shout out to all my siestas

Can I get an AMEN! from my Siestas out there?!

I have to share a praise report today. A friend of mine is in college ministry in CA. She was hoping to do the study by Beth Moore called A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place. I recommend this study so much-- it completely changed how I view Scripture. I was able to see for the first time that the Bible is one phenomenal, perfectly planned story of redemption that began before Creation, had a big moment in the garden of Eden, climaxed at the cross, and is looking forward to its fulfillment of complete reconciliation at the end of times. So my friend was wanting to walk through this study with her college students, but the videos are very expensive, especially for a college ministry with limited resources.

So get this-- the amazing women who follow Beth Moore's blog set up a scholarship fund last year for those who are financially unable to spring for videos or conferences or the like. The wonderful ladies at Living Proof Ministries are able, through this fund, to provide my friend with the videos for next year.

So when we ask for big miracles from God, let's remember how creatively he takes care to provide for us in every moment of our lives. My verse this past month was Philippians 4:19-- "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." He is so faithful and so good. Let us never doubt.

Three Cups of Tea

I have been ever so slowly working my way through the books that have been on the right hand side of this page for an embarrassingly extended period of... ehem... months. I finally made it to the finale of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson this week. It is an eye and a heart opener. (not unlike many yoga poses I'm learning are hip openers-- ow!)

The conditions of the Middle Eastern countries are something I am grappling with from as many angles as I can get a hold of. Iran's recent elections, Afghanistan's literature, Turkey's cultural developments-- all have captivated my interest. Why? Why is a great question. Um..(I am really thinking hard about this here)... well there's a lot of reasons. This may sound corny, but I hope it doesn't. I feel an overwhelming love for those who are lost spiritually, for the suffering and hunger and displacement of those in the region, and a supernatural need to pray for Jesus to be known there.

Back to the book-- Greg Mortenson is a mountaineer that found himself lost on his way back from hiking K2 in Pakistan and landed among the Balti tribe. He promised them help when he returned to the States and bought them the materials so they could build themselves a school. That was the first. Now his organization, the Central Asia Institute (CAI), is around the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education to those who otherwise would find it inaccessible, especially girls. The book provides many dialogues about the power of education, its political and health care influences on entire nations of the underprivileged. He especially discusses how the schools are able to combat the powerful madrassas in the region that are churning out young jihadis. I encourage you to read this and grow in love with the region as I have. I believe that we have the opportunity through prayer to be a part in seeing the Kingdom come to these unreached areas.

Here are a few pictures from CAI's website of the students in the schools there. I ask that you would take the time to ponder a few things as you look at them:

1. Do the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan look, in terms of appearance, as you would expect them to?

2. Can you tell the age of the children? Do they appear similar to your own?

3. Please pray for them as you look at their faces-- that God would call them to himself, that they would grow in knowledge and understanding, and that they would be instruments of peace in their nation.

God's peace.

setting goals

Can I get an Amen! from those who are crazy overwhelmed with summer?  Isn't this supposed to be restful!  Hallelujah it is.  And yet it is not.

2 things that have been filling up my time:

1. A pitiful attempt at making some homemade bread

2. A new goal: 40 day yoga transformation project

I will get there!  I will make bread without a. forgetting to put the sugar in the water for the yeast b. burning the yeast with the coffee c. making bread that resembles more brownies than sourdough.  I will also be able to do the hurdler (a crazy yoga pose where you're squatted low, supported only by your hands and your core strength with your legs out to either side stacked on top of each other.  Sound crazy, it is!)!  

Watch out, world.  This overwhelmed girl's going to tackle the impossible schedule AND 2 ridiculous goals.  Are you with me?  What are your goals for the summer?

National Day of Prayer

This is an excerpt (the less politically laced excerpt) from the Os Hillman daily work devotional I receive via email:

"The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here'" (Zech 3:6-7).

On September 17th, 1796, George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." In His Prayer At Valley Forge, he entreated God: "Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prostrates myself before Thee."

This is not another political email.  As Derek Webb sings, "My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man, a democracy or blood.  It's to a king and a kingdom."  Please join with me in praying that God's will will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.  I pray that his kingdom will come quickly in its fullness.  And in the meantime, I pray that we will have a flag, a country, a President, a government and families that stand for the Lord that walk in his ways, that know his grace and will govern over us with a spirit of humility before the Almighty and eternal Lord God.

MUST must must read

Piggy backing off my last post, you simply MUST READ this one.  Melissa (formerly Moore) in Calcutta, India.

N.T. Wright offered a much more eloquent answer to my issues in my post from the other day.

“The cry for justice in the world, then, must be taken up and amplified by the Christian church, as the proper response to the voice of the living God.  The gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit indicate that there are ways forward…Christians should be energetic in advocating and pursuing that justice for which all human beings long and which burst upon the world, in a fresh and unexpected way, through Jesus.” (N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, 228)