Ransom Wear web site

my good friend karen just told me about this organization called “Ransom Wear” that is providing medical relief, counseling, job skills training, etc. in God’s love to girls rescued from the sex trade in nepal. check it out, they make stuff and sell it, so buy a beanie! better yet, stop and pray for the front line ministries like them doing work that most of us couldn’t imagine doing.

onion rings at ihop with the nieces

                     it occured to me that i haven’t posted much about my biological family. yes, i do have parents and siblings, but the whole lot of them live up in the Emerald City, aka Seattle. we don’t get to visit as much as i like, but when we do, its such a blessing. over christmas break, the carters loaded up the minivan and headed north on I-5. really north., for 2 days until we hit seattle.

one of the things that i cherished doing was taking my three nieces and emma out to breakfast one saturday morning. the location was up to them and they unanimously chose the international house of pancakes. it was hilarious to see allyson and jessica deciding between onion rings and the popcorn shrimp basket. remember this is BREAKFAST, but in the mind of a 13-year old, who cares what time of day it is. any time is onion ring time.      my goal was to convey to these goofy, wonderful girls that they were of value. that they mattered to God and they mattered to me. so after we had a waitress spill a whole tray of drinks on us, we ate onion rings and laughed, and hopefully built a wacky memory that will remind them that they are precious. maybe a little odd in their breakfast choices, but precious nonetheless.

kid love: super sammy

   here he is, sammy, our 6-year-old…. the one that keeps us laughing, perplexed and wondering what he’ll do next. i think it was a year ago that he learned he can make his friends laugh by burying his face in a plate of birthday cake, a fun party trick that he’s pulled out a few months later at a friend’s wedding. hmm. can you say “future jr. pastor?”

for all his antics (i.e. doing riverdance imitations) sammy has an amazingly sensitive heart for a young man of his age. considerate to a fault, he is the first one to sacrifice the last coveted fruit rollup tongue tatooo if he knows that sister or brother desires it. when i’m coming in from the garage with an armload of groceries, sammy is the one who will hold the door open for me. every time.

he is relationally gifted and extroverted. he demonstrated his people skills this past sunday when he turned to his friend, ben, who was a first-time visitor at church with us and properly introduced him to another church friend, austin. “ben, this is austin. Austin, this is ben, its his first time”. then he gave both of them a simultaneous hug… one friend under each arm. then they challenged each other to run to the curb and see who was the fastest. (sammy told me today that ben had a great time and is now best friends with everyone in the 9:00a kinder class at flipflops. ok, so sammy embellishes a bit).

i thank God for such an amazing son. i know the middle child tends to get lost in the shuffle (i was a middle child) and can end up feeling like an appendix…. sammy is a remarkable gift to our family and we really do pray for God’s direction, protection and blessing on his life. his unique gifting of extrovert, sensitive heart, sense of humor and love for God will bless many one day.

loving money… ouch

just read a great article by Anne Jackson about her battle with materialism in her 20’s. her story is uncannily familiar to my own, even down to the foreign convertible, expensive wardrobe and dot-com layoffs. click here to read it and be challenged.

 funny how i was JUST talking about this subject with my friend, and one-day blogger, Lisa Schron. We were discussing why it is that people who have so much stuff have a hard time desiring God, and how easily we who profess Christ fall into the materialistic treadmill.

from the archives…

     just came across this picture of my munchkins… it must have been 3 years ago, when thomas was 6 months old, sammy was 3 and little miss emma was 5. it was taken in front of our miracle house, where we still live, in riverside. how grateful i am to see where God has brought us in these few years.

how quickly they grow. how grateful i am to stay home with them. i will never regret leaving my lucrative career to be a fulltime mom. ok, maybe sometimes… but mostly i’m grateful.

props to my bunko babes

ok, i admit it. i confess. i play the much-maligned dice game called “bunko.” it is really just an excuse to hang out with my girlfriends and eat well and laugh alot. i feel so witty and free with them… hey, they put up with my corny jokes, so i really do appreciate them. here we were after last months’ extravaganza….    these ladies just make me laugh and remind me that my life isn’t just a mothering grind. thanks to all the supportive husbands who pull kid-duty so their wives can play!

thanks, sabina, shirley, kimberly, tanja and heather. thanks to sandi, renae, stacy, cynthia, margie and lynae! God uses you guys to encourage and bless me.

another great hymn, just when i need it

We sang an awesome hymn in Bible Study Fellowship this last week, from a song by Frances Havergal, entitled, “Lord, Speak to Me, That I May Speak”… I wasn’t very familiar with it, but the words were great:

“verse 3: O teach me, Lord, that I may teach / the precious things thou dost impart / and wing my words, that they may reach / the hidden depths of many a heart.”

How beautiful God’s timing is, as He knew I needed this prayer this week. He knows exactly what encouragement to send us when we have stuff to do for Him.  As I prepare to talk at MAPS (Mothering with a Purpose), the bi-weekly women’s Bible Study at Sandals tomorrow, it will be by His great power that i’m able to talk about Jehovah-Mekoddishkem, “the Lord Who Sanctifies You”… because this week i haven’t been very holy in my attitudes towards my kids, other drivers, Panera workers or myself. But God already knew that when I was asked to sub for Nancy, and He still lets me serve Him.

Pray that God “wings my words that they may reach the hidden depths of many a heart” tomorrow. Only He can take our feeble offerings and make something beautiful and eternal happen in someone else.

next generation of greeters

here are a few of sammy’s kindergarten amigos…at their missions parade a few weeks ago. these guys were hilarious. each classroom at Riverside Christian Day School was assigned a country to study and share with the rest of the school. senior sammy’s class was Mexico, so on the day we had a parade through each of the classrooms, he got to welcome people into his classroom with a hearty, “hola!”… he was in his element!He got a hoarse voice from all the greeting he did, but thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight. I told him he had a future welcoming people to church one day, since God made him a people person! maybe he can greet newcomers at sandals church, but instead of the poncho and moustache, we’ll draw on some tatooes. maybe not.

orange wristband sighting results in small group invite!

have i mentioned how exciting it is to be a part of a small group where God is at work? i am not kidding, stuff is happening since we’ve started to pray together. people are getting saved. lives are changing. and we’re growing.

tonight, God brought us a beautiful someone who’s been at sandals for 2 years, but, because of pastor matt’s challenge to pray together, just started praying 3 weeks ago for “someone to pray with.” she happened to be at a carwash today, and an observant member of our small group spotted her orange band on her wrist (a sandals thing that shows we’re commited to prayer during this sermon series) and struck up a conversation. before she knew it, she was invited to our small group and she came! what a blessing it was to have her there tonight.

the inviter was just out to get his car washed. he had no idea that this young lady had been seeking a small gr0up, but God did. how good God is. he does do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think.

blessed idylwild getaway

with all the heat, its hard to imagine we just spent a snowy cabin weekend a few weeks ago with some dear, longtime friends, Scott & Karen Williams and their kids, Morgan and Keegan. the cabin stay was a gift, in more ways than one.how awesome that this mountain getaway is only one hour away. even more awesome was that God knew that we needed the refreshment of beautiful scenery and godly friends who make us laugh. what a soul-healing combination.

our kids went wild in the snow… it was awesome seeing them climb up the sledding hill and bombing down it with wild abandon. it was a beautiful thing to see them wearing themselves out before our very eyes.

even more than the cabin, i’m grateful for longtime friends like scott & karen. everything i learned about hospitality and having an “open home” i learned from these two, who, when on high school staff would always have a napping high school kid on their couch, or kids over for dinner.they are amazing people and love God so much. we met them 12 years ago when we were all in the “married, no kids” sunday school class at cypress church. we’ve been in small groups together, camped together and chased each other’s toddlers.  they are the kind of friends who’ve been through so much with you that nothing shocks them any more. they pray with you, tell you when you’re being an idiot and remind you of God’s grace. i think its cool that they named their new yellow lab puppies, Clive and Foster, after beloved theologians. besides being an architect and part-time pastor, scott is a gourmet cook and karen, a “retired” jr. high art teacher, is an incredibly talented visual artist.

God is so good to give us friends like these and cabin weekends to hang out with them.