Sitting At His Feet

I read this excerpt yesterday on the web and it has just stuck with me so much over the last 24 hours. It spoke to so much of what I was feeling I think as I was getting distracted by some of what's going on with life. Truth of the matter is I want to walk this thing out exactly right as I leave everyone and everything I know and take on this really big task of helping to raise 20 little girls to know God. (I know I don't very high expectations of myself now do I??) The reality is that I'm gonna be stumbling all over the place at moments and it is gonna look far more messy than it does cleaned up and just right sometimes. I'm learning that's ok. Here's the big deal, I don't want to miss out on the joy of this journey with Jesus because of all the preparations or the emotions or the other "stuff." I want to walk this out with Him.

"When my attitude starts to wobble, I know it's because I'm distracted. I don't realize how much I'm distracted, though, until the axis starts grinding and heating up. Like Martha, I get frustrated, irritated, and sometimes stomping-mad-tell-somebody-off angry.

I know a wheel is starting to fall off when the meal I'm preparing becomes more important than the people I'm preparing it for. When my work becomes more important than the family I'm working for. When a point I'm making becomes more important than the person I'm making it to. That's how I can tell I've lost the axis. When I lose sight of what's more important. When I lose a sense of the sacredness of another human being, especially the human beings closest to me. I don't want to live in the kitchen of religious activity, distracted with all my preparations..... I want to live at the Savior's feet, gazing into His eyes, listening to His words, and seeing as many windows as He'll show me.

At His feet is where we learn to pause at those windows. It starts by loving Him and longing to hear his voice. When we're slaving away in some kitchen where the pots and pans are clanging, it's hard to hear that voice. But when we're at His feet and our heart is still, we can hear Him even when He whispers."

Lately, the "things I had to do" and the "things I had to go through to get there" got way more important than the One all this is for and I lost the axis. The fundraising became more important than the house being built for His glory. The sadness and hurt got more important than the gratitude for the gifts He gave me in the people it hurts to leave. The sacrifice got more important than the One we sacrifice for and the One we never "out sacrifice." On and on the list could go. So true, when we don't sit at His feet and live there we lose the axis.

I wanna live there. God help us to live there, listening, so it only takes a whisper for us to hear Your voice.

My Sister

I had one of the coolest days Saturday that I've had in a really long time. My little sister graduated from nursing school after a few years of studying lots and really long hours and a whole lot of hard work. I know I'm having some sentimental big sister moments but I'm gonna take just a few minutes on this blog to sing her praises.

For those of you who don't know her story it's worth the telling and it's important to me to give God credit for all He has done for this life of one I love so dearly. Ang got pregnant when she was 16 and a junior in high school. I will never forget the night I came home from Nashville and my mom told me she was pregnant. She was already in bed, it was the middle of the night when I got home. I went in beside her bed and knelt down there and just sobbed looking at her thinking how hard this road was going to be. A few months later this little guy came into the world that absolutely stole all of our hearts. I got to go into that room when he was born and watch the miracle of his entrance into this world and I fell in love with him the minute I saw him and haven't stopped loving him since. He has me wrapped around his little finger and knows it I think.

Anyway, there were lots of choices to make and there were definitely some hard years in there with sis trying to be a mom and finish high school and grow up and be who she needed to be and I remember lots of times asking God to please help her get this life stuff figured out. It's hard to figure out how to be a mom and be 16 or 17 years old. Not easy!

I looked at her this weekend and it seemed like everytime I looked I had tears in my eyes. I am so INCREDIBLY proud of her. She has two little guys now and she is this terrific mommy who absolutely adores them and it's reciprocated. She has a husband who is a good daddy and they stood together as this happy little family on this milestone day as she has worked so hard to get through nursing school and they've all made sacrifices to make it work. On top of this milestone, they started building a new house last week, how exciting!

I just saw answers to prayer in very visible form this weekend. Of all the prayers I've uttered over my lifetime, these prayers I prayed on behalf of my sister were perhaps some of the deepest most heartfelt ones. I begged God in no uncertain terms. He is a God who never fails us! Thank you Lord for what you've done in her life and for caring about the things we care about.

Ang, I am honored to be your big sister. Getting to watch you be a mom to those sweet little boys and seeing your dreams coming true is joy for my heart! I love you more than you'll ever know!

The House of Hope

Dedicated to a little girl whose name I'll not know and whose face I'll never forget. She was the first of many who stole my heart at the Casitas Kennedy orphanage in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She was the beginning of my realization that God was doing something in my heart in this land. Pray for her and the thousands like her who are desperate for "home."


There's a little girl in a foreign world
And she looks somewhat like me
She's got brown hair
She's got brown eyes
And they're staring back at me

She reaches out her tiny arms
Wanting so badly to be held
I pick her up and I start to rock
And her eyes close against my chest

Five moments of love
And sleep sweetly comes
I wonder how long it had been

Her face is fixed within my mind
And my soul feels her eyes desperate plea
Is there anyone out there in this world
Who will find some love in their heart for me?

With one little face and those pleading eyes
The question endlessly plays out in my mind
Will you please go and be my heart and my hands
To those sweet little children in this plight

What choice can you make
When you hear His voice say
Will you please...
I've come to a time and a place in my life
That to leave will hurt far less than to stay

Some moments in time deserve to be freezed
Some moments you wish you could frame
When God's love looks into those great big brown eyes
And says would you like to go "home"
Praise be to God, I think will be one

The House of Hope how fitly named
A refuge from all they have known
No more days filled with hunger
No more nights on the streets
And a chance to call Jesus their own

What undeserved kindness from God's gentle hands
What a privilege He offers to me
Help me Lord understand this incredible gift
Of your purpose worked out within me

May I touch every child with the tenderness of Your heart
May they feel the warmth of Your hand
May I look at their hearts with the depth of Your sight
May they feel Your love in this land

May I delight in the mornings with sleepy little eyes
Who have never been wrapped up in a hug in their life
May we kneel down each night and bow our heads low
As we thank You for the gift of this time

For all that will come through this one little girl
Who's eyes bore a place in my soul
For all that will be because of Your kindness to me
Lord, I thank you for buiding this "home."

Lessons From Today

Know what I learned today...

• that sometimes it's just as sweet to sob together as it is to laugh
• that being a friend might call for honesty at times that aren't easy
• that sitting beside people you love and talking about absolutely nothing is sometimes exactly what your heart needs
• that being a part of God's family calls us all to love from a deeper place
• that Abraham probably struggled to put one foot in front of the other up the mountain that day to make his sacrifice but the only part that got written down was the fact that he was faithful in his obedience
• that I am blessed beyond anything I deserve to be surrounded by the people I have the blessed privilege of spending my days doing life with right now
• that even if loving people means it hurts like crazy to let go, I would do it all over again and not change a thing

Some days I guess God just gives you a buffet of heart lessons. I definitely got more than my share today!

Dance With Me

Heard the lyrics to this praise and worship song today and they took my breath away literally...this is so my prayer...it will now become my daily prayer that I'll take Him up on the offer of His dance through this life.

Many songs will fade away
And few things will remain
Melodies and harmonies will change
Melodies and harmonies will change

But I'm hearing a new song
I'm hearing a new song

I'm beginning to hear the angels cry holy
Love song of God, rise in me
I'm surrounded by You here in Your glory,
Love song of God rise in me

I wanna be romanced by the King of the ages
I don't want to sing of a passion I've never known
I want to get lost in the beauty of Jesus
To dance through the night around your throne

So dance with me
Dance with me

Whoa those words give me glorybumps all over again just reading through them. I wanna be romanced. I don't ever want to sing of a passion I've never known, what a joy to get lost in the beauty of Jesus, and to dance with Him. I just love the thought.

Let's dance!!

Eduardo...

This sweet little guy is my buddy Eduardo. Found this picture on another blog from this summer and copied and pasted it. Some of you have heard my Eduardo story but he stole my heart last summer as we were on the mountain where he lives. The family house had burned to the ground and so a TORCH team had gone up there to build them a new house. We didn't just build it, we painted it, we built bunk beds, it was awesome! In the midst of this my heart connected with Eduardo. It's so amazing to see how that happens there, you don't plan it, you didn't pick "one" out, but it's as if "one" finds you anyway. So Eduardo was mine. He held my hand the entire day. We sat on the dirt floor of this house and sang songs to one another. It was just an amazing day. As we were getting ready to leave and Terry told me we had to go everything in me wanted to stay. Eduardo walked me all the way down this very long lane holding my hand with a really sad look on his face. I hugged him when we got to the car and he wouldn't let go and with tears running down my cheeks I got in the vehicle thinking he'd turn away. He didn't, he climbed up on the running board along the side of the Rodeo and put his little face up against the window and was saying something through the window. I turned to my friend Jen to ask her what he was saying and with tears now streaming down her face she said, "He said when will you come back I'm going to miss you so much." WOW...one day to spend together and a heart touched for forever by a little boy's heart.

I share all this today to ask for your prayers. The village where Eduardo and his family live is getting extremely violent with various gang related crimes and just a lot of ick. Some of my very good friends have pretty much adopted this family and reference them as their Honduran family and while they were over there this summer made arrangments to move the mother and her three boys to a safer village if she would do it. She said that right now she doesn't want to move...it's all she's ever known and there are huge fears there that if she moves somewhere else she won't be able to continue to provide for her children and she is very involved with the church there and so all of the people she knows and loves are there. It's a difficult situation, but in the meantime her sons are growing rebellious and are getting into some things that could potentially be very very bad and so she's got a really tough decision to make. Her boys need out of there. It's possible that they could move to Santa Ana, the village where we will be living, and that would delight my heart. We are praying for whatever is best for them however.

I'm petitioning your prayers for this sweet family. The offer is there, she only needs to say yes. Pray that God will show her the dangers in saying no and will quiet her fears and allow her to trust Him to take care of her somewhere else.

In the meantime will you please pray that God will protect my sweet Eduardo's heart and that he would grow up to be a giant for Jesus regardless of what goes on around him. Thanks as always!!

My Heart is Touched...

I have been so touched by people that I don't even know well hearing about this childrens home or reading this blog somehow by some act of God and reading very inadequate words and allowing them to touch their hearts. The touching part isn't that they're reading or hearing but I'm touched that it hasn't stopped there...they're DOING!!

Like just today I heard from the sister of one of my very good friends who has started a shoe drive at their church called, "Share Your Soles." Is that cute or what???!!! All because she cared enough to read the blog while we were on the trip and saw the post from the day when I didn't have any adult shoes to give to this sweet woman who needed some, so she recognized a need and is allowing God to use her.

The Tupelo gang is going absolutely crazy with gathering childrens clothes for us to take. One of the gals from there called the other day and said hey you said you were gonna be there at Christmas time with them, do you have a tree and any decorations and I said no and she said, well I have one, I'm sending it with you those little girls need a tree. For the first time in their life they will have a Christmas tree. How fun is that??????

Some gals from here have offered to have a shower in honor of the "new" children we'll be having...not by birth but birthed through God's heart. And my gang have just been so supportive and encouraging as we walk this thing out.

I'm just touched by the way you are being God's hands right where you are. We often spend lots of time trying to figure out what to do and little time doing it. Not so here. You all are being do-ers and it is more fun than you know to watch you all get excited too! Thanks for that.

I've learned something through this. I don't have to wait for someone to tell me what they need. Sometimes I need to just recognize the need and do something. I see Jesus in all the different beautiful "something's" you are offering.

Have You Noticed...

Have you ever noticed that the people your heart feels most connected to are not the ones who pretend they have it all together but the ones who are willing to say so when they're falling apart?

Have you ever noticed that we still fight desperately to pretend we have it all together for each other? Myself included. Why is that?

It's like we create these self imposed prisons behind pretense and what we think other people want to see. All the while we know that what we prefer to see in someone else is the real deal.

God is laying this on my heart so strongly lately, through conversations with people I love, through witnessing some hard things and watching people fight their own fears to let go, through a whole bunch of things. I wanna be the real deal. I don't want to be a whiney brat but I wanna feel what I feel and be able to say so. I don't want to live out of what I feel, but I'm tired of pretending it's not or it shouldn't be.

Not only do I wanna be the real deal...I wanna be a safe place for those around me to be real as well. I wanna be able to hear the junk of life, the poor decisions, the mess ups, the sins and I want to pray with and for them. I don't want to be the shocked face as though I thought all our lives were as perfect as we made them out to be. I don't want to be the unprepared heart never ready to hear bad news that someone I love has made some poor choices. I want to recognize the world in which we live and I want to live with hands and a heart that help be a part of God's healing process. I want to be a safe place for the real deal.

I've heard it said that we teach people how to treat us. I think we also by our words and our actions teach people how to "be" around us. Will Jen's mouth run off about everything I tell her or can I trust her with the contents of my heart? Will she share her opinions and criticisms openly like hers is the most educated opinion out there or will she be humble enough to just sit and listen? Will she sit stoicly as though she has it all together or will she confess that not everything in her world has been and always is just right either? Can I trust her to sympathize and empathize with my tears? And I think what we're all dying to know is...Will she love me REGARDLESS?

I think it's easy to get frustrated with people's pretense including our own. I'm just wondering if we don't have a part to play in helping each other tear down the walls of what we've always known we were "supposed" to be. Wonder if it isn't a team effort to help one another be authentic before God and each other. Think we all get better when we approach our problems with a team mentality than a she or he ought to approach.

I think if we ever get this loving each other with His heart thing anywhere near right, the pretense will fly out the window and we'll not wait to be able to be honest and real with one another regardless of whether we're happy or sad or right in a muck pile of sin. We've got a job to do. Let's get busy loving each other like Jesus.

A Life With Purposed Steps

I was getting so bored with black text, time for a change for a post or two...

I picked up the Purpose Driven Life to read again as we are getting ready to move through the 40 days of Purpose starting in October and I wanted to refresh on some of the things I gained from reading that book. My book is highlighted and written all over, as I've read it a few times now. I don't have to read very many words in that book before I'm reminded of the importance of walking out purposed steps.

Rick Warren says that an average life span is 25,550 days if you're typical. So I sat down yesterday and thought ok so on my 28th birthday that meant I had spent how many of my days....10,220. Which leaves me a remaining balance of 15,330 days. Okay lots of numbers, this is what I realized.

I've spent 10,220 days of my life attempting to figure out what I was sent here by God to do. I didn't know for much of that time that I cared about what He had sent me here to do but by the time I did realize it, the answers didn't come instantly. So a little over a third of my life was spent finding a relationship with God and desiring to walk it out. It's sobering to realize how many days are past and to really reflect on the ways I chose to spend them.

Here's the beautiful part...I have almost 2/3 of my life left (assuming an average life span) to live the life out of every day. To walk with steps that are purposed to move towards His heart. I had a friend who used to say well Jen everyday we have a choice we either take a step toward Him or a step away we never stay right in the same place. I've come to realize that's true. Today I will either serve people or I'll serve myself. I've had to create some disciplined ways to MAKE myself serve others. For instance...I try to send one email a day encouraging someone in my world. Takes me only a few minutes and it reminds me that I'm not the center of the universe and teaches me to be a cheerleader in ways that matter. I've begun praying each morning ok Lord show me ways to serve You and others today in ways that my human eyes wouldn't see, I need your help. He has been faithful.

I'm just convinced that when we get the purpose of our being here lined up with His heart, we'll walk purposed steps and the world will notice that we look different. If you've spent any time with people who deeply understand their purpose and live like it you'll know what I mean. They look different, they stress out less in long lines and they look for people to love on, they don't complain so much because they trust God to make decisions that are for them not against them, they live above the junk life throws at us at moments. They have a peace that exudes to you just from being around them, they're joyful beyond what seems to be normal, they love deeply and for real. They look "different."

I don't know about you but I want the remaining number of my days to be purposed. To be purposed to love Him and others the way He would want me to, so that anyone taking even half a second to look would realize that I love Him so much it hurts sometimes and I'm gonna love them with His heart.

Encounter with God

Well it's Monday and I am again having reflective moments about worship yesterday morning. I love that when you know you've experienced God truly and purely and leftovers remain on Monday morning and hopefully far longer than that. I'm so mesmerized by this little group of people that are meeting in this rundown warehouse building and feeding homeless people and giving them clothes before worship on Sunday mornings. Then again maybe it's not the people I'm mesmerized with. Maybe it's their "religion" expressing itself in ways I think would absolutely make God smile. Better than that maybe it's that I don't sense "religion" there I sense the presence of God.

I cried my way through the service yesterday in this little place that looks like a coffee shop as I heard truth about it being a wake up time for the church. That the church was created to be radical. (Does that freak you out a little bit...I think it's okay to be freaked out by the call of Jesus on our lives sometimes) That it's time for repentance and time for us to be set apart and act like it. Then there was this beautiful time of calling the prodigals to come home. I watched two young gals move up to the front of this building with tears streaming down their faces running into God's wide open arms and I watched older gals come up and surround them, hold them and allow them to cry, who prayed into their ears. I saw the "church" be the church and when that happens something in my soul cries out loudly YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! It's like a moment when you want to take your shoes off because the ground for that instant is holy. Not the building, not those specific people, not the atmosphere, while those all play a part but it's that annointed moment where God shows up and takes over that creates a holy spot.

Felt this gentle hand on my back somewhere in the middle of all of that where God and I were having a "moment" and it was this older lady who had stood behind me the entire service and watched me wipe away tears every 5 seconds, I could not get it together. Anyway, she placed her hand on my back and I turned to her and she said in the most tenderhearted voice, "I need to hold you." Chances are good this sweet lady, I don't even know her name, had never met her before, and may never see again, will not know what that one short statement and the prayer in my ear that followed it meant to my heart but I have no doubt in my mind she was there to be Jesus' arms for this life. I felt Him there and I couldn't help but weep for all the times we do this "church" stuff so incredibly wrong. I felt myself apologizing to Him for being content with only a small part of what He had planned for the church. For all the times we walk through the doors and leave unchanged, for all the times we watch someone weep and take no responsibility and feel no burden for their pain, for all of the times we wonder what the prodigal has done instead of being ecstatic that they've come home, for all of those times we have played church dead on the inside of our hearts. Couldn't help but weep for our great big church buildings that sometimes do absolutely nothing to make a recovering drug addict, or an alcoholic, or a prostitute who's begging for love, or any of the other "outcasts" of our day feel welcome. You don't have to go to New York City to find those people and I wonder when the last time was that any of "those people" walked through our doors. As I walked up to the door of the building yesterday morning I met a man in grungy clothes who smelled unlike cologne, who looked rough to say the least, and this is what I heard him say as I said good morning..."Are you coming inside with us? You gonna be in here with us? You better get in here you're gonna be late." I got to respond to this man, yep I'm going in here with you, let's go. I got to walk through that door with a guy who by all appearances looked nothing like "church folk" and I can not tell you how good that felt. We entered in TOGETHER.

I have no doubt some of this is uncomfortable for some of you reading, and I'll be perfectly honest at moments it's uncomfortable in my heart. You might think I've lost my mind and perhaps I have. Haven't lost it, I've certainly given it away. It's been taken captive, and somewhere in the process of Christ taking it captive I feel Him urging me deeper to know Him more. In light of that I feel Him urging me to listen to Him above all else, to feel with His heart, to love with His hands, to look with His eyes. I feel myself wanting more than some fluffy easy light "church service" with people I love. Please don't get me wrong, I love the church where I attend and I am surrounded by people there that I adore. I'm just not sure that loving that place and loving those people is all God called us to. If I'm not being His hands and feet to the unhealthy hurting broken people in this world, right here in Parkersburg, I don't want to look him in the eyes and apologize anymore for sitting behind those doors with people who look and act and think like me. I'm not sure He believes that's good enough from everything I read.

I don't know what that means for me and I have no idea what that means for you. Perhaps nothing. I suppose you're reading raw thoughts after some moments with God yesterday that left me emotional and burdened. I don't know how to articulate all of that real well and you might have just read rambled thoughts that hit no one's heart but mine and that's ok. Sometimes I write these so I don't forget what God is doing through the journey. I don't ever want to forget how faithful He is to my life. This is another one of those times.

Be bold and live with a reckless abandonment for Him...whatever He shows that to mean for your life!

Books of the Bible at Mr. Bob's House

Woke up this morning and joy of all joys got to go to Mr. Bob's house for breakfast. You probably know him, Mr. Bob Evans. Not to mention the fact that I got to go with some of my favorite gals. They chose 9 am as the meeting time and it wasn't a chore to get up and go spend time with them and some eggs and sausage "down on the farm."

I'm pretty sure that was the cheesiest paragraph of a blog I've ever written so I'm done with that now. Here's the part I really wanted to hit. My friend Bobbie always shows up with gifts and today was no exception and it is such an expression of God's love always and she is a great moment maker. You could easily spend time with her and laugh till your sides hurt but she also has a cool depth and interest in people that always makes our time together special.

So we sat around a table this morning and the question to ponder was...if someone told you could only keep 5 books of the Bible which books would you choose and why? It was an interesting question and provided good discussion. I love spending time with people who take diligence not only to continue to move themselves closer to Christ but help move me there as well.

Would love to hear your thoughts...only 5 books what would they be and why? Feel free to comment or feel free to ponder alone. How awesome that we don't have to choose and have a complete letter of love from the God of the Universe.

All Things New

Just walked into a house I frequent often and it's been like made over today. New kitchen cabinets, new kitchen table, new sectional sofa downstairs, new bedroom suit, new lamp in the office, it's like NEW CENTRAL here today!!

Was sitting here thinking that it reminds me of the verse where it talks about the former things passing away and God making all things new. It's like I want him to put a new version of everything in this messy human heart. I just want to say ok God go ahead make yourself at home, refurnish it with all new things, and I will stand back someday and be so grateful for the way you've decorated my heart and this meager offering of a life.

New stuff is so fun, things looking different, changes being made. I walked in here today like a kid at Christmas just looking around at all the new treasures. Wonder if that isn't sometimes how God looks at our hearts. Wow, I could do this in that corner and change a few things around here and ... then when we've finally cooperated and surrendered and allowed Him access and something has indeed changed I wonder if He doesn't stand back with a grin and enjoy the treasure of the look and feel of new.

Come Lord, move in, redecorate, change the color scheme, make me over, make me new, until the only thing that shows is YOU!! Always only You!

It's Thursday...I LOVE Thursday's!!!!

I'm sitting this morning in one of my favorite places in all of this world...a little deck I've grown to love, nestled back into the woods where the sounds of the morning are just...well fun to listen to. Calming yes, peaceful sure, but the word that comes to my mind this morning is fun! God is so creative. I hear crickets all over this place and the birds are chirping in chorus and a few moments ago a baby deer took off over the hill. It is FUN to be a part of God's plan! I don't know how the bird feels about singing or the deer about leaping but I think today it's just FUN to be God's and to live out our purpose in Him!!

Sorry the blogging has been super sporadic. I took a little illness break. Had to have an appendectomy (word to the wise...do NOT let them tell you it's not really that big a deal...lies ALL lies!!) Anyway, things are going just fine now and I am on the road to recovery so hopefully for those of you who are checking this and reading the same ole boring blog everyday today is the day for changing that. Might still be boring, but won't be the same ole boring one. :)

Lots happening in my world with the development of Casa de Esperanza. We are about 50% of the way to our fundraising goal, which leaves us with $75,000 left to raise between now and December, so please keep that in your prayers if you would please. It will happen, I know God believes in this, He planned it, so my request is just that we will come before Him with prepared hearts ready to listen and live it out. The dirt work is done now on the property and we have purchased a van to cart the kiddo's around in. Oh just typing that makes me want to jump up and down. Kiddo's who today do not have a home and may not have eaten in days soon will not have to wrestle those giants ever again...PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am always so excited to get back over there once I am home, but I've got to be honest that feeling is coupled right now with being extremely grateful for the time I have left here with the people I love a whole bunch right here in my world.

Today is Thursday and Thursday's are always special days for me. I started meeting with a group of 9 other gals a couple years ago who have just become my hearts companions as we journey this walk with Jesus out. None of us knew the TREMENDOUS blessing it would become, or how much we would all grow by being a part of an accountability and prayer group. For the past year or so we've been going through Beth Moore's study's and we are right now working on Breaking Free. I would highly recommend it. Regardless of what study you might do let me just throw out a pitch for gathering some folks together that you really see chasing hard after holiness and spending consistent quality time together. Pick a night, invite some folks that you don't know well but whose walk with God is evident into your home and say some simple words like...we get really good sometimes at trying to live this holy life all by ourselves and I'm just at a place in my life where I could really use some consistent time seeking God's face with some other people. I asked you to come because I admire your walk with God and I know I could learn from it if you would allow me the honor. Choose your own words, the premise remains...God put us here to do life together. That's become one of my favorite phrases and comes up alot in our Thursday night conversation and prayers. "We're gonna do life together." I LOVE THAT!! I have a feeling that's exactly what Jesus had in mind and what Acts speaks of so much that we've lost sight of in our busyness and our hustle and bustle and our isolation for fear someone might found out we're not perfect. Do me a favor, if you read no other blog and get nothing else from anything I write...find you a small group of people that you can be honest with and pray with them and share heart with them. You will find the rewards are unbelievable.

Thanks to my Thursday gals for all you've done for me and all you've shown me in your relationships with Him. You are my safe place to sift and question and cry and laugh and praise and a thousand other things. I couldn't have hand picked better traveling companions. I love doing life together!!

Continue to be blessed and be a blessing!!

Of all the joys of this country, these precious faces and the smiles on them is by far my favorite!! Once again I am the blessed one to have spent some time in their presence!  

Back in the Saddle Again...

Hey gang...I apologize if you've been disappointingly checking this blog and finding no new posts here for several days. Took a little hospital adventure upon arriving home from Honduras, thought I was having an appendicitis attack and had surgery only to find out NOPE not the appendix. So am recovering now and will be back at this blogging thing again soon.

For today I'm pillowing my head so incredibly thankful that there are precious privileges in life that are joy beyond measure...one of those for me is being surrounded by sweet folks who are pursuing holiness. Spending a few days in a hospital bed and watching their sacrifices to love and encourage me has reminded me how much they look and act like Jesus. I am so blessed to live so near a remnant of Him on this earth!!