Kristen and Tyler on a Mission

Just an update.. I talked to Kristen and Tyler last night They are planning to go to Mississippi Nov11 to Nov13 to help with victims of hurricane Katrina They are excited to be going They have asked that you be praying for them They are definitely lights shining for God

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put iton it's stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."Matthew 5:14-16

My verse for today

"Be still and know that I am God " Psalm 46:10

"I became a Christian because I met God"

Last night I attended a amall group "Third Place" It was started to reach the 18-30 age group I'm not in that age group physically but I am spiritually :) This group is like a family It was definitely a breath of fresh air What I really liked is that what was taught was pure scripture They studied the conversion of Paul When I read the following interview with Erwin McManus it reminded me of why Paul became a Christian... he met God.

RELEVANT Magazine: What are some of your thoughts on your most recent book The Barbarian Way?

Erwin McManus: The Barbarian Way was, in some sense, trying to create a volatile fuel to get people to step out and act. It’s pretty hard to get a whole group of people moving together as individuals who are stepping into a more mystical, faith-oriented, dynamic kind of experience with Christ. So, I think Barbarian Way was my attempt to say, “Look, underneath what looks like invention, innovation and creativity is really a core mysticism that hears from God, and what is fueling this is something really ancient.” That’s what was really the core of The Barbarian Way.

My next book deals with the intrinsic evidences of God, which is something I’ve been dealing with since the moment I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I kept thinking to myself, it seems that contemporary Christianity doesn’t really get it: a person isn’t brought to Jesus through the weight of evidence. God has leveraged the human spirit to move in His direction, and all the material we need to bring a person to the realization that they were created by God actually already exists inside that person.

RM: When did you start thinking differently about church and the individual?

EM: Well, for one thing, I didn’t grow up churched. I was a good solid pagan. So, I didn’t have to rethink my Christianity. But ... when I came to Christ, it seemed to me that a lot of Christians were out of touch with reality. There would be all these beliefs that were stated as if they were objective realities that no one could argue with, and I’m looking at it going, "You’ve got to be kidding me."


Seminary, if anything, didn’t cause me to move in this new direction. I didn’t find seminary to be the positive training environment that other people talk about; I found a few professors who were extraordinary, and I’m really grateful to them, and they had a huge impact on my life. But overall, the constructs that I learned in seminary are not only irrelevant to ministry, but they’re irrelevant to reality.

RM: You once said, "The Gospel needs to be an underground movement. It needs to read like an independent film." I really connect with this statement. Could you elaborate on this idea?

EM: I think that’s a part of what motivates me in my teaching and writing. Once the Gospel feels mainstream and becomes a nicely organized, orchestrated belief system, frankly, I don’t think there is even an attraction to the human spirit. I live in L.A., and if you want to impress the movie industry, you make a blockbuster movie that makes $200 million. If you want to reach the artist, you create a story that speaks to the human spirit.

Unfortunately, I think the Gospel in America is like a blockbuster, $200 million, Star Wars kind of thing. The irony is that Star Wars has made more than $360 million so far, but I don’t know how many people would say it’s a truly great story. For a lot of us, people are running into our megachurches, and we’re building these massive buildings and we say, “Look! The Gospel’s a hit!” What we’re not realizing is that yes, people are going to see the blockbuster, but they’re not really buying the story.

RM: How do you think we arrived at this “blockbuster” style of the Gospel and megachurches?

EM: Well, I have less concern about the megachurch and more concern for the media church—how Christianity is depicted and expressed through television and radio, mostly television. I think in the '80s, Christianity just decided, "Hey, we have enough people to shape American history and shape America’s future through political means" rather than through the spread of the Gospel. That’s where I think we became the blockbuster, when we became the moral majority and we began to leverage things more politically than we did spiritually. I don’t know if we’ve actually recovered from shifting from a spiritual voice in culture to a "moral voice" in culture. I know it sounds crazy, but as soon as Christians start telling non-Christians how to live their lives, we’ve lost the Christian faith.

RM: Has this made people resistant to the Gospel?

EM: No, what you don’t want to assume is that people don’t want guidance. In a recent series, I just dealt with abuse of power, defiance, lust, violence and hatred. I’ve been dealing with really hard-core subjects, as intrusive as possible. The difference is that I’m saying, "Look, you can lead any kind of life you want to, but this is where this kind of life and these kind of choices will take you.”

What I'm trying to get across [at Mosaic] is, “This is what God is saying about who you are, how God has created the cosmos and how life is to be lived out.” It’s very practical. Ironically, we probably talk more about the character of God than most congregations. We connect everything. Whether it’s homosexuality, lying, stealing—we connect everything to the character of God in that human beings were created to reflect the character of God. We function in the most healthy, powerful and vibrant way when we reflect the character of God.

It’s hard to image, but the heart of God is liberty and freedom for the human spirit. We [Mosaic] are deeply and unashamedly mystical. We’re really about connecting on a deeply mystical level with the Creator of the universe. Seeing the invisible, hearing the inaudible and living a life that cannot be explained. I love that because I didn’t become a Christian because I thought, “Oh now I can pass the God test when I get to heaven.” I became a Christian because I met God. RM: How do we begin to move toward living a life that reflects God’s character? What are some practical ways?

EM: There are no practical ways. It’s all about love. I know that there are disciplines and all that, but if you’ve got to be a highly disciplined person to get this thing … man, I’m going to hell ... (laughs)

To me, it's all about love. I don’t know my wife Kim because I sat down and interviewed her. I’ve come to know Kim in the context of pain, sorrow, joy and laughter—it comes in the experience of relationship and love. That’s how I know my wife, that’s how I know my kids.

Knowing God, knowing His heart, knowing His character is really about falling passionately in love with God and experiencing His love. Of course, there are dynamics to that: the Scriptures are essential. God speaks through the cosmos, God speaks through creation, God speaks through human experience and conscience, God speaks through everything, yes—but I do see the Scriptures as the primary access, a portal into God’s presence. I began to have a clear sense of God’s voice in my life through reading the Scriptures and hearing God’s voice through the Scriptures. RM: You've said in the past that "Scripture is God through the improvisation of people’s lives."

EM: Well, I build my life not on the Word of God, but the voice of God. The Scriptures are to me the instrument that God has placed in history for me to learn the voice of God. I treasure the Scriptures.
RM: Like a jazz musician, you have to master the technical side of playing your instrument—reading the Scriptures, so to speak. However, you can’t stay in the practice room for too long. Eventually, you have to apply your skills, play a gig or go to a jam session. Does that make sense?

EM: Absolutely, and I think you can take that one step further. To know how to build the flute is not to know how to play it.

Unfortunately, I think seminaries teach us how the drum is built, how to take it apart and rebuild it; but how to play it, how to hear it, how to learn meter and rhythm ... that sometimes seems like a lost art.

In the modern world a great preacher was a person who could teach you the information of the Bible. Now people want to know, has that book taken you anywhere where you’ve met and experienced God? It’s different. It’s really sharing your life through the Scriptures that becomes a part of what people hunger for—and people do hunger for it.

RM: The only reason I learned how to play jazz music is because one of my teachers actually took me to experience it live in a smoky jazz club. After that, I was hungry to learn more and practice.

EM:That’s exactly the point. People are coming, and they learn how to hear from God and how to access the Scriptures by being in that—if you could say that—in that smoky room. It’s a great analogy. That’s the way I learned how to water-ski. They tried to teach me how by putting me in the back of a boat, and I almost drowned. I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying while drinking water at 50 mph. Then I worked SeaWorld—at the ski show—selling Coke, and every day I watched these professional skiers. The next time I tried it—two months later—I could slalom, simply from watching them all summer long. I somehow learned the rhythms and movements of what was going on, and I absorbed it into my being more than I even knew.

Taking time to see a flower

"Nobody sees a flower---really--it is so small it takes time----we haven't time-- and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time." Georgia O'Keeffe

How much time do you spend really looking at a flower in detail.. more important how much time are you investing in your friends Friends can be like those flowers if you don't take the time you miss the details-- and they can fade and die just like the flower

Cure for Diabetes

Every year at about this time we do a walk for Juvenile Diabetes As a diabetes educator I see a big majority of Type 2 (some call it Adult onset) diabetes This walk is for Type 1 These are the babies,children,teenagers and young adults They make no insulin They have to take insulin injections for the rest of their life to survive whether it's through a needle or an insulin pump I usually see the adults who have suffered the complications from living with type 1 for years so it's always nice to see the kids who come to the walk I love to see the family teams who walk They come up with the most creative designs for t-shirts ie the NIKE sign with "Just cure it" We met one little girl today who was probably around 4 who suffers from seizures related to her diabetes and she has a service dog who is able to detect by smell the chemical change in her when she's about to have a seizure There are studies being done with the money raised at these walks to try and figure out how to prevent the destruction of the beta cells (The person's immune system destroys it's own beta cells ) If you would like more info in how to become involved or want to read about the research being done go to the JDRF website

Where do you see God?

I'm reading a book called "God is Closer Than You Think" by John Ortberg I like his writing because he uses actual stories and humor to make his points In the chapter I'm reading now he talks about going over to Honduras on a missions trip and his daughter washing the hair of small children After she washed their hair she would search through their hair and pull the lice out "It's hard to withold love from someone, to be prejudiced against them or cling to resentments or pass judgment, when you're washing hair and pulling out lice."

"Jesus frequently chose the humble,poor,rejected, and despised. They are often the dwelling place of God---in them,we may meet God."

I think alot of times we're looking for God in a sunset,a mountain, a forest when actually he's standing right in front of you in line at Walmart

"They like Jesus but Not the Church"

Dan Kimball interviewed "twentysomethings" for his new book coming out "They like Jesus but Not the Church" These are people who have dropped out of the church or want nothing to do with the church He made a list of their reasons

The Church is an “Organized Religion” with a political agenda
The Church is Judgmental and Negative
The Church is Male Dominated and Female Oppressive
The Church is Homophobic
The Church Thinks They Have the Exclusive Way to God (and everyone else is wrong)
The Church takes the Bible too literally and are “Fundamentalists”


The Church has alot of repair work to do to change the perception of this "twentysomething" generation

Carb Addict

As I've been helping my friend with gestational diabetes limit her carb amts I have been more conscious of just what a carb addict I am It hit home yesterday when I did a fast
My friend has been absolutely awesome through all of this even when we told her she now has to take insulin injections She is very disciplined and I know alot of it is her concern for her beautiful baby girl
My hardest time is the evening I am addicted to Wonka gobstoppers,Mike and Ike's and oyster crackers :) and always have at least one of these in the house I need to do a better job at practicing what I preach :)

God wakes us up

"But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." —C.S. Lewis

"Welcome to the Pit"

At the women's ministry kickoff yesterday we had a speaker who talked about "being in the pit" We all have our times there Some of us bulldoze and dig our own,some of us are walking along and fall right in Sometimes we lead others to the edge of our pit and push them in Sometimes we get comfortable in that pit..move in and decorate.
I think I've had all of those experiences at one time or another I've definitely dug my own pit many times and some of the hardest times are when I've been walking along and fell right in ..the most recent being my breast cancer experience I always have to be careful that I don't "move in" It's not a pleasant place but God always seems to get me out and I'm stronger in my faith after being there You have to remember that his arms are always long enough to reach in ,no matter how deep,and pull you out

If you live in Springboro and read this make sure you go check out "The garage", the new community center for teens. We had our Sun night worship for the kids there I hadn't been in there since the early stages of renovation I couldn't believe the change ..what a cool place for kids to hang out If you're an adult you can't hang out there but you can check it out and check out the coffee shop :)

Couch Potato record

I think I could get Zach to break this record if you can count Playstation :)

Suresh Joachim has earned himself the title Couch Potato World Champion. He broke the Guinness world record today—for the longest time spent watching TV—after spending 69 hours and 48 minutes in front of the tube …

Making it through pain

It's not easy to hurt whether it's physically,emotionally,spiritually. Sometimes that pain is for the best in the big picture ie surgery to repair what's broken,confronting a loved one with destructive behavior,or even obeying the will of God He never promised it would be pain free...but he does provide the comfort you need until you get where you need to be There is always light at the end of the darkness and sometimes you need to be that light for someone else's darkness

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be" C.S.Lewis

Late night conversation

Last night I had trouble sleeping Maybe it was the coffee I drank at 9PM or that I've been having shoulder pain...anyway I got up about 12:45 and there was Kristen :)
She doesn't have Friday classes I had gone to Zach's open house earlier so that had stirred up some memories We talked about a variety of things roomate issues,teaching observation,churches,possibly going to Louisiana or Mississippi for service
It's the nice thing about IM...you can have some of those 1 on 1 conversations anytime no matter how far you are It still doesn't take the place of the real thing though

I'm probably going to be a zombie at my diabetes conference at Wright State today but it was worth it :)

Keep Kristen and Tyler in prayer as they decide whether they're being called to help in the hurricane disaster areas

One person can make a difference in a life

I know some people who read this are going to think this is sappy but it's a true story and I think it shows the impact the love and support one person can have
If you're female you might need a kleenex



As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of
> school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she
> looked
> at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However,
> that
> was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat,
> was
> a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
>
>
> Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he
> did
> not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and
> that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be
> unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually
> take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold
> X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
>
>
> At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review
> each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However,
> when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.
>
>
> Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a
> ready
> laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to
> be
> around.."
>
>
> His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well
> liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a
> terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."
>
>
> His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on
> him.
> He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest,
> and
> his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."
>
>
> Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't
> show
> much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he
> sometimes
> sleeps in class."
>
>
> By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of
> herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas
> presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for
> Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper
> that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it
> in
> the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to
> laugh
> when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing,
> and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. But she stifled
> the
> children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was,
> putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy
> Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs.
> Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."
>
>
> After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very
> day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she
> began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to
> Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The
> more
> she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year,
> Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and,
> despite
> her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became
> one
> of her "teacher's pets.."
>
>
> A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her
> that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
>
>
> Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then
> wrote
> that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was
> still
> the best teacher he ever had in life.
>
>
> Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while
> things
> had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and
> would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He
> assured
> Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had
> ever had in his whole life.
>
>
> Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he
> explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a
> little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and
> favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer....
> The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.
>
>
> The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that
> spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married.
> He
> explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was
> wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the
> place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of
> course,
> Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one
> with
> several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing
> the
> perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last
> Christmas
> together.
>
>
> They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's
> ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much
> for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a
> difference."
>
>
> Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said,
> "Teddy,
> you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could
> make
> a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."
>
>
> (For you that don't know, Teddy Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist
> in
> Des Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.)
>
>

"God of the InBetweens"

I'm still making my way through Michael Yaconelli articles This is inspired by one of his favorite books "A Testament of Devotion" by Thomas Kelly (I found it for 4.95 on Amazon :)


Living passively is seeing God in the inbetweens of life.
Beginnings and endings. Starts and finishes. Those are the parts of life that grab my attention. But the passive life is the life of inbetweens, life in the middle. "God," the passive life says, "is found in the everydayness of life, in the middle of life. God is sneaking around in the ordinariness of each day, longing to be noticed, longing to be discovered. It is tragic that much of my life I have looked for God in the momentous, and instead He’s been waiting in the moment."

The passive life liberates us from a God of decisions to a God who is between decisions. No wonder my relationship with God is stunted! I have spend most of my life looking for God instead of being with God.

Living passively is embracing God in the "allness" of life.

Mystics always talk about God in strange ways. They talk about living into the mystery. They talk about embracing one’s brokenness, embracing one’s pain. Strange words for someone who has lived so long seeing God as the way out of pain, seeing God as the way to fix brokenness. It is strange to find God in the brokenness, in the pain, in the "allness of life," and to meet God there, converse with God there, rest with God there in the restlessness of the unresolved. To discover the sweet strangeness of a relationship with God is the unexpected reward of a passive life.

I cannot say I am living passively, but I can say I have stood on the precipice of it for moments at a time...and it has been exhilarating. It has been a breathtaking look at the adventure of intimacy with God.

What did you say ?

I love my pink mini ipod so I was sad when I read this


With the ever-growing popularity of portable music players and the continual use of cell phones, researchers are finding a disturbing trend—noice-induced hearing loss. In other words, iPod is not your best friend ...9/12/05

Faith

One of my favorite books of all times is a book called "Messy Spirituality" by Michael Yaconelli I will pull that book out and read certain chapters It "fills me up" when I go through a dry spell spiritually He also wrote several articles which are posted on the Youth Specialties website The following quote is from his article "Annoying Faith"



Why does faith seem so life-changing in other people’s lives and so inconsequential in our own? Why does the healing power of faith seem so potent in theory and impotent in reality? Why does faith seem to make such a difference in testimonies and books and so little difference in the real relationships of my life?

I have begun to understand the answer to those questions. I am starting to realize that I have not expected my faith to make a difference in my relationships, I have expected my faith to make my relationships easy. I haven’t wanted my faith to make me face the issues in my life, I have wanted my faith to help me avoid the issues. I didn’t ask my faith to give me the courage to do what needed to be done, I asked my faith to do what needed to be done for me. I wasn’t asking for courage to do the difficult, I asked, instead, for the removal of the difficult. I didn’t want my faith to make a difference, I wanted it to remove the need for a faith that made a difference. I didn’t want my faith to give me clarity in the midst of a difficult situation, I wanted my friend’s faith to give him the clarity he needed to quit making the situation difficult for me. I didn’t want everything to work together for good, I wanted everything to be fixed. I wanted faith to change everything but me. I wanted faith to change my circumstances quickly, without any discomfort or pain.

I am beginning to understand that faith is not the way around pain, it is the way through pain. Faith doesn’t get rid of the opposition, it invites it over for dinner. Faith doesn’t give you the winning point at the last second, it ties the game and sends you into overtime. Faith doesn’t give you the solution, it forces you to find it. Faith doesn’t teach you at the moment, it teaches in retrospect. Faith doesn’t provide a net to fall into when your fingers are about to give way as you hang suspended over the cliff, faith gives your fingers the strength to hang on just a little longer.

In other words, faith doesn’t do anything when it’s doing something. Faith doesn’t change anything when it’s changing things. Faith doesn’t make a difference when it’s making a difference. Faith makes itself known in life’s difficulties by making the difficult more difficult. Faith doesn’t comfort, it discomforts by forcing us to recognize its unwelcome presence. It is a nuisance, really, an interruption when we don’t want to be interrupted. It gets in our faces and reminds us that it is not irrelevant, even though it seems irrelevant. Faith is the annoying recognition that demands us to take our relationship with Christ seriously, when taking it seriously doesn’t seem to matter. It is God shouting to us in our circumstance, "Faith in Me does matter; you figure out how!" It is the persistent, nagging presence that feels like an absence.

It doesn't pay to skip breakfast

Kristen this is for you :)


According to recent research findings, girls who eat breakfast in the mornings are significantly slimmer than girls who don't. In other news, grocery chains across the nation are reporting a cereal shortage ...

We need to learn to play again

I went to a presentation this morning on "Metabolic Syndrome" and the benefits of exercise The girl who did the exercise portion talked about learning how to "play" again and she based it on this quote which I really liked


"Without PLAY-
without that child still alive
in all of us-
we will always be incomplete.
And not only physically,but
creatively, intellectually, and
spiritually as well."

George Sheehan

Baseball ,apple pie, and Chevrolet

Just another reason to buy a Chevrolet :)

Due to a faulty wiring problem that has reportedly caused more than 1,000 engine fires in their SUVs and trucks, Ford Motor Co. announced the fifth-largest vehicle recall in U.S. history ...9/8/05 | 8:33 AM

Feel with your heart..not always with your head

I love to talk to my patients about things besides their diabetes I like to find out who they are,how they think,and I love to watch their interactions with family
There have been many times when I will read the history/physical before I go into the room and have a preconceived idea of someone based on what a physician has written....I'm learning not to do that as much because what I find is that more times than not ..I see people differently. There is much more to the story than they have written.... noncompliance has reasons..financial,fear,self-esteem,depression,etc
This has been my experience this week
I overheard staff talking about a patient who "needs to be in a nursing home" and how unrealistic the wife is As I walked down the hall I saw the couple they were talking about They had to be in their late 80's ..he was in a wheelchair barely moving his feet to make it go and his wife had her face right next to his motivating and encouraging him to go a little further What they didn't see were the obvious years of love and dedication they had for each other. I think if they were separated they would die from broken hearts
Sometimes it's easy to look at things from your lifestyle,your experience, your beliefs,..sometimes you need to take yourself out of situations and look at it through the eyes of Christ and heart knowledge not head knowledge

Labor Day

I spent a nice quiet Labor Day at home Labor Day was always a big deal when I was growing up in Kettering because of the Holiday at Home events, parade,bike race,arts and crafts festival,cookouts and then fireworks We always took our kids to the parade until they got in their teens Now it's just a quiet day Zach and I vegged Darrell labored on the outside of the house ...he's trying to get it ready to paint
We spent the evening playing putt putt It's always fun with Zach because he's so competitive :) I was ahead until the very end and I choked on the last hole so Darrell beat me by 1 stroke We found a really nice place called "Southwest Golf Ranch" just outside of Lebanon in Mason on 42 to play Much better and more challenging than Adventure Golf We missed Kristen There was a little girl there who reminded us of her because she was crying about playing Kristen hates putt putt She would never finish playing :) She always wanted to be done playing so we could actually do something "fun" I did get to talk to her on line and on the phone while she was doing her laundry They actually had classes yesterday She's still having a great time and loving college life I can't wait to see her in Oct :).....and Tyler :) ( I miss your impressions Tyler)

Questioning why?

I know I have alot of questions in my own life Why things happen the way they do
Watching the different news reports on the New Orleans and Mississippi area, I know they have questions...some of those questions may never have answers ..at least right now
What I do know is that I still have confidence and faith that God is good God isn't evil He doesn't "punish" innocent people You see so many news reports about the bad, what went wrong,who didn't respond,who's fault it is

"Anyone who wants to be the first must take the last place and be the servant of everyone else " Mark 9:35

There are good people in this situation People who are reaching out People who take to heart what it means to be "last" and are servants People who don't need recognition..they just want to help in a horrible and desparate situation ..and God is there..there are "lights" in the darkness

"He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will save them from oppression and from violence, for their lives are precious to him." Psalm 72:12-14

A different view on "mission"

"Some people actually believe that God is absent from a place until they get there. The problem with this idea is that if God is not there before you get there,then there is no "there" in the first place.

"So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative,life-giving God who is already present in their midst."

Rob Bell

Just something to think about :)

Kristen changes her major

After much prayer and stress ,Kristen has changed her major to elementary education
Although she loves music, I think she realized that she loves the singing but not the theory She loves the heart not the technical aspect She is still able to sing in the choirs and really that's what she wanted I'm glad she realized it early in her college years I've always thought she would make a good teacher She loves kids and she relates well to them
Please continue to pray for her as she continues in this journey of her life