for these and all our many blessings...

• listening to/watching the rain the other night
• simple tasks that mean so much (easy for me to do, such gratefulness from the recipients)
• rend collective experiment (that should be on here about a dozen times...really enjoying their music right now)
• hearing mr. josh's laughter across the ship
• the 3rd graders field trip/service project with Ryan in the IS department

• the head cold i had didn't last long
• watching the olympics in an international community
• laughing at curling
• God ordained conversations that happened by the pool saturday night
• 'chelle's "recruitment" of caroline to help with a video/recording

• the general willingness of so many to invest in our children and to allow them to use their gifts and talents in incredible ways here's another example
• capable, faithful youth leaders
• people in the crowd of sports events that get so excited to see themselves on the screen...makes me laugh
• "c salads" (cucumbers, craisins, catalina dressing)(my favorite "c salad" would probably be cucumbers, crutons and cheese)(with good ranch dressing...but ranch doesn't start with a "c")
• when my kids say really kind things - especially to one another (wish it wasn't quite so rare!)
• caroline's ipod is found!!!!
• sweet pictures from the past

• CARE packages from Yaya & Grandaddy and Aunt Amy and the Whites and the Sheeks. so much love sent in those boxes...it's amazing how wonderful those boxes are.
• what God does when we give Him a little space (surrender the schedule!)
• charissa's blog post
• the way Erin Williams IS - so kind, so caring, so thoughtful, so sweet.
• Ray Charles stamps
• when you walk in a room and the song that's been in your head all morning is playing
• "i've counted up the cost...and You are worth it." - rend collective song
• thawing out on deck 7 with Miss Moriah
• black and white pictures
• my husband's willingness to invest in others

always something.

• "you will cease to notice how weak or strong you feel because you will be focusing on Me." - jesus calling
• discovering a 4 pack of easy mac in the cabinet
• playing ultimate on friday evenings

• the patient that was in ICU and, from what everyone could tell, was near death, is alive and doing much much better
• caroline's idea/eagerness/willingness/enthusiasm about working in the dining room
• luke's willingness to let her
• listening to caroline sing/tell/laugh through the "hermie the worm" song....

• "unforced rhythms of grace" (from Matthew 11, the message)
• "you can have as much of me and my peace as you want." - jesus calling
• cinnamon streusel muffins
• the topping of the previously mentioned muffins that tastes like panera's cinnamon crunch bagels 
• super surprise care package from miss jo & mr alton - creatively sent with a member of a Vision Trip

• folding little clothes (i know i won't have little clothes to fold forever)
• mr. josh's parents' willingness to bring things to us
• emma the pirate....emma the monkey
• delightful dinner with the cutest pirate ever...so much laughter and so many smiles
• walking in to find a monkey sleeping in my bed.

wise words

I am hoping this post won't be offensive in any way...it's certainly not intended to offend.  It's a quote from a fiction book that I'm reading: "Under the Southern Moon" by Virginia Gaffney. It's set in Virginia in 1860.  The words this slave (man it's hard to type that word) shares with her daughter are beautiful - and are exactly what I've been thinking about lately....maybe it'll give you something to think about, too.  

"…for now that means your life gonna be right here.  That leaves you only one thin’ to do.  You gots to live as hard as you can where you be.  You gots to look deep inside and find out all the thin’s you got to give the world – then you got to give it.  You can’t spend all your days lookin' backward. And you can’t spend all your days lookin’ forward.  It’s today that counts.  You’s got to bloom where you’re planted.  God’s got you planted here for now.” 

God's got me planted here for now...I want to live as hard as I can where I am.

full of thanks.

• community meeting
• wes stafford's life
• the encouragement he brought to our crew
• nice time at twiga with our family (+1 friend per child)
• fun time on deck 8...skateboarding lessons, rollerblading, sunset

• straight cabin (for the moment)
• how God tells us what to say/share if we just ask Him
• hot water is working again! 
• walking around reading about an incredible man

• time to sit and be still
• the plan is that we're going back to guinea!
• everything was working properly in the cafe
• ships that remind me to pray for friends (this is the hawk family's)

• bag of goodies from the cheng family...what thoughtfulness!
• thank you notes written by the pool
• we DID end up getting something on the holland container - thanks to erin's thoughtfulness

• successful teeth cleaning for emma.  all smiles!!
• peaceful teeth filling for eli.  
• animals zip-lining through the cabin

• when the kids make really fun forts (and when they sing in them is even better!)
• knowing that toni and suzanne are resting in key west.  
• lovely little book (anything using the word "culled" on the title page has got to be special)(not quite sure of the title...it's not really about sympathy at all....)

• honest and forthright communication
• meaningful conversations  
• amusing turkeys.  this just makes me laugh. 

• the youth's responses to questions about furniture/ideas for the youth room 
• reading through our monthly donor report to find gifts that we weren't expecting and hadn't heard about yet.
• emma's contentment to peacefully "craft" for a long time (and the "crafts" she produced!)

ruthless trust, part 6

last post with ruthless trust quotes. (am i hearing sighs of relief or sighs of wishing for more?!) i can't recommend this book enough....here are the bits that stood out to me from chapters 11 and 12.  no more quote posts for a while after this one (unless i read another really great book worth sharing!).  

The music of what is happening can be heard only in the present moment, right now, right here.

Now/here spells nowhere.  To be fully present to whoever or whatever is immediately before us is to pitch a tent in the wilderness of Nowhere. 

Self-forgetfulness is a prerequisite for truly being in the now.

Presence to the present.

Stay right here, right now.

Being in the now removes us from the endless and fruitless self-analysis.  In the absence of self-observation, guilt and shame mysteriously disappear.

Calm foresight regarding future engagements and appointments is responsible behavior, so long as it is not a compulsive escape from Nowhere

…attach myself to nothing but the will of God alone.

The will of God is the love of God.

We simply ask for a the grace to set a time limit on our self-pity.

Routinely performing hidden, secret acts of kindness that no one will ever know about, confident that “your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”

Is it possible that each time we stumble, fall and rise again, God can barely bear the bliss of it all? – Jim Finley

The mysterious love of God is fierce enough to penetrate even those who think that they cannot receive it.

Ruthless trust is the courageous confidence that despite suffering and evil, terrorism and domestic conflict, God’s plan in Jesus Christ cannot fail.

You will trust him to the degree that you know you are loved by Him.

God is with us and loves us in our struggle to be faithful.

tell Papa God tenki

• crystal light lemonade.  i know it's made the list before...but i'm thankful - so it's on the list again.
• all 5 of us on deck 8
• delightful evening
• aletha's email.
• comfortably cute
• singing "tell Papa God tenki" -- and finding this fun gem of a blog post from my friend Ali when i googled it to make sure i was spelling it correctly: tell-am-tenki
• an impromptu picture on the beach that ended up being the avenue for tons of encouraging words

• caroline's idea/eagerness to rearrange.  it's good to mix it up a bit. 
• all that nick did to make rearranging possible (and complete)
• mumford and son's music
• emma's "performance" of jesus loves the little children
• chocolate and toffee covered almonds
• krissy's willingness to share previously mentioned goodness
• solid night of sleep
• people who like to ask random questions (i like the questions...and it helps me feel not so strange)
• lovely time at El Torino with the chaplaincy team

• the view from the windows of El Torino up the street (maybe i'll go back and take a picture someday)
• eli's kindness to emma on deck 8
• how polite emma is when she is sick
• PJ's willingness to "go to bat" on behalf of the back room of the library

ruthless trust quotes, part 5

this is the next to last post of manning quotes!  it's like the magical mr. jeremiah harvey says in workout class when we're close to being done -- "we're getting there." these are from chapters 9-10.  enjoy! 

Simply present yourself to God, clinging to nothing but your humanness. 

He (Jesus) was enthralled with his father.  In utter self-forgetfulness, was the growing intimacy with, trust in, and love of his Abba.  He lived securely in his father’s acceptance. 

His single minded orientation toward His father freed him from self-consciousness.  Lost in wonder and gratefulness, he taught us the true meaning of humility.

The humble man is surprised by all the good that he sees around him rather than scandalized by what he cannot judge away.

Based on the solid, irrefutable evidence of God’s relentless faithfulness, a certainty in the trustworthiness of the tremendous Lover evolves without the least sweat or strain on our part.

The humbly confident disciple, when asked to explain his surety in the love of God, scratches his head and says, “I can’t explain it because I really don’t know.”

The spiritual woman does not fret and flap over opportunities missed, does not hammer herself for not working hard enough, and does not have a panic attack wondering whether she has received grace in vain. She lives in quiet confidence that God is working in her day and night.

I have always known about your flaw and I have taken advantage of it.

We formulate plans to fulfill what we perceive to be the purpose of our lives (inevitably limited), and when the locomotive of our longings gets derailed we deem ourselves failures.

Our disappointments arise from presuming to know the outcome of a particular endeavor.

Without the comparison, it would have been happy, content in the knowledge that it was exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Trust yourself as one entrusted by God with everything you need to live life to the full.

We are providentially equipped to fulfill the unique purpose of our existence.

Our very existence is one of the never-to-be repeated ways God has chosen to express himself in space and time.  Because we are made in God’s image and likeness, you and I are yet another promise that he has made to the universe that he will continue to love it and care for it.

I shall be full of his actuality and find him everywhere in myself and fine myself nowhere.  I shall be lost in Him.  – Merton

How glorious the splendor of a human heart which trusts that it is loved!