Making an Invisible God Visible

It's a quote from Kay Warren's book, Dangerous Surrender (a great read).


It's Sumer's heart cry for the orphans in Ethiopia. It's my heart cry for people all around the world, even for my very own children.


We were at the beach and Stephen found a sand dollar on Shell Island. It was perfectly intact, not broken at all. It was something to be treasured. I remembered my dad finding those for me when I was a kid. They really are beautiful.


We brought the shells and the sand dollar back to the room and a certain sibling broke the sand dollar. They are delicate. Stephen was devastated to say the least and those of you that know Stephen well know that he doesn't just snap out of it quickly. As we were driving to dinner and the subject of the broken sand dollar came up yet again, I told everyone that we would just pray that we would find a sand dollar the next day. To which a frustrated Stephen said, "I've prayed about a lot of things and God doesn't answer." (Don't you just feel that way sometimes?) I prayed that we would indeed find a sand dollar the next day. As we were taking the boat to Shell Island, I was pleading with the Lord that He would answer Stephen's prayer. My cynical side thought, "it's just a sand dollar, what's the big deal? Does God really care about sand dollars?" You know what, I think He does. I think He wants to make Himself visible. I think He does it all the time and we just ignore it or pass it up as coincidence.


Within 5-10 minutes, Stephen had found a sand dollar. I was praising the Lord! He set it down by our bag, but then the bag got moved by a different sibling than the previous sand dollar fiasco. Do you know how hard it is to remember where exactly that bag was on the beach so that you can locate the sand dollar? It's hard, let me just say. We never did find that stack of shells. I started praying fervently that we would find another sand dollar and we did...we found several more and a shark tooth. You know why, because He did exceeding abudantly above all that we could ask or think. He does it all the time.


He makes Himself visible to us. Don't miss Him! And when you see Him, give Him the glory. He is worthy!


This is my centerpiece on my kitchen table. An African bowl with five sanddollars. It reminds me to pray for Africa...that they would see God for who He really is and the sand dollars remind me to praise Him that He alone is God and He hears our prayers even when we pray for a sand dollar!

Most of you know that I'm working two part time jobs and whew, it's crazy. That's a blog post for another day.

We had wanted to go to the beach, but decided to scrap it once the oil spill happened and then it seemed like it was taking forever for the oil to hit the beach, so I kept thinking maybe we can squeeze in a quick trip to the beach. My hubby is awesome and reworked his schedule so that we could get away for a few days.

We were going to go to his hometown, Pensacola Beach, but then they did find some tar balls on the beach and I just wasn't that excited about getting in the water if there was a possiblity of oil in it. And so we canceled our reservations and went to Panama City Beach.

It was beautiful and wonderful and relaxing. The sound of the ocean and the beauty of the water brings renewal and refreshment to my weary self. Eating outside breathing that fresh beach air...I love it! The white sand, oh how I love the white sand at the Gulf beaches. The water was 82 degrees warm...wonderful! The waves were fairly calm and there were very few jellyfish. I got sunburnt, we all had sand in our bathing suits when we returned to the hotel, but it's a wonderful place to be. Africa and the beach...probably my two favorite spots in the world.

I usually come home from Africa and say to Derek, "Let's just sell everything and move to Africa." On the last day of our short beach trip, I said, "Let's just sell everything and move to the beach." But the Lord is not calling us to move to either place, so we'll just be content in our sweet state of Tennessee.

Oh Happy Day!

Elizabeth and my dad were both baptized on Sunday! My dad decided a couple of years ago that he wanted to rededicate his life and he waited to get baptized with his only granddaughter. It was a very special day. I almost put a baptismal robe on and joined in on the fun! :-)

The pictures tell the story better than I could ever put into words. Thank you to PT for making it a special day for dad and Elizabeth!

Elizabeth's best friend MC stood by the baptismal with me and watched Elizabeth get baptized.


Telling everyone he loves Jesus!


And he's down...

And he almost went down a second time....Tom had to use lots of arm muscle to pull dad out of the water! :-)


Elizabeth was next. She wasn't nervous until she either saw all the people in the worship center or thought PT wasn't going to get Papa out of the water...not sure which one. I think PT could tell that she was getting nervous and didn't linger...down she went and back up again with her feet coming out of the water (she was completely immersed at one point for you sticklers!)

And what a day that will be when my Jesus we will see!! We serve an awesome God!

She Did It!

Well, life's been crazy around here. You probably thought I would never return to this blog to post anything, but I'm back at least for a few minutes.

Are We Willing?

Derek left for Nicaragua in the wee hours of the morning last Saturday. This is his fifth time (I think) to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua.

Since he's been gone....
The flood of the century happened in Nashville. This affected us in several ways. Our roof above our kitchen started leaking which leaked into the ceiling which then leaked onto the kitchen floor. Of course it did. We're now sporting some long oval water stains above our kitchen table.

Our church flooded twice both on Saturday and Sunday causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Of course it did.

Most of the roads in Spring Hill were shut down Sunday afternoon because of heavy rains. We were stranded at my parents for a little while with no way home. When we finally got home, Elizabeth decided to vomit all over the bathroom floor, wall and cabinet. She hasn't vomited since 2008. The stomach virus decided to hit while Derek was out of town. Of course....

My dad started having some chest pains and had to go into the hospital Thursday morning. They did a heart cath and inserted yet another stint. This is the second time this has happened while Derek has been in Nicaragua. One time right before I went to Africa. Three times right around missions travel. Of course....

And the fan/blower/air conditioner in our less than year old van decides to act up on the hottest week of the year. We drove home with windows down the other day and were all pretty much sweaty by the time we got home. Of course...

Now the positives of all of this. No one else got the stomach virus this week...praise the Lord. My bathroom floor is sparkling clean and sanitized.

Our church is rallying to get the worship center and children's building completely fixed. People have sacrificially given hours of time to this. It is uniting the hearts of the people.

My dad is doing great and I'm thankful for the doctor that decided to do some extra probing during the cath, because initially nothing was showing up. After going into the other artery, he found the problem.

And, I'm sure our homeowners will cover the leak in our kitchen and I'm sure our van is still under warranty.

And so, it was an unusual and hard week in so many ways. But our God is faithful and honestly as soon as Elizabeth got sick on Sunday evening I started praying fervently. For me, for the other families whose husbands were in Nicaragua doing ministry and for the men in Nicaragua who were there to tell others about Christ and to build a church. Satan wouldn't be messing with our family or all the other families, if some serious spiritual work wasn't happening in Nicaragua. Derek and I didn't talk at all this week, but I heard from some other wives' that Emmanuel in Nicaragua is a very "dark" place according to the guys. Emmanuel means "God with us". May God be with those people and the seeds that have been planted in that village. May the seeds fall on fertile ground and reap huge harvests for God's kingdom. The enemy obviously thought his territory was being threatened.

Someone said to me this week, Derek needs to stop going to Nicaragua so all these bad things don't happen while he's gone. I thought, "No way. I'd tell him to go later this year and next year and the year after that until all of Nicaragua has heard the gospel" (Thanks Sumer for the phrases in that previous sentence!) The enemy is harassing us into quitting. He's saying the price is too high. The call is too great. It's too hard, but we will not relent. We feel the need to go and tell and we'll keep going no matter the cost. The enemy has been defeated. We have the victory and the battle is the Lord.

We are willing....I hope you'll run into battle with us!! Our God is worth every pain and inconvenience. He gave it all for us!

Talking Points

Sometimes I wonder....what was I thinking??? It's 11:20 at night and I'm supposed to share in my kids' chapel tomorrow morning about Africa. The problem---my heart is so full that I don't know what to share in my 15-20 minutes and how do you make it relevant for a kindergartner and a fifth grader? I really don't know what I'm going to share. I've been praying about it all day....I just need some points--bullet points really because I'll feel much better if I have those walking into chapel tomorrow. But sometimes God gives me stuff at the very last minute....just to make me trust Him even more and so I'll probably be heading to bed soon and hoping that He gives me something at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. :-)

Or maybe I'll just use Matthew's talking points regarding Korah. These renderings are from Korah night that we had last week. I was concerned that my kids wouldn't sit still and be quiet, but they were great! Matthew even took good notes.

This is Africa. Korah is in Ethiopia, Africa.



This is the trash dump where many of the children live or come for food.


And this is how you can help.

Sponsor a kid. Letters to the kid. Pictures. Bag collapsible (buy them one). Bible Verse. Encourage them. Small goodies. Gifts, clothes. $700 (a year for boarding school). No shoes. Girls large shirts. Live in the trash. Build their faith. No candy. Miss Sumer is moving to Korah.

Matthew won't win the spelling bee, but he wins the prize in my book for having a kind and compassionate heart!!

A Bright Future and a Bright Hope

I haven't said much about my Ethiopia trip. It's funny how God works. Those of you who know me know that I love Africa...but I love Zambia, Africa and Uganda, Africa. The music, the people, their dark, dark skin, their dirty bare feet. This is the Africa that I fell in love with in 2008. This is the Africa that I would pack up and move to if we ever had the opportunity and call.

And so, I jumped on board for a trip to Africa traveling to Uganda and Ethiopia. I really knew very little about Ethiopia, but I didn't care because it was in Africa. When we arrived in Addis (capital of Ethiopia), there were so many things about it that I didn't like. It is dirty. It feels dark spiritually. Joy seems to be lacking. There are prayers being prayed over the loud speakers and they are not Christian prayers. The people look more middle Eastern, definitely not what I expected.

And so, I thought, I'd love for Derek to come back to Africa with me. I really thought we're going back to Uganda and if Ethiopia is part of the trip, that's fine. And then I found myself back in Ethiopia in March and nothing had really changed...except my heart.

I already had fallen in love with some of the guides--Yosef and Ephraim and Aki and Sammy. God connected our hearts, because I heard their stories when I was there in January and they have quite the stories! And so that's part of what made me want to go back. Oh and a sweet friend Sumer that happens to be moving there this summer.

The city was still dirty and there were still prayers over the loud speakers. But love is blind because it didn't bother me this time. The trash dump didn't smell quite as bad. The kids in the dump even though covered in filth capture your heart. The kids in a small village called Korah who probably have no hope apart from Christ are simply wonderful. The women whose lives are so incredibly difficult are so gracious and I just want to hug their necks because my life is so incredibly easy compared to theirs. I never ever ever have the right to be ungrateful. My life is so good compared to probably 99% of the world.

I love Psalm 34. Verse 8 says "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." I have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord...often! My prayer is that Korah will taste and see that the Lord is good and that they will find their refuge in Him.

The March Team (Sammy is in the middle)

Kathleen, Yosef (love him!) and me

Some of the kids from the dump. Yasen is next to me in the tan color shirt. We are sending him to boarding school....giving him a hope and a future!!

Yes, this is the dump where they live and get their food.

But joy comes in the morning and He will turn their mourning into dancing! Help is on the way to change their lives forever for God's glory!