Advent and impromptu pictures

This year for advent each week will have a scripture and some kind of artwork to go along. It could be a painting, a drawing, a word, a photograph...anything that you are good at and represents those scriptures. Fran Ostrom asked me and Rachel Sterling to each do photographs. I love that we have such talented youth that are pulled in and included in all the church does.

Fran emailed me my verses and told me my week was joy. I started praying immediately for what I was going to take pictures of, because, well in case you don't know me...I find joy in everything! There is not one thing that just overwhelms me with me joy. I find joy in the simplest things in life...right down to the 7Up I just drank! But, clearly I couldn't take pictures of that :) So after praying and reading the scriptures the ideas just came pouring out of me! I knew what I wanted to do. I knew the direction God was telling me to go.

I called Katy and told her my ideas and told her I needed 30 minutes of her time to accomplish what I needed. So we met and here is a peak at some of the pictures we did!

I honestly can't say it enough times...Katy can make me laugh like no one else! I am so blessed to have this family in my life! I adore each one of them...especially Grady! The verse I chose to represent my week is:

"Shout for JOY to the Lord, all the earth. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his...For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." --Psalm 100: 1,3,5

How true that is! God's love has endured through every generation. How evident His love is in a mother's smile, a friend's laugh and the simplicity in a child's face!

Learning to walk in someone else's shoes

This past weekend we went through Mission Waco's Poverty Simulation with 13 of our youth and 5 sponsors. We literally were homeless for the weekend. It was one of the best and worst weekends I have ever had. I don't want to give too much about the weekend away, but I will share some highlights.

I was shocked by how little I know about what is going on in the world. I know that I can't change them and that I can't help that I live here and not somewhere else. But, it was shocking to me how little I pay attention to the news. So often I think "there is nothing I can do" and I turn a blind eye to it. The sad part is, we live in the midst of poverty. I don't have to travel across the world to see sadness and struggle. I can see it in my own city. I can experience it for myself. I learned that being in poverty does not mean you are living on the street. You can live in a house and even have a job and a car. But, what no ones sees is that you don't have food to feed yourself or your kids, you aren't able to make enough money to live on or you simply struggle with an addiction that gets the better of you.

One item I kept this weekend was my bible and 2 times I asked God to show me something and I am still amazed by God. The first was curiosity. I wanted to know about fasting. What did the bible say to do when you fast. A repeated theme kept coming to me: prayer. You pray. A lot. I remembered that on Saturday when I was hungry. And, while I was not fasting, I did pray. I prayed out loud with Rachel Sterling and I prayed to myself. I asked God to be with me. Surprisingly I was not hungry. I never got the hunger pain in my belly. I was full on God's love. I noticed that on Saturday night when we ate dinner...I wasn't hungry. I hadn't been hungry the entire time I prayed. The hunger didn't hit until I took my focus off of God. The second time God showed up, in a big way, was Saturday night. I again opened the bible and just asked God to satisfy my need. I needed to see something, to hear from Him. I turned to Job. I realized and even joked that I had never read Job before. Connie told me I was going to love it. I think she knew what I was about to see and how God was about to reveal himself to me! As I began to read I marveled at a few things: Job loved God so much but more importantly God loved Job so much that he was willing to let the Devil tempt Job. And, tempt he did. The most amazing verse to me was when Job's wife, after death and sickness, came to Job and asked him if he were not angry at God and basically tells him end your suffering, curse God and you will die. Job, ahh Job. How sweet his love for God is. He tells her she is talking foolish. Here is where it gets amazing to me. Job then says, " Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" (NIV) "We take the good days from God - why not also the bad days?" (The Message)

I love how the messages says it. Saturday was in my book a bad day. One day. I just had to make it through one bad day...but should I not thank God for that day? I learned so much about the world and what is going on. I learned about my own city and the anguish that lives around me. I learned about hunger and sleepless cold nights. All in one bad day. I would do it again. I would learn it all over again and still praise God for the bad day. Because of that bad day, my eyes are seeing things different. I appreciate more and praise him more for what I have.

Below are some pictures from the weekend. A caption will explain each picture.

These are the four things I got to keep: sleeping bag, gum aka toothbrush :), bible, and a sweatshirt (which doubled as a pillow at night)

This is what I wore: shorts, size 16 (I am NOT a 16), flip flops (I am now scared of flip flops after wearing them that long), t-shirt, my sweatshirt/pillow.

I craved this all weekend. It is an amazing thing that we can drink clean water from so many sources, and so many countries don't get to have that luxury. How thankful I am for water!!!

We ended the weekend at Church Under the Bridge (amazing!) and my dear friend Sarah was there to greet me with a friendly smile, an encouraging word and a warm hug. Thanks Sar for being such a positive in my life. Love you, my sister in Christ!

What did I take away from the weekend? A new found respect for those that live a life I can't imagine. For those who have lost their children to hunger, lack of water and the cruel environment they were born into.

What am I going to do after this weekend? I am going to open my eyes and pay attention to the world around me. I am also going to, in small ways, take care of my brothers and sisters. For that is what Christ calls us to do, love our neighbor!