I dream of . . . .

Church planting.  Mission work.  Working at the mission.  One good friend.  Foster care.

There are many things I dream of . . . . covet?  Sometimes I think it's not too much to ask for but at other times I feel very selfish.  I know of so many others who have moved here with so much less.  I know of others who are moving overseas soon and are purging their material life and what they know as home.  I came with all my material things and with my husband's lucrative job which means I didn't have to purge a thing.  I can afford a babysitter, a gym membership and other items that are considered luxuries for some.  But still with all the 'things' of this world what I really long for is a church family who loves Jesus and the Church as much as we do.  I admit a lot of arrogance when we moved here thinking finding a good church would be easy.  It hasn't been.  Organizational leadership is lacking.  People whose hearts are really committed to missions are hard to find.  And trying to find a friend through all of this is hard.  It's only been six months and usually good friends are a few years in coming, I know.

We are praying fervently for a new pastor for our church we call home here.  We fasted on Friday with the church while we prayed.  We really need a great pastor with a great vision for this congregation and thus, this area.  If we don't find it, I will be desperately dreaming of church planting.  Which I don't think my husband can handle at this point.  I probably can't either but at this point I feel the Lord tugging me hard in this direction.  Thank God for sermons on the internet in the interim.

Other things in my life:
--We received our foster care license for the State of Idaho.  We could receive a phone call at any point asking us to house children.  Right now our license is for up to two children ages 0-6.
--We toured the Mission this week in downtown Idaho Falls to see what opportunities there are for volunteering.
--The garden is growing!!  My peas are up and I transplanted 18 tomatoes; probably 3 weeks too early but we'll see.  I have two big compost piles and have mulched the entire garden with grass cuttings.  We have asked the elderly neighbor if we can use her garden space to plant sweet corn.  Since it's right beside our garden and she isn't using it I figured it would be better if we can get corn in there and shade out the weeds than having a garden of weeds.  We'll see--I might have just created a lot more work for myself.

Part of the many seeds I started in the garage (in egg cartons)

 Transplanting to yogurt cups and the like--I kept costs to a minimum.

 Transplanting the tomato plants to the garden

 My sugar snaps--the first plants to come up in the garden!

I will post more pictures soon.  I need to figure this blogging thing out . . . I still don't know how people make theirs look so beautiful.

Psalm 62

This was part of my Bible reading today and spoke so loudly:

To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

62 For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.
² He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

³ How long will all of you attack a man
    to batter him,
    like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴ They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
    They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
    but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵ For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my salvation and my glory;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us. Selah

⁹ Those of low estate are but a breath;
    those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
    they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰ Put no trust in extortion;
    set no vain hopes on robbery;
    if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

¹¹ Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
¹²     and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
    according to his work.

Back to reality . . . .

We visited Washington for a week and now I'm back to reality.  Going to Bethel's ladies retreat was balm for my soul.  I talked more than I've talked in my life.  I'm sure of it.  But I didn't care--I was catching up on all the female connections I haven't experienced in the last 6 months.  Then after returning from the retreat I was able to visit more friends.  Ahhhh!  So great and nice!

And today I felt like I was slapped in the face again.  Or more like my heart was ripped out of my chest.  Sunday's are so hard.  I miss my church family so much.  This transition is even harder than before I believe.  God is calling us to some ministry here, but we haven't found it quite yet.  Or the next pastor that our church hires might help define that for us.  But I hate to wait that long . . . because I'm not sure I can wait.  Waiting on God is hard.  He has something for me but it's not clear.  And that's hard, too.

Since I'm Type A I would just like to fix this problem.  Put it on my checklist and solve it and move on.  But it's not that type of problem.  This is a time issue and a God issue.  (The latter really being the cause of the former, right?)  I will wait on the Lord . . . . this might be good for me.

Praise Harmonica

Our church has been advertising an upcoming concert for the last few weeks.  Since they've been pushing it pretty hard I decided I better check out the guy who is coming.  So I looked up 'Buddy Greene' on iTunes.  One of his albums is titled 'Praise Harmonica'.  No joke.
Do people really listen to stuff like that??  And pay money for a ticket?
We are even teaming up with one of the high school choirs and they are going to sing along with him.  Some days I think I have moved to a foreign country.

Napoleon Dynamite is real.  I'm living it.

Unveiling Grace

I just finished the book Unveiling Grace, the story of how we found our way out of the Mormon Church.  Completely amazing book for several different reasons.  I've read books similar to this before where Mormon's realize the church they love is not the church they think it is.  However, this one points straight to biblical Christianity as the result of learning their church is false.
The best part of this book for me was it has spurned on the study of my Bible.  I need to know exactly where verses are that point to what I believe.  I should be able to get to them easily without stumbling all over myself.  The book also gave me a renewed love of the LDS people and a clearer understanding of how desperately they have been deceived.  I can't imagine having to live my life 'good enough' so that I might receive salvation.  It also gave me some insight into the culture in my little town I didn't have before.
Here is a link to a documentary made of this family telling their story: http://www.unveilinggrace.com/video/unveiling_grace_full.htm

I encourage anyone to read the book.  It's a quick read and will encourage you in your faith.

Setback

This Sunday

Trent and I should check our mail more often, but we don't.  On Saturday we would have found a letter from our church telling us our pastor had resigned.  So this morning we show up for church without a clue and got the announcement at the Sunday morning service.  I guess it had been a year in the works--the elder board and the pastor had been mutually praying about it and this week the decision was made.  The elder board unanimously voted for the pastor to step down.  I feel a little bit like the carpet got pulled out from underneath me.  We were getting comfortable in our setting on Sundays and excited about this church but now . . . . . . we pray.  We wait and see.  And now the elders are searching for someone else.

About the time I think I'm over the hump of literally mourning the loss of my home church, Bethel, something like this happens and now I'm mourning all over again.

Last Sunday

Last week we went to a talk by a missionary from our church to the LDS community.  It's called 'Evening in Athens' and he takes some scripture or concept and dissects it and looks at it Biblically and through the eyes of the LDS (book of Mormon).  It was good and completely interesting.  LDS are invited to come and participate so it's a very respectful discussion of both sides.
It was a good lesson in missionary work.  Mike, who is the missionary, has a complete understanding of the Book of Mormon, all their vocabulary that is important to their religion, and can talk their language.  A returned missionary was at the meeting and it was apparent by his reaction that he was so impressed with Mike and that he knew so much about his religion.  You can tell that people just don't take the time to learn all the lingo and truly understand what they believe by the respect he commanded from the Mormons in attendance.  His website is here: http://www.sharetheson.org/

Martha Stewart, Duck Commander, and Missions

As I navigate the waters of a new community I continually think how easy I have it compared to going on missions for say, the rest of my life.  Idaho is still in the PNW.  They still speak English.  I still maintain my lifestyle I did in Washington.  I get to send my kids to public school (God willing) as soon as they come of age.  It's really not so bad--just an Idaho paradise instead of a Washington paradise.

However, I think a lot if God sent us abroad to reach others how would I cope?  Do I have enough faith to hack it?  Most days I feel like I hardly have enough faith to deal with the amount of change in the last year just having a baby and moving to Idaho.

I daydream about what I would take overseas to survive.  How would I cook for my family?  I'm pretty sure they don't sell skinned, deboned chicken breasts in Cambodia or India.  They probably sell bread but could I make it for my family if I needed to?  So, I've been honing my cooking/baking skills in the name of Missions.  One day.  I bought whole chickens for the first time and opened my Martha Stewart Cooking School cookbook and started following directions.
We've read Phil Robertson's autobiography and he talks about living off the land quite a bit.  It's a foreign idea to most of us in the United States.  Actually growing everything you eat and killing all the meat you consume.  Then I take it a step further--could I clean a duck?  Or chicken?  Or turkey?  Sheesh--I'm so spoiled.

Trent and I are discussing growing a huge garden and trying to do everything as sustainable as possible (read: without too many commercial chemicals).  As much as we are pro-chemical agriculture we've also discussed if we were abroad could we grow a successful garden without all these inputs?  How would we do it?
As we speak there is a compost garbage can in my backyard.  We are adding all the kitchen scraps we can and trying to create our own soil from our waste.  And goat and chicken waste.

We'll keep you updated on this endeavor.  Seed starting is beginning soon!!