Dusty Barren Land

Rain.
It is good for my soul.
I love it.
It feels like home.
It puts a smile on my face.
Yup, even in the perpetually rainy Pacific North West.

I love the sound of rain.
I love falling asleep to it. Or waking up to it.
I love hearing it on a metal roof.
I love a glorious torrential downpour.
I love the warm rain in Uganda.
I love that magical misty rain in WA.
And puddle jumping? OH SO MUCH FUN.
Especially in my cute polka dot rain boots!
And dancing in the rain? it's the best.

See, what's fantastic is that rain brings life. You can see it in the incredible green-ness of western WA.
And thus, lack of rain brings death. As I see daily in dry, dusty, drought-ravaged east Texas.
You see, here we haven't had enough rain in a looong time. Dead trees. Dead leaves. Dead Cows.

but do you know what else is utterly amazing about rain?
God says that is what His Word is like!
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." -Isaiah 55:10-11

Now, when it rains, things always get wet. Everything. The ground soaks up the water, the plants drink it, and everything turns lush and green and happy. Why? Because we need water to have life!

Do you know what else is true? We need God's word to have life! We need Him, desperately. He is our love, He is our life, He is our Lord. Without Him we are dead. And so, when I don't have enough of Him in my life, when I am not spending enough time soaking up in His word, I start to see dead patches in my heart. The leaves turn brown, the grass gets crunchy, and I start to look and feel haggard. God's word brings me life, it reveals to me more of what He is like, so I can fall more and more in love with God and know HIm better and better. Which the Bible says is life in John 17:3.

Also, God says His word is like snow.
Snow inspires wonder. It makes us giddy with delight.
We love snow. We sing songs about it. We pray for it at Christmas. We make paper cut-outs of it and tape them to our windows.
God's word is like that too.
It should inspire wonder. not just at the words, but at the Speaker, Himself.
Seeing who God is, hearing what He's done, and how much He loves us, should make us giddy with delight.
In Psalm 119:103 it is declared that God's words are sweeter than honey!
I want a love like this. I want to love God and His word this way.
It's not always easy.
Believe me, when reading the Bible is your homework, it can sometimes be difficult to engage your heart.
I want to declare that I love you, Lord, and this love is worth the work and the fight and the everyday ordinary moments.
So...
"Let it rain, let it pour, what we have is worth fighting for!"

Constant.

This was one of my homework questions today. And I was overwhelmed by it. So I thought I'd share my answer.

48. Discuss the interaction you've had with the providence and sovereignty of God in your life. How has God directed you, how have you responded? If you feel you screwed it up do you believe God is creative enough to use it in the best way?

My lanta. Uhh.. I wasn’t aware you wanted us to write an autobiography for a homework question. ☺
Welcome to my life. God’s providence and sovereignty? Constant. Everywhere. In Everything. In the face of the darkest darkness I could ever imagine? Absolutely.

Honestly, I could write for hours, hundreds of pages. God is faithful; He never abandons me. I could talk for hours about everything I have seen God do in my life. Just thinking about it is moving me to tears. He is so good.

I have seen God’s providence in the little things, like cars.
I have seen His providence in the big things like family and guiding me all over the world.
I have seen it in terrible tragedy.
I have seen it in glorious joy.
I have seen the providence of God in more incredible friendships than I can number.
I have seen it in financial provision, in His comfort on a rainy night.
I have seen it in the moon and the stars and felt in the joy of a smile that just can’t stop, a heart that is overflowing with joy that moves me to do happy dances all over the place, and the kind of laughter that you just can’t stop, and leaves you with sore abs afterwards.
I’ve seen it in a taxi that came along in the middle of a monsoon on a random dirt back road in the middle of a Ugandan village.
I’ve seen it in a kindergarten class in a small Christian school in East Texas that once terrified me, who ended up stealing my heart.
I’ve seen it everywhere: in my life, in the lives of friends & family, in the lives of random strangers.
All in all, I can say this: God’s providence is constant.

up to date!

Oh me, oh my.
Once again, I have completely neglected this blog.
My apologies.
Life has been crazy. If I ever thought it was crazy before, I had no idea!
Let's see...
I am 3 days and 1 exam away from being a Latin teacher for an entire semester.

Some of my students performing a skit in Latin. It's about beards. :)

Which is crazy. I am so stretched and challenged in more ways than I could ever imagine, every single day in the classroom. It is a time for me to learn grace, to learn to lean on God, and to walk humbly before everyone, including my students. I feel like I am constantly making mistakes, some with the actual language work, and some with the teaching, which is hard. However, I am definitely learning 1,000 ways NOT to teach Latin, as well as few ways to actually teach Latin. I do have some consolation in that my students actually know more Latin than they did at the beginning of the year, so we are actually learning! Yippee!

Last month I went on a week-long pastoral outreach in Michigan!

Jess & I at an amazing coffee shop called Lemonjello! :D
It was amazing. I got to visit my lovely lovely friend Jessica and work with her church. Having been on staff at a similar-size church previously, it was very cool to see how another church did things. I learned a lot and got to work with amazing people! And on either end of this outreach, I got to stop in Chicago and spend time with my wonderful friend Brian who is attending school at Wheaton College. The whole thing was amazingly divinely orchestrated and filled my soul to the full. Oh, it was glorious. :D


Brian & I at the Bean in Chicago!

School of the Bible itself has been great. We have excellent teaching and I am learning to see God in a whole new way. He is so incredibly gracious and loving and kind.
Last week and this week we've been tackling the Nature of God, which primarily has had to do with God's foreknowledge. It's intense to say the least. We've been examining different views of what it means that God is all-knowing and the implications of each view. My brain hurts constantly. But it's been a time to really ask the hard questions and find out if my thinking lines up with what the Bible expresses on the issue.
Looking Ahead:

OUTREACH!
We've got two more outreaches in this school! And I am excited for both of them.

THe next one is coming in March. We'll spend a week doing teachings and working with local ministries.
We were just presented with location options yesterday, so I am still praying through them.
our choices?
-Houston, TX
-Florida
-Mexico

And... our main outreach in July?

I am going to ZAMBIA! That's right, folks, my return to Africa is imminent!
:D
Also, I am tacking on a 2.5 week trip to South Africa to visit a friend and check out ministry opportunities.
Hooray!!
So.. I'll be spending 6.5 weeks in Africa this summer. Woot Woot!

And...
We'll be doing the Proverbs Project
which is a scientific inductive study of the book of Proverbs.
Before Christmas break.
Oh my.
I am excited.
It will be crazy.
But I know I am going to learn heaps!

Hooray! Christmas Break! I CANNOT WAIT to come home to the glorious PNW and see my wonderful family and friends. :D