Sep 4, 2009 | Scotland, Stories
Hi guys and gals. Thanks for your prayers. We’ve made it safely to Scotland! We just had one slight delay on our long flight from New Jersey to Edinburgh, so we hung out in the airport there for a wee while. Asher was, as usual an absolute star traveller. He didn’t get to sleep until 11 pm Wednesday night and was still his sweet lil’ self yesterday. We’ve been welcomed to Edinburgh with temps in the 50s (Fahrenheit), rain, clouds, wind and darkness. It feels like a confirmation from the Lord that this is not where He wants us anymore. Sure is a cold confirmation! Here’s the top travel story from this adventure:
So you know how the computers at the airport have the touch screens on the front side that are connected to the travel assistant’s computer behind the counter? Well…at our departure from RDU, I swiped my passport to start checking us in, and it didn’t come up as having a travel itinerary, so the flight attendant came to swipe Mark’s and help sort us out. Our computer sort of froze, so she switched to the other touch screen, but went behind the counter to start searching because I still wasn’t coming up on the itinerary. Â Someone else came along to check in and started using the front side of the computer while was she was still busy searching for our itinerary at the back. I tried to say, “I think she’s using that one…” but the lady had a Continental assistant helping her, and they didn’t seem bothered and just kept on checking her in. I thought, guess it’s not a problem then. Eventually the lady helping us found me in the itinerary, checked us in, took our bags, gave us our boarding passes and we were off to se-cur-ity (a la Bon Qui Qui).
But guess what? Â When we arrived in Edinburgh, two of our bags were missing. Where have they gone, you might ask? Well, they were tagged with the labels for the other lady who was using the computer in front of the counter while the flight attendant was taking care of our stuff on the other side! If they’d only listened! So they’re in Portland. Yeah, that’s Oregon. Mark is without all of his clothing, and we’re minus our toiletries, half the baby’s clothes, most of my shoes, and some other stuff. They are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully Mark can make it in his shorts until then. Thankfully, a lot of our stuff did make it, and nothing is lost per se.
So, yay, we’ve arrived safely. As I’m finishing this, the sun is beginning to break from the clouds. We’re looking forward to seeing our friends around here again. We’ll be here through the weekend and then the journey to South Africa will begin!
xCC
Aug 17, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
This time of year is often a really tough time for me. Whenever I’m home, it’s usually only for a month or so, and there are a lot of people I really want to see, spread out all over the place. I want to see my friends, and I want to connect with our ministry partners to thank them personally for their support, to see how they’re doing, and this time around, to share about our transition from Scotland to South Africa. Connecting with everyone is not humanly possible. As the days and hours start ticking away and our departure approaches, I get stressed out about our schedule, not wanting to miss out on getting to see everyone. If you’re anything like me, you might struggle a bit with not wanting to disappoint people. It’s a tough place to be!
When I enter into the space where ‘the urgent’ becomes the tyrant dictating my life, a couple of friends often come to join me on the journey. I sometimes start getting ulcers in my mouth, or strange aches and pains in different places. I sometimes get headaches, and I struggle to put one foot in front of the other to get everyday things done. It’s like my body is saying, “Hey Idiot! Stop stressing and running around! I’m not supposed to run on all six cylinders for this amount of time. You’re gonna burn me out!” Â My time with the Lord gets pushed aside because of all the other things that need to get done, and THAT is when things really start heading south.
As I was talking to the Lord about this this morning, I was reminded of a few things that I figure a lot of us could probably stand to be reminded of every once in a while. If you’re interested, dear friend, read on…
First, if you live your life trying to please people, you are inevitably going to fall short and be frustrated with yourself.  If you focus on trying to please God every day, you’ll find that pacing yourself, making wise choices, and even getting GOOD rest pleases Him. No one else is going to guard your time and rest. People will take as much as you’ll give them, and encourage you to keep giving out more. If you can rest in the knowledge that the only one you need to please is your heavenly Father, and focus on following His leading, you will do well.
Second, the Lord tells us to rest for a reason. Each day has sufficient trouble of its own. We aren’t supposed to worry about tomorrow. We can rest in the knowledge that God is in control. When we begin stressing that we have to get everything sorted out, voila, we have stomach ulcers, headaches…and even worse health conditions, many that would have been completely prevented had we been willing to change our pace and make rest a priority. There will always be something urgent on the agenda. If you keep running after the urgent, you’ll neglect the important, and suffer the consequences.Â
Third, the Lord reminded me of the story of Lazarus. (See John 11:1-44) Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, but He stayed where He was for two more days before heading over to Judea. Lazarus was the brother of Martha, and Mary (who washed Jesus’ feet with fragrant oil and dried them with her hair). This family was very dear to Him. When He (finally) arrived on the scene, Lazarus was already dead, and people were mourning him. The question obviously came from both women — “Ugh, Jesus, where ya been? Cuz if you showed up, om…seeing as how you have healing powers and all…well…it seems pretty apparent if you hadn’t taken your time about getting here, Lazarus wouldn’t be in a tomb right now.”Â
It isn’t readily apparent why Jesus decided to take His time about getting there, but He does say in response to the news of Lazarus’ illness, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” So for God’s glory, and in God’s timing (we can be sure of that since Jesus never stepped out of God’s will) Jesus traveled to Judea and by the time He arrived, Lazarus had been dead four days. You may or may not know the rest of the story: after conversations with Martha and Mary, and seeing the weeping, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. In doing so, He demonstrated His power, not just over sickness, but also over death, and many Jews began to believe in Him because of this amazing miracle. (So much so that the Pharisees began plotting to kill Him.)
Jesus could have rushed over to Martha and Mary’s place, and healed Lazarus before He passed away. The urgency of the situation could have forced Him to drop everything and rush over. But He waited for God’s timing, and in doing so, God was glorified, and His will was done. Many believed and the stage was set for even greater works yet to come.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: If you let it, the urgent will always distract you from the important. If instead you purpose yourself to walk in God’s timing, the BEST will become possible. Trust God for tomorrow. Besides Australians, He’s the only one who’s already there. 😉
Aug 8, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
Sometimes it’s best to just trust the Lord’s timing for things. This can be really hard, if you, like me, sometimes struggle with impatience, or if you unnecessarily worry or fret about something, even if it’s out of your control. You’ve probably experienced a moment when you’ve realised if you’d just been patient, and not tried to “jump the gun,” or make things hurry up and happen, you would’ve been better off. Haste makes waste.
One of my favourite stories my Dad tells is about Miss Music. I think the reason I like it so much is because he is laughing by the end so much, he can hardly finish the story. I warn you — some of you might find it a little offensive, and all I can say is, “I guess you had to be there.” See, Miss Music was my Aunt Jo’s cat. My Aunt Jo is an incredibly gifted musician — pianist, harpist — basically, you pass her an instrument and she’ll play you a tune, you play her a tune, she’ll play it back. Hence the cat, Miss Music.
One day, Miss Music climbed a tree in the front garden of Aunt Jo & Uncle Blake’s house. Aunt Jo was very very concerned. She was afraid Miss Music wouldn’t come out of the tree. My cousin Amy once called a fireman when her cat was up a tree, and he retorted, Lady…have you ever seen a cat skeleton up a tree? Enough said. Anyway, Aunt Jo was not satisfied with the idea of waiting, and trusting the cat would come down.
Exactly how the next series of events came about, I’m not sure. Basically, it was decided that a friend of Uncle Blake’s, Googy Singleton (yes, that’s his name, and no I’m not sure if I spelled it right) would bring his gun over. The plan was that Googy would shoot the tree limb down from the tree, and, since cats are always so dextrous as to always land on their feet, Miss Music would join the tree limb on the descent, and walk away unscathed, and safely out of the tree.
As you might guess, that’s not what happened. Googy aimed and took a shot at the branch, and — those with weak constitutions, look away — he shot the cat out of the tree…shewww…wham…dead.
“Miss Music, Miss Music!!” Aunt Jo exclaimed. By this point my dad is in hysterics telling the story. “Miss Music, Miss Music!!” Sadly, Miss Music made it out the tree, but she didn’t make it out alive.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: We often need to trust the natural timing of things. If you are loving and trusting the Lord, and obeying His commands, He is able to make every situation work together for your good. If you’re not trusting the Lord, maybe now’s a good time to start. You might be the one in the tree!
xCC
Jul 15, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
You may have noticed my brief absence from the blogging and Facebook scene. Did you miss me? I missed you! Â We took my MacBook in to the Apple Store in Glasgow to get it fixed, because there were only a few days left on the warranty and it had several little glitches. We thought a few replacements might help it last a bit longer. Among other things, the screen did a funky thing a couple of times and it seemed like the battery was about to die. Anyway, I, as a result, had to experience Mac-drawals, and 11 days of occasionally stealing a moment on Mark’s laptop, until his was also in the shop and I eventually thought to myself — this is probably good and I should just let it go!
The amazing story, you may have also seen in a Facebook status update, is that while I was away from my MacBook (and decidedly getting other things done and enjoying the break) the Mac people were busy trying to sort out the graphics issue, replacing the logic board or whatever that is, and trying to sort out the display. I’d been concerned about the laptop dying soon because it was starting to make funny noises, but quietly decided in my heart, “God will take care of this, too.” So, on the last day as they were going through their final diagnostics, my MacBook decided to give up the ghost and died! Â It must’ve been a sad moment! Â But Praise the Lord — He knew all this would happen, and it happened in such perfect timing that they decided to just give me a BRAND NEW, updated MacBook with a year’s warranty, FOR FREE!
The lesson I’ve learned from all this, which we’ve been discussing around our flat recently, is to trust God for what you need every day, and don’t worry about tomorrow. When the Israelites were in the wilderness with nothing to eat, God provided enough manna for them to eat each day. Â And on Fridays, he doubled it so they’d not have to gather on the Sabbath. He knows what we need, before we even know it, and He is able to provide in ways we didn’t even consider.
Philippians 4 explains this really well when it basically says “Don’t worry about anything. Pray about everything.” (NLT) And Matthew reminded us not to worry about tomorrow, because each day has enough problems of its own. (See Matthew 6: 25-31) If we wake up each morning with an attitude of “Lord, give me what I need for today” we can set aside our worries about tomorrow, next week, or next month. We can focus on staying in step with the Holy Spirit of God — since God already knows what is going to happen, and is able to make a smooth path for us to navigate it.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: This simple truth is incredibly hard to live by. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Trust God for what you need TODAY. We bring the concern to Him. He brings the peace to us. It’s that simple.
xCC
Jul 1, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
Have I ever told you about the time I worked as a pawnbroker? God did so much in my life through my experience of working at a Pawn Shop  just inside the beltline in Raleigh, NC for a year before I left for Scotland. If you’re not familiar with what a Pawn Shop is, google it, or perhaps we’ll have a lesson about that another day.
In the meantime…you may have heard this expression before: “Keep Your Eye on the Cross.” On one especially fated day back at the pawn shop, God made this lesson incredibly real for me…seriously. Seriously.
See, someone pawned this ridiculously expensive white gold … or maybe platinum cross. It must’ve been 4 or 5 inches long and 3 or 4 inches wide — like, too big for me to close my hand around it. And it was COVERED, its entire length and width, with diamonds. Big, quality diamonds, and there was one really big diamond in the centre. Iced out, frosted bling bling. I could hardly believe the thing was real. But it was! And someone pawned it and didn’t come back to pick it up, so it was in the jewelry case for sale for ages. This was the kind of bling a baller would be so proud to sport he’d put his life in danger for it. Pricetag: $5,000. I’m not even kidding. Well, it was $10,000 but everything was always 50% off.
So, this one day, this guy comes in and wants to see the gold bracelets in the case where the cross is. I open up the case, and start showing him one after another. He’s trying them on, way different sizes, way different looks, way different prices, and I begin to think, “Hmm, champ…you’re either somehow female, or you just have no clue, or else you’re not really after a bracelet.” And in my mind, I heard the Lord say, “Keep your eye on the cross.” My first thought was, “Okay, Jesus, I know. Thank you for the cross” and then I realised the Lord was literally saying, “Keep your eye on that cross.” “Okay, Lord, okay.”
A moment later, I knocked over one of the watches in the case, and it fell out of the case onto the floor. I very carefully slid the case closed, leaned down to pick up the watch while keeping an eye on the case, and then continued helping this guy. When I put the watch back I double checked — yes, the bling bling cross is still there. Sweet. So two minutes later, this guy is still saying “Okay let me see this one…okay that one.” And I’m beginning to think he’s wasting my time. All of sudden I realise, “Holy cow, where is the cross!!!!!?????!!!!”
To this day, I have no idea how the guy got hold of it. I mean I was really paying attention carefully. I looked up at him, and then looked, and I could see he was holding it in his hand down by his side, but it was too big to be completely concealed. I looked at it, looked up at him, and seriously you guys, a boldness came over me like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and I said, “Give it back.” He looked at me, kind of uncomfortably, and then tried to play it off, and handed the cross over the counter to me. My heart was absolutely racing. I put the cross back into the case and locked it. He said he wanted to keep looking at bracelets, and I said, “No.” He left the store and my manager was rather perturbed he didn’t have the opportunity to call him in for attempted theft. I was thankful the Lord had prompted me to be mindful of that stinkin cross or I probably would’ve lost my job and owed my boss 5K!
Not just in a literal way, but also in a spiritual way, being mindful of the cross can give us a clearer perspective on what’s happening around us. When we think about Jesus’ sacrifice — coming down from heaven where He was equal with God to save us — we realise that, in comparison, no matter what we give up, we aren’t really sacrificing very much to follow Him. When the enemy tries to condemn us, or make us feel like because of our sin we are unworthy of a relationship with a holy God, we can point to the cross and remind him that our relationship with God is paid for.
And thanks to the Bling Bling Pawn Shop Cross that almost got stolen, I will have the message — Keep your eyes on the cross — etched in my heart for the rest of my days.
xCC
Jun 11, 2009 | Baby Photos, Stories
A lot of my friends are beginning to remind me of their mothers. It makes me feel like I’m getting on in years, and it makes me wonder if I remind my friends of my mother. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, I don’t think. Â I really like my Mom.
xCC
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