The D & T days

So i haven't posted anything for a while cuz i wanted to include pictures...BUT...my computer still isn't connected to the internet after moving a month ago....so i think i'll just have to do a non-picture post. sorry. :(

yes...i've moved yet again. you can pretty much predict that i'll be moving about every year or so! since moving out of the dorm about 7 years ago i've lived in 9 different places- this being my 10th! crazy!! it's hard to imagine ever settling somewhere, although i'm sure it would be nice. i've gotten used to living in other people's space and using furniture that doesn't even belong to me. At least it's helped me simplify my own life and keep perspective on where HOME really is! CAN'T WAIT for that day...settled FOREVER!! :)

SOOoooo, at long last...here are some of my FAVORITE memories living with Dave and Trina down on 39th and Powell:

* The time it snowed about an inch or two and all of Portland closed down! We all got to stay home from work, sleep in, where PJs, and then we watched all 3 Harry Potter movies! The walk over to Blockbuster was the best cuz it brought back many memories of walking in Lithuania!

* I never knew when I'd come home and find the entire downstairs re-arranged! :)

* Can you say "amazing food"....Trina is a fabulous cook!

* The time it poured down rain in the summer...i ran down the stairs proclaiming that we should all go out in it...and Dave and Trina were the first to join me...and we all got soaked!!!

* The time we all ended up sitting on the old couch in their room, watching video clips from LT days

* new squishy carpet! :)

* Trina running away...into her room...from the little moth that dave then rescued her from!

* Conversations about the weather...really....they are CRAZY people who actually ENJOY the dark, rainy days and hide in their room with the air conditioner on WONDERFULLY SUNNY days! :) We ejoyed laughing about our differences.

* Cartoons on Saturday mornings! A simple pleasure that we each enjoyed sharing!

* Fun with the cats and enjoying their craziness together!

The list goes on, but these were some of the highlights! Thank you, Dave and Trina, for sharing your home with me. I learned so much about hospitality by living with you both. You give so much without a thought, and I've been blessed by you both!

I'm SSSssssoooooooo HAPPY!! after a year of just seeing pictures online and reading updates from Lithuania where they now live, i finally got to see them in person.... a couple friends that i love like family...JEN & PETER!! They are people that i enjoy just hanging out with...sharing the deep things or random things of life. They are people who love God deeply and reflect Him through their lives. It was SO good to get to just be with them for a couple hours....

Peter & I trying to re-enact a moment in LT

And of course a little LT reunion...complete with Kendra on the phone! good times...good memories!

I LOVE YOU JEN AND PETER

(sorry pictures are small and no title...the computer i'm using is strange...haven't quite figured it's brain out yet)

FABULOUS VACATION!!

I just got back from a week with Rachel, Ethan and the family! I won't go into detail about the wonderful moments with baby Ethan, hours in the sun in the Greens backyard paradise, tons of laughs and good talks with Rachel, seeing family, friends,...did i mention sun and swimming!! I hope the pictures aren't too much for anyone...I'm still enjoying them all so figured I'd share a bunch. the one sad thing is that Chris wasn't there...he's studying hard in Boston before they all head back to Scotland again. LOVE YOU RACHEL ..ETHAN...and everyone else down there! thanks for being you and making my vacation FABULOUS!!

oh, that i might keep this reality in focus at all moments...for now i am very much content

Do you ever just stop....i mean really stop.

...and recognize the fact that God is HERE!?!

Not watching us from a distance....

Not busy with the thousands of other concerns around the universe....

HERE.

Personal. Present. In love with you...me .

hmm....words can't express the response of my soul when i stop to just dwell on this simple truth and nothing else. it seems that this reality gives peace and rest in the midst of the chaos of the days and the world. Just GOD...the reality of just Him...Immanuel...GOD WITH US. Not just a fact that i know in my brain but a reality...YAHWEH. HERE. With ME! and ALWAYS...even when i'm NOT stopping to meditate on the reality and on Him.

GOD, I JUST LOVE YOU. Thank you for being HERE...ALWAYS...forever...whatever...I LOVE YOU.

this is what i'm sitting here thinking about tonight...while enjoying His paintings in the clouds outside of my window...far better than I could create on canvas! this is the God I trust and walk with. the One True God that I'm in love with...

"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" ~ Jesus

She Graduated!!!

I'm PROUD of Marisa!

She graduated on Thursday to get her GED
and now has a job in health care!

I LOVE YOU MARISA!!!
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

only 13 more days!!!

I SHOULD be in bed but i'm dreaming...

Here are 2 of my favorite people in the world- Rachel and Ethan!!!

I can't WAIT to see them, hug them, and just spend time with them down in Cali....AND see the rest of the fam, too, of course :)!!!
I wish you were going to be there too, Chris....I'm already bummed that we won't get to have any good theological discussions! But have fun studying!
ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT!!!
Guaranteed more pictures to come!!!

a quick little poem for a fabulous friend

I have a friend
I'll stand by til the end!
Melissa's her name
And she recently came
Back from Germany for a bit,
When she leaves again, I'll have a fit,
Cuz I love her so much
Even tho she's not Dutch :)
No, words cannot tell,
How much I love Mel,
If you know her you'll agree
We should shout from the tallest tree,
"MELISSA ROCKS, yes it's true"
It's time EVERYONE knew!

the HOT house!

The "House Of Transformation", A.K.A. the H.O.T. House, is a house for young women who are desiring to take steps toward a more healthy lifestyle. Some of them have come from living on the streets, others have come from very challenging relational situations, and most have had a very difficult family life. Over the last year or so I've come to LOVE THESE WOMEN LIKE CRAZY!!!! I've spent time just hanging out, talking, listening and sharing life together. This weekend we had a sweet time downtown at the starlight parade!

Please pray for these women, ultimately that they would come to walk closely with Jesus, TRUST Him, experience His DEEP love for them, and come to know how much healing and VICTORY He has for them! Their past journeys and the ones ahead are often full of challenges, but thank God that He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine according to His power at work within us!

Something else that's pretty great....God has provided a part time paid position for me at the house, which means I get to spend more time doing what I love...loving people...and since I get paid, I won't have spend quite as much time at my other job! I'm excited for the weeks and months ahead, to see what God has in store. I'm especially looking forward to starting a Bible read through/study with the women, and possibly whoever wants to come from the guys house....most of them don't have much knowledge of Scripture but want it. That's my passion and I'm SO looking forward to it!!!

So if you ever call...and I don't answer...I might just be kickin' it at the HOT HOUSE!!...with some great women...I hope you can meet them someday!

More pictures to come....and check out the web site for Transitional Youth if you're interested in who I'm working with and for (see link on sidebar)

enjoying the humor in differences

Here's what i'm laughing about tonight:

Last night was the first night that I've slept without my electric blanket, and tonght, as I'm debating over whether or not I should KEEP my warm flannel sheets for a while LONGER or switch to normal sheets...since i'm sure it WAS over 90 degreees today....Dave and Trina, the couple I live with, are in THEIR room desperately trying to figure out how to get their new AIR CONDITIONER to work (since their old one broke...which, by the way, they've already been using for maybe a MONTH now!!!) and dave informed me the other night that they even often sleep with the window OPEN in the middle of WINTER!!!

SOOooo.....anyway, I'm enjoying the humor and thought I'd share it!

.........I think I'll keep my flannel sheets for a bit longer....and NO, there's no way I'll be opening my window OR needing even a FAN until it's at LEAST in the 80s when I go bed!!! :)

BONUS THOUGHT: I'm counting down the days til I get to go to Cali. to see Rachel and her wonderful, beautiful baby, Ethan....and her family too, of course!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Lisa's Wedding!!

So many fun gatherings with friends lately!!! I'm loving it! Last weekend a great friend and co-worker, Lisa, got married!

Some friends from work, including my boss next to me

Meet Eric & Kisha

I'm incredibly thankful for Eric & Kisha. They've become awesome friends that i love sharing life with. I met them at church but have gotten to know them mostly through the girls house that i've been helping out with (see Transitional Youth link). They have been the "house parents" of the home for the past year there, living and loving several young women who have been transitioning from street life or difficult living situations, to a more healthy life of jobs, school and hopefully a love and relationship with God.

Kisha enjoys riding horses and is an amazing cook (i eat all of her left-overs). eric shares my dad's love for biking (motorcycle) and he also fully enjoys a good cigar....and he cooks too. Of course there is so much more to them than just these things...

I hope you'll all get to meet them someday! I'm sad they are moving a bit further away (at least not overseas like most of my other good friends-just to Beaverton), but am looking forward to continuing to kick-it with 'em in our free time....next month- STOMP!! can't wait!! ....and summer is coming, which means CAMPING!!!! oh yeah!!! and cooking over the campfire.....I'm sure i'll be posting more in the future with these guys...so now you know who they are!

Happy Mothers Day...late

Cindy and I got to go hang out with mom for mothers day weekend!
SHE IS THE ULTIMATE MOM IN ALL THE WORLD!!!
She'll tell me when something's in my teath...but she DOESN'T clean my face with her spit....THANK YOU MOM!!

She's FUN!!!!
Mom is one of my closest friends...i am Increadibly thankful for her...she's one of my favorite people to talk to!
I LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Bonus "Biker Mom" picture....and no, i don't think that's beer...she doesn't like it either!

I don't live by bread alone......And you?

I've found myself both excited and sad about the Bible lately.

EXCITED because the more I am reading it, listening to it on CD, studying it, meditating on it, and doing all of these things while asking God's Spirit to teach me and make it alive to me, the more encouraged I am. I get to know God through it, which I enjoy the most! It helps me live life...it fills my mind with truth and helps me to recognize the many lies that satan constantly tells me and us through the "world". It gives me hope when I've felt down lately. It's just SO GOOD...truly food. It gives me weapons to fight against the enemy, who lately I've just felt attacked by....

I'm just SO THANKFUL that God chose to give us a book directly from HIM...full of TRUTH! I can't imagine how life would be without it. When I get bored with it or don't feel like reading it, I find that God often asks me, "do you REALLY believe that these are MY VERY WORDS?"...i think about it and then have to answer "YES"...and then how can i NOT read it! I'm holding the VERY WORDS OF GOD...FROM HIM...ABOUT HIM!! I'm finding myself craving them more than music, and for me that is strange.

The sad thing to me about the Bible is that so many people don't value it anymore. I am consistently shocked at how many people I talk to who don't read it-speaking of believers...and many really don't seem to CARE that they don't read it. And then I see the percentage of how much of "the world" they are listening to...though music, movies, billboards, people,etc. No wonder it's SO HARD these days for people to walk in the Abundant LIFE that Jesus Promised. No wonder so many of us find ourselves defeated, stressed, frustrated, angry, selfish, rude, prideful...(kind of sounds like a verse in the Bible...pretty sad that that verse reflects us much of the time). No wonder so many don't even realize that they are missing so much that God has for them...how could they know they are missing it if they don't even know what God promised for those who walk with Him? that's extremely sad to me.

I wonder if people don't read it because they really don't think it's from God Himself? Not that they would actually consciously THINK or say that but I really believe that our ACTIONS, or lack of actions, reflect more what we believe than what we say. When I PERSONALLY stop and ask myself what I TRULY believe, and remember that I DO believe it's God's actual Word for men, then I've GOT to pick it up and spend time in it. It doesn't make sense not to...and being busy just doesn't seem to matter when I face this reality...it's GOD'S WORD for heaven's sake!!!:) WHAT?!?! That's crazy!! I think we're just so used to having a thousand Bibles around the house that we've forgotten what it really is!

I quit reading it for quite some time because I felt it had become a legalistic ritual to check off my Christian "to do" list. Now I don't just see it as the RIGHT thing to do but the SMART and wise thing to do.

I know several people who just don't know what to read, or don't like to read it cuz they don't understand it. THIS is what's making me excited about just talking more about the Bible with people, and hopefully starting a group soon to just let people ask questions that I might be able to help answer...or if I don't know, then what a great way to teach people how to study it and where to go for answers! Or maybe we'll just do a read-thru together and spur each other on as we read! ANYTHING to get people in the LIVING and ACTIVE WORDS of GOD!! THAT is exciting to me!!

I'll stop there.This just keeps coming up with people so it was on my mind.I just want to do anything to help people gain the love for God's Word that He's been putting in my heart. He's such a GREAT GOD!! I just think that lives will change as we know TRUTH as much as we know what the world says about life....as we know truth to make satan leave when he lies to us or twists the truth- like Jesus knew it!

I hope that YOU will find HIM in His Words this week...and alive in your life as He IS!!!

Psalm 119
..."Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Thy law"....