Books

I have heard a couple of times since I started this blog that I should write a book. 99.9% of those times have come from my mom who also tells me that I should have my own restaurant whenever I make Tuna Helper. Yep. She is that kinda mom. Sweet, encouraging, supportive, delusional. So, I got her these books to read instead. They are about Bible translation among tribal people. They are from the perspective of a missionary kid, and they are HILARIOUS!!! Seriously, once you read them, you will wish this guy had a blog that you could read instead of mine. They are some of my all time favorite missionary stories, and let me tell you people, I have read almost all of them! You can get them from Amazon or Half.com for great prices. So, stop what you are doing (reading this blog) and get these books right now!!

I am running out of missionary books, so because of the stage of life I am in now, I think this will be my next read...


My kids are working on this book now...

Just kidding.



**Just so you know, I purchased these books with my own money. This is not a promotion. If anyone were trying to promote anything, I doubt they would ever come to me to do that. Please enjoy this untainted recommendation.

Happy V-Day!

Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and here I sit, a state away from my Valentine! I was supposed to go home tomorrow, but then my sister called and said she might come visit next weekend (she lives in North Carolina, so the only time we get to see each other is when we meet in Alabama). Anyway, so I changed my plans on the chance that I might get to see my sister, maybe, if it all works out...possibly. Hopefully, this will show her how much I love her. I mean I am giving up my Valentines plans of dinner and then going to see "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" with my hubby, when I don't even know if she is actually coming or not. Just kidding. I could never get JMGJ into that movie. He has always been jealous of guys who could do the "hair flick" and there is no way he could sit through an entire movie of it.

Anyway, so I thought I would share a few things about my Valentine, and why I love him so much. We are very much opposites, but "opposites attract" as Paula Abdul sang in 1989, which I am sure is the last time she formed a coherent sentence. But that is not the point. Here goes...

1. He is a social butterfly. I am socially awkward.

2. He drinks his coffee black. I like my cream with a little coffee in it...and vanilla...and whipped cream...and chocolate sauce...and little chocolate shaved swirls.

3. He is a night person. I am a morning person.

4. He loves to talk. I love to listen.

5. He is decisive. Having to make any type of decision paralyzes me. Please do not ask me where we should have dinner. Ever. We will starve.

6. He is strong and athletic. I am probably the weakest person I know. And the least coordinated.

7. He can sing, and play multiple instruments. I can listen to him sing and play multiple instruments.

8. He can learn other languages really easily. It took me 6 years and an accidental degree to learn Spanish.

But, there are some very important things that we have in common that make me love him even more...

1. He loves all the same TV shows I do.

2. He loves our daughters unconditionally.

3. He wants to be a tribal church planter more than anything.

4. He love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. And that my friends, is my favorite thing about him.

LOVE

God has been showing me that the most important thing for a believer to do is LOVE. He has been trying to teach me this lesson for a while now, but I think I have been responding with "Oh, wow, that is great!" and not actually living out what He is teaching me.

We had to give "speeches" in one of our classes at the Missionary Training Center because missionaries are often asked to speak at church events, so this class gave us a little practice. It was videoed so we could go back and critique ourselves and make the necessary improvements. After watching my video, I learned two very important things. 1. I have a very thick southern accent. 2. If I plan to talk with my hands, and wave my arms around in the future, then I need to wear long sleeves or do lots of push ups. At one point I thought I was going to fly away from all that flapping arm flab.

Anyway, my speech was about love. This was around the time God was really trying to get this message through to me. I think I just decided it would be a good topic for my speech and thanked God for the great idea. I don't know. But I do know this, that right now, He is guiding me through this lesson in His Word and man, it is EVERYWHERE!

I have realized (finally!) that this is God's plan to reach the world. He wants His children to love each other with a very real and radical love that looks strange to the outside world. In John chapter 17 Jesus prays for future believers (that is you and me by the way) and the ONE thing He prays for is UNITY. He could have prayed for anything, and He prayed that we would be in agreement, unbroken, unified with each other and Himself. At the very least, that we would get along. He then wants us to love the outside world. Not worldy things, but people.

I think we have tried to love outsiders. We have started a lot of nice programs to help people in need in an effort to bring them to Christ, and to an extent those things have been successful, but I just wonder how successful we would be if we would follow God's instruction to LOVE EACH OTHER. I keep thinking about my best friend's church, who showed love to her family by giving her son who has special needs his own day at a local amusement park, and their family an all expenses paid trip to another amusement park built especially for children with special needs. You see their precious son is often excluded from things because of his condition, and their family is often excluded from things because of his condition. The church recognized this and showed them love in a way that was very real and personal to them. There were a lot of things the church could have done for their family. Things that would have helped them physically or financially, but there is nothing that would have meant more to this family than the church showing them how much they love their son. And this is the kind of thing that will make the outside world notice.

I think what happens in the majority of churches today is that we put on nice happy face when we go out into the world to try to draw people in. These people are impressed with how nice we are and decide to give church a try. They get to church and see a lot of fighting and little joy, and think they are better off outside the church. The message is, "we'll be nice to you until you become a part of this family- then you just become another part of the dysfunction." In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul is telling the church how disturbed he is at all there arguing. He talks about their lawsuits against each other and how terrible it looks to unbelievers. He tells them they should be willing to be taken advantage of rather than let the outside world see believers acting like this. This chapter really speaks to churches today, if we are honest with ourselves. I think we need to work on loving each other like the Bible says to first. Sure a dynamic speaker and a great band with an expensive sound system can draw a lot of people to church to be entertained. But real LOVE is the only thing that will draw people to Christ to be changed.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts, which, let's just get honest, may not even be coherent. But I will leave you with some scripture that has lead me here...

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35

This is my command: Love each other. John 15:17

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10

But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 1 Corinthians 1:8

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

Serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:16

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:14

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other. 1 Thessalonians 3:12

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 1 Thessalonians 4:9

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1:22

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 1 John 2:10

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 1 John 3:23

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:12

Perspective

Look at this precious baby girl! That baby is about to be five years old! FIVE YEARS! I have been a mom longer than I was in high school. Wait that can't be right. High school took FOR-EV-ER! I mean those four years went by so slowly there were days that I thought I was reliving the same day over and over again, you know like Groundhog Day? These five years have gone by so fast that I can't even think about it. Its like every time I blink another year goes by. I wonder if I stop blinking if time will slow down. Hang on, I am going to try it....

Ok, that didn't really work, and now my eyes are really dry. Actually, the reason for showing you this picture is for you to check out that sweet ride in the background. That's right ladies and gentlemen that is a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutless Ciera. It was our family car before we got our mini van. It was complete with blue velour interior like this...

Jealous? Yeah, I know! It was a great car, though. Ugly. Yes. But when we bought it, it only had 30,000 miles (or something like that, JMG knows the exact mileage) and only cost us $1,500. We sold a Ford Taurus with 120,000 miles on it for $3,000 and used the rest of the money to get our house painted... so we could sell it...so we could go on the mission field.

That is not the point of this post. That was just some extra information for your reading pleasure. Although, I doubt it brought you pleasure. Probably more like boredom...I'll move on.

Anyway, this is what we drive now...



That is our pastor and his wife. They helped us get this awesome van. I know people don't like mini vans. They get made fun of. People vow they will never drive one. But I L-O-V-E mine! LOVE IT! I am slightly obsessed with it. It makes my life so much easier, and lets get honest, when you go from a 1995 Olds, this van is a MAJOR step up!

Actually, all this is not really the point of this post either. All this car talk is just to illustrate a point. (Also, I threw it in here for the few guys who read this blog. With all the talk about placentas, lactating, and tampons that you have had to endure on here, I thought I owed you this)Back to the point... I have been throwing myself a nice little pity party since all this health stuff with JMG came up and ruined our plans to go to PNG. It has been a great party with streamers and confetti. I haven't felt like blogging. It was all I could do to get that dumb gummi bears post up. (Yes, I spell "gummi" with an "i"- like the old cartoon, which was awesome, and therefore deserves my spelling "gummi" with an "i" on this blog) Saturday was the day we were supposed to leave, and I was depressed all day. I was still depressed on Sunday, so I continued my party and barely got myself dressed. I mean, I wore a sweatshirt to church. It was pathetic, but very comfy, and my nice church family didn't care, which made me feel better. Then the Lord reminded me that I was being ridiculous. We have some close friends and family going through things that are WAY more difficult than what I am going through. I should be THANKFUL for my life and my husband's life and health, and should be trusting God's plan for us...well, I always trusted God's plan, but I just didn't really like it. Honesty.

So, its is all about perspective. I need to look at our circumstances like I look at our van, and LOVE them. LOVE the changes. LOVE the new plans. LOVE that I know it is not my stupid plan, but God's PERFECT plan. Amen.