My Hope

I love how God’s word is living and breathing in our lives. It is constant and unchanging but He reveals himself to us in new ways as we search the scripture. I feel like I’ve been able to read the Christmas story with new eyes multiple times during the past nine years. This year the gospel account of Matthew was the one that spoke most to me. Matthew’s account shows the need for the young family of three to have to flee Bethlehem to escape the killing spree of King Herod. Matthew 2:9-23 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to H...

We’ve been focusing on Ephesians 6 with the girls and I’ve been really thinking about what it means to be an ambassador of Christ. I know ambassadors at the international level, but I have experience as an ambassador for Florida State University. I loved it! I gave tours to prospective students and their families and attempted to persuade them to attend. We shared the highlights of many of the colleges and put positive spins on things like community bathrooms. I couldn’t always speak from experience- my dorms residence halls were recently renovated and had suite style rooms and my single major was special education. I could memorize the information about some of the other things though and point them in the right direction if they had specifics. If they requested it far enough in advance or there was last minute availability, we were always happy to make arrangements with advisors from the departments they were interested in and encouraged people to tour both styles of dorms...

I wrote the first part over of this post over the summer but never actually posted it. At the time I'd posted a few back to back and didn't want to flood everyone's e-mails with one more thing. Today though I experienced the same humbling grace from my kids so I thought I'd share both experiences. "Recently I was humbled by the grace of my children. GFM always has group gatherings to pray for people as they head out and also to hear about what’s happened on mission or vision trips. I love going and hearing and praying, but they aren’t the most child-friendly, particularly for children that have a hard time sitting for any length of time. I feel like there are times my children have to learn there are times they have to be quiet and times for play- a time for everything under heaven. Unfortunately, I told the girls we were going to a party. It really was a going away party of sorts… but not party in the sense that a 6 & 4 year old automatically pictur...

I’ve heard that Atlanta is the new Hollywood, but until now I’ve been living in my international/mom bubble. Recently though the two merged. An episode of 24 was filmed next door to some GFM property, so the girls and I took a field trip to check everything out. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t a whole lot to see. There were a couple of huge semi’s full of equipment blocking our apartment complex and some lighting rigs, but all the action was inside a house in the neighborhood. We could tell there was stuff happening, but I honestly have no idea what the episode will entail. We won’t know right away either. The show will air sometime in February… for now it’s undergoing the editing process. Two days of filming and four months of editing seems like a lot of work for a one hour show (45 minutes once you factor in commercials). Do we allow God to work on us from the inside, editing (or pruning) us? At times it can be difficult. We’ve put work in, only to have it trimmed...

One thing that stood out to me in our book was the idea that we often compare the church to a hospital. I’ve often heard the quote attributed to Abigal Van Buren “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” But I loved what McNabb said about it, “The church is supposed to build laborers, not hospitals. It is true that armies build hospitals and care for their people, but that’s not the principle around which they organize.” Yes, people come to church broken and in need... but it isn't the purpose of church. We sometimes forget what we are meant to do. We're commanded to multiply. To reach all peoples and all nations. To glorify God. I agree with Dear Abby, the church should not be a museum for saints- we are all sinners. But it also needs to be a place of training and sending forth. A place to prepare laborers to go out into the fields. In Matthew 9 we clearly see that Jesus does both and if you continue into chapter 10 we see the disciple follo...

I’m in a group on Monday nights and we’re reading a book called ‘Spiritual Multiplication in the Real World’ by Bob McNabb. It’s been so good in so many ways!! We’re on week 6 of 10 and plan to continue in some fashion even after finishing the formal study. The study & group have given me tools and accountability for better reaching those in our neighborhood, but more than that I’m really seeing my dependence on the body more and more. I came to appreciate the church in a new way when we were in Idaho too. It’s interesting. Growing up in the Bible belt, you tend to assume that most everyone you meet has the same core beliefs about faith (even if they aren’t in church on Sunday mornings). I realize this is a gross generalization and is becoming further and further from the truth but most people can spit out the ‘right’ answers. In Idaho, Christians were in the minority… less than 5% of the population in the town we lived in. People were in church because it was where they...

Sweat shops and child labor are not things I typically think about but I can’t shake them from my heart and mind. I recently found out that more than one of the children in the neighborhood started working at the age of eight before coming here. Eight… that’s two years older than M. I feel like it’s a battle to get her to clean her room… how on earth would she be ready to hold down employment in two short years? I know that part of her lack of responsibility is a direct result of my American mothering and catering to her needs, wants and whims. I’m trying to change that. But really, what eight year old is ready to work? I know the families sought this employment out of need. If you have to feed your family, you do what you have to do and everyone pitches in. I read this article a while back and my mind keeps wandering back to it again and again. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/11/i-had-to-wear-pampers-many-poultry-industry-workers-allegedly-cant-even-t...

I love watching the Olympics when it rolls around every couple of years (I love both the Summer and Winter games). I enjoy some of the sports themselves, but it’s more than that. It’s the hope for world peace (for at least two brief weeks) and it’s seeing the realization of people’s lifelong dreams become reality. I love watching the backstories on the athletes almost as much as the competitions themselves and am amazed at the dedication by both the athletes themselves but also of their families. I was excited this year to hear a new group has been added. Ten people proudly marched in the parade of nations under the Olympic rings. They belong to no one country. They have fled their home countries and for all intents and purposes, they are homeless. They are the first team to represent refugees world-wide on the Olympic stage. The backstories of more than one of them had me tearing up. One swimmer fled from her homeland staying temporarily in one host country before le...

I shared a video in a post a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure it pulled up in people's e-mails. If you haven't watched God's Heart for the Foreigner, please take some time to watch it. Here's the link to it on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd4IEuPvQw8 Everybody always says it would be nice for babies to come with instruction books and it’s true, but it’s even more exciting parenting a newborn in Clarkston. When M was born many of my parenting decisions and styles were much like those of my friends. Sure there were some differences, but common threads throughout. It’s easy to forget how many things are influenced by culture. Now I’m getting glimpses of how different people parent across the globe. Take something as simple as nursing. I’ve always been told that brand new babies need to eat every couple of hours and as they get bigger and older you can extend the time between meals further. It makes sense to me. If they fuss between those times ...

My friend doesn’t think I cook. By her standards, I don’t really. She has questioned me on more than one occasion if I cook daily. I tried to explain that generally yes I do but it depends… sometimes we eat leftovers. The things I cook most often are tacos, spaghetti, salads, or some baked meat with steamed vegetables or beans and fresh fruit. Every now and then I’ll make a chicken pot pie or casserole of some sort, but I know we eat healthier when I keep it simple. That being said, I can generally whip up dinner in 30 mins to 1 hour max. Her meals take 2-3 hours. While there are some dishes that have long cook times, there’s also a lot of prep work in many dishes. I got to help make kibbeh one night while I was visiting. I couldn’t believe the process!! Granted, she was making a large batch for a gathering the next day but still, it was quite labor intensive. In order to get the desired texture and consistency, the bugler wheat/chicken mixture was processed through a mea...

Church felt so healing this Sunday after the weight of this week. The Holy Spirit never ceases to amaze me in how He works through people. Our church had been planning this Sunday for weeks (or longer) and God’s timing (as always) was perfect. In the midst of so much racial division in our nation, our church had a unified service. The church we’ve attended in Atlanta has a very large building and so twelve other congregations also meet there. They’d been planning a combined service for this Sunday long before the tragedies brought fear and outrage. The church worshiped in English, French, Spanish, Burmese, Karenni, Nepali, Lautu, Senthang, Hakha, and Swahili. I couldn’t help but wonder how amazing heaven must be as my eyes filled with grateful tears. I just felt so much joy and hope just being a part of it and lifting praise as part of one body. I love our pastor and his challenging messages, but this Sunday was excited to hear a pastor from Kenya speak. He preached on Jes...

This summer one of M’s friends made her cry. Not on purpose and it wasn’t anything she’d done. She couldn’t come to one of the days of church camp with M. ‘But she’s my best friend!’ M wailed as real tears streamed down her face. I was surprised and felt she was overreacting but also secretly glad at the same time. I was nervous about the transition to Clarkston as M continued to miss her friends back in Bainbridge. Not only has she found new friends, but she’s seeing past everything on the outside to the heart of things. Her new best friend speaks a different native tongue, doesn’t eat the same foods and was born half way around the world. M doesn’t see a security risk or cultural barriers- she sees her friend- a child created in God’s image just as she is- someone uniquely loved and created by the same Creator who made and loves her. What would this world look like if we all loved our neighbors as ourselves. What would happen if we had a childlike faith?

It’s Ramadan, a time of fasting for Muslims everywhere. They are called to abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset for a month as one of the five pillars of Islam. My friend shared that she only fasts for part of it and talked about how hard it is to fast. My friend’s husband isn’t fasting and was told by other Muslims that if he didn’t fast, he wasn’t Muslim. As a Christian, I believe you can be a Christian without fasting. It is not the act of doing or not doing something that unites us to Christ. Rather it is our faith in him. She started asking questions about Christians and fasting. I found myself wondering how to answer her though. As Christians, it is not a requirement to fast but we are called to fast. Matthew 6:16-18 doesn’t say ‘if we fast’ but rather ‘when we fast’. It isn’t an ‘if/then’ statement. We often turn to Matthew 6 and examine the Lord’s prayer, but when we look at it as a whole and see the big picture, what amazing instruction Jesus gi...

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. As a mother with an infant, everybody always asks about sleep. Generally speaking, V is pretty good about sleeping through the night (she usually wakes up once, eats and goes right back to sleep), though she doesn’t really have a great nap routine yet. I think it just comes with the territory of being the third. You just have to sleep when you can, wherever you can. Our trip back home left me feeling sleep deprived though. It started when she slept well in the car and decided to stay up the first night instead (I’m not complaining- I much prefer that to the wails that could have insued on the way down). Then there were a few nights I did it to myself because I wanted to visit people so I stayed up late and got up early (plus woke up for her in the middle of the night). By t...

It seems like at every turn lately, my plans have been backfiring. The doctor that I thought would be doing the surgery didn’t and the doctor who was my last choice ended up being the one to deliver V. We thought both grandmothers would be here the first week to ease the older girls into life with a newborn. The only glitch… both girls came down with stomach bugs and so the grandmas whisked them away to Florida so as not to infect the rest of us. M’s birthday just passed and I thought I may be able to pull off a celebration with just family and maybe a fun outing instead of a big party but as the day approached it quickly became clear that her heart was set on a celebration surrounded by friends. The list goes on with lots of unscheduled bumps and hiccups, but you get the picture. My concern about the doctor ended up being unfounded and the surgery went well. The girls ended up having a great time and don’t seem a bit fazed that they missed V’s first week of life (M d...

Salt A friend of mine made some unleavened bread for communion recently. The thing that stood out to me the most as I partook of the bread was it’s saltiness. I generally don’t think of bread as salty (except for garlic bread) and so I was surprised at the first taste. Normally during communion I try not to focus on the food itself, but rather the meaning behind it, but this time I felt like God was speaking to me through the flavor. Remember the salt. I just finished a great book by Bill Hybels, “Just Walk Across the Room” that I highly recommend. It gives a lot of great practical advice in seasoning our lives with salt. While I’ve always tried to do this, I often miss opportunities and either over or underseason my speech. Colossians 4:2-6 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may...

Medical practice I knew I was choosing a teaching hospital. It was one of the reasons I considered it when choosing an OB after finding out we were pregnant. For the past five years I’ve shared our story with the medical students at FSU and have loved having the opportunity to hopefully impact them in their careers and thought this might afford me the same opportunity. I was surprised though at the limited number of times students, residents or fellows attended my appointments. This week I found out it’s because they’re all getting their time in on the maternity wing of the hospital rather than the doctor’s visits leading up the point of delivery. It gave new meaning to the term medical practice as I sat there getting my epidural. A team of people had come through pre-op introducing themselves and letting me know they would be doing my anesthesiology. I wasn’t really sure why it took 5 doctors to numb me and watch my levels, but I soon learned. Only one of them truly had mu...

Where are you in your relationship with Christ this Resurrection Sunday? Are you dining at the Passover supper with Jesus- blissfully unaware of what you’ll soon be called to do? Do you know that something is coming, but you’re focused more on who is sitting where? Are you looking for someone to overturn the oppressive government or do you search for a servant king? Maybe you’re in the garden, fighting to stay awake. You know what you’ve been told to do and yet you struggle to obey. Maybe you’ve seen the innocent mistreated and you react in anger and violence rather than allowing God to bring justice. Perhaps you’ve just experienced the death of your Rabbi, teacher and friend. You don’t know what to do and so you hide from this world and wait until things are clearer. You protect yourself by denying your relationship. Maybe you’ve seen the risen Messiah. You have touched his hands and feet. Now he is telling you that you will suffer the same. Will you accept the ...

Easter is coming up soon and I’m excited to see what this reminder of Christ’s resurrection will bring. I know that Christ lives within me the entire year through, but I feel this time of year is an amazing time of both reflection and renewal of my faith. Perhaps it’s because I was baptized on Maundy Thursday fifteen years ago, but I think it’s more than that. We are reminded during this time that death has no grip on us- that Christ has overcome the grave- and Satan has been defeated. I don’t think this is lost on Satan either, so it’s a time we must be prepared to fight the spiritual battles of this world. I gained a different perspective on Easter eight years ago. I’ve always tried to picture it through Jesus’ vantage point but came to realize how it must have pained God to give up his firstborn son as well. He knew it was coming and he knew the grave could not hold him, and yet death would not Passover His begotten Son as it had the Israelites so many years before. I pos...

The girls have noticed differences between their lives and those of our neighbors. I try not to point certain things out, but address them as they naturally occur and this was one of them. As we were driving to our homeschool group one day, M asked me why we had items that our friends didn’t have. I tried my best to explain that quite simply, I don’t know. I don’t know why we were born into safe and secure homes. I don’t know why we were blessed with the intellectual capabilities to succeed at college. I don’t know why. I have an incomplete picture of things- only God sees the bigger picture. But I shared with the girls part of Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” I explained that we have been given so much- God has been so good to us- we are therefore called to use what we have been entrusted with and give back to others. I felt like a parenting failure when M...

I’ve seen the resiliency in so many of the refugees coming into Clarkston. The pictures and stories of the things they’ve endured don’t always seem to line up with the outer strength they show. How many of us would crumble if our families and towns were completely wiped out? Yet, they find strength in each other. Hospitality is huge in Middle Eastern cultures, and I’m finding I have a lot to learn- both about giving and receiving. I found out last week that I’d (unknowingly) offended someone. My friend, A, had asked last Monday if I’d accompany her and some of her friends to the optometrist in order to help fill out the forms. Besides school work, I’d had no other commitments, so we packed up M’s work and headed out to help. Afterwards we were invited back to their apartment for coffee and tea, but I politely declined. We still had school work that hadn’t gotten finished in the waiting room, dinner to fix, and I was worried that whatever was served might throw off my blood s...