A Letter to the Global Church from the Protestant Church in Smyrna

I received an email yesterday detailing what happened to our fellow brothers in Turkey. Please READ THIS to know how we can be praying for our brothers and sisters in Turkey and how we need to be praying for those in darkness there. I am really at a loss for words right now.

You know you're married to a redneck when...

I have been meaning to share this story for awhile now, so since I just bought 2 of these yesterday to make salsa, it reminded me to blog this.

So a couple months ago, Jason & I were in the car and the subject of our salsa came up. He was asking about which types of tomatoes I'd been using, and before I could tell him, he said, "Is it those petit-diced ones?" (the humor in his comment to be explained in a minute) I just looked at him, trying to figure out if he was serious or not, and when I gathered that he was in fact serious, I cracked up laughing. He pronounced "petite" as you would when you say "Petit Jean ham". It didn't even dawn on him that he'd said anything wrong. But me being the vocab lover pointed it out immediately, so it's become one of our running jokes, and now I can't even pronounce it right!

So next time you pick up some petit-diced tomatoes, think of my redneck husband. :-) He's quite the character.

Fishers of Men

 

 

In 4 weeks 18 of us depart for Roca Blanca. Actually, we are going to Cocalote, Oaxaca, Mexico, but the big white rock off the coast of the mission base gives this place the name "Roca Blanca". The above photos were taken last year of a young man fishing for bait as he prepares for his work catching fish. As any good fisherman knows, one must go prepared when fishing...you need some cokes, candy bars, crackers, sausage, oh, and bait/lures of course. At least, that is what it was like growing up.

Jesus has bestowed on us the gift of being "fishers of men". He has given us the bait-His word. All we have to do is prepare the bait for use by praying and reading it. The Grove Church has recently started a verse memory system called "Fighter Verses". I have found many opportunities recently to share these verses as I have been trying to memorize them. Had I not prepared the bait by knowing these verses, I may have not been ready to share God's word with these people.

Pray for our trip to Oaxaca. I look forward to sharing with you about the trip and our preparations for it.

Pet Peeve of the Day

Just for the record, thought I'd share one of my latest pet peeves (which Jason deemed blog-worthy). Let me preface this by saying that I have never been a big radio fan b/c 1) you never know what's going to be on, 2) I despise commercials & cheesy jingles, and honestly, 3) there isn't much music worth listening to on most stations. I am a station-surfer just as much as a channel-surfer: I won't settle for a mediocre song if I think there's a better one somewhere else, and could easily spend my whole car ride just station surfing.

So here's my latest radio pet peeve: cheesy Christian versions of popular country songs. Oh my gosh, as soon as I hear one, I immediately cringe and go to my next pre-programmed station. KLRC is the only Christian radio station in our area that plays these awful re-makes. Some examples of perfectly good country songs gone Christian are :

Bless the Broken Road
When I Get Where I'm Goin'
You Raise Me Up (not country, but still Josh Groban is the only one who can really sing it)

Have you heard any others??? Just curious. Now I know the words to these songs can easily relate to God and I'm sure these Christian artists are touched by the words. AND, I'm sure Christian radio stations don't have the rights to play the original songs, so their only choice is to play the cheesy Christian re-mix. So what can you do? Oh well. Guess just keep on station surfing.

Easter Announcement

Easter is a time
to celebrate new life
It helps us get in perspective
All the things that cause us strife

From the ascension of Christ
to flowers & trees in bloom
to the hatching of chicks
all points to a Higher Power, wouldn't you presume?

We thought this would be the ideal time
to tell our friends & family about the hatching of our own lil' chick
due to arrive on or around 10-10-07
Whether boy or girl, the Creator will pick.

The 1st trimester is over, thank goodness
so it is safe for you all to FINALLY know
that we are going to have a kiddo
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Happy Easter!!!

Bienvenido y Adios a Miami

Here are some pics from our most recent adventure to Miami. We spent our 1-yr anniversary celebrating the union of Ken Poon, one of J's band of brothers from med school. Although I never want to visit Miami again (due to completely insane drivers, way too many lanes on the highway, and Hispanic neighborhoods so big that even Jason & I were overwhelmed- took us over 30 minutes to find an English-speaking restaurant, even fast food. Ended up at Pollo Tropical, which ironally isn't even in English, but it sufficed.)

The wedding was right next to the beach on the lawn of a Smith & Wollensky's restaurant, apparently a world-renowned steak joint. We had our fill of filet mignon, although we regretted not ordering the prime rib b/c it was so huge that it was falling off the sides of the plate. It was funny to see the bride's reaction on her face when they put it in front of her. I think she finished most of it off, though. :-)

Below is the beautiful bride, Shing, and Dr. Poon. The wind was quite fierce during the ceremony, so it looked like Ken had a veil the whole time, too. It was still an uplifting & very God-centered ceremony, from what I could hear. Jason had the best seat in the house, being the best man & all. He was probably the only one who heard the whole ceremony.

One of my favorite memories from the trip was during the rehearsal dinner, about 30 of us were seated at a long table in this beautiful Italian restaurant, the majority of people being of Asian descent. (both Shing & Ken are from Taiwan) About 10 minutes after we all sat down somewhere, like half the group got up and switched seats (I think so Shing & Ken could sit in the middle), and I said to Jason, "Wow, a REAL Chinese fire drill!" It was quite entertaining.