Kunstrad EM 2009 Carla und Henriette Hochdorfer

this is just weird! crazy talented, but weird!

How he loves us - John Mark (Legendado)(Habilite Legenda)

please watch this. all of it. it's great!

Memory

Just thought i'd drop you a note and let ya'll know what i'm up to. Our wonderful Bible college has started offering evening classes! yeah! it's on Monday evenings from 6-9, and yes, the whole thing is class except the 15 min break we get after 90 min (reminds me of high school!)

anyway last Monday was quiet the experience. it's been a while since i've been a student. and i've forgotten how disciplined you must be to be a student. after my experience i think you have to be more disciplined to be a student than an teacher (then again maybe not.) anyway, there are 33 people in the class which adds a different dynamic because it's so large. Felicity (our teacher) handed out the SOP (standard operating procedures) last week, which showed us what the class was going to "look like".

because of the nature of the class (in case i forgot to tell you, it's called disciplines of life talking about spiritual disciplines), it will be hard to give a grade, so most of it is objective. which translates into, if you turn in your homework, you will pass. we have these journal entries we are required to do, which is interesting, i love to journal! those are due every week, and the bigger projects are a fasting project, and the one that made me most nervous is the memory project.

it sounded so overwhelming at first, all of this memory work, it's Psalms 103 out of any translation we like. we have 4 weeks i think to memorize the first 2 verses, then every week after that we add two more. so i've been working on it. the problem with it is that there are so many of the verses in songs that we sing, that it's hard to keep the songs separate from the rendering that i choose! but so far it's going pretty good. i even put it in my phone so i can memorize it while i'm at dr. offices waiting and such as that.

so without further aude, here is the chapter out of the translation i choose, it's the HCSB translation. enjoy, and maybe challenge yourself some to begin to memorize Scripture again, i know for most of us it's been a while.

Psalm 103
The Forgiving God
Davidic. 1 My soul, praise the LORD, and all that is within me, praise His holy name. (A)
2 My soul, praise the LORD, and do not forget all His benefits. (B)
3 He forgives all your sin; (C) He heals all your diseases. (D)
4 He redeems your life from the Pit; (E) He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. (F)
5 He satisfies you [a] with goodness; (G) your youth is renewed like the eagle. (H)
6 The LORD executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. (I)
7 He revealed His ways to Moses, (J) His deeds to the people of Israel. (K)
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and full of faithful love. (L)
9 He will not always accuse [us] or be angry forever. (M)
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses. (N)
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him. (O)
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (P)
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. (Q)
14 For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. (R)
15 As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; (S)
16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known. (T) [b]
17 But from eternity to eternity the LORD's faithful love is toward those who fear Him, and His righteousness toward the grandchildren (U)
18 of those who keep His covenant, who remember to observe His instructions. (V)
19 The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. (W)
20 Praise the LORD, [all] His angels of great strength, who do His word, obedient to His command. (X)
21 Praise the LORD, all His armies, His servants who do His will. (Y)
22 Praise the LORD, all His works in all the places where He rules. (Z) My soul, praise the LORD!

CompassionArt Friend Of The Poor Video

i would like to title this blog "simplicity". it's been on my heart to live more simply. now with this new doctor thing i will be forced to live more simply ;). anyway, i saw this video last night and it compeled me even more.

i would like to say i'm very mission minded, and pray that i live that way too. recently i wanted to buy a new pair of jeans. no big deal right? there isn't really anything wrong with my old jeans, except that they sag a little bit, but in reality they are totally fine. as i was pondering buying a new pair of jeans at roughly $40.00 i thought i could pay for my children. i have "adopted" (or sponsored) 2 children through worldvision. one in south america, and another in southern africa. and as i was thinking about buying these jeans, i thought these girls don't have any clean water, and have very little education so if i were to spend my money on them rather than me, i might be able to give them a hope for the future and increase their chance of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. needless to say, i went with the kids.

i have wanted to make this change in my life several times, specaly when i came back from Oaxaca, i was overwhelmed with all of my belongings and couldn't believe that i needed so much stuff. so here i go once again, making a movement towards the life of simplicity. learning that relationships mean so much more when you don't dwell so much on all of the material things.

i was talking to my friend Tina about it, and she said this saying that i really liked "live simply so others can simply live."

i think we could all learn to make due with what we have. if i made a committment not to buy another pair of shoes until the ones that i have give out, then i would save a couple of hundred dollars a year! and just think, if we used all of the things we have stached around our house b/c they weren't quiet what we were looking for, think about all the money we would save. and then if we would put that money towards bettering the future for children whether it's our neighbors, or someone across the world, or maybe even save for a missions trip of our own. think of the impact we would have!

i challenge you to do this with me. don't buy anything new for the next month unless it's of dire need. let me know if you decide to do it please!

enjoy the simple life.

death

Recently my boss/friend's husband died. it was really sad and sort of sudden. it's very sad. i'm not sad that he is gone because i know he's better off, but what i am saddened by is he left a wonderful wife, and 2 young children.

you know we all grieve in different ways, but it seems that it all boils down to the same thing. the sadness, anger, denial, and how we sit around and tell funny stories and the good things. you know all that, we've all been through it. dying is a part of living, no matter how much we don't like it.

since he's passed away i've thought about all the loved ones i've lost. and i remember all the things that people told me to try and comfort me "i'm so sorry", "they're in a better place now", "they aren't suffering anymore" and they go on and on. oh how i hate those things. they are said to try to comfort, but sometimes i think they rub more salt in the wound.

i found myself today taking food to the family, and i saw my boss for the first time in 3 weeks, and i knew when i saw her i would cry. not because i'm sad her husband is gone, but because she hurts. we hugged and i heard myself say "i'm sorry!" oh how i wish i could take those words back, but i can't. i took a short drive around the block and thought, "i wish there were some new phrases we could say when someone died. something that might actually help them. but i know nothing that can be said or done could ever help bring comfort to the aching heart. as we stood there in the embrace, and my ever strong boss was crying, sobbing while we were hugging, we broke the embrace by talking about how the cats were doing. ahhh..... the relief of something alive, something light hearted! and at the same time the crying and the awkwardness seemed to dissipate too.

as much as we want to ignore death, or hide from it, or avoid those that are grieving so we don't have to deal with the aches in our heart, we can't. we might as well face the fact that we were born to live, and live to die.

sometimes we question why God allowed this to happen or that to happen, and why this person went and this one got to stay, but as Elisabeth Elliot would say "that's not our business, it's Gods."