Loaves and Fishes

Eighteen years ago I stood at a crossroads in my life. I was tired, sick and broken. The fire in my gut that had fueled my passion for God and the ministry had died into embers. I had been deeply wounded by the church, by life and I thought, even God. I realize now looking back that I was suffering from post traumatic shock syndrome. We had been through so much trauma, so many years of isolation and the loneliness and constant battles with Satan had taken a terrible toll on my life. I had only returned to Guatemala because Queno was committed to building the hospital. The millennium came and went and things seemed to get worse.

We had one more year before the hospital was finished. I was determined that, after that, I was finished. I wanted nothing more but to return to the safety and security of family and friends and live a normal life. Then our mission board asked me to take over the tiny educational project called “Escuela Agape”. A preschool literacy class for children in the village. This project had never prospered and constantly functioned with a deficit. The teachers were just young girls who volunteered with no formal education or training. The classroom was a long narrow building with lattice windows and the benches and tables had seen better days in the Sunday School classrooms at church. But they insisted and I wrote up a plan, an ambitious “impossible” plan. To my surprise and somewhat dismay, the board accepted my plan and instructed me to start. We bought beige and green paint. It was the cheap pain, but we painted the dirty walls and benches and tables and Morning Glory was born. Reluctantly obedient, I brought my broken pieces to the table and like the young boy in Mark, laid them before the Father and said, “Here I am, tired, broken and hurt. But if you think you can still use me take all I have it´s yours.” God took my broken heart, the scattered pieces of what I was, and using the unconditional love and faith of little children, He healed me. God put me back together and fanned the dying embers of the passion in my soul into a roaring fire. Not only did He heal my heart and glue the broken pieces, He took that “impossible” plan, completed it, and did even more. Within two years, Morning Glory was a fully certified private Christian school with three hundred children.

Eighteen years have come and gone. I have never ceased to be amazed that God could use me, with all my broken pieces, to love, educate, and teach what is now thousands of children. Morning Glory has grown beyond imagination. From three teachers and a table on the porch for an office, we now have a staff of almost fifty employees, four administrative offices, twenty-three classrooms, two computer labs, a library and a Bible/music classroom, four playgrounds, and a mini sports field. From stuffing children into our Izuzu trouper like tiny rabbits, we now lease nine full size busses that bring the children to school. Each year over 650 students receive quality private school education with emphasis in Christian values and principles. We not only teach the Bible in weekly chapel sessions for each grade, but Biblical principles are taught daily in the classrooms: in the science, math, social studies, language arts and values classes. Biblical principles are woven into the discipline; into the way we do everything and this year into how we start our day, every day with Scripture and prayer.

"…those are the moments I live for."

And now once again I face a short budget. Once again I will have to rob Peter to pay Paul and pray that I can figure out how to pay Peter back again before it is time to pay Paul again. I battle with delegating jobs that don´t get done, There are constant deadlines, endless bureaucratic hassles with our government and ministry of education, and students who don´t want to do their homework, There are broken water pipes and endless other day to day problems. There are days when I wish I could just fly a white flag outside my office just for a few hours, when I could tell Satan to go away and leave us alone, just for a little while.

Then there are days of refreshment. I see moments of glory when the veil between earth and heaven grows thin and transparent and God allows me to see into His glorious riches. There are moments when the children praise, when they sing with all their heart; moments when a two-year-old toddler strives to follow the motions and you can see him singing ‘Lord I Need You’ with the big kids. God allows me to see moments when the Secondary students kneel before Him and sing about the reckless, unconditional love of God, tears rolling down their perfect faces. I see moments when they laugh and dance and rejoice in the Lord, and those are the moments I live for.

Each Sunday morning, we have English church in my living room. Each Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. we stream Compass Christian’s online service. We sing with the computer, pray and our spirits and souls are fed by the Word. Last Sunday Drew Sherman spoke to my heart. As he preached on grace, he reminded me that the grace of God is sufficient, that it is by His grace we stand and by His grace we walk forward. Pastor Drew spoke of the young boy in the gospel of Mark, an insignificant adolescent who brought two little fishes and five loaves of bread to place in the Master´s hands.

"What are you bringing to the Lord´s table?"

Today I ask you: Is Morning Glory important to you? Have you been touched by the children and hope for the future? What are you bringing to the Lord´s table? Are you willing to bring your loaves and fishes to the Master? Will you let Him use all you have to bless the nations and multitudes? Are you willing to share from your need? Or, are you hiding your lunch for a rainy day, for tomorrow? Are you building a kingdom of stuff or a legacy of love that will live on long after you are gone? Morning Glory needs you! In order to feed the five thousand the young boy had to give his lunch. Two thousand years later, every Sunday School child knows the story. We give our lives, we have left home and family, we give our hearts, our time. We pour into the lives of those we teach and serve. But we can´t do this alone. We need you. If you can offer some fish and loaves to the Morning Glory Story, please click on the link below.