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What a name

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

With the arrival of a new addition to the Rouse house we started many months ago thinking of great baby names. This is no easy or quick task. And when we thought we had it figured out we would decide to change it.
I believe that there is a lot in a persons name. While reading the Christmas story over and over this week I noticed that Elizabeth, John the Baptist mother also believed that a name was important. When he was born the community thought that he would be named after his father because that’s just what you would do, right? Elizabeth said no way! He will be called John and he will go before the Christ to prepare the way. His father even prophesied this to be his future calling. Then in Luke 3 you see that this was exactly what John dedicated his life to. Making away for the Lord.

While in Panama last year God clearly showed me that when we have a little girl that she should be called Faith. I didn’t even know that Lara was pregnant until I arrived home from this trip. We also wanted to honor a great friend of ours and name our baby girl after her. Her middle name is Faye and in Spanish Fe means “faith”. So we believe that God put on our hearts the name Fe for her middle name.

Our prayer is that she will be one filled with an abundants of faith. That she will trust in her Heavenly Father fully and take huge steps of faith. We pray that God will use her in some awesome ways. The bible is clear that with faith you can be pleasing to the Father and nothing will be impossible. What a great name!

Isn’t She Lovely

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

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The week before our sweet little girl came into the world I got a song in my head. I just could not stop singing it. So I looked up the words and they seemed so perfect for this gift that was about to come into our lives. I thought I would share the lyrics and a picture of my baby girl. Isn’t She Lovely!

You can also listen to Zac Brown Bands remake of “Isn’t She Lovely” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUDKeWJekN8

Isn’t she lovely
Isn’t she wonderful
Isn’t she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we’d be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn’t she lovely made from love

Isn’t she pretty
Truly the angel’s best
Boy, I’m so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can’t believe what God has done
Through us he’s given life to one
But isn’t she lovely made from love

True Worshipers

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

 

 

Lara worshipingOver the past month at church our youth have been talking about the people who are invisible. People who feel like no one cares or sees them. People who aren’t “important”. And sometimes that is us. The last week we talked about how Jesus made a point to be with those people and make a difference in their lives and so should we. The story we looked at was the Samaritan lady at the well in John 4.

This story has many details and social issues that make it interesting. Like a Jew talking to a Samaritan, a man talking to a woman, a woman going to fetch water alone and in the heat of the day, a person that was shunned among a group of people that were in that day the lowest of lows, a Rabbi being with the town whore, etc. But all of these were not what stuck out to me the most when I read it this time.

Jesus tells this unworthy woman that the Almighty God is seeking out worshipers. True worshipers. Followers that are going to make His name famous in Jerusalem and around the world. He came to her! Jesus was seeking out this lady with a nasty past because He knew that she was someone that He could love and use for the furthering of His kingdom. She would one that was a true worshiper.

In verses 26-30 Jesus revealed who He was and she believed. She forgot all about her needs and task for the day and immediately ran to tell the entire city about Jesus. This reminds me of the woman in east Africa. When they get excited or as they say filled with the Holy Spirit they let out a loud cry that gets your attention. It is something that you will never forget when you hear it. They want everyone to know what God is doing.

When you have been with Jesus others will know! You may let out a cry. You may run to tell everyone about Him. But you will definitely find yourself surrendering to him daily. Let us be true worshipers!

Rodeo Viejo – Even the frogs praise!

Posted on by Spanky Rouse
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A few nights after we had been there in this village of Roedo Viejo we saw God doing great things. The second night at our cell group meetings the local christian men and woman broke up the crowd into small groups. We like to teach and demonstrate that small groups of people studying the bible, telling stories, and heartfelt questions being ask is the best type of ministry, church, and discipleship.

We had a small hand held generator that we hooked up a strain of 6 light bulbs or so. This gave us just enough light so that we were able to invite the village to the meetings at night after they got home from work. I was sitting back watching what God was doing with these people as they read the bible, some for the first time and while the local believers, some just baby Christians lead this discussion based bible study. It was so cool to see the faces light up with smiles of relief when they learned about grace and freedom in Christ!

I went off by myself to praise God for what He was doing in the lives and families of this village. As I sat there in the dark I realized that the bugs and frogs were making some of the loudest noise that I have ever heard. It was making it hard to pray but at that moment I thought, “what if they were praising the Creator?” I believe that creation can’t help but to worship the God of Creation and it is going to be loud. I joined in with the frogs and worshipped my awesome God.

Psalms 134:3, “Praise the Lord for He is good. Sing praises to His name for it is pleasant.”

Psalms 150: 6, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

Rodeo Viejo – Vision

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

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For the past few months I have been questioning life and ministry. I have frequently been asking the question “what am I doing and what is God’s plan?” Sometimes that can be a good way to realign ourselves with what His will is for our life and ministry but that was not where my heart was. My heart was thinking that I am not seeing the results or having the easy path so this can’t really be God’s will, right? Even with those thoughts crowding my mind and heart daily the wonderful, loving, and purposeful Father keep reminding me and confirming to me that He has called me to a life of ministry. He actually chose me and wants to use me for his kingdom work.
Just before my trip to Panama I was seriously considering taking a job and getting out of full time ministry. I have to take care of my family and pay bills right?

After the second day in Rodeo Viejo a very godly man named Victor that I had be privileged to get to know, came to me late one evening and told me about a dream that he had had a couple of nights prior. So this is what he told me as I stood there with my eyes opened wide, heart filling up, and mouth on the floor.

I had a dream the other night and after talking to God about it I believe that it was from Him. I was nervous about telling you about it since we just meet and I did not want you to think that I was one of those weird people that have crazy vision that they say are from God. But He keeps laying it on my heart so I have to tell you if I am going to be able to lie down and go to sleep. I saw a picture of you…you were overseeing many and many were following your lead. You were being a great influence for the Kingdom and your influence and power keep growing the more you lead. After the dream I asked the Lord what it means and He told me to tell you “do not give up! Don’t stop! Keep following me and serving! I am going to use you in great ways but you have to keep diligent in My work!”

Victor then asked me what I thought. After a few gulps I said that I believe that this was from God. I shared with Victor that just last week I was thinking about putting this work aside but I felt like God was telling me not to and the his dream was proof that the Almighty was telling me this. It was a great comfort to me to here Victor say with such confidence and passion, “Don’t give up! Don’t stop! Keep following me! I’m going to use you in great ways.”

God is not done with me, the road is not going to be easy, and my family and I will have to suffer some pain but God is going to use us in ways that we cannot even imagine today. He will be glorified in our lives, family, and ministry for many years to come. We praise Him for this privilege!

Rodeo Viejo – Over the river and up the mountain

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

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I am blogging a series of stories that comes from my experiences on my last trip to the mountains and jungles of Panama.

We left base camp heading to peoples homes to share the Gospel this morning. I found myself in knee deep mud with in 20 minutes. The rain is really making many of these roads impassable by car, horse or foot. I made one wrong step and I began to sink. With my back back on I began to crawl, literally, out of this swampy mess. When i reached the other side of the village I was covered from head to toe in mud. I was not looking forward to the rest of the day since it was only 10am.

After visiting a few homes we found a man who owns the local store in the village so we stopped to have a cold drink with him. After he stopped laughing at me for being covered in the mud he offered to show us where there was a nice clean river to wash off in. That sounded like music to my ears! It was a about a 20min hike but completely worth it.

The store owner then told us of two families that were close that he thought they would like for us to visit them. So we hiked to the top of this mountain and found the farthest home was an elderly couple. The man was 81 years old he thinks. They were both full of energy and very welcoming. After talking about everything from chickens to my red mud boots we began to share the story of Jesus with them. Being catholic they knew a lot about Jesus and the bible but you could tell that it was mostly in there head and not in their hearts. Me, my translator, and a team of 3 other local believers spent about an hour there sharing all about the love of God, the bible, and God’s plan for them before they asked, “how can we start a relationship with God?” So we lead them in a simple, short prayer and then worship and fellowship broke out in that small bamboo hunt on the top of the mountain in the middle of no where. The Spirit was there moving!

It has been a couple of days and we are going to re visited the elderly couple over the river and up the mountain. They wanted us to come read the bible to them and teach them more about Christ. They are soaking it up like a sponge and are so thrilled. They can’t read so our store owner who also came to know the Lord last night said that he would visit this area every week and bring the supplies from the store that they had ordered and help teach them the bible using our discipleship materials. He is helping them go through the first worksheet now and it is cool to see that it is basic enough that a baby christian can understand.

New believers gathering for bible reading and studying in homes in the middle of the jungles with a local man of influence leading it…that sounds like the book of Acts coming to life!!! That is so exciting! God has had his hand upon us.

Rodeo Viejo

Posted on by Spanky Rouse
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I am going to tell a few of the stories that I had a chance to journal on my last trip to Panama. They are stories where I was privileged to see the hand of God and I believe that they can be encouraging to you too.

Today was our first day in the village and it was low key due to the massive amounts of rain that has fallen for the past 12 hours or so. We were not able to be a mobile as we wanted to be because the roads and paths are literally rivers. About mid morning we decided that we came here to do a work so went got dressed in all the rain gear that we could and headed out. Rain gear, for the locals that means a large trash bad at best.

I started walking with my translator Aaron and 4 other believers down this muddy trail while our mud boots began filling up with water. Aaron and I were getting to know each other since we had never meet nor worked together. I wanted to make a relationship with him before we reached the first home where we were planning to share the gospel. After about 30 minutes and being totally soak i found out that Aaron was born into a Catholic family, goes to a local University, has never been on a camping trip like this, and he had know idea that a person could have a personal relationship with Jesus(God). He said that he knew that is what he needed and has known that for a while but he had no idea how to do that. I began to ask him some questions, really I was trying to talk him out of this right now because I didn’t want it to seem as though I talked him into salvation or praying a prayer during our first conversation. I couldn’t! He was almost begging me to share with him how you start a real relationship with God. So, we stopped right there in the rain and mud and I shared with him how he can talk to God, and God can actually start working in his life. His eyes lit up and I asked him if he wanted to talk to God right there. He said, “Here? You can talk to God here? and He will come in to my life and forgive me, here?” I told him that he could do this anywhere and anytime but he said he wanted to right there and right now. I stopped the other men that were with us and shared with them our conversation. We lead Aaron in a simple prayer and a huge smile took over.

I hope that this is going to be a great week of disciplining for the guy and a great start to his personal relationship with God. I could go home happy right now!

Sufficient

Posted on by Spanky Rouse
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This one comes from one of my recent journal entries.

I have been struggling a lot lately and I feel like many others around me are fighting the same battle. Life as a Christ follower is not always easy and who ever has taught that it is, should be beat! Not really but I feel like I could do the job if someone said that to me today.

It has been one of those times in life when I feel like I suck at being or doing anything! Providing for my family, being excellent in ministry and making a difference, fathering, loving my wife effectively, planning for the future, not worrying and trusting God, taking the right steps, really I feel like I fail at everything some days. The bigger problem is that I find my self in these time trying to fix it or figure it out on my own. That is probably the last thing that I need to do! “Trust in the Lord…lean not on my own understanding(prov.3:5-6)” keeps ringing in my head. I know that it is no accident that that is the first bible verse that my mom taught me as a child.

Today Father, you allowed me to land on 2 Cor. 3:4-6 and I am so thankful!!!

vs.4, I CAN trust you Father because you have already proven your love and faithfulness to me through Jesus. There is no reason for me to not trust You, that is actually the only logical and rational thing to do.

vs. 5, This one hit me hard 3 days ago and I can’t get away from it. “I’m not sufficient for anything! But you are sufficient for everything and through you I can be sufficient no matter what comes my way. No matter what You are able and are the best answer to the equation.

vs. 6, Not only are you sufficient in my life but You chose to make me sufficient in ministry. Through you I am able, adequate, competent to be a minister of the Gospel(new covenant) that brings life. Now that is encouraging!

Father, help me to trust in and rely on You. You can, You are able, You are the best for me! I’m Yours and Your mine.

Child Like Faith

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

July 4th weekend 020I was riding down the road the other night with Mac and he completely amazed me with his wisdom! I thought that I would share our conversation. I promise this is worth writing about and it is so worth reading. Mac is amazing!

Mac started the conversation with, “Daddy you know that God always gives us what we need…and He even gives us what we want sometimes too, but not always.”

Me: Mac that is really smart. Some adults like mommies and daddies don’t understand that.

Mac: yeah some mommies and daddies don’t know Jesus either. That’s really sad. It’s a good thing that we do.

Me: your right Mac!

Mac: what should we call the new baby?

Me: I don’t know Mac, maybe we should pray about it.

Mac: Lets pray now! God put in our hearts and minds the best name for our baby. Amen

Mark 10:15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Having faith in our God like Mac does seems simple but Jesus says that it is the only way to believe and live. Try it today. Simple Trust in Him.

Moments

Posted on by Spanky Rouse

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Have you ever had those moments when you can not help but to recognize that God is real and alive? I am so glad that He blesses us with those moments ever now and then to remind us that He is here and near. I think of times when I have been blessed to see the sun rise on a roar river in the jungles or over the African plan. Amazing and astonishing moments in life always raises awareness of this awesome and beautiful God but what about those simple but powerful times in life.

I have had two moments recently that were simple but I could not help but to see God. One of them was a few weeks ago while we were enjoying one of our favorite things to do on Sunday evenings. Sitting on the front porch while the sun sets. The sounds of the guitar, laughter, and summer noises accompanied with small talk and a beautiful sky. What a moment! That is the picture of God’s people enjoying Him and community. Beautiful!

Another simple but powerful moment was one morning after family prayer time. Lara, Mac, Grey, and me were praying for good weather so we could go outside and enjoy the day at the beach because it looked like rain was coming. When we opened the door a few minutes later the sun was shinning bright and Mac walked out side and said something that I will never forget. With confidence he said, “Gloria a Dios!”. Which means “Glory to God!” He smiled and said,”Was that right daddy?” With a huge smile and joy bursting inside of me I told him that that was absolutely perfect!

Look for Him in the simple but amazing moments in today.