Car fires and old dreams

A couple months back I had a dream. In it I was viewing the Nest from a drone’s perspective about 200 feet above the ground . I saw a good bunch of kids below, the chickens clucking around, and some adults leading the children in some sort of activity. I took note that I didn’t recognize anyone, not the workers nor the kiddos. Then my “ dream drone” lowered and entered the Casona ( that is our large thatched roof communal house). I zoomed in on the far wall and saw a picture of Karina and I. It was a recent photo, but the colors were faded and yellowed with the corners peeling off. As I looked at it I heard people talking behind me, explaining to themselves that they had never met the Nest founders as that was so long ago before they were even born , and actually didn’t know anything about the Beach’s. Then the dream came to an end.

The first thing I thought was “ dang it ! “ I guess that means that the second coming of Jesus didn’t happen in my lifetime. But the main thing I walked away with was how much all this hard work at the Nest is not about me. It’s not about me.

The Bible has a repetitive message as to the fleeting nature of our life here on earth , like grass, as a whisper of dust and of wilting flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. So I wrestle with the brevity of drawing breath while grappling with the eternity God has placed in my heart. That old faded picture in my dream I suppose represents the legacy which Karina and I are leaving behind. We don’t have children to pass along our wisdom, memories nor treasures, so we are sacrificing all we have in this brief moment of life. We can’t take any anything with us when we die anyways, so we might as well die broke, poor in the sight of this world, but rich with laid up treasure in heaven.

So then yes, we have always intended to simply be the starters of a ministry that will long outlive us. Beyond being a light of hope and love in the midst of great spiritual darkness, one of our goals has been to help the BriBri people develop sustainable income sources via our Nest market farming which will enable the Nest vision to thrive into the future.

Ah! That nebulous, ever mysterious thing called the future, it’s impossible to predict and so we simply cling to our hope in an eternal God and give our best efforts to the present day before us. One more thought before I give you Nest updates. Four years into this missionary life, I can see with some degree of clarity the vast difference between inviting God to help me achieve my hopes & dreams , and me saying with my life “ok God” what are YOUR hopes and dreams? I’m not saying this to convince or convict anyone, but merely to attest to the dramatic shift in paradigm and the resulting peace and motives of my heart.

Ok so finally how are things going here at the Nest. Well Karina is tirelessly pushing forward the goal of opening our doors to the federal child protective services by the end of the year . She is designing the model of our shelter program, hiring a lawyer to assist with the formation of a new entity to be called the Nest Home Foundation. We are also looking to secure the funds needed to hire our professional staff of a social worker and psychologist, which are required in order to obtain a license. All the while, Karina keeps hearing new stories of the abuse and horrors that very young girls are facing, which not only breaks her heart but gives her a fervent urgency to keep pushing on with this God given calling.

On the ground we are currently building our grant funded infirmary, adding space for our growing flock of chickens and improving our ground keeping to better cope with the stress of mucho mud that accompanies the rainy season soon approaching.

We’ve also hosted some small teams of extremely significant guests which have arrived to encourage, consider, and support the growing development of the Nest.

Well I guess that’s it for the big stuff, everyday brings its own unique set of lessons, we thankfully get many of them right but we also make our share of mistakes too. But that’s a blog for another day.

Oh yeah! The car fire.

Yes well 2 days ago Karina and I were on our date day, driving our personal vehicle, an old red Jeep Wrangler. Driving along we both heard an unusual noise from the engine, then a few seconds later the smell of smoke. By Gods protection this happened directly in front of a federal police station. I pulled the jeep over, lifted the hood up only to discover flames engulfing the engine. Karina ran to the police and they grabbed a fire extinguisher and promptly put out the fire before it spread too far. Lord only knows what could have happened if we hadn’t been where we were when the fire broke out. Needless to say it was a memorable date day, and when it was over with we still went out for ice cream and prayed to be vigilant since then for how God is going to do something good and better through this experience. These days I have a saying that things in life ( trials) don’t happen TO us, but FOR us.

Be safe my friends.

With love and gratitude,

James Beach