Shannon's Corner

SHANNON’S CORNER December 2018 Merry Christmas!    Feliz Navidad! I was reminded from one of my advent devotionals that Christmas is the season of giving.  The giving season all started around the birth of Jesus as everyone in the Christmas story in Luke 2 and Matthew 2 gave something.  Here is my paraphrasing of what everyone gave that first Christmas season.  God the Father gave his one and only Son, Jesus to save the world.  Jesus gave up his home, heaven to come to earth to live fully man and fully God.  Mary gave her body to carry and nurture the baby Jesus.  Mary also gave up her reputation to be willing to do so. Joseph gave his protection and love to Mary during her pregnancy and throughout her life.  The angels gave announcements of what was happening and praising and glorifying God.  The shepherds left their own flocks by themselves in the fields in order to go and wo...

SHANNON’S CORNER November 2018 Muchas gracias! Leading up to the retreat I just felt like Satan was attacking our group of missionaries as a Worship number of things hit us. Thank you for  all your prayers for our missionary retreat we had at the beginning of November!  It was a weekend full of many wonderful things. There were a few when they heard that we were going to be going to a rustic camp and in Monte Plata, which is both far for many and one of our hotter places on the island that they were not quite looking forward to the weekend.  I was really excited about the program Vic, Leslie and I had planned for everyone.  But I do have to say that as we got off the main road and  turned onto a dirt road, it felt like we were going deeper and deeper into the forest and went down one hill to cross through the river and go up the next hill that even I had my doubts.     Then we pulled into the camp where our ...

SHANNON’S CORNER October 2018 Recently, I have been reminded of a book I read about two years ago called, “Peace Child” by Don Richardson.  The book is about a missionary family who served a cannibalism tribe.  The missionary wanted to share with them who Jesus is but did not know the tribe’s language.  At one point during the missionary’s time with the tribe God shows him a way to be able to share with the tribe who Jesus is in a way that the tribe would understand.  The tribes would be constantly at war with one another until there came a point when the warring tribes would present one another a peace child.  The peace child was the youngest child of the tribe that would be given to the other tribe to take care  of the child.     Both tribes would exchange a peace child as an offering of peace.     As long as the child lived there would be peace between the tribes.     But if the child d...

SHANNON’S CORNER September 2018 I was blessed with being able to spend time with my family and especially meeting my newest niece, Alizah Gabriella.  Some family times that fill my soul growing up were around our dinner table as we shared about our day and played games or heard stories.  Other times were family activities such as game night; bike rides, being read to by Mom or Dad and family vacations.  It filled my heart to hear laughter from all my nieces and nephews even if our time was limited.  I cherished each moment I had with my family.  Many times I have taken these moments for granted but God has taught me to be intentional with each one and not to let distractions interrupt these special moments of togetherness. A number of months before I realized when I would be making a trip back to the USA, I was asked by a couple of churches of when I would be back in the states and come and share at their churches.  Seeing God’s hand orc...

SHANNON’S CORNER August 2018 "Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Ps. 34:8) is a verse I have recently been meditating on.  The Holy Spirit has convicted me that I have not been spending intentional time with God.  I had allowed many distractions to get in the way of my quiet time with Him.  Distractions such as sleep, reading books, which were on Christian living, watching decent movies and being with people.  I recently heard a message from Pricilla Shirer – Hearing God’s Voice from John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”  In order to be able to hear God’s voice I need to spend time with God.  There are so many voices in this world that are also calling out to me but my desire is to only listen to my Shepherd’s voice:  the voice of truth.  God is a jealous God.  He wants my all, not having to share it with other things or people.  The Holy Spirit has been working in my life to de-clutt...

It has been nice to have some time after the busy summer to be able to get back into more intentional quiet time and prayer with my Lord.  I have to say that during the summer I got out of my morning routine of spending time with God because of various excuses I gave myself.  It got to the point that the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was not spending time with Him when I so desperately need it.  I was grumbling and mumbling because of not spending time with my Lord.  I was out of sync with Him. Recently, I have intentionally taken time to pray, think, and brainstorm regarding the various things this fall that in God's timing will happen.  I don't know if you are like me, but I can have many ideas flowing in my mind, which I need to write them down or I will forget.  It has always been interesting how God gives me these ideas because usually it seems like I first have to wade through the "writer's block" before ideas coming pouring our.  The "wri...

SHANNON’S CORNER July 2018 Intern weekend in Jarabacoa This summer has been busy, challenging, and good.  I learned a lot through our interns and the various things God has been teaching them these six weeks. I was travelling to Monte Plata about three hours away to see two of our interns serving there and it rained the whole way to Monte Plata.  In fact, I believe I was headed into the storms because the further I travelled the more rain there was.  There was so much rain that day that it caused some flooding in Santo Domingo. Usually, when it rains when I’m driving I can have a negative mindset about the rain as it sometimes can make me tired.  But one of our interns shared with me her concept of rain, and how the rain is a cleansing reminder from God and the rain brings her peace.  So as I am travelling that is what I recalled and driving in the rain reminded me of God cleansing the air and our earth just like the b...

Last night with our 11 summer interns ...saying good-bye can be a mixture of emotions that can make life messy.  But saying good-byes I have learned since childhood is very important in order to bring closure.  Not saying a good-bye can make saying hello even harder. It is hard to believe that another group of summer interns have come and gone in my three summers of living here in the Dominican Republic.  These 11 young people have had such a passion for serving and obeying our Lord that they came to the Dominican Republic to do just that...obey and serve.  I have enjoyed getting to know them and to hear their hearts and how God has been using them, changing them, transforming their own lives, and being a light to the kids and our staff and our missionaries. God had me share a passage of Scripture that I have meditated on since I was at Cherry Run Camp last summer through a message by Pastor Stan Key.  God is good through Exodus 15:22-27.  God leadi...

Transitions are a part of life.  Many of us may not like transitions because it means change.  Our 11 interns have all had to go through more transitions since arrival.  Let's take a look at what some of these transitions are and how things are going for our interns. Half of our interns are now living with Dominican families in the areas where they are serving this summer.  These families mostly speak only Spanish so our interns are hearing Spanish 24/7 and needing to think in Spanish and talk in Spanish more often than just at the school or children's home.  Our Dominican families provide meals for our interns, translating rice and beans.  But yet the interns are becoming a part of their Dominican family and getting a more hands-on experience of Dominican culture. The other half are living in an apartment with other interns and learning how to live and get around in their cities.  Their living environment can be in English as they are not livin...

Two days of all those who will be helping out with our summer program to come together from all 10 ministry sites for a time of fellowship and training.  There is between 80 to 100 people present for the two day training. What a wonderful time to come together in worshipping our Lord.  Singing praises to the King.  We were fed from the Word of God in Luke 2:40, 52 and Mark 10:13-16.  We heard three different testimonies from young people who grew up in the Kids Alive program and two of them are working in two different schools in our program.  The young gal who shared came to our program when she was 3 or 4 years old with her two older siblings.  Her parents were alcoholics and could not financially take care of her and her siblings.  She lived with her grandma prior but she was also unable to take care of her.  She came to know about Jesus through her various house parents and even her teachers as school.  Very thankful.  One young ma...