Two Afghani Blessings

Every year in May I find myself begrudgingly doing "nursery duty" at my church on Sunday mornings. Our church as a draft system for spots they need to fill in the nursery. They accomplish this by drafting each church member for duty for one whole month out of the year to work alongside the regular weekly paid workers and volunteers. For some reason, my month is always May. It really hasn't been too bad of a job for me, depending on the age group and the attitude of the kids during the month of May. Since my last day of nursery duty for 2005 was yesterday, I normally would be feeling quite relieved on my way home from church. However, a strange thing happened this month. I was assigned to be in the room called "Toddler 3" which is exactly what is sounds- a room for three-year-old toddlers, and the regular paid workers in that room were two Afghani women. One was named Moor___ something, and she was about 34 and single, and the other was Zha___ something and she was about 45 and single (I'm not trying to be disrespectful with the names, but they were hard for me to remember and pronounce). They were so so special. Every week they would greet me with hugs and ask me all sorts of questions from "what is a wedding shower?" to "do you have a boyfriend? Why not?" They also asked me a lot of questions about my family, and eagerly showed me pictures of theirs. Most of their family either still lives in Afghanistan or have immigrated to Canada. I think they're the only ones currently living in Atlanta. Anyways, in the process of me answering one of their questions about my family, I told them about how it has been hard for me to adjust to my "new" family that I got when my mother died almost 4 years ago. I told them that she had died and that my parents were already divorced, and my father was currently dating someone who was much younger then he was. I do like the person he is dating, but it's also hard because I look at my friends' families and although they are not perfect, they are somewhat more in line with the mainstream and they don't deal with some of the feelings and issues that have arisen in my life in the past few years. Amazingly enough these women completely understood what I was feeling. In their slightly broken English, they told me about how their father also had remarried a woman much younger, but that they did like her and after they adjusted they realized it was a good thing. As they told me their stories it dawned on me that although in my circles my family may not seem to be in the norm, but that around the world many men marry younger women and usually have more children. I have no idea why I never thought of this before. Because of their care and love for others they had helped to heal a part of my heart that was still gushing open. I left yesterday from nursery duty embraced in their hugs and words of "may God bless you" and "you are such a nice girl". Indeed an immediate blessing from God was just meeting them and watching those kids with them for a hour each Sunday in May.

The Life of Pi

I love to read and talk about the books I read. My current literary delight is "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It's a book about a boy named Pi whose father owned a zoo in Southern India, until some govermental turmoil led Pi's whole family, and many of the zoo animals, to move to Canada. In order to get there, they had to sail, and wouldn't you know it, a storm comes along and the ship sinks. I'm only about halfway through it so I'm not totally sure what happens next because the ship sinking just happened in the last chapter I read. But I do know this: that Pi survives, and so does Richard Parker, a tiger from the zoo that they were also transporting on the ship. Eventually the tiger finds his way onto Pi's lifeboat. I'm really excited to see what happens then. But here's a great quote from the book I read just the other day: "Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and you make the best of it." Pretty profound for a young guy who had to live in lifeboat with a tiger. It's a true story.

My military connection on Memorial Day weekend

Ami and Dave in Italy
Posted by: jessrings.

These are my friends, Ami and Dave. They live outside of Baumholder, Germany and they work and minister to our troops on the Baumholder military post. I got to go visit them with my roommate Jamie and my co-worker Gina last Thanksgiving. Jamie, Gina and I used to work with Ami before she and Dave got married and then moved to Germany. Dave and Ami are very special friends of mine. Please pray for them that they will continue to build relationships with the troops and that Ami would have wisdom and strength as she is in the process of starting her ministry as President of the Protestant Women's Association, which is a Christian ministry to women on Baumholder post. Happy Memorial Day!

Review- Diet Coke with Splenda

Diet Coke with Splenda
Posted by: jessrings.

A couple of weeks ago my co-worker Daniel told me to try Diet Coke with Splenda because it tasted JUST LIKE REGULAR COKE. So when I faced a daunting meeting at church this week, I decided to pull into a gas station and get me one, to sustain me, you know. It's pretty good, and I didn't get cancer.

I am not married

It is not a revelation that I am not married. But in my quest to find a suitable mate I find that as a Christian, one is most likely to be found from men I meet at church. As of today that still has not worked, and seemingly I am in the same boat as many others. Plan B is often to try online dating, such as eharmony.com, which is known as a pretty reputable site. I guess for some "reputable"' and "internet dating site" doesn't really go hand in hand. But I've heard it's worked for some. This week I was forwarded a new internet dating website. It boasts of being able to connect "reformed" singles to one another. Being reformed is a certain theology some Christians, including me, believe. However, I am not sure about this site, plus, it poses a direct slam to eharmony. That's like...going way far man. Here's the info on the site. No, I did not sign up...yet. Ask me when I'm 30.


Dean L. Scott, a member of Evangelical Reformed Church in Tacoma, Wash., started SovereignGraceSingles.com (SGS) January 2005. The purpose of SGS is to give an opportunity for single men and women committed to the Reformed faith from around the world to meet other Christians of like mind and persuasion. SGS professes itself to be in contrast to other Christian singles sites where emphasis is placed more on personality profiles than a personal walk with Christ. Share this site with your single Reformed friends: www.sovereigngracesingles.com.

The Fellowship Mobile

The Fellowship Mobile
Posted by: jessrings.

I think most of us can look back with fond memories of our first car. Mine was a 1985 Mazda 626- the "luxury" addition of it's day. It did have a sweet sunroof and power everything. Anyway, I bought that car from a place called Bob's Auto Ranch that was located on Lexington and Country Road J (I think) in Lino Lakes, MN, for a whopping $840.00. Two days after I bought it, the gas tank starting leaking and the ignition module went out. About a week later it was ready to go and I drove it all the way to Panama City Beach, FL by myself with no air conditioning and no radio. And the only side effect was my quite LARGE hair from driving with the windows down. I kept driving the car throughout college, which was when it was given the name "the fellowship mobile". Because the radio never worked, people who rode with me were forced to talk to one another. It was pretty cool, and I got used to the silence. Plus with the windows constantly being down due all the humid weather down here, it took all the energy you had to hear one another anyways.

After graduation I started making "the big bucks" at a missions organization. Oh man was I rolling in it in comparison to my $90 every two weeks paycheck I got as a student tour guide before. One of the first things I knew I had to do was get a grown up car. So I got a pretty nice 1995 Nissen Altima and been driving it ever since. I started noticing though early on in my relationship with this new car that it had a lot of similarities to the old one. Random things would go wrong with no warning. I got stranded a few times. It started to get quirky. Finally this past winter the radio began to stop working on cold mornings. When it was below 45 degrees in the morning, the radio wouldn't work when I started the car. It would on warmer ones. Then it started only working in the afternoons. Then last Monday, the radio stopped working in it's entirety. Man, I sure hope my friends are ready for this. We're about to REALLY get to know each other. Since I've told you all about my car's ghetto-ness, I've decided to post a picture of a car that is exactly the opposite of mine- fun, cool, fast, and way special. It's a 1986 Chevrolet Camero that my brother built by himself. Never mind the horrendous picture of me. Just gaze upon this fine example of pure motorized heaven.

testing o-niner niner

this is a test. it is only a test.