April’s One Thousand Gifts
73 – Cloth – Blanket from my Aunt Colleen
74 – Wood – The Cross
75 – Gift Moving – Jonah
76 – Gift Moving – New little girl I am babysitting
77 – Gift Moving – Rainer
78 – Ugly Beautiful – Books all over the floor
79 – Ugly Beautiful – Slobbery Smiles
80 – Gift that is Orange – Rainers Orange Fish
81 – Gift Given – Hope for tomorrow
82 – Gift Made – From Kaylen & AJ
83 – Gift Sacrificed – Jesus, God’s Only Son
The goal is to list 3 gifts a day that I am thankful to God for.
January -
2- Something you love about yourself – my hair
3 – Something you love about yourself – my crazy life
4 – A Gift outside – the sun
5 – A Gift inside – my cat Henwi
6 – A Gift on a plate – Dove Chocolate
7 – Line you overheard that was a grace – “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139: 13-14
8 – Line you overheard that were graces
9 – Line you overheard that were gaces
10 – Something Old – my Bible since 3rd grade
11- Something New – The book Radical
12 – Something Blue – The book The Shelter of Gods Promise by Sheila Walsh
13 – Something your reading – The Healing
14 – Something your making – Hot cocoa
15 – Something your seeing
16 – My new bag that holds all my favorite things
17 – Something on your fridge
18 – Gift in your heart – Jesus
19 – My nephew Knight
20- Andrew’s Grandparents
21 – Yerly & our trip to Beauty and the Best in 3D
22- A Light that caught you – Sun shining in on my pillow
23 – A reflection that caught you – The Song from Mulan
24 – A Shadow that caught you – Shadow from the trees onto the snow
25 – Something in your hand – my stone that says No problem is to big for God to Handle
26 – A Gift you walked by – My frame that says Family is God’s greatest masterpiece
27 – A Gift you sat with – Timothy, I watched him at the retreat this weekend such a fun little guy!
28 – Something Sour – LIMES, brings me back to Mexico everytime!
29- Something Sweet – my sweet Kittie Princess
Gift 30 – Something Just Right
31 – Something Yellow that strikes you as fresh mercy
32 – Something yellow that strikes you as fresh mercy – Lemons
33 – Something yellow that strikes you as fresh mercy
February
34 – Something above you
35 – Something below you – the floor
36 – Something beside me – my husband who walks along side me in life, who works hard so i can stay home and do what I love babysit.
37 – Something your hearing – Max watching Baby Einstein
38 – Something you are hearing – Henwi
39 – Something you are hearing – Max & Henwi playing
40 – Grace from God
41 – grace from God
42 – Grace from God
43 – Something you wore – My necklace
44 – Something you gave away – My smile
45 – Something you Shared
46 – Ways you witnessed happiness – Max inside the toybox
47 – Ways you witnessed happiness – Snow White Valentine Cake
48 – Ways you witnessed happiness – Date Night Camp out
49 – Something that made you laugh – My cats all laying close to each other
50 – Something that made you pray – My book the power of a praying wife
51 – Something that made you quiet – The book The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
52 – God’s Words
53 – God’s Words
54 – God’s Words
55 – Grace in your kitchen – a grace I am missing my oven
56 – Grace in the weather – trying to be optimistic about the nasty white stuff on the ground
57 – A Grace that might not have been
58 – A Gift up close – lotion
59 – A Gift up close – flowers from Andrew
60 – A Gift up close – drawing from Chara
61 – Something in the sky – Clouds
62 – Something from your memory – my kitties when they were little
63 – Something ugly beautiful – pictures on pinterest
64 – a wrinkled grace
65 – Grace smoothed
66 – Grace unfolded – Henwi and the blanket
67 – found in Christ
68 – Found in Christ
69 – Found in Christ
70 – Something Blue – Jonah wearing a blue shirt
71 – Something Blue – Our blue matching coffee cups
72 – Something Blue – Angry Blue Bird
I am studying for tomorrow’s Sunday school lesson and I thought I would share.
We see people miraculously appear and disappear on television. Reality can
become blurred in our minds. Jesus’ return is not just a story. Jesus’ return
is a fact. The fact is God has never failed to keep a promise. Since the Bible
is God’s Word, we know they we can rely on what it says. When it says
Jesus will return, we know that He will return!!
This Jesus, who has been
taken from you into heaven,
will come in the same way
that you have seen Him
going into heaven.
- Acts 1:11
This weekend I was able to buy a book I have been waiting for at the library since before Christmas.
It is called One Thousand Gifts A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
There are many times in Highschool where I would picture my life. It never goes as we plan though, because we aren’t the author of our story. God is. While reading the first chapter there was a line that said ” Just that maybe … maybe you don’t want to change the story, because you don’t know what a different ending holds. There’s a reason I am not writing the story & God is. He knows how it all works out , where it leads, what it all means.
I don’t.
It really encouraged me yesterday. The theme of God writing my story has been a recurring reminder this past year and it’s something that I need to be reminded of it daily.
This morning I was reading City on Our knees by Toby Mac he had this stroy from Gretchen W. a high-school student from Minneapolis, who chose to step out of her comfort zone and head to Sierra Leone for a summer mission trip. Here’s her story.
I REMEMBER THE EXACT MOMENT I fell in love with Africa: July 11, 2009, at 10:30 p.m. Eleven days earlier I had arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a group of twenty-six high-school and college students adn four leaders. I was siting alone on the balcony at the hotel, the street thirty feet below still bustling with activity: car horns honking, people shouting in Krio, and loud music playing off in the distance. I was completely exhausted from fourteen-hour days; sick with a fever of who knows how many degrees; homesick for my family, friends, running water, and clean clothes; and crying for no particular reason. I was overwhelmed. At that moment, feeling like I had reached my limit, I thought back on everything I had seen and all the people I had met. I realized I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right then. I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life anywhere else. The people of Sierra Leone had captured my heart.
During those first eleven days, and the several weeks that followed, I learned to depend on God for everything – from having the courage to share Christ in a largely Muslim country to our bus not going off the road on the steep mountain roads. In sierra Leone I found myself praying more than I ever had in my life.
In the short time I spent there, I learned a great deal about the problems facing Sierra Leone, as well as the hope and perseverance of the people. Much of my time in Sierra Leone was spent simply being with the people, playing with the children, and listening to their stories. One of these times, when I was in Kroo Bay, one of Freetown’s worst slums, I found myself surrounded by a crowd of children, on in my arms and many more pulling at me, wanting to hold my hands. One little boy, who I saw playing among piles of garbage in the dirty water, broke my heart, but at the same time I saw in him the future of Sierra Leone. I thought about all of the children I had talked with and realized that out of the horrors of the civil war a new generation is emerging, one with hopes and dreams for their country. They want to be doctors and lawyers. They want to see their country transformed, not to our Western idea of progress but in a way that maintains their unique culture.
Standing in the middle of Kroo Bay, holding Gibo, I was reminded of all of the children I baby-sat for at home. Gibo would likely grow up not knowing where his next meal would come from, wondering who in his family would get sick from the dirty water and unsanitary conditions, worrying about his home getting swept into the ocean in a rainstorm, and most likely unable to go to school because his family cannot afford the fees. Why should Gibo have to worry about these things? Why can’t he have the same opportunities as the children I baby-sat for at home?
As I stood there, holding this precious little boy, I thought of the other children I had met, and about their dreams. Fatsmata, Mary, Aisha, Bao, Rachel, Rosalie, Iwanat, Memanatu – all of them possess the potential to change their world. I realized that they had entrusted their dreams to me, and that I have the power to make them come true, simply because I happened to be born in the United States. At that moment I felt a huge responsibility to these children. They have everything they need to change their nation and their world, except the opportunity – and that is what I have, what I can give to them. I can be the voice for these children, forgotten by the world.
One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was leaving Sierra Leone. As I walked across the pavement to the plane, I lingered in the warm, humid night air, taking in my very last moments in Africa. I looked back at the tiny airport when the lighted yellow sign reading “Freetown International Airport” in black block letters, and savored the familiar scent and feeling of the air that I had grown to love. Climbing up the metal stairs to the plane, I felt the weight of my day pack on my back, but I also carried with me the dreams of these children. Sitting on the plane as it took off, struggling to accept that I was leaving the place that had come to feel like home , I knew I would be back.
There are so many words in this story that struck emotional chords with me this morning.
“The exact moment I fell in love with Africa” – I can still remember the moment I fell in love with Mexico and the children. We were in the Rio on the hottest day of our stay. A little girl clung to me and didn’t want to be put down all day my arms were starting to ache and I don’t think there was a dry place on my clothing I was sweating so much. There was a part of my body saying put her down or your arms are going to fall off but my heart wouldn’t let me. There had to be a reason she clung to me, I couldn’t speak her language so I knew this was one way to show her I cared about her, whether it made a difference I wont know probably till I get to heaven. I pray for little Andrea a lot she is in my heart and I pray God will cross our paths one day and even if he doesn’t that he will watch over her and that she will come to know him as her best friend.
As this story talked about the kids dreams and goals for their lives to change the world they live in I thought about the kids rather teens in the hope program. They too have dreams for their future.
This last summer I felt the same way she did in the last paragraph here’s my wording. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was leaving Monterrey Mexico. As I walked to the bus to take us to the plane, taking in the view of the mountains one last time. As I walked to the plane next to my lifetime friend Kim and my husband Andrew both of them trying to tell me you’ll be back as tears are streaming down my face. I thought of the children and the friends I had not wanting to leave. All the work still needed to be done and the mission God had called me to, struggling to accept that I was leaving the place that had come to feel like home. Yes, they were right I would be back.
