you:create…so much fun!

This week I have had so much fun just playing around.  I found a bunch of free online scrap booking kits, fonts, buttons and all sorts of fun things.  I got lost in the creating. I found myself looking at things in fresh ways. Seeing myself through what I created and what my heart was drawn to on the page.

So, I created a cute little background for this little blog here and then here are some screen shots of some of the other pages I’m still playing around with–I’m very much a keep tweaking things along the way and take my time in settling down roots.  Oh, and did you notice my cute little buttons on the side? They make me happy. And oh, I added a “To Africa With Love” tab…that is *under construction* because I’m still creating all sorts of fun things for it like a video, a button, and words to go with my heart.

What did I learn along the way? That my heart gravitates toward the bright, the pastels, the girly, the things that make me smile.  The pages that let me breathe a deep breath of joy.  That I love the process of creating more than the finished project.  I don’t like finishing totally, but leaving room for flexibility and adjustment as things develop.  That I’m a work in progress and ever changing. Oh, and as usual…my heart goes back to love.

So, what do you think? Do you like it? What does your heart gravitate toward?

Time to Thrive!?

So stand still and see this great thing the Lord will do before your eyes now.

-1 Samuel 12:16

God sure has a thing about timing. He is SO faithful!

During (In)Courage’s 30 Days of Giveaways, I won this cute little day planner complete with a perfect little quote.

The day it arrived in the mail was the day I moved a few more prayer requests over to the second box because that day, I received an e-mail with an offer to come on staff with Thrive Africa.

Needless to say, I accepted!

(insert: happy dance)

p.s. more details to come of course! and the witty title of the blog…courtesy of Amy 🙂

I Have You in My Heart

Last year…

I carried orphans (Lindo, Thabo, Jamesy)  on my back. I watched my baby (Lindo) be adopted into a family that welcomed me.

I held Lerato (love) in my arms before mixing mud to make bricks to build her a house.

I equipped learners with biblical truths and encouraged them to step out to become contagious Christians.

I worshipped God on a mountain with my people.

This year…

I pray. I call. I encourage. I am mindful.

I bought TOMS shoes that give a pair of shoes to a South African kiddo.

I bought Lerato shirts to support someone who spoke truth into my life and still does..

And now. I can shop at the Thrive Store.

~

Even though, things look quite a bit different from last year

what I wrote before and finally got around to painting rings true.

“I have you in my heart.” Philippians 1:7

I can still make an impact

even from 9000 miles away

and so can you.

A shirt, a coffee mug, becoming a monthly supporter…

Together we can hold them in our hearts and make it possible for them to be held by loving arms, to learn God’s truth, to be empowered with love to change their nation.

So, what are you going to do?

UP for some Real Me?

I lived in Africa for a year as many of you may know.  While there, I met this amazing girly who I absolutely love and we now have skype dates on Saturday that seriously make my week.  But, see, here’s the thing.  She doesn’t like movies. Like at all. And she rubbed off on me.

I have yet to go to a movie theater since being back in the States, shame, eh? I did thoroughly enjoy Earth from Red Box and would be so incredibly happy to own that entire DVD series.  My “bonding time” with my mama over “The Bachelor” is just about as poppy as I get when it comes to this stuff.

All of that to say that yesterday, I watched a movie after I went on my long run (and yes, we were friends!).  Remember how I told you that I ran 16.1k, well, that was on the docket again for this week.  Though, this time I ran outside (woot! woot! love me some warm(er) weather and running tights and wearing mittens to carry things) and listened to a whole jumble of worship songs*.  Plus, I improved my time!

Despite my speedy running and motivation to attempt to arrive on time, I didn’t…plus, when I got there I stopped and chatted for a bit with the pastor’s wife (love her and hey! relationships matter! and yes…still working on the time thing).  Thankfully, my friends (yes, I’ve been home long enough to even make “friends”) usually extend an extra big dose of grace. Hey, they must be friends if they’re already learning to not let me get away with my answers that aren’t answers (aka indecision) by helping me commit and they put up with my half inviting myself by saying that I so want/need to see said movie they are talking about watching.

By now, you must REALLY be wondering (or you’ve given up on this long post–usually I dislike long posts greatly and even spent time trying to make this shorter, but there’s just too much fun stuff to share….) what movie I would want/need to see….dun dun dun… UP.  Confession: the main reason I wanted to see this movie was because another fabulous girly I met in Africa watched this movie on the plane ride home (I fell asleep..I do that often especially during movies) and told me about an absolutely gut-wrenching line that simply made us BOTH teary eyed or should I say bawling (oh, side note: my eyes turn an amazingly gorgeous green when I cry)…as if we weren’t already since we were leaving “home.”  Today, I didn’t cry nearly as much as I would have if I had watched it then…I only got teary eyed and missed my people and my home.  All because of a few lines:

“It might sound boring, but the boring stuff I remember the most.”

“Thanks for the adventure, now go have a new one.”

Congrats to you if you made it this far!  So, your turn: have you seen UP? do you run on africa time?  do you like movies? tell me something I don’t know.

*Running Playlist for the day: Battlefield by Jordin Sparks, Everything Falls by Fee, More Like Falling in Love by Jason Gray, Rain it Down by Carlos Whittaker, There’s Only One by Caedmon’s Call, How He Loves by Kim Walker, This Day by Audio Adrenaline, You Said by Shane and Shane, Let My Love Open the Door by Audio Adrenaline, Glory to God Forever by Fee, This Could Be Our Day by Addison Road, God of Wonders by Third Day, Show Me Your Glory by Third Day, From the Inside Out by Hillson, Tomalo by Hillsong, Not Enough by Caedmon’s Call, Madly by Steve Fee, All We Need by Charlie Hall,

Multitude Monday

I am really starting to look forward to this post every week! I find myself reflecting on the day with such joy in the simple, little things.  Seeking out the little and BIG ways that God shows up in my life helps me keep my eyes on Him rather than getting distracted or letting the day go by unnoticed.  Without further ado, here is a glimpse into last week:

280. Listening to a song on repeat

282. Comment love

290. Long-term sub position!!!

301. Tokbox chatting with interns 🙂

319. The feeling after I’ve cleaned out my inbox

326. Sentences that challenge

336. Learning to trust God more

How was your week? Any big or little moments of joy that caught your eye?

 

Salty Two Cents of God-Flavors

Mm, I wanna be salty! I started out today reading 3 different posts about salt!  I thought I’d just leave my two cents, but then realized…my two cents really looked a bit too lengthy and sent me on some bunny trails all starting with this verse:

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.  But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?  Can you make it salty again?  It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”

—You are here to be salt seasoning that brings out the GOD-FLAVORS of this earth.

After doing some inquiries into salt here, I found quite a few ponderous nuggets to chew on:

• Salt was required in all the sacrifices (Lev. 2:13)
• If we don’t have salt in ourselves, how can we spread it out to others? (Mark 9:50) We need to be spending time with Him, loving Him, and letting Him fill our cup to overflowing so that everything comes from that and goes back to glorify Him.
• To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests (Ezra 4:14).
• The Arabic word for “salt” and for a “compact” or “treaty” is the same.
• Salt is emblematic of loyalty and friendship.
• I wonder also if the salt reference has to do with the gospel we present…are we presenting the gospel in its full “saltiness” or are we only throwing in a pinch because we are fearful or so watered down ourselves?

Lastly, I love the version of the verse in the video…Mmm, I wanna be salty, but even more I want to BRING out the GOD-FLAVORS of this earth. I want to ooze with joy and give the world a taste of this God that loves big…I want to bring out these God-flavors in others. To empower, equip, and enable all those around me to live the ABUNDANT life in Christ.

But, how can we do that if we’re not salty ourselves?

Are you salty? What are you doing to stay salty? Are you spreading your saltiness? What do you think God-flavors are? Thoughts?

Smattering

In hard times she’d learned three things–

She was stronger than she’d ever imagined.

Jesus was closer than she ever realized.

And she was loved more than she ever knew.

–Holley

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9b) So, I raised my hand and said (out loud), “I believe: God is who He says He is. God can do what He says He can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.” (from Beth Moore’s Believing God study)

–A Path from the Head to the Heart

Matthew 5:3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. (The Message Version)

–Derek and Shea

Part of being made new is also a call to to forget “the former things” (Isaiah 43:18).  The decision to let go of our expectations based on what has been familiar can be really tough.  But when we do, we give God permission to knock our socks off. We let go of our self-imposed limitations. We dream bigger and reach higher.

-“He Makes All Things New” -Thrive

History tells us that God doesn’t forget His people and He’s not going to start with you. When He does show up, you’ll know that it’s unmistakably Him.

-Cross Point Church| Faith, Hope and Love Series

Meetings

Meetings.  Some people absolutely loathe going to another meeting.  I tend to actually look forward to them.  I see the opportunity they give for the larger group to get together, recapture vision, share passion and information, and live life together in a “work” setting.  I find this to be especially true of our Staff Meetings at Thrive.  I love that we start off with sharing testimonies of how “God is Big” and what He is doing in each of our lives.  I am so blessed and encouraged through hearing these.  We also spend time on “development.”  We value continuing to learn more, being transformed by Christ, and “developing” ourselves in Him.  Today’s message hit home and I even had a chance tonight to live out my own reactions to confrontation and to my commitment to continue to change and experience life in Christ.  Here are some bullet point thoughts to chew on from the message “Keys to Confrontation” by Danny Silk:

• We need to strategically apply pressure to expose areas that need strength and grace
• Confrontation is an invitation to strengthen a relational bond with someone (so true! through confrontation tonight, I’m excited to further develop relationships)
• Confrontation is not about punishment, but about setting each other up to win and to put us back on the track that we left
• Relationships are where we manifest everything we get from heaven
• Confrontation is about helping people find the need and find the remedy to the need–when you’ve fallen in a hole, you need something–you lost control of you to the thing that put you in the hole!
• Questions to ask: What are you going to do? How’s that working out for you? Do you want help with this problem? I am wondering if…?  …didn’t it?
• Godly sorrow leads to repentance
• Find out what the problem actually has to do with
• Live a life that no matter what external pressure comes, you get to be YOU.

Stories

Yesterday, we met some of the kids at Hope House.  Today, we’re meeting Katleho.  He comes to our LaunchPad class at Clubview every Tuesday.  He came last term for our “Becoming A Contagious Christian” curriculum and he’s coming this term as well for “Christ in You.”  He sits in the back row of the class with a couple of his friends.  Last term, he didn’t talk much, seemed more interested in other things, but still had a touch of curiosity and he even came up to talk with me once after class.  Yet, despite all this, I could tell he wanted more.  Even in this picture, you can see a glimpse of his personality, his curiosity, his hope.  LaunchPad is one of my favorite parts of the week. Why? Because I absolutely love seeing lives transformed through God working through engaging curriculum and personal relationships.  I can see the difference in Katleho’s eyes as he comes to class and how he interacts compared to last term.  I see him prompting and delving into the discussion questions with his friends.  I am excited for God’s work in him and am expectant for even more.  Pray with me for the kids in the LaunchPad classes for radical transformation to be evident in their lives!

Pray!

Meet Gugu

Meet Nomfundo

I hold these two girls in my heart and in my arms.  They make my heart happy and I love getting to see them on Fridays at Hope House.  But, there’s a slight problem…they don’t like each other.  They’re in that lovely later elementary school girl age where they fight and seek attention.  Not to mention that Nomfundo recently came to Hope House a few weeks ago so she is still adjusting to the new environment.  My prayer is that the love of Christ would completely overwhelm them and transform their lives, which in turn dramatically changes their relationship.

Anything I can be praying for you about on this Friday night?