Merry Christmas!

Just thought I'd take a moment this Christmas eve to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and happy New Year!

Also a little update on life, the universe, and everything. Things have been going along here at home. I'm currently taking a break from painting our "exercise room" in our basement.  The whole thing was a super dark green, and with only one tiny window and a few dinky light bulbs, it was just too dark! So we are leaving the bottom half (which was a plaid wallpaper), and painting the top half a much much lighter beige color. The room looks bigger already! I can't wait til we get more lights in here. The past few days I was over at our old house painting rooms on the main level, getting it ready to rent out. Can I just say, I'm glad I don't do this for a living? I think I have tennis--er--painter's elbow! My arms are sore, my elbows are sore, my wrists are sore, my hands are sore...you get the idea! I cannot wait til all the painting is finished.

On the support front, things are moving along a little slowly.  I realized when I was calculating, I forgot to include one of my biggest supporters, so I don't have as far to go as I thought! I've also had a few more commitments over the last few days, and I've had some encouraging conversations with friends, so I am feeling pretty good! At this point I am about 60% funded. I know God will bring the right people in at the right time. The right time might not be my time, but I trust that God has it all under control.

on my way to Nineveh

I've been going to the women's Bible study at my church here at home in the 'Burg.  I wasn't planning on going, but decided last minute, about an hour before the first meeting, interestingly enough.  We're going through Priscilla Shirer's study on Jonah, a "life interrupted".  My life has been full of interruptions, or "divine interventions". Basically my plans don't go...well, according to plan! The story of my life, in the last few years at least, has been to let go of my need to plan, and to know what is coming. But I digress...

Basically you have Jonah, a prophet of Israel. He's all fine and good doing his daily thing, and then God says, "I want you to go to Nineveh to tell them about Me!" Nineveh, the place of Jonah's enemies, where they are really mean (understatement) and there's a good chance they'll kill you (not an understatement!). So we know the story. Jonah says "heck no!" and gets on the first ship bound the other direction and three times as far away.  A storm comes, they throw him overboard, he gets swallowed by a giant fish and given a second chance to complete the mission that God has called him to.  And he's obedient, the second time around.

During this study, Priscilla asked us to think about what our "Nineveh" is, the people we know God is telling us to reach out to but we are reluctant to.  For the longest time I wasn't really sure what that was for me. I'm just living at home, going to church.  All my family knows the Lord, who on earth do I have to "reach out" to?  Then I realized, my Nineveh doesn't look like what she described.  Mine is different. My "Nineveh" isn't really reaching out to people, but it is doing something that God is telling me to that I'm not really excited about and have been putting off for a while.

The whole reason I'm here is to get a new visa and work on raising more support to go back to England. I was also hoping to get a job to earn a little extra money.  But then, we moved right when I got home, and I was busy for the first few weeks.  Talk about an interruption! Then I wasn't feeling well. Then there were things planned for the next few weekends to prepare for.  Then I found more and more excuses not to contact people. I knew I should get around to working on support, but what's the rush, right? More excuses, and then, oh hey, its November! 

This has shown me that yes, I did have some legitimate reasons to begin with.  Moving is stressful. Not living the house I called "home" anymore is considered a loss, and I needed time to emotionally deal with that before engaging the real world. But now God is showing me my "Nineveh", and calling me to do my part to go back to England. I can't be disobedient anymore.  Even if I finally get a temporary job offer that will bring in some money. Which I did, and had to turn down.  Just because something is good doesn't mean we can use it as an excuse to disobey what God is actually calling us to do.  So my friends, please pray for me! There's a reason why I've been putting this off.  It's hard work. It's uncomfortable. It's impossible for me to do on my own.  But God desires my obedience more than other "good things" that I think I have to offer Him. And I know from experience, He will not leave me hanging!

So, we know what my "Nineveh" is, what's yours?

yes, I'm still alive...

So, been back home for about a month now! Let me explain. No...there is too much. Let me sum up:

The last few weeks at the office were spent finishing off things, packing up, and saying goodbye to all the lovely people I was blessed to work with this past year!  The flight home was long but uneventful. My sister met me at the airport with a GIANT sunflower balloon! It was truly epic. Then she drove me home to our family's new house, where I had a mattress on the floor in my room and that was it.

I should explain this part.  Back in August, my parents put an offer in on a house about six miles down the road from where we used to live. After they closed, they were going to take a while to paint the new house and move in as rooms were finished.  That was before some people we know from church needed a place to live after a tree fell on their house from the hurricane. Also, to make matters more interesting, our old house's basement flooded.  So, my parents started moving stuff from the main floor of our old house so the family could move in...which happened to be three days after I got home.  My room was in the basement...luckily it didn't get flooded too bad.

So anyway, after I got home it was all packing and painting and moving and craziness for a few weeks.  It was really difficult not living in the old house. On top of all that, I decided to have a get-together for my supporters in the area this past Saturday, and mom said we should have it at the new house! So basically I was busy painting and trying to get the house ready.  Now that the party's over and I'm a bit more settled in, I feel like I can focus on re-connecting with people and start setting up meetings to keep my support going so I can go back to England in January.  I also am trying to line up a temp job to help earn a little extra cash and get me out of the house a bit.  I will miss sleeping in every day (!) but its time to get back to work!

Anyway, that's about it for now. Tune in next time to hear Rachel say...

this is going to be a long post...

I've been back in the UK since last Saturday. I took last Monday and Tuesday off to catch my breath before going back to work, and this Monday is a bank holiday, yippee! It has been a nice and quiet time to slowly get used to being back in "the real world".  I can't believe I was gone for nearly a month! I've had time to reflect on things that happened on this trip...but I still don't quite know where to start...so we'll start with the Facts. Some snippets of what we did each day, with a few pics thrown in.  Perhaps in a later post I'll ruminate on the more "emotional" aspects of the trip...maybe.

Here's what happened.
Day 1: Arrived in Moldova from TeenStreet.  Came a day early because my flight had been cancelled. Had the whole place to myself, which was kind of nice as it gave me a chance to slow down and relax a bit after the craziness of TeenStreet.

view out the window of the base in Moldova

Day 2: Everyone else arrived.  (Fun story: the first girl to arrive from my room was a teacher from Germany.  She asked where I was from and I told her the United States.  She then asks what state.  I tell her Virginia.  She then asks "oh, where in Virginia?" Normally at this point I would say "just south of DC" because really, who in Germany has heard of my town? But for some reason I tell her exactly where.  And it turns out, she went to my University a few years before I did as part of an exchange program! I still can't believe I met a German girl in Moldova who knows the small University I went to.)

Day 3: Orientation to Moldova.  We learned a little bit about the outreaches we would be going on, as well as some Moldovan culture and we met our team members. Basically the country is very Orthodox, and most don't know what it means to have a relationship with God.  Many of the kids come from broken homes, or have an absent parent because they have to go out of the country to work.  Many people also have an alcohol problem. We also learned not to drink the water...and that the Nistru is full of fun things like cholera. Yaaaaay.

Day 4: Loaded all our stuff into a van which left to head to the river.  We took a bus.  On this bus ride we commented that we went from being clean and washed people, to sweaty stinky people.  The first hour was not so bad, as the bus wasn't that full...then more people got on.  And more people got on. And more people got on...and they were hot and sweaty, and we were hot and sweaty, and they didn't open the windows, and...welcome to Moldova.  Anyway, we got to the village where we met up with our stuff and the other families that were joining us, but would be travelling by car.  We unloaded the van, had some lunch, and spent the next few hours building the raft.

The Raft almost complete. The two mini-rafts got strapped together to make the big Raft. All of our stuff then got arranged down the center, and we sat on the oil drums to paddle.  Not the most comfy seat let me tell you.

After assembling The Raft, we began our journey.  We floated/paddled for a few hours until we came to the first village.  We unloaded, set up camp, ate food, and went to sleep.

Day 5: And the rain rain rain came down down down the whole night long.  My tent flooded, woke up to wet feet at about 1:30 am, tried to sop it all up with my towel.  Eventually the rain stopped and I rung out the towel outside and put it by the door again.  Woke up again around 3:00, more of my sleeping bag and blanket were soaked, the towel was totally waterlogged.  That morning, we had to push the supply van up a giant hill that was a muddy mess.  The road could hardly be called that, with giant holes and ditches all down it, we had to get rocks from one part of the road to re-pave the other parts.  Eventually we got it up the hill.  Then we went into the village to see if there were any kids around or people to talk to.  Since it was raining, nobody was out. It quit raining in the afternoon, so we went to do a kids program at a camp near our site.  It went well, we came back, had dinner, then helped push one of our family's camper van up the giant hill.  That night it rained as well.  My tent did not flood this time, as they put it inside another tent, and wrapped it in plastic.

My blanket and sleeping bag...

Day 6: Broke down camp, loaded the raft, and went about 10 km in 4 hrs to the next village. We had a good wind, and even tried to make a sail out of a tent cover.  It worked pretty well for a little bit.  We camped for the night by a big steep hill, with the village at the top.  Some of the team went up to see if there were any kids around and to tell them were were doing a program the next day.  I stayed behind to help with dinner, I was not interested in hiking up that hill just yet!

Day 7:  In the morning we hiked up The Hill into the village and did the program for the kids. It went pretty well, they LOVED the parachute!

Do you see The Raft? Waaaaaaaaaaaay down there??? I was not lying when I said it was a BIG HILL.

We went back down the the campsite, had lunch, loaded up The Raft, and headed to the next village.  After unloading The Raft and setting up camp (do you catch the theme here?) we went through the village inviting the kids to the program for the next day, as well as inviting any teens to play football/soccer that evening.  A good number of teen guys showed up, and listened intently to the testimonies shared by our team leader and some of the other guys on our team.  Lots of kids were around too, so we did an impromptu program for them.  The mosquitos came out in full force as the sun went down, and we called it a night.

Day 8: We did another program for the kids in the morning.  After the program and before loading The Raft, I got to wash my hair! It was glorious! I think five days is a new record. Then, off to the next village! We arrived in the late afternoon. Some of us stayed behind to make camp and cook dinner, others went into the village to invite the kids to the program the next day.

Day 9: Kids program in the morning after breakfast.  We ended up having a lot of kids as well as their older siblings/parents who brought them.  It was a Sunday, which for a lot of people, is their only day off. In the afternoon, we took some food packets to some needy families in the village.  This was really difficult to see how poor some people's living conditions are, and how they have nobody to help them.  It's hard to share an encouraging word to someone, when my problems pale in comparison to theirs (and you don't speak the language!).  The only thing I could do was pray that God would be with them and touch their hearts. That evening we were joined by the other River Adventure group, a youth group from the Czech Republic. They started a day after us and visited the same villages the day after us. We had some traditional Moldovan food and a nice time of worship with the other group. Then time for bed!  And let me just say, by this point I was feeling exhausted.  I think every muscle was aching in my shoulders and back, and my rear end was sore from sitting on the barrel, and my hips were sore from sleeping on the ground. All a part of "roughing it" I guess!

Day 10: Loaded The Raft after breakfast and headed off again for the next village. Two of the families that were with us left, and another one joined.  We did the kids program in the evening and the guys played soccer with the young guys of the village. The kids didn't pay attention as well as in some of the other villages, but once again the teens were really interested in listening to the guys' testimonies.

Day 11: Longest trip on The Raft ever.  We were floating along just fine, had lunch on the raft, and ended up on the wrong side of the river.  Suddenly the village came into view on the other side, and we started paddling to get across, headed into the wind. Nearly two hours later, we collapsed on the ground under a tree, exhausted. We did a program that evening, which went alright, even though everyone was beat. Some teenagers came around towards the end so some of the guys went to hit around the volleyball and later shared with them.  There was one young man who was extremely Orthodox, and was arguing just to argue. Not sure if the testimonies were received as well as in some of the other villages.

Day 12: Last time loading The Raft! We had a little bit of hard paddling, the the wind was in our favor and we used the big parachute as a sail! Once we set it up and figured out steering, we were going along quite nicely. We didn't even have to paddle much, which we were all happy about.

We did a program at the kindergarten that afternoon, and another program for older kids late afternoon.  The kindergarteners didn't quite understand the games, but they had fun anyways! And, there were LOTS of them.

After dinner, the guys took The Raft apart, and we had a team meeting to discuss the plan for the next day.  Then the last night in the tent!

Day 13: The van got driven to our village, and we loaded it up with The Raft in pieces and all of our supplies. We had breakfast and it departed. We did one last program for the kids, then had lunch.  We went to visit a young man who was disabled--he couldn't walk and was confined to bed.  He had a progressive illness since he was a child.  We had an interesting chat with him and shared the gospel, it was hard to tell if he was receptive or not.  The Czech team arrived and we caught a bus back to the base, and had nice showers, dinner, and a good night's sleep in real beds!

Day 14: Debrief in the morning, the we went into the city to "sight see" as a team.  Not too much to see. Then we said goodbye to one guy who had a plane to catch, and went back to the base for one last night.

Day 15: Departure day. Woke up at 5:30 to go to the airport.  A long day of traveling, and I was back in the UK.  And it was raining. Welcome back!

sunrise from my window at the base.

adventure time.

Well everyone, I'm off again on another adventure!
TeenStreet in Germany went well.  We were hours early for our newsletter deadlines pretty much every day.  The last two days were a little more complicated with things coming in late, translators missing articles, etc.  Anyway, that is over and I am EXHAUSTED.  Since we slept in cubicles behind the main stage, last night was pretty loud with folks tearing down til sometime after 2 in the morning.
I have a few hours before I can even check in for my flight, and found a Starbucks with free wi-fi, so just thought I'd update quickly...since I haven't had time to write a newsletter this month!  So, I hope dear friends and supporters, you will forgive and check here :-)
Prayers for this trip are much appreciated.  I am feeling the fatigue, my lower back has been whining at me. (its been giving me small problems off and on for over a year.  Mostly off, but getting more frequent) There were no laundry facilities at TeenStreet, so I had to hand wash some things and it will be two more weeks without the comfort of feeling really clean.  So please pray that these comfort things won't bother me too much, that the Lord will sustain me on this trip, and that we will really be able to touch lives in the process.  Pray that I can see outside myself and look more to the needs of others.
Until next time!

the worst that can happen is adventure.

This is the phrase that has been on my mind a lot lately.  My roommate in college used to say it all the time, and I've adopted it as well.  Its a way to keep the glass "half full". When bad stuff starts to happen as we move about our lives, at least we'll have a fun story to tell afterwards!  Some less than ideal things have happened on this adventure I'm on in the past week...

As I write this, I am sitting in a large arena-type conference center in Germany. It is being transformed from a massive empty space to a backstage area full of people working, the main stage complete with audio visual wonders, and a giant dining area with rows and rows and rows of tables.

I left Carlisle with OMNIvision, the group doing the stage and audio/visual setup for the conference, around 1pm on Sunday.  By 5:30pm we were on a ferry bound for the Netherlands, and by 10pm we were well on our way into the English Channel.  And I was on my way to my first overnight stay on the water. (adventure!)  We arrived in the Netherlands at 8:30am Monday morning, and were back on the bus and on our way to Germany by 9:30.  The goal was to arrive at the stie by 5 or 6pm, but were stuck in traffic for hours (adventure?!?) due a car engulfed in flames on the autobahn, and were delayed...and didn't arrive until 10pm.

Now I've been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, have survived a few sleepless nights because of being too cold (adventure?) and soon this giant conference center will be overrun with thousands of teens.  They arrive on Saturday, and tomorrow will begin the round of deadlines to produce their daily newsletter in TWELVE different languages! That's the reason why I'm here...should be an adventure!

I leave on August 6th (it was the 7th, but my flight got cancelled and moved...more adventure?) to go to Moldova for their "River Adventure" outreach.  We will be building a raft and floating down the river, Huck Finn style (adventure!).  We'll be visiting villages along the way and running activities for the children.  I don't know much more about it at this point...adventure?

So, pray for me these next few weeks.  This week especially pray for me as I battle fatigue and "roughing it", as well as giving my all in tight deadlines.  Pray for the teens, that they will encounter God in a real and powerful way this week.  I know as a teen, this type of event was really special and helped me grow as a teen.  I hope other teens feel the same way!

The iBus..what we rode down it...complete with computers and missing AC!

some of the trusses going up in the main stage

rocking the boat.

Sometimes, when everything seems to be going so well, things happen to rock the boat.  It's smooth sailing, and suddenly a storm comes and you wonder if you will see the other side of it.

I've got two more months here, and then I will be on my way back home.  I'll be there for a few months, trying to raise the support and get a visa to come back.  But that's not the point of this post.  While I've been looking forward to going home and seeing my family, I am ok with the amount of time I have left here.  I have things to finish up, places to go, people to see, and I'm looking forward to all of that.  I've been happy stay here for two more months: until yesterday.

Yesterday was when the storm came.  It is already calming down, but it seriously rocked the boat and made me wish I was back home already.  It made me wish that I wasn't separated from the people I love the most by an ocean.  It made me wish I had money for a plane ticket (or a TARDIS, I'm not picky) and could drop everything and run to see the people I love.  It made me wish that I was not here.

My Dad was supposed to have a surgery that was pretty routine, just supposed to last for a half hour or so, to clean out his sinuses.  Four hours later the doctor came out and told my mom his airways had collapsed and they had to do an emergency tracheotomy. He is doing better now, still with a trach and still in ICU, but stable and the doctor wants to attempt the surgery again tomorrow.

I was just so shocked: this was not supposed to happen.  He was not supposed to almost die.  The surgery was supposed to happen quickly to fix a problem, not cause more problems.  The storm was so sudden and came out of nowhere, and I am so far away, that yesterday was hard to handle.

When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves... (Matt 8:23-24)


Being fishermen, I'm sure they knew that storms could brew up at any time, but they probably didn't know there was going to be a storm that day.  They just followed Jesus.  When the storm came, out of nowhere, they were afraid. But Jesus was with them.  He calmed the wind and the waves with just a few words, and quicker than it began, the storm was gone.


I guess the point of all this is, that I know Jesus is with me.  I know He is with my family, and He holds us in the palm of His hand.  People are praying, and God is moving. Every time I worry, I try and turn it to prayer. I try not to waste energy worrying about things that I cannot change.


So, if you remember us, could you lift us up in prayer?  The waves are still a little choppy.

London

Last Thursday some friends and I went to London for the weekend.  It was GREAT to finally visit England's capital city!  We had great weather, and happened to be in the right places at the right times.  We saw a lot, but there is so much more to go back and explore (especially at the National Gallery!) Enjoy a few of my favo(u)rite pictures of the weekend.

The hustle and bustle of city life

Trafalgar Square, a great people-watching place!

changing of the guard at the horseguards parade

Big Ben (the clock, not the tower!) and a glimpse of the London Eye

The sights the better weather were a treat, but once again I'm glad I don't live in a big city.  I couldn't handle the crowds, the traffic, the stuffy tube (underground), or the cost of living every day of my life!

multiply

Shoes and cups, multiplying like rabbits!

Just some photos of two scenes that amused me yesterday.

teaser

Here's a little taste of what I've been working on lately.
I've been back from Turkey for over a month now, and we've been busy finishing up some things, mostly the websites we designed.  Here's a little taste of the site for the creative outreach team. Basically, they wanted a home page that looked like a kaleidoscope, and would act as a colorful and energetic portal to the content on the rest of the site.  They want to use it to describe who they are and what they do, in order to get people involved by either joining the team or partnering financially.
I think we're on the right track, don't you?

the homepage

roll over a menu item-the page is transformed!

jet setter.

I thought I was well travelled until I got this job.  Since Carlisle is the head office of this international organization, a lot of people here do a lot of travelling.  It doesn't help my record that a lot of them served in the ships ministry! This month, however, I have been quite the traveller. For two weeks, I was in Istanbul with another graphic designer. Then I got home on Wednesday night at 11pm, on Thursday morning at 8:30 I got picked up by some friends, we went to Northern Ireland for the long Easter weekend. 

Istanbul: wow, what a huge city! I've never been in such a massive place in all my life. It was good to spend some time there, but I would not want to live there. The food is good, and it was nice being on the sea...but there were so many people! All cramming into the bus, the tram, the train, the streets; living in apartments stacked on top of eachother.

It was also a very busy working time! Ideas were flowing, computer hard disks were whizzing as the file sizes got larger and larger with more and more photoshop layers. This was the first time my co-worker and I had actually worked on any projects together, despite working in the same office.  We got along so well, it was a great blessing!

One day we got to take in the sights and see the influence of where the East meets the West, where cultures collide.  It was an experience I am so glad I got to have.  Thank you to all of you who were praying for us while on this trip.

Inside the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey.  We spent over an hour wandering around, absorbing the many motifs, mosaics, and designs, on our quest to discover the "Turkishness" that we needed for our many projects ahead.

who says the sun doesn't shine in England?

It has been so great to see a blue sky!  It still gets cloudy and tips down rain, but the sun has been making more of an appearance, and it even feels warm at times! *gasp*.  The weather really does affect (or is it effect?) my mood.  Its funny, because I almost don't even realize it.  Looking back on the winter, I am now noticing how difficult it was for me having the night come at 4pm, and even then only gray skies all the time. Now that the sun comes out and it is lighter for longer, I need to spend more time soaking up the rays. I need my vitamin D!

news.om.org

OM has now launched a new website, specifically dedicated to providing up-to-date news from the mission field, providing an accurate picture of what God is doing through OM to inform and inspire believers to greater involvement in world missions.

check it out: www.news.om.org

Oh yeah, and the graphics were done by yours truly ;-)

I should probably post something.

Yeah, I know, I'm horrible at the blog thing.  Once the excitement of going somewhere new wears off, its just life.  I hate it when people ask "if your life were a movie, who would you get to play yourself?" (not like I get asked this question all the time...) I usually answer, if my life were a movie, nobody would go to see it!

Anyway, life here has been going.  I'm settled in my new house.  Its just me at the moment, so I am trying to enjoy my time alone.  Last week I had two house guests.  One was a hampster that I was watching while his family was away.  The other was (a person) from a different office here for meetings.  It was so nice to have her, and have someone else in the house. 

Work here in the office has been a bit slow.  I love it when it's busy--it gives me more energy, and I become absorbed in the work and time flies.  When it's slow like this I just feel tired.  I've been helping with different projects, but they all seem to pause at the same time, so there are stretches when I feel a little useless.  However, I will be going abroad soon for a few weeks to help out a different field, so I am excited to get some travel in!  More about that to come.

Also, I need to remember to take more pictures!

accents.

I saw this on another friend's blog and thought I would share.  Basically what I've thought all along.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Neutral. Not Northern, Southern, or Western, just American. Your national American identity is more important to you than your local identity, because you don't really have a local identity to begin with.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Same Different

the Law.

Can I just say I'm so glad Jesus came?  My journey through the Bible in 90 days is going well so far, I've only missed one day out of ten.  Let me tell you, it has been a struggle.  My head gets heavy as I read the lists of "and this is how you should make it", and "this is what you shall do", and "if a man sins, let him bring an offering of..."  But I try and pay attention, because this is important.  There is a reason why God repeats Himself time and time again.  He is a Perfect, Holy, and Just God, He has a right to have things done His way.  As I read through Exodous and Leveticus, and continue to read through the Old Testament, I give thanks for Jesus.  I thank God that He sent His Son so we can be grafted in to the family of God, so we don't have to make sacrifices every time we sin, or do something incorrectly.  We don't have to be unclean anymore.  Jesus is the perfect answer to the Law.  The blood of animals cannot take away sins, but the blood of Jesus can.

the Bible in 90 days...

I moved (or "moved house" as they say here), and will be sans housemate until sometime in April.  Part of me is happy about this, because it means more time alone.  The other part of me is not so happy about this, as it means more time alone.  So what am I going to do with this time all on me onesies?

I've been inspired and well, convicted.  My whole life as a Christian, I have been unable to form successful "quiet time" habits.  I have a rough time making spending time with the Lord a priority.  So, while I have this time alone, I am going to try and read the whole Bible cover to cover in 90 days.  This sounds insane to me.  I've tried to read it in a year, and don't even get through Genesis.  But, I really feel like this is something I should try.  And maybe it seems more do-able to me because its only for 90 days, not 360.  Anyways, I've done the first day, and am already on Genesis 17.

Have you ever tried a Bible reading plan? How did it go?

Every Day

Went to visit CCYork this weekend, and we sang a new song (new to me anyway!) and I was really struck by the lyrics and I can only hope that I'll be changed, even as I look upon Your face.  A new favorite worship song.

Every Day
Every day, I see more of Your beauty
Every day, I know more of my frailty, Lord
And I can only hope that I'll be changed,
Even as I look upon Your face

For the eyes of my heart,
They are on You forever, they are on You forever
Yes, the eyes of my heart,
They are on You forever, they are on You forever

Every day, I see more of Your greatness
Every day, I know more of my weakness, Lord
And I can only hope that I'll be changed
Even as I look upon Your face

morning.

Those of you who know me well know that I am SO NOT a morning person.  I love my sleep, and I will sleep forever without some engagement to get me out of bed in the morning.  The one thing that makes me sad about not being a morning person is that I miss the quietness and beauty of the sun rising.  Now, here in the north of England, the sun comes out later during the winter...but its so cloudy you're lucky if you can see it at all.  The dark gray of night just changes to light gray during the day. 

Yesterday morning, however, I was blessed by what I saw on the way to catch my moring bus.  The sky was clear(ish), and through the quietly swirling mist and fog I could see the colors of the sun rising to start the day.  His mercies are indeed new, every morning.

time for an update

I think its just about time to update this thing, don't you?  I've been meaning to for a while now, just have never gotten around to it.

I've been back in England for two weeks now, I can't believe its been that long since I was home!  I had a great visit, it was so nice spending time with my family--seeing people I've missed and eating food I've missed!

This is Mr Lego, pretending he doesn't care that I'm leaving.  When he saw my suitcase come out, he refused to look at me or sit next to me.  Silly doggie.

I arrived back on the 30th of January, and immediately set off messing up my sleep cycle completely.  The whole first week back I don't think I managed to fall asleep before 2am, due partly to jet-lag, but also just not being able to turn my brain off, relax, and get comfortable!  Around the same time I was blessed with a cold that still has me coughing and my throat still a bit sore.  Every morning for the past few day's I've woken up feeling a little better than the day before, so I hope and pray that it is on the way out.  It has just decided to take its sweet time about it.

I will be "moving house" (as they say here in the UK) in a few weeks.  While moving is never fun, I am excited about it, as my new abode is only a few minutes walk from church, and is much closer to town and other people I know.  I will, however, be losing my roommate.  This is not so good.  Just pray that I find a hobby or something that helps me get out of the house. I've been quite the hermit lately.

In  news on the OM front, Christmas and thank-you e-cards at om.org have done really well, and I am quite pleased.  It is such a unique tool to get people involved in missions--whether calling them to go, or just bringing them to the site to read the stories and pray for our workers.

That's all for now folks, until next time!