Rocio's thoughts on 'Perseverance, the Skit'

So I've been practicing the 'Perseverance' skit, and my bones hurt from falling and being beaten up by imaginary people in my place. Tis painful! But more piercing and convicting is the skit's story.
I wonder, can one be a true Christian and not go through this in life? Is being a Christian so easy as to just profess it and you're safe, that's it, nothing more to it?
I was jolted by the realization that: if I'm not ridiculed in life for following Christ, am I truly identifying myself with HIM to begin with?

The main character is every Christian, not just a preacher. It's the high school teenager, its the young adult. It's every Christian's command to 'Go, tell the good news, I am with you...always'
I go with an initial enthusiasm, His Words in my hands...then rejection, then a couple of beatings. Slowly I try to crawl back up. The Holy Spirit finishes picking me up and points me again to the Word. I'm told to pick it up again. He's empowered me. He sends me out again, to speak HIS words.
I think I can do it my way and yield better results...not so. Yet more beatings, and I start to think, forget it God, find someone else. I want nothing to do with this, with you...nothing! I start to leave, I stop, I look back, I can't leave...He calls me to Himself...I can't leave...He receives me again, points me to His word, and again tells me 'Go, with My words Go.'
All the time He's behind me, in the background it seems, orchestrating events. In the end, it's not me who calls, it's not me who chooses. X calls each one and says 'come to ME.' I am only His instrument. Those He calls he allows to become His children. And I share in the joy of having brought people back to HIM.
But after the beatings and the ridicule, do I get back up? Do I trust Him? Do I question Him for allowing the beatings? When I walk away, do I come back? Am I bold, do I care more what other people might think of me....Do I love Him more than any other opinion in this world??? to do anything to identify myself with Him?
I have alot of thinking to do...

* my first blog*!!

Hey everyone
i'm darlene and like everyone knows me rocio's little sister!......
soo i'm not much of a blogger actualli i know nothing about it
but for all u guys to get to know me a little bit i'm gona start trying to blog..
I am 15 yrs. old and finishing my sophmore yr.
I live in PalmDesert which is passing Palm Springs.
This is a very new experience for me, the whole trip to cambodia
i had never really plannd todo missions overseas but when the opportunity for me to go came
i thought it would be a great way to grow in every aspect of my life and mostly spiritually.
I really like my team members and would love to get to know them a little bit more..
i dont know.. everyone knows me as a little quiet and shy but hopefully everyone will start feeling more comfortable but when they get to know the real me hmmm who knows if they'll still want me !!
Lol lets just say they'll have to put up with two rocios!!! :)
Anyways this is my first blog and it wont definitly be my last....
~d~

How to Get to Where You Don't Know Where You are Going

Check out this map of part of Paul's missionary journeys and the corresponding verses in Acts.

They made their way through Phyrgia [6] and Galatia [7], but the Holy Spirit prevented them from speaking God's message in Asia. When they came to Mysia [8] they tried to enter Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them. So they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas [9], where one night Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man standing and appealing to him in the words: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (Acts 16:6-9)

Well what's so special about a bunch of verses telling us where Paul went? Let's go back to chapter 15, where Paul and Barnabas have a disagreement over whether John Mark should be allowed to join them. The result is a split and two different teams with two different destinations. What a great way to start out a mission trip. Once Paul starts the trip he tries to go to three different places but God closes the door each time. Paul has no idea where he's supposed to go. After about 700 miles of travel you can imagine how discouraging this could be becoming. With no other direction to go in they reach Troas and can walk no farther because it's on the coast; finally God gives Paul a vision. However, if you keep reading in chapter 16 you find out that once they reach Macedonia they find women by the river and a demon possessed girl but no sign of a Macedonian man. Wasn't that the vision? Was that really from You God? After a few days Paul might have been asking these questions. But wait it gets better, after driving the demon from the girl the crowd attacks Paul and Silas, they get flogged, thrown into jail, and have their feet put into stocks. Yet somehow Paul and Silas are still able to pray and sing hymns. What do these men know that keeps them going?

I feel like Paul and Silas much of the time, not really sure where God is trying to lead me. God, what should I major in? God, which school should I go to? God, should I date this girl? God, where do You want me to work? God, should I go on this mission trip? God, should I stay for an extra two weeks of language study? The pressure of all these decisions can get quite stifling and it's so easy to feel overwhelmed. I feel so lost. My spirit feels crushed, how can I sing and praise God?

What did these men have that I need? Faith. Trusting that God is taking care of us, that He knows what's going on, and that when He says something He means it. But having faith would be easy if things happened right away. There's a second element: patience. I've heard it defined as doing something you don't like for a long time. That's why patients is also called longsuffering. If you were doing something that you liked, it wouldn't require patience, it would be fun and natural. Faith and patience need to work together to get us to where God wants us to be.

At midnight, while Paul and Silas are singing and praying, an earthquake hits and frees them from their chains. The jailer is about to kill himself when Paul reassures him that all the prisoners are still there. He falls at Paul's feet and asks what he must do to be saved. "At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized" (Acts 16:33).

"The word of God is called a lamp because it only lights the path a few feet in front of you." -Unknown

Dith Pran

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080331/ap_on_re_us/obit_dith_pran

Killing Fields redux

On Thursday we watched "The killing fields" movie at church, about Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge times. I was happy to see that people other than the STM folks showed up :). It's good to see the kind of support we have, even though they had already seen the movie they watched it again anyway! So before the movie started I thought to myself, I've seen this twice and I'm tired so I'm just gonna sleep through it. But when it started I was completely engrossed and watched it all the way through. Seeing it for the third time made me appreciate some of its finer points, things I did not catch the first two times. Such as the length of time that Pran was a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, the total communication black out the Khmer Rouge put on Cambodia and how easy it is to think "God had left that place" when we see all that happened. But we know the He did not leave, He was still there and all that happened was part of His sovereign plan. We do not know how or why He allowed the atrocities to unfold but we do know that all things He does for His glory and for the good of His people. I just pray that He would continue to glorify Himself in the world through His people, and that His people would be humble and willing to be His hands and His feet, because His people are those that He has chosen to be His instruments in spreading His name.

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"See you next time... at the Siem Reap English Camp!"

On March 1, Saturday, Alain, Jonathan, and I headed out to Bethany Cambodian Church in Ontario for our last and final 2007 Cambodia STM trip sharing with 12 young adults. (Rocio was still recovering from a very bad flu, so she had to stay home after a two day shift at work. We missed her... but at least our ears got some rest. JUST KIDDING!) Most of them were born in the states and have never been back to their homeland, Cambodia. They asked a lot of questions during and after our presentation and invited us to stay for lunch afterwards! It was great eating authentic Khmer food and hearing the language again.

We even stayed for their meeting as they decided on the dates for their STM trip to Kampuchea. It looks like they'll be going to the English Camp in Siem Reap too! They were an amusing and warmhearted group; I look forward to serving with them this summer! See y'all in Siem Reap! :-)

Chum reap leah!