winding down

wow. well i know, i've not been as good at this blog the last few weeks. sorry. thanks for your patience.

Christmas was last week and i must say it was fantastic! yes, the gifts were awesome, but it was great to celebrate Christ's birth with my family. i loved getting to be able to worship as a family Christmas eve and again the day after at Church.

This year as a whole has been a huge transition. New: state, church, roommates, friends, car, office, cell phone, bed, camera and house slippers.

It truly has been a unique and challenging. The greatest lesson that i have learned intimately is that God is overwhelmingly faithful for the daily things. I have been living on 100% faith financially since being in MN and as awesome as it is to walk through times of growth, it has had moments of great difficulty. I am excited to report that over the last month or so, God has pushed more and more people to partner with me financially and i am MUCH closer to my financial support goals.

What are some of the new things you've had this year?

SNOW!!!

One of the interesting things about driving on unplowed roads after about 6 inches of snow has fallen is that you get to make up your own lanes. It's strange really, but in NW Indiana, it snows that much and people just kind of stay inside, or slide into the ditch.Not here! I drove to visit my friend Christie last night to catch up on life and watch the Bears CLINCH (!) and it was almost funny to me, there was not ONE person in the ditch, I was shocked. And while some of the drive was a little slow, I just cranked the worship music and enjoyed my time in the car.
Getting to see the Bears clinch the NFC north and secure a spot in the playoffs was a satisfying moment after watching them go into almost every game as the underdog :) But as AMAZING as that was (and it was) I really enjoyed hanging out with my long lost friend Christie. Ok, so she's not really a long lost one, but when we met in Africa we became fast friends. It was fun for me to meet a friend who is in a similar life situation, single female missionary seeking God's will for daily life. It got me thinking a lot about community and the importance of it and the different stages of it that I've been in. Authentic community is something that I desperately long for, something I need as I move through life in ministry. Sometimes I've had it close by, and other times I've had it far away over the phone or skype. I prefer to have it close by but sometimes that's just not the season God has me in. I am blessed to have several friends who I consider true community, a few close by and several around the world. Thanks God for good friends.

Ode to my Co-Workers.

I have a curtain that I put over my cube opening some days when I really need to hunker down and get work done. I do take some flack for it, and not everyone likes it because its kind of crazy colors. So I came into my office today to find my Cube Curtain moved over to the bathroom along with my name plate and the Bathroom door put on my cube. It was a fantastic moment. Apparently they did it yesterday while I was out of the office and they had grand plans to do more, like move things from the inside of my cube to the bathroom. Everyone had a pretty fantastic laugh, but I'm sure they're all glad to have the bathroom door back now so they don't have to go downstairs if they need to actually use it. Thanks people I work with. I love you all a lot.

I called it...

Now listen, just cause I called it, doesn't mean I'm happy about his injury. Bret Favre went down on the third play of the game on Sunday... the THIRD play. In his three plays he was able to attempt one pass which was picked off making it 18 throw aways on the season thus far. He is three games away from his 300th start so I'm pretty sure the "interim" head coach will start him for the next three games, which I think is kind of dumb, cause any other QB in the league with 18 throw aways in 12 games leading his team to a 5-7 record would be benched especially after their backup shines so brightly... but I mean hey, its all about football politics right? My prediction when the Vikings started going downhill was that Bret Favre would get some sort of big hit on him, causing a "season ending" injury... aka injured pride and regret over coming back this season. After his 300th career start, my guess is that he'll be done. Of course with the excuse of his latest injury....

Speaking of people I love...

Life is funny. Some days, as a single woman of 26 (wow when did i get to be 26?!) I find myself feeling a little lonely. It doesn't happen that often, but it's normally when self pity and those sorts of things are battling their way in. THAT is why I have my cubicle at work decorated the way I do, namely a TON of pictures of some of my favorite people on the planet.

They say people are lucky if they have 5 REALLY good friends in their entire lifetime... in my lifetime? I've probably had a hundred. no exaggeration.

I am beyond blessed to have friends in my life that I can call at the drop of a hat and share my heart with. People that even if it's been six hours, days, weeks, months or years, I can talk and share on a level of understanding and authentic community.