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| Checking out the jungle leaves! |
We first
met Serena about 9 years ago. She was a 6th grader at the time and
came to the AWANA program at our church in Idaho. Clay had just been called as
youth pastor, and I was learning the ropes with my first baby…and as a youth
pastor’s wife.
Over the
years, we grew to love Serena. She has always had a sweet personality and was
eager to help out and serve. As a youth, she helped in the Cubbies room during
AWANA (that’s the 3-5 year olds…and we all know it takes a special kind of
person to work there!), she taught in Vacation Bible School, she raked leaves
on ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) days, she participated in the mission trips
our youth group took, and so much more.
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| Checking out the smelly fish department of WalMart |
For the
last three years I have been trying to convince her to come to Mexico to help
us. She was studying elementary education…and I already knew she was qualified
to work with little ones. It made perfect sense to me that she would one day
come down and homeschool my kids! I just had to convince Serena. (And her Mom)
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| I finally convinced her!! (And her Mom too!) |
Last
summer, Serena wrote me a letter saying God was doing “something” but she
didn’t know what it was yet. And soon after that, I received a Facebook message
telling me that she thought God was calling her to come to Mexico! (I think I
let out a squeal when I read those words! And then I cried tears of joy!) I
called Serena that evening and we talked it over. The hardest part was waiting
seven months until we could pick her up from the airport!
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| Matthew, Tammy, Petrona, and Serena |
It had been
over three years since we had seen each other. The best part was seeing how God
has changed and transformed her from a quiet, timid youth to a confident, brave,
godly young woman. Can you imagine your first trip away from home...and you go
to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language? But you don’t go to a
city with lots of modern comforts. You go to a remote village in the middle of
the jungle with few modern conveniences and two new languages. That takes
courage, obedience, and trust. (We question her often about what she was
thinking putting her life in our hands!)
Serena has
jumped right in to this great adventure of jungle life. She spends her mornings
in the classroom with four energetic young scholars, and she juggles the circus
wonderfully! In the afternoons, she adapts to the spontaneity of our life,
offering to play hostess to a surprise visitors, or holding the crying baby so
that Felicity can spend 15 minutes listening to a Bible story. A few afternoons
a week, she holds “Serena Surprise Time” where she entertains the kids (and
sometimes some of their friends) with arts & crafts or games. And in her spare
time, she studies Spanish and bakes cookies! (One of my favorites was watching
her play Go Fish in a combination of Spanish, English, and ZK.)
We are
thankful to have Serena with us and we are excited to see what God has planned
for her future. I have no doubt that after living in the jungle for 6 months,
her life will never be the same!
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