Page's Corner

Monday, January 31, 2005

What was the purpose of that!?

So last night I told Cori that I would make up all the fixin's for our salad dinner if she would read a story to me. So she went and got her Bible and I told her I wanted to hear about Elijah. So she was reading this story as I cooked up some bacon for bacon bits and I kept badgering her with questions as she read (I am a very curious person!). Then we got to the part where the widow's son dies. I said, "Now, what was the reason for that whole incident!?" It seemed that everything else had a reason. But this didn't make sense to me at first...here this woman had taken Elijah in and taken care of him and her son, though by having him there, her life was spared. Anyhow, her son dies and her first reaction is "Did you come here to remind me of my sins!? Why has this happened!?" Then Elijah does the laying on the boy thing and praying and the son is raised from the dead. Then the woman realizes that God is really God and I believe it said that she worshipped Him. God goes through such great lengths to bring us to Him. Really, we should be flattered that He loves us as He does...but instead we often complain or bask in our pain. I think of unbelievers that I know and love and how God is trying to draw them to Himself through painful circumstances...but I don't have to look any further than myself. The more painful the situation it seems...the more God wants us to run to Him. And what better place is there to be than in His arms? I guess I just want Him to hold me so close that the rest of the world just fades away. And I pray the same for my loved ones that don't even know His love.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Happy Endings

I am a firm believe in happy endings as I think I have already eluded to in an earlier post. Last night a few of us gathered for the Capital One Bowl where my Hawks took on LSU. All through the game I had such hope for my Hawks to win. When Phil would say "Oh, this doesn't look good." I would promptly look at him and say "But these are my Hawks, they'll make it." In the last two minutes of the game, LSU pulled ahead with a touchdown. It didn't look good for the Hawks and I think everyone in our living room was giving up hope on my Hawks...everyone but me that is. I always hold out for the last possible hope. I am stubborn like that. I looked at them all and said "These are my Hawkeyes, they can SOOO pull it off in 56 seconds if they want to." Well, for those of you who watched the game or at least checked out the scores of this game know that they desperately wanted to pull it off...and they did. They scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the game, actually, the clock ran out of time as they were running down the field. It was the most incredible game I have seen in some time (granted, I haven't watched my Hawks play in the 1.5 years I've been here).

I think that I am a firm believer in happy endings because Jesus made me this way. I mean, if you think about it, Jesus is a firm believer in happy endings, too. I mean, God wrote the Book and told us the ending. I think its so we wouldn't lose hope amidst all the battles that we lose from day to day...it is to bring us encouragement and push us onwards to look at the final ending, where we win and Satan loses. My Jesus loves happy endings. Right now I am in a place where I don't know if this chapter in my life is going to end happily. I stepped out in faith in something and I do not yet know how it is going to go. I have suspicions, but know nothing for certain. This week brought a verse to me. It comes from I Corinthians 15:57 and it talks about how we have the victory through Jesus Christ. As I have also eluded to, I have been struggling with something huge over the last 6 months. That something is ugly and I have tried over and over to escape it. But this week, Jesus showed me that indeed what I have been missing out on is the fact that HE brings us victory. I have been living a life of defeat for 6 months. But Jesus offers a life of victory. I know how I want this chapter in my life to turn out, but it is so far out of my hands...to think it might not end up the way I had hoped breaks my heart all over again. I always hold out hope...many times very foolishly. But its something that I have always done. Myabe it goes with childlike faith, maybe it goes with sheer foolishness. If I look at my track record of the last 6 months, I know that this chapter is not going to end how I had hoped. But yet I cling to the hope that I felt God gave me more than a year ago now. Foolish? Proabably. But that's me. And if it doesn't work out, then I guess that's when I will have to fight again to claim yet another victory. I just long for the day when either I won't be so exhausted from fighting these battles or when I no longer have to fight them.

Please pray for me. God has renewed my hope and my strength this week in a way that I have longed for for 6 months. He has given me victory. But I feel another crushing blow will send me right back to where I was. If that is the case, please pray that I will have the strength to just stand. I just want to be able to stand this time. Jesus is all we need. And He shows us that so clearly when He is all we have. Why put our hope in anything other than Him? Its just not worth it. I long for the happy ending, but realize that we are not promised happy endings until the final end....but we are promised to always have Jesus with us. And that is enough.

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Go Hawks!

Thank you for all my Iowa friends and fans for not telling me the final outcome (or anything!) about the bowl game our Hawks played in on January 1st. I am very excited because for tonight, Cori and I have "planned" a bowl party to watch my Hawks play. We have invited several people over to watch with us. I have a nasty cold right now that has me pretty miserable feeling physically...but I woke up with the thought that there are so many things to be excited about in life...more than just watching the bowl game....but that is a good start for today! :) Anyhow...GO HAWKS!!!


Friday, January 28, 2005

You can always tell

This morning as we were all heading to our classrooms to start off the day, I was outside with Cori talking with my Coke in hand. Not even 8am yet and I've started the Coke. Then another elementary teacher came out with her Coke. And then another! We clanked our Coke bottles in celebration of this Friday and laughed that you can always tell an elementary teacher. :) A serious need for caffeine first thing in the morning just to keep up, especially on the Friday of a week that has dragged by.

I also read this from My Utmost for His Highest for today....it really struck me. Justifying any pain is one of those things that are part of my "self-will"...by holding onto it, I hurt Jesus. Wow, that was a revelation...I mean, I knew it, I think, but to have it so clearly stated was an eye opener. Check this out. It made me think, just wanted to pass it on.

"Are you determined to have your own way in living for God? We will never be free from this trap until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of "the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11). Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever."

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Downloading

This year I have a new habit...maybe you could call it an addiction. I download a lot of music. Living here in West Africa, its not the easiest thing to get the latest music...or even the really old stuff. So I go to walmart.com and type in the artist or song and bam, there is the music....$.88/song. Tonight I downloaded a CD that I have wanted for some time, I like the whole CD so I just hit the button that said "Download full album". Its so easy. And so tempting so often. Music is a way that I praise God...so I justify my purchases and attempt not to go overboard in my buying them. Trying to be a good steward of my money and all that. :) So right now my new CD is downloading...and I was thinking, wow, I wish I could just click a button and my heart would be changed. Click another button and my fears would be erased. Click another and my attitude would be changed. Just wait a few minutes and bam, there it is, just like new. But its not so easy. But it easier than I let it be often. I don't get to click a button...but I get to go to Jesus with my burdens and He takes them. All I have to do is go to Him. That's pretty cool. And I don't have to pay anything, its all free. Wow. I guess this isn't such a bad deal...sin stinks and so do its consequences...but grace is there. Just waiting to be chosen, not unlike all this music that is so readily available.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Mom Said...

Last night I talked to my mom for about an hour. I love the way mom's can say something that everyone else has said a hundred times, but its just somehow different and makes more sense. Mom and I talked about a burden I've been carrying...and being my mom, she doesn't let me get away with excuses...she stops me in my tracks and says "no way". It's great, but very frustrating. My mom and I are as different as night and day on a lot of topics, but she is a wise woman whom I respect very much and when she says something, I generally listen (though don't tell her that!). Last night my mom told me, "Sara, you've got to lay this thing down and walk away from it and DO NOT pick it back up." I agreed and then tried to make excuses for myself...to which she would not hear of it, she is the no nonsense type. She also said "Have you read Pilgrim's Progress?" and I think she expected me to say that I had...every good Christian has, right? Well, when I said no, she quickly said "Read it." So this morning I went to our library, figured out that it was JOHN Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim's Progress and not Paul Bunyan (an occupational hazard for me)...and promptly checked it out. I was warned it was not easy reading...but I am up for it. And I am up for this challenge of laying down this burden. Our God is bigger than anything that comes our way...He gives us the strength we need to leave something with Him and not return to it. Joy is a choice...and I choose joy. Things are going to change here. I have said that many times...but for some reason, when my mom who God gave me says "Sara, you can do this." I believe it a little more than I did before. Plus I know the stakes...and there are many, not just the obvious. Its all a choice...I only have 4 months left here...I want to make the most of it and let others do the same. I need prayer in it. So if you think on it...well, pray for me to lay this down and not pick it back up. And also that I can make it through Pilgrim's Progress. :)

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Weird

So I realize just how heavy my last few posts have been...and whereas they are a good reflection of how I feel, its time to lighten things up for anyone who bothers to read this. No one needs to be weighed down, laughter is the best medicine...all that stuff...

So here are some strange things for you:

1) The anti-motion detector street light on our way home. Seriously, we walk near it at night and the thing shuts off!! Usually 9 times out of 10. Weird.

2) Our maid is terrified of our cat Bob, last week when we came home, he had escaped from the bathroom somehow and she had been on our balcony for 7 hours, too scared to come in because he was loose!

3) Senegal had Tabaski a day after the rest of the world had it. Also very weird.

Barely Holding On

I went to bed last night crying as I furiously scribbled in my little notebook...it is my outlet these days. That book is being abused in the worst way. It is full of thoughts and mostly prayers. Prayers of not understanding, prayers of pain, prayers of belief that hope can still be just around the corner...but I'm just barely holding onto that hope. Many times in the past few days I have been tempted to go downtown to "Senegal Tours" and find the lady who speaks English and buy the first plane ticket home that I can. But what would that prove? What purpose would that serve? None. That would be giving up on hope. I am stubborn. Most times, to a fault. This morning I ended up at the cross. My alarm went off at 5:30am (I am SOOO not a morning person) and I laid there pouring out my already hurting heart...I opened my Bible to Matthew and surrendered my mind to Jesus at the cross. His sacrifice for me. I would love to tell you that I am sitting here at peace with a smile on my face...but that is not so. I feel a battle raging inside of me...and I feel like I am losing to it. This week is SEW (Spiritual Emphasis Week) here at DA...and I see clearly the battle in my classroom, I haven't seen it so clear since my days in Uganda. I wonder if I have enough for this day. I wonder if God will give me enough for this day. He always has in the past. Why would He not on this day?

Monday, January 24, 2005

Abraham

This morning I read about when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God had made a promise to Abraham that Isaac would be the child of promise. Then God asked Abraham to take him up that mountain and offer him up as a burnt offering. Abraham immediately obeyed...but I wonder what went through his mind. My Bible says that God tested Abraham...to purify his faith probably. I am struggling like crazy with the sacrifice I have made. I am questioning whether or not its really what God wanted. I sit on the verge of tears all day and when I look at the hours in front of me, I don't know how I can make it through them. I wonder if Abraham struggled like this before he placed Isaac on the altar. I feel like God made a promise to me...I feel like He gave me a gift in my life...but some hard things came with that gift and rather than immediately giving those things up to God, I let them simmer in me. I ache with what I have done.

I knew this wouldn't be easy...but neither did I expect it to be this hard...I don't know if I can really do this or not. I don't know if I want to. And I don't know if God will provide the strength necessary because I do not know for sure that this is what He wanted exactly. I just feel confused and lonely right now.

My gift...I love you. With all my heart. I'm trying.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Living Sacrifice

Today I have laid upon the altar the most important thing to me. And just like a living sacrifice, I want to crawl off the altar and take it all back. I want to say that I can handle the things that are hindering me without this sacrifice. But for months I have tried that very thing. And I have failed. God has blessed me greatly, and now I feel like I have to tell Him that He can have it back...I want Him to hold onto it and fix me. And if He decides I cannot have it again, then so be it. A dead sacrifice would be so much easier. Something I'm not passionate about. But that's not what God asks for. I know His intentions are for the best, to help me love Him more and to be more like Him...why does it have to be so painful? My heart is broken. Only the Healer can make it whole again.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Like a Skin

Like a Skin
By Sara Groves

A butterfly can just look back, flap those wings and say oh yeah, and never have to be a worm again
The snake gets tired of being him, he wriggles from that itchy skin, leaves it lying where’s he’s been, moves on
And I am longing for something tangible
Some kind of proof that there’s been change in me

Feels like I have been waking up, only to fight with the same old stuff
Change is slow and it fills me with such doubt
Come on new man, where have you been?
Help me wriggle from this self I’m in
Leaving it like a skin upon the ground

Help me leave it like a skin upon the ground.

Friday, January 21, 2005

Home Sweet Home

Iowa in January is miserable cold. My dad hates the cold. I love it, though I think these days I would freeze to death as 70 degrees is now cold to me. There are so many things I love about Iowa...to me, flying into Chicago from here last summer, seeing the midwest was the most beautiful thing to me. Some people think I am crazy for that, but seeing the farmlands all divided and crops just starting to grow...it just called out "you're home" to me. One of the big question marks in my future is where I am going to live when I get back. My family is in Iowa and I miss them dearly. My friends that I have had since first grade are mostly all in Iowa, but they have almost all moved on in their lives, getting married and having babies and such. I feel like my place at home has been sort of "weeded-out" as I have gone upon this 2 year absence. The U.S. is a big country, full of different options. I feel like "home" will always be "home" for me, but it is no longer my place. So where to next? That is the question. Florida? South Carolina? Do I really want to leave the Midwest? Is it time for something completely new in life? Is it time for a new chapter? What does this new chapter include?

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Remember

A friend shared with me yesterday some really hard things that she has been going through. She told me that when she looks to the future and is saddened at how things are working out, she looks to the past and remembers what God has done in her life...the times when He has brought her out of things that would not have been good for her (Psalm 77). When I look to the future I see nothing but a huge question mark that only seems to get bigger with each passing day. I am face with a choice. I can become anxious about the growing size of that question mark or I can look to the past. In the past I remember times when God has brought me through times I didn't think would ever end. All to His glory. When I remember the past and what God has done, the growing question mark doesn't look nearly so scary.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Be There

I was reading today about hope again. I read everyday about hope...it's something that I nearly lost last semester and nearly did me in. Today was talking about the hope there is in consistency and about how we long for consistency. Then it gave this quote, "If you can't be good, be there." Meaning that not everyone can be the champion runner, but that there is just something "very right about just showing up day after day and giving what you've got." I once heard a man say, "Do what you can with what you have where you are." Often times we find ourselves in situations where we feel we have nothing to offer or nothing left. But there is something about just being there. A friend emailed me recently about some things going on in her marriage and I had nothing to offer, I'm not married and I don't know the right answers...but there is something sweet in just being there. Last semester I nearly fell apart in many ways...and my roommate Cori was that person for me...consistently she was just there. After a time, she didn't have anything left to give...but she was always there. I guess I'm just thankful for people like her...and of course very thankful for her. There is nothing fair-weather about her. A lot of days I wake up and think "Ok, Lord, I'm not sure what I have to give today to those kids or to the people I will be communicating with..." but its not about my being the bset...its about being there and giving what I have...it's about loving with what God gives me to love with. And God's grace is sufficient for the rest. I just want to be consistent. People long for consistency in their lives...right now, I just long to be consistent in my life...in all areas. I'm thankful for the truckloads of grace that are poured out on me when I fall short. It just keeps happening. And the grace from God keeps coming. I'd be so lost without it.


Ok, so this one was better...Oliver is in Cori's lap and I have Baby (a prophetic name, she is tiny!) and Bob (who still wasn't in a good mood as you can tell.)


Cori and I desperately tried to get a good pic of us with the three cats...but they were NOT cooperating. Baby (white cat) doesn't like to be held, Oliver (middle) was not being agreeable, and Bob (orange cat) was just in a bad mood...an ongoing hostility with Bob and Oliver...so he bit Oliver's ear and I was getting scratched while trying to hold onto both of them and take the pic!

Monday, January 17, 2005


We were literally in the desert...I think I have had enough sand to last me a lifetime!! This is Cori and I.


Paris-Dakar Rally...I thought you boys might enjoy this pic. :)

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Paris-Dakar Rally

Today was a new adventure...and I finally got to leave the campus for the first time in nearly 6 months!! I guess I should technically say, I got to leave Dakar. :) Anyhow, we ventured out before the sun rose to watch the end of the Paris-Dakar Rally...it was a definite adventure. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow...and if you want more, I'm going to be putting them on my ofoto album this week, so I can certainly send that to you as well! Anyhow...I learned 3 things today...1. don't ever wear flip flops when trying to wade through a desert. 2. don't ever smile at a helicopter in the desert. and 3. americans really do drive crazy!! :)

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Hopeless Dreamer

"I have a new hope, that blows away the small hopes I knew before. That at the end of the day I am Yours." I just downloaded some new music as I was up for something new. So I at the suggestion of a friend, I checked out Sara Groves' new CD. This morning I got into a pretty intense conversation with someone dear to me and we were talking about dreams. If you know me, you know that I am hopelessly a dreamer. I mean, I walked out of the theater in high school after watching "Little Women" with my mom and best friend absolutely disgusted with the ending because I thought that Jo should have ended up with Laurie-he had dreamed of it for so long. In my mind, I knew the happy ending and I was devestated when it didn't happen. It's been a lot of years since then and I have come to love that movie and watch it every Christmas. I have realized that life doesn't always turn out how we had planned. It takes all sorts of twists and turns. Some painful and some suprisingly wonderful, but all with a purpose. The other day I was talking to a buddy of mine about some things upcoming in his future and I said, "life is too short and too serious and too many things go wrong not to have some of our dreams." The hopeless dreamer in me says that if a dream is attainable and God-honoring, we ought to go for it, even if it seems ridiculous. The realist voice in the back of my mind (yes, there really is one!) says that I should keep my feet firmly planted in reality and stick with what makes the most sense...but I'm not a realist. Just ask my mom. :) Dreams and hope go hand in hand in my mind. If I couldn't dream and reach for those, hope would be pointless. But as Sara Groves said in her song "I have a new hope, that blows away all the small hopes I knew before." The Bible says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." That is true and the curse of the dreamer...but at the end of the day, we are still Jesus' kids...and He won't withhold any good thing from His children. But the hope lies in that He knows what is best...my dreams may be small and disappointing to me when they are not fulfilled...but He has big dreams for me and as He fulfills them, I realize that they are so much more than anything I could have ever thought to hope for.

Friday, January 14, 2005

Heart-wrenching

I got some heart wrenching news this morning. Something has happened with some people that I love very dearly. I sit here feeling likely a completely new person, loving my Jesus more than I ever have, but floored by what is happening. Tears are in my eyes as I write this, my heart broken for these that I love and what this news could possibly mean. And being thousands of miles away from them and not able to give the best comfort I have to offer...a hug. Sometimes I wonder why God uses such hard circumstances in life to teach us or to bring us to Him...but then I look back on my own life and realize that that is the only way He could get a hold of this stubborn soul. I'm just thankful it is balanced with grace and pray that these I love will come to know His grace personally. It is so hard to be away from home at times like these.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

What am I doing?

The last few days have been interesting where my Bible class is concerned. We have jumped off track onto something I saw as being infinitely more important than doctrine...and that was simply the Gospel message and also discussing Islam in light of that. The previous 2 days were spent trying to simply hammer out in simple terms what the Gospel message is. I gave the kids the Roman Road and we walked through that. Today I tried to compare with them who Muslims say Jesus is with who Christians say Jesus is. I think it was a bit over their heads. I guess that is part of teaching. Sometimes lessons are great, sometimes they flop. The previous two days, though, I was stunned by the way Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers...one of my students was shocked when I said that we all sin. She also didn't realize that she had to make the decision herself, but instead had understood that her mom would make it for her. It has been discouraging to hear some of the comments made...and then others of my kids understand the Gospel message so passionately and clearly and they long for their peers to get it. But I'm trying to get across to them that we have to relate that with gentleness and respect as I Peter 3:15-16 talks about. Its an interesting week. So many factors...and such precious lives. Makes me wonder if I'm really cut out for this job...sometimes I wonder if I really know what I am doing. Do you ever feel that way?

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

The Monkey

Cori's cat, Bob, and I have an ongoing battle between us. My friend Kasey sent me a little stuffed monkey for Christmas...it's very cute and soft. Bob thinks so, too. The first night I had it, I put it on my table in my room and he repeatedly jumped on my table and carried it off with him. However, now he has become far more sly. Last night he sat in view of it while I took a "nap" and did not make a move...just looked lovingly at it. When I got up to see if someone was at the door, he made his move. I saw another of our cats, Baby, looking curiously at something and knew instantly what had happened. Bob has a fetish with my monkey. It's disturbing. Today in chapel we learned that the monkey was the wisest animal in the jungle...maybe Bob is trying to get some advice. Anyhow, it is an ongoing battle...I think maybe he is winning.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

A New Beginning

The campus is noisy with the sound of students running and playing again. The classroom is a wreck after some hard core learning going on and I am sitting here just trying to catch my breath after a full morning of teaching. This morning when I woke up, my heart was all askew and troubled with the day and what was coming...namely, teaching again. So I sat here before the kids came in, in the quiet darkness of the morning and read through some chapters in Genesis and then read this out of my devotional on hope: "Notice in Psalm 118 that the rejoicing comes before the gladness. The rejoicing is in God making the day, not in our finding something to be glad about. " Each day is a gift to us...and some days may not present terribly obvious "little joys"...but the reason we are to rejoice in the days is because God has given them to us...not necessarily because we have some little thing to make us happy. Though those certainly do help. :) It has been a good first day back...I have enjoyed the kids like I never did last semester...it is truly a new beginning...in so many areas of my life. :) I am just thankful for a new day to rejoice in. :)

Monday, January 10, 2005

Defeat

So that sand dune that I was talking about yesterday may not apply. Its amazing how quickly defeat can enter into a heart and render it helpless and hopeless. I have a uphill battle in my life right now...and I thought that I was really climbing well...cautiously, but I was moving steadily forward...however, I have come to find that instead of moving forward, apparently, I was standing still. Moving forward means sweat and tired muscles and all of that stuff...maybe I was in the prep mode for moving forward, but now I have been put into motion whether I am ready or not. Its ok. I just detest the feeling of defeat...but I guess it makes me come to the point where I decide if I will give up or if I will use this defeat to finally move forward...not let the sand dune beat me. Sometimes I wonder if its worth climbing this sand dune anymore...but I know it is...the view will be worthwhile, if I can make it to the top. Its just hard, I feel alone in this and I feel like people are looking at me wondering why it is so hard for me. I hate that feeling. I have felt nothing but weak since being back in this desert. I guess my weakness is where Jesus is made strong.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

A Good Work

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

Hope. There is so much hope in these 26 little words. God has begun a good work in us, and He will complete that work. Just like when I trudged up a sand dune in Idaho with my 3 cousins a few years back, we would take a step and though we kept moving forward, often we would slip backwards a little. When we got nearer to the top, the incline increased and it felt like we were going straight up...I wanted to fall over and just let myself slide back down that hill. But instead, we forged onward...just like God does with us...He keeps working in us to bring about this completion...this completion of making us more like Him. And when we got to the top of that sand dune we just sat and watched the sun begin to set...and it was a beautiful feeling of knowing that we had the victory over that dune, it didn't beat us. And with God on our side, despite small setbacks, we know in the end we will have the victory. We have to hold to the hope that God will complete what He has begun in us. Grace and hope hold hands to bridge the valley of despair.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

High/Low

Low: Harmatan (the season where it is dry and the wind blows the sands from the Sahara here, making it hard to breath and constantly overcast looking.)

High: Midafternoon Pauses (a time when you get to go home and nap bc everything is closed up anyway for the pause!)

Friday, January 07, 2005


I was sitting here writing an email to a friend of mine today after our meetings and was just feeling a little blah when this little guy and his mom came in and said hi. He smiled real big at me and who can not smile at that!? Anyhow...I was just thinking about how God shows us "little graces" in each day...we just have to train ourselves to open our eyes enough to see them. I miss so many...I have a long ways to go!!

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Weakness

I had to go sit in a meeting from 9-3 today. I used to tell my mom that I would never be in a profession where we had to sit in meetings bc I get more antsy than my students do when I have to sit and pay attention for long periods of time. Anyhow, it wasn't bad as I figured and food always sweetens a long meeting.

At one point our new assistant director said "If we didn't have weaknesses, we would be perfect. And if we were perfect, we would not need God." I have no idea what the context was (did I mention I tend to be a little ADD?!), but I got to thinking about it in my personal life. In the last 4 months I have seen weaknesses that I have that I didn't know were there to the extent that they were. Initially, this was very discouraging to me. Last night as I was driving home from the airport, I got to thinking about what to do about these weaknesses and the verse in the New Testament hit me like a brick..."in your weakness I am made strong..." We are weak and God can be glorified in that. I can smile a little easier realizing that God loves us inspite of our weaknesses and has told us that He will give us the strength to do the tasks He has set before us.

I guess the meeting was worthwhile afterall. ;)

Wednesday, January 05, 2005


Merry Christmas from Cori and I. :)

Something new...

Good Morning...

Today is a new day...thank the Lord for that. I wanted to try setting up my own website...supposedly I learned how to do it in college...I guess that is why they say "cheaters never win"...a friend did it for me. :) Joel has been visiting me for the past few days...he leaves today. We are going to go do something now...this may become an addiction. :) Have a good day all. ;)