Songs in My Head April 28, 2009

I’ve been listening to Brooke Fraser recently.  She sings with Hillsong some and also on her own. God always uses music, both secular and worship, to minister to me and encourage me.  These lyrics from some of Fraser’s songs have been stuck in my head recently.

Shadowfeet

Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
toward home, a land that I’ve never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
made of different stuff than when I began
and I have sensed it all along
fast approaching is the day

There’s distraction buzzing in my head
saying in the shadows it’s easier to stay
but I’ve heard rumors of true reality
whispers of a well-lit way

When the world has fallen out from under me
I’ll be found in you, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
when time and space are through
I’ll be found in you

Faithful

When I can’t feel you, I have learned to reach out just the same
When I can’t hear you, I know you still hear everyword I pray
And I want you more than I want to live another day
And as I wait for you maybe I’m made more faithful

All the folly of the past, though I know it is undone
I still feel the guilty one, still trying to make it right
So I whisper soft your name, let it roll around my tounge,
knowing you’re the only one who knows me
You know me

Show me how I should live this
Show me where I should walk
I count this world as loss to me
You are all I want
You are all I want

Hosanna

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

On Birthdays April 2, 2009

Since my birthday was Monday, I’ve been thinking I should write a birthday post. I was trying to think of something profound to say for my 34 years. I read this today on another blog, and I think it captures who I want to be whether I’m 34 or 104–stretched out in pursuit of the life God has planned for me.

I wrote of her once, “She was the most alive, most vibrant, most winsome woman – and although she was born in an era when a woman’s life was defined by her marital status, Jane’s was not. She kept growing until the day she died – and she encouraged others to do the same. I used to look at Jane and think, Oh, God, don’t let me become like her. Now I remember her and implore him to do just that: to make me a beautiful, loving woman who’s stretched out in pursuit of the life He’s planned just for me.”

Today is her birthday. She would have been 103. A few days before she died at 91, I asked one of the pastors who’d been to see her how she looked. “Like a girl getting ready for her first date,” he told me. And I remembered hearing her singing in her fluttering voice: “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows; the more that I love Him, more love He bestows; Each day is like heaven, my heart overflows; the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.”

El Salvador Pics March 21, 2009

El Salvador Top Ten March 19, 2009

I say this every year, but this year’s trip was truly the best yet.  In fact, it keeps getting better and better.  It was great to see old friends and see God do some really cool things.  One of the thoughts I’ve come away with from this trip is that I want to be faithful to give God the space to work in me and around me.

So, in no particular order, here’s my top 10 ten moments from the trip:

1.  Hanging out at the beach with the girls from the Hope House.  By the end of the week I had 12 new sisters (or daughters–I think I’m old enough to be their mom, for real).

2.  The sing-off with the girls at the detention center.  I got to be at the top of a cheerleading pyramid.  How sweet is that!

3.  Seeing the new library at CISNA–We took books down two years ago to start a library.  Now, Shirley Daniels a volunteer with Orphan Helpers, has transformed the library into this really pleasant calm space for the boys where they can read and relax.

4.  Getting to know Idalia, the coordinator at CISNA.  She is a sweet lady with a big heart for the boys and girls at CISNA.

5. Playing chubby bunny with the kids especially Roxanne’s laugh.  I’ve never seen anyone laugh so much at chubby bunny.  It’s great to see the girls at the detention center laugh and just get to be girls instead of murderers and thieves and gang members.

6.  The Evangacube Theme Song and singing with Blake and Becca in the van.  We never used the Evangacube for its intended purpose, but we sure did have fun singing the theme song.

7.  Amy having the courage to share her testimony with the girls and seeing their response.  I still cry when I think about how God has worked in her life.

8.  Catching up with William and Jorge.  These men love God and the kids.  Jorge has the most gentle, humble spirit of anyone I’ve ever met, and William is a big kid himself and big brother to the guys at the Faith House.

9.  Remembering how hugs and smiles and presence can communicate across language and culture.  I sat beside Astrid,  one of the provisional girls at the detention center all week.  I made a point to always say hi to her each time I saw her.  At the end of the week, she hung on tight as she was hugging me bye.

10.  Praying for the provisional girls on our last day there.  Remembering that God gives second chances and praying that these girls never forget who they are in Christ.

11.  Omar telling me he would be my brother since I’m an only child and seeing that Arturro (who I first met when he 8 years old) is now 13 and taller than me.

Smelly Community March 4, 2009

People talk about an Internet community, but that’s not a community to my mind. Community doesn’t happen until you smell people.

—Larry Harvey, co-founder of the Burning Man festival, 2000