Start of Year!

Well, we have gotten going again here down @ CCA! We are 2 half days into the year and it was great to see students again! It was even greater seeing both my girls with me at school! I cant describe how fun it is to se them at different times as they are out on the playground and they give me this little wave. Essie has been so excited about going to school, I can't wait to watch her bloom this year. Ro is getting right back in the swing of things and is a joy for her teachers. Both of them were so excited about the second day that they woke up at 5:45 and got themselves dressed including shoes and finished packing their lunches. All Clare and I had to do was breakfast and hair. We can dream that continues! Field continues to be a blast and makes us laugh constantly! Every day he wants to "Go Play Soccer!"

Basketball season starts up next week! As always things roll a little slow down here in Panama. I am waiting to hear from a few courts about us being able to rent. I am also still recruiting coaches to work with our teams. Thankfully the older teams are set, but still need some coaches for the younger teams. Please pray that the right people will be able to work with our kids and have a great season of loving and coaching these kids.

I am very excited about starting a men's bible study this fall. There has not been anything in this community for men. I have gotten great response from a number of guys. We are going to use the video series by Matt Chandler on Phillipians. I hope it will be a great time of fellowship and sharpening. I pray that we bond as a group of men that love the lord and want to lead this community well.

I was able to lead devotions for the staff the other morning and I shared from Phillipians as I have been reading it in preparation of the bible study. I was sharing how we as a staff needed to come together as a team and accept the different gifts and abilities that each other have. It is important to encourage each other in our strengths as that is the way God designed us. I find myself too many times wanting people to think, respond, and communicate the way that I believe they should. I need to remember to celebrate the individual that God is using for his purpose to His glory. Phillipians 2:3-11 gave me a big lesson on how to interact with others and a great example in our Saviour.

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. have this mind among yourselves , which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient tot he point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."