Summit, Enchiladas, and Roast

Many good things happened last week...so there is some catching up to do. Last week ACU held their annual "Summit". It's like a week of classes and lectures that people can come to. It's a great opportunity to catch up on new books, new ideas, meet people, be refreshed, etc. I went on Tuesday morning and helped man the Halbert Institute booth. That was fairly uneventful, but then I got to go to a lecture afterward. A gentleman who studies and writes about spiritual practices of the early church led it, and it was wonderful! I'm a brain person, I think much more than I feel. However, my spirit has felt a little dry lately, and I have seen time and time again recently how God is calling me to just physically be with him. That might sound strange, but I can't think of a better way to put it! Maybe you can comment and give me some ideas of what you think I might mean.
The team got together on Tuesday night and worked on our "strategy". We don't like that word much, because it sounds like we're planning exactly what we're going to do in Australia while we are still here, and hell or high water are going to see it through. That's not the case at all. We're working on a plan that says, "Here are some things I think I hear God telling me to do when I'm in Australia. If after so many years there is no fruit from that, I will stop and pray about what else it is that God might want me to do". Tuesday was actually a really wonderful night, because we allowed ourselves the freedom to stop thinking so big picture for a little while and say, "Okay, what really specific things do you want to do in Australia?" We got to dream big!
Enchiladas...On Friday night Deborah N. had the women of Halbert who have done church planting in the past and us women who will be moving in the future to her house for dinner. We had a blast! She made this wonderful dinner and we all ate, talked, told stories, and laughed. Those women have so many amazing stories to share, and we just got to sit and take them all in. They went to different countries at much different times than we will be, so it was good to hear about the things they faced and think about how those will be different or the same than what we will face. She is an amazing woman for investing the time and energy into allowing us all a place to come together and share life.
Roast...This Sunday the team got together again for dinner and to work on the strategy some more. You might recall a post I wrote a few months ago where I talked about how our team is growing in friendship. Sometimes that means we are awkward around each other, running out of things to say and things like that. I have to say, Sunday night was a total different group than that one in the past! It was wonderful, we were honest about things on our hearts and didn't get our feelings hurt or get uptight. We talked, laughed, and worked together to clean up the kitchen. I know we still have a long way to go, but we have moved forward in leaps and bounds! I was really encouraged by our time together.
Matt and I got turned down by another church on Sunday night, which was disappointing. Like I've said many times before though, at least they let us know their response! If you know of any churches interested in helping our family with fundraising, or are interested in helping us yourself, please comment to this post and I will be more than happy to talk with you and share more about our needs.

Fundraising...not so fun. Skype...so fun!

I've adopted a bit of a motto these days: fundraising is not fun and it does not raise your spirits. I thought the play on words was really catchy! Fundraising is very tedious, it can get you excited at the slightest smidgen of a possibility that someone will help you out, then leaves you in a whimpering mess on the floor when the smidgen is thrown to the floor and stepped on. Okay, so that's terribly dramatic, but it's kind of accurate! However, we know that God has a very cool plan behind how hard this is. I can't wait for the day when I get to write that story in my blog! That's pretty unrelated to the next set of events, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
Last weekend (over a week ago, not a few days ago) Matt and I finalized our September newsletter and got an address list together of people that we know and love from the church we attend in Abilene. Since our church will not be able to help support us on an ongoing basis, we are going to seek the ongoing support of our individual brothers and sisters there. Our list consists of about sixty-five families. Friday night I got off work and went to Wal-Mart. I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart, the produce is generally bad, the selection of different things I like is limited, and it's just a general place of chaos and commotion. I much prefer going to HEB, but I had to get a printer cartridge. Let's keep in mind that the ONLY reason I went to Wal-Mart is because I needed a printer cartridge. I made this my "big shop" of the month as we like to call it, and got a lot of food and toiletries. I got two cartons of ice cream like normal, because I can't ever decide. I also got a twelve pack of 8 oz. coca-cola, because I was going to cook a frozen pizza that night and you can't have pizza without coke. When I left Wal-Mart, it was raining pretty good. I ran out to my car and started loading it as fast as I could. The carton of cokes opened up and they fell into the trunk and onto the ground. I ran after the little can that was rolling away down the asphalt, and managed to save it before getting hit by a truck going down the aisle. One of the cans fell rather smashingly on my loaf of bread, which was sad. I conquered the mess though and got it all in the trunk. I hopped in the car and started to drive home in the rain. About three minutes from Wal-Mart I realized that I forgot the one thing that took me there...printer cartridges. Needless to say I was pretty sad, but I had the ice cream in the trunk and I hate frothy, melted ice cream! I was also a bit on the annoyed side, so I decided that I would go home, eat pizza, watch a movie, and then go to Wal-Mart after that. I must also make it clear that I pretty much refuse to go to Wal-Mart from about 8am-9pm, so that's why I couldn't just go the next morning. The chaos is even greater during normal hours. I did just that, ate the pizza and watched "Phoebe in Wonderland", it was amazingly strange. I loved it! After that, I went back up to Wal-Mart and got the ink cartridges, labels, and envelopes. Saturday morning I woke up, ready to print and stuff envelopes. I got the laptop hooked up to the printer. I guess I should mention that it was an empty printer...and there was no paper in sight. I looked in all the usual places, and found no paper. Really?!? After all the drama I did not have any paper? I decided I would just do the labels in the meantime, and print the letters later that afternoon. Apparently I live in the twilight zone, because our Avery labels would not match up with the Avery template in our computer, and I printed about three different sheets of labels before giving up on them being really messed up. Plan B or C(I've lost count by this point), just print the addresses on the envelopes. This worked like a charm, and I printed the return address on at the same time I printed the receivers' addresses on. Later that afternoon I went and got some paper, and the letters turned out really well. I got them all stuffed on Sunday and Monday, and had them in the mail on Tuesday. Talk about drama, I hope the invitations are not so crazy!
On yet another unrelated note, Matt and I used Skype for the first time last night. There is a family that has moved to Wollongong, Australia to do the same thing as us in Ipswich. They have been there about nine months. It's very interesting, their situation is just like mine and Matt's, but switched between the spouses. She was an Australian who married a U.S. citizen, and Matt is the Aussie who married me. We had the most AMAZING conversation with them for an hour! We got to ask them about visas and citizenship, culture shock, grocery shopping, friendships they're building, what they're doing with their time, how their team is working together, the list goes on and on. They asked us what books we're reading, how our team is doing, what our timeline is, etc. They got to affirm that pretty much everything Gary is teaching us about culture shock is accurate, which is both exciting and humbling. I think we'd all like to think deep down inside that we're above it, that we will be able to adjust better than people have in the past for some reason (maybe that's just my pride talking). They made it clear that no, we will not get around it! The woman also affirmed our assumptions that the person who will probably have the hardest time adjusting will be Matt, since he lived there when he was young. For the rest of us things will be new and exciting, but for him things will just be different than he knew as a child. The changes will be harder for him to take. We also got to listen to them share their frustrations, worries, and joys in a safe atmosphere. Since we're training on what they're going through, they can say things honestly without leading us to worry that they want to come back or regret what they're doing. They're just trying to get by in a world that has been turned upside down! I felt so refreshed and encouraged when we were done talking with them, I can't emphasize how amazing it was. I hope they were blessed by our conversation as well.

let's get all sudsy

I wish I was wise, really wise, "Solomon" wise. I wish I always knew the right thing to say, and just when to say it. I wish that pearls of wisdom rolled off my tongue like I was the biggest oyster in the world. There are a few things I want to be remembered for when I'm no longer on this earth, and the top two are probably being faithful to God and people, and being wise.
I guess part of that whole wanting to be wise thing stems from the fact that I'm a fixer. I'm a detail oriented, assertive, organized woman, and I want to fix things. People who fix things should generally be wise, so there you go.
Why do I bring this up? Thanks for asking, it's because I'm surrounded by people whose lives are twisted, torn, and spit out on the floor. Whether it was their decision or not, they're trapped in a world of self hurt and hurting others, and I hate it. I want to be able to say, "this is how God can heal this situation", have them listen and do the things I suggest, and be healed. That of course means that I assume I always know what God wants for people...and I don't...so that part needs a little tweaking. Anyway, I wish I was wiser so that I could help people more. I guess part of that will come with age, and a lot of it will come from asking for it from God with a humble heart. Speaking of humble heart, let's talk about bullies.
I do not like it when people assume that they are better than others. I don't like it when people make fun of the marginalized, or don't include outsiders because they "don't belong". I have never really been bullied myself, I guess I was raised to be way too confident and intimidating for that. I also think that God has given me a spirit of confidence that I could not attain on my own. However, not everyone is like that. Therefore, quit being a bully! In the Kajukembo classes I teach, respect and a humble attitude are at the top of the list of things I want to instill in my students. If you can't learn those things in a place where you're also learning to kick and punch, you're asking for trouble! I hate seeing kids who are bullies...but what I think I might hate even more is seeing adults who are bullies. If you have not grown out of making fun of people, then you have some serious issues! If the only thing that makes you feel like a decent human being is being indecent to those around you, then I really feel sorry for you. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a little playful banter among friends. However, being mean for the sake of making another person feel like less of a human being than you is sick and evil. It's time for some grown ups I know to start acting like it. It's time for me to not be the most mature person in a room when I'm surrounded by people older than me. It's time for people who say they follow Christ to start living out love toward others. It's time for me to listen to my own words, don't worry about that. It's also time for some other people to as well though. Here's my thought on it, God is the creator of all so He can love and judge perfectly. However, we as humans are not capable of the same. We are much better and judging and a lot worse at loving. Therefore God says, "Okay, you need to practice love, and you can't focus on two things at the same time. Therefore, I want you to love and not judge". Are we going to listen?