Reagan's "Guatemala Girls" Challenge

Our little Reagan just turned 6.

And the 6 year old princess of the Hughes household decided that she didn't need any more toys.

That sounds shocking, I know.  And it is a rare statement in the Hughes household.  One of our kids' favorite past times is just walking the toy aisles at the local Target and ogling the plethora of shiny new toys.  Reagan is actually usually overheard saying something to the effect of "Can I get that for my birthday?"

Even when her birthday is a year away.

So, when Reagan claimed on her own, without any prompting from anyone, that she didn't need toys for her birthday, we had to get to the bottom of what she meant.

Reagan continued, "Well, I mean, maybe we could give presents to the Guatemala girls instead.  They need it more."

The "Guatemala Girls" that Reagan refers are girls that Reagan met in person during her visit to Guatemala in the summer of 2009.  Her Aunt Lauren (a contributor to this site) is a missionary with Mission Impact in Guatemala and the Hughes family went to visit in 2009.  Mission Impact supports two schools.  One school is a girls-only school called Proximos Pasos in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus.  A village which happens to exist on the base of a volcano.

Santa Maria is a poor village where girls really have little to no opportunity to attend education.  The public school in the area is only for boys.  There is not really the space for girls.  Proximos Pasos offers these girls a formal education AND a chance to learn about Jesus on a daily basis.

The work that this school does to invest in the lives of these girls and show them love is amazing.  The beacon for Christ that they have been to the community is inspiring.

Reagan heard her aunt share the story that many of the girls never have birthday parties at home.  Many of them don't even know when their actual birthday is.  The school tries to celebrate each girl's birthday with a small gift and a little celebration.  For many of these girls, these are the very first birthday gifts they have ever been given.

So, Reagan has decided that her upcoming 6th birthday party will be all about the "Guatemala Girls" that she loves so much.  Instead of bringing her gifts, she is asking friends, family and people with a heart for missions to instead make a financial donation to Mission Impact to help these girls attend school.  Since she's turning 6 years old, our goal for the party is to raise $600 to help offset the tuition costs for her "Guatemala Girls."

Will you join us?

You can stop by and visit the Reagan's Party page to donate.  Every little bit helps.  Additionally, feel free to share this blog and the donation page via Facebook, Twitter and email to any other folks that you think would be interested in donating toward Reagan's goal.

Finally, you can pray for the girls and the staff of Proximos Pasos that they would continue to be a light for Christ to their village.

Thank you for your support in this cause and God bless Reagan's precious "Guatemala Girls!"

Fourth of July Parade, Narnia & The Greatest Type of Love

So, we were able to take our kids to the 4th of July parade in Pitman this year.  Pitman is a local town that has that small town feel, complete with a main street and center of town like the good old days.  In years past we participated in the parade with the church that we were attending at the time.  That church always has a huge float and scores of people to represent the church in the community.  Their parade outreach is led by a very godly older couple who have been faithful through the years to make sure that the church has a good representation in the parade.

I will save you the full play by play of our worst experience marching in the parade.  Let's just say that it was hotter than Iraq in Pitman and we thought we'd be super smart and park our car somewhere near the route on a side street and then meet up with the church.  And let's just pretend for a moment, however hard it may be, that we are both terrible with directions (a reason why we will never win the Amazing Race) and that we got lost walking up and down side street after side street in search of the oasis of our air-conditioned car.  Low on water, cranky with heat and sweating like pigs, we both prepared to die.  The end was near.

But since I'm typing this to you, you can assume that we eventually found our van (which was probably right nearby the entire time) and made it back to air-conditioned civilization.

Back to the parade.

It struck me that many of the floats and organizations participating in this parade were local churches.  And that made me smile.  So did the frozen vanilla latte that I picked up at Casa de Coffee, a local coffee shop right around the corner.  Good stuff folks,  good stuff!

We joined Pitman-dwelling friends of ours on the curb.  They view July 4th kind of like most people view Christmas.  It's a huge deal.  So it was fun to share in their enthusiasm for the day.

It was a hot day, but our kids seemed to be enjoying themselves.  One moment that repeated itself over and over again was our two sons leaping to their feet every time a military veteran went by via a car, a float or just walking in a group.

The first time military vets went by we told them to stand up to show respect.  Our boys did one better:  they both saluted the veterans.  This became a ritual.  Every time a veteran went by my 10 year old and my 4 year old would stand proudly to their feet and salute!  Several of the old GI Joes saluted back to our little guys.

It was a moving moment for my wife and I.  Our boys were showing RESPECT to people who have earned it.  They understood in that moment what it meant to be American.  They understood in that moment what it meant to thank someone for sacrificing so much for us.  They understood in that moment what it meant to be rescued from evil by someone else's powerful sacrifice.  Biblically speaking, they understood Jesus' definition of love.

Jesus tells us in John 15:18 that "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  This is right after He commands us to love one another.  And before He will do this very thing by laying down His perfect sinless life on behalf of a fallen world.

To the boys that day in Pitman, the patriotism-soaked holiday commemorating our nation's birth helped to illuminate the true nature of honor and sacrificial love.  And it reminded them that sometimes we need someone bigger, stronger and more powerful to save us.

Later this week when we were reading our portion of C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we came to the chapter where the ever-annoying Eustace has been made into a dragon because of his greed and wickedness.  As a dragon, Eustace learns the folly of his ways and repents.  Then comes the moment when he attempts to shed his dragon skin.  Hard as he may try he cannot remove it permanently.  It keeps growing back.  Finally, Aslan (the lion who represents Christ in the world of Narnia) helps him out:

"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke--'You will have to let me undress you.'  I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now.  So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.  The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.  And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt.  The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I'd done it myself the other 3 times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was, lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been.  And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been..."

The 4th of July and the brave sacrifices made by our founding fathers and the generations of liberty's defenders serve as a reminder that we are in a world at war.  My little boys can't defend themselves against Nazis, Commies, or terrorists.  They need the protection of brave men and women willing to demonstrate the Biblical definition of the greatest type of love--self-sacrifice.  The little boy Eustace was also powerless to turn himself back into a boy without the powerful lion Aslan to help him.

And we are also incapable of shedding the sin into which we were born without the self-sacrifice and love of Jesus.  And that's something worth saluting!

Halle, our Word-Wielding Bug Whacker!

Bugs, beware!

She’s more formidable than Raid...

Halle is coming atcha’s with her BIBLE!

All I gotta say – I’m glad I bought her Bible in the hard cover edition! Here’s how it all went down yesterday morning…

On the way to church, a bug decided to buzz past Halle’s head and dance around on her window setting off quite a van disturbance! Jared, our almost 10 year old, has sensory issues with noise and bugs, so this insect escapade should have set him off into a panic, but instead he got mad at Halle, our 6 year old fearless bug-squisher, because she had the audacity to use her BIBLE to whack the bug to smithereens.

While Brad & our oldest teen son were already at church, here’s a rundown of how my ride to church went with our other 5 kids…

WHACK!

“It’s over there, now!”

“AHHH!” WHACK! “I got it! Uh, nope, I didn’t!”

Hysterical laughter…

“This is not funny!”

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

“Halle, don’t use the Bible!”

“How’s she doing, Chrissy?”

“AHHHH!”

“Where did it go?”

“It’s in the crack! IN the crack!”

“What in the world…”

“She got it, oh, there it is again…”

Giggles and then a WHACK!

“It’s gone now!”

“No it’s not, it’s on your Bible, Halle!”

A chorus of “ewwws” while Halle keeps giggling!

“Halle, here’s a tissue.”

“That’s disgusting!

Halle keeps giggling as she swipes the guts away!

“You should NOT use the Bible, Halle, for killing bugs.”

…More giggling, from both little girls…

“Did you hear me, Halle Mira?”

“Shew! Glad that’s over.”

I so wish that all was caught on video!

Ironically, after the guts were gone, I was stunned as I remembered that Jared, on the autism spectrum, IGNORED his intense fear of bugs to chastise Halle for using the Bible as a weapon! Fascinating! He set aside his self-preservation needs for the care of the BIBLE! How super cool!

After we all caught our breaths, I told Jared that it was okay Halle used her Bible in her Bug Battle – I explained to the kids that the Bible is called our SWORD, so she wasn’t too far off in using it against an enemy – even if it was a lightning bug, or so we believe!

Here’s the thing, though… how many of us REALLY use our Swords? Do we wield the Words of our Lord to do spiritual battle as much as we should? I know I don’t. We get caught up with the Word being bound in leather and on paper… when it’s supposed to be IN us – His power living in us!

How often do we swat away gnat-issues with our own personal ideas or logic? Do we think they’re not big enough to use the Word? Oh, and what about our bigger issues – do we bug-bomb our homes with His Word and our lives with prayer when the Enemy attacks with crisis, illness, rejection? Nothing makes the spiritual "bugs" flee faster than a house filled with praise!

As the kids’ worship chorus states: Our God is so BIG! So strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God can not do – for YOU! Use the Word to overcome your fear!

We must use the Word everyday, in every circumstance, relating our daily lives straight back to His Words, not our own! We should make His power-words a part of our everyday family vocabulary: grace, love, gentleness, prayer, mercy, unity, care, etc. Kids who learn these powerful Truths at younger ages will use the Scripture to do battles throughout their lives in a more fluid nature. It’ll become natural for them to behave as SUPER-natural FEAR Killers!

Heh, heh...

Halle said a few moments later, "I like killing bugs!"

Uh, oh! I definitely need to redirect her to killing spiritual bugs, instead! I'm totally okay with her whacking away bossiness (pride), laziness, and disobedience, though!

So…. Got “bugs”? Annoyed or freaked out about 'em? Use the Word!

Although I dunno about the whole killing-God’s-scared-glow-in-the-dark-creatures thing is a topic I should take on next with my crew….

One Battle/Bible-lesson at a time, right?

Joyfully,

Renee Balassaitis

Ephesians 6:17

"Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God."

This picture is a dramatization. No bugs were squished in the making of this picture.