When Trish Sandoval was here in March we had some conversations that, along with talking with a lady from Sucre who had recently moved to Panama for work, led to me reaching out to different ladies to see if they would like to participate in a zoom class about emotional health. In the end I had to split the group into two classes (one on Thursday nights and the other on Saturday mornings) because I like to keep these classes on the small side. The group is wide spread and includes women from Ecuador, Argentina, Panama, different parts of Bolivia and even the US. We are working our way through our core emotions (Hurt, Lonely, Sad, Anger, Fear, Shame, Guilt, Glad) and I have taken a lot from Chip Dodd’s book “The Voice of the Heart”. As we look into our emotions and heart, we are seeing that God has blessed us with our emotions and how each one is not our enemy but a gift. It’s amazing how much we have ignored our emotions or feel shame for them and how unhealthy that has made us. It’s great to see how God is speaking truth into these ladies’ lives and how He is starting the process of freedom from so many lies that they have about themselves.
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. - Ephesians 1:18
I continue with Tuesday night class for women here and we are still in Exodus. What a lot to learn in this book! The core four women are attending and my neighbor, Natalia, has been coming more and more and we will also have other visitors who show up from time to time.
The church took advantage of Labor Day (May 1) and we invited people to spend time with us at a day camp place about 30 minutes from the city. About 40 people came and we spent time playing games, the kids got into a freezing pool and then a not so cold river (the day was in the 90's), and we barbequed some sausages. It was a fun day and we were able to spend the day building connections and memories.
