You see me how?

The Menold Minutes:
"Our encouragement should always stimulate praise for God’s grace rather than for our goodness."


This quote is from Elyse M. Fritzpatrick in her book Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus .  I am reading this great book on how to infuse the gospel into our childrens lives.  I am realizing that all my compliments of telling them how good they are may be misleading their thoughts of themselves.  I may be creating a self inflation which may result in self hatred one day when they realize that they can not measure up.  They cannot control their sin without the power of the omnipotent God.  I am bound and determined to change the way I speak to them so that they understand that they are not good because of something they have done.  We are sinners.  They are sinners.  We sin, that is what sinners do.  We trick ourselves into believing that if we pray more, have consistent time with the Lord, go to church, or are in a bible study that we are good.  Those are good things, but that is not what makes us good.  Paul talks of our 




Have you ever been so frustrated over your sin you think you hate yourself? Maybe not you, but I have been there.  Recently.  What really happened was I fell into the lie that I was a horrible believer because I couldn't control my sin nature.   I let the thoughts of my weaknesses overwhelm me.  It is kind of silly looking back.  Did I really think that I would master not sinning?  It is funny how one can think one understands the gospel and yet in the midst of refining, the Spirit reveals to you that you really don't understand because you find yourself in self-hatred. God doesn't want us to walk in self-hatred,  nor a sense of self-inflation.   Tim Keller says, "                        ".  


So I wrestle with God.  If I need His strength to have victory, then why am I feeling like a failure.  






I confess to going through a period recently of self-hatred which felt like fire burning in my heart.  Every sin was illuminated.  The more illuminated sin was, the more I began to hate who I was.  I fell into the lie that I was a horrible believer because I couldn't control my sin nature.  Unconsciously, I was saying that God needed my help in bringing Glory to Himself.  Knowing that He is my power is much different than my actions showing that He is my Power.    But the truth is I had to  believe that in my weakness He is my strength and only He can give that strength to me.  Therefore, He will be glorified in my  weakness.   I am a sinner.  I struggled with accepting my imperfections, not believing that I was justified and redeemed. The result was self-hatred.  I am reading a book,                                .  With one simple sentence in that book, the Spirit spoke to me:  God looks at you as obedient children.  The 'ah-ha' moment for me.  This simple truth has been transforming my heart since.  It is ironic that I felt bad that because of my sin that God was not getting Glory, when Ephesians (          ) tells us (  ) and God is getting glory in those moments of my weakness.  Paul tells us, "            ".


Our encouragement should always stimulate praise for God’s grace rather than for our goodness.

Fitzpatrick, Elyse M. / Thompson, Jessica (2011-05-06). Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus (p. 43). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.





'via Blog this'

Jehovah's Witnesses

Ever had someone come to the door with a pamphlet inviting you to their event or service?  The pamphlet usually says Awake! or The Watchtower.  Sometimes they even bring a small book that says "What Does the Bible Really Teach?".  They are usually very intriguing questions on the cover or colorful pictures that draw you in.  Mormons are another group that comes to the door as well but I am not going to talk about them here.  In my experience, most JW's(that is shorter for Jehovah's Witnesses) give you a pamphlet and run.    I have tried numerous times to engage them.  Back in 2004ish(?) while visiting my In-Laws in Myrtle Beach, SC, I actually went to their temple service because one such JW invited me and wanted to engage more about what I believed.  So I prayed and fasted about it and went trusting in God to lead me.
The message given was actually mostly on key with what the bible says.  However, the errors made were huge and big implications in their view on God, the Holy Spirit, and more.  I can't remember word for word what was said so I don't want to critique in this blog what was said then.  I left my notes in NC=)  After the 2-3 hours of services, I sat down with one of the leaders and with the guy who invited me who was a recent convert to JW.  It did not go well.  I could not defend enough of what I believed.  I tried and I had some good arguments but with their intense training in how to defend what they believed they dominated the conversation and I don't know if God used that in their lives or not.  God did use it in my life to challenge me to prepare for the next time I would have to share with a JW about what I believe and how it is different.  I did run in to a few JW's since then but most would run and not engage me since I had prepared myself in how to share the Gospel in light of their doctrine.  I was given a copy of their bible called The New World Translation and marked all the errors in it where they had not translated the Greek properly.  I left that in NC as well.
I really didn't think I would run in to a such a strong presence of JW's in the Dominican Republic.  However, every Sunday morning they gather at a house here in Los Ciruelos (neighborhood of Montellano) and go around and knock on doors.  I have been praying that they would come by.  This past Sunday they happen to come to the Makarios house as we were leaving to go to Templo Biblico for service.  I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to talk to them and so we did not end up going to service.  Dlacey(sp?) who was in his mid-40's and spoke only Spanish, knew his JW bible and beliefs very well.  Another guy named Yelso(sp?) was in his early 20's and spoke Spanish and decent English.  So Yelso was able to translate and help with the conversation since I am still learning Spanish.  After an hour plus, I stumped them enough to where they said they had to go back and research and come back later at 5pm that day.  They returned and we conversed for an hour.  They felt pretty proud of themselves for proving their points and in their minds proved that there was no Trinity (God in 3 persons) and that Jesus was not God.  No matter how many verses I showed them (in context) that showed the diety of Jesus they would move on to their next defense.  Right at the end of the conversation, it occured to me that Jesus was killed for one reason.  He claimed to be God.  So, I asked them why Jesus was killed and they had no good answer.  I have never been so exhausted!  They were very good but also good at ignoring my questions once they were stumped.  I will admit that it was exhausting to show them the diety of Jesus when they were adamant that I was wrong.

Here are just the tip of the ice berg of their arguments and how I handled them wrong:

• Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

• Their argument was that this says that there is only one God and thus proves that Jesus is not God.  The Father is God only.  Jesus was just the son of God. (they actually didnt know that The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was Michael the Arch-Angel)
• I engaged in discussing the trinity and defending that Jesus is God.  They came to teach not to learn so they will never learn anything I show them because they view me as wrong to begin with.  They just get more flustered with you and excited that they are right.  They play "bible hopscotch", skipping from one verse to the next and it is impossible to talk about context when you are all over the Bible and not to mention they are in "teaching mode" not learning.  
• I should have told them that I will study a passage with them and allow the Bible only to speak for itself.  Jumping all around is a downward spiral and leads to them being more excited that their point is proven.  Also I learned not to discuss the diety of Jesus with them first!  Its better to focus on your relationship with Jesus and what that means to you and that salvation is a free gift.  They believe you have to work to get to heaven.  

• John 17:1-5 ESV "...that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent..."  
• Their argument is that it says there is one God therefore Jesus can not be God... the funny thing is when i asked them why their bible says in John 1:1 that "the word is a god" (word referring later in vs 17 that it is Jesus, they said "He is not a  God just a little god.  What??? Ok do you sense the silliness in that?!  The ESV says that the "Word was God".  I even showed them in the Greek text where this was wrong and that didn't help.  They said I was not interpreting the Greek properly.  No point in going down that road unless they are willing to learn.
• At the end of the day you cant argue with them, just listen, love, and keep asking though provoking questions to get them to start to question the authority of the Watch Tower.  Your goal is not to win the conversation but to get them questioning and most Christians they think are mean to them so what if we took up all their time and they never could go to other homes?  What if all Christians loved on them and took the inconvenience to chat with them?  I do warn you to be careful and pray through this as it is difficult sometimes spiritually.  You will be challenged in what you believe so be prepared and warned.  I got some good help here:  http://www.towerwatch.com/Witnessing/the_donts.htm  - website is little rough - scroll all the way down but content was helpful and  http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/how-to-witness-to-a-jehovahs-witness-1408500.html - i liked this since it is a very quick way to engage them if you don't have much time and it is a way to share the Gospel and to get control of the conversation quick. There are a lot more resources so email me if you want more.

I have a lot of studying to do and they will be back!  Pray for them that they will know the real "One true God" and that next time I can focus more on sharing the Gospel rather than debating because they really want to debate...  

Utterly dependent upon God more every day~Josh

DR Address/ Donations/ Other info

Since we changed our blog to be more dynamic we lost some info and we need to recapture it.  In the meantime if you were using the link on our website to donate each month (we had a few requests) you can use this link...   https://secure.etransfer.com/Makarios/donate.cfm 

Thank you for your monthly support in prayer, encouragement notes, financial and more.  We are grateful for you being apart of what God is doing in the Dominican Republic and through Makarios.

To send us packages or mail it can be sent to: (this gets flown to us every other week)
Joshua & Jennifer Menold
3170 Airmans Drive #3018 MAKDR
Fort Pierce, FL 34946

Skype: Jmenoldnc
Email: menold.makarios@gmail.com

New News!

New News:

*Today was Makarios School's last day of the school year!  As a family we watched the children give a performance for their families and receive awards in their classrooms from their teachers.  It was exciting to see the children's excitement as well!  We are proud of the way our staff has poured into the lives of these sweet kids.

 *Our staff and students have off for the upcoming week before summer programs begin.

*Also, our nanny, Kelsey arrived yesterday!  The kids are taking a liking to her already.  Finley was ready to knock on her door at 6:30 this morning.    I think the message Finn hears when we say  'nanny' is really 'personal playmate'.  Kelsey  will spend this week settling in and just get familiar with us and a typical routine.  She will be helping me out with our kids and will be here until August 7th.

Kelsey, aka Nanny

* Summer groups begin June 1 st and will come every other week for the duration of summer.  It will be busy!  Josh has been working with the staff here, the staff in Austin, and the leaders for each group in coordinating service opportunities when the groups arrive.  As for me, I am getting my menu ready to feed the many that stay with us at the 'Mak house' this summer.

* Chester (our dog) has a new home.  No, Josh didn't run him over like he did Max the cat (R.I.P. Max!) We gave him back to Lucia (who gave him to us).  It was like having a sixth child-a toddler at that!  We decided that it was one less thing for us to have on our plates :)  Chester now is reunited with his brother. We are thankfully able to visit him whenever we want too !

The last of the 8 chicks...

Getting ready to take on some locals...

all boy...

* Kids are well! We think we figured out Parlyns diaper issues... we switched her to soy milk and she seems much happier!  Oliver had an alive snake the other day and was playing with it and hanging it over the cats head while the cat graciously was batting it around.  Finn is starting to learn about lying.  We asked her if she ate licorice and she denied it 5 times.  When we pulled the chunk of licorice off her cheek, showed her, and asked again...her big brown eyes were the size of quarters and...then she denied it with great assurance.   Yes, we had to laugh too but did it discretely.  Aribella is ready for the groups coming - for she loves to cook.  Tate is making new friends and uses his small amount of Spanish he knows... I hear him talking to his friends and I don't think he realizes that he is 'ordering them around'.  I give him credit for trying!  I am so proud of Tate, Belle, and Ollie.  For I am seeing their hearts change and be sensitive to the Spirit.   We are seeing them repent on their own.  We brought Tate a new bible and when we told him it arrived he went running for it with excitement (he has been reading through the old testament)...that just blessed us.  We pray that excitement for Gods Word continues his whole life!

Happy 11th Babe!

*We celebrate 11 years May 19th!  Love at first sight, 3 months later we "knew", 3 months after that, engaged, and 6 months after that married! 11 months after that, pregnant! Every two years, a new baby.  A masters degree and 3 jobs for Josh. Transitioning into living on the mission field now.  We have been through some hot fires together, and praise the Lord He is still today refining us and our marriage.  I am thankful for the Lord's hand in putting us together and for giving me a man that loves his God more than anyone or anything.  God is truly good...

*Again, thank you everyone who is praying for us and partnering with us.  Though I have days when I wonder what the heck we are doing here, its just then God gives us a little window to peek into & assure us that we are right where He wants us.  He is working here despite us!

Thats the latest!  Stay tuned...

Jen

I want to be like this...

The Menold Minutes:

Was reading some excerpts about Nate Saint, a once missionary to Ecuador and the Waorani tribe, to the kids for school the other day.  A quick synapsids of his story is this:

Nate Saint and 4 other men (one being Jim Elliot) had a heart for the Waorani Indians. The Waorani were an unreached people group in the Amazon jungle and lived lives of murdering and vengeance.  They were a fierce people.  The Waorani thought everyone, including their own people were an enemy.  Nate early in his life had a love for flying and love for Jesus.  

The 5 men would fly over the Waorani's and lower a bucket filled with goods..hoping to build trust. (An awesome testimony and story if you have time to read. ) For times sake I can share : these 5 missionaries were ready to land the plane on a sandbar in hopes of befriending.  They vowed not to retaliate if they were to be attacked.  That is what happened.  The 5 men thought the Waoranis were ready to meet and instead were planning a spearing party on that sandbar that day.  Wives and children became widows and orphans that day for the sake of the Gospel.  What came in the following years is a miracle that only God could have done.  Two years later,  Nate's sister and Jim Elliot's wife went back to these people and told them the men had firearms but chose not to use them because they didn't want them to die & never hear about Jesus and eternity.  They shared Jesus. One women listened and chose to repent and accept Christ as Lord.  She then shared.  The leader of the massacre,that day on the sandbar, was one of the first to repent and choose a life of freedom in Christ as well.  He also asked forgiveness to the families that he took their husbands and fathers. He shared with his people.  In years to come 7 other members of that massacre became Christians and many others are leaders in their church and witness about Jesus.  Ten years later, the same men who killed these missionaries had the opportunity to baptize Nate Saint's children in the same river that their father had died in.  (I love the picture of forgiveness!) There is much more to this true story that I don't have time to share.  

What I wanted to share was this.  I sat and cried as I read to my kids because it was beautiful, amazing, and challenging to me all at once.  I thought this to myself:

"What love for Christ.  What obedience for Christ.  What sacrifice. Nate Saint ...willing to do whatever God called him to do. He would reach the Waorani's in the Amazon jungle.   The five men got out of that plane KNOWING they may experience their last breaths and leave small children fatherless and wives as widows.  Why? I ask myself.  See, their love for Jesus must have been so deep.  Their relationship with Jesus must have been so intimate.  They trusted their Heavenly Father with their lives and their families.  Do I, do we, have this kind of love for the Father that we would commit our lives to sharing the Good News and even risk our lives to share Jesus?  I don't know about you, but I want to love Jesus that much.  There are things in my life that keep me from this, it's called love of the flesh.  It's called sin.  Sure the missionaries weren't perfect, but wow! To believe something that much ( the Gospel) and to love someone ( Jesus) that much...  To really follow the Fathers plan for our lives...  To say YES to whatever He is calling us too...to put our desires second so people who haven't heard could hear and know this same blessing that many of us have

 (eternal life in Heaven)...

I want to be like this.

'via Blog this'

GRINGO don't play that!

Like I said I wanted to started blogging more frequently... even if its a small paragraph.  Like most days, today was eventful.  Here is todays highlight: I wanted to treat the kids by buying them a baby pool (yes, I know 5 kids don't fit in one of those!)but nevertheless they can splash around on a very hot day.  We jump in the jeep and I notice we are close to empty.  Josh was gone and I had zero pesos. I wanted to forget my plan for the pool but the kids were super excited over a baby pool! The 'bomba' (the pump) is the gas station. I asked a friend if we could use our credit card there because I never saw a machine for one. Yes! They take it! We can hit La Sirena for a pool. The pumps have guys standing there, they want you to turn off your vehicle and sometimes hand them your keys.  This assures no stealing!  Then they are SUPPOSE to show you the 000.00 on the pump.. you tell them how much gas peso wise and they put that in your tank.  I roll up, 5 kids in tow. "You quiero tres mil", I say. (I want 3,000)  One dude goes to punch the numbers of my card in next to about 15 men standing around.  Ok, I admit..a little nervous about others seeing my numbers.  I am busy watching the man do it to make sure it is secure.  Meanwhile, the other guy starts pumping.  The guy with my card comes over and says it doesn't work.  What? I tell the 'pumper' to STOP.  He says it is dos mil (2,000 pesos). He says 'pay me cash'.  "Yo no tengo dinero!"  He actually spoke some english and tells me to go to the bank.  He says will drive his moto to show me where the closest one was.  ok, i am anxious that I will get in trouble for stealing or something and Parlyn is now crying in the backseat.  I get to the ATM.  I get the money.  The guy goes its 'tres mil'.  I give it to him, hesitantly.  In the commotion something didn't seem right.  Then he ask for money for gas since he showed me the bank!  Now, I am a little testy.  "NO! You should not of pumped the gas to begin with.  You should of waited for the card to work" ( everyone wants paid for something here..most people, not all).  He leaves.  I get in the jeep and notice my tank is only 1/2 full! I know that a full tank is about 3,000 pesos.  Then I remembered the other guy slipped and said 2,000.  It hit me, they pulled a fast one on me.  Oh no moma of 5 trying to get a stinking pool for her youngins to enjoy the 85 degree heat needs that 1,000 pesos for a pool!  I pull a U-turn and petal to the metal.  I completely forget I am carting around 5 kids, then I hear as I am speeding to find the guy, "There he is mom! There he is!" While still in pursuit, I unroll the passsenger window as I get next to him (he looked like a deer in headlights) and start disputing kindly, but sternly with him.  We pull into the bomba and park abruptly between all the pumps with the 20 bystanders starring and tell him I want to speak to his boss.  He tried lying to me.  His boss came over who didn't know any English. I could only tell him that I paid too much and didn't get the right amount of gas.  Finally the guy that ripped me off said he would put 500 pesos in my car.  Which still leaves me 500 pesos short! Oh well, I learned the hard way ( but I did recover 500 of the 1000 ). And yes,we did get the baby pool :)

Created for His workmanship

Easter

Ira Hall and Mary Kate Hall came and visited
They helped install a network at the school!
and brought computers from Central Baptist in NC

On Monday, I started giving Tate and Aribella (9 and 7) the IOWA basic skills test.  Wow! Try getting kids who their whole life have been schooled on a couch, table, floor, in the van to sit STILL and not talk during one of these things! "Mom, what's this word?" "How do you do this problem, Mom?"  " Can we have a break? (after 10 minutes)"  "Those birds are so loud!" ...
Tate finished his section and asked for a 5 minute break.  Sure. A minute later I see him pretending he is Spider Man trying to climb the wall.  He gets caught in the curtain, loses his balance, pulling the rod down.  He is sitting on the floor tangled in this curtain... I am laughing but somewhat annoyed because I am still trying to test his sister.  We start noticing blood.  A good amount.  Unknown to us, the metal rod didn't have an end peice and somehow it stabbed him in the back of the ankle!  Testing haulted.  Care for the wounded.   


In a moment like the above, it is hard to see the blessing in being a mom.  But God is really teaching me this.  When we came here to the Dominincan Republic, we came as Host Couple and Josh also as Director in the D.R.  I really love hosting teams.  I mostly am in charge of meal planning, shopping, and preparing/cooking for the teams we host.  Josh does the planning and leg work for the teams.  In February I tried taking things off his plate.  Well, that was a very hard month for us.  It really put strain on the marriage and family.  This may be hard to imagine, but 5 kids ALONE is somewhat busy.  Long story short, the Lord has been showing me that ministering to my husband and kids FIRST is what is honoring to Him.  This was hard to accept.  Live in the D.R. and JUST take care of my kids, Lord? really?But I have all these gifts to offer... I wanted to do 'tasks' that make me feel important!  I wanted to have a 'job' that I could see results in.  Reality? He created me for His workmanship (Eph. 2:10) and if this is the job He has for me, then I must allow His power to work through me to do it well.  Wiping up spilled milk is not glorious, but displaying patience infront of them is ( I'll let you know when this happens). Teaching them scripture, meaning of it,& how it applies to us is important.   Punishing your son for trying to fly his kite of the roof top steeple stinks, but teaching the value of obeying/honoring authority is priceless ( true story).  Anyways, He has a purpose for all He has created.  He has created me and given me 5 disciples.  I pray I will do well with what I have been given :)