Oh Happy Day

Paint balling!!!!

Set Your Eyes

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:2-3

A Little Climbing Adventure with Matt and Jen

Determined to find a way up the rock, I forged through bushes and trees.  I found myself standing on a little tree trying to pull myself up and over.  I could see the footholds and handholds clearly before me.  The way was set.  Yet, I hesitated.  I attempted, but lost my footing and thought I might not quite possess enough upper body strength with slippery footholds.  Discouraged, I tried again.  I talked myself out of a third attempt and fought back through the tangled mess I came through.  We almost moved on to another rock until Matt saw that another way looked promising.  With the sting of defeat fresh on my mind, I pushed forward through more brush.  My legs regretting the choice of my green shorts the entire way.  Whacking a few branches, getting hit in the face with one, and crawling under a tree culminated in being able to step and jump onto the rock quite easily.  Eventually, all three of us made our way to the top of the rock only to find an amazing crevice on the backside.  Of course, Matt decides to go down this way instead of going back the way we came. He gets down fairly easily and then asks us to come down.  I whip out the “Are you kidding me? Do you know how far of a drop that is?” look and then proceed to stare down not moving.  Then Jen out of nowhere decides to go down.  I’m still skeptical even after she gets down.  Yet, at this point, I’m the only one left.  I have scared myself by staring at the obstacles to either side rather than focusing on the rock.  Eventually, I make a decision to focus on each step in front of me rather than looking down.  I get down only to wonder why I ever worried about the drop.  If I had focused on the things to the side instead of the steps I needed to take in front of me, I would have missed out on exploring the crevice like cave and finding a new way out with the encouragement as well as help of those with me.

Oftentimes, I act this way with God.  I see all the big scary “what-ifs” rather than focusing on Him and the steps I need to take each day.  I look too far ahead only to scare myself.  I discredit the voices around me or worse yet refuse their help and encouragement.  Though, as I said here, I’m learning to trust all over again and I’m waiting.  Waiting, trusting and resting in Him.

Shooting Stars

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life…” Philippians 2:14-16

Lately, I crave summer: swim suits, laying on the beach, driving with the music blaring and the windows down, fluffy happy books, shorts and tank tops, flip flops,  going out on the lake, meteor showers, star gazing, looking at the moon, sitting on the deck or dock, and happy summer music.  In response to my craving, I’ve decided that my room is now summer. Basically, I wear shorts and a tank top.  Pretend the heater and the sleeping bag are just for fun and look at the happy summer pictures while listening to happy music.  My heart is extra happy so all of this fits.

Alright, so by now you may be wondering how the verse above fits into all this talk about summer.  Well then, let me tell you a little bit about today.  Today the weather was warm, sunny and perfect.  I wore flip flops, ate delicious pancakes with mixed berries (I love and miss fresh berries like strawberries and blueberries!), walked around outside and read Gone With the Wind.  But the best part consisted of later at night when the stars came out.  Tentative plans to watch a movie were thwarted by other events, which turned into new plans to star gaze by the pond.  To be prepared, I outfitted myself with my sleeping bag, two pairs of pants (one with stars on them of course), lots of layers, a hat, mittens and even socks (I hate socks, but thanks mom for sending me some…though I really don’t need more…I really hate them!).

Needless to say, God blew me away with His creation.  Everything made me smile and soak in the beautiful night.  The moon hid away until the right time when we saw its amazing orangish color and sat astounded at its huge size.  The shooting stars took my breath away and I got sad whenever someone else saw one, but I missed it.  The random conversation took the edge off the rest of the day.  And I’m still pondering which names fit the category of a “cuddly” name.  Yet, through all of this, I return my thoughts to God to thank Him for a wonderful ending to another day.  To ask Him to help me show that kind of beauty and light to everyone around me. To live out the call to shine like stars and take people’s breath away. To glorify His name and live a life full of love in such a way that others see Him.

Because that’s when my heart is happy.

Quotable

“Life is a work of art. You have to keep mixing the colors, creating new blends,and seeing things in fresh ways. You must be willing to get paint all over you.”

A Look Back

For unknown reasons (boredom? curiosity? fun?), I started looking back through my old blogs. Here’s a few that caught my eye:

Good-bye to You

I still love sleeping with my computer

I really want this right now

I miss eating these in the morning

I like some of these thoughts

I still hate being cold

Swazi in Bullets

• Painted the Community Center
• Cleared a man’s yard and created a garden area
• Cleared yards on the Upper Houses (raked leaves, raked pine needles, collected rocks, dug drainage trenches)
• Painted two Chacaranda (sp?) houses
• visited ABC ministries (adorable little kids!!!)
• Ate dinner and hung out at the Welcome Center (where the kids go before they are placed in a home) and at a Chacaranda house
• Played card games (fill or bust, 13, phase 10, rummy, billionaire)
• Made lots of fires in the fire place
• Went to the Orion (Mongo’s for dinner, delicious pizza, milkshakes, swimming, sauna, car adventure to find some waterfalls…didn’t get to see  them, dessert!, Kelly’s birthday!)
• Ate a ton of pb & honey since the jelly did not taste good
• Songs: Where You Are by Marc Broussard, Airplane Song by Stephen Speaks, On a Night Like This by Dave Barnes
• Played with ABC kids on an afternoon off
• Making oatmeal in the morning and getting up early and soaking in time with Him
• Swimming
• Going to a nearby village and wearing traditional dress and dancing
• Climbing the tallest mountain in Swazi
• Taking fun jumping photos
• Going on Safari
• Camping outside
• Seeing a creepy creepy creepy python…yuck!
• Seeing rhinos, elephants, lions, and hippos!
• Long car rides with happy, summery music

Swaziland!

For the last half week or so, Kelly (the intern director) let us know that we had a surprise coming, but wasn’t able to tell us quite yet. We finally found out today about the surprise! We will be headed to Swaziland on March 28th to serve with a ministry (www.bulembu.org) for two weeks. All of us interns are super excited to go! We don’t know all the details yet of what we will be doing, but those will come in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we know that we get to go on another adventure soon. To top this exciting news off, I found out that not only do I have one package to pick up tomorrow, but I have two!!! I’m really excited about that and to see what’s in the packages.

3 Mountains

I have now climbed all three mountains on base.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Here’s what happens when I can’t decide what to pack and then I remember that I should take pictures of my awesome new sleeping bag…

Surprise!

I LOVE surprises.  No lie.  I love surprising people and I love being surprised.  Surprise presents (flowers, gifts, flowers, hot chocolate, tea, stopping by, etc.) are awesome.  Especially when they’re from someone super close in my life.  So, what got me thinking about all of this? Well, airports.  I’m going to fly out in the near future and fly back.  I love the airport pick-up.  So much fun getting picked up.  Picking up is fun too.  Sometime in my life I want to fly in somewhere and skip out on the pick up to surprise someone at their front step.  Not sure who yet, but someone!  That’s all I have.  Enjoy the sentimental, personal explanation  

p.s. I’m sure I could fit how this works into my results from StrengthsFinder if I really wanted to…more about that in another post!  I met with a Strengths coach yesterday–fun stuff. (input, learner, achiever, connectedness, restorative/developer)