And so this is Christmas...

The day is flying by!! Between family, presents and packing the hours just seem to be zooming. It's been a good day, great gifts...my favorite so far is the Wacky Clucky Chicken...it just might end up in Mississippi with us. Seriously funny.

We probably won't update from Mississippi until Thursday, so until then, Merry Christmas!

Edited to add: We would love to hear from you while we are in Mississippi. Click on "leave comment" and type away. If you don't have a blog, just sign in as anonymous but please leave your name in the body of the comment...that way we can say Thank you later on!

Mississippi Update and prayer request

The team leaves in 4 days. Christmas happens in 3. I'm not stressing out...just beginning to think of all those little details that I've forgotten about until today...like bowls. We need the plastic bowls from the church for our breakfasts. And the apple slicer, oh and spoons...I won't bore you with the rest of the list. I'm just sayin' that I've been waking up in the middle of the night thinking about the things that I need to bring with me. I'm not stressing out, really I'm not!

I do have one quick prayer request for our team member Sue. She's been having some issues with her shoulder and arm and thought maybe it was tennis elbow. But it's a little more serious than that and Sue is not sure if she is going to be able to make the trip. Which would be very, very sad for all of us! Please pray for Sue, that her body would be on the fast track for healing so that she can join us in Mississippi.

I'm off to bake Christmas cookies! Woo-hoo! :)

one week, One Week, ONE WEEK!

The Mississippi Team leaves in one week. That's 7 days people! In fact, one day is gone already so...6 days!

R-Girl, Baseball Gal and I had fun coming up with room names tonight. Last trip I wanted a way to know which rooms were ours at the Motel so we came up with code names. Every room was a rock band. This time we're going with the Christmas theme. We've got all 9 reindeer, Snowmen and more. There was much excitement when someone thought of a name. In fact, jumping up and down was involved. Good times.

Most everything else has come along well. One bag is almost packed with youth group stuff. Hopefully it isn't over the 50lb weight limit!

Sleep needs to happen soon, so I'm out. 6 days people! :)

10 Days and counting

The Mississippi Team was commissioned today. It hit me as I was sitting in the worship service that with Christmas and my Come Away Day in the next 10 days I only have 3 in-office working days this week and one of those days is half taken by the Middle School Ice Skating event. Yikes!

The Mississippi Trip is coming together. We still need about $6000 to come in but I've decided not to worry about that. The money will come in. We our team t-shirts look great! Yo Momma and I decided to get different color shirts for the team, so we have blue, green and red. It's fun. Really, there aren't a whole lot of details that I'm concerned about for the trip, it's the stuff that needs to happen at church while I'm gone. Oh, and the fact that Christmas is somewhere in there too. Yeah, it's the last 10 days before the trip and I'm beginning to realize it!

Song Friend strikes again

There is no way to fully explain this other than to post it. If I could record it from my answering machine I would let y'all hear it for yourself...instead you will just have to make due with the words. My Song Friend presents Oh I Like Pie as sung to the tune of Oh Holy Night.

Oh I like pie
I like every kind of pie
I like fruit,
Meringue and cream
It is so good
so tasty delicious
I could eat pie every day
The flaky crust
the delicious filling
I could eat pie
morning noon and night
Oh I like pie
I like every kind of pie
Oh I like pie
oh I, I like pie
Oh I (here it comes) like PIE!
Oh I, I like pie

Thanks for the laugh, Song Friend!

Scars

A friend and I were talking last night about happiness and Jesus. My friend had just watched a televised worship service in which a young lady was giving her testimony. As a result of all that had gone in her life, the way that she had found to ease her pain was to self-inflict pain by cutting. Her testimony was that God had found her and she had found God and freedom from cutting. My friend said that the Pastor asked this young girl "What have you gotten from out of all this?" and the young lady's reply was "Scars." My friend said it was clear that was not the answer the Pastor wanted...he was looking for something a little more happy.

I thought about that story a lot last night when I was supposed to be sleeping. Scars tell a story. I've got a scar on my right shin, right arm and thighs from chicken pox. There is a scar on my finger from slicing it on the trunk of my newly purchased car. I have a scar on another finger from a bad encounter with a rock and a pole. Then there's the random scar on my thumb that I can't remember how it got there.

But those are just the visible scars. You can't see the ones on the inside. The one that came about because of things I heard as a child from other children. The scar that is there from the death of two grandparents within two months. The scar from a friendship torn apart. The scar that is still tender from the loss of my foster brother.

Scars tell a story. They tell us that we have lived life. They are part of what shapes us and makes us who we are. Sometimes the scars seem shameful but other times they are a badge that says "I have survived." The implication of the Pastor's reaction to the young lady's story is that scars aren't something to be proud of or something that we should show. We should hide them.

I wonder if God uses our scars as reminders of where we have been and what we have been through. It seems to me that God used the scars on Jesus' body to tell a story to the men on the road to Emmaus and as a tool for Thomas to really believe. Even today we sing about those scars,"The nails in your hands, the nail in your feet, they tell me how much you love me." God clearly could have healed the wounds on Jesus' body...but God didn't. Today those scars are still a reminder of how powerful God's love is as well as a testament to the amazing gift Jesus gave us all.

My scars remind me of where I've been and the things that have happened along the way. Some of those things happened before I really knew God but many have happened as I've journeyed through life with God. Every time I look at them I remember life isn't easy but God loves me and we are on this journey together.

My current residence

I've started and deleted two different posts this week. They were happy, positive posts. I'm not in a happy, positive place. I'm tired of so many, many things. I'm fed up with so many, many things. Today I realized that one of the things that I'm really tired of hearing over and over again is "if you know Jesus, you're life will be happy". The underlying assumption being that if you're not happy, then you don't know Jesus. Give me a break.

When I'm in this frustrated, fed up place I tend to spend more time talking with God, reading my Bible, listening for God then when I'm in the happy, positive place. When I'm tired of all that life is throwing at me that's when I cling to the promise of Jesus and God. I'm pretty sure when I signed up for this ride with God and Jesus there wasn't any guarantee that life was going to be happy and positive until the end of time. I don't know why we keep teaching people that the Christian life is trouble free, it's a lie that needs to die.

I'm not in a happy, positive place. God is very aware of it and loves me anyway.