Colossal Fail

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know.  I blew it.  Once again.  The big March date of my last post is staring me in the face just taunting me.  So much for the 2 a week goal.  Did I say 2 a week?  Maybe I meant 2 a quarter....nope, I'm behind on that one too.  Two a year?  Yeah, then I'm ahead.  You see....it's the American way...when I don't meet my goal or what I've said I'll do I just change it.
Okay, now that I've admitted defeat and failure I will try to pick up the pieces and start again.  Here's the quick update since March:
March:  We had our first ever fund raising banquet.  It was lots of fun with friends who came even from far away places like New Jersey.  We had it catered by On the Border and boy was it yummy.  Oh, yeah, I guess you want to know about more than the food....even though that was a high light.  Joe shared a bit of what we had accomplished our last term and our vision for the future and he did an outstanding job if I do say so myself.  We asked people to get behind us and support our ministry and they responded.  Thank you God.  As always we had people give sacrificially who really 'can't' afford to do that, but they did.  May God bless them with many returns in this life and the one to come.  It always blows me away who gives and to what extent.  We know some awesome people.
April/May/June:  Joe and I took a 2 year late 25th  anniversary trip and had a FABULOUS time alone together.  We came back home and hit the ground running.  We got to take Jake, Caleb, and Ben to the Passion Conference in Texas.  We had a great time just hanging out together, participating in awesome worship with Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band, and Ben's favorite LaCrae.  We also heard some great teaching from John Piper, Francis Chan, and Louie Gigglio.  Next, we went on a 4 week road trip.  It was fun to take the gang....well not all of them, but the seven youngest...to Texas to visit relatives and friends.  Caleb and Ben worked at Sandy Cove Ministries for the summer and awesome times of their own.  We got back from our road trip in time for me to speak at a one day Ladies' Retreat at Blue Ridge Bible Church.  It was a highlight for me.
July:  It sinks in that we really are leaving....and soon.   We start packing selling and dumping.  When the big dumpster is delivered I breath a sigh of relief.  Good friends chip in to a fund that Joe created so I don't have to do a second yard sale.  Like I said....we know some awesome people.

August:  We finish packing and saying our goodbyes to family and friends and head back to Bolivia.  Our time in the States literally flew by and it is hard to believe that we were there for a little more than a year.  We arrive in Bolivia on August 18th.  We were greeted at the airport by good friends.  I cried as I deboarded the plane on the tarmac to their welcoming yells. Home.  Home to an apartment that we are locked out of (the locks on the gates had been replaced) and no electricity (the bill had not been paid).  Oh well we were tired anyway so we lit a few candles to get us through the night (good thing I'm a candle freak, cuz we had plenty) and hit the sack....after Joe and our good friend/neighbor, Jaime, drilled out the lock on the gate.  The next day some of my dearest friends come to surprise me and take me out for a welcome home dinner.  Magnificent surprise.  I've missed these girls.  We spend the rest of the month readjusting to life here and unpacking our things.  We've decided to stay in our apartment.  It's a cozy three bedroom (a girls' room, a boys' room, and a parents' room) but we're happy here.  The day we went to start our visa process the battery from our truck was stolen.  Welcome to Bolivia.  Then we learned that a crucial step had been skipped in the US on our paperwork.  We work for the next few weeks to get that issue resolved and get our visa paperwork completed on the last possible day that we could without having to pay $30 a day fines.  YEA!  Four short days after we arrive, Caleb and Ben start school at Carachipampa and I begin homeschooling six others 3 weeks later.  The joy of homeschooling.  On the 27th we celebrate Caleb's 19th birthday with a huge chocolate chip cookie made with real Nestle Semi Sweet Chips I brought from the States.  We are so happy that Caleb has decided to come back and spend this year with us.
September:  We're still working on settling in and readjusting.  Joe begins preaching at the Cochabamba International Church.  I begin homeschooling after reorganizing our school bookshelves and a week or two of putting it off.  We're also preparing for some friends who are coming down near the end of the month to work with the House of Dreams orphanages.  We are also in the middle of our birthday season....6 birthdays in 5 weeks starting with Caleb's 19th.  This month we celebrate Mercy's 3rd, Patience's 7th, Joe's 48th, (yes, Joe I announced it to the world....well not really the world...in fact, you are pretty safe because I'm pretty certain I've lost all my blog readers by now) and then the Holsingers (well part of them, Steve, Emily, and Amanda) arrive on the 30th (David's 15th birthday).  We also receive our first packages from our friend Tim this month.    YEA!  The fun has begun.  Also the Holsingers brought down tea and Reese's I had ordered and sent to their house.  They also brought us gifts of pepperoni, parmesean cheese, more chocolate chips and pecans.  Tastes of heaven.
October:  Well here we are.  The Holsingers left today...one day late because of a cancelled flight and I decided to start writing on my blog again.  A landmark day.  Or not.  Anyway here is where we stand....and no promises so as to not affect my fragile ego with more failures, but I really do think I'll be writing here much more often.  And posting pics too.  Check back and see if I continue to fail or not.  

On the Verge of a Breakthrough

As I think about going back to Bolivia, I am excited.  In fact, I feel like I am on the verge of a breakthrough.  A personal breakthrough.  A spiritual breakthrough.  I am more excited about my future than I have ever been.

People often ask us if Cochabamba is really our home or do we feel more at home here in the States.  I have a couple of different answers, but I'll share just one of them here.  Truly I feel as if I don't have a real home.  I'm not at home anymore here in the States, I just don't 'fit'.   I'm not Bolivian, so I'll always be a foreigner there.  I guess the short answer is that I feel like I don't belong anywhere.  I feel like a foreigner where ever I am, but I think that is a good thing.  I embrace it.  It reminds me that this world really is not my home.  I'm only gonna live here on earth for a short while.  There is so much more.  So much beyond this life.  So much I need to prepare for in this life.  I'm glad to not feel tied down to this life.  I want to free myself even more.  I want to be free to follow Jesus where ever He leads.  I want to lay aside every weight that slows me down on my journey.  We all know that possessions weigh us down.  They take our time, our energy and give us back nothing in return.  I Peter 1:17-18 tells us """And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors."    I no longer want to live that 'empty life' and more and more clearly everyday God is showing me what an empty life this one can be. 

People also sometimes tell us that what we're doing...selling all our possessions and moving to another part of the world to join God in His work there....is something special or great or more than most.   I've found that Christians in particular like to categorize people.  It makes us feel like we are in control if we can put everyone into a certain box.  We can then judge them by their 'box' and we don't have to deal with the messy parts of seeing one another as the complicated beings that we are.  Anyway, I digress (yet again).   Personally I know we haven't done anything great or outstanding.  All we've done is taken one more step on our journey.  I'll admit it is an exciting one and one that makes me greatly anticipate the next, but it's just one step in our journey of following God.

I grew up in a Christian home where my parents knew and loved God and wanted me to do the same.  I knew early in my childhood that the Lord of the universe, the Creator or all life, was calling me, a five year old little girl, to become His follower.  Wow!  I responded to that call and I have NEVER been the same.  Over the next few years I learned that God speaks very clearly to His children no matter what age they are.  I knew by age 10 that He had something special for me and I committed to following Him no matter what that was or what it meant.  Over the next 40 years or so since then I've heard His Spirit continue to lead me and I have had to make that same commitment to follow Him no matter what that means over and over again.

One Sunday when I was a young girl still in elementary school the Holy Spirit nudged me to give away all my money to some missionaries that I learned about in church.  All of it!  Not small change, not just some, not even a large percent of my money, but everything I had.  All $40 of it.  Then beyond that He laid it on my heart to save all my money over the next year and do the same with it.  So I socked all my money away over that next year and the next Christmas I gave everything I had saved for the entire year to the foreign missionaries.  I'm sure I probably did without some stuff that I wanted during that year.  I'm sure at the time I felt like I was making some big sacrifice, but to be honest with you I don't remember what I had to do without, what I had to give up, in order to follow God's leading in my life.  But I'll tell you what I do remember.  I remember the joy I felt as I gave all my savings.  I remember feeling like God was pleased with me for my obedience.

After Joe and I were married we have dealt many times with following the leadership of the Holy Spirit:

• We have committed our lives to Him vocationally, to serve Him as we serve His bride, His body.  
• We have given away all our savings on one more than one occasion to more than one missionary.  (See, God in His goodness was preparing my little heart for this way back as a girl.  He wanted to show me that He was faithful and that I could trust Him.)  One time we were saving for a car, so we could replace ours in a few years or so we thought.  Just about the time we had enough saved up enough for a car, God asked us to give it all away so that a missionary in the Philippines could buy a van he needed for his ministry.  See we thought we were saving for us, but really we had been saving for a car to be used somewhere else in God's kingdom.  He is so much bigger than we are and has such bigger plans than we do.  
• We have trusted Him with the size of our family, giving our plans over to His leadership and now as I look at each one of my children, I am so thankful for every one.  Every one has made my life richer.  I can not imagine not having any of my 11 beautiful children.
• I have followed Him as He lead me to school our children at home so that I could spend time with them and disciple them.
• We took another step on our faith journey when the Lord called us to plant a church in Colorado instead of taking an easier path we had been offered close to home and family.  Joe was in his last semester of seminary and we didn't know anything about church planting.  Yet God worked as only He can to show us that He was calling us to start a church and to share the Good News with people in an unchurched/unreached area of Colorado. 
• We continued to follow God's leading as we adopted our two precious boys from South Korea.
• Sometime in there we were contacted by Blue Ridge Bible Church to see if Joe was interested in being their pastor.  Of course he was not.  Not that they were not a great church, but we knew we were where God wanted us.  But then He began speaking once again and we began packing once again as we followed Him even further away from 'home', but more deeply into His work.
• Then about 5 years ago He spoke once again and asked us to sell all our possessions and follow Him like Abraham did...to a land He would show us.  We didn't even know where we'd be going this time.  But, He had prepared us and shown us His faithfulness through all our other steps of faith, so this one was just one more.  

At each step I've had to decide am I going to trust God and do what He is asking having faith that He is leading me to something even better for me.  Something that will continue to mold me into the person He wants me to be.  So really I guess to me this 'big decision' we've made to sell everything we have, move further away from 'home' to where we no longer have a 'home', to leave everyone, even our family, our older children and our parents to be a part of working in His kingdom in another place is another way is just one more step in our journey of faith.  I know that I can trust Him with this because He has proven Himself faithful to me over and over again since I was five years old.  I feel like I understand so much more about God, His kingdom and the way He operates than I ever would have if I had not taken each step on my journey.

Now once again as we begin to prepare what our next term in Cochabamba will look like, I feel like I am on the edge of a cliff and I'm getting ready to jump off.  I feel like God is preparing me to take the next step, but this time I think it just might be more than a step, perhaps a leap.  A leap to know Him better and I am excited about what that might mean.  I think He has incredible things in my future.  I am waiting with great anticipation to see what He is going to do now.  Now that we have our first term under our belts, now that we understand a bit of the culture and people I feel like we are, that I am, on the brink of something BIG and exciting.  Even though some of the steps we've taken up to this point might seem to be 'big ones' I feel like they've all just been preparing me for one that's coming in the near future.  I don't know exactly what God will call me to do next, but I do know by His grace I will do it.

I've been reading the story of the rich young ruler everyday for the past several days.  He was on the verge of a breakthrough too.  I am blown away by the opportunity that Jesus offered him and yet he turned it down.  He chose to not take the next step even though from his childhood he had followed what God had required.  Here he came to a place where he knew there was more.  Here he was standing in front of God himself and do you know what Jesus offered him?  He offered him an opportunity to walk with him, to learn from him, to be with him and experience His ministry, His life up close and personal.  Jesus said go and sell all your possessions (which is the part that we often focus on) and then come and follow me.  All three tellings of the story in the gospels say that Jesus said to him, "Then come and follow me."  WOW!  Jesus said if you loosen yourself from all this stuff you have I am giving you an opportunity to follow me and learn from me and be with me.  He could have been one of the disciples, but instead he went away sad because He had so much stuff.  He wasn't willing to take the next step.  He had followed God's teaching until now, but here he had reached a point where it became too much for him.  He made the decision to not follow any further.  I don't know how much he had, I know it was a lot, but I guarantee that today he knows that he chose poorly.  I guarantee if he could go back and give everything he had to have that opportunity to follow Jesus again he would take it....no matter what it cost.  Mark, in his telling of the story, says that Jesus felt genuine love for this guy.  He wasn't telling him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor to punish him.  He said it because of His great love for him.  He said it so the man could be free from what tied him to this world so he focus on God's true kingdom.  He said it so that the man would be free to follow Jesus.  Not as we do by following what He taught while He was alive here on earth, but in real life, in the flesh following Jesus.  This man was given the chance to follow Jesus around...day and night...in the flesh.  What an opportunity.  What a missed opportunity.  What a sad choice he made.  God help me not to make the same choice whatever you ask of me, but prepare my heart to be willing to make the leap of faith and follow you into the world.  By faith and in your Spirit, where ever you lead, I'll go.  I'm ready to leap.

Discouragement and Encouragement

Today I've been thinking about how easy it is for me to get discouraged lately.  I don't think I am typically someone who feels discouraged easily.  This seems to be a recent phenomenon.  Usually it takes a lot to discourage me.  Maybe I've been feeling discouraged more recently just because I don't feel like I belong anywhere these days.  (I'm thinking of a whole post on this later.)  But for now it seems that any little thing makes me want to have my very own pity party for one and sing the old song "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I'm going out to eat worms".  Yes, for those of you who don't know, it is a real song.  Well I haven't gotten to the worm eating part yet, but just because I'm wise enough to eat some chocolate instead. 

I'm not sure why it's so easy for us to be discouraged.  Maybe it's partially the fault of our American society that has raised a generation of critical people who tend to tear people and their ideas down instead of encouraging them and building them up.  It could be that our churches or other groups of Christians have caused us to feel like we just don't measure up to some standard.  It could even be a spiritual attack from our enemy.  Whatever the reason, we can be easily discouraged.  We can become discouraged when our children make wrong choices and we know they know better.  We can become discouraged when we hear of a party that we aren't invited to.  We can become discouraged when we don't seem to have any close friends.  We can even become discouraged because we see someone that we believe has it all together and we know that we don't. 

No matter how we get there and whether or not it is hard or easy for us to become discouraged, we have all been there. We've all been discouraged.  We all know the pain of discouragement and the desire to just give up the fight.  We are human.  We at times feel defeated, unwanted, unloved, unmotivated and these feelings make us want to just stop trying.  Stop forging ahead and just resign ourselves to just getting by.  But God has so much more than that for us.  He wants us to not to be overcome, but to be overcomers.  Not to just make do and get by, but to forge ahead for His kingdom and in His name. 

Understanding my fragile emotional state of late helps me realize the importance for us as Christians to keep on encouraging one another.  Several times in the Bible we are told to encourage one another...even daily.  I think we need to be encouraged daily because it is so easy for us to become discouraged.  How can I encourage someone else?  We can encourage others with our words and with our actions.  Have you ever met someone who was an encourager?  Someone who seems to build up everyone they are around?  It doesn't take a lot to encourage someone.  For example,  here's just a partial list of things off  the top of my head that have encouraged me in the past few days:

• A card from a friend telling me that she is praying for me.
• A phone call just to chat.
• Dinner out with friends.
• Lunch with my parents.
• Watching my kids play together and tenderly care for one another.
• Watching my kids make new friends.
• A long overdue coffee date with another mom.
• Chocolates in the mail.
• Flowers from Jake.
• A date with my honey.
• Reading the books of Luke and Acts.
• Hearing about God at work in other parts of the world.
• A friend's news that he is going on his first short term mission trip.
• Cupcakes baked and delivered by a friend.
• Hearing the stories of kids in AWANA who want to be missionaries when they grow up.
• The excitement of kids as they earn and save money to care for children in an orphanage.
• Helping a friend complete one of her long overdue tasks.
• Meeting a group of elderly ladies that pray for my family on a regular basis.

Each of these things encouraged me and helped drive away my discouragement and even made me feel like they were prompted by God just to encourage me and to keep on going.  I am so grateful for each one.
 
What can you do to encourage someone today?









 

I Want to Be Where You Are

Mercy is a momma's girl....although she's turning into a mamita's girl too (mamita means little mama....in other words Faith's girl) .  She doesn't want mommy too far out of her sight.  She likes to be near me.  She sits on the island while I am cooking, she sits in my lap when we are watching movies, she asks to sit beside me (the highly coveted seat) at lunch and dinner.  She misses sitting in my lap when we go on car trips.  Those pesky US car seat and seat belt laws.  :>)  She knocks on the door when I am in the bathroom.  She comes in when I am in the bathtub just to chat.  When she is proud of her work she wants to show it to me and have my approval...even if it is her artistic rendering on the side of my desk or on the wall.  She takes a nap in the school room on the couch so she can be near me while she sleeps.  When she is hurt she wants me to comfort her and give her a band-aid because that fixes everything.  When she is sick she wants me to doctor her.  This week she had to get some immunizations and her leg hurt and she wanted me to carry her everywhere.  She wants to be right where I am because she knows I'm her momma and that I love her and she loves me right back.

As I thought about that I realized that I am like that with my Heavenly Father.  I want to be right where He is.  When I hurt I want, I need, His comfort.  When I am proud of something I have done, I desire His approval above all others.  When I need advice, I want to know what He has to say.  When I am weak, I need Him to carry me.  When I am tired, I need His strength.  When I am empty, I need His Spirit to fill me.  I just want to be near Him.  To enjoy Him.  His strength.  I gain security in His presence.  When I feel uncertain, I gain confidence in His love....knowing that He loves me despite all my failures...that nothing I do changes His love for me.  I pray I never outgrow wanting/needing to be with my Heavenly Father.  Right where He is.  Close by so He can give me just what I need whether it is correction or comfort. 

Observations from the First Half of our Time in the States

• There is good medical care available...even if you don't have insurance, but you have to pay dearly for it.
• It is so easy to cook in the USA with all the prepared, canned, and frozen foods.
• North Americans are very friendly, but lack truly deep friendships.
• There is an abundance of water and even an abundance of hot water here.
• There is wealth everywhere even in the midst of economic crisis.
• The Dollar Tree is my favorite 'dollar store'. 
• More isn't necessarily better.
• Faster isn't necessarily better either.....except when it comes to internet connections. 
• Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth, if you don't like that, don't celebrate it but don't change it into something else.  
• Canned biscuits are really good (and stinkin' convenient!)....ditto canned croissants, cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, etc.
• Lindt truffles are hard to beat.
• Kids love to play outside and in the woods
• It's hard to make friends when you aren't around that much and people know you are only here a short while.
• The more I go to Walmart the more I am amazed at all they have....and for so cheap.
• Celebrating American holidays is more fun when you are actually IN America.
• Having all my kids and my parents in my house on Christmas Day was a treat and a memory I won't ever forget.
• Most things work better here.
• Being able to take things back when they don't work is a wonderful thing.
• Home is where your herd is.
• Snickers Candy Bars taste better here.
• Canned sodas are really cheap and there is a huge variety of them available.
  

Making the Cut

If you haven't noticed the USA is a land flowing with milk and honey.  I know there is an economic crisis and all, but seriously almost every single American is rich by world standards. (I don't want to get off on another subject here so I'm saving an entire blog to show this, but for now let me just give you one statistic: If your income is $25,000 you are wealthier than approximately 90% of the world's population.  That's right, if you make $25,000 a year you are in the top 10% of wealthiest people in the world!)  There is so much stuff available to buy here in the US.  We have been blessed beyond measure with material wealth and material goods.  I think that the majority of North Americans are drowning in their stuff.  We spend so much time, energy and money just managing our things.  Moving them around, maintaining them, organizing them, cleaning them, weeding through them and getting rid of some of them because we all just have too much.

Since our family is only in the USA for approximately one year, we realize that even though there are so many things available to buy and even though many of them are available for such a good price, we still shouldn't buy too much. Why?  Because in just a few short months we will be packing our suitcases for our journey back to Bolivia and there is a limit on how many things we can take with us.  A very restricted limit imposed by the airlines and even by the country of Bolivia.  We can only carry two suitcases each and the suitcases can not be overweight (over 50 lbs.).  Knowing this I evaluate each purchase I make by a few criteria:  How much does this item weigh?  Will it make the cut of the small number of things that can fit into my suitcases?  Does it justify buying it if I have to leave it behind?  Even though we are celebrating our birthdays and we celebrated Christmas here in the States, we really have to watch every gift we purchase.  Is it small enough, light enough, and valuable enough to us to justify buying it and hauling it back to Bolivia?  One more consideration we have to give is will it fit in our cozy little apartment in Cochabamba.  Again we have a very limited amount of space in which to put all the things we are taking back with us once we get it home.  Is there a place to put it in our apartment?  Just to give you an idea of what this means let me give you an example.  When we had all of our bags packed to come to the States from Bolivia (and we were only bring about one bag each) we had to put them on the balcony because there was no room for all of our full suitcases in the apartment.  It is as I said cozy with 11 people living there in a small space. 

As I pondered the enormous task of taking back things that we will be wanting and needing for the next four or so years, I realize more and more I literally weigh each purchase carefully.  If it is not something that will be used up before we go back to Bolivia (i.e. cookie dough, good chocolate, Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, flowers, Diet Dr. Pepper, Starbucks Mocha Frappuccinos, candles) then I have to decide do I REALLY want this?  Do I want enough to buy it and cart it back to our little apartment?  Do I love it enough to leave something else behind in order to carry it?  There are somethings that for sure fall into this category: my new(er) laptop, our camera, pecans, makeup, our Kindles, Bath and Body Works stuff, Yankee Candles, many of my clothes, new sheets, some soft blankets, a dog tazer, good towels, computer software for homeschool, medicines, vitamins, Lip Smackers, a label maker, a sharp kitchen knife, Tupperware, a really big non-stick skillet, and good walking shoes...just to name a few).  Others just won't make the cut (many school books, a Crockpot, heavy tools, new pots and pans, lots of our clothes, our Christmas decorations, magazines, photo albums, my china dishes, toys (the kids get to carry one backpack each of whatever they want to haul in it), heavy coats and many other things.

All of this weighing and decision making of every item I buy has been good for me.  It makes me truly consider how much I want something and how perfect it is for me.  Do these shoes rub my little toe sometimes?  They're out.  Are these the absolute most comfortable flannel sheets I've ever felt?  They're in.  Is this jacket not really my color?  It's out.  Do I want something to remind me of our time at Walt Disney World?  The refrigerator magnets are in.  How often will I really use this cookbook?  It's out.  Do I want to remember the smells of fall at 'home'?  The pumpkin candles are in.  Everything I value as worth fitting in my bag has to be special to me:  It makes me look skinnier (clothes); I could walk for miles in them (shoes); I can't get this in Cochabamba (pecans);  It reminds me of 'home' (home decor items).  Will it be a special treat to my friends there?  (I'm not telling this one...it's gotta be a surprise)  When I get down to the actual packing even more will get weeded out.  Only the best of the best will make the journey with me.  The space is just too precious to take stuff that is just so-so.

All this evaluating of stuff got me to thinking.  I am being so vigilant in preparing for our journey back to Bolivia because even though I am here in the States now, it is no longer my home.  It is only my temporary home.  My home for this year.  A place where I am for a short while not permanently.  A place that I am enjoying and loving, but I know that one day soon my time here will be over.  This reminded me that as a Christian, this world is not my home.  It is only a place where I am for a short while.  My temporary home.  It's a place that I know and love, but I realize that I will not be here forever.  One day in the not too distant future my time here will be over.  The only things I can take with me from this place are eternal things.  Matthew chapter 6 tells us “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  I need to be just as vigilant about what I am packing in this life.  What is it that will actually make the cut into the next one?  In talking about what we do with our lives here on this earth Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 "Anyone who builds on that foundation (Jesus) may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.  But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames."    Am I packing this life with things that will be burned up when I stand in front of the Great Judge or am I packing it full of precious things that will stand?   What things are worth collecting here in this life?  What is worth investing my time, money and energy in? 

As I evaluate my suitcase space I look at what I can fit in that's worth taking and what I should leave out because as wonderful as it may be (Diet Dr. Pepper) I just can't justify the weight of taking it with me.  I believe I should be even more watchful as I appraise what I fit in my life on this earth.  Just because it's good doesn't mean that I have space for it or that I should include it in my life.  I should only put in the best of the best.  I should save my time and money for things of eternal value.  That's what I should be packing in my life.

How about you?  What are you packing in your life that will make the journey with you into the next?

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Last year here in the DC area they were pounded with tons of snow.  In fact at right about this time one year ago there were 30 inches of snow on the ground outside of the window that I am looking out right now.  At that time I was in Bolivia enjoying our 85 degree sunny weather.  As I saw all the pictures of cars and porches and doghouses covered in snow posted by friends I admit that I felt twinges of envy.  I love living in Cochabamba.  It is my home now, but we have pretty much the same weather year round in the daytime (about the only way you can tell the different seasons is the night time temperatures vary a little more).  It gets up into the 80s in the daytime unless it’s rainy season and it’s just a little cooler as long as the clouds last, but the next day it will back into the 80s again.  Hot Christmases were one of my biggest adjustments to make in Cochabamba.  We get sunburned on Christmas.  I know many Northern Virginians got their fill of snow last year and want a year ‘off’ with no blizzards, but I say BRING IT ON!!!  Bring on the blizzard.  I want snow.  Lots of it.  Tons of it.  I want the kind of storm where we can’t get out of our long winding driveway.  The kind where we are snowed in.  The kind where we have snowball fights, build snowmen and snow forts and then go inside and drink hot chocolate.  I want to enjoy one BIG blizzard during our time in the States.  I want it to be a memory I carry back to Bolivia with me.  I want to remember the freezing fingers of kids on my back and face.  Their red noses so cold that they are numb.  I want to remember snow angels and kids dressed up in so many layers they look like ticks about to pop.  The weather channel says it is supposed to snow tomorrow, here’s hoping it’s a good one!  I’ve got my hot chocolate ready just in case.