora cuando tengo el tiempo, les pregunto a estas personas cómo se llaman y si hay algo por lo que les puedo orar porque no hay nada imposible para Dios.
Los que ruegan tienen su lugar. Allí se ubican y siempre les puedo encontrar. El primer hombre usa muletas aunque tiene dos piernas. Una parece que está mala y queda guindada sin tocar el piso. Irónicamente se queda rogando frente al Ministerio de trabajo. Le veo mucho. El me contó su problema. Va tener cirugía el lunes que viene. Es divertido porque él me sigue diciendo, "¡Estoy emocionado porque Dios me va a sanar!" Me inspira su fe. Después de cambiar la relación que tenemos, él dejó de pedirme dinero. Cuando lo veo ahora, él me saluda con una sonrisa diciendo, "¡Que Dios te bendiga!"
El otro viene para limpiar las ventanas de mi camioneta. Me frustaba mucho esta gente porque me las lavan nueve veces al día, si lo necesito o no, si lo quiero o no, aún si les digo que no lo hagan. Luego me piden dinero sobretodo dolares. No me gustaba eso porque creía que era racista, pero cambié mi forma de pensar. Hablé con uno quien siempre está por un semáforo que paso frecuentemente. Algun día me pidió oración por su mamá quien estaba en el hospital. Hace dos semanas que él reconoció mi camioneta del otro lado del semáforo y vino corriendo en medio del tráfico pesado para contarme algo. "¡Mi mamá está sana! ¡Ya salió del hospital!" Y después lavó mi ventana con una sonrisa grande, y yo sonreí también aunque tenía que ser la novena vez que se me la había lavado.
Les vi los dos hoy en el camino, y me pusieron bien alegre. Ya veo que Dios puede usarnos en cualquier momento para alcanzarle a alguien o para fortelecer la fe de ellos, incluso la hora de pico. También he aprendido que muchas veces percibimos a algunas personas solamente como una molestía y olvidamos que ellos son hijos del Señor. Pueden ser ovejas perdidas, pero no les buscamos. Ellos también necesitan el amor de Cristo, y no les quiero fallar en eso.
Il Dio le benedice,
Seth
Unas las cosas que he escuchado desde comenzar a venir para trabajar aquí en Nicaragua hace casi cuatro años ya siempre ha sido, "No des dinero a la gente rogando en la calle." o, "No les mires en los ojos porque eso les llama la atención." Como cristiano eso me suena bastante feo, pero entiendo muchas veces que ellos pueden haberse metido en la droga, ser alcolicos, ser hábiles para trabajar, etc. Entonces encontré otra forma de tratarles: conocerles y conectarme con ellos. Pensé en lo que Jesús dijo en Lucas 4:18(El cotizó Isaias 61:1-4).
"El Espíritu del Señor está sobre mí, por cuanto me ha ungido para dar buenas nuevas a los pobres;" El versículo contiene más, pero vi que esto fue la primera cosa que dijo de todos y el más fácil hacer de todas la cosas que él cuenta que haría. Pues ahora cuando tengo el tiempo, les pregunto a estas personas cómo se llaman y si hay algo por lo que les puedo orar porque no hay nada imposible para Dios.
Los que ruegan tienen su lugar. Allí se ubican y siempre les puedo encontrar. El primer hombre usa muletas aunque tiene dos piernas. Una parece que está mala y queda guindada sin tocar el piso. Irónicamente se queda rogando frente al Ministerio de trabajo. Le veo mucho. El me contó su problema. Va tener cirugía el lunes que viene. Es divertido porque él me sigue diciendo, "¡Estoy emocionado porque Dios me va a sanar!" Me inspira su fe. Después de cambiar la relación que tenemos, él dejó de pedirme dinero. Cuando lo veo ahora, él me saluda con una sonrisa diciendo, "¡Que Dios te bendiga!"
El otro viene para limpiar las ventanas de mi camioneta. Me frustaba mucho esta gente porque me las lavan nueve veces al día, si lo necesito o no, si lo quiero o no, aún si les digo que no lo hagan. Luego me piden dinero sobretodo dolares. No me gustaba eso porque creía que era racista, pero cambié mi forma de pensar. Hablé con uno quien siempre está por un semáforo que paso frecuentemente. Algun día me pidió oración por su mamá quien estaba en el hospital. Hace dos semanas que él reconoció mi camioneta del otro lado del semáforo y vino corriendo en medio del tráfico pesado para contarme algo. "¡Mi mamá está sana! ¡Ya salió del hospital!" Y después lavó mi ventana con una sonrisa grande, y yo sonreí también aunque tenía que ser la novena vez que se me la había lavado.
Les vi los dos hoy en el camino, y me pusieron bien alegre. Ya veo que Dios puede usarnos en cualquier momento para alcanzarle a alguien o para fortelecer la fe de ellos, incluso la hora de pico. También he aprendido que muchas veces percibimos a algunas personas solamente como una molestía y olvidamos que ellos son hijos del Señor. Pueden ser ovejas perdidas, pero no les buscamos. Ellos también necesitan el amor de Cristo, y no les quiero fallar en eso.
Il Dio le benedice,
Seth
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
On The Couch
Buona sera familiar friends and random readers,
Today was pretty crazy, an adventure of people, as two people who I barely know and a complete stranger opened up to me about deaths in their families. More interesting was the fact that each story carried a completely different emotional reaction. It was my day off, but there is no rest in the Lord's work. This is not a complaint, but rather the acknowledgement of a privilege and something for which I am thankful that God has blessed to be able to do.
The first was a young man I met in church. He is twenty years old, and we went out to watch the Avengers for his birthday yesterday. He invited me to his house to meet his mom and have dinner with them where his mom told me a little about the death of his father two years ago. I went back today because his mom offered to wash my clothes and he wanted to hang out this afternoon. Today he opened up completely, telling me in intricate detail about the days leading up to his father's death and the day he passed there in his house. He was composed as he recounted the story, and even laughed as he reminisced about his final days with his dad. He didn't seem down trodden, He seemed a little lost. I asked him what he learned in the experience and the process of grief that followed. He said that is what he had been trying to answer for some time now. I asked him to get his Bible. He returned and said it was his father's. We went over Romans 8:28-39, which I heard at both a student's and a friend's funeral last year in East St. Louis. My grandma also gave me that verse when she spoke of the death of my uncle almost forty years ago. He talked more about the Bible itself, and opened to the last page where his father wrote out Phillipians 1:21 in Spanish. "For me is to live is Christ and to die is gain." He also spoke of how the situation allowed him to counsel a neighbor who lost his mother recently.
Soon after I went to one of my coach's houses where one of my trainers was going to try to get rid of a hematoma on my hamstring with a massage. I laid down on the couch in his living room where his wife and his daughter came in to talk to me. His daughter was explaining to me that she was a widow. She and her mother were laughing almost contemptuously about her husband's passing. He overworked himself and refused to go to Cuba to get the treatments he needed. She is now forty with two kids. She works and has a good job. She talked extensively about how God has provided for her. In this case I just listened. I was honestly shocked inside by what I had just witnessed, but who knows what was really going on with her. Everyone grieves in their own way, and I am here to preach the good news, not to judge others.
Her mother began to recount the death of one of her sons. He was murdered by her other son. She talked about how horrible she felt for rejecting him for killing his brother. that is the strength of a mother's love I guess. Again I stayed quiet and listened. What advice or nuggets of wisdom could I possibly offer for something so atrocious? She cried and held a rag to her eyes, as she continued to tell the story. I realized she just needed to be heard. Afterwards, she began to talk about all of the blessings she experienced after going through such a terrible tragedy, talking about travels, providence, healing, and many other things big and small where she felt God's hands on her life.
James wrote, "This life is but a vapor." Whatever you may be going through in the moment, you can count on the promise of greater things to come if you accept Christ as your personal savior. Personally, I have attended many funerals, friends, families, a student, all different ages and for numerous reasons. I've also been close to dying on several occasions in my short life, be it almost drowning in a river, getting mugged, or attempting to kill myself when I was younger. Mourning is natural and necessary for our well-being, but I am reminded greatly of the real importance of this life by what I read in the young man's father's Bible. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." We have eternal life to look forward to if we are saved. Rejoice for those who have passed in the Father's hands, and be thankful for his Son's sacrifice that allows us to pass into His glory.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heighth nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:38-39
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21b
Que dieu te benisse,
Seth
Today was pretty crazy, an adventure of people, as two people who I barely know and a complete stranger opened up to me about deaths in their families. More interesting was the fact that each story carried a completely different emotional reaction. It was my day off, but there is no rest in the Lord's work. This is not a complaint, but rather the acknowledgement of a privilege and something for which I am thankful that God has blessed to be able to do.
The first was a young man I met in church. He is twenty years old, and we went out to watch the Avengers for his birthday yesterday. He invited me to his house to meet his mom and have dinner with them where his mom told me a little about the death of his father two years ago. I went back today because his mom offered to wash my clothes and he wanted to hang out this afternoon. Today he opened up completely, telling me in intricate detail about the days leading up to his father's death and the day he passed there in his house. He was composed as he recounted the story, and even laughed as he reminisced about his final days with his dad. He didn't seem down trodden, He seemed a little lost. I asked him what he learned in the experience and the process of grief that followed. He said that is what he had been trying to answer for some time now. I asked him to get his Bible. He returned and said it was his father's. We went over Romans 8:28-39, which I heard at both a student's and a friend's funeral last year in East St. Louis. My grandma also gave me that verse when she spoke of the death of my uncle almost forty years ago. He talked more about the Bible itself, and opened to the last page where his father wrote out Phillipians 1:21 in Spanish. "For me is to live is Christ and to die is gain." He also spoke of how the situation allowed him to counsel a neighbor who lost his mother recently.
Soon after I went to one of my coach's houses where one of my trainers was going to try to get rid of a hematoma on my hamstring with a massage. I laid down on the couch in his living room where his wife and his daughter came in to talk to me. His daughter was explaining to me that she was a widow. She and her mother were laughing almost contemptuously about her husband's passing. He overworked himself and refused to go to Cuba to get the treatments he needed. She is now forty with two kids. She works and has a good job. She talked extensively about how God has provided for her. In this case I just listened. I was honestly shocked inside by what I had just witnessed, but who knows what was really going on with her. Everyone grieves in their own way, and I am here to preach the good news, not to judge others.
Her mother began to recount the death of one of her sons. He was murdered by her other son. She talked about how horrible she felt for rejecting him for killing his brother. that is the strength of a mother's love I guess. Again I stayed quiet and listened. What advice or nuggets of wisdom could I possibly offer for something so atrocious? She cried and held a rag to her eyes, as she continued to tell the story. I realized she just needed to be heard. Afterwards, she began to talk about all of the blessings she experienced after going through such a terrible tragedy, talking about travels, providence, healing, and many other things big and small where she felt God's hands on her life.
James wrote, "This life is but a vapor." Whatever you may be going through in the moment, you can count on the promise of greater things to come if you accept Christ as your personal savior. Personally, I have attended many funerals, friends, families, a student, all different ages and for numerous reasons. I've also been close to dying on several occasions in my short life, be it almost drowning in a river, getting mugged, or attempting to kill myself when I was younger. Mourning is natural and necessary for our well-being, but I am reminded greatly of the real importance of this life by what I read in the young man's father's Bible. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." We have eternal life to look forward to if we are saved. Rejoice for those who have passed in the Father's hands, and be thankful for his Son's sacrifice that allows us to pass into His glory.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heighth nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:38-39
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21b
Que dieu te benisse,
Seth
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Making Tracks
Hello again readers and friends!
The last few days have been outstanding with a few tough moments. C'est la vie. I'll start with the tough stuff because it's those times that make the good ones so much better. A wise old woman here once told me, "The bitter seeds yield the sweetest fruits."
This week the last remaining founder of the Sandinista Front, Tomás Borges, died at 81 years of age. For the people here, as it was explained to me, this would be like a Founding Father dying in the U.S., and so the people here have been celebrating his life, and large parts of the city were shut down to create pedestrian zones. This also came the day after International Worker's Day. So there were a lot of detours and traffic clogs which delayed me two and a half hours to get home from teaching. At one place, I was stuck going uphill, and I ran out of gas. I had to walk a kilometer down the road to find a gas station only to be redirected further down the road. At that gas station, they told me to go to another two or three kilometers in the opposite direction. I tried the first place again, and they helped me. By the time I got back to my truck, all the traffic had cleared. So I got home in time to change shirts and teach an English class. It was a lesson in patience, and I tried to remember 1 Thessolonians 5:16-18 which says, "Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ."
So on with the good stuff. I am nine days out from meeting with the Costa Rican representative of our MMA organization and a 4-day training camp in the jungle. Yes, I will be training in the rain forest! In six weeks, I have my first MMA fight in Panama, and on Tuesday, the biggest news yet: I am going to Argentina for my second fight a months down the road. These trips renew my visa here in Nicaragua and allow me to legally stay in the country to keep working here. My flights, food, and lodging are also taken care of by the event promoters. This works out perfectly because it allows me to keep my sponsorship funds allocated strictly to my mission. The best part, it opens the doors for my students to be able to do compete abroad as well.
This provides them the opportunity to use their martial arts skills to work as missionaries in other Latin American countries as we are not only representing Nicaragua, but more importantly Christ. So the relationships we form in this are links to strengthen other Christians and lead others to Christ! It also has a social development aspect, as these youth will also be able earn money from the competitions to pay their way through college. Most of their families can't afford to put them through a university, so this provides the means for those who are disciplined enough to stick with it.
God is good all the time!
Y se lo repito a ustedes, "No vayas por el camino que te lleve, pero ve por dónde no hay camino y deja huellas."
God bless you,
Seth
The last few days have been outstanding with a few tough moments. C'est la vie. I'll start with the tough stuff because it's those times that make the good ones so much better. A wise old woman here once told me, "The bitter seeds yield the sweetest fruits."
This week the last remaining founder of the Sandinista Front, Tomás Borges, died at 81 years of age. For the people here, as it was explained to me, this would be like a Founding Father dying in the U.S., and so the people here have been celebrating his life, and large parts of the city were shut down to create pedestrian zones. This also came the day after International Worker's Day. So there were a lot of detours and traffic clogs which delayed me two and a half hours to get home from teaching. At one place, I was stuck going uphill, and I ran out of gas. I had to walk a kilometer down the road to find a gas station only to be redirected further down the road. At that gas station, they told me to go to another two or three kilometers in the opposite direction. I tried the first place again, and they helped me. By the time I got back to my truck, all the traffic had cleared. So I got home in time to change shirts and teach an English class. It was a lesson in patience, and I tried to remember 1 Thessolonians 5:16-18 which says, "Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ."
So on with the good stuff. I am nine days out from meeting with the Costa Rican representative of our MMA organization and a 4-day training camp in the jungle. Yes, I will be training in the rain forest! In six weeks, I have my first MMA fight in Panama, and on Tuesday, the biggest news yet: I am going to Argentina for my second fight a months down the road. These trips renew my visa here in Nicaragua and allow me to legally stay in the country to keep working here. My flights, food, and lodging are also taken care of by the event promoters. This works out perfectly because it allows me to keep my sponsorship funds allocated strictly to my mission. The best part, it opens the doors for my students to be able to do compete abroad as well.
This provides them the opportunity to use their martial arts skills to work as missionaries in other Latin American countries as we are not only representing Nicaragua, but more importantly Christ. So the relationships we form in this are links to strengthen other Christians and lead others to Christ! It also has a social development aspect, as these youth will also be able earn money from the competitions to pay their way through college. Most of their families can't afford to put them through a university, so this provides the means for those who are disciplined enough to stick with it.
God is good all the time!
Y se lo repito a ustedes, "No vayas por el camino que te lleve, pero ve por dónde no hay camino y deja huellas."
God bless you,
Seth
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