A special prayer request

I have a very special friend who has a very special prayer request that she cannot yet share with anyone other than her Heavenly Father. She did, however, choose to share it with me.

Sometimes, even though we are quite far removed from the hustle and bustle of the US, we receive prayer requests from our friends, family, prayer partners and financial supporters. Sometimes, we receive emails or requests from friends or acquaintances who do not know the Lord, but knowing who we are and 'what we do' I suppose they feel confident their request will be presented unto the Lord.

Let me say to you all, it is an honor and a privilege to come before the Lord on your behalf, faithful friends and loved ones. Those of you who petition the Lord on our behalf, daily, are who sustain us through your prayers. We thank you for your prayerful support and we are blessed by your prayer requests.

Yesterday, I received a sweet message from a dear friend of mine. I cannot share her name or the nature of her request, but Our Heavenly Father knows. I have prayed for her and will continue to pray for my friend and the situation she shared with me.

Would you pray for her, as well? She desperately seeks prayer, but circumstances at this time will not permit her to confide in others around her.

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers.

Please pray for Emma and her family

Here is an update from Emma's Caring Bridge site that I received late last night. I cannot imagine what her parents are going through. Emma is 6 weeks old (I believe) and was expected to have been able to return home by now...and now is facing some pretty significant difficulties that may or may not lead to being opened back up and all the healing starting over againg.

Please pray!

Today has been an interesting day. Emma's chest x-rays have continued to deteriorate over the last few days. Today the did another ultrasound after her chest xray was reviewed trying to identify whether she had a collapsed lung or fluid. It was decided that it was most likely fluid and the best way to proceed was to stop all feeds again and put in another chest tube. Late this afternoon the chest tube went in...and then came back out. If there was fluid build up the chest tube should have drained something right away so when it didn't they pulled it back out. The thought tonight is that maybe she has pulmonary edema so they started more diuretics to get fluid off. If this is the case it should be apparent by tomorrow mornings xray. If there isn't improvement then they will use imaging to guide a chest tube exactly where the pocket of fluid might be. Right now the doctors aren't completely sure what is going on. All of Emma's numbers look ok and she isn't showing signs of issues due to this mystery. We're hoping that the diuretic improves things and that maybe she just has pulmonary edema. My fear if it's pulmonary edema is that we will be hearing more discussions about banding the shunt. We really don't want do put her through that right now because it will be opening her back up and starting the whole healing process again. The xray tomorrow could really determine where we go from here with her. A new chest tube would also likely mean back on TPN and lipids through IV for 2-3 weeks before feeding her again which would also be a step backwards.

Since we can't hang anything from Emma's warmer I took some black and white picture books to prop up in her bed. She is really studying the pictures when she is awake. Tonight we let her watch Baby Beethoven for the first time and she really liked that. I think we are going to have another Baby Einstein addict in the family. Honestly I think she just likes to look at anything other than her warmer, tiled ceiling, and medical equipment but who wouldn't! Except for the 2 trips down to radiology she has no idea anything else exists beyond what little she can see from her bed. One of these days hopefully she can see that there is more to the world beyond West 315 in the CICU... today that day seems a long time from now.

Update on Baby Emma

I realized that I haven't posted an update on Baby Emma in quite awhile. She is doing better, but still somewhat slow going. She is still in the hospital and from the way it sounds may be there another few weeks. She is off most of her tubes and monitors, all closed up and in the process of weaning off all most of the drugs. She is supposed to begin feedings again today. There have been some ups and some downs. She also is starting to suck on her pacifier which is a good sign, but her cry is weak and this may be an indication of some damage that occured during exploratory surgeries and the other surgeries.

She looks so cute in the pictures and seems just precious. But she still needs our prayers. She still needs healing and God's hand upon her. It has been a long road and there is still more to come for her.

Please keep praying for her and her family, too. Pray for peace for her parents and stamina and endurance as they have had to return to work. Pray for her little brothers as they long to see their baby sister more. Pray for the grandparents who are able to help and are spending weeks at a time with the boys or with Emma in the hospital. Some of you may know our good friends, Tim and Sue Wolfe are Emma's grandparents. Please pray for other family members who are making themselves available in other ways as well.

Thank you for praying for this sweet baby girl! :)

What keeps me busy...

I find myself with less and less time to blog, read/respond to emails and keep up with internet communication.

I have many, many blogs rolling around in my head and I often desire to share with you faithful readers :) I have finished the 12 Extraordinary women book and loved it and learned so much! But had so little time to share with you. I hope to care out some time soon to share some thoughts. But...for now:

What has been keeping me busy, you ask?

Keeping up with the house, helping Matt with his responsibilities and ministering to those around us do keep me quite occupied. But, what fills most of my days is homeschooling our three little ones :)

**The captions are off, but I think you can figure out what goes with what**

Learning to be a servant...







Morning devotionals:





Playing 'church'

Audrey stood up at the beginning with her Bible open and said,"Hello! God loves you. the Bible says God loves you and He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for you because He loves you."


Then they played Bible drill like the Tejarcillos church



They sang a few songs and checked on their babies. Matt and I watched from the window.



We are going to study snow as part of our Olympic Unit Study. My mom sent us a science experiment to make snow some time ago and we finally tried it just time for the study. It was pretty cool :) (We all are missing the snow a little about now!)





Our days vary, but we have a schedule and our pattern really fits us this year. We are doing well. I am not following a particular curriculum, but rather picking a book or unit study and working our way through it, incorporating English, grammar, and history into it. We have science day on Friday. I have hopes to begin a composer study and an artist study, but we have yet to do that.

So, if you have noticed a lot of "newsy" type posts but not a lot of my normal real life posts- I apologize. I love that God has granted me the peace to be who He created me to be, His child, Matt's wife and mother to three children. He has given me back the life I love of taking care of our home and supporting Matt in ministry and watching the kids as they grow, training them and nurturing them. He has blessed us with a church where we are fed and nurtured each week and I am also part of a women's Bible study. And still I have the privilege to disciple three women.

God is so good.

"All I want for..."

"All I want for my birthday is my two front teeth."




I don't think she can wait for Christmas! :)

School uniforms 2010

Here is a slideshow of a few faces that were blessed by the school uniform offering from Hickory Grove Church from Indiana.

Make a Smilebox collage

THANK YOU, Hickory Grove!!! for blessing the kids of Villareal, Costa Rica!

Weekly Prayer Requests

Email sent out today to email prayer partners :)

Dear faithful prayer partners,
We thank God for your continued prayers. God is truly answering them.

Last week we began an English class with our neighbors. It is a very informal class, but they each receive homework and are left with things to study for the next class. We decided to meet with them Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from about 4:15-5:15 each week. We are very impressed at how they are taking the class seriously and are really studying! Thursday they receive quite a bit more homework than on Tuesday and they were actually eager for that! To say that God is using this class for more than English would be an understatement. We wish that we could say that the whole household has come to know the Lord. That has not happened- YET! However, the husband, Alvaro, has been home more this past week than we've seen him since we moved. He is out on the porch practicing with his family. He opened up to Matt and I on Thursday evening in a way very uncommon with men of this culture. In fact, we were at their house about 2 hours after the class getting to know them better, with Alvaro doing most of the talking. Please pray that God would prepare Alvaro's heart to be open to the gospel. Please pay that God would give Alvaro ears to hear the gospel.

Also, please continue to pray for Dinora and her husband, Ronny. Dinora is one of the most excellent disciples I've seen. Completely prepared every week with verse and lesson, and she is searching for the answers to the questions she has. She is learning to rely more and more on the Lord and less and less on her own strength or resources. Her biggest prayer request is for Ronny who is an alcoholic. Ronny had told her she could not go to church with us anymore, but that he would go to mass with her every Saturday. So, Dinora was submissive to his wishes and stayed home from church on Sunday. That night, he asked her why she didn't go and she responded in a very respectful way. She also shared with him the discipleship book and gave him the Bible I had just given her. (This is the second Bible she has given away since we started discipleship! The first was to her mother, who does not know the Lord either). She even encouraged him to start the same study with Matt! Please for his heart as well, to be opened by God to the gospel message.

Please pray for the many, many people who are slaves to alcoholism in Villareal. We have seen so many lives affected by this addiction, which many times is accompanied by an addiction to drugs, as well. Please pray that God's Word would be a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path. Please pray that God would allow those who have fallen captive to alcoholism to recognize the Living Water that will quench their thirst forever and once and forever fill the void in their lives that they seek to fill with alcohol and sometimes drugs.

Please pray for direction for Matt and I as we seek God's will in our lives and future direction. God seems to be presenting several opportunities for future ministry and we seek to follow only what He has specifically chosen for us. Please pray for clarity.

Praise God for clarity and wisdom about decisions Brooke was trying to make regarding homeschool. For now, Brooke and our kids continue as before with no additions or changes to the daily routine and learning is continuing and going well! Praise God for His wisdom and sovereignty! Thank you for praying!

Thank you for standing in the gap for us.

Serving Christ 'til He comes back,
Brooke :)

Check out our family blog:
www.costaricamcclains.blogspot.com

Check out our family website:
www.mcclainfamily4him.org

Weekly Prayer Requests

Here are our prayer requests and praises for this week:


Dear family and friends,
We pray that you are all well and joyful in the Lord this week.

We write with several specific requests and praises for this week.

First, please join us in praising the Lord with us for donations we received last summer to purchase uniforms and school supplies from Hickory grove Church! We were able to provide uniforms for many children from both Calvary Chapel and First Baptist as well as school supplies for all the school age children from both churches! God is so good and we rejoice for special offerings like this that are such tangible meaningful blessings to the brothers and sisters in Christ here in Costa Rica. THANK YOU Hickory Grove!!!!

Praise God for a wonderful, refreshing time in Nicaragua. Thank you for praying!

We ask that you pray specifically this week for an English class we are starting with our landlord and his entire family. Tuesday afternoon, our landlord, Alvaro, his wife Elvita and their children, Ernesto (Marcos), Ana, and Ronny and his wife Dinora will begin bout 10-12 weeks of basic English classes with us. Brooke is currently discipling Dinora, Elvita and Ana. Although each of them has said that they have accepted Christ, some inconsistencies still exist and we ask that you pray that God's Word speaks truth into their hearts and they come to know Him as their personal Savior. We ask that you pray this same Truth be true in the lives of these three men as well. None of them know Jesus and it is our goal to offer this class to them not only as a way to teach them English, but also as a way to teach them the Truth of God's Word. Brooke discussed what a class would look like and that they would have homework and it would be from the Bible. Also, we feel God has opened this door as a way for Matt to minister to these men. Please pray for God to bless this time we have with this whole family and that He would be honored, glorified and His Kingdom furthered. Pray that ultimately our time with them would be less and less about English and more and more about our Savior! Pray for the salvation of the entire family.

Please also pray this week for a young girl named Lindsey who Brooke has been spending time with. There is much going on in the life of this young lady and we ask that you ask God to continue allowing Brooke to minister to her. Pray that she would come to know Jesus as her personal Savior.

Pray also for the many needs of the people here. The economic situations here are so diverse, but overall the situations of many in the churches are very hard. Praise God for many who have work. Pray for those who do not. Pray for their basic needs to be met. Pray for their faith to be strengthened even in times of great need.

Serving Christ 'til He comes back,
Matt and Brooke :)

Check out our family website:
www.mcclainfamily4Him.org

Check out our family blog:
www.costaricamcclains.blogspot.com

THank you for standing in the gap for our family.

What is unity?

"One hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."
A. W. Tozer

This morning in my devotional time, I read the following statement:
'It ought to be the goal of every believer to do that which directly and deliberately brings glory to our God and Father.'

I then read John 15:8-10 and Romans 15:5-7 and thought about practical ways God can be glorified in our lives based on these scriptures.

The scriptures are very clear about how we are to bring glory to God.
8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love." John 15:8-10

According to this scripture, we are to bring glory to God by:
1. Bearing much fruit (vs 8)
2. Remaining in His love (vs 9)
3. Obeying His commands (vs 10)

"5May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." Romans 15:5-7on

According to this scripture, we are to glorify God by being a body of believers with:
1. One heart
2. One mouth
and we are to:
3. Accept one another as Christ accepted us

So, in my reflection this morning, I felt true conviction. I totally get the bearing much fruit part, the remaining in His love and the obeying His commands. Those things I am far from perfecting, but I get that and I have those things as my goal...

(Do you hear that: "I get it," "my goal" those things are dependent on me...no one else)

But what stopped me in my tracks this morning is this: that we are called to a spirit of unity in order to bring glory to Christ. So much so that we are to "accept one another, then, as Christ accepted you."

OUCH...

I know who I am. I know the thoughts I carry- that no one else knows, except Christ himself. Only He knows the parts of my heart still black with sin. He knew me, loved me, and saved me when I was dirty, dirty, dirty with sin and so far away from Him I could only be restored through Him.

He accepted me when I was in the worst possible state, with open arms, without hesitation, with no strings attached. There was no contract that I had to sign assuring my performance, stipulating my rewards if I completed certain things.

He loved me and saved me and that was that.

And now, I have the privilege of bringing glory to His name by bearing much fruit for Him, remaining in His love, obeying Him, and living in unity with His body by having one heart and one mouth and accepting other believers as Christ has accepted me.

See, what is difficult for me is this whole 'acceptance of others' thing. Because, ya know, if we are truly honest, acceptance of others is a really messy thing.

It makes me wonder,

"What is unity?"

The quote at the beginning of this post by Tozer gives me the picture of one hundred people in a large conference room or sanctuary or wherever...in a large circle, backs to the center. All of them are focused on their God, basking in His presence, listening for His voice, totally pointed towards their King, yet, at the same time, deeply connected to those around them, through the Holy Spirit.

The latter description in the quote brings to mind a vastly different picture. I picture these same hundred believers seated at large tables throughout the room, each with their pencils and paper or perhaps dry erase boards, forming a strategy for becoming more united in their faith. Brainstorming for Jesus...or perhaps, all are gathered together, lots of food, lots of conversation, music streaming freely in the background. All in hopes of building relationships with the body of Christ. In this situation, all the people can very well form connections, some very good ones. But the problem here is that no one is calling upon the Lord. Everyone looks to each other, or to themselves, for the solution to unity and fellowship.

Have you ever been in either of these situations. I have more often than not, been in the second scenario. What I have seen happen, is that instead of experiencing koinania (true fellowship), we have a good time, yet fail to edify our Lord because our selfishness and pride get in the way. Often, it may seem that we are "accepting" others because we are there together with "them." We learn more about others and ultimately we form opinions of them.

And then we go home and talk about them to our spouse, nit-picking every little detail of the evening and what we liked and especially highlighting what we did not like.

Sound familiar? (Just being real, here... not trying to step on any toes)

It seems to me, God is not saying here, "Yeah, just be cool with those other guys, wave to them on the street, hang with them from time to time, but ya know...to each his own."

NO!

God wants us to have complete unity- the same mouth, the same heart! Accept others as Christ accepted us- when we were covered in our own filth...

To be perfectly honest, this is a task for which I feel extremely inadequate, because I am a prideful person. I puff myself up and look down on others for their weakness. I am a horrible example of a disciple of Christ at times. I fail Him daily. Yet, He continues to accept me, without reservations. He continues to use me, despite my certain embarrassing faults.

And so, I now am supposed to accept others in that same way?

I am supposed to accept others in that same way.

And that is how God will be glorified in my life?

That is how God will be glorified in my life.

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." Psalms 133:1

I'm interested to hear our thoughts...

Nicaragua February 2010

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Praise the Lord with us for new disciples!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

we're back

We've been in Nicaragua all week. We left early Monday morning with a couple we've grown to love here in Costa Rica and headed to a small beach town about half an hour from the Nica border called San Juan del Sur. The town itself is less than three hours away from Villareal, but with the border crossing, you can never tell exactly how long the trip will take. Our border crossing Monday took 3 hours!!!!! UUUGGGHHHH! But, we had good company with D and T and and Eddie, one of the youth of Calvary church. We all piled in D and T's SUV and drove to the border, parked the car in "secure" parking (that is a whole other story)...and then walked across the border! It was so much fun actually! (I cannot believe that I just said crossing the border from one Latin America country to another was fun). All in all, aside from the long wait to get through Immigration on Costa Rica's side, it was super easy! Then, we met up with our friend Carlos from Nicaragua who picked us up and drove us to San Juan del Sur. We had driven through this town several times while in Nica, but never stayed there. It is a super quaint little town with a cozy, warm atmosphere. We stayed at the Hotel Villa Isabella, which was fun for our Izzy. It is this cute little B & B owned by an expat named Mike from the US. He's been there 20 or so years and has that hotel and a larger condo on the beach front. It is a great place and we'd recommend it to anyone traveling in the area. We sampled food from all over the little city from a fabulous jalepeno steak to fish tacos to roasted chicken and beans and rice. the hotel had complementary breakfast and it was FANTASTIC!!!

Above all, we were greatly encouraged by our friends and it was a wonderful time of fellowship. We really love Nicaragua and the people and have since our first trip there. This trip gave us a much greater glimpse of the culture. Yesterday, we went shopping and went to the central market (think flea market) and had a blast making special memories together :)

We have heard from several people that the laws have changed in CR and we now can leave CR, enter Nicaragua, then return to CR the same day. We had also heard that we could go to Nica and return on the third day (if we left on Monday we could return on Wednesday, for example) and did not have to wait until 72 hours, which is what we have always known the law to be. We, Matt and I, want to make sure we are following what the law says and not doing anything illegal (imagine that- missionaries wanting to follow the law ;] ) and so do our friends, so we stayed the fourth day to complete the 72 hour law. We have been told the law was changed recently...so today, I asked several border officials of both sides (because Nicaragua is said to have the same law for tourists). We were told that we can return on the same day as we leave, but we are going to do further research on it...All of this stuff is so wierd and we want to be sure we are following the law, but it sure would save us a ton of money if we did not have to make these trips and stay overnight- even if we could cut out one night would be better....vamos a ver (we'll see!)

I will post some pics soon...maybe later tonight...

Praise!!

We are praising God tonight!

Ronny, our neighbor and live-in boyfriend to Dinora, who I am discipling, came to church with us tonight. Dinora and her mother-in-law have been coming for over a month now, but tonight was the first time he has come. Praise God with us and let's join together in praying that this will be the first of many and mostly that he will give his life to the Lord.

Raton Perez viene....

Audrey lost her first tooth today!!!! In Costa Rica, the "tooth fairy" is a rat named Raton Perez who brings something special in trade for your tooth. Audrey told our neighbor that she wanted Raton Perez to bring her a "ton of money and a cookie!"

Hope her bubble won't be burst when she finds 500 colones (about $1.00) under her pillow in the morning... :)