The last post on this side of the ocean

From the book "Prince Caspian" from the Chroncles of Narnia series:
A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it. And then- oh Joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.

But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

"Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan," sobbed Lucy. "At last."

The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face.

"Welcome, child." he said.

In this series, Aslan the lion is supposed to be a representation of God.

When I read this part it seemed to reflect well what the Lord has been teaching me this past month as school and the move wrapped up and I began to prepare for Kenya. I feel like it's really been a reconnection with the Lord. I've had time to reflect on what's been going on over the past few months and time to look ahead to what God could be doing through this trip.

I am so thankful that the Lord has His arms wide open and says "Welcome" when His children come running. The picture is of what I look like before I remember to go running to God.

This has been a good picture in my mind too as the thought of going to Kenya is still often overwhelming. I am reassured by Him and His word and thinking about all of you guys who are back at home lifting up prayers for me. I couldn't do it without you.

I will be sending emails and updating the blog as often as I can.

I will be back August 1 to Atlanta, and then will go through our debriefing conference until August 4.

See you or talk to you all in a couple of months!

Since I was talking about remembering

Here are a few things that I found good to remember today:
-that today is May 24, 2006, and not May 25 or 26 or August 31, 2006, therefore it would be helpful for me to focus on today and not worry about tomorrow.
-that I know how to study the Bible, so in the likely event that I happen to find myself not believing truth, I am capable of spending some time in the word when I get a few minutes tonight.
-Gina has the equivalent of present day turkish delights on her desk in the form of Belgian chocolate that somebody brought back this week. She will let me have a piece for a quick pick me up.
-that God would rather not let me know the whole story of how my life will turn out because He knows I would freak out. So, I need to remember Lamentations 3:22- His mercies are new every morning. He will handle anything that comes my way today. And then He'll do it again tomorrow.
-That Eph 3:20 is so true- He does do things that are abundantly more then I could ask or imagine and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb 11:6).

Ok, I think I'm back on track now.

Edmund

I have finally gotten around to reading the Chroncles of Narnia series. I wanted something lighter and refreshing to read while I was in Kenya because reading is a big way that I relax and remove myself from the world for while.

Most of the people I know have already read them. So it's been fun telling people that I'm just starting and sharing my perspective. Everyone's so excited for me that I'm reading them.

I just started on The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe one last week. Lisa was telling me that it's better to read them in the order in which C.S. Lewis wrote them, as opposed to the actual order. So the LWW book is the second in the series, but I'm still reading it first.

I am quite intrigued by this Edmund character. He is the third oldest out of the four main human characters in the book. He stumbled upon Narnia after following his younger sister, Lucy into the Wardrobe. When he came out of the Wardrobe and into Narnia, he couldn't find Lucy right away so he started wandering around and happened upon the Witch, who is really bad news.

Throughout the conversation he has with the witch, she starts feeding him this Turkish Delight stuff. Edmund doesn't know it's enchanted, which means that anyone who eats this candy wants more and more and would keep eating it even until they died if no one stopped them. The witch makes Edmund promise something that basically means sure harm to his brothers and sisters, but in exchange, he would get to eat more turkish delight. C.S. Lewis says this about Edmund "but he still wanted to taste that Turkish Delight again more than he wanted anything else."

It made me think, what is my deepest desire? And what would I be willing to sacrifice to see that desire fullfilled? Is it really worth it?

To remember

After a refreshing sunday school lesson last Sunday, I was lying on my bed this week thinking about remembering. I know, this is sort of lame. Being able to remember is something we take for granted. It's just there. Existing. Being its helpful self. I know how to brush my teeth everyday because I remembered how from the day before. I set my alarm clock at night because I remember that I will sleep past 7:00 a.m. if I don't.

It's facinating to think of many references there are in the Bible about God reminding his people to remember. How many times in the Old Testament did God tell the Israelites that they have forgotten about the one true God, who freed them from the Egyptians in the first place?

I had roommate night with my roommate Jamie tonight. I actually had forgotten that we had decided to do this once a week so that we're actually seeing each other more then just in passing. She reminded me, fortunately, so tonight was it. We watched the movie "The Invisible Children" which is documentary about children abducted to join the rebel forces in a war going on in Northern Uganda. It was awesomely moving film. A good reminder for me too of the cultural differences and social situations of what I will be facing by going to Africa this summer.

I also stumbled across a new Psalm this week: number 77. It talked about the importance of remembering.

Someone also asked me recently how I ended up going to Berry and moving to the crazy south to begin with. It was quite fun trying to recall how I had made that decision. It was only from God because it was something I could have never thought up. And now I'm here. Nine years later. In a house I own in Georgia. Typing this blog.

My relationship with God is so much like the Israelites. I forget constantly His character and who I am as His child. I see only my circumstances of today. I fear tomorrow. But then I remember who I am. What He has done. How I am changed because of it. Oh yes, I think, that's right.

It's all worth it.

Read Psalm 77 when you get a minute.

While I was on my tour today of Georgia State with recent grad Miretta I saw...

Something you would never see in counseling school, but apparently in physical therapy school...

Soxie the Cat

Here are some pictures of my new cat Soxie. She is eight years old and I got her from a coworker who could no longer keep her because she married a guy who was allergic to cats. No, I can't change her name unfortunately. But, at least it's not like "fluffy" or something.

She's been incredibly low maintence for the most part and really friendly. She actually seems to enjoy having her belly rubbed which is pretty uncharacteristic for cats. Her favorite thing to do is to sit in the windowsils of our house because we always have the windows open. That was something we could never do at my old house because the windows were either painted shut or they didn't have screens. My complex also provides plenty of things for her to see I'm sure.

I also included a picture of the roses growing outside my door. Aren't they beautiful?

Best dam run in Georgia

A group of us ran the Best Dam Run in Georgia last Saturday- the 28th Annual Hartwell Dam run. Erica and I ran the 5K in 36 minutes which is my all time best. Several of the others did the 10K and had awesome times as well. We had such beautiful weather and it was really neat getting to run across the dam. We were super high up! Here are some photos from the race. You'll notice one picture of a car with people running all around it. That was us 5k'ers being late for the race. Apparently you had to be there so many minutes early to catch the bus that takes the 5K runners to the starting line. We missed the last bus, so they told us we would have to drive ourselves. It was three miles away and the race people just said "drive till you see the people." Well they weren't too hard to find. As we drove upon them the road was completely blocked with the line of 5k'ers ready to start. We were getting pretty close when we heard someone with a megaphone say "ready, set, go" and all the people starting running towards us! So that's a photo of our drive of shame. Once they passed we just pulled over in the grass, jumped out, and started running. Technically our start time was 8:34am.

We'll be doing it next year too because it's such a fun race!!

Today has been an awesome day!

Today I had my last final, so I am now freeeeeee from school responsibilities until August. I am so grateful for the break. I have tested my academic time limits about what I can handle, and thus the need for a major break right now.

I finished my test and then met with the president of my school who was one of my professors (Dr. Mr. Terrell) and his wife, (Dr. Mrs. Terrell) who is the dean of students. I had a couple of a questions and some feedback I wanted to give about some of my experiences thus far at the school. I couldn't have hoped for a better meeting. I left feeling very understood and they helped to resolve a couple of issues I had been having. I felt so glad that I had chosen to go to this school! What a privilege to be able to have an open conversation about things that were important to me. Plus I found out that Dr. Mrs. Terrell, is very interested in missions and has used counseling in missions many times. So we're going to meet again when I get back from Kenya, which is so exciting!

I went home and made popcorn and just watched a movie and vegged for like two hours this afternoon. It was an unbelievable experience. And a good movie- Garden State. Very thought provoking especially for a future counselor.

Then, I finally figured out how to get the internet up and working on both Jamie's and my computers. Thus, the ability to type this blog. It feels good to finally be wirelessly connected while sitting at my awesome IKEA desk in my purple room.

It has been a long four months.

But satisfying.