Stormy Night

I have this crazy friend who it seems almost every time I am around him, I do something dangerous. Not on purpose, it just happens! :) Yesterday, I drove down to Ft. Worth/Dallas for church. Sunday morning I was in Irving to go to church where a missionary family to Mexico was visiting. I wanted to meet them face to face. It was good to finally see them. I spent the afternoon in Dallas at a mall; did a little bit of shopping and then watched my home church's service online. (yay for livestream!)

That evening, I headed over to north Dallas to see my wonderful friends the Cofers. They were at one of their supporting churches and I always love to go see them.... even though dangerous things happen! The service was wonderful; Mickey preached an excellent sermon about missions. We hung around a bit after church talking and then migrated to the door to leave.... this is where it gets good.... :) I had overheard someone say it was raining. Cool. I like rain. and then I opened the door to outside. Uh, that wasn't rain, it was a flood! it was raining buckets of water, the wind was whipping around, lightning was flashing, thunder roaring and water was running across the parking lot. Jaaz and I ran across the parking lot to my car. By the time we got in, we were literally soaked to the bone. I pulled up behind Mickey. We were going to a church member's house for supper. There was four cars following each other. Which I hate following people after dark. I was the last in the line and Mickey was in front of me. Off we go.... 

The two boys were with me, all cold and soaked. There was a tree down across one of the lanes at one point, which I had to swerve to miss. Mind you, its dark, except for the flashes of lightning, some of the streetlights were going on and off, the rain was hitting my car so hard I thought it was going to dent my car, my windshield wipers were going as fast as they could and I was still having a hard time seeing out the window. And I was scared of hydroplaning. And then Mickey's van stalls out twice, so we get farther and farther behind the lead vehicles. Now we don't really know where we are going. I call Trina.... Mickey answered. He had the phone, not Trina. Well that does us no good. Thankfully the guy who's house we were going to called Jonah's phone. yay, we're going to get directions! Ok, off we go again... I'm following Mickey.... left hand turn... oh no! we didn't turn far enough and we are in the turn lane for the oncoming traffic and there is a median between us and the lane we need to be in. Cars are coming... quick turn into a parking lot across oncoming traffic! Turned around again and 2nd try.... ok, made it into the right lane. yay! Made it safely to the people's house, dash out of the car and run up the sidewalk to the door... yep soaked again. whew. At least we had hot soup to meet us there. 

 By this time it was late and I didn't know where all the storm was or how long it would last. So ended up staying with the Cofers in their hotel room. One of these days, I am going to learn to keep an overnight bag in my car for emergencies. This morning, got up at 545 to drive back to school in time for classes. yep, I was a bit tired today. :) 

Even though it was a scary drive last night following Mickey, I'm glad I went. I love the Cofer family. They have truly become like family to me. Love them!  

Lightning!

"The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook." (Psalm 77:18)

"His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled." (Psalm 97:4)

I have always loved thunder and lightning. In Alaska, I don't get to see it all that much, not where I live in the Interior. So, when it begins to shower lightning from the sky, I always try to watch. Seeing the magnificent light display in the sky reminds every time of my Lord. He is the One who makes the lightning. To me, it is a symbol of His great power.

This evening, I was outside talking with a friend on the phone, when I noticed the night sky was being lit up every 5-10 seconds. I continued to watch for quite some time. It was far enough away that I couldn't hear any thunder, just saw the lightning.

After a while, my roommate and I decided to go for a little drive. We drove to the other side of town and parked in a large, empty parking lot and sat on my car just watching the sky continue to shine. It was amazing!! The dark, black, cloudy sky would become brilliantly light with just a streak of lightning. Impressive!! I think we sat outside for about an hour just watching God at work.

"And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:" (Matthew 28:2,3)

 Finally we came home and eventually went to bed.... only to get back up later because the storm had moved directly over us. We got up and watched through our livingroom window at more of God's awesome display in the sky. We stayed up till past 1am (I'm still up) watching the amazing lightning. I love lightning! 

and now I love it even more since I read this verse. 

"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)

Just think one day when Jesus comes in the clouds to take us blood bought believers home to heaven, it will be like the lightning, the entire sky will be lit up! Everyone will know He came for us. I can't wait!!!

The Need is Still Great

I was recently sent this poem written by a single missionary. She was at my church back home and though I wasn't there to meet her, her poem was a blessing to me and I hope it will be to you as well. 

The Call

You sat there, in the service.

The message broke your heart.

And deep within, you felt a glow,

A fire, begin to start.

You went up to the altar.

And tears were in your eyes

As you gave your life to do your part

To answer their pleading cries.

And for a time, that vision

Of a dark and dying world

Spurred you on to action

With you banner clear, unfurled.

And then—

The vision slowly faded

To a lifeless painting, gray

And not so nice to look at

Every passing day

The cry of souls grew dimmer.

And your heart no longer broke,

For that pledge you made was hindered

As you stayed still when God spoke.

And yet,

God is still there, calling,

Asking, “Who will go?”

Now, friend, will you answer

To that call, heard long ago?

Or will you wait until the flames

That burn within your soul

Die down again? Will you look away

And lose sight of your goal?

Take heart, dear Christian, follow Him

And let your blaze burn bright,

To see the need around you

In this blackest time of night.

And so—

Now you sit here, reading.

Again, you hear that call.

Again, you hear the Spirit beg

For you to give your all.

A choice is set before you.

Will you stay, or go?

“Has He called me?” you question.

Ask Him. You will know.

still hot!

 Its still HOT every day! Each day gets over 100 degrees, which is hard for this Alaskan to endure. I have survived so far, but some days I really feel worn out and exhausted from battling the heat. They tell me it doesn't last forever. One lady told me the other day at church, that they even seen 20 degree weather in the winter. That sounds wonderful! :) 

Classes are moving forward. We are learning a lot of new things in Phonetics. Some are easy for me and some not so easy. I have a hard time with learning different tones and saying them. The actual sounds are easier for me to produce. Hopefully with more practice, I'll get the hang of it. 

Culture class has been informative. One can not stress enough that a missionary needs to know much of the culture before 'forcing' new beliefs on the people. We read one story about a tribe in South America..... after a man's wife had a baby, he would lounge in his hammock for several days. The missionary kept pestering him, telling him he was lazy and needed to get to work. All the man would explain was that his wife had just a baby so he was staying in the hammock. He would lay there all day. After several days of the missionary bothering him about it, the man got up and went back to work. Later that week, the missionary heard that the mother of the new baby had killed her child. Appalled, he asked the villagers why she did so. It was a custom of their culture for the husband/father of the child to remain in his hammock for x amount of days after his wife had the baby - this signified it was his child. By getting up before the number of days was fulfilled, he was telling everyone it was not his child, though it really was. Rather than live with the shame of an illegitimate child, the mother killed the baby. This missionary did not try to learn the culture before trying to 'correct' it. Remember you may have the Truth of the Gospel, but they have a culture and way of life... you may be doing more harm than good, by simply coming in and sharing your culture/beliefs before first studying theirs.

For those of you who are curious about my living arrangements, here are a few pictures. I live on the right side of the duplex with another girl, Nicole. We have a nice little 3 bedroom place. We get along really well, which is a blessing, since we'll be living together for the next 9 months. :)