Picking Up the Change

$180 a month of my budget comes from children under 12!

2012-01-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

Corbin & Charity were birthed for my friend's children who I love as my own. Whether it's the Bales 8, the Russell 2, the Shand 3, or any one of the 3 dozen children who are currently enrolled in my kid's club, Corbin & Charity were created for them, but they've touched so many others!

Corbin & Charity are technically made out of paper, card stock to be exact. But I'm pretty sure they are 100% love & joy. They've now traveled with me to Kenya, the Philippines, Haiti, Honduras, and all over the US. They've brought food, clean water, smiles, joy, and best of all the love of Jesus to children all over the world. (And probably a few germs if the truth be told!)

It's $5 a month to enroll a child, many of the children enrolled are giving that $5 out of their own money. One little girl has given up her weekly trip to Sonic so that she can give $20 a month, she's 7. One young man wrote a book about how God has made us all different and had it published and he gives some of his proceeds to send Corbin & the message of Jesus around the world. Other kiddos, have sent me letters with some of their Christmas or Birthday money that they, on their own, decided to give to missions. One very special club member, has been growing her hair out for months and recently had it all cut off to give to a little girl who lost her hair to cancer. I couldn't be more proud of the children in this program.

What do they get out of it? Quarterly letters from Corbin & Charity, some photos of Corbin & Charity in action, a bound book of their journey each year, but in truth, they don't get much. I'm pretty sure they do it because they want other children to know Jesus... go figure!

Thank you! Corbin and Charity Kid's Club Members! I love and pray for each of you! We're going to have a very exciting year together!

For information on how to enroll a child in this program:

Email me @ mbking@convoyofhope.org

$5 a month or an immediate donation of $50 will enroll 1 child or 1 children's ministry!

To Donate Click Here

What if I'd Been Born Haitian?

2011-12-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

This blog was written in the course of 24 hours at the end of our first month in Haiti. If you’re going to read the beginning you have to commit to reading the end.

Today was our second day at this horrific orphanage. Again, tears flowed as we watched the scene unfold. Haiti is a difficult place as it is; striking poverty is around every corner. This isn’t my first “developing" world voyage. (I’m not exactly sure what is “developing” here.) From Calcutta, to Kenya, to all over Latin America I’ve walked the dusty roads of developing nations, but I’ve found hope and even contentment in many of these faces of poverty. As we bobble down the pitted, dirt, roads of Haiti I search the darkened faces of the people we pass for any glimpse of hope I can find. Four weeks and many miles later, I am still searching.

We’ve been to some great schools, churches, and orphanages and seen smiles on the faces of the future of Haiti and glimpses of hope. Through Convoy of Hope, they are getting at least one meal a day with a full days worth of vitamins, water filters, latrines, and soon to come gardens. While here, we go in and educate them on the importance of clean water and the danger of drinking water that is untreated. We joke with songs in Creole and French about diarrhea, because diarrhea is funny in ANY language! But the worst-case scenario of consumption of dirty water is cholera and it’s no laughing matter.

I’m pretty sure you could ask any of our elementary students in the US, “what is cholera?” and not get any raised hands. When you ask it here, hands shoot up.

In our country, you ask 1^st graders what they want to be and among dreams of professional baseball careers you’ll hear, doctors, firemen, teachers, nurses, and movie stars! One time I asked my 3 yo Sunday school class what they wanted to be and one little blonde boy said “a combine” we asked, “you mean you want to be the man who drives the combine because you can’t be a combine?” Indignantly he crossed his arms and said with confidence, my grandfather said I can be anything I want to be and I want to be a combine!” At three he had hopes and dreams that could NOT be stolen from him! There are no dreams to steal in Haiti.

Here they may know what cholera is, but you get blank stares in every venue when you pose the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up!?” It leaves my mind reeling about the Jeremiah 29:11 plan for their lives, the hope and the future that is promised them, right now the only glimpse I can see of that, is a soon and coming King or the sweet rescue of death. To say I’ve overwhelmed at the plight of these people would be a gross understatement. I can’t see hope for them!

Tonight in church I saw hope. As we sang in Creole, Chris Tomlin’s “Our God,”
Into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise there's no one like you none like You!
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!

I suddenly realized they had hope, that there are Haitians who know God and they have hope in the face of hopelessness, when all the odds seemingly appear against them they sing at the top of their lungs with confidence and assurance, "If our God is for us who can ever stop us!?" What I could not see, they had faith to see, HOPE. The greatness of God.

Sometimes I need to step back from a problem to see how clear the solution is, if I hold my problems so close and examine them to a microscopic degree, I am blinded by their vastness and I cannot see the enormity of my God. God is not the author of confusion, His plan for the people of Haiti is one for their good, one to prosper them, not to harm them. They are the apple of His eye. He has not forgotten them. We also sang tonight, "nothing is impossible with You," over and over and over and I thought about the impossibilities I had seen throughout the day. And realized these people don’t SEE the needs I see, they EXPERIENCE them, they LIVE them, day in and day out, yet they stand in here and sing with all their hearts, "NOTHING is impossible with You!" To say that their faith is greater than mine is a gross understatement.

Tonight’s verse was Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life & I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” “Amens!” all around from the Haitian congregation. My mind was left reeling, as I thought cynically to myself, “Really!? Have you taken a look around?! Goodness and Mercy? All the days of your life? Do you know the definition of these words?” I began to think about MY definition of these words, and how it may very well be shallow and conditional. I am awed tonight by how big my God is and how great the faith of these Haitian believers is!

It’s been over a month since I wrote this blog entry. I keep asking myself would I be a believer if I had been born to Haiti and not to American soil? If my most basic of needs were not met on a daily basis, would my response be worship? I honestly can’t give myself an answer, but instead of continuing to toy with the question or to squander all that God has given me and move into a tent in north Springfield, I’m choosing to be more and more thankful everyday for everything! I’ll never know if the end result of my being born to impoverished Haiti would be worship, but I can decide that it WILL be the end result of my being born into the great USA, a blessed nation indeed!

Black Friday

2011-11-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

"Black Friday" doesn't mean much here in
Haiti! Well, except that all the people are black and I can say that because every time they see me they shout, "Hey Blanc!" I've begun to reply with, "that's not my name!" (nor is "Hey you!" OR "Give me one dollar!")

Bill picked us up this Black Friday morning, but not to go shopping! He took us to an LACC school here in Port-au-Prince! We had a blast! Then we loaded up and headed to Cite Solei. We'd heard and read so much about it that we were a little worried that we weren't headed out in and armored car! Seriously, watch the documentary Ghosts of Cite Solei and see if you aren't afraid for our lives even though we're already home!

Bill was a great host and calmed our nerves radically as he pointed ahead and said, "See that round about where the traffic is stopped? We're not going to go that way today because last week I had a team in here and the traffic stopped like that and someone shot the people in the car in front of us and took their things and the team was pretty freaked out!" The girls on either side of me wiggled nervously and I saw three different hands check to see if their doors were locked! I spoke up and said, "Thanks for taking us a different direction today! Is there anything else?" "No not really, " he replied, "except if you have a necklace on, one day a lady had one on and someone just reached in here and tore it off!" I slipped my necklace in my pocket and resolved NOT to ask anymore questions for the mental health (of my team of course)! "See that water tower up there? That's the entrance, you can always tell the entrance to Cite Solei because of all the smattering of bullet holes! Yep, big eyes all around! We pulled in...

No gunshots! No mobs! Just Haitian business as usual, granted it's 10am!

We pulled up to the school and headed straight to the kinder room because well, they're the CUTEST! They were soooo quiet!

I asked the teacher if they were always this calm- I wish I had a picture of the look on her face! (Chuckle!) Let's just say the answer was NOOO!!! ha! And within about 5 minutes we found the answer on our own!

Bill had told us that it took a week or two to get the food distribution set up in this school and that after the kids had been fed for a week the teachers called wanting to know what was in this food!? They reported much increased activity, behavior problems, loud children, rowdy children, fights, silliness! It's amazing how food will change the life of a child!

In the US if we stopped feeding our kids so much we wouldn't need as much Ridalin! (I kid! I kid! While in the kinder room I heard people talking in the other room in a language I could understand!!! I made my way into the classroom to find a team from King's Castle from the Dominican Republic, they were hosted by MLB's NY Yankee Damaso Marte which we got to meet of course!

I was more excited to see some fello King's Castle peeps than the MLB guy, but needless to say it was an AMAZING day for me!

Ima venture to say my Black Friday was better than your's!

Thanksgiving.

2011-11-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is the school cafeteria, in Zoranger, Haiti. This is where 4 ladies prepare meals for about 400 school children. You see those cardboard boxes in the background? Those are Manna Packs. In my place of work I get to handle these bad boys A LOT! I evidently missed the box on my application that said "willing and able to lift 50lbs or more over and over and over again!"

(There's a lot about the job description of a missionary that you'd be very surprised about! Painting, radio and tv appearances, debris removal, shoe selling, roofing, some days you need a hairnet, some days you need a back pack, some days you'll need your best dress, you just never know, but it's all to make Jesus known!!)

I've been with Convoy of Hope for 14 months now. From Springfield, Missouri to the Philippine Islands, I've probably never been more than a few feet away from a Manna Pack.

If you come visit me at my office, you'll make the trek through our 300,000 foot warehouse and you'll pass palets upon palets of these Manna Packs. On one of my first days in Nairobi, Kenya the missionary had us unload an entire shipping container of these. My first encounter may NOT have been one of love with the Manna Packs. Thanks Bryan Burr. My next team was headed to the Philippines and we knew we were gonna need some of these guys for our ministry there, so we loaded up a container full of Manna Packs to meet us in Manila. (They were just as heavy in the US as they were in Africa!) When we got to the PI, Japan happened. Our disaster response guys called us and asked us to meet them at the Convoy of Hope warehouse there in Manila. Know what we did?!? Loaded up a shipping container full of Manna Packs for the victims in Japan. (I think they may have been heavier in the Philippines!) Yep, NOT in love with the Manna Packs! Until Haiti.

The above photos speak for themselves, but once you see a Manna Pack in action, there's no regret, there's no remembrance of the aching back, or when they were dropped on your head, or when the rat ran across your foot in the container! (Well, ALMOST no remembrance!) But there's A LOT of Thanksgiving, thanksgiving for the donors, for the warehouse workers, for the truck drivers, for the logistics department, for the missionaries waiting at the port to pick it up, for the national staff who handle it, for the provision for the beautiful children who eat them, and for the opportunity to pull up to an orphanage, open the back of the truck and handle those cardboard boxes one last time. Manna Packs are light as a feather in Haiti!

Oops!

2011-11-24T16:00:00.001-08:00

So, if you follow me on facebook, which why wouldn't you?! Seriously, I'm a hoot! So yeah, if you follow me you'd know that a few weeks ago, I took my team to climb this waterfall in Haiti.

It's called Saut d'Eau waterfall.

And today we googled it... maybe we should've done that sooner?! (nah!) Need to know basis remember?!

It's actually a very famous spot here in Haiti. A very famous VOODOO spot that is!Here are our findings:

"Haitian pilgrims gather at the waterfall at Saut d'Eau every year on the anniversary of the 1983 sighting of the Virgin Mary, alternately identified as the Vodou loa, or spirit, of Erzulie Freda, the Goddess of Love..The waterfall at Saut D'Eau is the site of the largest Vodou and Catholic pilgrimage in Haiti. Each year, thousands of Haitian pilgrims make their way to Saut D'Eau to bathe in the sacred water and revel in the presence of the loa, particularly Erzulie and Damballah the Serpent, father of all life and keeper of spiritual wisdom, who is said to live in the falls. The water is believed to be curative and many women come to Saut d'Eau seeking fertility."

Yep I took my team to the home of voodoo baptisms! oops!

What can wash away my sins? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus!!!

A Closer Look

2011-11-20T11:52:00.001-08:00

I took this picture from the top of one of those mountains I was surprised to see in Haiti. While my photography is not so great, you don’t need a fancy camera to really capture the greatness of God’s creation. I mean I stuck my hand out of a moving car and snapped the picture and it could be a postcard, no?

We’ve spent a lot of time between the top of this mountain and that ocean you see down below. While at a glance it could be the cover of a brochure for any Caribbean destination, if you were to zoom in and take a closer look you’d see what we’ve seen. You’d see what lies between…

An impoverished nation, ravished by an earthquake, corrupt government, and voodoo. You’d be outraged by the injustice, you’d be compelled to some sort of action, you’d possibly give the shirt off your back, the shoes on your feet, or the lunch you had packed for yourself, you might write a check, or a letter to the President. You’d fight for justice like you’ve never fought before.

You might meet my friend Benita or Popeye-eye or Solemn Sam and fall in love, suffer a broken heart, and cry because you have to leave them in the despair they know as life! You will lose sleep. You may feel compelled to start the long, expensive, quest of adoption. You’ll love like you’ve never loved before.

You would see my friend Magdala who has sores and a belly full of worms from an unsanitary living environment, nearly blonde hair and not even the energy to cry due to malnourishment. You’d insist on footing the doctor bill and vow to find her a suitable place to live. But she’s only ONE. You’d call your dr. friends and plead their case. You pray like you’ve never prayed before.

You’d see bare feet and bare bottoms, and you’d email everyone you know asking for soles for souls and all the new undies they can send! You’d go home and empty your closet of the excess. You’d give like you’ve never given before.

Sometimes it’s much easier NOT to take a closer look. But I think we’re supposed to.

A closer look at our own family, a closer look at our co-workers, our church, our community. Maybe it’s to zoom in on the nations we share this globe with, maybe even our enemies! While the post card view is pretty sweet, and a closer look is not exactly for the faint of heart; zooming in will compel you to a greater cause, a deeper love, a more fervent prayer, a bigger blessing.

I was blind, but now I see.

How to get Giggles in Haiti

2011-11-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not this mask is NOT how to get giggles in Haiti, I just knew his cuteness would make you giggle! Each week we head out to new school or orphanage. This past week we were in a town called Cabaret. I opened the program with, "I am from Convoy of Hope." The room roared with laughter. I gave my translator a look like, 'did you just say what I said or did you tell a joke?!' I repeated myself, I am from Convoy! More giggles. I checked my fly, I looked behind me to see what my team might be doing, no clues!

Convoy means two things here in Haiti... 1. food 2. gas

We ask the kids about their favorite foods and many times they just shout, "convoy." You manje Convoy (eat Convoy). They have no idea that Convoy of Hope is a faith based organization with a driving passion to feed the world thru disaster response, community outreaches, children's feeding initiatives, and partner resourcing!

They equate the word convoy with food. "Convoy is coming" means food is coming.

The second thing convoy means here in Haiti is gas... and not the kind for your car! Evidently after eating the convoy (food) there's a flatulence problem. And by that I mean....

Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply (in American English) gas. The gases are expelled from the rectum in a process colloquially referred to as "passing gas", "breaking wind" or "farting". Flatus is brought to the rectum by the same peristaltic process which causes feces to descend from the large intestine. The noises commonly associated with flatulence are caused by the vibration of the anal sphincter, and occasionally by the closed buttocks.

Yep Beans, beans, good for the heart....

So when the classroom becomes odorous here in Haiti, you might hear this, "Who convoyed?" (Seriously. I'm not making this up!)

So, when I got up and said, I'm from Convoy , I said one of two things....

I made a fat joke... I'm full of food, I'm from food, I'm made of food eat me.

OR I'm from a toot. I have to toot. I stink. (You get the idea I'm sure ... gas plus students =s laughter, so this is how you get giggles in Haiti, just tell them you're from Convoy!

From now on, I'll stick to I'm Mary Beth or sometimes I just tell them my name is Yor Beautiful, because sometimes you just need to feel good about yourself ya know?

A City on a Hill!

2011-11-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

When I imagined Haiti, I imagined a desert land. I didn’t imagine beautiful green mountains being the back drop of nearly every view, nor did I imagine seeing the sunset over the ocean every evening. And while I’d heard about the voodoo here, I didn’t imagine I would HEAR the voodoo in the middle of every night or pass a voodoo temple nearly every day! I know, I know, you’re asking if I’ve ever heard of Google Earth, or Wikapedia, or seen a map for goodness sake!?

I’m the team leader, I research the important stuff who we’re working with, where we’re staying, currency exchange rates, safety issues, language stuff, transportation logistics, how close the nearest hospital is, and of course the availability of internet, nearest beach, and possibility of AC & indoor plumbing, but I don’t GOOGLE it! And sometimes I wish my team wouldn’t either! But oh do they! They know every disease, kidnapping, horrific event, and possible natural disaster we may face. One time a team member argued with me that he was sure we were at the wrong hotel because when he had used Google Earth to see it the roof was green and this hotel did NOT have a green roof! (Shaking my head!)

I’m not sure it’s a real concentrated effort that I don’t Google, it could be that my computer instinctively goes to Facebook or Jon Acuff’s Blog when I turn it on. I mean I know everything I read on the internet is true, but let’s face it, if I had known before I came that Haiti has rats the size of possums and that I would see them with my very own eyes just feet away from where I lay my head to rest every night, I would have feigned illness and another team leader would have had to have been brought in! Me and the 3^rd world, we’re on a need to know basis!!

Wow! I got way off track… like I said I didn’t imagine the big green mountains. One night, my co leader, Becca Jantz to name names, did us the favor of taking us to her secret spot on the Mission of Hope compound where we stay. It happens to be a concrete slab half way up the side of a mountain, between where the water truck comes every day, the windmill, and the neighboring village. We went up at night, she had us turn off our flashlights and just listen in silence. We soaked it in, the part of mission of hope we stay in is literally like grand central station! It’s beside the kitchen, where the Haitian ladies like to SCREAM at each other (especially around 5am), where the loud American teams like to congregate at night, where the goats evidently try to kill each other, and sometimes packs of dogs like to come in, it’s beside the basketball court where very former athletes like to relive their glory days which involves a lot of grunting, yelling, and trips down the hill to the clinic! Oh and it's in the middle of an orphanage of Haitian children! It’s NEVER quiet! We got to the top and our devo time was to just be still! Best devo we’ve had, I think!

There was a breeze, no noise, you could hear the waves crashing, and see the lights of Port au Prince a good 20 miles away in the distance. When the silence broke, our youngest team member made a profound observation, what if everyone had a light? This whole place would be lit up! What she was referring to is one, most Haitians don’t have any sort of electricity (even Mission of Hope where we stay only has it about 2/3 of the time), AND she was referring to the fact that all along the dark mountain where we were sitting there were thousands of Haitian homes! We pass them everyday, but the ONLY lights we could see were from Port au Prince and from one lone fire in a neighboring village!

It hit me hard. It’s dark here! Voodoo, hopelessness, disease, destruction, poverty, it’s pitch black and when it’s THIS dark you think A LOT about light!

Verses about light trampled thru my mind…. God said, "Let there be light!" and there was light and He saw that the light was good! The Lord turns my darkness into light. Let the light of Your face shine upon us Lord. The commands of the Lord are radiant giving light to the eyes. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? He wraps Himself in Light and darkness tries to hide. I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. No wonder Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

All I could think about was… THIS City on a Hill…enshrouded by darkness. And all the people living on that hill in the pitch black dark that doesn’t end at day break!!

I began to wonder would happen if every home on that hill, had a light, I could nearly hear children singing, "This lil light of mine!" I mean seriously if every home on these hills had a light the nightfall would be obliterated, there are THAT many people, there are THAT many homes, it’s THAT dark! More than food, medicine, clothes, and shoes, Haiti needs exposure to The Light!!! In providing the former, we accomplish the latter, one child at a time!

When you pray for Haiti, pray for LIGHT. Pray that one heart at a time, one home at a time, one village at a time, that the lights would come on! That darkness would have to flee. A lamp unto their feet, a light unto their path. That blind eyes would see. Illuminate the path of the lost so they can clearly see the way to You! Let there be light, for Haiti!

Tales from Beneath the Mosquito Net

2011-10-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have a love hate relationship with my mosquito net. I may lean a little more on the hate side on most days, but I have to still appreciate it ya know? One might think that you just string that bad boy up effortlessly, crawl in, and fall into a bug free sleep! But one would be wrong! #1 A mosquito net is powerless against bed bugs, but that's NOT what this blog is about, as I am unable to share my thoughts and feelings on the bed bug topic (appropriately) at this time.

So back to beneath my net, #1 the typical bug net has four lil eyelet doomaflickies in which to place string in and hang over your bed, sounds good, 4 eyelets, 4 corners, right? Wrong! Because when you hang that bad boy up, the middle sags and as you breathe in netting you feel as though you're in your very own coffin! Not cool!

So let's just say you hang it, you duck tape that middle part up and then you crawl in ... you're set right? X (please make the family feud sound here!) One also needs to know that you must tuck in all ends of the net underneath your mattress as some mosquitos appear to have the intelligence level to come in the floor route!

One might think that at THIS point you're set! (I sure hope your remember you're tucked in before you try to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because if by chance you don't you could rip down your net entirely and teach your roommates new words in the middle of the night!)

So... after a few uncomfortable nights, you figure out how to properly duck tape, tuck, and to stop all liquid intake around 5pm, you're set, RIGHT?! Well, NO!

Evidently the mosquitos in Haiti have gone to special ops training! First off, some of them sneak in when you get out of bed in the morning and hide out till bed time, so after all your net tucking, you're actually sleeping with the enemy! When you awake, somewhat light headed as you have very little blood left, you find the mosquito barely able to keep himself afloat as his gluttony has caused him a heaviness! Two days ago, I took my sheet, and killed my freeloading, unwelcomed overnight guest! There was so much blood on the sheet that you would have thought I had killed a person or at least a kitten (which I sometimes dream of doing!) Sounds gross to use your sheet for such doesn't it? Trust me, when you're in Haiti, that's all that sheet is good for, if you're using covers you have already contracted Malaria and have bigger problems to worry about!

Oh so you're not impressed, you don't thinking sneaking in at 6am and hiding out for 12 hours is special opps material, that I should have checked more throughly?! Well, then what do you have to say about this?

Last night, I taped, tucked, tinkled, and throughly checked the sheets before entering! I curled into a lil ball and drifted off into a benedryl induced sleep dreaming of (wouldn't you like to know!) Around 1am I awoke to a severe itching sensation on both knees...I wandered into the bathroom for a better visual, to see about 10 mosquito bites on each knee! What could have happened you ask?! Thanks for your concern! Well, there is a skillful art to sleeping beneath the mosquito net, at NO time can any part of your body be touching your net as the special ops trained mosquitos are awaiting. They waited patiently outside my net as I drew my knees upward and they rested barely grazing my cone of silence (we've established that one cannot be addressed while inside their net, it gives us the illusion of privacy!) and yep, they feasted on my exposed knee caps, like the vultures that they are!

Life beneath the mosquito net, well, it requires, grace and poise, brain and brawn, and the ability to sleep directly in the center of your bunk without shifting throughout the night! I'll let you know how that turns out, till then send benedryl, citronella perfumes, and chocolate (I'm an emotional eater!)

Futbol Haiti Style!

2011-10-22T15:30:00.001-07:00

We spent Monday thru Friday of this week visiting a school of about 60 children. The school is nestled half way up a mountain beside a flowing river where people from the community bathe and do their laundry and it also supplies their drinking water. We gave this school 4 new water filters which will purify a liter a minute of that river water. We spend our days teaching about the importance of clean water, washing our hands, explaining to them why we built them latrines (before the latrines were built most people went where ever they were whenever they felt the urge!) Nutrition, Cholera, SIDA (AIDS), etc. it can get a little heavy! So we deemed Friday Fun Day! And after several of the students accepted Christ we decided to celebrate with a lil game of FUTBOL. Haitians LOVE soccer!

If this particular tourney had a name I'm pretty sure it would have been The Dust Bowl, as 60 students took the field in a mad frenzy dust flew, kids were trampled, and within 30 seconds the ball was in the river! Eventually however, the younger kids and probably some of the smarter kids went inside to the shade (why did no one tell me that it's ALWAYS 110 degrees in this country?!?) where more than half the interns were playing guitar and swapping English lessons for Creole ones! Eventually, we even broke them into teams (it just seemed like the right thing to do!), the boys all ran to Richard and the girls all ran to me so boys against girls it was! Then it was on like donkey kong!

Did the ball ever end up in the river again? Why yes, yes it did! How did we get it out? Well, funny thing is before I could even jog over to the bank to locate the ball, some lil guy would have already stripped down to his birthday suit jumped in and thrown the wet ball onto our "field" and the game would commence!

Richard and I played goalies and to be honest it was likely the safest position as this particular game of soccer resembled what I imagine MMA / UFC soccer tourneys to look like, the rules were, there are no rules!!!

I shouted in English to my Creole team and they shouted back in Creole as if we full well knew exactly what the other was saying! The boys scored a "few" times....you wouldn't think a barefoot could send a ball flying into your gut so hard the wind gets knocked out of you, but I'm here to tell you it CAN!

You also wouldn't think that lil girls in lil yellow dresses could score on boys with big feet so many times, but we sure did and no worries I taught them how to celebrate humbly! If running a circle around the filed screaming with our hands in the air every time is humble!

I seriously think it may have been the most fun game of soccer I have ever played!!!

The Hardest We've Prayed

2011-10-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ok... so close your eyes and imagine this.... well, I guess you can't very well close your eyes and keep reading so imagine it.... you're in Haiti, the country of voo doo, of chaos, where you have to have multiple armed guards at all times. It's dark. It's 3:30 in the morning. You're asleep in your bunk, beneath your mosquito net. And you hear this noise! (Click on the word THIS in the previous sentence, you will have to click on another link, but you really HAVE to experience this for yourself!) Turn off the lights to better understand the degree of terror!

You are sure it is a man screaming help! Images of torture flash through your mind, it's literally right outside your window, he continues to scream, your teammates are awakened... and huddled together in their pajamas. Neither fight nor flight are an option. Welcome to hell... I mean living with goats!

Neosporin!

2011-10-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

According to my Mama, Neosporin fixes everything!

Me: "Mommmmm! I burned myself in the kitchen!"

Mom: Put some Neosporin on it!

(actually she might just laugh out loud ... my chances of getting burned in the kitchen are pretty low, unless something is just really hot when I pull it out of the microwave!)

Me: "Mommmm! Carrie knocked me off the bed and I have rug burn!"

Mom: Put some Neosporin on it!

(or her more typical response, Carrie would never do anything like that!)

Me: "Mommmm! I fell up the stairs again!"

Mom: Good job Grace Ann! There's some Neosporin in the bathroom!

Me: "Mommmm! Dad sliced is finger off!"

Mom: Find the Neosporin!

(all these are pretty much actual and fairly recent true stories!)

And my most favorite is when I have a visible mark on my face or hand and my sister whips Neosporin out of her purse and lathers me in it without my request! (she's her mother's daughter for sure!)

Even though it doesn't cure all, it's good stuff! Hopefully if you ask my home church they'll be able to tell you about a message about Neosporin that I spoke to them a couple years ago! See, Neosporin has some dang good marketing... You've seen their commercials, a band aid armed w Neosporin goes on the kid's scrape and then when they pull it off... GASP! it's gone!!!

Even their slogan: Neosporin: A Higher Level of Healing! Every cut! Every time!

And they own the 3 C's of proper wound care: Clean it! Coat it! Cover it!

Well, all that to say... we came armed with Neosporin to Haiti... and have been covering this lil guy in it everyday! (Ideally that pic at the top would be right here, but well, this is why I don't blog often because I just don't know how to do certain things!)

His name is Rivaldo! He's adorable! He was in a motorcycle accident (whole families ride motorcycles together here!) I believe in one week I have now seen 3 motorcycle accidents with my own eyes!

Please believe we didn't just depend on Neosporin's higher level of healing, but are confident in THE HIGHEST level of healing! By His stripes!

Who called for the ambulance?! HE did!

2011-10-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like any old ambulance you may pull over for in the US right? Well, that it IS! Months before the earthquake this was shipped over and NEVER used. It's too big to go down the small streets. It was an eyesore & scheduled to be shipped back when the earthquake occurred. 1,ooo's of transports later... this ambulance is now known throughout Haiti and will NOT be shipped back to the US anytime soon! Just one of the many miracle stories... did you know our convoy of hope warehouse had just been filled with meals days before the quake? did you know the US army had come to Mission of Hope our partners in Haiti and said you can have these two huge army bunkers if you'll take all the medical supplies in them just weeks before the quake? Thousands of patients were cared for there. There was an entire ward of amputees! There is a guy named Nyoke from Korea who is a doctor who does prosthetics and is living at mission of hope with us still fitting amputees with new limbs! Oh... and upon his arrival to Haiti to help, he didn't know Jesus... he does now!!!!

Poor St. Peter!

2011-10-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write this specific blog post for sometime. It seems I can't escape it. I've seen it with my own eyes first in India, then in Unionville, TN, every month at my nail salon in Springfield, MO, and at San Pedro Hospital in the Philippines.

You see, this spring in the Philippines, in typical Mary Beth fashion I got sick, and if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it BIG so double pneumonia in Davao City, Philippines it was. The double pneumonia has come and gone and the Philippine health care system was surprisingly just fine, but I can't forget this; the statue to the left of these words.

This statue of St. Peter & his rooster stand tall in the

lobby of San Pedro hospital. I'm sure poor St. Peter enjoys

not being able to get rid of that stinking rooster! I mean we

all like to be known by our biggest failure don't we!? I'm not

offended by the statue. We owe a lot to St. Peter as Christians!

Here's the deal. In India, I watched a father pick up a baby who was literally just skin & bones,

worse than any child I've ever seen on any infomercial or in any other nation. He picked up this

baby, it's eyes were empty and bore into mine as he walked in front of me. I saw that he had coins

in his hand, I thought, good! he must be going to get something for the baby to eat. We

followed him and I watched him throw the coins into a cage holding a tree & kneel and ask the tree

for blessing. Horrified I watched him return with the baby to the street. A father looking for hope.

I worked with families in Unionville, TN for a short time, one day a child had several viles. I asked her

about them and she said they were part of her religion. Curiously I asked further. These viles were

part of a wiccan ceremony ritual. Her family needed money and happiness she said so tonight they

were going to have a prayer meeting. A child looking for hope.

Every month I'm in country, I go to a cheap nail salon on Glenstone. That and McDonald's cokes

are my treats! I am greeted by a dusty plastic Buddah idol. It's no wonder Buddah is fat, every time I

see him he has donuts, some sort of meat, or other food offering in front of him. He never seems

to eat very much of it though. The same person who puts those out in the morning has to throw

them away at night. It makes me sad, and not just the wasted donuts! A people looking for hope.

And now this leads me to San Pedro Hospital in Davao City! Short of breath I leaned against St. Peter

one day while visiting my pneumonia doc! Although the lobby is quite large I noticed everyone who

came through the doors insisted on getting really close to me. Don't they know we Americans have

space issues? Later I saw that they were all coming in to touch St. Peter, poor guy, his paint was

tarnished because of the excessive touching. I wanted to tell them that I got up close and personal

with St. Peter each visit & he didn't seem to be helping my double pneumonia. A people looking for

healing!

My mind wanders back to the temple in scripture where they found all the idols and the altar to

the unknown god. People have been looking for hope in all the wrong places for some time it

seems. Please take THE HOPE to as many people as you can, you may think they don't want to

hear about Jesus, but they're throwing coins at trees for blessings, trying to find happiness in viles &

wiccan rituals, feeding plastic idols, & rubbing the paint off poor st. peter for healing! It's no

time to be quiet & tolerant, it's time to give people the hope they're looking for!

Better @ Blogging: Branson

2011-09-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

I figure I have to start somewhere.... my life (@least when the interns are in town) is definitely worth blogging about so here I go again! Girls what's my weakness?! Dang it! I'm sure I have ADD sometimes! Of all the bloggable places I visit I'm going to start with BRANSON!

We DID tour The Titanic Exhibit there, which was totally cool & I encourage you to go check it out BUT unlike The Pepper Palace they did NOT allow photos so, here's your HOT sauce blog!

"See Jane on Fire! See Dick Burn! & See Spot in Heat!"

And this is the set I PURCHASED! I figure I'll serve it on my next date! I mean a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

And even the folks in Branson have good taste in college football! Go Vols!!

But they DO NOT have good taste in snacks... Bacon and Cheddar Crickets?!? I guess that's better than just the plain ones?!

And last, but not least here's a preview of some Hot n Saucy attire you can purchase @ The Pepper Palace.

PETA: this one reminds me of my dear sister, Carrie. (And not because she'd wear it, because she wouldn't be caught dead in an oversized t-shirt!) But, one day the news was showing a PETA protest,

to which my sister rolled her eyes. (No one in my allergy ridden household is much of an animal lover of any kind!) But I questioningly asked my hippie sister, "Oh you're NOT a member?!" And her reply well, it was very, Carrie!! " "NO! If I had money, I'd wear a real fur everyday!"

And last, but not least, there's THIS t-shirt!

As I get better at blogging I am sure that this will be a re-occurring theme, but I HATE cats! Before I can seriously date a man I must ask him, "Do you like cats?" If his answer is yes, he is NOT God's will for my life... or a man for that matter. I once asked a prospect, "Do you like cats?" To which he replied, "Sure! I love Chinese food." I thought for sure we'd get married. Sigh! Still Single.

My First Mission's Trip

2011-06-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Backstory: When I finally submitted to the call of God to full time ministry, I reluctantly said, "okay," but there was one stipulation I gave Him, "I'll do anything but be a missionary!" (there were 101 reasons for this addendum, but that's another post entirely!)

6 months later, Christmas break of my freshman year of college, I found myself in Quito, Ecuador. The sights, smells, and sounds were overwhelming, beautiful in retrospect. I chose a ministry option away from the "dirty" people. (Is there a real ministry option away from dirty people?) The least amount of interaction the better, if I had my way I'd come out of this place untouched and therefore un-diseased!

We performed songs and skits in the middle of a busy plaza each day. The only reoccurring audience members were the vendors and their children. One such child was a bit unruly. Angelica, was 5 years old, her older sister would scold her and try to corral her, but nothing could keep little Angelica away from the gringos! It became my job to make sure she was at least somewhat quiet during the prayer times. Each day, we would play behind the stage. In the evenings we were doing services with a local church, we invited Angelica & her older sister, who was maybe 8? They didn't come.

The next day at the plaza, Angelica stayed close by her mother's stand and the older sister sat silently beside her mother with an arm wrapped in a homemade sling.

Around lunch time I began to miss my little side kick, so we approached the stand. Their mother did not acknowledge us, the sister kept her head down, & Angelica clung to my leg playfully as I approached. Realizing something was not right I had the missionary speak with the woman.

As it turned out, the children had tried to come to the service the night before, their father a drunk and not a believer, had physically stopped them, hence the sling.

At 18 years old, I was furious, confused, outraged that this could happen. (Imagine a mad chihuahua held on a leash!) For some reason that's the image that comes to my mind when I think of this day! In my young mind the solution was simple, we take the girls! ha! It's not even THAT simple in the USofA, it definitely wasn't in Quito, Ecuador 15 years ago! Sigh.

The next day was our last. My side kick had rejoined me and I was keeping her quiet for the last time, although on this day she was already quiet and sitting STILL in my lap, my mind was far off and it took me a minute to notice this change. When I looked down into the biggest, most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen and saw tears dripping from them, I went into panic mode. I thought for sure I was sitting on her little leg or something or that she was hurt in some way! When I asked her in my very poquito spanish... "What's wrong? What's the matter? Are you okay!?"

Her reply: "I want Jesus in my heart like you!" In that moment, MY life changed! Angelica's life with Jesus began and I'd venture to say mine did too!

My Thoughts while Unloading a SEMI by hand....

2011-06-03T20:52:00.001-07:00

They did not teach me this in Bible college, but they tell me it's ministry?

Didn't I get my masters to avoid this?

Why on earth did they not use pallets? Who on earth packed this like this?

Always, take the box labeled toilet paper, avoid the ones marked canned goods.

If you're going to drop and break something, let it be something other than balsamic vinagerette dressing... it stinks as it bakes in the hot, humid, semi trailer.

I'm all for miracles Lord, and sure it was cool when you multiplied the little boy's lunch and fed the 5,000, but it was so NOT cool when we could never find the back of the semi today... I am confident that you multiplied those donations and I thank You, but next time could you do it once they are stored in the warehouse?

I'm sure that guy did NOT mean to drop that extra large can of lysol off the truck and onto my toe... I co-currently apologize for any new words the church groups working with us may have learned as a result of this event.

Cases of Pedia-lite are NOT lite at all!

Why did people donate so many snuggies? it's 110 degrees outside, these people lost everything including their couches and tv sets... I'm just not sure how a snuggie is going to be helpful, but what do I know, plus why am I complaining I know I by passed 6 cases of water to grab the snuggie boxes, light as a feather!

I really should get my fork lift certification so I can drive around in one of those all day like Ryan and not have to do all this heavy lifting, but then again I'd probably run into a lot of stuff .... like Ryan.

boxes marked "toilet trees" go on the hygiene pallets. Boxes marked "juce" go with the drinks.

why is no one taking pictures of me carrying this really heavy box?! But when I was standing around at the registration table the TPE guy sure wanted to shoot fotos of me then, just hanging out, there wasn't even sweat on my shirt yet and my mascara was still on my eye lashes, c'mon, where's the paparazzi when I'm actually doing something?

Disclaimer: The above entry does not represent the thoughts, beliefs, or values of Convoy of Hope. It does however, give you a glimpse into the depths of my mind. Your choices are to: Pray for Joplin. Give money to help Joplin. Or meet me at the semi!

My First Day at the Convoy of Hope Office

2011-01-05T15:00:00.001-08:00

I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the idea of "going into the office." I mean my days of sitting behind a desk and listening to people's problems are over, no?

I pulled into the parking lot and saw the fleet of 18 wheelers ... and I was proud. I work here!

It's the first full week of the year and it's spiritual emphasis week, therefore we had a morning chapel / prayer service. The offices emptied and met in the "training room" where we discussed something you wouldn't normally discuss in the corporate world, "staying in the vine." I'll post my notes, it's good stuff! We were then asked to get into our teams and pray for a few moments for the upcoming year so... we did!

After chapel, Matt took me around and introduced me to everyone in the building, some people weren't at their desks because they were in meetings in Washington DC about how to better serve our nation. Then there was the office where someone was speaking Spanish to our partners in Latin America about our feeding programs there. In the donor area they were on the phone with Coca Cola, who is evidently a HUGE donor for Convoy! How cool is that? My high school BFF works for Coca Cola, it's my favorite drink, and they're making the world a better place (as well as a bigger place, but ....) Then we didn't disturb the two ladies in one office who were joined together in prayer. When we got to the disaster relief area they were sitting in front of a couple of big screens of the world with all the current disasters marked watching them closely to see if response is needed on our part, the weather channel was playing in the background as well. On the way to our offices we dodged the fork lift drivers in the warehouse moving product to load trucks!

A pretty cool first day indeed!

The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian

2010-10-17T03:47:00.000-07:00

The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian describe my companions on the next 2 legs of my flight! From Atlanta to Amsterdam I'm going to have to admit that I was like that little kid on the Disney commercial, "But I'm tooo excited to sleep!"

The 2 Scottish girls were on their way home from "A Holiday" in the states and they were perfectly pleasant, the one right next to me chose to watch Avatar and any time something jumped out she nearly jumped out of her chair and gasped and even held my hand a few times! She definitely reminded me of my Danish foreign exchange student so it was okay, she liked to hold my hand too!

The Hollander, or what ever you call ladies from Holland, she was one of those missionary types (I know right?! Could you change my seat please? I think she was grateful when she began to witness to me and I said, "no evangelism needed (especially not for the next 8 hours!) Me and Jesus are tight!" However I have to tell you that she had personal space issues, or rather, I have personal space issues and she violated them excessively! She also was a public nose blower (this is never okay, but especially not when you're going to run out of places to put your used tissues and decide to us my seat back!) However, I have to give her props for at the end of the flight when I asked her how long it would take her to get to Holland from Amsterdam, she was very gracious as she informed that Amsterdam is, in fact, IN Holland!

In case you're wondering I viewed Toy Story 3, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which was super funny, and the kid in it reminded me of a young Logan Ellis! I love you Logan and you've turned into a handsome strong marine from that cute little jr. higher who scraped his face on the bottom of the pool trying to impress the ladies!) :) Oh, and I watched a laugh out loud funny episode of Modern Family. Manny is my favorite!

The last flight well, it was not so entertaining as I was soooo sleepy! I, likely being the last passenger booked, was in the middle of the middle row, up against the wall, seated between 2 very large men (don't you wish everybody used dial?) who claimed both arm rests and some of my seat actually immediately, however, there was an aisle seat EMPTY in my eye sight, I yelled across the plane to ask the stewardess if I could stake claim to it, I couldn't chance waiting on her to respond to those people who had pushed their call button, certain that they all had their eyes on my empty aisle seat treasure! Suckers, I sat by the tiny Asian girl on the aisle and slept like a baby! Because she was Asian I assumed she did not speak English because only white folk speak English, right?! So, when I was using my sign language to speak foreign to ask to borrow her pen to fill out one of those form thingys, she looked at me and in nothing but a New York accent politely asked me if I needed to borrow her pen! Oops! What?! I'm always culturally appropriate with my stereotypes!

Seat 21 C

2010-10-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

The journey to Kenya begins: Nashville to Atlanta (1 whopping hour!)
Atlanta to Amsterdam (8hrs)
Amsterdam to Nairobi (8hrs)

The adventure began on the first flight, Seat 21 C - Aisle 21 is what I'd probably call an "afterthought." I imagine it went like this: Some Delta stewardess wanted to make a little extra money and on a plane with 20 aisles she created Aisle 21... basically she sat a couple of children's folding chairs behind row 20 right beside her little pop out seat - you know the one- directly up against the wall where people lean their buttocks while they await the restroom! Sound terrible? Nooo, it has its perks, it has a special back massager .... your chair vibrates every time someone flushes the toilet! We hung out on the Nashville tarmac for about an hour just for fun I think.... but don't worry the stewardess in my lap made sure I kept my tray table in the locked and upright position! (There were no worries about my seatback as the wall made sure of that!) Oh and evidently you had to pay extra for A/C! (Oh and NO mom I did not meet a man on this flight, the grown man seated beside me was reading Harry Potter!) It may sound like I'm complaining....I'm soooo NOT, I'm smiling ear to ear, just happy to be on the plane on my way to Kenya (well, Atlanta first!) Currently reading Midnight in the City by Hal Donaldson I'll submit a book report later!

The GULP Heard Round the World

2010-10-17T03:11:00.001-07:00

Lesson #1 with Convoy of Hope was to be learned near .... IMMEDIATELY! It's the Biblical principle of being ready in season and out of season! At a moment's notice! Friday, October 8th was to be my last day with Centerstone and while I was enjoying a final lunch with co-workers, my telephone rang:

Matt Wilkie: "Do you wanna go to Africa this week?"
Me: "Sure, when?!" (thinking to myself, today is Friday, we're probably talking heading out NEXT Friday...no sweat! )
Matt Wilkie: Monday!
Me: GULP!

Only my co workers could officially tell you what my face looked like, but my missionary friend in Argentina assures me she heard me GULP! Here's my re-inactment photo!

The List

2010-07-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Rather than express my feelings in the written word this evening, I'm going to allow Jaron to speak for me! (Ahhhh...sigh, Jaron...) :) It'd probably be inappropriate to publish my prayer list here, but just know you've made The List! xoxoxoxox!

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

2010-06-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

This post was triggered by my recent viewing of Invictus (which is not at all about Rugby by the way!) But it was inspired and made possible by the passionate Dr. Johan Mostert and the beautiful people of South Africa.

Some things came full circle for me today. Some that won't show up in the post, but will be seen I hope.

I'm a southern girl and proud of it. Born and raised in Columbia, Tennessee. The radio set to Nashville's 97.9 today a song about how everybody has a "hillbilly bone" made me smile and say AMEN as I drove into the country to a friend's house to be greeted by a pot bellied big, some chickens, and kiddos on the back of a gator eating watermelon slices as big as they were!

I LOVE where I come from!

In 1995, I was graduating from Columbia Central High School, beginning my first year of "freedom" which would start with that rite of passage unchaperoned trip to Panama City Beach, which is insignificant to this post, but it was one heck of a trip class of 95ers was it not? the only significance that it carries is to let you know where my mind was in 1995! :)

In 1995, a world away, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were experiencing a new "freedom" as well, one that my 18 year old mind bound for PCB didn't know about and quite frankly wouldn't have cared about. Apartheid "separateness" had "ended." And just like we graduates found that our "freedom" came with many new battles to be fought, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were "free" to begin to battle as well! As I walked through the Apartheid museum in 2007 and saw the barbed wire and armoured cars and videos playing of dates not like those in my history books of the Civil War and battles no one living had endured, but the 1980s and 1990s news clips played. This was in MY lifetime!

My "tour guide" was Dr. Johan Mostert, a professor from my graduate school, a white South African man by skin color only it seems. With passion and through tears he walked us through, recounting his memories and his love for his nation and their story which tightly interwove into his own story. Have you ever had one of those teachers who taught you things you didn't know you were learning until much later in life? A teacher, who stayed far enough away from the text book to teach you what you really needed to know to be changed, to understand, and to succeed? Dr. Mostert was THAT teacher and so much more! To say I am grateful would be an understatement.

I should probably confess now that I was so frustrated with him on this trip. It was in my head to be a "mission's trip," which to ME meant work, work, work, work, work to have the largest impact possible in a short time. Dr. Mostert was far more concerned with the impact this trip would have on our lives and our hearts than he was in what we could accomplish in 3 weeks time. And I'll have to admit, your methods although completely unorthodox:) will impact my life and your nation and mine far more than anything we could have hoped to accomplish in 3 weeks.

We went from the finest neighborhoods in Pretoria to the townships, this was not a days drive, it was a couple blocks away. I was appalled by the contrast of the make shift scrap tin homes from the bricks and landscaping I had just left. How can this be? I was shocked... as were the people in the townships, that this white woman was entering. I kept thinking, "are you kidding me? What on earth is wrong with South Africa?"

..... I love where I'm from, but I must be honest.... I see color....

I would have sworn to you that day that "apartheid" was dead and gone in MY great nation!

The contrast of the Leave it To Beaver Neighborhood next to the pieced together homes in the townships was just not right. To walk into the home of my hosts and sit down and have tea and watch South African Idol and then to travel minutes away and walk into a mud hut with no electricity, (with no NOTHING) to find a woman dying alone of AIDS in the dark no one had tended to her for days. Seriously? This is outrageous!

Several years later in my home town, I turned off West 6th Street, my grandmother lived there most of my life, when the Fuzzy Duck was a Dairy Queen ya know? Two blocks in, I visited a home where the tv was positioned on the floor, and everyone sat on the floor although there was seating and furniture to put the tv on, boards lined the windows making it so dark. A teenager entered the room and stated what's the white woman doing here? 2 blocks away....

I'm not sure what I'm getting at, we have a long way to go in the areas of equality and justice that's for sure. I'm pretty confident that our remedy is not going to come from our government. But politics and color are not what this post is about. It's about. Although I hope to spend my lifetime practicing missions, helping those who can't help themselves, going into places of great need being Jesus with skin on making sure bellies and hearts are full all around the world! I don't think that's God's calling or expectation for EVERYONE, to pack up go into the nations! He's gifted each of us uniquely and placed us strategically in our homes and jobs and churches and teams and schools and positions and has laid specific areas of need on our individual hearts! So this is not a post about foreign missions although if you'd like to donate to MY endeavors, my AGWM acct # is 294171-4! :)

So if this post is not about rugby, my senior trip, racism, politics, or foreign missions, what's it about? It is about those in need.... two blocks away.

AVATAR!

2010-06-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm loosely committing to being a more faithful blogger! I'm starting to realize the best blogs are about everyday life, however, I'm missing the essential ingredients... the cute kids & their poop stories, the romantic husband (& his poop stories),a pet of any kind (& their poop stories) or an office job where people freeze staplers in jello & say ridiculously inappropriate things, etc. etc. (The ridiculously inappropriate things said at my job are all unfortunately CONFIDENTIAL!)

SO tonight, I will blog about my everyday life my RedBox weekend pick: AVATAR
(Please, please don't be jealous of the excitement that is my life!)

I was totally boycotting it... SciFi (ewww) Blue Aliens (eww) a 3hr movie (eww, eww) however, a 6th grade boy spent his entire therapy session telling me about it and making me promise to watch it (I'm an excellent therapist, as you can tell I had complete control of this session! AND who went home with the homework!) I promised and I'm a girl of my word! So I watched and here are my thoughts:

The aliens could have been better looking... I had no warm and fuzzy feelings towards them! Speilberg had me fall in love with ET who I HAD to have a doll of that I snuggled with and I kissed my ET lamp every night before I went to bed! (His heart stayed on as a night light!) Big fail on making me fall in love with the AVATAR or making me crave Reese's Pieces for that matter! However, the guy who turned into the AVATAR... that's an entirely different case... He can call me any time! Speaking of which, if any of you happen to know Roberto from The Bachelorette this season... my phone number is 931-374-1799.

Avatar is definitely a boy movie... I asked my little brother if he'd seen it, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "3 times!" It was near the reaction I got when I told him I'd never seen The Matrix!

My former youth group students will roll their eyes at this part (who am I kidding? they're not reading this!) But I, of course, "ruined" the movie with my spiritual thoughts afterward, as it reminded me of how we SHOULD be deeply and constantly connected to our Creator, how He DOES desire to talk to us and remind us of His greatness through His creation, and oh how He loves us!

On a much less spiritual note: it also made me think of what life would be like if my MIND controlled my actions... I just leave it at that!

Overall, thumbs up on the AVATAR!

Pit Stops!

2010-02-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or is this year FLYING by already!? It's mid February already! So far so good on my goals for my new year! How bout you?

I have another blog topic waiting in the wings, but tonight I'm "compelled" to write this one! Obviously this happens RARELY with my four entries total, but nonetheless it's happened tonight!

I'm in the midst of reading "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. It's about the apostle Paul and his journeys. It's actually a devotional so I'm doing the question part of it via email with one of my former students from KC and I think we both like it, not sure she would tell me if she didn't! :)
Our next devotional is going to be Beth Moore's newest one about insecurity so if any of the 2 of you that may read this blog want to join me via email I'd love it!

Anyway... one of the questions tonight was : What blessings has God brought into your life during "unscheduled stops" along the way?

The answers just kept coming and coming...

My entire 6 years at Englewood was "unscheduled" for me, I went to CBC to go to the missionfield, Englewood was a pit stop... I cannot and would not want to imagine my life without those kids! We'll call this pit stop "the brick building" or "tentacles" (Sometimes God takes us places we didn't ask to be and keeps us there to make us something we never thought we could be and uses us to do things we never thought we could do!)

Oh no, I definitely shouldn't leave out "the blue house" pit stop... it's really part of the above pit stop so maybe we should just call this one, "the Danish" a foriegn exchange student at our school was very unhappy with her host home and in tears at the stinking altar asked if she could stay at my home for a couple of weeks. what pastor can say no to the agnostic / borderline atheist exchange student at the altar? So in she moved... I should have known it was for more than 2 weeks when the moving truck showed up at the house! So I forever have a foriegn daughter in Denmark, who forever has Jesus in heart too as a result of an "unscheduled event" (Sometimes when you're running a youth ministry of 200 plus, working in a school full time, have to load the coke machine, drive the van, and hire a police officer... God sends a kid to live with you... he's not changing your life with more to do, he's giving your heart more to love!)

Then Springfield and AGTS oddly enough were "unscheduled" again at least by ME they were "unscheduled" but they were evidently on God's prewritten plan!

oh wait I'd be amiss not to mention that during the "unscheduled pit stop" between KC and Springfield is where I met the girl who will be my sister in law in a few short weeks. I'm sure my brother is more grateful for that pit stop than I am! ha! We'll call that stop, "the crack of the bed" (God will use ANY situation to get you and the ones you love where you need to be!)

SPTC was definitely a pit stop... a 3 year pit stop! But I wouldn't know a thing about transcriptions, how to spell plantar faciitis, or be able to write a mean SOAP progress note without the help of the PT for a physical therapist procedure that I know nothing about :) Nor would I have acquired Annie, Jen, Connie, Amy, or Amy! We'll just call this "Where's Brad?"
(Stuck in an $8 an hour job? No way you can pay the bills? Somehow I made it through grad school, never missed a meal, and came out with lifelong friends, I'd do the $8 an hour job again for all that! His plan is bigger and where God guides He provides, even if it seems IMPOSSIBLE and RIDICULOUS!)

this one time at band camp... I mean at panera... I met friends of a friend of a friend.... (strangers) because I was in dire of need of rent payers, I mean roommates, those 2 strangers moved in a few weeks later and well, they became so much more than rent payers! I love those girls! We'll call this "the package deal" (no worries if your roommates bail on you while you're working an $8 an hour job and leave you with a three bedroom apt and all it's obligations... God has a plan... one that does more than change your financial situation, but one to change your LIFE!)

believe it or not AGTS was a "pitstop" I was lured in with a semester scholarship and a much needed answer for "what are you going to do next with your life?" "I'm getting my masters" sounds much better than "IDK!!!"

There I acquired Dr. Mostert and James and a newfound passion for social justice and oh .... a master's degree! However, I can't decide if I should call this era "crutches or can't standya!" (Sometimes you might make a huge decision on a WHIM and then realize God is the author of such "WHIMS!")

Oh and I'd be really amiss to not mention this short and sweet pit stop... one time I booked a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica... well, I thought it was to San Jose COSTA RICA it was to San Jose California, I realized it on a layover in Denver! (Should I not have noticed you don't go thru denver to get to costa rica?) Well, I flew back to Springfield, found a fellow grad student going to take the same class in CR and booked a PRICEY ticket on her flight.. which left from Chicago (well, the part of Chicago that is really Ecuador!) The trip went great we flew back ... that morning there was a police chase in her neighborhood and her parked car was hit, undriveable! We were stuck there for a week while her car was getting fixed then drove the 9 hours back to Springfield in the snow! One of the best weeks of my life! :) She called today and left me the longest message almost as long as this entry! :) I smiled and thought, I got one of my favorite friends over a $1000 mistake and a wrecked car! We'll definitely call this "rackempina!"

And the current pit stop? 29 and living at home with the parents! Definitely scheduled to be a short visit! We're at nearly 2 years now. I've acquired old friends and their beautiful children... a few of which who have allowed me the privilege of seeing the change in my life and let me share in their's. I get to see my family A LOT :) I get to call Dave Ramsey and scream, "I'm debt free!" I get to work at the middle school of my youth with some pretty precious kids, all while raising my money to become the missionary I graduated from college 10 years ago thinking I was going to be!

God is in the pit stops, even when they are the result of dire financial straits, failures, a decision made on a whim, wrecked cars, illnesses, whatever, there were too many to list! I'd venture to say... there are NO UNscheduled events... they may not have appeared on our calendar or our to do list, but while we were still in the womb they were there!

Ten for '10!

2010-01-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

Ten goals for my 2010!

1. To please God. (If I accomplish this then I will accomplish everything else on my list!)

2. Stay connected.

To Christ. To my family. To my friends near and far.

3. 4. 5. To get healthy.

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Exercise daily, lose weight, pay more attention to what I'm putting into my body, mind, and spirit. This will involve de-cluttering, putting an end to my all time favorite activity of procrastination, getting organized, discipline, consistency, i.e. getting my ducks in a row! ;)

6. Enter the presence of God daily.

This is more than a devotion, or praying, or reading my Bible although it will likely involve all of those.

7. Become debt free.

8. Take others with me.

As I become healthier, closer to the Lord, more disciplined, more connected, etc. etc. I shouldn't go at it alone.

9. Be diligent and purposeful.

In my job. In my relationships. With my speech. With my time. With my actions. With a purpose of glorifying God.

10. Bloom where ever I am planted.

I'm always waiting on or working towards what's next. So I'm here until God moves me onward so here I will root and bloom and flourish!

A little less talk and a lot more action!

2009-12-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Confession: Christianeze, Spiritualeze i.e. Christian Talk... makes me want to vomit.
** Disclaimer: Yes, I've done it!

Unfortunately this disdain has grown and no longer filters out genuine vs. rhetoric and I find hearing God is good from the most sincere person causes my eyes to roll all on their own!!
** Disclaimer: I know God IS good .. ALL the time God IS good!!!

I've become so anti-spiritual talk that my FB does not even give my religious views yet I'm officially a missionary! The one time my status reflected what God was doing in my heart and my own brother called in shock and awe that I had publicly proclaimed that Jesus had washed my sins away!
**Disclaimer: God has done AMAZING things in my life and He IS my life, I want nothing more than to please Him and proclaim Him and for EVERYONE to know Him.

However, Christianeze makes me sick! STILL!
Our TALK is so FULL of Christ, so STICKY, SICKENINGLY SWEET! and so many times our ACTIONS are so EMPTY, non-exisistent, and SICKENINGLY something else! So much so there's a whole book on how UN-Christian we really are!
**Disclaimer: I've been so guilty of this that it is SICKENING!

I find myself overwhelmed with love and compassion for the victims of Christianity.

You didn't have to do it!!!!

2009-09-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

I'm at the end of the 90 day Beth Moore study on the life of Jesus and this hit me tonight like a ton of bricks! Let me back track a little bit, today I was reading a group email from close friends we're all weighing in on where we are on the journey right now and one friend wrote this:

"I have started reading Matthew and the verses that talk about how Jesus would climb a mountain or cross a lake or go hide in a garden really have stuck out to me and challenged me…I keep thinking, if Jesus made it a priority to be by himself, then who am I to think I don’t need it??"

Tonight I was reading in Luke one such passage, Jesus is at the Mt of Olives alone, praying? observing? resting? thinking? Probably thinking about what He knew was about to come, the fulfillment of His purpose, His life being sacrificed on that cross. What was going through His mind as He overlooked the city? I wondered to myself... Jesus, did you ever contemplate NOT doing it? Somehow getting around the sacrifice of the cross!? Probably not, but it just hit me, He didn't HAVE to do it!

As I wrote the words, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" in my journal... I thought WOW those are powerful words! In this case it provokes extreme relief and gratefulness that He didn't run from His calling or wash His hands of us all together when that's exactly what we deserved!

But what if I said to you, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" What does it bring to mind... for my missionary friends you didn't have to go, to pack up your whole life and move far away from your loved ones (namely from me!!!), but I hope you look at the precious lives you're touching and are glad. You didn't have to: Get married, but hopefully you roll over and see your spouse and think oh but I am sooo glad I did! Have children: and then they give you sticky kisses and tell you they love you and you can't imagine life without them. The list could go on and on and on.

For others it might go in the "other" direction it might be "I didn't have to do it." Stay in that relationship... let my weight get out of control, say that terrible thing, drink and drive... compromise in that way.... venture off the straight and narrow and take life into my own hands...go further and further into debt... again the list could go on and on!

"You didn't have to do it!" A powerful statement that can go either direction positively or negatively... to describe 1 choice w trillions of consequences!

It becomes even more powerful of a question when I think of Jesus sitting on that Mt of Olives overlooking the city, hypothetically in a moment of decision, He had free will just like us He didn't HAVE to do it. He made a choice and because of that choice... even when we make the wrong ones and set the wheel of consequences in motion in a direction that we never wanted them to go.... because He DID what He didn't HAVE to do (1 choice trillions of consequences).... we have the opportunity to do what we don't HAVE to do, make 1 choice w trillions of consequences to surrender our lives to Him and let His grace and mercy take us in a brand new direction.

You didn't have to do it, but You did! A trillion thank yous! Love, your most needy recipient & one of a trillion consequences.

2 years and all I got is a title!!!

2009-07-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

Stepping cautiously, she pauses, deep breath, eyes widen at the brightness of the screen, a moment of hesitancy, another deep breath, rapid clicking of the keys, one click and then some silence (the backspace). Repeat this scenario multiple times over the course of about 2 years and you will thus have my entrance to the blogger world!

I picked the name of this blog years before blogging even existed and for nearly 2 years it's all that has been on this page!

Where did the title come from? Glad you asked. Leadership guru John Maxwell gives the illustration that as leaders (heck as people in general!) we're likely,(FOR SURE TO) to slip up, to fall down, to get knocked down, to fail, and so on so forth thereby spending a lot of time on the floor. (Don't worry it's not ALL gloom and doom!) He reminds us that while we're down there to learn something, to take something of value from the situation... to pick up the 'change' if you will.

I used to remember this bit of information because in the year 2000 I spoke in my first graduation commencement exercises. I was so nervous and didn't want to be boring to the class of 2000 or their many friends and family members who would be there! So I inserted a little skit so to speak at the expense of a couple of teenage girls. I sent Crissy Miller and Ashley Day two cute, but scrawny under classmen girls across the stage carrying one of those big clear plastic bottles of change that probably weighed as much as they did combined!! To their horror one of them had to trip and fall in front of everybody. I don't really remember who drew the short straw that day, but one of them fell, the audience laughed, and the other said, "What are you doing down there?" And of course her line was "well, while I'm down here I thought I might as well "pick up the change!" Cheesey I know, but it eased my nerves to know the comic relief was on its way in point number 2 of my message!

Since then LIFE has taken place and this bit of info is no longer remembered because Crissy and Ashley did a skit! (If only!) I remember it from the personal experience of time spent on the floor! Nearly 10 years later I can't (or rather don't want to) begin to tell you the countless times I've failed, tripped up, been knocked down... found myself on the floor! I should be rich by now with all that change and picking up the change should be down to an art form for me! Rather than hang my head about this, I've got to tell you that while I'm not proud of my times of failure, that I'm proud of the change I've picked up! Hoping it can somehow be seen and shared...

Jeremiah 29:11-14, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity..."