Into the West

I have been in Raleigh, North Carolina, for over a week and am anxious to be home. I love to travel and I love seeing new places, but this trip has been a bit different. I have enjoyed getting to visit so many people and get to try out a job with Campus Crusade's Regional Headquarters, but I have slept in 6 different beds in less than 2 weeks. Sunday I will be making my 9 hour trek west.

It has been a blessing to be able to take the time to check out this opportunity with Crusade and to visit so many beloved friends. Most of this week I have been staying with my college discipler Janie, her husband John and their three kids, Tate, Kensie and Sadie. Tonight I got to hang out with Sadie while the rest of the fam when swimming. After the kids went to bed, we adults had some Goodberry's Frozen Custard. Yummy stuff! I prefer the fruit mix-ins over the candy stuff. 

Last weekend I stayed with Jenn and her new husband Clyde. The previous owners of the house they bought in August had some interesting ideas in how to "add-on". But now you'd never know that there was once a wall in the middle of the living room. The parquet flooring in the upstairs bathroom is just calling out for Clyde and Jenn's magical touch (which probably involved sledgehammers, drywall tape, grout and an ailing floor scraper). I can't explain the rest but it is very impressive hearing all of the crazy things they've had to do to the house so far.

So most people seem to want to know how I'm feeling about my trip to Raleigh. Obviously it has been a great trip to get to see so many friends, but it has also been a fun time working in the office. I love Campus Crusade and the mission and am so glad to be a part of it as associate staff while living and working in Murfreesboro. The opportunity to move to Raleigh and work full-time again for CCC in the operations department is very appealing for a lot of reasons. However, my life and ministry in Murfreesboro is just as appealing so figuring out where God wants me has been difficult. Even with such a great experience at the office, I am confident that my time in Murfreesboro is not over any time soon. I have greatly missed being there and am looking forward to heading back westward. (I know that it's slightly tainted by my longing for my own bed.)

To Bring You Up To Speed

One of my oldest and dearest friends, also blogs and is much more faithful than I am. I keep joking with her that I just need to copy here entries over here for everyone to read since several pertain to me in some odd way. Mandy's link is over there on the right - "My Super Unspectacular Life". The ones that would help catch you up on my "unspectacular life" are: Greensboro's Global Village, Greater Greensboro Explanation and Foodie Friday; Six Flags in Six Hours is quite a story, too. Mandy, I hope you don't mind. I give you full credit for your great writing skills!

I'm obviously bad at blogging....

So it has been awhile since I have written anything. November and December were very busy, getting ready for holidays, two conferences: CCC regional staff conference and Encounter Winter Conference, and the visit of my Swedish friend Malin. Click HERE to see those photos. It was a fun time even in the midst of the busyness. I got to see my sister in Tampa for Thanksgiving and I am now afraid that was my last visit to see here there. She and her husband are preparing to move to Austin, TX. I am hoping that I can make some time to take a weekend trip to see her down there before she moves. I hate that the distance is such a factor. I love getting to see her but it's not often enough.

One of the big parts of Christmas was that my Swedish friend Malin came to visit for a week. It was fun to have her here. She has been studying in France this last semester so when she arrived we had this funny moment of which language to speak in: French, Swedish or English. Since I'm quite out of practice in the former two, we landed on English sprinkled with French or Swedish words. I am reminded of the importance of knowing other languages and cultures. While she was here, it was fun to show her around but also be reminded of all the things that I picked up in Sweden that is valuable. Her questioning me as to why we do things the way we do, reminds me that the American way may not always be the only way. I miss all of the mandatory recycling and composting in Sweden. I miss the simple things of daily life, riding my bike everywhere or even taking the bus, squeegee-ing the shower, the coffee and pastries (though I don't need them unless I'm biking everyday!).

For Christmas I got to decorate with a few Swedish things, my friend Pia sent me a set of figurines of Saint Lucia's parade. After Christmas, my friend Amber and I made Lucia Katter, the traditional Christmas cake in honor of Saint Lucia. And I have two paper star lanterns in my windows from Sweden.

Since Malin has been to Nashville twice before, I wanted to show her some of the things she hasn't seen. We went to the Bell Buckle Cafe for some traditional Southern American food. I took her and Amber to my hometown of Bowling Green, KY, to see the Mammoth Cave, the family farm and WKU, where I went to school. Then we had Christmas here. My parents came down and since Malin wanted to eat at the Waffle House, that was our Christmas Eve lunch! Of course, we had to go to the Opryland Hotel, too. It was fun to teach her to play Dominos and expose her to our American Christmas classics like How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the old cartoon), Miracle of 34th Street and (you can't leave out) The Christmas Story with Ralphie and his Red Rider BB gun! I grew up loving that movie, but watching it with a non-American, I was kind of embarrassed. It's a pretty shallow and crude movie and if you don't grow up in the culture, most if it isn't funny, just weird: the leg lamp, the pink rabbit pajamas, the flag pole incident, the turkey incident. Out of context, those things are just strange. 

Happily Ever After

That was the name of our church women's retreat this past weekend. Sounds too girlie for me but it was not an overnight decision to call it that. Our speaker Mary Lewise Baker speaks specifically on our identity in Christ and how we are united with Christ as believers in Him through is death, burial and resurrection, that not only does He live in us but we live in Him and are seated in Heaven as co-heirs. That took the retreat planning team down a path where scripture talks about we were once orphans, enemies of God and then we became children of God, co-heirs with Christ, daughters of the King and have the eternal hope of Happily Ever After with Him in Heaven through Christ. So there we went with a fairy tale theme.

It was one of those things that God put together. We didn't as we talked about it and how life seems to flow in chapters and the reality that we are daughters of the King, things like the design came together because a friend of mine had illustrated a children's book and already had these "fairy tale" illustrations. It came together quite unexpectedly and quite perfectly as so many people were committed to bathing it in prayer.

For a small church plant of 8 years with a little over 300 people meeting in a middle school on any given Sunday, we had over 70 women in attendance. And God showed up. It was one of those topics that either sends you toward the amazement of how big our Savior is or how big our sin is. But either way, they are both reality.

Here are some photos from the weekend: one is of me with Jenna and Mary Lewise.

Birthday Weekend and Laryngitis

I love how God loves on me through others. My birthday has been a sweet reminder of that. I got to spend my actual birthday, Friday, with my parents. It was fun to hang out with them. Dad let me drive his F-350 dualie around Murfreesboro for the afternoon and we stumbled upon a crazy huge mansion. No one I know seems to know about it. I'll have to keep asking. It's the most random thing.

Saturday was a lot of fun. I got to go out with a lot of my friends. We went to see The Secret Life of Bees based on a novel by Sue Monk Kidd. It was meant to be part of my birthday because my friend Julie loaned me the book about 4 years ago and last year when I found out they were making a movie, I decided that Julie and I had to go see it. When I returned from Sweden, I found out opening night would be my birthday, so then it was settled. The movie was very condensed compared to the book, but when you only have two hours to tell a story, that's what happens. Other than that it was great and felt true to the book. Although they did soften the ending. I enjoyed it and I think everyone else did. Lots of us were crying. So there's the warning: it's a tear jerker.

After the movie, we went out to dinner at Marina's on the square for some great Italian food. That's when I started loosing my voice but I didn't know it until I awoke the next morning barely able to talk. The worst part was that I was meeting a guy I recently met for coffee (which became tea for me) and then off to a Black and White costume party. My friend Mandy convinced me to make a concoction of hot water, lemon juice and cayenne pepper to get my voice jump started. I'm not sure I can say it remotely helped.

So now it's Wednesday and the laryngitis is starting to give way. My mom can now hear me on the phone without me feeling like I'm yelling. The laryngitis is the result of a sinus infection that has been brewing for weeks and is now full blown. I think my homeopathic remedies are starting to help. I'll have to share those crazy things another time. But through my birthday and being sick God has reminded me how loved I am by Him and by those around me (and that includes through some inappropriately hilarious greeting cards).

When The Dog Bites

I have learned the hard way how complacent I become in things. I get used to things being as they are and forget to be cautious or my passion diminishes in other things. It's like now when I clean the bathroom and end up with slight chemical burns on my hands because I was too in a hurry to use protective gloves. This time, though, last Tuesday night, to be exact, I was reminded that my sweet, mild mannered dog of 8 years, Checkers, is still really an animal that has teeth. I have grown used to him doing exactly what I say and expecting nothing but him to faithfully obey. I assumed that we had grown to trust each other. He has been known to growl at me to let me know he is not happy with something and in those situations I back off but remind him that he still has to do what I say. Nail trims have been his most hated thing and I have warned the vet techs to muzzle him just in case. I know his signals but they don't. He has gotten where he growls as he obediently comes to the bathroom for his bath. It's like he's protesting but knows he can do nothing about it. Once he's in the water, he's fine: patiently enduring bath time. Since the nail trim has been the least pleasant experience for him, my parents and I went halves on a Peticure so they also could use it on their dog Meg. Checkers has seemingly not minded it the few times we've used it in the last month. Then, Tuesday night, although he came over and cooperated in getting his first 2 nails trimmed, he apparently snapped to the detriment of my thigh. It's wasn't a warning snap in my general direction. It was a full out assault on "the hand that feeds" him. On the third snap in the direction of my squatted self, he scored when his two canines clamped down on the outer part of my left thigh just above the knee. Fortunately, I had pants on and instead of tearing the skin, I ended up with a nice scrape and a nasty, painful bruise. Needless to say, that very night, I returned home with a muzzle. He may not trust me any more and I can say I don't fully trust him. So there is my reminder that dogs are great pets but really they are still animals with teeth, even if they are really old, dirty teeth.

Back in the USA

I have officially been on US soil for over a month and thought I needed to write something to state that. So why have I not written any thing during that time, you may ask. First off, I have not had internet access at home so the blog gets pushed to the back of internet usage time. Thanks to my generous neighbors Bryan and Elizabeth, I can borrow theirs (they're the ones that keep telling me that I can use their pool anytime I want but I'm not sure about going to someone's house when they're not home). Then, we can say that July has been a crazy month with no stability and August is not turning out any better except that I have started working at my church, Fellowship Bible Church. Since I have been home I have gone through the normal unpacking a year's worth of stuff, sorting through a year's worth of mail and settling into a life that no one seems to know that you left for that long. Even I have begun to wonder if it was just another 6 week summer project to Sweden or if I dreamed the whole year. I have also spent the last month adjusting to American culture: too much stuff, too many choices (yes, the cereal isle here is insane and the bread isle is probably worse), no mandatory recycling and composting (I tried to compost for the first week I was here but then realized I didn't have anywhere to put it except with the regular trash anyway), driving my car, and loudness. Everyone asks, "Aren't you glad to be back?" Base on the previous, you can imagine that yes is not quick to roll off the tongue although I am glad to be back. Yet, I miss Sweden. I miss my Swedish friends and, of course, my Swedish bike and the bike lanes.

I have also been traveling a lot and will be until September. Mostly I have been trying to meet with my donors to get all of my support moved from Campus Crusade to FBC. But I have gotten to go to Florida to visit my sister who lives in Tampa. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean a trip to the beach. Jamie has got to be the palest Floridian down there. I have also made a trip to my old Kentucky home. I love going there to visit and I love that my parents still live on the same farm they brought me home to when I was born. For now I'm back in the Boro at my house and it's good to be back here. It's always good to come back home, wherever that may be.