John Simons

A Christmas Poem by Abby

Tonight, Abby wrote a Christmas poem:

Christmas Poem
Born in a manger, laid in the hay,
Laying asleep, with no proper place to stay.
Cattle a lowing, stars shining above,
Given to sinners, a sign of love.
Jesus, the Savior, a tiny babe,
Death predicted birth,
by Myrrh, used to anoint a body.
Do you question love’s worth?

The reference to myrrh comes from the sermon in church this past week.  I hope that everyone takes time to remember not only that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but that he was born to die so that our sins could be forgiven, and we could know our Creator.

Tags: Christmas, Family, poem

Josh’s Herbst Appliance

In August, Josh went from being a motor mouth to having a mechanical mouth. He has an orthodontic appliance to correct his overbite.  It is called a Herbst appliance and is gradually being adjusted to move his lower jaw.

Tags: Herbst appliance, Josh

Excuses

I have badly neglected this blog for some time.  It is not for a lack of desire to post here.  In fact, I have started a couple of blog posts, I just haven’t had a chance to finish anything.

I have a couple of primary excuses:

1. Work is very busy.
2. The family is doing a lot.
3. I am taking a class at Reformed Theological Seminary this fall.

The combination of these factors has led to me having very little free time.  What free time I have had has been used to help out at church.

I will eventually get back to this blog.  I hope to redesign the look of the blog.  I also hope to have a chance to post some of what I am learning/thinking about with the Systematic Theology class that I am taking.

Snapshot 4 - Growth as a Man

One of the things that was most exciting for me on the trip, was watching Josh interact with the rest of the team and with our friends in Paraguay.  It was a great unknown for me as we went into the trip: how would Josh handling being in a different culture, where he doesn’t know the language, and is expected to interact with adults throughout the week.

The first night that we were there, we met with a group of pastors and elders to talk about the plans for the week.  At that first meeting, one of the pastors referred to Josh as the “pequeño missionario.”  That became a nickname for Josh during much of the week.

Throughout the week, Josh impressed me with how he handled himself.  When he was with the Paraguayan youth, he was just another teenager interacting with friends.  He played soccer, shot baskets into a bucket, juggled, listened to music, and just talked.  When he was with adults, he carried himself with maturity and poise.  When it was time to speak publicly, he did a great job talking about what his faith means to him.  From what I am told, he handled himself very well doing the evangelism.   During the week, he worked side by side with everything from teenagers to pastors, and he handled himself like a champ.

Since we have been home, he has been staying in touch through the internet with some of the people that we got to know.  He has talked about a desire to practice his Spanish.  He definitely wants to go back to Paraguay.  Our hope is that we will be able to go back again next year.  We also hope that we will be able to put together a small team from our church to go with us.  It would be great for our church to develop a relationship with some of the churches in Paraguay.

At the end of the trip, Josh was talking with the same pastor who had called him the “pequeño missionario.”  I commented that I thought he had proven himself to not be the “pequeño missionario” anymore, just the missionario.  The pastor corrected me.  He said that Josh had proven himself to be a “gran missionario.”

I think that I agree.

Tags: Family, Missions, Paraguay

Back home

Josh and I arrived safely home yesterday afternoon.  My parents picked us up at the airport.  They also made dinner for us.

Tonight, Lynn and the girls fly back from Texas, where they have been helping friends pack to move.  I can’t wait to see them again.

There is a lot that I have not had a chance to write about on the blog.  I hope that over the next couple weeks, I will have a chance to fill in some of the gaps, as well as adding a few pictures.  I also expect to upload some more pictures to the flickr account.  So, please check back again to see some more details of the trip.

Tags: Home, Missions, Paraguay