better

Psalm 118
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, His steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say, His steadfast love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say, His steadfast love endures forever. Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: The right hand of the Lorddoes valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lorddoes 18 The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

I was 24 when I went to Africa. . .

In the last 4 years (really the 2 since I've been home) I've asked myself several times, "What am I doing here (in America)?"  I've asked the Lord the same question.  
And others have asked me.
My reply. . . "Jesus won't let me go."
I've been so unsure of why.  
But tonight He reminded me.  
Here (in America) I can encourage others walking along the same path I've been down.  I can remind them that He'll be faithful-He always is.  That they'll be effective and that they'll be changed.  
My heart weeps for my Africa, but for now the Lord is using my tears right here.

Back to Africa

It's 95 degrees outside. . .

Our airconditioner is broken.

It's a little. . . ummmm. . . TROPICAL in here!

It's a bird, it's a plane. . .

It's SUPERMAN. . .

We celebrated Patrick's birthday, Superman style. After Superman cake we headed off to catch the movie. I have to say I wasn't as confused as I normally get during superhero movies. Pretty good actually.

A few of the night's highlights. . .


Patrick with his birthday cake


and Patrick with his birthday POTATO!?


the gang

Bee Seven+One Goes To Washington

I ran across an old cd with some stuff from the process getting ready to go overseas and a bunch of my work while I was there. I had totally forgotten about a lot of it, this especially. While we were at MLC we took a trip to Washington D.C. to experience and witness to people of other cultures who live there. We had to document our trip, and this is what we came up with. . .

Our covenant group is really cool we really like to have fun,
So we decided to stick together us 7 (plus one).
We arrived at Union station without a plan or a clue,
So we decided to eat breakfast and figure out what to do.
As we sat and ate breakfast, sipped on coffee and hot tea,
We observed some international parenting, a family of three.
They seemed to be of Asian descent or at least that’s what we guessed,
The baby was through eating and had really made a mess.
We did not get to witness much from this family from another land,
They must have been late for their train, cause they picked the baby up and ran.
The next thing on our agenda was to lend a helping hand,
As we looked for someone in need we were approached by a gentleman,
He asked me in his broken English, if I could tell him the time,
I told him it was 11:33 and he asked me for a dime.
We accommodated him as best we could and then our ways did part,
And the place we stopped next, well, it kind of broke our heart.
We rode the Metro to China Town to see all of the sights,
We found a place that was really “Dark” it was missing the “Light”
We found ourselves in a family owned shop that sold all sorts of stuff,
Jewelry, dolls, beads, and food, and even a can of snuff.
Just when we were about to leave we saw something that caught our eye,
It was a little green “Buddha” I asked if I could buy?
We asked the young Chinese girl, how did Buddha gain his fame,
Her reply nearly broke our hearts, as she said “He and Jesus are the same”
We told her about Christ she couldn’t understand, English she did lack,
We tried for a while to talk with her, but left her with a tract.
God opened up several more doors to tell others about Him,
One in particular was a homeless man named Jim,
After talking with him it was plain to see that he was a believer too,
So we rejoiced and left him there and went looking for something to do.
We were getting hungry so we decided to look for a place to eat,
We turned and looked we saw something hanging, that resembled a piece of meat.
We opened the door to this little shop and boy were we surprised,
We smelled some stuff that made us sick and brought tears to our eyes.
It was duck, and lamb, and fish and chicken all boiled and hanging up,
We decided to go elsewhere to fellowship and sup.
Since we are all Africa bound we wanted to try something Authentic,
We found an Ethiopian place, now, I don’t want to sound like a cynic.
The majority of us thought the food was bad and we nearly all got sick,
A couple of us ate every bit, and our fingers we did lick.
Our waitress was nice and very helpful, she had a pretty grin,
She served us some sort of bread that felt just like “grandma” skin.
She too was a believer, she was going to Heaven and not hell,
She tried to teach the Amharic language but boy did we fail,
We heard all sorts of languages in the short time that we were there,
Spanish, French, and Chinese too, and even a sign language pair.
Our trip was fun, we learned a lot, and observed all kinds of commotion,
We all agree that we can’t wait to serve God across the Ocean.
From Natalie, Todd, Amber, LaVerne, Chris, Chris, Whitnee, and Dodd,
Thanks for the trip, it is our prayer that we helped move someone closer to God.

Resolved

Check out what my friend has to say about one of the IMB's new resolutions (apparently there's a bunch of controversy) here.

Things

Things upon the mantle. Things on every shelf. Things that others gave me. Things I gave myself. Things I've stored in boxes. That don't mean much anymore. Old magazines and memories, behind the attic door.

Things on hooks & hangers. Things on ropes and rings. Things I guard that blind me to the pettiness of things. Am I like the Rich Young Ruler Ruled by all I own? If Jesus came & asked me, could I leave them all alone?

Oh Lord, I look to heaven beyond the veil of time to gain eternal insight that nothing's really mine. And to only ask for daily bread and all contentment brings. To find freedom as your servant in the midst of all these things.

For discarded in the junkyard, rusting in the rain, lie things that took the finest years of lifetimes to obtain. And whistling through these tombstones, the hollow breezes sing a song of dreams surrendered to the tyranny of things.

I read those lyrics earlier today in some stuff about "living a globally significant lifestyle". I was reminded how easy it is to get caught up in the "stuff" in life. You don't even realize it. I remember getting home from Africa and not even being able to go to the mall without crying over the reality of American materialism. . . life here has so many more choices. And the more we get the more we want. How do you break the cycle?
Something I read from John Piper comes back to me. . . "life is in the moments". That's how we learn. We can read a whole book, but it's a sentence that changes our lives. Proof from the life of John Wesley:

While at Oxford, an incident changed his perspective on money. He had just finished paying for some pictures for his room when one of the chambermaids came to his door. It was a cold winter day, and he noticed that she had nothing to protect her except a thin linen gown. He reached into his pocket to give her some money to buy a coat but found he had too little left. Immediately the thought struck him that the Lord was not pleased with the way he had spent his money. He asked himself, Will thy Master say, "Well done, good and faithful steward"? Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold! O justice! O mercy! - Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid?

Check out the whole article (life changing) here.

Update

Apparently inquiring minds want to know what's up next for me.  It's not quite time for the world to know. . . 
but I can update you on the new "do".  Since I'm trying to grow my hair out and am just not happy when I'm not making big changes, I decided to change the color.  It's a "dark caramel brown" with blond highlights-kind of with a Cruella DeVille attitude.  I'm happy.  It's a good change!  I'm sure I'll post some new pics some time soon.

update

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some scripture in Isaiah 58. (Click here to see this post.)
Anyways, the Lord has started revealing how He is going to work this scripture out in my life. Please pray for me as I seek to discern His will and make decisions about my future. It's too early to let you in on any of the details, but it has to do with this aspect of the passage:
"if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted"

Mother's Day and Nature Loving

I headed out to my grandparent's this afternoon to spend some time with the family for Mother's Day and also celebrate a few birthdays-mine on the 5th, my mom's on the 7th, and my cousin's wife, Holly, on the 8th. Of course we had good food and I spent some great nature time out on the porch with my Pa. I'm convinced he's the one who ruined me on hating the indoors and that's how I ended up with a crazy major like wildlife science.
Anyways, here's a few pics. . .


a pretty red bird


my favorite wild flower-for those of you who didn't have a way cool major like wildlife science-no, there's no such thing as a weed!


daddy and baby blue bird


a common alabama road-side flower


little toe-hee