Photobooth

Just for fun, we did this at the mall today and I thought I would share.

promises, promises

Okay, I hate to not deliver on something I mentioned, but I'm just not going to get that next blog on community up this week. I've got it in the works, but it's not finished. With Mary's Blog Tour beginning next week and trying to find a better balance between my family and writing, I can't get to it.

Sorry for the delay. But I'll at least leave you with some fireworks.
Happy Friday!


Ooooooh!


Aaaaaaah!


Wooooow!


Oh, a big one! (As my daughter said)


Hooray!

Photos: Fireworks shot off by various neighbors of the family who hosted our church 4th of July party (2007)

A Few Things I've Been Up To...

I mentioned I was working on some shower invitations. Here's a look at how they turned out:




The sun came out today! The humidity was thick, but we ventured out to the zoo with a friend.


Are the monkeys on the inside or the outside?


Close encounter of the gorilla kind.


Yes, I let her lay on the ground to feed the bird (just long enough to take a picture!)

Happy Fourth of July!

Although this might have been a little white trash...



(Yes, that's a rain gutter attached to a smoker)



It sho' wuz some good eatin'!



Dessert was good; but it had nothin' on this sweet moment.

Who says you shouldn't eat spaghetti on a first date?

Photo: Twirling, shmirling; go for two hands! (2007)

Snapshots

About two years ago, the movie The Man (starring Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy) hit movie theaters with underwhelming success. True, it left much to be desired, and had I seen it in the theater I might have been disappointed I couldn’t get that money or time back. Admittedly, however, I found the interaction between over-talkative, naive fuddy-duddy salesman (Levy) and cool, but angry under-cover agent (Jackson) mildly amusing...even to the point of a few bursts of laughter out loud. One scene in particular remains lodged in my mind. Jackson commits some sort of questionable act or crime (I don’t remember) and tells Levy to get into the car. Before Levy gets into the car he looks at Jackson and slowly and deliberately blinks both eyes at the same time. Then he tells Jackson, “I’m taking a mental snapshot of you.”

I think about that scene periodically because sometimes I wish I could take real pictures I could keep forever from the perspective of my eyes. I don’t trust my brain to remember all of those shots in as clear details as my camera captures. Shots like my daughter as a baby sleeping peacefully on my shoulder. You could never get the camera angle and distance just right to see it from my perspective. Or when we look at each other nose to nose and she cups my face in her little hands.

So I do take those mental snapshots and do my best to remember them with the highest resolution possible. I thought of this scene again, as I walked around last week taking mental snapshots of my husband before he left on his trip.

Playing in the yard with my daughter. Snap.
Asleep in bed next to me, snoring ever so slightly. Snap.
Coming in the door from work. Snap.

I’ve never been nervous about him going anywhere - not even Africa. And I wasn’t about this trip, either, until a friend asked him (out of curiosity) if we had had a discussion about the “what if.” I don’t think I was naive in not having thought something could possibly go wrong. I certainly recognize it could. In my mind, though, I knew something could happen on his way to work just as easily (and probably more likely) as it could on this trip. Sure, Sudan isn’t the safest place in the world...but neither is New York City. And Sudan and Africa in general are not unknowns to me; I’ve been there. But the question planted a small seed of doubt in my mind, and for the first time I felt a little nervous.

At first, I didn’t even realize that I was taking those snapshots “in case.” I don’t really think anything dangerous is going to happen, but in the back of my mind is that seed of worry. I’m thankful that it’s there because it gives me a deeper understanding and connection with those (like our parents) who are openly anxious about his safety. My prayer is that he comes home healthy and safely, with many stories to tell about the exciting things he has witnessed God doing. Ultimately, though, my prayer is that God’s will is done through his going there, and that his sacrifice to go - however great it might be - will bring glory and honor to the One who sent him.

Weekend Without Words

Chip on her shoulder

Mount Hermon: More Photos

A few more photos to share, while I'm working on a wrap-up blog about the experience.

No conference is complete without it. Particularly when you're attending prayer and praise at 7:15am each morning. Llama Momma, this one's for you.

I'm guessing you've noticed by now that I like to take pictures of flowers...

This circle of trees created a natural chapel. Gorgeous.

A conferee. No, just kidding of course. He was our keynote speaker. Ha!

Okay, really there were people at the conference, not just flowers and wild animals. Me and my friend TJ. Is this the first picture I've ever posted of myself on here? (pondering whether or not to go through with posting it)

The party cabin: TJ, me, Jeanne, Leslie, Mary

Mount Hermon: Day Two - Service

The recurring theme for me today was service. My writing is a gift from God to serve in ministry. The outcome of my writing may or may not be a book. My service may be to write encouraging notes to people I encounter. But the point is, I am supposed to serve others with my written words. I don’t think this theme is completely revolutionary to me, but I constantly need to be reminded of my true and only purpose.

My day began lazily, with no real events until after lunch. I spent my time choosing my workshops, catching up with my friends (did I mention we’re in the “party cabin”?) and responding to some emails. After lunch, I rebelled and skipped orientation to take a walk and shoot some photos. I’ll include a few of my favorites at the end of this entry.

Kim Bangs, of Regal Books, facilitated my first workshop, entitled “Dream Big: Taking a Concept/Idea to Developed Writing Idea.” I loved her enthusiasm and encouragement, particularly as she reminded us not to apologize for our ideas. Her workshop started my recurring theme when she said “Your main reason for writing is to serve the God who gives us the gift to write.” She questioned whether or not the eleven brothers in the story of Joseph missed their destiny because they got hung up on Joseph’s destiny. This idea fit perfectly with the discussion I’m preparing on envy for women in my church. Sometimes we are so consumed by the gifts God bestowed on others that we fail to use the gifts He granted us to serve. So timely!

I questioned whether or not I would enjoy our keynote speaker, Dick Foth, because I did not know who he was. After listening to him tonight, I realized how wrong I was to doubt. He engaged the audience with his humor and stories, but delivered a powerful message about Jesus. Again, he emphasized the eternal impact our writing can have on others and our need to focus on that. He entitled his series “Writing in the Sand and Other Things Eternal.” In referencing John 8, where Jesus deals with the Pharisees and the adulteress they want to stone, Foth said that Jesus engaged people - for just a moment - and made an eternal impact. Like writing in the sand, our writing is a vapor. But the truth of what we write will be of eternal significance. What we write must point people to Jesus. He then explored the simplicity of Jesus. He noted that people often warn us not to take anything away from who Jesus is, but he felt we are more inclined to add things to Jesus. He gave a wonderful illustration using a bottle of water and a bottle of coke. Water is simple; it’s two hydrogen and one carbon. It is vital to our existence, and our body is largely made up of it. Coke contains water, but has an extremely complicated formula. We bathe in water, not in coke. We wash with water, not with Coke. Why? Because water is cleansing and Coke leaves behind a bunch of junk. If you go without water for more than five days, you can die. If you drink too much Coke, it can be toxic to our health. Jesus is the water, simple and yet life-giving, cleansing and vitally important. When we add things to Jesus, like we do to make Coke, we get a bunch of junk...and can even make Him toxic. Keep in mind, however, His simplicity is profound. Our total dependence on Him is the only way we will have an eternal impact on the hearts of others.

In the coming days, I hope to do three things with my blog: 1) share with you some of my main take-aways from the sessions (like I did above), 2) provide you with some interviews of people I meet here so you can get to know some of the awesome friends I’m making, and 3) if you’re a writer, encourage you in your writing and share any tidbits of information that might help you.

As promised, here are the pictures.

GHR: Who Is God - Christ is Sufficient

For me, the sufficiency of Christ was the most profound lesson I learned on our trip. Let me approach this from a couple angles.
1) As I mentioned in my last post , we expected to minister to the people we encountered. After all, we were from the United States. We own plenty; the Africans have little. I don’t think we realized the arrogance of our mindsets until we realized how little we did have to offer. For one, the needs are so overwhelming that we didn’t even know where to begin. Additionally, we found ourselves being served more than we were able to serve. Families sacrificed their only meat for the month, so we could have a meal that we didn’t need. Our hosts gave us chairs, while everyone else sat on the floor. Children serenaded us with songs prepared in advance for our arrival. It impacted all of us deeply. I was completely humbled by the fact that I had absolutely nothing to offer, although I thought I was going to be some sort of hero, serving them. All I had to offer was Christ, and He was sufficient.

2) We visited many Christian communities during our visit. One such group was a church comprised of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. They banded together as a community because their communities had rejected them. In East Africa, AIDS is a socially isolating disease, which is a major part of the problem. Several people shared their testimonies with us. They talked about the lack of access to proper medications, the lack of food to eat - not only so they wouldn’t be hungry, but so the drugs they were able to take didn’t make them sicker, the lack of clean water and the lack of love from their families and former communities. But I don’t believe they shared these problems with us to gain our pity. Their testimonies didn’t stop there. They talked of their love for God who watches over them, who cares for them when no one else had and who they can’t wait to see when they leave their earthly bodies. Then they sang praises...praises from the lips and hearts of people whose God is sufficient for them. As our group debriefed that evening we could barely talk about our experience. As I sit here and type this, I can hardly keep from becoming emotional all over again. From an earthly point of view, these people had no reason to be joyful, and yet their love, their joy and their hope was more profound than ANY place I have ever been. He alone is sufficient.

3) Lastly, the so-called title of this little blog series came from my lowest point during the entire trip. I lay on my bed in a grass hut in Sudan, and it was about half way through the trip. I saw and experienced so much in those first three weeks and the weight of it all began to press down on me. I cried out to God, “I can’t do this, Lord. I don’t know how in the world to love these people. They are nothing like me. I have nothing to offer them. I can’t live in a grass hut. I miss running water. I don’t like the bugs. I’m tired. I don’t know how to even make it through the rest of this trip.” And I recalled the verse in Philippians, chapter four. We often quote verse 13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me) as a sort of mantra that “we can do it”, but we pull it out of context. Verses 12-13 say, “...I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” What is Paul saying? Christ is sufficient. He is sufficient in any situation we are in, and His sufficiency is what gets us through.

I know this is a long post, but this lesson was monumental to me. I’ll leave you with a few pictures and words that I shared during our reports back to the churches who supported us. I’d love for you to comment on how you have found Christ to be sufficient for you.


Where we expected to find despair...we found HOPE.



Where we found death and sorrow, we also found LIFE and JOY.



Where we found the fatherless, we found the FATHER.


We found that we are inadequate. We have nothing to offer ourselves, but Christ is SUFFICIENT. Philippians 4:12-13

Photo: Church service at AIDS church, Rwanda (2004); Congregation at AIDS church, Rwanda (2004); Genocide Memorial, Kigali, Rwanda (2004); Coffins holding at least 10 people each from genocide, Kigali, Rwanda (2004); Street children, Rwanda (2004); Sudanese orphanage, Sudan (2004); Family watching, Rwanda (2004)

Rocks

It looks like we’re trying to create an elaborate canal system in our backyard, but really, we’re just having our sprinkler system retrofitted to our new landscaping plan. Originally, we thought we might try to do it ourselves. We later came to our senses, as we decided it was better to be sure the sprinkler system worked correctly and that it was worth it to pay someone who did this all the time. Boy were we right! Just watching the guys maneuver around the yard with the ditch witch makes me grateful we didn’t try.

But what is most amazing to me is the amount of rock they unearth (and it's not like they are digging more than 12 inches down). I knew quite a bit of rock lay just beneath the surface based upon my personal experience digging up our front beds. But holy cow! We’re on a stinkin’ quarry. My mom suggested lining our beds with them. I thought it was a cool idea, but was sure we’d never have enough to make it all the way around. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I think we have enough rock to build a retaining wall or a whole new addition onto our house. Okay, okay, I exaggerate...but only a little. Check out the pictures and see what I mean.


For size comparison, look at our 75 lb lab next to the tub.


Between these two buckets, we collected most of the obvious rocks from about 1/4 of our yard.


This is one of the largest rocks we found so far. Use the bricks for size comparison.


Now if I were LL or Charity, I could probably come up with some deeper application to my life and spit it out here:______________. But since I’m not, all you get is a quirky story and some pictures of rocks. Happy Friday!

Spring has Sprung

Words tomorrow, but today I leave you with a view of Spring.



This bud fell off the bush and landed on the ground exactly as you see it.



This is a beautiful tulip tree next door to my parents' home.



Another shot of the tulip tree.



A lone daffodil in my mother in law's backyard.



Redbud in bloom.



Tulips are beginning to bloom.



Some hyacinth peeping out from under a LOT of mulch.

66 hours, 205 pages

Scrapbooking has dominated my life during the past 16 days. This project began over two years ago when one of my best friends and I decided to explore starting a business together. My friend’s aunt volunteered to be our first customer. Neither my friend nor I had ever really scrapbooked before, so we gave her a good deal (probably too good of a deal) on her albums so we could learn. We began with a box full of unorganized pictures, dating back about 20 years or so. Since that first box of pictures, my friend moved to California, M arrived and I picked up a couple more boxes worth of pictures from the aunt to do by myself. I’ve struggled doing this last box because I find so many other things that need to be done in my spare time. Well, that, and I miss cropping with a friend; it’s not nearly as fun by myself.

I’m also just tired of doing it. What has been most frustrating is that for many of the pictures, the aunt does not remember when or where they were taken. I spend most of my creative energy trying to figure out what is going on in the picture and how to describe it. Essentially, I make up the stories behind the pictures by observing details like the date, the activity, signs in the background, nametags, etc. It feels odd to be paid to create someone else’s memories…literally. It’s not so much that I’m putting the scrapbook together for her; it’s that I invent so much of the journaling and comments on each page (which is also why there is not much). I put myself in those pictures and imagine what I would have been thinking or doing, and I incorporate it into the page as if it is their memories. And the weirder part is that I don’t think it’s strange to her.


Originally, this project was fun because I was doing it with my friend, and it provided a creative outlet for me. After a while, however, I ran out of creativity and was just doing it to get it done. It is a relief to finally have it off my plate.


And believe it or not, I’m looking forward to catching up on my own scrapbooks.

Photos: Scrapbook pages, 2007