Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Fall is In the Air

Before I left for NMSI's Triennial retreat, I had the opportunity to usher in the new season with my friend Brooke from school. We were missing the pumpkin patch and how we used to take our kids to Eckert's to pick pumpkins on field trips in October back in our kindergarten teaching days, so we decided to go to Eckert's and pick apples together. It was a beautiful day! There were all kinds of rides and stores at the Eckert's location we visited---we had a blast! Here are a few highlights: We saw a "wallaroo," which has a pretty cool name and is a cross between a wallaby and a kangaroo.

I tried to get Brooke to have a tricycle race with me....it was harder than it looks!

And we picked some delicious apples! Brooke had never been apple picking before and ended up taking some apples to share with her third grade students. I made mine into apple sauce in the crockpot. Yum!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

God Does Not Waste Time

I'm currently at 42% of my fundraising goal, meaning that God has raised 42% of the monthly donations necessary for me to return to the NMSI office in Florida and begin working in the Publications Department. Even though 42% is a HUGE amount, sometimes I wish the fundraising process was going more quickly. This is a time of learning about patience and trust!

I'm doing a Beth Moore bible study called Believing God with my friend Rachel right now, and something that Beth wrote about this week gave me a new perspective on the patience that I sometimes lack in fundraising. Beth writes, "Would it help to know that Christ also experienced the test of time? He didn't perform his first miracle until He was 30 years old. If we didn't know better, we might think God was running a little late, considering Jesus had only three years remaining in His earthy ministry. Nope. He was right on time....God created time and never wastes it." I think a lot more about those last three years of Jesus' life than those first 30 that led up to those last amazing three. Those first thirty took a lot of patience and trust in the Father, too.

Pray that I would trust God to lead me into full time missions ministry in his perfect timing, whether the funds are there at the end of October, end of January, whenever... I really like how Beth pointed out that God's never late and he never wastes time. Pray that God would continue to reveal his purposes for this time in St. Louis and that I would be a willing, patient, trusting learner!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Where Are You? Why Does It Hurt?

In No Place to Cry Doris Van Stone suggests that, “God allows us to be wounded only that he might heal us.” Van Stone’s statement reminds me of an analogy I read about in college---that God hides himself from us (like when playing hide and seek) in anticipation of the joy of reunion. If you try to play hide and seek and no one hides, then there is no joy of finding anyone, no thrill, no adrenaline, no anticipation, no mystery... Furthermore, as the hide and seek analogy went, sometimes God says, in effect, “Hey, look over here!” or waves his arm at us from behind the couch where he hides to make it more likely that we will find him. His goal is not to stay hidden; his goal is joyful reunion and even deeper relationship with us. Sometimes I think about the hide and seek analogy when I feel far away from God---it helps to remember that he wants me to find him and that he’s busy giving me clues about how to do that, even as he is hidden.

God hiding his face from us or distancing himself from us is something that is really hard to understand, much like Van Stone’s discussion of pain. It’s really hard to understand why God allows pain because we can’t see how something that hurts could possibly be good for us (even if it does result in lots of spiritual growth). Van Stone goes on to ask, “Do I have scars? Of course. [She was abused a lot growing up.] But there is something beautiful about a scar. It means that you have been healed—that you are on the mend.” I’ve never thought of “scars” or “evidence of pain” in that way. If we didn’t know pain, we wouldn’t know God as the Healer. His goal is not to bring us pain; his goal is healing, even deeper relationship with us, and even deeper ability to connect with others when they hurt.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Winding Up in Wisconsin

This weekend I went to visit my roommate from the COAT Program this summer, Melissa. After a few weeks of support raising, we started calling each other on Wednesday nights to provide some accountability and to pray with each other. That has been so encouraging! I really love this optimistic, faith-filled girl! It's really nice to talk to someone else who "gets" the challenges associated with the support raising process and is going through it right now as well. Thankfully I had a chance to see her in person (she gives really good hugs!) before she moves to Rwanda at the end of October.

As long as I'm making shameless plugs for people...you can visit the NMSI website www.nmsi.org/donate and click on "Melissa Schuettpelz" if you want to bless her with a financial donation. Or visit http://www.solacem.org/ to learn all that Solace Ministries is doing to comfort those who have been affected by the mass genocide that occurred in 1994. Solace is the ministry that Melissa will be working with once she moves to Rwanda.
On the way to Wisconsin I picked up Henry, another Summer COAT Program graduate as well as Melissa's boyfriend. There were definatly some laughing times during the weekend---mostly while driving in cars and taking silly pictures. Some of my favorite silly pictures were taken during a walk to a light house on Lake Michigan.

Later we visited the Jelly Belly Factory and got a few free samples (small, but free). I knew that I really liked watermelon flavored Jelly Bellies and blueberry flavored Jelly Bellies, but I wasn't sure what the red Jelly Belly that I liked was called----I discovered that it was raspberry! I'm a fan of the fruity flavors!

Henry was a real big fan of the hats (wink, wink!)---that's why he ended up taking the picture instead of being in it.
Lastly, we took some pictures for Derek and Ashley who were planning on making the trip with us, but weren't able to. (They're the ones on the laptop). We were pretty sad they couldn't come with us, but I got to hang out with them a little on the way home and they really appreciated the bag of Belly Flops we gave them (Jelly Bellies that were too big, too small, stuck together etc.) and the laptop pictures. Below is our interpretation of the funny face Derek is making in the picture on the laptop. I met some really great people this summer!!!!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Keeping in Touch With Teachers

About fifteen people stopped by to say "hi" at the Pattonville Fundraiser this week. What a blessing to reconnect with old friends! The ladies in the office beat out all the other grade levels in attendance and smiling frequency by a long shot! God bless the secretaries! After a day of hard work, they enjoyed some tasty snacks, the most popular of which were bottled water and apple slices with caramel dip. Yum!


It was also really fun to see my friend Brooke (and former kindergarten teaching buddy)! She's now teaching third grade and facing the pressure of MAP testing, though I'm sure she'll prepare her students well. Not only did she graciously allow me to have the fundraiser in her classroom, she won the Gift Certificate from Bradburns (a teacher supply store for those of you not from around here) at the close of the event. Yeah for teacher supplies!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Connecting in Kansas City

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to go to Kansas City to attend Sara Swenson's CD Debut/Birthday Bash. She's a real sweetheart and discipled me for a few years in college. You can get a copy of her CD on http://www.cdbaby.com/ or hear a sample of her songs on her website: www.myspace.com/saraswenson (Yes, this is a unapologetic advertisement!)

If you look reeeeaaaalllllyyyy close, you can see Sara strummin' away.

Here is a more obviously visible picture of the two of us. It was so nice to connect with her! Additionally, I got to stay with my former college roommate, Jen, while I was in KC. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of her, so you'll just have to take my word for it on that one.

Friday, September 5, 2008

A GOOD Day!!!


I saw some really beautiful things today and wanted to share them with you. I was having a sad week and my friend Rene cheered me up quite a bit! First we used sparkly, glittery, fake microphones (like you'd find at a party store) to sing along to Jeremy Camp's "Trust In You" as we drove to the Botanical Gardens. This, of course, got a few looks from people in other cars but was so FUN! We had the pleasure of visiting the gardens after a good rain--with that fresh smell in the air that makes everything seem special and new.

While there Rene suggested we put our hair in pigtails (because pigtails make everyone happy!). She just "happened" to have a few hair ties in her pocket! Then we tried to take pictures of ourselves in the pigtails, which was possibly even more fun...but not as fun as the youthful freedom to enjoy life and the knowing looks of strangers: "Do you realized that you have pigtails in your hair? Cause I noticed and think it's pretty silly, but maybe you forgot and walked out of the house this morning anyway? I wish I had pigtails...." Did I mention they were impromptu, especially-silly pigtails? It was so fun!



Later in the day I got to visit my friend Angela in the hospital and hold her brand new baby (born last night around 9:00pm) who is ABSOLUTELY beautiful! Big, too! He's is a full 9.7 lbs.!! That was a really sweet moment to be able to share with her, and fun to catch up with her family as well! So, in short, God blessed me with the ability to experience joy, beauty, and new life all in the same day!!!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Brother Yun

I just finished reading The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway. This is an amazing story of standing firm in the midst of persecution! This man was severely beaten and tortured numerous times for his faith and it just made him want to tell others about Jesus more and more!

So many times his prayers were answered in huge ways and people came to know Christ! So many times! Ridiculously frequently! He spoke with such authority and prayed with such confidence! He had remarkable self-discipline in the way that he treated his persecutors, the way he fasted for 74 days, the way he memorized 55 chapters of the Bible… Wow! God did so many incredible things through him and in him! Often God gave him visions of what was to come, giving him hope to endure. During one of his trials/interrogations, he thought, “Lord Jesus, even if they kill me I’ll still love you.”

So often all Brother Yun had to cling to were the Words of Truth (from the Bible) that he’d memorized long ago… His dedication to Bible memorization alone was amazing, but even more so because God really placed it on his heart to memorize scripture at the age of thirteen and his obedience to that prompting was a crucial part of God preparing him to endure great suffering in his later ministry when the words he’d memorized years ago brought him so much hope, gave him so much purpose when there was no Bible to read or fellow Christian to pray with! (By later ministry, I mean when he was 30!).

Yun had an incredible boldness and yet knew that his power and authority came from God. At one point he and several others were praying over a demon-possessed man who was yelling, “You say you have power over demons, but you can’t cast me out! This is my home and I’m not going anywhere!” Yun wrote, “For hours we used every technique we could think of. We prayed many different kinds of prayers, but nothing worked. Finally, out of sheer frustration, we all gave up. We sat down and said, “Lord, we can’t do anything.” Suddenly, while we were all sitting down in defeat, the Spirit of God came upon us and the demon-possessed man started shaking uncontrollably. We jumped to our feet and laid hands on the man. Immediately the demons left him. We learned a great lesson that morning. When we arrive at the end of our own strength it is not defeat, but the start of tapping into God’s boundless resources. It is when we are weak that we are strong in God.”

I confess that I feel weak right now, at the end of my own strength. Yet I am not defeated, as Yun noted! I am in a great place to be able to see God move in my life like never before. Pray that I will be strong in Him!

Less Like Scars

My friend Amy (not my sister, though she's an Amy and my friend, too!) had me listen to this song a while back and the more I think about the lyrics, the more I like it. I hope you like it too... Praise to the God who heals, transforms, and brings new life!

Less Like Scars
By Sara Groves

It’s been a hard year
But I’m climbing out of the rubble
These lessons are hard
Healing changes are subtle
But every day it’s…
Less like tearing and more like building
Less like captive more like willing
Less like breakdown more like surrender
Less like haunting more like remember
And I feel you here
And you’re picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like character
Less like a prison more like my room
Less like a casket more like a womb
Less like dying more like transcending
Less like fear, less like an ending
And I feel you here
And you’re packing up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars
Just a little while ago
I couldn’t feel the power or the hope
I couldn’t cope, I couldn’t feel a thing
Just a little while back
I was desperate, broken, laid out
Hoping you would come
And I need you and I want you here
And I feel you…
And I want you here
And you’re picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seems out of my hands a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars

And more like character

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

God is Not Disappointed

At the end of the COAT program, we had an affirmation circle, where everyone went around and said why the other people were special, how they could see God in each of the other participants, what our dreams for each other's future were... I've been thinking about one of the things Jaime said lately, "God is not disappointed in you, Joanne."

I don't think God gets disappointed. We can only be disappointed if we expect one thing to happen and something different happens. God already knows what's going to happen. He can't be surprised. He doesn't get nervous. He isn't anxious. He isn't afraid. He doesn't guess. He doesn't wonder. He doesn't get confused. He's never overwhelmed. He's never late. He doesn't get disappointed. I like that about Him.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Green and Blue Never Looked So Good

I'm tired. Exhausted really. I decided to take a few days off of support-raising and spent a lot of time reading and walking/running in parks. Thanks to a few friends who repeatedly advocated that I do this whole resting thing for a while!

I really love parks. My favorite colors are blue and green and there's so many shades and variations of blue and green in parks; I see God there the most. Even more than in people (maybe). The sky and how God can be so creative with clouds----whipsy, poofy, spread out, squished together, shapes, moving...and the blue of the sky is always changing, too! Light blue, deep blue, shy blue, brilliant blue, clear blue! The trees and how the light filters down through the leaves---straight through some so they're almost transparent, a brighter green, like God lit them up just so I'd stop to notice them. Just so I'd remember that He can light me up like that, too...if I stop moving so fast. You never really see those special lit up leaves when it's super-windy and the leaves are blowing all over the place; they always look dark, plain green then. The special lit up leaves are only there when things are peaceful (like the tree is resting?) and a gentle breeze blows...and they dance right there along the branches. Will you pray that God lights me up like that? That I rest and slow down long enough for Him to do that? Have I mentioned that I really, really appreciate your prayers? Really, really.