I had to check the date as I typed this. Days roll over into days here. I seem to always know the day of the week, but often not the date. For right now, my life seems to revolve around what routine I can find verses dates to schedule my life by like it used to back home. It is the 8th of April today in case anyone was wondering.

Tonight I happened to be outside on the road outside our house in the moonlight. While I am often annoyed at the road because of the sounds of the factory just doors down, the squeaky rusted gate, or the diesel trucks on the gravel road, I appreciate that there is total darkness at night. I looked up tonight and saw the moon and the stars shining so brightly. It overwhelmed me with a deep sense of peace and tranquility. In the stillness, I felt the light from these far away objects brought a nostalgia I needed to feel.

Two and a half years ago, Stephen returned home from Thanksgiving break. I’d had a really difficult week while we were separated from personal issues and had been a strength to some family members. When I picked him up from the airport, I realized how fragile I was and began to cry. Once I brought him to his parent’s house, he opened his laptop and began to play a song for me. I wept and wept and felt God just heal my aching heart. Stephen ever so sweetly wrapped his left arm around my shoulder and just sat next to me as the song repeated.
Here are some lyrics below;

You should see the stars tonight
How they shimmer shine so bright
Against the black they look so white
Comin down from such a height
To reach me now

And how could such a thing
Shine its light on me
And make everything beautiful again

I remember being in bible school and reading Genesis 1. I can recall about to turn the page to see the remaining part of that chapter when verse 16 jumped out at me. “…He made the stars also”. I was struck by how BIG God was and how in all of His beautiful creations of calling forth light that He stopped and added some stars. Stars to reflect His light in a dark sky. Stars to shimmer and shine so bright as the lyrics to the song above state. Stars to remind us that even in the darkest times, it’ll be alright. Stars to shine down on us and remind us that our light is important and needed in the world we live in today.

We asked three young people to sing at our wedding whom Stephen and known since they were young and loved dearly. My parent’s had a beautiful song called, “There is Love” sung at their wedding and I’d always dreamed of using it at mine. I also wanted to incorporate “Stars”, the song above by David Crowder in there too. These talented friends much to my surprise combined these two songs for our communion song. As they sang we also lit two lanterns asking God to make us “burning and shining lamps” in our generation like the scripture says John the Baptist was. This is still my prayer today. The link below is a recording of the song at our wedding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMg7W345XbM&feature=share

Earlier today we celebrated a missionary kid here who is about to graduate high school this summer from her boarding school in Kenya. It was a really sweet time to hear her parent’s share stories and view videos of her growing up. I sat there crying the whole time because clearly I can’t keep my tears back ever ((embarrassing))! I’ve gotten to spend time with this missionary girl the past 3 April breaks as I’ve been here to visit. She’s a lovely young lady and I’m excited to see all that God has in store. In her honor, Stephen and I REALLY ROUGHED it out today and ate Mexican food. I think that we ate enough for a month ;-) We’d been craving Mexican food and the salsa satisfied!!! Seriously though, we passed on dinner entirely tonight!

Tonight Stephen and I decided to go for a little walk. The sun was setting and we knew we had limited time to get out and back to our house. We live on a street that has a gated entrance. Once we got outside the gate and rounded the corner of the intersecting street, we saw three tiny kids. There were two boys around 5 years of age or so and a girl who might have been 3. Their giggles could be heard before they appeared. They began to call out to us and laugh even more heartily. I laughed too and wanted to snatch the little girl in my arms. Her tiny skirt and mis matching layer clothes were too cute! They were unsupervised so that kind of broke my heart as it was dusk time and they were on the side of the road. Stephen commented how much I love kids and come alive. It’s true—I just adore how children are children no matter what country and culture they belong to. I imagine that’s what makes “child like faith” so universal and applicable.

We walked a bit further and saw two women chasing a chicken across the road. I clinched Stephen’s hand tightly and recoiled at the sight of this squawking chicken! I did NOT want to see this thing beheaded in front of my eyes…which is another blog I’ll have to write another time. I darted to the opposite side of the street as I then heard silence from the flapping animals….OK! I’m glad they’re having a great dinner and all…but I’ve never seen a chicken crossing the road for it’s dear life!

I met Stephen on a night when he came to speak to ORU missionaries for their week of training for summer trips. I’m currently wearing the blue shirt that I was wearing that night I met Stephen :) It’s funny how us females remember these kinds of things! I realize most of you reading this probably know the story about the hysterically sobbing girl on the front row (me!) and how he thought I was married. What you may not know is that previous to Stephen preaching, he acted out a hilarious skit with his best friend Kevin. Together the two of them pretended to be in a scenario overseas where Kevin played an American preaching in an African church and Stephen played an African translator. I literally had tears I was laughing so hard! Most of our American idioms don’t translate well and chaos can ensue in translation. Examples are, “Where I come from it’s raining cats and dog?” turns out to be “Where our brother comes from, small rodents are falling from the skies.” “If one person gets on fire for God, then other people get on fire too” equals “If one man brings fire to the church, the whole church goes up in flames!” “Shoot yourself in the foot” is “this man he got out a gun and shot his foot”.

This can be funny and equally challenging especially if you aren’t used to communicating cross culturally. Yesterday Stephen preached two services with a young Malagasy man that he’s worked with the past couple of years. His sermon was based on 2 Kings 13 with Elisha and King Joash. In short, we had a handmade bow and arrows for visual aid. Things were entertaining at times when the emphasis was placed on the bow and arrow or when Stephen made culturally relevant jokes and the congregation laughed. However if there was no translation made, it would’ve been quite crazy!

It just made me laugh and think about how many things that if they are not communicated properly give way to a lot of misunderstandings. Sometimes I sit here wondering what tomorrow will bring even though I know Jesus told us that today has enough to think about and not to worry. It’s comforting to me to know that God knows the end from the beginning. That He’s not scrambling trying to figure out what will happen next. He is at peace and still on the throne. What does get off sometimes is when we don’t read His word and we allow other things or people dictate what His word says. We have a choice to choose Him and to choose life everyday, but He’s the only one who can rightly translate the world around us and speak a word of peace to our hearts. There is no confusion in Him. No mixed signs of what He could be saying to us. He leads us as sons and daughters by the peace of His word and witness of His spirit. It’s not always easy, but it is always right when we know His word. He is infinite and while we could never fully comprehend Him, He speaks to us as His children and desires to guide us into His truth.

“Make new friends, but keep the old. Some are silver and the others gold.
A circle is round, it has no end. That’s how long I want to be your friend. “

Who knew this age old song that I sung in Girl Scouts years ago would bring me to tears one day! HA! (I cry too much)

I can’t begin to express how thankful I am for the friends that God has put into my life. I have worked with, lived near, served alongside, attended church with some of the greatest people ever! As I’ve moved cities 6 times in the past 6 years, I’m grateful that distance hasn’t separated me from those I love to be in the company of.

Today my heart is thankful, but also sad. I was very grateful for a visit with two new friends here in Madagascar and some of their kids today. One woman is from Switzerland and the other from The Netherlands. Both are basically next door neighbors and have moved to Madagascar this past year for their husbands’ jobs and are doing ministry. Both ladies’ husbands work with different piloting mission organizations that fly missionaries over Madagascar either by planes or helicopters! They are incredible organizations and a huge blessing especially when traveling by road here is not easy or possible at times. Both have reached out in little ways this past week and one brought me a pineapple while I didn’t feel well :-) I love the kindness of their hearts, their love for Jesus, and the sacrifice these families have made to leave their homes and be here. They are incredible moms and it’s inspiring to watch them juggle their littles in a new place.

While I LOVE playing with these cute kids andI really enjoy making new friends with their moms, it also makes me miss my friends back home. I really love and am so grateful for the friends in my life. I got to text back and forth with 3 friends tonight and FaceTime my baby brother for the first timer and tell my mom Happy Birthday at work. Wow—am I ever thankful for technology?!?! Thank you Jesus for all things “i” and “face” ((iMessage,FaceTime, iPhones, Facebook)). I appreciate relationships like one of my closest friends has 3 boys and a baby girl on the way and while we’ve never even lived in the same city, she’s so consistent in prayer and love in my life. I love how several other friends have moved all over or remained close to me even with my move(S). It’s so amazing that no matter what season of life we’re in, God gives us relationships to nurture, challenge, love on and mature us.

I’m a very relational person and people make my heart happy! It was very difficult to move so far away from home and not be in a close large community like I’ve been in every other time I’ve moved. I went to a huge school growing up, attending a large church and basically don’t know a stranger. I thrive on meeting new people and interacting with others. I’m thankful that despite language barriers, age differences, and cultural challenges, that there are some great smiling faces here that I’m getting to know better. I know that for some people, social media is more negative than positive, but I’m more thankful than ever for it. While I understand priorities in life should come before Facebook and such, I love seeing pictures of friend’s lives, hearing their hearts, praying for them through online interactions. It makes the times when I am face to face or digitally on FaceTime that much sweeter. It makes the lifetime relationships not miss a beat when I feel like we’re able to be in contact often. To all of you who make me smile, challenge me, and encourage me via social media—thank you!

Relationships are what you make them to be. I’m thankful that I’ve had the privilege to live in amazing places with amazing people, serve in one of the best churches for years back home, be connected to other great ministries, and experience laughter and tears with some incredible people.

If you’ve made it this far through my blog today, thanks for being a friend. Thanks for investing love and encouragement in my life and thank you for being you! You make life fun and inspire me to have people like you in my life! A simple text to say hello, a pineapple, a coffee goes a long way and warms my heart!

This blog is dedicated to all my ORU friends who’ve taken this mandatory course ;-)

Tonight my heart is very overwhelmed to be honest. There are things that I will just never understand. Questions that are reeling through my mind. Reflections in my personal life, my new married life, living 12,000 miles away from home and a mindful of other things. Then I’m also thinking about a young man’s life who is being celebrated at ORU today and while I’m encouraged by his life for Jesus, I’m sad that he suffered with cancer and left this world so young.

Cancer and death confuse me anyway. I’ve lost 3 family members to cancer and countless others on top of my best friend and cousin dying of cancer when she and I were 14 after a 7 year battle. In the time of pain and suffering however, I really encountered The Lord. Not a man preaching. Not a religion. Not a good idea. Not a well thought out strategy to win friends and influence people. I met Jesus Christ and He became so alive and real to me. This didn’t mean over night that I became perfect or like Him, nor does it mean 12 years later that I’m the best example of one living for Him or have it figured out. It does mean that He is real to me and I know without a shadow of doubt that He is alive and full of love for me.

What about my questions though? Why do some get healed and others don’t? Why is life crazy hard sometimes and knocks you off your feet? Why do bad things happen even when you’ve been faithful? I don’t know. But I do know that I can’t focus on the spinning wheels of “whys” all the time. I have to focus on what I do know.

What I do know is that He is with me right NOW. I am not alone. God gave us the precious gift of His Holy Spirit so that I could dwell with God. While my precious little mind can not remotely comprehend that, my spirit can receive Him in fullness. I’m thankful that there is a supernatural strength to my weakness. An empowerment stronger than my mixed emotions. A love that exceeds what I could ever give.

Holy Spirit is in the NOW. He was in our yesterday and He will be in our tomorrow too. We have to embrace Him in the now and receive what lies before us today! He has the wisdom from God, the love of Christ, the beauty of redemption to reveal to us now. He can walk us through valleys of tears and laughter of mountain tops. He can meet our hunger spiritually and satisfy.

As I reflect on this young ORU graduate today, I see his smile. I hear his loud life lived well before the Father. I know he embraced the now. He held onto Holy Spirit, loved well in a strength not his own and he is now dancing in glory!

May I be motivated as he. May my life be lived in the NOW. May I see the waiter and be moved with compassion. May I seize the moments to just be enthralled with God’s heart. To be filled with Him so that others may know the way of life, love and redemption. I want to be filled with what He’s speaking and sharing now…not satisfied on yesterday’s fulfillment or hoping for a far off day.

All I can say is,”Holy Spirit come….” Come refresh. Come turn my questions into seeking You. Come heal. Come restore. Come move me aside and reveal Jesu.

Oh and one other thing to do NOW is sleep ;-)

Bonne Nuit (French is coming along slowly but surely ;-) )

When someone is talking to me, I often look at them intently. When I am processing something out loud or in deep thought as I speak, I look around and I notice EVERYTHING. The chipped paint, the crooked picture, the moving clouds, the fly buzzing back and forth. My eyes dart because I assume my brain is connecting neural pathways to formulate my thoughts. LOL…or something like that!

Today as I was talking to Stephen in our living room, my eyes were bouncing on the tall trees across the street from us. Suddenly one thin, yet very tall tree began to fall backwards. I exclaimed, “Woah…” Rather silently and in a drawn out fashion as Stephen turned his head to where my eyes were fixed. “What?!”, he asked. ::CRASH:: I heard the tree fall. I began to tell him that a tree had just fallen and asked if he had heard it. He did not hear it because he didn’t know that it was falling. His brain wasn’t seeking to listen to for a tree falling, it was listening to me talking.

The funny and philosophical question has been around and even altered for ages that states, “If a tree fell in a forest and no one was around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. Of course there are MANY ways to look at this question. What is sound? Was there a woman around? Haha! What about animals?

When I thought about what happened today and putting into context with living in Madagascar, I wanted to write about this. You see, I was looking intently at the tree before it fell. My eyes were fixed on it as it fell and I then was listening to hear it make a sound. Stephen however didn’t see it falling and therefore didn’t hear the sound at all. I wonder how many times we’re not seeing things, therefore we don’t know that they are a problem. I wonder how often there are things on God’s heart that we’re have blind eye or a deaf ear towards. Clearly Stephen wasn’t in the wrong for listening to me and not watching trees haha, but it was such an interesting thought to me when this occurred.

There are many intense issues facing Madagascar. One happens to involve trees and the fact that this is one of the last remaining tropical rainforest biomes in the world and it is vanishing quickly. Stephen saw some of the larger species of lemurs this weekend in the rain forest named Indri. They are about 2 &1/2’ to 3’ lemurs! Honestly, they sort of creep me out. What’s even crazier is that there used to be lemurs up to 6’ tall!! Um hello to peeing your pants on a hike in the rainforest when that guy jumps across your path! ((Just being honest)) While I may not have wanted to encounter such a large jumping creature, it makes me sad that their homes were destroyed and that they are no more. Madagascar has often been called, “the bleeding island”, because from satellites the red top soil from the forest is being washed into the ocean as if it were bleeding. There is a man here who is a “tree missionary” and is replanting species of trees and working to save the environment here in this beautiful place.

While these things are super important and need to be taken care of, there are some major issues effecting people. The poverty these people face, the diseases they encounter, the lack of education. The horrible human trafficking issues. The equally disturbing organ trafficking issues (yes where people are killed for their organs and they’re shipped off to the orient for medicinal and sacrifice purposes!). Those issues are very very real and they are going on every day here. While we can’t change every single problem and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by any one of these things, if we partner with God’s heart we can at least be looking for the falling trees. The ones who are the people we can pray for to receive healing. The ones who we can feed and clothe. The new generation of people who can become more educated and can grow in the knowledge of God’s word. The women who can know a life of freedom from prostitution and trafficking. Even the lemurs who can have new homes because someone was raised up to care and protect their habitats.

Even if philiosophically the tree falling alone doesn’t make a sound, God sees it fall. AND God sees every person who no one else sees. He sees you. He sees your neighbor. He sees your co-worker. He sees the woman lost in selling her body. He sees the man lost in cheating on his spouse. He sees the teenager cutting their body. AND He cares. AND He sends you and I with His heart to share His love.

Be watching and be listening. You’re planted in His kingdom to be on the look out for falling trees ;-)

When we first moved into our house, we had a few fuses go out and various things. We still don’t have a couple of lights working in our house, but we’ve given up for now. This is mainly because we paid an electrician and well he never came back with the fuse! Ha!