Hello Everyone! I thought that it was about time to
blog again since it's been sooooo long! Life has been going
pretty well and I'm excited about what God has in store
for this year and the years to come! Why He takes such
interest in everyone of our lives is beyond me but
I'm sure glad He does. Isn't it great that we
can be apart of His great plan to bring glory to His
name throughout the whole earth?! It's such a honor
for Him to choose and use us.

"Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall walk and not grow weary, they shall run and not faint!"
(A loose paraphrase. I hope I didn't mix up two different verses:)

It's so much better to wait then trying to do things in our on strength!
When we wait for the Lord to show us what He
has for our lives not only can we do it, but we do it with excitement
and joy, knowing that it will count for eternity.

So wait on the Lord and see what He has in store:)

How do you like my new glasses? Carolyn this
picture is especially for you so you don't get scared when
you see me this summer:) By the way welcome to
the USA you were just in time to experience the last bit
of winter.

Levi wanted me to say hello from
him as well.

Let Us Seperate Ourselves from this World

He died for all so that all who live-having received eternal life from him-might live no longer for themselves to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them. So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. -Cor. 5:15-16

After reading this verse I was thinking about how Christians do evaluate other Christian by the world's standard aka our cultures standards and how this isn't right. I'm sure all of you who have recently graduated or are going to soon have gotten the question, "So what are you planning on doing after you graduate". The "correct" answer would be "go to college", but that's no different from a none Christian's answer. Shouldn't Christians have a totally different life view? I'm not saying that college is wrong, I think that God has different paths and areas of life for his different children, all I'm saying is that we have a different calling and a different direction in life. It's like this pic we took close to 3 years ago.



Andrew and I are standing by the Continental Divide. This is a place in the USA where a body of water flows in two different directions which is like Christians and the unsaved in life. We all start in the same place (same body of water) but once we surrender our life to Christ our life changes directions. No longer are our goals reduce to living the American Dream of a happy marriage, a good job, 2.5 kids, and our perfect house but we awaken to something worth far more. Our Savior, Jesus Christ and living our lives to bring his name glory in the nations!

I think that if we as Christian realized true living didn't depend on our worth in dollars, diplomas, or happiness but that true living, true life is being totally sold out to Jesus, then we would see things in a different light. No longer would it matter if so and so looked like a geek, or she isn't going to college? What's she going to do?, She still isn't married? Doesn't she know that she can't be truly fulfilled until she finds that special someone?, but all that would matter is that so and so is living for God. Praise God! "So stop evaluation Christians by what the world think about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside."

One more thought, what do you think people's reaction would be if Jesus answered the question, "what are you going to do when you grow up"? He definitely didn't fit into the mold of his day. His family thought he was crazy, he never got married, he had no home, He had 12 disciples one of whom betrayed him and another denied him, He died at 33 and all look to be lost, but God! God had a bigger plan in mind then what the world could see. What the world saw as a waste was the best thing that's ever happened in history. We serve a great God who made all of creation by speaking and who has the whole picture of history in mind. So, when where he is leading doesn't make sense, let us still follow knowing that He has a purpose for everything and we will look back and see his hand at work.

Here are a couple of pictures of the funniest
guys I know:) My Brother and our little
friend who just loves playing "light swords".



I was also playing with him last weekend and I
believe he got the better of me. He's pretty good
at the sword fighting thing!

Action Packs

Some of you have probably already
heard about this but I wanted to let you
know incase it's something that you
would be interested in. The Christian
missions organization "Voice of the Martyrs"
has a program called "Action Packs" or something
like that. For a $7 donation VOM will
send you a vacuum sealed bag that you fill
with whatever's on the list (which is on the website) and
then mail it back to VOM. They then send it to needy
Christians. I been thinking
about doing this for awhile and have decided
to have my girls at Bright Lights help me.
I think it will be fun and a good way for
our group to encourage Christians and serve the
persecuted church.

The Joys of Traveling

Hello again! I simply feel like blogging
tonight so I better take advantage of
the mood while it's lasts. ( I had
a little caffeine tonight and sugar so
I'm good to go for awhile:)

So I was looking
through my pics. for material
that I could use, and I came across these.
If you've never travel for 24 hrs. you probably
can't relate, but if you have, you know why we
look the way we do. Enjoy. (Dearest traveling
buddies, I hope you don't mind me showing
some of your glamour shots? But as you
can see I've subject myself to the same
humiliation.)

Chrissy and Nickie trying to entertain
themselves so they don't go crazy.

Below: Pooh trying to get some
shut eye but not succeeding
with Tigger at her side and a camera
stuck in her face. (Okay, so maybe
it wasn't quite like that but it sounded
good and I'm the author so that's the way
it will stay.)


And then Nickie trying yet another position and
probably not finding it all that agreeable either.

As you can see the little tiny winy table serves
as more than just a surface to place the pre-made
counterfeit food they serve on planes but also a head rest.
That is if the person ahead of you doesn't have their
seat reclined the whole 6 inches, and you can
squeeze your torso into that cramp position.

So this concludes my fond reflection on traveling.
I wish the best of comfort and strongest of stomachs
for your next trip half way across the world.
And believe it or not I really do like traveling.