Scrap Happy - Week 3

I hope that all my scrapper friends are burning up the computer screen with new pages! I am heading out in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow on a 2 week trip to West Virginia, but I will be checking back in through the week to see what pages show up here! I have had a very chaotic weekend, so I am posting an old page I made for my daughter Kendra's birthday LAST year. (The stinker just had the nerve to turn 16 a few weeks ago!) I used a piece of her wrapping paper to make the background. I just love this page - and they were some great pictures of her!
Can't wait to see your pages! Happy Scrappin'!

Whom Shall I Send

We have some friends whom the Lord has called to serve Him on the mission field in Chad (that's Africa for those of you who may not already know). They are currently immersed in language studies, but recently took their first survey trip with their team to the town where they will live and serve. Steven has started an incredible photo journal at SmugMug. It has been so fascinating. I put the feed on my Google Reader and have been delighted that he has posted something every single day, and have been so moved to pray for their ministry, their family including five small children, their team and the country God has etched on their hearts. If you have a heart for missions at all, please do not miss this awesome opportunity to peek into what God is doing. There are pictures of the difficult lives they will be living when they make it to Chad permanently, mixed with humor, and sentiments that will move you to tears. Please pray for my friends, the McKenzies, that God would use them in a might way.

The Lord's Day - a Busy One

Well, we are home today. It seems that we are back at square one with finding a church. We have been attending a local church since New Years and while we have been blessed by being there for the most part - we seem to have come to an impasse. The pastor said last week that you could not teach in that church unless you had a 100% abstinence stand in regards to alcohol. I know it may sound like a silly reason to decide you can no longer attend the church - and if it was just that we disagreed with the pastor on this issue, it would be no big deal. But I won't be false, and I don't intend to attend a church where I cannot be an active participant in ministering to the body. I would certainly not teach the youth that they should drink (I do believe that there are benefits to abstinence - although not Biblically mandated - with all things being permissible in moderation), and I would never contradict the beliefs or the teachings of the church in regards to my differing beliefs. What was most unsettling is that I know the information about my thinking on the issue was obtained voyeuristically by reading my blog - and then the current sermon series was interrupted - while we were held captive audience while point for point the entire content of what I posted on my blog was addressed. (Including comments about "never knowing someone to eat chocolate cake and kill someone" and "be careful what you post on your blog and your myspace".)
The pastor erred in not discussing the issue with me personally - not so that we could debate but in order to let me know where he was coming from. This is one place where putting yourself and your thoughts and your feelings out there on your blog can become a sticky situation. But this is my blog - a place for me to write what I am thinking and feeling. I am trying to understand why this is such a big issue for the community here. A discussion with someone who has lived here a while may have been helpful in achieving this understanding. But I had another huge alarm bell go off when the sermon last week concluded with the statement that the issue wasn't "debatable" or "up for discussion". I certainly would not disrespect a pastor by debating an issue with him, however, anytime someone in authority in a church will not discuss an issue, and stand as the be-all, end-all, final authority on God's word, it should alarm you. The pastors I have most respected are the ones that allowed you to talk to them, encouraged you to saturate yourself in God's word, and know what you believe because His word tells you, and not because someone tells you that this is what they've decided God's word says, the end.
I hate the idea of visiting churches again, however, we will be traveling for a couple of weeks, and I pray that God will use this time to refresh us while we visit a church I know I could fully belong to while we are away. We are also going to get to visit our friends who are back in the states from Romania, Karen and her family on our way through their state! It will be such a treat to get to see them again - even if it will be just for dinner and an overnighter. Can you believe that her parents are gracious enough to have me and five kids stay overnight at their home? They have already blessed me!
Um, yeah, I had better get off the internet and get packing! Yikes!

Oh Baby!

We're giving Travis' cousin Renee a baby shower this afternoon. She is my age. I was looking at all the baby stuff, even smelling the diapers we were using for making the diaper cake. For just a second my heart will pang for another baby, and grieve a little that that part of my life is over. I was certain when I had my tubes tied that I had the three children that I wanted - but my heart would be fully open if God gave me more. The girls and I were talking about that - seems to be like a talk-show around here sometimes with the four of them. I was saying that I'm a bit jealous - babies are so precious - but that I would wake up at 3 am and think, "Gee, I wish I had a wee one to wake me up!" I have reached that place in my life where the next baby in my life with likely be a grandbaby! Best wishes to Renee. I hope that we have a chance to love on her baby a little and get a baby-fix!

30 Hour Famine and a Cake You Can't Eat

The girls that are visiting are participating in a 30 Hour Famine with the church where they attend - and it is TODAY. For moral support - the girls and I decided to do it with them. It started at 10 am this morning - and we are just starting to feel the first pangs of hunger. You know - I keep thinking "it's only ONE day and there are people all over the world who don't know where their next meal is coming from" and yet there is a sense of panic inside of me. I know the Biblical standard for fasting, and we talked about it last night - not complaining or being grumpy - because that is the reward. Deep down inside I think as a chubby person I am afraid of hunger. Doesn't that sound strange? I have never known what it was like to be truly hungry, where I didn't know that when I was rescued (lost on the Appalachian Trail), got to my destination, cooked the food, etc. I would be able to eat. We prayed together a little while ago - and asked God to use our sacrifice to grow us as well as bless the people all over the world who have so little while we have so much.
The kids are watching a movie right now. We have been trying to find other things to invest ourselves in. All five kids helped me work on making this:
It is a copycat idea from something a friend always made at baby showers in WV. I made one for my sister when she was pregnant with her daughter - it was equally as cute. This thing is loaded with baby stuff all the way around - as well as 3 packs of small sized diapers that can be used as the cake is disassembled. So, yes we made a cake - but we can't eat it! Thankfully.
I dread making the cheese ball and pizza dip that I promised. I am also preparing some baby shower games - does anybody know any good ones? We are doing the one where you put the baby food in the diaper and smell it to guess what kind it is, also the one where everybody selects an amount of toilet paper. (I'm not saying any more because I don't want to spoil it in case somebody attending the shower is reading this!)

Contradictions in Righteousness

This post may be a bit incoherent - as it is midnight after a whole afternoon at Galveston Island. There is something exhausting about riding the waves all afternoon. But, I had a blast with the kids. It was a super fun day. But this post really isn't about that. I am saving that for tomorrow. There may even be a video clip involved!
I wanted to post my thoughts about this prohibitionist movement in the area where I live. It appears from reading the paper yesterday that the petition to have the issue of whether or not the county should allow alcohol sales on the next ballot or not has failed. It won't even make the ballot. No skin off my back - as I am not a regular drinker. However, as I have said, I would drink in moderation if I chose to without a guilty conscience.
The thing that is so perplexing to me is the emphasis on this one particular thing that people have such an issue with and complete neglect of other things that the Bible specifically forbids. (I do not think the Bible forbids the consumption of alcohol - but rather forbids drunkenness.) For instance, the fact that half or more of the church comes out the doors on Sundays to light up a smoke. What about our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit? (My temple is not spotless either - I am just illustrating a point.) Or the fact that the high school makes condoms available to students for 25 cents apiece. The last time I checked the Bible strictly forbids sex outside of marriage - period. Do we want to publish a list of the teens who are buying these things in the newspaper? How about the explicit pornography that is mixed in with the regular movies at the local video store? And yet every time I am in the store, half the Christians I have met in the area are in there as well. Where is the call to have that garbage removed from the shelves where our children can see it?
There are contradictions at every turn. Either we want the town completely clean - or we don't. Why is alcohol such a big issue? It is completely possible that the drunk driver that nearly caused a collision with my van filled with children was a resident of my county, leaving a bar in the next one because he couldn't buy alcohol in his own neighborhood. I am speculating - but my thinking is that we aren't really affecting the change we think. And what if all the preachers that are pouring so much energy into fighting this "evil" and keeping it out of their county put the same heart and soul into winning people over for Christ - even the drunks? That just might blow the lid off of the whole enchilada.
I just don't understand how people can get so fixated, hyper-focused on one area of what they consider unrighteousness, and miss the forest for the trees.

All is Vanity

I can so relate to Solomon when he writes "all is vanity". It seems my days are spent shuffling from one thing to another that is truly meaningless in the big picture, menial tasks that are sure to need repeating the next day - and always sacrifice the things that are of eternal significance. The worst part is that I get my panties all in a wad about it. One second I am a perfectly reasonable human being, and the next I am like a teapot that has just achieved steam. This week we have had to have the motherboard replaced on our BRAND NEW refrigerator, had to call a service technician and troubleshoot why they dishwasher was running for six hours without stopping in the middle of the night, and it seems that every time I turn around I am cooking, cleaning, sweeping, or straightening something. I have a little OCD about a basic standard of cleanliness - and it makes me miserable. I don't need the Flylady, I need her polar opposite. (BTW - when I just went to grab that link I noticed that there was a "Flylady Cruise" coming up - how relaxing is does that sound? A siren goes off at 6:15 am and you have five minutes to dress from head to shoes! Ugh!) Where is the chick that says, it's okay if there is so much dirt on the floor you think you're in the Little House on the Prairie - if your children know that they're loved. Don't freak out if the beds aren't made - make a life that is a bed you can stand to lay in. I need the guru who gives me permission to spend an occasional afternoon reading a good book, scrapbooking, taking a nap, or immerse myself for hours in Bible word study (this is not random, this is something I'd really like to do, and never seem to find the time for). I think that we have entirely too much pressure on us as women to make it all happen. How are y'all doing with all that's on your plate?
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The Very Good, Wonderful, Not too Hot, Terrific Day

Before the girls friends got here from WV, I made plans to visit the NASA Space Center in Houston. We have wanted to do that since we first moved here. It was a very fun day. We packed a lunch and headed out. For me the traffic wasn't so fun. I am not a city driver, and as we got nearer to Houston, we started having two lanes with no shoulders surrounded by cement barriers on either side. We took a tram tour of Johnson Space Center and saw a mock-up Mission Control room that was used for the Apollo era rockets. There were exhibits of all kinds. The kids had a few hands-0n opportunities such as operating a MMU - which is basically like operating a jet pack that moves you around outside of the spacecraft in a weightless environment, and practice at landing a space shuttle. (BTW - I was the worst at this!) We watched a lot of shows about different aspects of being an astronaut, what life is like in space, and learned about all the technology we've gained by missions to space - such as cell phones.
We met a real life hero - a man who served in and was awarded a Purple Heart for being shot down in WWII. His name was Frank. He also served in Korea and Vietnam. The kids stood and talked to him for a long time as he was sitting inside a mock-up of the space shuttle. He was very friendly - he liked the kids a lot. He kept calling the girls "beautiful". I asked him if we could take a picture of everybody with him, and he was happy to comply. He had more decorations on his hat than I think I've ever seen.
After visiting NASA and learning more about space than you could ever want to know - we ate Chinese and I got to have my fill of sushi! (yum yum) I had promised Jessie a trip to Sonic which I will make good later this week! She was gracious and allowed me to take a rain check!
I had decided the day before to take the kids to Galveston Island - which is only 30 minutes south of where we were in Houston - and make the NASA trip and the beach all in one day. The only trouble is that it was a very overcast, extremely windy day. That did not stop the six of them from jumping right into the ocean. I sat to watch them on the sand, and was freezing! (I was also covered with a fine grit of sand and salt!) The ocean was beautiful though - the powerful wind and waves causing me to worship the Creator.
There was so much salt and moisture in the air that few of my pictures out there appear to be very focused. I took them with the panoramic format in order to get the ocean splashing up on the rocks behind them.
Another fun thing that happened was in part due to my navigation of our route home. We left the beach around 8 pm - and found that you can take a ferry across so that you can make just a short 2 hour trip to our house. I knew that we didn't live far from the coast - but I didn't realize it was just that short of a trip. I was also surprised to find that the ferry is free - provided by the TX highway department. The kids were thrilled to get to ride the ferry. Jessie had never been on one before.
It was a very long day. We packed so much into that 24 hour period. We didn't get home until around 11:30 - held up half an hour by the near-miss accident. But it was a super day none of us will ever forget.
BTW - Kullen was there - and wondered why I never took any pictures of him - I explained that it was like trying to hit a moving target. Here is one of him in the ocean. Trying to get him to be still is like trying to nail jell-o to a tree!

He Saved Us - No Really He SAVED Us

This is the cool thing about the Lord - He doesn't just save us from hell for eternity which is way more than enough even if that is ALL that He did - but He continually saves us from all sorts of things. Often He saves me from myself. Can anyone relate to that statement?
Tonight - about 10:30 pm the kids and I were traveling home from a very long day (which I will blog about with excitement tomorrow) through Beaumont. We were going about 65-70 mph, and suddenly traffic in front of me came to an abrupt stop. I swerved left hard and then realizing that wasn't going to give me enough time, I swerved right and ended up bringing the car to a stop on the right hand shoulder next to the car that had been in front of me. There was a single car accident two cars ahead of us. I had 6 children in the car - 3 of which did not belong to me. We were all shaken so badly - but we were praising Jesus that we were safe. I asked the officer directing traffic if it had been a single car accident. When he answered affirmatively, I stated that the wind had been making driving a challenge for me all day - to which he replied, "Yeah, well you aren't drunk either."
Wow. In spite of this incident - it wasn't the alcohol but the person who chose to overindulge in alcohol that was the problem. I think prohibition should have taught us that people will find a way to have what they want - and the more forbidden the fruit is made the more the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve will reach for it, and find ways to have it. I wish we could change hearts instead of trying to make useless laws. How long will history have to repeat itself? Don't get me wrong - I was mad as hell at the driver who came a breath away from causing an accident that involved us - but I think we're approaching it all wrong.
Thank you Jesus for saving us, and for SAVING us!

Hat Boy

Our neighbor James brought a box of boys clothing over yesterday. He has nephews and was passing the stuff along to Kullen. On the top of the box was an army hat from James' army days - the real deal - camouflage. He said, "If Kullen doesn't want this, I'd like to have it back." I looked at him like he had two heads and said, "James, he is a 9 year old boy. It's a camouflage hat. He's going to love it - so if you want to keep it, you should just take it!" He said it was fine - he just didn't want him to get rid of it. This morning I woke up as hubby was taking a shower to find Kullen asleep in bed beside me, WEARING THE CAMOUFLAGE HAT!