Time In

Be A Santa To A Senior is doing so well!!! Gifts are streaming in, and I just love every part of it.

The past few weeks have been so nice. Carly came to visit. I got to spend an entire week with my family, and I even get to go back this weekend to celebrate the shower of my future sister-in-law.

This post is mainly for Carly because she has been bugging me to post.

My darling friend Mel gave me a book that her friend had written. It is called Found Art. I definitely reccomend it and think that it is one of those things that you will want to read and pass along.

Check it out, you will love it!

This blog has taken a time out

here's why...

YEP... it is that time of year again!

So so so sorry

My life has been so boring over this last month.

Here is what I am doing...

1. Wishing for anything and all things fall! I am trying to pretend that I need big puffy vests, boots, and scarves, but really all I need is a swimsuit.

2. Losing weight! Sharon and I have been doing Weight Watchers since the 16th of September. At my 3 week weigh-in I had lost a total of 6 lbs. We will see how tomorrow goes.

3. Getting ready to Be A Santa To A Senior. www.beasantatoasenior.com Watch the promo video to find out more about it.

4. Preparing for a visit from my darling friend Car and her sweet Libs

5. Missing family and friends everywhere! I always get this way in the fall, because all I want to do is take a walk in the brisk weather, with hot apple cider, and see the gorgeous leaves.

What have you been doing?

Here is a short version of what I have been loving right now...

1. Pink Grapefruit Tic Tacs... I always have them with me, and I am in love with their zesty flavor and they're less than 2 calories per mint!



2. Pumpkin Spice Coffee with cinnamon creamer. Straight pumpkin pie, folks!



3. Apple Jacks with added fiber (1 serving 1 point, baby)

An unexpected teacher.

As I sit at my office desk crying, I just had to share this with you... (borrowed from Tom Davis' blog)

September 11, 2009
An Orphan's Faith
We have a great team in Uganda right now, led by Greg McElheny and Vince Giordano. I just received an email from one of our team members, Ben Savage, from Cincinnati Ohio. I had to share it with you. Please join me in prayer for this team as they visit carepoints throughout the Teso Region over the next few days. I hope to update you with more stories as they come to me.

"Today I walked into a world unlike any other that I have experienced.
I arrived two days ago with a team from Children’s HopeChest to visit
orphan communities in the hopes of creating connections between our
world of plenty and their world of want. As we drove through the
towns, I witnessed a bizarre mixture of beauty, despair and hope. The
landscape was truly astounding. There were many imaginative and
hardworking people who had used what little resources that could
muster to create businesses that were showing signs of success. The
next sight I would see would be a child naked, in a ramshackle mud hut
with no one to care for them.

In this strange stew of images we pulled into Rapha Community School,
a community that is sponsored by a church in Florida through
Children’s HopeChest. We were greeted by 150 children in white shirts
and orange smocks. The children were not exactly what I expected.
True, their situation was more dire than any I’ve seen, but the
children shone like the sun. Their smiles were bright and filled with
pride and dignity. The children greeted us individually and thanked
us for coming. I only wish my children acted this respectfully.
After we toured the community, we were escorted to their schoolroom.
The room consisted of a small map of the world, a few old posters and
rough hewn benches.



The children sang a welcome to us. They danced and recited Gods words
to us. I was challenged and changed by all of this. And then there
was Sarah, who read Matthew 6 aloud. Sarah, who, from all earthly
perspectives should be disabled with despair for her future spoke of
faith. She is an orphan who has depended on God to deliver food,
shelter and all other earthly needs. She had suffered loss and pain
that people in my community would have spent countless dollars on
therapy to recover from, but today Sarah spoke to me of faith. She
read


“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more
important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at
the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more
valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to
his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field
grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God
clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is
thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of
little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What
shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own.” Matthew 6:25-34



To hear a lovely child of God with a gleaming face recite those words
to me was the high point and most devastating moment for me. The
thought that Sarah, who has good reason to worry about tomorrow would
unassumingly speak those challenging words to us fairly contented and
well fed Americans destroyed me. That we worry more about the news
from Hollywood than the desperation found around the world was nothing
short of life changing. While our culture is so consumed with anxiety
and fear, here was little Sarah exemplifying faith and courage. She
read the words but I could see that she felt them too and that she
felt them deeply.



I have always loved that passage and thought about it as a cute
phrasing of my simple faith. But today I heard it as a life mantra
that was spoken from the core of this small framed girl. It was the
throwing down of the gauntlet. And the question that confronts me now
as I sit in my Ugandan hotel and Sarah sleeps in her mud hut is “What
will I do to respond?” I have been blessed - not so much that I am
rich in my own community necessarily, but I am insanely rich in a
global context. I have also been exposed to enough of the
difficulties that these communities face that I can no longer hide
behind ignorance. Do I truly believe that these children are more
valuable than my cable television? I am the “I want my MTV”
generation. As Africa burns I live in comfort and ease while I CAN
make a difference in the lives of others but will I choose to? What
sacrifice have I been willing to make to help fulfill God’s promise of
care to others? I will live differently from this day forward.
Have mercy on me God, though I truly don’t deserve it. I have for too
long ignored your call to love those who are broken and abused. Help
me capture and hold onto the conviction, sorrow, and joy reflected in
Sarah’s eyes today. And thank you for showing me a picture of your
heart through these broken but not forgotten children in Rapha. I am
devastated and changed. Thank you, sweet Lord."

ummm... I have problems

I spelled journey wrong in the title of the previous post... wow

The jouney...

I am not going to break into song about having another mountain to move, yada yada yada, but I do want to talk about the journey that I am on.

This morning while I was sitting on my counter in the bathroom with my Bible in one hand and hair dryer in the other, I came upon some great Scripture that was a perfect fit for how I have been feeling lately.

The past year has been tough, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. I feel like I am traveling down this path.
One thing that I love about Lombard Street is that it is not very long, but it sure is windy. The distance from start to finish would be so much shorter if we chose a direct path, but I do want you to take note of the glorious beauty along the way.

So much of me, a typical type A person, wants to just get to where I am going. Lately I have been forced to enjoy this crazy journey that I have been on.

It hasn't been easy... that's for sure, but here is the Scripture. I hope that it encourages you as much as it did for me.

Isaiah 35:3-10
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,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
The will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue will shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicket fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there
nor any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and the ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Sometimes in our lives, our journey is straight and smooth, other times are full of habitual sin, distance from God, or other difficulties that make our journey rocky and windy. We are all heading somewhere and the most important thing is Who is with us along the way.

I don't know where the long and winding road is leading you, but I do know this: if you remember passing Calvary, you are on the right road. - Patsy Clairmont

I have a problem

... this is what it is. Delicious and way too addicting! Don't even try to stop me because I am never quitting this! HAHA