Pouring the roof of our house in Guatemala

Here is a time lapse video of pouring the roof of our house in Guatemala. A home to spread life, love and freedom

Click on the link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeXFbig4eRQ&feature=share&list=PLjIEso7Vo6rwHwpMyMrjPEhXwkFMmtkHW

Abby @ Casa Esperanza Children's Home

Inside the gates of Fe viva in Guazacapan Guatemala, the children's home Casa Esperanza stands tall. Behind the fence which encircles it 32 children live happily; children who would otherwise be living in neglect, poverty or abuse. Many who visit Fe viva and hear about Casa Esperanza think of it as an orphanage but in the entire house only 2 kids are real orphans. Most of them have parents but some like these three sisters Stephanie, Daniela and Carmencita will never return to live with them. When they first arrived in June 2012 they could barely walk. Stephanie 5 didn't talk much and moaned for communication. Daniela 4 barely smiled and was less conversant than her sister. Carmencita, around 2, could not stand or walk without assistance. They came with scars and bloated stomachs. Carmencita came with a fever and the Tias (aunts) thought she was going to die. They only stayed for 3 days and then went to a nutrition centre to be put on IV. They stayed for 4 months to recuperate.

 

When they came back you could see a definite change. Stephanie's vocabulary expanded immensely and she warmed up to everyone. Daniela showed us her beautiful smile and her energetic side. Carmencita's health had not improved as much as her sisters and she was sent back to the nutrition centre for another couple of months. She finally came back to stay in January 2013. At first she had severe separation anxiety and never wanted to walk. Gradually she began to walk more. She loves flower petals so I would scatter them around on the ground and get her to pick them up. To her it was just a game but she got a lot of exercise out of it. When there were no flowers nearby I would walk her around to pick lemons that had fallen from the trees inside their yard. Now in March 2013 when she sees me coming through the gate I can hear her calling " Aiii, Aiii." (Abby, Abby). She walks almost all of the time now. She still enjoys picking up "mones" (limones) and she loves running around and sliding down the slide on the playground in the yard. Everyone who meets her instantly falls in love with her. It has been a blessing to see her grow and become strong. In her big brown eyes you no longer see pain and suffering but love and joy. 

 

Abby Blacklock 14

 

For more information go to www.feviva.org 

 

The Key to the Missionary

“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore, and teach all nations.”

–Matthew 28:18-19-

The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon our Lord as one who assists us in out enterprises for God. Our Lord puts Himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simple says – “Go therefore and teach all nations.” Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.

“Then the eleven disciples went... unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them” (v.16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get to alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. “Come unto Me” – that is the place to meet Jesus. Are you weary and heavy laden? How many missionaries are! We banish those marvelous words of the universal Sovereign of the world to the theshold of an after-meeting; they are the words of Jesus to His disciples.

“Go ye therefore...” Go simply means live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say – Go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but, “You will be witnesses unto Me” in all these places. He undertakes to establish the goings.

“If you abide in Me and My words abide in you...” – that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings.

“None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself...” That is how to keep going till we are gone.

Oswald Chambers

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

God has many believers, people who put their trust in Him to deliver them from the power of sin and death and receive salvation. If you are saved does this make you a disciple or follower of Christ? 

Salvation is a free gift that is received when you confess your sins to God and receive Jesus to be your Savior. Many only know Jesus as Savior but not as Lord.  The cost of being a disciple of Christ is giving up my right to govern and rule my own life.

                  The rich young ruler came to Jesus and desired to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus reminds him of the commandments and the young man replies, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.”  Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack, go sell everything and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away because he had great wealth. Mark 10:37

Many times our focus in life is for personal holiness, just like the rich young ruler we desire a method we can follow to obtain eternal life without having to surrender our lives to Jesus. The ruler told Jesus that he has always followed the commandments hoping that through his own personal holiness he would be justified. Jesus desire is for nothing to come between us and Him. Is our desire for Him what gets us up in the morning and lays us down at night? God knows the question to ask us that exposes the reality that is in our hearts. As Christians we know that it is right to put God first, many believe that at salvation we have totally surrendered our lives to Christ. This is not so, we have received eternal life but each day we need to walk out our salvation by daily denying ourselves and following Him. How can we be sure that we have surrendered our lives to Christ? What is the test of identification?  God is calling us to reduce ourselves and renounce everything that comes between our relationship with Him. We must understand that only one thing saves a man's soul and that is absolute reliance on Christ, but to be a disciple we need to learn how to be God’s possession.

Jesus is always our model on how to have a relationship with the Father. His life was a living example of how to surrender to the Father who is good and merciful. Jesus came to do His Father’s will; He said he only did what he saw the Father doing. When Jesus came to earth he emptied himself of all he possessed in heaven, his place, position, and his power to identify with us. He came in the form of a man, taking on the nature of a servant, which is the lowest, humblest position; he was even obedient to death on the cross. Although Jesus gave up everything he had he was still able to do miracles, signs and wonders and even raise the dead. How is this possible?  He was able to do this because His life was not his own, he surrendered it to the Father and God used His life to break off the power of sin and death.

God is calling us to identify with his Son to learn the lesson of Gethsemane, “Not my will but your will be done.”

What areas of our lives are we living for ourselves and not for Him?  I have learned all the places in my heart that want to accuse others, pass judgment, live in darkness and isolation have not come in contact with the love of Christ. When you have gazed into the eyes of Jesus your heart will cry out like his did on the cross, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” We need to learn to bring our hearts before the Lord and have him examine us, what areas do we try to hide from God or try to rule our own lives. His desire is to make us like Himself broken bread and poured out wine. When you gaze into the eyes of Jesus you will see the cleansing pools of His kindness, humility and love. It casts out all fear, guilt and shame. Learn the prayer of a humble servant: Help me to see others greater than myself. This is identification.   

Kerry Blacklock

Ready, Set, Go by Kerry

I guess we were tired of the routine as usual so we decided to go to Guatemala a different route.  We wanted to avoid the dreadful 3:00 am wake up, so we upgraded to leaving at 1:00pm, better right?  Well it definately was an a long adventure. Edmonton to San Fransico, San to Chicago and then at midnight we found an available bench and experienced a social experiment in homelessness. It was cold and uncomfortable but still hauling all our luggage to a hotel is tidious and being the Blacklocks we like to live on the fun side of life. We are here and all is well. This will be random because I am experiencing a phenomenon called smoke on the brain. Anyone else ever feel like they are between two places, suspended, not fulling awake? That is what it feels like for me when I get here. All the expectations for what is in store for our family plus adjusting to the new things that are here = smoke on the brain. I digress because some things can’t be explained you just have to feel it.  We walked into our house and this time the transition to home was much quicker, less clutter means a happy mother. The kids are doing well, keep them in your prayers homesickness is hard and we are praying that they have breakthroughs in the language so they can make more friends.

We had an amazing ladies seminar the atmoshpere was charged with expectancy, women were showing up early and soon we had nearly 100 women. The Lord had spoke to us that He wanted to do a new thing, so we set up chairs in a circle to create an intimate atmosphere. We had a table in the middle surrounded by potted plants and  two simple traditional Guatemalan clay pots to represent our lives. We didn’t have a worship team and I felt the seminar would bathed in worship, as we prayed the night before the Holy Spirit was birthing a new thing in many of our lives. God blessed us with two worship leaders that worked with us seamlessly. Every part of the seminar flowed and worked together. It was the first time I hosted a seminar and being sensitive to stewarding an atmoshpere where the presence of God can rest is humbling and challenging. By His grace we were able to work together as a team  even though  the team formed the morning of the conference and some of us had never worked together, this is the goodness ot our God in the land of the living.  There was such a fragrance of humility and transparency in the room. I was supposed to be one of the guest speakers but the Holy Spirit moved upon me in a unique way of preaching. During the transition between speakers I led the women in corporate prayers preparing our hearts to receive what God is doing. I felt His intimacy all over the room and witnessed many women encounter the beauty of the Lord. We had an amazing speaker from Canada, Deborah Arsenault, who shared on yielding to the Master potter and giving our whole lives to Him. We ended the day with a prophetic act of smashing the clay pots as a reminder to remain broken and pliable before the Lord. It was beautiful and I am truley blessed to serve the Lord in this day and hour.

Kerry

Into the adventure land....

Adventure. It is not always what it seems. It is not like the movies where all we experience is intense action, pithy sayings and "in-the-nick-of-times". It is much more than that and less. Adventure has the anticipation of something new and exciting, but also the dread of the unknown. Adventure is dreaming big and yet having to pack a certain weight in your luggage so as not to have to pay more to the airline. Adventure is meeting exciting and interesting people right beside the the weird, smelly, annoying and scary ones. It is rising to the challenge and overcoming and failing flat on your face. It is sharing your joys, hurts, triumphs, pains and love. Adventure is not what it seems when you are going through it, but wait a few weeks for the experiences to become great stories that turn into legends.
Adventure is about experiencing all this with those close around who you share this life with and get to make a difference in this world. I thank God for His gift of adventure. His gift of life. His gift of the mountain top the valley and everything in between. For what he has given to me to use to help others.

Go out today and live the life God gave you.

You will never know where it can lead you.

From one who will not shrink back.....

Blacklock News

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BLACKLOCK EPICS BLOGS August 24, 2011 Stories, Thoughts, Insights and Revelations along the way... Blacklock Family Fe Viva World Missions For More Blacklock Blogs go to: www.blacklockepics.blogspot.com A Brand New Season. The summer is almost over which always means a change; a new school year, change in the weather (if you don't live in Alberta), or signing up for new programs. We are also in the midst of a change as well. We have had an exciting, adventurous and busy summer, filled with fun, travels, old friends, new friends and change. We have had a roller coaster last 3-4 months: coming from Guatemala going to Disneyland, travelling to Kelowna for work, running the Sinister 7, going to Kelowna/Salmon Arm/Vancouver/Quesnel for holidays, traveling to Ontario for work (while 3 kids were in 3 different camps) along with getting some reno's done at our home and the kids spending a lot of good time with friends and family. It has all been good. The change we are talking about that is new with the Blacklock's is we will be working in Guatemala for longer periods of time with Fe Viva. September 20th we head off to Guate for 3 months returning to Canada Dec. 13th. We will be continuing with the same work we have been doing there, but we are now moving into new responsibility as the Base Directors in Guatemala. We are excited and honored to have this new responsibility, and are asking the Holy Spirit to guide us in this new role. In this role we will be overseeing the operations of the Fe Viva base in Guatemala and facilitating the ministries working together and functioning closer together. We have been working as base pastors, prayer leaders and the Missionary Leadership Training Program over the past few years and will continue in those as well. Please pray for us as we move into this position. We need God's wisdom, faith and grace. We will be in Guatemala September 20th to December 13th and then from the middle of January to approximately the beginning of June. So we will be in Guatemala about 8 months of the year and in Canada over Christmas and during the summer. We will be home schooling our kids this year, so please pray for that as well. We want to send letters to Canada and hopefully receive them as well. Here is our address in Guatemala if you want to send letters/pictures/parcels: Asociacion Cristiana Fe Viva De Guatemala KM 114.5 Carretera CA-2 Rumbo a El Salvador Callejon El Cocalito Aldea Poza de Agua Guazacapan, Santa Rosa, 06011 We will keep you updated with what is happening with us and work in Guatemala and Central America. You can also stay informed with what is happening with us and our work at: www.feviva.org (Guatemala missions organization) www.cyctf.org (our charitable society) and www.blacklockepics.blogspot.com (our blog page) God Bless Matt, Kerry, Abby, Hayley and Liam