Our Election

Last night CBS news played a video montage of the campaigns from their beginning. It brought about some patriotic feelings as I thought of the great freedoms in our country and reflected on realities in other parts of the world.

I've lived in places where the time leading up to a vote is marked with violence and death, where friends don't even consider going to the polls because of the potential danger, where something as simple as wearing the wrong color shirt (showing political party alliance) in the wrong area could get you killed. And I have friends in a country where the president changed the constitution so he could remain in power longer.

Yesterday, I walked into my local polling place without fear or threats. I think often that we in the US don't stop and realize what a blessing this is.

Do I believe there are some serious problems that need to be addressed in our country? Absolutely. But for today, I am enjoying the goodness of our democracy.

Fall Beauty

I wandered around a state park not too long ago soaking in the amazing colors and fun fall images.














This is the sunrise from my patio.

Psalm 126:5

Those who sow in tears
will reap in songs of joy.

Beauty of Stillness

Foggy sunrise at the cottage.

Mighty to Save!

I heard a new song on the radio recently and it's quickly becoming a favorite - Mighty to Save by Laura Story. I wanted to post it in a video, but can't get it to upload. The best I can do for today it post the link to her site. At the bottom of the page you can listen to her CD. Mighty to Save is the 3rd song. Crank it up and enjoy!

Out of the Rubble....

* Nehemiah's journey to Jerusalem was approx. 800 miles and took 53 days.

* For 140 years the wall around Jerusalem lay in ruin.

* The wall was rebuilt in 52 days!


What a great reminder and encouragement that with the Lord's help great things can be built out of the rubble of our lives as well.

Cardboard Testimonies

At church we are studying the book of Nehemiah. I have been blessed and challenged by the weekly messages. Feel free to take a listen to any of them. I find it encouraging that an Old Testament book, containing a lot of historical information, can so directly apply to our lives today.

The video used yesterday was powerful so I thought I would share it with you.


Blessings!

The Heart

Our heart is vital to our physical life as it pumps blood that keeps us alive and kicking. But, I believe the health of our heart is also vital to our spiritual life.

At some point, more than a year ago, I became interested in the use of the word 'heart' in the Bible. Since then, I've been highlighting it whenever I come across it in my reading. I've been amazed at the frequency. It's been a wonderful journey for me and I get excited, like a kid on a scavenger hunt, each time I find a new place where it's used.

Refresh my heart in Christ
You have such a place in our hearts
A veil covers their hearts
Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life
Therefore we do not lose heart
Their hearts will rejoice in the Lord
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
Treasured all these things in her heart
Their hearts are far from me
Return to me with all your heart
In the pride of your heart
I thought in my heart
Apply your heart to what I teach
Bring joy to my heart
Seek him with all their heart
Know then in your heart
Harden our hearts
Pure in heart
Stubborn hearts
Undivided heart
Wholeheartedly
Kindhearted
Brokenhearted

The list above is a small snap shot of the many uses of 'heart' in the Bible. According to BibleResource.org (NLV), the word heart is used 569 times!

So all this being said, how do we know our heart? For me, stillness has helped to reveal inner turmoil that I do my best to silence through busyness. It's a difficult and painful road, yet one I know I must travel.

True Love

"The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on," Kolodiejchuk says. "And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't 'feeling' Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, 'Your happiness is all I want.' That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms."

From
Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith in Time magazine

101 Poodles?

While walking my parent's dog the other day, a guy yelled out his car, "Nice poodle!". Humm?? She looks like a dalmatian to me.

Time with Friends

I can't seem to upload pictures to flickr or facebook so I decided to post them here.

Derk in the capitol.

Wiger, Marten, and Derk enjoying the capitol rotunda.

Can't be in Wisconsin without getting a picture of our dairy.

Newly converted cheeseheads.

Enjoying the view from Monona Terrace.

Trail at Devil's Lake.

Riding on the Wisconsin Dells Ducks.

Marten looking at the river.

Dad showing his skills at mini golf.

Marten in the capitol rotunda.

Marten and Sam

A very happy dog!

Choice

The first quote below was used to church this morning and is part of a great article by Tony Snow. If you have the time, I highly recommend reading the whole article.

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand.

Summer Visitors

My great friends have been traveling all around the US and spent a few days with me this week. We saw all kinds of sites in the area. For some reason I can't get my pictures to post to flickr, but I'll let you know when they're up.

To Become...

"Try not to become a man of success but rather a man of value."
~ Albert Einstein

"You know the person God wants you to be; you also know how to be that person of integrity in every situation. Sometimes making an ethical choice is hard, but in the end, you'll discover it's always the right one.
~Daily Grace for Women pg. 117

Port Washington

We had a great day yesterday, salmon fishing in Port Washington. I have pictures posted on flickr.

4th of July

This weekend I got to hang out with my family at my grandparent's cottage. Cool air temperature combined with warm water to create an incredible foggy sunrise. It was a great weekend for pictures! I've posted them on my flickr account.

Come Follow Me....

I found Daniel J. Clark's blog as a link from C. Thomas Davis (a favorite author of mine). Both men are passionate about helping orphans and I've found in them hearts similar to mine.

The following is part of a post by Daniel Clark.

In early April, Tom Davis and I had the privilege of meeting with a Senator – a peacemaker – and his Director of African Affairs. His Director of African Affairs, who had been a missionary in East and Southern Africa for over a decade before joining the political scene in Washington said something profound to us: 'If you follow Jesus very far… he will lead you to the poor.'

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to care for orphaned children in oppressive institutions and rural scorched-earth regions.


Photo by Emmsy322 @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmsy322/2172593124/sizes/o/

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to poverty. I know that for many of us poverty can be a dirty word! But remember that Jesus himself was poor. He was a homeless, wandering teacher and miracle worker. The King of the Universe with only one change of clothes. But if we look at the Beatitudes and ask the question, 'who are the happy ones? who are the blessed ones?' The answer is obvious: the poor.

Blessed are the widow, orphan, and stranger.

But that is not all… The beauty of the Trinity that we worship, is that Jesus will also lead us to prosperity. I know. Prosperity can also be a dirty word! Remember that it is not us, but God in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills and gives good and perfect gifts. God is prosperous.

If you look at the second half of each line in the Beatitudes, you see that God offers the prosperity of the kingdom, comfort, an inheritance, mercy, seeing God, and being called children of God to the poorest of the poor.

So we are invited, in the Holy Trinity, to participate in the life of God, the love between Father and Son, the power between Son and Spirit. We are invited to participate in the poverty and the prosperity of God and our world! Not to spectate, but to participate. This participation in poverty and prosperity adds texture and authenticity to our lives and our Christian experience.

When you turn with hope and help to the poor and orphaned of the world, you bring to them the prosperity of God – through your financial investment, through prayer and encouraging letters, through visits. But don't forget that they will bring to you something very beautiful as well. When you meet the compassion of Christ in their eyes, when you meet childlike faith in their smiles, when you meet total dependence on God in their need, they will fill the canyons of your poverty (and we all have it – we all have some scorched earth and boarded-up buildings in our own lives - in our experiences – in our pain – in our loved ones). They will fill these empty places with good and perfect gifts as well.

This is the beauty of our life here in response to the Triune God. A loving community loving the whole world! – That is a simple definition of the Trinity.

If you follow Jesus very far, he will lead you to the poor.

Jesus says, Come, follow me…

End of Ourselves

"God does His best work when we're at the end of ourselves."
~ Someday by Karen Kingsbury

"The end of ourselves" is such an uncomfortable place to be, especially in a culture that says you should "pull yourself up by your boot straps" and "where there's a will there's a way". In my experience, it's a place of brokenness and brutal honesty. And maybe that's the point. When our outer shell of self-reliance is painfully cracked and all is stripped away, we able to realize the insignificance of our own doings and we begin to rely on the vast power of the Lord.

Morning Glories

This was is my first morning glory blossom. I started these guys from seeds in early spring and for a while it didn't look promising, but flowers are starting. =)

Soaring Like Eagles

Photo by Mark 11 Photography @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/78845487@N00/73427933/

I've been meaning to post this for the longest time because I think it's so amazing.

"The eagle allows the storm to take him to a higher place... the eagle finds a rock when he's in trouble and lets the sun cleanse him from any poisons. The eagle doesn't flap around like the chickens and crows and sparrows. It waits patiently on the rock for the thermal currents, and only then does it take flight. Not by it's own effort, but by the effort of the wind beneath its wings"

Photo by m3l0dym4k3r @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/melodymaker/2194644989/

" When a female knows a male is interested, she leads him on a chase through the skies, swooping, diving, and soaring high above the hills. When the chase is nearly over, she flies as high as she can and flips onto her back, free-falling toward the ground. It is the male's job to place his body over hers and grasp her talons, flapping his wings with all his might to keep her from certain death. Moments before they hit the ground, the female pulls out of the dive and circles the male. Because he had been willing to stay even unto death, he will have proven himself as a mate. The eagles are joined for life from that point on."

Eagle information from A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury

Steven's Boat

Rushing flood waters drain Lake Delton
By Don Walker and Meg Jones

(Click on the title to see Steven's boat in a picture in the news. His is the one with the red cover.)

Lake Delton near the Dells is essentially empty after the rain-swollen lake cut its own channel around a dam and emptied into the Wisconsin River, taking four homes with it.

Steven has been renting a place on this lake for more than a year now. Check out the pictures he sent me.


You can kind of see what the lake would normally look like behind me. It's not the best shot, but it's all I have.


This is what is looked like with the flooding.




And this is what it looked like after all the water went rushing out.

"Right now there is no lake. It's simply a channel flowing from here to the Wisconsin River. Now we basically have a creek flowing through here but once it settles down we will have a small crick,' said Zowin. "I would not anticipate Lake Delton being here this summer."

Crazy!

Happy Summer!

I kicked my summer off with a variety of fun activities - lounging by a pool, wandering through the farmer's market, and taking a long nap.



In all reality my summer will be short which sounds sad, but means I'll be employed which will be a good thing. (My interview is at 3:00 on Wednesday.)

Happy Summer to you!

Interview!

I have a job interview (yippee!) for a position with the Boys and Girls Club of Dane county. If I get the job I would be a part of creating a program that would support low income kids so they can complete high school and college. The interview will be either on June 11 or 12. Please, please keep me in your prayers!!! My current employment ends this Friday and I need to find something that fits my heart.

The Urgent vs. The Important

For a Bible Study at church I had to read the article, Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles E. Hummel.

The article, written in 1967, is surprisingly relevant today. I guess the things I struggle with aren't really new, but are the same things people throughout history has been challenged by.

Here are a couple of things that stood out to me.

~Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.

~ Yet on the last night, with many useful tasks undone and urgent human needs unmet, the Lord had peace, He knew he had finished God's work.

~Man is never so truly personal as when he is living in complete dependence upon God.

This article reminded me of a book I've posted about before,
Invitation to Silence and Solitude. I'd love to tell you that I practice solitude on a daily basis, but it would be a lie. Regularly I let the urgent, get in the way of what I know to be important. But I am continuing to seek the quiet and peace which can only come from simply being with God.

I've included a couple of quotes to encourage you.

~ When we stop the music of our life to enter into solitude, we sit down right where we are at that moment, and that's where we meet God. We meet God in our present delight or our present sadness. We meet God in the tears of our life or the laughter of our life. We meet God in our most unnerving questions or the answers we are celebrating. No matter where we are on any given day, when the music stops and everything gets quiet, we sit down right where we are and allow ourselves to be there with him.

In a world where being anything other than "ok", is really not ok, I long to be with my God who will meet me anywhere.

~ Solitude eventually offers a quiet gift of grace, a gift that comes whenever we are able to face ourselves honestly; the gift of acceptance, of compassion, for who we are. As we allow ourselves to be known in solitude, we discover that we are known by love. Beyond the pain of self-discovery there is a love that does not condemn us but calls us to itself. This love receives us as we are. - Parker Palmer

***If you'd like to red the whole article, please click on the title above.

Memorial Weekend

May we never forget those who have given so much in service to our country.

Take A Moment To Thank A Solider

When you see someone in a uniform
Someone who serves us all,
Doing military duty,
Answering their country’s call,

Take a moment to thank them
For protecting what you hold dear;
Tell them you are proud of them;
Make it very clear.

Just tap them on the shoulder,
Give a smile, and say,
"Thanks for what you’re doing;
To keep us safe in the USA!"

By Joanna Fuchs

" "

I was working on a couple of bulletin boards at school and found some great quotes that I thought I would share today.

"Since when do you have to agree with people
to defend them from injustice?"
~ Lillian Hellman


"Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man’s character,
give him power."
~ Abraham Lincoln


"People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel."
~ Bonnie Jean Wasmund

I'd love to read some of your favorite quotes.

Quote

“And then the day came

when the risk to remain tight in a bud

was more painful

than the risk it took to blossom.”

~Anais Nin

Heart Breather

It's been a brutal week at work so I took a break for my heart this afternoon. I wandered around taking pictures of plants on my balcony and in a park. The change of pace will hopefully help me get through tomorrow.

Share the Well

I've been meaning to post about this CD for the longest time, but keep forgetting. My friend, Emily, introduced me to Share the Well by Caedmon's Call and I love it!!!! It has a great cultural sound and global message.

Here's one of my favorites.

All I Need
I did not catch her name
I did not catch her tears
But they hit me like a train
When her story hit my ears
Mother of eight sons
Father off to war
Got no home address
Just bricks on a dirt floor
And she said, "Jesus is all I need"

Tiny plot of land
Corn stored up in piles
The years it doesn't rain
They just stay hungry for a while
With no fatted calf to kill
She made a feast of cuy and corn and said
Who else knew my name before
The day that I was born
Jesus is all I need
Jesus is all I need

And she bragged about her boys
And how they're growing into men
And how the learned to praise the Lord
Old style Ecuadorian
But to buy the new guitar
We had to sell the swine
See my boys go to school on a foreign angel's dime

This world calls me poor
I bore my babies on this floor
But He always provides
Sure as the sun will rise
So I sing Him songs of praise
'Cause I know He keeps me in His gaze

Rain fell from the sky
We raced back to the van
Tears in the eyes
Of this poor forgetful man
Mother of eight sons
She knows the peace of God
Lord, help me learn to lean on
Thy staff and Thy rod

Jesus is all I need
Jesus is all I need
Jesus is all I need
Jesus is all I need

If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Following in His Footsteps

photo by anno_superstar @flickr.com

During my walk yesterday I saw a dad mowing the lawn. Following faithfully behind him were his 2 daughters - one walking in her father's footsteps and the other mowing with her own plastic mower behind them both. Back and forth they went, happy as could be.

It made me wonder about my path behind my heavenly Father. Am I like those girls, happy to be following in His footsteps? Am I veering off the His path? Or am I charging ahead?

Sounds of Spring

A wonderful surprise to living in town are these beautiful birds serenading me from my neighbor's balcony. With the weather warming up, I have my patio door open as often as possible, soaking in their soothing music.

I Saw What I Saw

Here's a neat Sara Groves video and song about her trip to Rwanda. I hope you enjoy!

Have You Heard?

April 13th marks 5 years of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

As many as 10,000 people have died monthly since the conflict began in Darfur, Sudan, mainly due to pervasive – and preventable – disease and hunger. Brutal ethnic conflict in Darfur, Sudan has driven over 2 million people into homelessness, their huts and villages pillaged, burned, and destroyed.

Victims end up living in ramshackle huts in numerous camps along the edge of the Sahara. Displaced families have meager access to food, water, clothing, education, and shelter.

Health care is also extremely limited. And killings and sexual assaults are rampant.

The lives of thousands of children in Darfur, Sudan are threatened, their fathers, homes, and communities lost. They face a bleak future.

Save Darfur

World Vision: Darfur

Darfur Peace and Development

I LOVE it!

I love it, I love it, I love it!!!!

Spring arrived this weekend! We had temps in the high 50s /low 60s. It's so wonderful to open up the doors and windows and let in the fresh air. Sam and I have been out and about soaking in as much of the sun as we can. Today was the first time I've been out without a coat in months and months. I can't even explain how the warmth has lifted my spirit .... it's a great blessing.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Heather! May this year be filled with joy, peace, blessings, and love. Thank you for your support and care. I love you dearly.

Another Year

I celebrated my 28th birthday last week. A birthday during spring break has lead to memories in some amazing places, but for this year, it was a great blessing to be in the States enjoying my family and friends.

On a different note, we officially hit the 100 inch mark for snow this weekend! Incredible! It'll be a great story to tell my grandkids years and years from now.

Living Life in Community

A while ago I mentioned that I wanted to share some of the things I loved about my experience in Bangui... things I feel are often ignored by the media. I experienced an incredible sense of life in community while I was there. The pictures below share a small glimpse of some of the wonderful relationships I was welcomed into.


Hanging out with some friends the night before I returned to the States.



This cake traveled with me for more than 36 hours, across 7 time zones, and a world of differences as a gift for my family!



My neighbors were incredible women. Most afternoons, we would sit outside watching their children and talking. They accepted my poor French and watched out for me (They would check to make sure my skirt was wrapped correctly before I went out the door) They shared their lived generously with me.



These people were all up early to pray over me and say good-bye.



These dear friends helped me in so many ways. Before I was able to communicate in French, the reached out in English. I learned such a great deal from them.


I wish I had better words to explain this life of community. The best I can say is I was incredibly blessed by it!