Ordinary

I will not be satisfied with ordinary. I will not be satisfied with an ordinary marriage, or an ordinary household, or an ordinary job, or ordinary friends, or an ordinary life. The God I serve is not ordinary, therefor I will not be ordinary.

Little Known Facts About Me...

1. I still use strawberry Lip Smackers lip gloss at age 24.
2. My favorite smell is an apple pie baking.
3. I love to read things my friends have written- thoughts, poems, songs, books, blogs, etc.
4. I've never had a hair cut that I've loved.
5. My sweet husband Patrick gets better every day. Every day he gives me a reason to love him more.
6. I will always have cats.
7. I circulate between the same meals at every restuarant...usually something glazed or with teriyaki sauce.
8. I'm terrified of being pregnant and giving birth... and will do anything I can to get out of it.
9. I wish I could live at Bethel.
10. I love to travel, especially to places where I can still shower regularly and use a western style toilet.
11. I love doing creative things but most of my inspiration comes from something someone else has already done (Love you Frankie). What's original these days anyway?
12. I cover my ears in the shower so they don't get wet.
13. I don't eat vegetables, but I eat everything else. :)
14. I'm deathly afraid of the ocean, and usually wear platform shoes or heels if I have to go in.
15. I love to bake and create my own recipes.
16. I have a 2 year old sister and I feel as if she is my own child and sometimes wonder why she can't live with me.
17. I love the fall in a big way. There's something in the crisp air, warm drinks, beautiful leaves and scarves that makes me the happiest person on the planet. I always feel confident and free in the fall.
18. I don't wear tennis shoes and socks with pants.
19. I have so many things that I want to do in my life, and I'm afraid of pursuing one thing because I feel like I'd be missing out on other things.
20. I love taking walks near the river or in the mountains.
21. I'd like to think of myself as very easy going, but I'm totally not. I'm working on that though.
22. The song "Heavenly Day" will always change my mood and take me back to my wedding day...which was the most perfect day of my life thus far.
23. I love letters and emails and notes and messages from friends. Words are my love language.
24. Kittens, warm blankets and pastries are also love languages of mine.
25. My dad is the most generous person I have ever known and I pray that I would possess even a fraction of his compassion and generosity for others that he has.
26. I love a good book on a porch or by a fire.

Something Weighty

If anyone knows me, they know that I have the hugest heart for adoption. I long to take the children of the world who have no one and give them a family full of love, support, grace, and encouragement. Adoption has been my deepest heart's cry as long as I can remember. I think it would be amazing to have my own children. To have children that look like me and have mine and Patrick's quirks and mannerisms. But there is something inside of me that is not satisfied with leaving millions of children on the streets, with no one there to hold them or to give them a better life. No one to give them undivided attention or take them to dance or soccer practice. No one to teach them how to share or how to navigate through the awkward middle school years. No one to just be there.

There are 143 million children in the world with no place no call home, and no woman to call "mom" and no man to call "dad." And I want to bridge that gap. I want to contribute to the number of decreasing orphans in the world. I want to adopt everyone.

Tonight I watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with the Kadzis family. This is the most inspiring family I have ever seen. For the last two hours I have been sobbing uncontrollably. George and Barbara Kadzis had a son of their own, and then they adopted 6 more children from China...5 of which have special needs. One is deaf, one is blind, two have cleft palates that have required multiple surgeries, and one is missing bones in his right arm. They live in a 4 bedroom house with 1 bathroom. About a year ago, George Kadzis found out that he had brain cancer. They removed the tumor, but said there was no way to know whether or not the cancer would return. Sure enough, the cancer returned and ravaged his frail body with no warning. It was George's dying wish that his family have a better and safer home to live in. George was on all of the videos, but when it came time to do the show, he was in the hospital. Three days after his house was finished he passed away, never having seen his dream fulfilled.

At the beginning of George and Barbara's adoption processes, George went to see Stevie Wonder in concert. He was in awe of what a miracle it was that Stevie could play the piano and compose such beautiful music, despite his disability. So George decided to find a way to use music to unite their unique Chinese family. Each child played an instrument and had composed countless of their own pieces. The last surprise for the Kadzis family was a music room, full of new instruments and equipment to record their own music. When the family walked in, Stevie Wonder was sitting down at the new grand piano playing it for the family. He continued to play while the family talked to him and asked him questions, and then he sang the song "I just called to say I love you," but he changed the words to "George just wants to say he loves you." It was George's dying wish that his family have everything they need in his absence. Stevie Wonder singing this song to them was so sweet to me.

I turned off the television having witnessed such extravagant love and devotion. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I loved watching this precious family lean on each other and teach each other. I loved watching Barbara care for her husband so well and lavish her love on him in too many ways to count. She was so proud to be his wife. She was so proud of her beautiful family. Never has anyone exemplified love the way that Barbara and George have. Love for each other. Love for not just the orphans, but for "the least of these." The very, very least of these.

"Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

Rants Part 2

First of all, I'm a poor time manager. You give me 3 hours to work out, catch up on some reading, have a snack and put a load of wash in the washing machine, and instead I'll choose to watch a full 3 hours of America's Next Top Model without getting up during the commercials. Regardless of how productive I can be at work, when I get home and have no plans, I'm worthless. I have a dream of reading countless books each week, painting beautiful pictures, being really creative with second-hand stores and fabrics, getting into a deep Randall Worley-type study of the Bible, cooking elegant dishes, and soaking in God's presence every afternoon. But what will I do with my time instead? I'll watch Gilmore Girls, Oprah, America's Next Top Model, the Bachelorette, So You Think You Can Dance, and an occasional Real World episode on MTV. I know, real mature. I'm 24 and have done very little classical reading, have hardly developed any sort of work-out routine, have used our iron once, and effortlessly cook many of the same meals week-to-week. Maybe there's a support group for people like me. Then again, maybe it's just called maturity.

Rants

Typically I love a good serious, thought-provoking, faith-inspiring exposition. However today, I'm just in the mood to rant about all sorts of things. So grab a drink, sit down, put your feet up, and enjoy a taste of my life.

First of all, birthdays are really important to me. The last few birthdays I've had have not been great. Last year only one of my close friends called me to tell me happy birthday. Each memory of my birthday brings with it an onslaught of terrible thoughts and memories. However this year, I felt so blessed on my birthday. Still none of my close friends from college came to celebrate (but at least they all called!), but there was still an incredible group of people with us. Most of them I've only known the last year or two, but it's been amazing how close we've gotten so quickly. So Mexican (Buffalo chicken quesadillas), Mango Margaritas, mojitos, hookahs, cheesecakes and other desserts made for a great night. As well as some of GREAT gifts.

Secondly, my friend Kristin and I have started a bra company. Affectionately called "Dueling Gazelles." We figure women need a Victoria's Secret quality store, but one that's a little less pricey for such small amounts of fabric. So far our "line" ideas are: "Purity", complete with hidden Scriptures throughout the seams; "Forbidden Fruit", quite possibly scented with fruit embellishments; "Armor of God" which is more of a bondage themed line, but unique and wearable nonetheless. Who doesn't want to feel hot under their clothes? No one has to know but you, and I'm sure you'd walk around with 15 times more confidence than normal- but maybe that's because this line would also be completely bullet-proof and flame retardant. Yep, it's that good and multi-purposed (inspired by the woman who got shot and her underwire kept the bullet from getting to her heart). We're still working out the details of our "Cupcake/Dessert" line but haven't gotten it quite sorted out yet. However we do have a conflict with our name. We were hoping for a really clever Song of Solomon reference, and "Dueling Gazelles" is what we came up with. But when we studied Song of Solomon a little further, we learned that the man is called a gazelle and the woman is called a stag. Yikes. So essentially our name means "Fighting Men." Great. Although catchy, it speaks to the potential problems with our garments, rather than the solution we want our customers to be drawn to. So we're open to suggestions.

Last rant: I think I deserve a prize for healthiest eater. And by healthiest eater, I mean most horrific and terrible eater. I hate vegetables. I started to work on tomatoes and peppers, only to find Im developing slight allergies to those. Awesome, really making progress here. I also learned that my system is too acidic which means....cut down on the fruit. Really? Thats the only healthy thing I eat, and you're telling me I eat so much of it that its actually having a negative impact on my health? You've got to be kidding me. My response: first I made French Toast with powdered sugar and syrup. Then I had an ice cold coca cola classic with a homemade chocolate chip cookie. I made sure to work out first so that I wouldn't feel so guilty about such a great meal, but one lap around the apartment complex and 10 lunges hardly puts a dent in the amount of powdered sugar and syrup I used on my French toast (but i did wear ankle weights!!). But I felt better about it for sure, and let's be honest...that's really all that matters.

Thanks for reading and maybe I'll post a few more rants soon. I'm slacking on my blogging. Sorry.

Social Justice

Recently over the last few weeks I've become exposed to the need for social justice. For years I thought social justice was merely a "liberal" thought or tactic for people to gain money and recognition for themselves or their organization, or it was for people who had nothing better to do with their time...people that wanted to help but had a few lousy ideas that sounded good, but weren't practical and realistic. Or maybe it was just for people who wanted to look like the "church," rather than just BE the "Church."

Straight up, social justice just wasn't for me.

I didn't understand the issues, I didn't understand the importance. I didn't know the facts, and I didn't understand the heart of the matter. But a lot of things have changed over the last few weeks. I ended a year of spending time with the homeless in downtown Atlanta every Sunday, I've been following a lot of stories from Heidi and Rolland Baker in Mozambique, as well as Compassion International. I've also gotten plugged into Exodus Cry...a group based out of IHOP Kansas City that deals with raising awareness and building prayer momentum for the sex trafficking industry. All of these things have shaped my view and my heart on what social justice is really all about.

On our last day at Taskforce for the Homeless, the poorest and least-equipped homeless shelter in Atlanta, we discovered something that might have changed the way we did ministry all along. We learned that even this poor, dilapidated shelter provided the homeless men with MARTA cards, bus passes, ids, access to computers, telephones and beds. Churches came in every day of the week serving 3+ hot meals a day and delivering clothes to the men and women. The homeless were not without at all. They receive social security checks and welfare checks every two weeks...some checks are for even more than Patrick and I get week to week. But for some reason these men are still homeless. They have access to just about anything they need, but they are still homeless. No amount of government money or aid is going to encourage them to get out of their situation. The streets of Atlanta are comfortable and familiar.

So what's the problem?

After reading through some blogs of those on the Compassion trip to India right now, and hearing stories from Mozambique and Thailand....there are some significant things that I've started noticing. 

One: There are many countries that are so poor that there is no option to work harder and make more money. When your crop fields are flooded, and so is your entire country...there are very few resources. Even the government can't do anything. When your town doesn't have roads to it, it's hard to bring relief in. When everyone in your town lives in mud shacks, it's very hard to find the money or resources to live in something different. 

Two: Those that have nothing are the most hungry. The homeless in Atlanta are not hungry. I'm not talking about physical hunger, I'm talking about spiritual hunger. The kind of hunger that can linger on one simple Truth about Jesus for months. The kind of hunger that searches for answers when there are no answers. The kind of hunger that burns deep and won't stop until something inside is satisfied. 

The thing is, we can't change people's hearts or mindsets. We can do things to call forth dreams and creativity, but we can't stir up someone's hunger. And the people that aren't hungry, don't want answers. But there are countless people that are hungry, but don't have access to the answers. Like the poor in Mozambique, or India, or those involved in the sex slave trade. Even some of the homeless. It's our responsibility to provide answers when there are none, even if the people aren't hungry. 

Sometimes you don't realize how hungry you've been until you have eaten and gotten full. 

So we can't withhold answers just because someone doesn't "look" hungry. Because deep down, they are probably hungrier than they realize. Hungry for love. Hungry for Truth and for grace. Hungry for honesty and generosity. 

Go Green

So, it might be time for me to jump on the "Go Green" bandwagon. Why not learn how to be more efficient with your energy and money?

Today Oprah provided a variety of small ways that make a huge difference in the impact on our environment. One of my favorite being making your own cleaning supplies! Click here to see how some basic household items (vinegar, water, baking soda...etc) clean well but are also great for the environment (can save you up to $600 a year). 

There are tons of other ways to make your home more green. For example: 

1.Clean out your dryer lint regularly to help increase the efficiency of your dryer and lessen the amount of power needed to dry your clothes (not hard and keeps your bill lower). 

2. Switch from incandescent lightbulbs to LED bulbs. Although they are just short of $40 to start, they last for ten years and save you $740 over the life of the bulb, as well as being way better for the environment. 

3. Use weather stripping around all the openings in your house to keep out the unwanted heat/cold. 

4. Keep your blinds closed when you aren't home so that your house is not heated unnecessarily.

5. Invest in a water aerator that cuts the amount of water that comes through your faucet by 1-5 gallons daily. They are $2 and don't change the pressure you feel coming out of the faucet. 36 towns will face droughts over the next few years so this is a way to reduce the amount of water you use, as well as cut down on your bill.

6. By buying a water purifying pitcher for $30, you save over $300 a year in bottled water (not to mention how much better it is for the environment to not be using so much plastic.

7. Drive the speed limit, reduce the amount of aggressive driving and lane switching and save money on gas. 

8. Use only reusable containers for lunches, snacks and water. 

9. Choosing to not eat meat one day a week is the equivalent of taking 20 million mid-sized sedans off the road. By pushing meat aside, you bring fruits and vegetables to the center of your plate which means you eat healthier. 

10. Eat foods that are living and will eventually rot. Processed foods cause the most waste while also taking the most fossil fuel to produce. Eat foods around the outer ring of the grocery store, that's where the healthier choices are. 

11. If you can afford it, buy organic and sustainably grown food. Most regular fruit and vegetables only have 50% of their original nutrients (requiring you to eat more in order to get all the benefits), while organic and sustainably grown food still have a majority of their nutrients. 

I've never been a "tree-hugger" but many of these suggestions save you money, protect the environment, and are ten times healthier. Why not choose to go green?

Excerpt from "Always Enough"

     "They were hungry, tired and penniless. This was our first conference in Nampula Province, a major event. Some of our pastors had walked from their villages for two days without food to get here, sleeping on the dirt by the side of the road at night. Others walked four days, and one six days-to learn from us. All came with only the poor, threadbare clothes on their backs. Now they were all waiting to see what we would do. Guy asked them, 'What are you most afraid of?' 'That our children will starve to death while we are here,' they answered simply. They didn't even know how they would survive going home. What did we have to say?

     Heidi and I deliberately came to Mozambique to face situations like this. We came to test the Gospel and strip from our preaching everything that didn't work and wasn't the Truth. We came to give people the living Jesus, not to try out our mission strategy on them. We came to love the poorest of the poor into the Kingdom, not to promise them a cheap road to health and wealth. We came asking Jesus to kill us, destroy us and remake us however He wanted so that we would be useful to Him here. And now we faced the test. 

     These people were suffering. They were sick and weak. They had seen their children die in their arms. Muslims persecuted them. They saw no hope outside the Good News we brought. So we preached the purest, simplest messages we could, straight from Scripture. We had no confidence in any other ideas we might have. They needed words that the Holy Spirit would back up. They needed to know what Jesus will bless and support, what will attract His company and presence. They needed content they could depend on to the death."

These are three of the most significant paragraphs in this book to me, for obvious reasons. I love these paragraphs, they are so challenging and life-speaking to me. 

Always Enough

So, I'm reading a book right now that is plucking every heart string that I have. It is called "Always Enough" by Heidi and Rolland Baker. Heidi and Rolland are missionaries in Mozambique and they work among the poorest of the poor. They spent years in Hong Kong and Indonesia living in trash dumps and slums with people. Then they ended up in Mozambique with orphans from the streets. Children that would get dropped off on their doorstep that had been abused and raped and watched their parents be killed...and Heidi and Rolland would just listen to them and hold them and love them. They found ways to get food and shelter and clothing for these children and show them the love of Jesus. And what started out as a handful of children from the dump turned into hundreds, and now there are over 7 thousand of children that Heidi and Rolland are "parents" of. 

They planted several churches over the course of a few years, and then they got radically touched by God's presence in Toronto. Once touched by the Presence of God, they came back to Mozambique and started thousands and thousands of churches in a very short amount of time...full of thriving people who are seeing God show up in so many ridiculous and unexpected ways. 

They live so much on God's faithfulness that they would not be able to live if God didn't show up. They have very little money or possessions and count on God every single day. Their hundreds of children wouldn't eat if food wasn't multiplied daily. They see the blind and deaf healed regularly and have reported over 100 people being raised from the dead. Everything is about the love of Jesus in Mozambique. They feast on the love of Jesus. They spend hours in praise in worship every day. They love to talk about God and the miracles that He is doing among them. 

When Heidi and her teams go to new villages, they call up all the blind and deaf and heal them. Once the town sees these people that they've always known to be blind or deaf, healed, they immediately are open to hearing the Gospel. Heidi's team then shows the Jesus film and spends time ministering to the village. It is so cool that God is so good and powerful and full of love and hope, that people can be brought out of any circumstance and be transformed through one touch by the Father. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6oB0UTwNK0  This is a video with some clips of Heidi in Mozambique. Just thought you might be interested in seeing "Mama Aida" (Mama Help) and her precious children in Mozambique. www.irismin.org/p/home.php   This is the Iris Ministries website. 

I definitely encourage anyone and everyone to read the story "Always Enough" and see how good and faithful God is despite some horrific circumstances. 

Psalm 126

When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with joyful shouting. Then we will say among the nations "The Lord has done great things!" 

Ps. 126:1-2