looking toward tomorrow

Although we all know that none of us have been promised tomorrow - still we must prepare and be ready for whatever the Lord will allow us to participate in.

And there has rarely been a day that I've been more grateful to have behind me.

Tomorrow night will be a great night as we celebrate with all the people that volunteer at Crossroads.  Our volunteers 'are' the church and there are great, great things to come!

I hope if you're one of our amazing volunteers you will be joining us as we take steps toward new goals and new celebrations!

The celebration begins...

We arrived at 10:30 Phnom Penh time after traveling 32 hours and they were waiting with flowers and hugs and much celebration!!!  

I personally almost didn't let go of Aaron and Jocelyn... Ever !!  Such a huge blessing to see them again!  (We should have gone straight to bed - we only get about 5 hours of sleep tonight - but we talked until 1:30 am)!

Anytime we go on a mission trip bad things happen - 

As many of you know by now I found out my 45 year old brother had a massive heart attack almost the exact same time we were leaving for Cambodia.  They are continuing to keep him on a ventilator - unconscious for another day - so devastating not to be home with him and my parents.

 My nephew and his fiancé also had their baby while we were in the air... 

But when you have Godly parents they are not selfish- despite how devistated my mom was she said " you're where God wants you - go"!

And so we went - 

please keep our whole team in your prayers!  

freedom IS free

Funny how the world's version is completely opposite from God's....

As I was happily preparing for an amazing evening with friends and family - regardless of what the weather does, I was thanking the Lord that I was born in America and thanking Him for the ridiculous abundance in every sense of the word that I daily experience.   I was also thinking of the countless brave men and women who have given their lives and in some cases parts of their bodies and even their emotional health in the fight for my freedom.

Our freedom in America was definitely NOT free.  As I thought on these things I realized the exact opposite was true in Christ.  My freedom in Him was completely free TO ME.

He calls us to Him and all we have to do is accept Him.

He took care of the cost, mankind had to do nothing, in fact there is nothing we could do to earn our eternity.  He gives it.

Will we always enjoy such abundant freedom here?  I have no idea - it does feel like freedom is being challenged as never before, as if their's a slow leak dripping - seemingly unnoticed by most.

There should be no fear of this in Christ - prayer is what our response should be!   Today we just need to be fully focused on the privilege of another free day.  We should live thankful and serve Him on this beautiful, day that God has granted us!  I pray you'll have an amazing day of celebration!

chaos can be good

Our kids arrived home safely on Friday, and it was soooo good to have them home!

Our kids are back and our house is a disaster. First there were all the little (amazing) gifts that had to be pulled out of hiding in the suitcases upon arrival. This demanded that every piece of clothing be removed from every bag at once. Next we turned our focus to sorting through all the 'merch' for their band tours that begin next week. This required every bag and box storing exciting band merch be emptied at once to create displays and prices in preparation for future high dollar sales that will fund all the travel. (I have been purchasing merch while they were away!)

So how strict and critical are you with your kids, or spouse making messes? How highly do you value everything being organized at all times in your home? I am not suggesting that you allow complete free reign in your home, but do you ever allow messes? Our home is often messy, very full, and very, very musically loud. I highly treasure each mess and each note.

I had a blessed conversation today with a lady at church. She spoke of never being celebrated as a child, never! How horribly sad!!

This is what I feel messes allow, celebration! Messes allow experimentation, learning and great creativity. Messes make you feel free as if you don't have anyone looking over your shoulder, as if this time exists only for you. I think kids need to be allowed to create messes. Yes, they also need to learn how to clean up. But, how cool if their memories are that we all lived, really lived in our home. I want them to remember that there was space to create, and write, and lay stuff around while they worked on projects.

I want them to go out remembering all their little 'important' things were celebrated and that we gave them space and together we created really good chaos!