Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 3/14/2010
"Strawberry Moments"
There is an old Chinese proverb about a man who was chased off the edge of a cliff by a tiger. He caught himself midway down the cliff by a branch. He looked down and saw the terrible distance to the bottom of the cliff with raging waters and deathly sharp rocks. He looked up and saw the tiger ferociously looking down at him. Then in that instance he looked to the side and found a delicious strawberry. If he had been worrying too much about what was ahead of him or what was behind him, he would have missed the delicious strawberry that God had for him in that moment.
So many times in my life I have missed that delicious strawberry that God had for me in a special moment because I was worrying to much about what was yet to come. Either that, or I was dwelling too much on the past. All through these times the desire has been there to be utterly content in what God has for me in the moment. Sometimes I just miss it.
The other night I had a dream where God was talking to me about this same thing. I dreamed that the race was over and I went home. I remember feeling cheated though because our race never got to go to the last two countries in Asia. I had missed them, and now I was home. No one at home really seemed to realize that I had been gone; life was back to normal like it always was. I remember sitting in the car in my dream wondering why I had spent so much time of the race wishing I was home. I remember wishing I could go back to the race and simply be utterly content in the moments God had for me.
I somehow feel this is going to remain a constant struggle of mine. Why is it so hard to live in the present moment? Why do I constantly look ahead? God, make me so incandescently happy to live in the strawberry moment that you have for me.
Recent Strawberry moments:
~ Being in the mutatu (transportation bus) while the driver was teaching himself how to drive. It was one of our friends who was being nice and taking us, but we got off quickly none the less.
~Eating a bug- salted and roasted. It actually didn't taste that bad.
~Randomly finding a twisty fake hair on the floor that used to be stuck to my head
~Seeing a girl at the clinic running towards me with utter joy shouting "Mzungu!!" and giving me a huge hug.
~Buying a little boy his only pair of shoes
~Seeing our contact's little boy have a fit of hysterical laughter at this new noise I made for him
~Doing handstands and cartwheels in the middle of the sidewalk with four street kids
~Experiencing the love of Jesus as I walked home from church surrounded by 15 African children
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 2/27/2010
Fear Not!
"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death...
Go after a dream that is destined to fail, unless God intervenes...Start creating the future, stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons, accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey ! Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away." ~Book mark from Liz
I sit here wondering how much I have let fear guide my life. The things that I have never done because I was simply afraid. The people I have never talked to and the places I have never been. Fear is the stunting point of all growth. And where fear hides, the love of the Lord is not present.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made in perfect love." ~1 John 4:18
The Bible talks so much about fear, yet still my feeble heart tries to hold on to this leech that keeps me from being more for the Kingdom of God.
Within the past couple days I have faced a few fears. Two days ago we went rafting together as a squad down the Nile river. The Nile river has some of the best rapids in the entire world with class V's and VI's. We had a blast, but at certain times I'm sure you could ask any one of us in the boat about our level of fear. The boat tipped and we all fell out a couple times. Some of us got pulled and held under the mighty rages of the water. The river was so mighty and had so much force! The 8 other girls and I that were in a boat together had an epic journey against a river that was raging in all of it's glory. We had such an amazing time, and I must say we all fought a pretty fearsome battle.
"Strengthen the feeble hands, Steady the
knees that give way: say to those with fearful hearts. "Be strong, Do
not fear; your God will come." ~Isaiah 35:3-4a
The next morning I went bungee jumping! As I was walking up those stairs I was terrified. "Why the heck am I doing this?!" When I jumped I was even more terrified realizing that I had jumped to what seemed certain death. After that thought flashed through my head, however, all the fear left. I simply spread out my arms, completely overwhelmed by my new found ability to fly! It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, one that I would have missed if I had let fear rule.
"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, DO NOT FEAR; I will help you."
~Isaiah 41:13
After my bungee jumping experience, what else would I do but go kayaking on the Nile River? David and I had the most amazing experience of kayaking on the Nile River with our own personal guides. There were times yet again when i was upside down in the middle of the Nile with my kayak. There was only my paddle to turn my boat around and I felt that fear rising up again. But then once again the Lord in His faithfulness would take me by the right hand and tell me "Do not Fear Danielle, I will help you."
These examples are all physical, but the majority of my fears are actually spiritual or mental. How much more important are these fears?
~I fear others judgments on what I say, do, and sometimes even think
~ I fear stepping out of the common mold, by not doing what everyone expects of me
~ I fear doing what God tells me to do sometimes
I have feared. I have feared, I have feared. I'm going to stop.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God." ~Colossians 4:6
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 2/15/2010
"Basking In The Son"
It amazes me how life changes so quickly here on the race. As me good friend the Count of Monte Cristo once said "One moment you are basking in the sonlight and the next under a rock". Well He said something like that anyway.
I am staying with my team in a small village call Amolatar. We live in a concrete store front with 4 rooms. There is no electricity and no running water. In order to keep the bugs away we set up our tents inside our concrete rooms. We use our headlamps at night and we carry our water in big yellow jugs from a near by well. I have come to find out that Africa actually is pretty hot sometimes. Crazy thought I know, but the old stories are true. Even at night its hot. Granted my tent is for snow weather I think so that probably adds so it all. My sister Bethany was jsut telling me how clod it is where she is in Tennessee. Maybe in some weird way I am retaining heat for her. Sisters can do that right? Happy Birthday Bethany! For your present I got you some hot son!
God has been doing some awesome things here in Amolatar. He is so good and is teaching us all how truely wonderful it is when we "bask in The Son". Here's some cool stories:
~45 kids got saved last week! We went to a local school and sang a bunch of crazy songs. Then God allowed me to present the Gospel through the wordless book colors. I've never had a response like that before. I couldn't even finish the story becasue so many kids wanted to get saved! Praise the Lord for His goodness! I was so pumped up with excitement!
~We counseled two hiv/aids men. They came to our house and told us their stories. It broke our hearts and made us realize the blessing of life. We were able to offer them encouragement as well and show them God's love, even if that was just by listening to their stories. There is such a stigma surrounding people with Aids. Talking with these two men gave me a new vision to help remove this stigma. God is still working on this vision, but I'll let you guys know what He tells me.
~The four of us girls lead a women\s conference. It was more just like a two hour meeting, but they kept calling it conference. So why not huh? We talked about the Proverbs 31 woman and tried to encourage them all in the many things they do every day. Then we started praying for them and answering questions about the Bible. There were quite a few healings. The one I remember the most though was this woman who was suffering from "pain in her chest". I got a picture of GERD, which is a reflux disease. I started praying against that and when we finished she was in tears. She said the pain was gone! Praise the Lord! There was another woman who I just saw yesterday again. We prayed for her about her cough and about her knees. She told me yesterday that she has felt so much better. We encouraged them to pray for each other. We told them that we had no special powers that they didn't have. God answers prayers! "Pray for each other!!" we told them.
~I preached two sermons for two different churches yesterday! The first one was like 1/2 hour. and I had prepared for it. I talked about Hebrew chapter 11 and great men of Faith. I encouraged them saying that God has called us all to be "great men of Faith". I also had them all introduce themselves by who they were in Christ. "My name is Danielle, I'm a child of the most High King of the Universe! I am His friend and He has called me to great things for His kingdom!" The second sermon was still half the same people from the first. I litterally didn't know I was preaching until like 3 minutes before going up! It was crazy!!!!!! God so gave nme the grace and the words I needed though. His faithfulness never ceases to completely amaze me!
God always brings humor into life as well. Here are some funny things that have happened:
~I chopped up a 20 pound fruit called a jack fruit. I nicknamed it Hermit, it was literally like a small child! I purchased it from the market for like a dollar fifty and everyone was laughing when they saw me carrying it off. I probably ended up eating at least half of it! It is for sure my favorite fruit thus far! It is so good! It tastes like a pinapple, a mango and canalope all in one. Its really sticky and tastes like candy! I seriously had glues from ti all over me! It took me like an hour atleast to clean everything up. It doesn't change my love for it though, have no worries;-)
~I rode on a metal rack on the back of a bike for like 45 minutes yesterday. This was my church transportation system. I even had my own personal driver named Denise. He drove me all through a very dirty bumpy very uncomfortable road. But he got me there safe having experience the ride of my life! Next time though I will try to remember not to wear my skirt or bring my purse. Maybe I should install my own handle bars too. But then again, if I did that I wouldn't be able to sing my favorite song. "I can ride my bike with no handle bars... no handle bars. So far= most uncomforable transportation system.
~Favortie way to sleep= Feet inside tent. Head outside tent. I guess this defeats the purpose of my anti bug system, but thats okay.
~Aerobic workouts in Africa occurs weekly during church services. Very Fun
~When I washed all my clothes for the first time by hand, I had a wonderful audience of African children encouraging me on... either that or laughing at my professional skills. I'm not sure which...
Thank you all so much for all your praying and support. Our team is doing very well and we continue to be amazed by God. More updates soon.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 2/1/2010
Clean Pieces Of Trash
Our ministry in Eldoret consisted of our team going out to bustling markets and setting up "an open air crusade". We would plug in the guitars and piano and microphones and sing praises to God. While singing and praising, there are also usually children dancing and twirling and laughing to the music. After some time of this, a member from our team takes the microphone with a translator, and shares something God has been teaching them.
The other day was my turn to preach. I felt inadequate. I felt like I had nothing to share with these people. I struggled with this, and I began to pray. I started preparing something about the Greatest Commandment, and about treating every tiny soul as if they were Jesus. I began to feel a little more confident, but still not totally excited. When we got to the field across from the market, there were lots of children gathering around as the sound system was being set up and the musicians were practicing. I was feeling pretty confident by now in what I was going to say, so I decided to go play with the kids. We started dancing to the music and clapping and playing follow the leader games. It got to the point where every single thing I did, the children would copy. There were at least 25 children I was playing with. They could not speak a word of English and I could not speak a word of swahelee, but they were all completely cooperative! I started to pat my tummy and rub my head, and all 25 of the children would attempt to do the same. I would leap across the field pretending to be a world famous gymnast one minute and a fierce karate master the next. And sure enough, there would be 25 children thinking they were Chuck Norris as they would leap across the field pretending to be world famous gymnasts. God had wrapped those kids around my finger, and I felt God telling me to change my sermon.
So just before I was about to go up I started gathering berries amd trash for my sermon. When I got up there, I presented to the kids "the greatest story ever told". I used the golden berry held by a girl in a yellow shirt to talk about heaven, and God's great love for His creation. I used the dark berry held up by a kid in a black shirt to represent sin. And a kid in a red shirt to represent Jesus' blood. Then a child with a white shirt with a clean peace of trash I had found on the floor, to represent being made clean. Lastly, I used the green color to represent growth as a christian. These colors all represent the wordless book, which is actually how I was saved when my mom "read" it to me as a child.
I left the field that day, not knowing if any of those children had received Jesus as their Savior, or even if I had planted any seeds. I did leave the field that day, however, knowing that God is my constant provider and will use me no matter how inadequate I may feel. I left that field being reminded that God keeps His promises, and that if we just step out in faith and allow Him too, He will speak through us.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 2/1/2010
"Waiting On An Angel"
Waiting on an angel, want to carry me home.
Hope you come see me soon, 'cause I don't want to go alone.
Now Angel won't you come by me. Angel won't you hear my plea.
Take my hand, lift me up, so that I can fly with thee, so that I can fly with thee.
And I'm waiting on an angel, and I know it wont be long,
to find myself in resting place in my angels arms. In my angels arms.
So be kind to a stranger, cause you'll never know, it might just be an angel
come knockin' at your door. Come knockin' at your door. And I'm waiting on an angel,
And I know it won't be long, To find myself a resting place in my angels arms.
In my angels arms. Waiting on an angel want to carry me home.
Hope you come see me soon,cause I don't want to go alone.
I don't want to go alone... don't wanna go alone. I don't wanna go alone.
I once knew an angel, and treated him as a stranger, because I was unaware. He once welcomed me to be his friend, but I laughed and declined his kind offer. We were young, I thought it would be long before either of us found out resting place... I was sadly mistaken.
There was a car accident. He was ejected from the car, right into his angel arms. He was to live on earth no longer. Never again will I have the chance to take back those laughs, and to take back those declines and to welcome him into my world as a treasured friend. To treat him as an angel.
This song was played as my angel friend was carried down the isle in his casket. Over four years ago. It still touches my heart now just as much as it did then. My team asked me what was one of the biggest lessons God has taught me in life. This song with all of it's attatchments came to mind. I realize that in all likely hood, my friend was not an angel. All the more, however, he was a precious and honored child of God, who was dearly loved by his father in heaven.
This pain in my heart has made me want to love others with My Father's love. An unconditional love. Never to know a stranger, welcoming all to be my friend. To show a love that knows no bounds. Never to hold a grudge, or to hold back from saying the things that are important. Cause you'll never know when it might just be an angel come knockin' at your door.
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 1/23/2010
My Dearest Eliaura
Welcome to the world precious baby! January 20th, 2010 was a wonderful day that will never again be forgotten. I have anticipated your arrival for so long. I so wish I could have been there to see your grand appearance, as you made your first mark on the world. I know the world will never be the same, however, as you have many more marks yet to come. It is in your blood to be victorious because you are related to your mom. Your mother, Jennie, is one of the most victorious and beautiful warriors I know. She has fought long and hard for you, and she loves you more than words can say. She has so much wisdom and passion for life and for you! She loves the Lord with all her heart and has probably been the single most influential person on who I am today. I know you and I will have this in common to share with each other for the rest of our lives. Learn all you can from her. She has so many wonderful treasures stored in her heart to share with you. She is the best story teller I know! Make sure she reads you lots of bed time stories.
Eliaura Danielle Vatt, I want to tell you something very special about your middle name. It means "God is my judge". This means that He is the only one who has the right to judge you. Do not look at the world as your judge, only to Him. Others may try to pass judgments on you and what you are made of; sadly they might not always be positive. Do not allow that to affect you. I used to look at this name and feel condemnation that God was always judging me. This is not true at all! He is so just and forgiving and His purpose is not to judge, but to love. He has the greatest amount of love for you in all the world. He loves you more than His own son's life. Seek only to please Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.You are God's beautiful precious princess that He loves so much and He is
already so proud you. He has so many special plans for your life. You
are so unique and have such a huge purpose. You will make the world a
better place.
God has taught me a lot by keeping me here in Africa during the time you were born. I so wanted to be there, but He brought me here instead. He has brought many babies from around the world to remind me of you. Some who do not get as much love as you get from your family. I have hugged and kissed many babies in your honor, Eli.
I cannot wait for the day when I will take you to the park, and to show you how to walk on your hands. I can't wait to take you for mango ice cream and to tell you crazy stories about your mom. I can't wait to know everything about the beautiful person that God has so recently blessed the world through. Until then, however, I want you to know how much I love you and how precious you already are to me.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 1/23/2010
This Is Africa
Sometimes I need some little reminders about where I am. Traveling so much, I sometimes forget where I am. Here are a few laughable things that remind me I am in Africa:
1. I said good bye to my camera as it dropped 22 feet deep in the squatty potty. Perfect aim actually. I was quit impressed with my skill that I didn't even know I had! This was one of those things that I couldn't even be mad about. All I could do was laugh that such a thing actually happened.
2. This is my third day tripping to my face in the dirt. I'm usually pretty good at balancing, but apparently Africa has shown me that the best view is not always from your feet. Sometimes it is good to see the ground from your face's perspective. It gives you a new light on the world.
3. The last time I fell was while I was carrying a live chicken by its feet. Sounds victorious, huh? I thought the same as I was marching along. I thought I was so victorious in fact that I forgot to walk. The poor chicken will never be the same. I think it actually caught epilepsy from the whole "victorious" experience.
4. I am actually going to be cooking that chicken for dinner tonight. The bad thing is that on our walk home from buying the chicken, I accidentally became friends with it. Its name is judge bob, and I think we enjoy each others' company, except when I give it epilepsy of coarse.
5. There are currently two cockroaches running around my keyboard as I type. Just for the record, they are not my friends.
6. Twice a day we are served tea from our host family. Everyone in Kenya seems to drink this tea. It is very delicious and I have often wondered what made it so good. I found out yesterday that the tea contains nicotine!
7. Everywhere we go, people point at us from all around shouting "MZUNGU!!!!!!" (which means white person).
8. The little kids were afraid of me the other day because I was a mzungu. After starring at each other for a while I decided it would be fun to play a game. Freeze tag was not a good idea. Seeing a mzungu was apparently scary enough, but to have one running at you was even worse. This one little boy tripped and fell so I ran to help him up, the volume of his scream and terror were dramatically increased.
A common phrase in our group has become "TIA". This Is Africa. And I love it:-)
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 1/9/2010
"My African Dreamland"
Finally... AFRICA!!!
We arrived to Africa about two weeks ago. I have dreamed of
coming to Africa for so long, and now I am finally here! I love being here so
much! The landscape and the people are absolutely beautiful! The people are so
incredibly kind and welcoming. Many people in Kenya actually speak English,
which is something I did not expect. The way of life here is so relaxed. The
fruits are amazing! Did I mention they sell mangoes by the hundreds?! For those
of you who don't know, I'm a pretty big mango fan. I think I could pretty much live
off them as long as there was a side of peanut butter. The flowers are in bloom here everywhere! Huge
gigantic flowers that are the brightest colors you have ever seen! The sky
seriously seems bigger here. It stretches out gloriously with beautiful fluffy
clouds during the day and sparkling diamonds at night.
We spent a week in Nairobi as a squad, meeting
our contact, learning the African culture, and getting our country changed!
My team was headed for Lira, Uganda. The departure date was
in a few days when it got switched. We were to be working in a village with
children soldiers and at an HIV and AIDS clinic. I was so very excited about
this. I have done a lot of awareness activities with my school for Uganda, and
I was fully ready to be more actively involved in changing the problems there.
God had different plans for me however. Instead of Uganda my team ended up in Eldoret,
Kenya! This is the exact place where we needed to be. I am actually starting to
love when things change at the last minute. It makes my life feel more like a
roller coaster ride full of adventure and excitement!
We are staying here with a wonderful Kenyan family who cook
our food and help us adapt to life here. I live in a mud house (in the middle
of the raining season) with no running water, very little electricity, squatty
potties, and bucket showers. In all honesty, as bad as that sounds, life is
absolutely amazing! This is probably one of my favorite places I have stayed
during the entire race! These living things mentioned above that I used to
think would be such hard living conditions are actually not bad at all. The mud
house is really just like any other concrete house. It actually has more
breathing air than a concrete house; almost natural air conditioning. We have a well that supplies our water and in
the mornings we just get up and fill bunches of buckets that we leave out
during day for cooking and washing ourselves. This is actually easier than
having to turn the faucet on and off;-) For electricity we have a light switch
and a charger for our electronics, which is all we need. The squatties were a
little challenging to get used to at first, and they still aren't my favorite
thing. Hey, they are far better than most out houses I have used in the states.
Who knew those out houses were actually preparing you for Arica? And the bucket showers are actually wonderful!
You just warm up the water that you will need over the fire and then carry it
into a room with a drain. The food we eat here is amazing! Everything we have
eaten has been so good and we are so well taken care of.
We are starting a church here in the village we are staying
in. Almost every day we go out to the open air markets and bring a sound
system. We bring church to the people that least expect it. We sing songs and
preach and have prayer. I absolutely love playing and dancing and singing with
all the kids. They are so cute and so loving! We also will be fixing up
appliances and such around the house we are staying at as well as volunteering
at a medical clinic! We can only continue doing these things with your continued financial
support. We are Starting a church, fixing up a beautiful home and loving on the
people of Kenya. I still need $1,356 for a deadline in Febuary, with a total of
$2,856 by the end of this trip in July. Any further support you can give would
be ever so wonderful.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 1/9/2010
"But Women will be
saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with
propriety."
1 Timothy 2:15
Did this
verse ever hit you the wrong way? Make some question spin around in your head?
Why does this verse make is sound like women will only be saved through child
birth. What about the women that die not being old enough to have a child? What
about the women that just cant have any children? And clearly it contradicts
the rest of the Bible saying that something other then Jesus can make you
"saved". This verse is a good example of one of the reasons why relying on
English translations isn't always the best. There is a lot about the culture
and language of the bible that I never understood; still don't really
understand. While I was in Israel, I got the wonderful opportunity of studying
a little Hebrew and studying about culture according to the Bible. One of my
favorite things I learned was having to do with this verse.
In the
Greek, this verse is translated to "The child birth", which would lead me to
believe it is talking about "The child birth" of Jesus Christ. Women are saved
through The child birth of all child births. God revenges her through "the
ultimate revenge". Satan deceived the woman in the garden back in Genesis, so
he's up one on her. However, the woman is brought back up by bearing The child,
Jesus Christ. Jesus grows up, redeems the world through His blood, and bruises
His heel crushing satan's head in the gates of hell!
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike
His heel."
Gen 3:15
A couple
days after we had this teaching, a few of us were discussing this lesson. We
werediscussing it as we were riding in
a bus on our way to tour Nazareth. We got to the church that is now on the spot
where Mary was first visited by the angel telling her of her future child (Luke
1:26-38).As soon as we entered
courtyard in front of the church I saw a statue. The statue was of Mary, and at
first you wouldn't notice anything else. Taking a second look, however, I
noticed that Mary's heel was literally crushing the serpent's head! We came to
this statue seriously minutes after talking about it on the bus.
Posted in General Posts by Danielle Contarino on 12/28/2009
Just your average weekend on the world race....
Jesus commanded us to go into all nations, preaching the gospel and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit. I always took this verse for missions, but this weekend I took it for something more. You can only baptize if you have some sort of certificate right? Wrong. Jesus gives us the certificate right there in Matthew when He tells us straight up to baptize. I always thought that's great for some people, but I'll never be the one baptizing. This was until my friend Lauren asked me to baptize her. This is the highest privilege and honor I think I have ever been given. And it just so happened that I got to baptize her in the Jordan river. The very same river that Jesus was baptized by John.
There's nothing that can really follow that up, so just consider this as a side note. Yesterday we woke up at 4 in the morning to go do some wandering business in the desert. We didn't really know starting out on our six hour hike through the desert that we would be wandering. However, you would think that not bringing a map with us would have been our first clue. Alas, it wasn't though, so we began our six hours of trekking through the desert on a quest to find the dead sea. We found some ruins. We found a lot of rocky desert hills and valleys. We tried to use the stars as our map. We found a road and a beautiful sunset. But no dead sea. So, after close to four hours of not completely being sure we were going the right way, we found a bus to take us to the dead sea. Literally, it was amazing! I floated in that sea standing up, on my side, on my stomach and sitting up! I tried to sink for longer then three seconds and it was not possible! The bottom was so clear, you could see crystals of salt that looked like jewels! It was beautiful! And of course you have too look beautiful yourself to be in such a beautiful place;-) So clearly, what else would we do but cover ourselves in mud.
This weekend I also went to En Gedi, where David and his men were hiding in a cave and then could have attacked King Saul, but didn't. I also got to see Nazareth and Caperneum and the sea of Galilee! To end this great weekend off, today I am leaving for Egypt! We are going to see the pyramids tomorrow and then tomorrow night we fly out for Nairobi.
