Not Enough

Just want to let you all know that I got my car sold!!! I bought a ticket and I’m coming home this next Wednesday the 28th. I’ll see you all soon! Aaron

Hmm… I think I may have used this blog title before. It represents the vicious cycle that I get in with my blogging habits. I do several posts not more than a few days apart, and then go for weeks without writing anything. Not good, but consistency isn’t coming too easily. Thanks to you people who come and endure reading the same thing everyday, for 3 weeks straight! J/K

Well, lots of things are happening in my life right now. Lots of changes. (some of you know more than others) Things are going really well tho. I’m getting pretty well finished with all my responsibilities here in Panama, so that’s a good thing. It’s really good to see that God has provided people to take over all my old jobs. I really didn’t want to leave a big hole when I left, and now I’m not going to. Things are working out quite well. Really the only thing keeping me here now is my car. I still haven’t been able to sell it, but something is going to work out soon. I think I’ll be back in Wisconsin within the next week and a half or so.

This summer I’m planning on staying in WI for like 2 or 3 months. I’ll get a job and work to keep me occupied, but mostly I just want the time to catch up with my family in WI, IA, and IL. So I’ll probably end up doing carpentry of some sort, and then taking lots of weekend trips down to Chicago and Cedar Rapids. Might go up to Oshkosh for a day or two to the Oshkosh Air Venture. It’s a really huge plane show that lasts like 6 days. I’ve never been before, but I guess it’s really incredible. I’m sure Andrew and I will help to keep each other busy too, playing music, going places and who knows what else. I think It’s going to be a really good summer.

On a personal level I think I’m doing pretty well. Not that everything is always easy, but God continues to be incredibly faithful. I really want to continue to draw closer to Him, to know Him more, and to be a usable vessel in His hands. I’m also looking forward to the new opportunities that God will bring as I follow the next steps that He has for me.

Hope you all are doing GREAT!

Aaron

Nothing more frustrating than not being able to balance the books. Grr.. At least it’s not $198.0 or $1980. Just thought I’d share a random office frustration with you. Gonna keep looking…. Chao

Ahh…. So I’m sitting here at my desk with plenty of work that needs done, but having trouble being motivated to actually do the work. My mind and heart are on other people, places, and things. I guess it’s like this most times you’re moving on from one thing to something else. The tendency is to phase out of the old thing before you really done. But I don’t want to do this. I really want to stay engaged, and give my all here up until this time is actually over. Guess that means I should get back to work…. bye y’all.

Yeah, so the old Casa de Aaron thing was ok, but I decided it was time for something different. Probably some of you know that “Not Enough” is the title of a Caedmons Call song. The song talks about how everything we do, no matter how “good” we may be, it’s not enough for God. I think most of us have realized this truth in regards our coming to Christ for salvation. We know that our “good works” are not enough to cleanse us from our sin and give us eternal life. But at least for me, for a long time I had this idea that I had come to Christ by Grace, but once I was saved, it was more or less up to me to live a good life and please God. This is really living under the law. It may be the law of the christian life (trying to keep all the do’s and don’ts), but it’s still the law. I think all of us if we take a good honest look at out lives would have to say that we’re not consistantly doing all the things we know we should do, not to mention all the things we do that we shouldn’t. Sounds a little hopeless eh? The great news tho, is that we don’t have to try to be good enough to please God. We came to Christ by grace, and we must continue with Him by His grace. My hope is in Jesus, not myself. Jesus is the only one who could succesfully live “the Christian life.” The awesome thing is that that same Jesus is now living in us! We need to stop trying so hard in our own efforts, and let Christ live His life out through us. Only with Christ living in us can we really live in victory. And we have to keep out trust in Christ because everything we do is not enough.

It’s actually not even that late, but it feels like it. This week has been really busy. I’ve been working on a roofing project with a team from Wisconsin most of the week. Lots of hard work, but it’s kinda nice not to be Betty the office girl all the time. We’ve got to finish tomorrow morning.

I have a couple different people that are somewhat interested in buying my car, which would be really exciting. We’ll see if any of them actually have the money or not. It seems like something is going to work out tho. That would free me up to leave Panama, which is something I’m going to want to do not too long after the DTS is done. Maybe the middle or end of June.

Oh here’s a little more Derek

If I may pose a question it’ll only take a second
Cause I know that it’s getting late.
And depending on your answer I might have to pack
And make a daring daylight escape
Because it’s either high time to make you mine
Or swear it’s time to get outta town
So please say yes quick cause the sun’s going down

I told you this was random night, right?

Hmm… que mas?

E-E-Excuse me, I b-believe you have my stapler… 8^{

I think I should go to bed.

Danny and I spent another late night over pancakes
We talked about soccer and how every man’s just the same
And made speculation on the ‘who’s and the ‘when’s of our futures
And how everyone’s lonely but still we just couldn’t complain

And how we just hate being alone
Could I have left my only chance
And now I’m just wasting my time
Looking around

But you know I know better I’m not gonna worry ’bout nothing
‘Cause if the birds and the flowers survive then I’ll make it okay
If given a chance and a rock see which one breaks a window
And see which one keeps me up all night and into the day

Because I’m so scared of being alone
That I forgot what house I live in
But it’s not my job to wait by the phone
For her to call

Well this day’s been crazy but everything’s happened on schedule
From the rain and the cold to the drink that I spilled on my shirt
‘Cause You knew how You’d save me before I fell dead in the garden
And You knew this day long before You made me out of dirt

And You know the plan You have for me
And You can’t plan the ends and not plan the means
And so I suppose I just need some peace
To get me to sleep

Real struggle. Good conclusion. Thanks Derek.

So today I spent about 12 hours cooking for all the people at the base. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, toast and so on. Lunch was chilie and cornbread. That´s sounding pretty good so far right? But then for dinner……..heh hem   we had this really ¨interesting¨ fish. It´s just some normal ocean fish, but the way they eat it here is a little gross. They just fry the fish in oil with most all the parts still on it. Head, eyeballs, fins, you name it. The fish comes out of the hot grease looking like something from a horror movie :-) Oh yummy… anyone hungry yet?? So normally what happens is that the gringos come through the line and go eeeuuuwww. But, the latins are crazy about fish like this, so it makes them pretty happy. For me I´m just glad it´s done, and I hope I never have to cook fish like that again.

The great news today is that the DTS is coming back to the base. They’ve been out in Honduras, Costa Rica, and other parts of Panama for about the last 5 weeks or something. But they’re supposed to be back here before lunch, and then I think they’ll be here until the school is over in about 3 weeks. I’m really looking forward to having them here again!!

Hi Guys! Just made it back from my weekend trip out to Volcan. I had a really good time out there. Not the most relaxing weekend of my life, but it was good. Left Friday morning about 4am to drive out, and got there about 5 and a half hours later. We found the DTS doing ministry at a school in Paso Ancho (same one you guys did the medical outreach at Bec). Friday afternoon Andrew had to help cook dinner, so I hung around there and helped out a bit. Friday night the DTS put on their Drama that they’ve been using on outreach. It was actually the first time I’d seen it, and I was pretty impressed. It’s like a 40 min long evangelistic Drama showing creation, the fall, man’s present state(problems we deal with today) and Christ’s death, ressurection, restoration of man, power over satan and so on. The DTS put a ton of work into this drama. The costumes are quite elabarate, there’s lots of good props, and the music is pretty interesting. One other thing that makes it really cool is that they have this picture slideshow that fits all the different seens and music and it plays while the drama is going on. It’s pretty powerful stuff. If any of you guys just happen to be passing through Panama in the next couple weeks I highly recommend it Hmmm…. Saturday was absolutly crazy. I did something I had done before, and said I’d never do again; hiked to the top of the 11,000 foot ”Volcan Baru”, the highest mountain in Panama. I really didn’t want to go, but Andrew was going with a group of people, and I had gone out there to see him so I gave in. We left the house about 5:15am and got back at 7:30 at night. It was totally exhausting. On the way back down it rained for about 2 hours, so that made it even more interesting. The trails got really muddy and slick in some places, and not everyone had rain gear so some people were totally soaked. Andrew, being the gentleman that he is, gave up his rain coat to one of the girls, got soaked to the bone and freezing cold, and ended up being sick the next day. Anyway we all made it up and back in one piece, which was a pretty good accomplishment. I actually had a really good time, and it was much more memorable than anything else I could have done that day. Today I took it easy in the morning, and finally about 2 o’clock got on the road and started for home. Driving home today I got my first ticket ever that kinda sucked. The thing is that I know there are lots of time I deserve to get speeding tickets, but this wasn’t really one of them. So here’s the sad story. We were just pulling out of the city of David and the road was changing from 4 lane to 2. We were obviously leaving town and I was speeding up for the long haul home. Anyway just as that was happening we came around this corner and there were these orange plastic posts in the middle of the road. I wasn’t sure what it was and a second later started slowing down, just in time to see a police officer start to walk out in the road and point me over to the side. He asked me how fast I was going and I honestly said I didn’t know. I didin’t think I was going that fast. As it turns out the speed limit droped to 25 klm/h for this police check point area. Supposedly there was a sign, but I never saw it. Anyway with the help of the cop we decided I was going about 90klm/h, so that was far enough over to get a ticket. (25 and 90 klm/h is like 15 and 55 mph) oops! Anyway I’m not sure if I’d feel better or worse if I got a ticket when I felt like I really deserved it. Hopefully I don’t get another one to find out. Anyhow all in all the weekend was really good and I’m glad I went. I’m really looking forward to having Andrew and the rest of the DTS back here at the base soon!