It's time!

I'm packed and ready to go. It's time. Tomorrow we will have breakfast together as a family and then I will be on my way to the airport! 

I have the best family ever. All of them. My whole family, all sides, have made me feel so loved these past few months that I have been home. I am so grateful for their unconditional love and for their willingness to let me go work for The Lord in Uganda. 

I know it can't be easy to let me go to such a foreign place, but they do and they do it so gracefully and lovingly. 

Praise The Lord! 

Thank you so much for your love and supprt! It means the world to me. 

See y'all later!

A challenge

The following challenge was given in my She Reads Truth bible study. This is a challenge I am extending to us. 

"Let's take the challenge to both know the truth and to only speak the truth. Let us be women who are not easily led astray. And, because we all have influence right where we are, let's be careful to only speak the truth found in Scripture."

The challenge comes from 2 peter 2-3. 

2 peter 2-3 talks about false prophets, giving into temptation, the Lord's righteous judgement, following false teaching, sinful desires and the road to destruction that it puts you on, people questioning the truth of the bible, the faithfulness of The Lord to fulfill his promises, and what sort of people we should be while we wait for His return. 

(Whew! That's a lot. Please, stop now and take the time to go read 2 peter 2-3. It is God's word, and it helps set up the stage for the rest of this conversation.) 

2 peter 3 ends with this:

"You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:17, 18 ESV)

Knowing this beforehand. That carries weight friends. 

Knowing beforehand that people will come and their sole mission will be to lead you astray. (2 peter 2:1-3) 

Knowing beforehand that "if, after [we] have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, [we] are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for [us] than the first. For it would have been better for [us] never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to [us]." (2 Peter 2:20, 21 ESV emphasis mine.) 

Knowing beforehand that people will question the promises of God. They will question God. They will overlook his wonders in all creation and conclude that since he hasn't come back, he must not exist. (2 peter 3:3-10)

Knowing beforehand that we are called to live holy, godly lives as we await the return of Jesus. We should be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace when he returns. (2peter 3:11-15)

"You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:17, 18 ESV)

This is a call to know the word sisters. That leads us to the next point.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

What does it take to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? I would say the first logical step would have to be to read his word. We are so privileged to have The Word of God so easily accessible. Take advantage of that friends! Please don't hear condescension from me now. I am with you in this one. Sometimes at the end of the day I look back and think of all of the useless things that occupied my time and immediately regret that I didn't put down the [fill in the blank] and pick up the word. I have never closed my bible and thought to myself, "there were so many other things I could have been doing instead of reading my bible that would have been a better use of my time." I do however close Facebook, Twitter, buzzfeed, Netflix, my blog, etc. sometimes, (a lot of times) and wish I had gone to The Lord instead. 

How else can we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? Prayer. In the same way that talking to a friend pulls you closer, prayer brings us closer to The Lord. Have a hard time with this one? That's ok! Let me tell you something. Jesus already knows you. He made you. You aren't going to surprise him with what you have to say. Prayer isn't a test either. You can't fail. If you're worried about doing it wrong and want an example, check out Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus modeled prayer for us so that we didn't have to wonder if we were doing it right. It's simple really; praise God, ask for his will (his desire, plan) to be done here on earth the same way that it is done in heaven, ask him for what you need, confess your sins and ask for forgiveness, ask for help to stay away from temptation and sin. Another important part of prayer is to be still and listen. This shouldn't be just a one sided conversation. You may not always hear God speak to you then and there but I promise you will hear and see him answer your prayers if you pay attention. 

Community is another very important part of growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. Let's be to the point. If your friends are not encouraging you and speaking truth in love to you in your walk with Jesus, they are pulling you down. Fast. There is no other option. Now I'm talking about best friends right now. I'm talking about the people you live your whole life with. As believers we are called to spread the gospel to all people, and that requires making friends that do not yet know Jesus. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the people you allow to speak into your life. Those people need to be running the race with you. Community is so important. If you don't have a community of believers that you worship with and live life with, please find one. Jesus didn't do his ministry alone, the disciples didn't go at it alone, and we shouldn't either. 

Let's look back at our challenge:

"Let's take the challenge to both know the truth and to only speak the truth. Let us be women who are not easily led astray. And, because we all have influence right where we are, let's be careful to only speak the truth found in Scripture."

Can we do this? Can we use the influence we have right where we are to speak the truth found in scripture? Can we use our knowledge of Jesus to encourage and uplift others around us? I'm in! I hope you're in with me. I'll be honest, I'm going to need encouragement and reminders to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and speaking truth. I tend to get "shy" and back down from speaking truth in real life situations. No more. Help me here please. Let's be in this together. 

Are you in? Leave a comment letting me know so that I can be praying for you! 

(If you are reading this on wix please click the "original post" button to leave a comment from blogspot.) 

P.S. If you haven't heard of She Reads Truth I highly reccommend it! I read their devotionals through my YouVersion bible app.

An ode to great friends

Do you have any great friends? The kind that aren't going anywhere no matter where they go? Friends that can endure months without talking and pick up exactly where they left off? 

Great friends make miles shorter, oceans much smaller, and geography a small obstacle to overcome. They know their importance in your life, and don't need to be reminded. You remind them anyways because you can't help it!

Great friends welcome you with open arms regardless of how long it has been. They take in the details of the time passed and experience it all over again with you as if it were happening then and there. 

Great friends understand the importance of your other relationships. They encourage you to maintain and strengthen them. They are genuinely interested in them because they are important to you!

Great friends may not always know what to say, but they know who does and they always point you back to Him. 

Great friends build you up and encourage you. They pray for you. They pray with you. They lead you to the feet of The Lord and wait there with you. 

Do you have any great friends? I sincerely hope you do. 

I have some really, really great friends. I am so blessed to have great friends in both of my homes. I am blessed to have great friends that encourage me to have great friends in my other home! 

To all of my great friends, thank you. I can only hope and pray that I am as good of a friend to you as you are to me. I don't worry about our friendship while I'm away, I know it will remain and we will pick up when I return. Time may have passed, life changed, and nothing may be how we left it, but we will catch up and go on. For that I am so very thankful! 

Have any great friends? Leave a comment telling me about them! 

75% there!

I would say I'm about 75% packed! Have everything except what I will need to use or wear for the next 4 days in bags. The bags are fairly organized but have not been weighed. I have only a few more items arriving in the mail (hopefully tomorrow) and I have a couple things left to purchase. I need to get my eyebrows waxed, and a pedicure would be lovely! (Priorities people.) 

I'm at the point where I kind of don't care if I forget something. I'm just tired of making lists and checking them 5 million times. If it makes it to Uganda with me, great! If not, I won't die without it. 

I'm also ready to be out of what I have deemed the "twilight phase." The twilight phase is the part of moving or leaving somewhere and someone you love in which you are not leaving yet but you are already removed. The twilight phase doesn't always occur. If you leave on a whim there is no time for the twilight phase. If you are only visiting a place or people you love for a short time (I'm talking a few weeks) there may not be time for this phase either. If you are really, really good at being truly present at all times then I would imagine you are completely unfamiliar with this phase nor would you understand it. For the rest of us it goes something like this: 

You are no longer working but can't really pack yet because you need everything you would pack so you just sit around doing nothing watching HGTV all day because all of your friends are adults with jobs. (I'm out of breath after that run-on!)

Or you say goodbye to a friend and then run into her accidentally 5 more times around town. Or on purpose. Some goodbyes just need an extension. 

Then there is the "I have eaten SO MUCH FOOD but I'm leaving in 4 days and ice cream and Mexican food just aren't the same in Uganda. I'll take both please." Ever been tired of eating? I'm so over it. Done. With. Food. What am I saying?! I'm going to regret this in exactly 5 days. Wait for it. That post will be titled, "WHYYYYY?!?!?!" 

Get the picture? This my friends, is the twilight phase of leaving. Emotional blocks? Twilight phase. Mental blocks? Twilight phase. Oxygen blocks? Twilight phase. (That one is also just a normal side effect of leaving loved ones for extended periods of time.) I think you understand now. For me this phase is usually categorized by an inability to think clearly or process exactly what is about to happen. I don't think I'm the only one. 

Have you ever experienced this? Do you have your own name for it? I would love to hear your stories and see what you call this phase of leaving. Leave a comment below! 

Snow, shopping, and shower curtains

Apparently we should be living in a winter wonderland again tonight and tomorrow. Two weeks in a row? How lucky are we?! Not. Texas... Anyways as usual we will have freezing stuff going on today and tomorrow and be back up to 75 by Friday. 

Meanwhile I haven't started packing yet. Well, that's not true. I started... Ha. Maybe being iced in will be a good way to get me to finish packing. One can dream! 

I went shopping for Teko Brian today with my dad! He is going to be one very smart looking boy. Be excited for pictures! Very excited. 

I also would like to inform you that I now have a shower curtain and a bath rug to match it and I am SO EXCITED. The plastic things they sell in Mbale work but now I will have a REAL SHOWER CURTAIN! And it is so pretty. And bright! Coral and orange and wonderful. Little things :-)

Well now that I've given you an informative albeit useless update, I must go. I know you're sad, but don't worry. I'll be back. There are many more useless updates to come. I promise!

This is amazing because of Jesus

These shopping trips make it so real! A week from now I will be in Uganda. Wow. Talk about slight panic. Do I have everything I need? Is it all going to fit? Do I know where my passport is?! (Don't worry, I do. I think...) 

Then there is the sadness that comes along with doing something for the "last time." Seeing people at church for the "last time." Eating at my favorite restaurants for the "last time." Seeing friends for the "last time." It's all kind of sad. 

But there is also excitement. Packing clothes for my kids and knowing I'll be holding them again so soon! Packing items I'm taking back for friends and realizing we will be reunited oh so soon. Packing summer clothing and anticipating 90 degree weather in just one week! It is exciting for sure. 

This is how big change goes. Every time. Thank you Jesus for having enough grace to carry me through this. Thank you for your wonderful plans for my life! This is amazing. This sad yet exciting week is amazing because of Jesus. Thank you Lord! 

Keep praying friends! I can always use your prayers :-) 

How to survive Icepocalypse 2014 in Austin, TX

• Do not go outside!!!!!! If you must, follow the rest of my instructions carefully.

• Dry your hair. Icy hair is never good. Just do it. 

• Lots of socks. You don't actually need to be able to walk normally. Walking like a penguin > losing toes. End of story. 

• Layer Layer Layer. Wear leggings under your pants. Wear every shirt you can find. There is no shame in wearing 5 coats. You may look like a snow man but you will not feel like one. This is all that matters. 

• Do NOT try to be brave! This is Icepocalypse 2014 people! Cancel all of your plans and go into survival mode. We cannot let the tiny patches of snow/ice mix win!!!