life ebbs and flows

I love the way the sun changes things. Everything looks so beautiful upon its first illumination with the rising sun. Then, in the middle of the day, everything takes on a sense of normalcy. But then, as the sun begins to set, the light changes the way those normal things look. They become something new. I just recently finished reading Donald Miller's most recent book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years ( which is a fantastic read), and he talked about our stories. Near the end of the book, while reflecting on the story of his life, he says, "...When we look back on our lives, what will we remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked to make a day stand out" (page 209). I hardly think the trip that Joseph, Erin and I took this past weekend was anything close to crazy but I know it will stand out forever, for me. When we first arrived here, in Cambodia, I remember Joseph telling us about a lady and her family that live in one of the provinces in Northern Cam...

2 whole weeks without... ...boots ...long underwear ...hats, scarves, gloves ...hot drinks ...meat ...sleeping under 5 blankets ...blowing our nose ...2 pairs of socks ...free botox ...shivering ...checking to see if have hot water...or water at all... ...slipping on icy patches ...judging the quality of the day by how grey and smoky it is ...checking to see the number of digits behind the negative sign ...icicle-y eye lashes We WARMLY welcome: fruit, sunshine and bootleg DVDs We are so excited to not only be warm for 2 weeks but also to spend time with our good friend, Joseph, who is another Mission Intern in Cambodia. Hopefully we will get to experience what life is like there. And get to enjoy some good hammock time on his porch, looking at the stars--that we haven't seen in a while. Goodbye Mongolia, Hello Cambodia! (well...we're going to detour for a campout in the Beijing airport but we'll get there eventually)

You're the God of this city You're the King of these people You're the Lord of this nation You are You're the light in this darkness You're the hope to the hopeless You're the peace to the restless You are There is no one like our God For greater things have yet to come And greater things are still to be done in this city Chris Tomlin: "God of this City" I was asked a couple of weeks ago to teach them a song in English. After much thought and prayer I kept coming back to this song. I have always liked this song but I have really come to believe it about Mongolia. These words resonate with the change that is happening in my heart. Greater things have yet to come... Teaching the song was relatively easy, they are not very confident in their English abilities, though. They tried pretty hard to get the words down. They all jotted them down in their notebooks, and many of them pulled out their flash drives so they could put the song on there (they really lo...

You know the game where you ask questions like this: "If you could go anywhere right now where would it be?" Well, my answer, without a doubt would be here: to that yard, with those girls... to the cozy gnu's room... laughing and laying in the grass... to the oh-so-hard-to-find rope swing... to enjoy the sunshine at town creek park... to sit on a porch on East Glenn enjoying the lull in between red lights when it is silent... to eat at Big Blue Bagel... to sing in that beautiful chapel on the corner of Magnolia and Gay... Auburn is quite possibly one of the greatest places that will ever exist. I got a tiny taste of what (I hope) summer will be like here the other day and it reminded me of a beautiful Auburn day. I have found that in the middle of the day, the sun shines perfectly through Erin's window in her room. The sunlight has literally brought me joy (we are a little Vitamin D deficient these days). Knowing that we have passed the Winter Solstice (thank goodnes...