I'm on a role today

last night as i was laying in bed, desperately attempting to turn off my brain while failing miserablymy mind tried to grasp the different season of life. i’m only thirty-two, but i’ve had my share of highs and lows, joys and failures, bursts of happiness followed by spells of fear and loneliness, etc.  as the song goes, ‘i’m no stranger to the road.’

 

for me, the pendulum swings from feeling fulfilled to unfulfilled. those are basically my two seasons – satisfied or unsatisfied. unsatisfied often times fall under the catergory of ‘i have a bad case of the ‘can’t-help-me’s’’. you know those times? it’s the times when you’re sitting around the house – bored but knowing you have plenty to do. your heart is not satisfied in the doing – but in the expectation of something to change – especially when nothing seems to change. (i realize that’s a terrible run-on sentense with horrible grammar!) boredom and complacency go hand-in-hand with a bad case of the ‘can’t-help-me’s’. (yet i’ve been around long enough to know that each of us has power to change the complacent lives we live. we all have opportunity to spice up the normalcy and get into the unknown. but then again, too often we allow fear to hold us back.)

 

then there are those times when life seems to be sailing along beautifully. we breathe in the sunsets and feel the warmth of the sun. we look into the eyes of our kids and see joy and happiness and futures filled with passion, hope and expectation. each new day brings on a whole new opportunity to change a life, feed a hungry soul, enjoy a conversation with a friend, experience the tranformation of a stranger becoming a friend, etc.

 

right now i feel i’m at the point where the pendulum is directly at the lowest point –where it is exactly between the up and down swings. kinda like a plumbline that has found the balance of center. it’s an ok place to be. but there is an anticipation rumbling in the depths of my being. there’s a feeling of change coming – a change of my soul to seek Christ’s leading and expect some amazing break-throughs. do you feel it? what’s your soul telling you? where is your pendulum? what are you seeking?

 

what keeps me up at night? now that i’ve gotten used to sleeping next to troy, i miss him laying next to me when he’s working. my friend, Dex, who’s currently roving around Kenya for the cause of Christ. my parents are seeking new employment. a need to pray for our boys to grow up to be men of integrity and faithful followers of Jesus Christ. a beckoning to search the scriptures to know the Truth. areas in my life where i need to submit to my husband and Jesus. a realization that i’m controlling. begging God to help me overcome my tendecies to criticize. thinking about things i love about troy. concerned for some friends in tanzania. missing my life in tanzania. missing struggling with swahili/english. thinking about some bible verses. wondering how flora is doing. wanting to call troy, again. thinking about jeannie and her impact on michael and alex. wishing somehow jeannie and i could be more pliable with one another. wishing it weren’t so dramatic to pickup the kids. thinking about the episode of nanny 911, and how the nanny defused certain arguments by simply remaining calm. amazed how negative energy radiates in certain families. thinking about the verse of allowing the peace of Christ to dwell in me.  pondering how lindsay boxer will solve this mystery.

 

those are some of my thoughts before i went to bed last night.

a couple of things

a friend, michael, is doing an experiment. he’s trying to blog for 30 days in a row. check out his blog to see the changes going in it his life.

i gave troy a new gift. he’s been wanting one of these since i met him. you need to go to his blog to see what i got him. new blog i married an amazing man who is a little off with his passions. just kidding, i’m thinking this traveling andy will be good for troy. can’t wait to see where it leads.

i was little upset that the phillies won the world series last night.

Nascar Truck Race

last saturday Troy and i were given tickets to the nascar truck race at the atlanta motor speedway. here are some photos:

Troy standing near Tony Stewart's USAC (a.k.a sprint car) race car.

Ryan Newman burning out after his win.

we have a contest when it comes to racing. we each get to choose a vehicle - the one we think is going to win. i have a tendency to pick ones that crap out. this truck race was no different for me. the truck i choose, #7, not sure who the driver was, pitted to the infield after the first lap. good thing i'm not a betting person.

overall the race was quite boring, only a couple of driver cutting the grass, not major wrecks. it's not secret that i watch racing for the wrecks. we had a good time walking through the driver trailers.

highlight of the day: having dinner with my mom-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece-in-law at la parrilla.

SMHG

stone mountain highland games

 

 

still learning...

so yesterday i surprised Troy. i may have gotten the wife of the year award - that is still to be decided. (wink wink) so what was the surprise? troy's favorite driver - tony stewart - was at the home depot near my work. so yesterday during my lunch break, i went to home depot in order to stand in line for an hour to get a wristband. with the wristband, we were guaranteed a signature. then i invited troy to meet me after work because i had a surprise for him. he was a little reluctant, but being the trusting husband that he is, he went along with it.

this is the line we stood in to get the autograph.

more lines

finally after an hour and a half...

New Discoveries

so in the last couple of days i've discovered some really sweet shortcut to my google account. that makes my day. i've learned how to transfer my blog to my new google account, learned some cool stuff to do with my calendar, and how to update my blog by sending an email. guess i'm confessing in a round about way that i'm a techie junkie and thrive on learning those little shortcuts. just color me 'nerd'.

troy is gearing up for an amazing Christmas. that's about all i have to say, since he reads this blog.

i'm looking forward to shopping for the kid's gifts this year. fun times. i'm used to shopping for other people's kids, but this year they are my kids. by the way, i love having kids. it's a little different for troy and me since we get the kids every other weekend (translation: about 4 days a month). michael is getting into the tween stage with his attitude. it's crazy to see the change in him since he began middle school. alex accepted Christ last weekend, and we stoked about that. he connects so well with the other kids from our church. alex has some speaking parts in the Christmas play, and he's pretty excited about that.

Cooking and Other News

i'm not very consistent with my blogging.

facebook is a dangerous means of gathering info about my younger cousins. some of the stuff i don't want to know.

troy and i cooked some shepherd's pie last night. we made some modifications, yet it was still amazing. i am so blessed to have a husband who likes cooking and baking. i can make some killer mashed potatoes. troy makes some tasty brown gravy. let's just say it's a great combo. just throw in some steak... and viola!!!

we surprised our boss with a card this morning - it's boss's day. troy had made some brownies for the girls at work, and we told Ron that the brownies were for him. good excuse to celebrate!

i'm looking forward to spending some time with kimberly, leona, gary, cathy, jan, rick, (and whoever else) this weekend at the stone mountain highland games. i'm abandoning my family to go and hang out with my friends. i don't feel guilty. i think troy and the kids will attend the airshow in smyrna on saturday. that sounds like a good time, but i only get to see kimberly about twice a year. i love having a husband who not only is capable, but is amazingly great at being a dad.

i hope in 5 years it is this easy for me to brag on Troy.

i'm not enjoying my beth moore bible study so much.

we've been super busy at work the last couple of weeks.

in a month troy and i will be in miami for the nascar race. looking forward to some time sitting on the beach, listening to the waves. then sitting at the track, listening to the roar of the horsepower. can hardly wait!

Random Thoughts

i really like ten shekel shirt. i see they have a new cd out.

I'm also into John Waller.

something hit me on the way to work this morning. it wasn't really that profound, but it has my heart in a stir today. it's about the town where Yunis lived.

the town is called Mkata. It's about 2 hours north/northwest of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

you can click to photo to enlarge it.

anyway, you might remember me talking about Mkata. That's the place where so much witchcraft and satanic practices took place. all night long i was pestered by the drums and nightly rituals. then, early in the morning, over the loud speaker, the islamic chants would begin. the witch doctors would place this poisonous liquid on the corn leaves so that people walking by would come into contact with this liquid. the liquid would cause your skin to have first degree burns. then the people would need to go to the witch doctor to be cured, but the witch doctors would put curses on the people instead. it was like job security. it was not a very pleasant place for me. i have strong feelings for that place, but they certainly are not pleasant.

anyway, that's also the place where i visited the hospital in order to visit my classmate's son who was in a coma from malaria. the little kid's name is Prosper. the kid turned out ok, with much united prayer and the grace of Christ.

do you see a trend about the sickness coming from this town? and i have another story. my teacher from YWAM, Gemma, decided with his husband that they were called to minister in Mkata. Gemma told me that she had to be admitted to the hospital 3 times with malaria and thyphoid fever. my classmate, Maggie, contracted thyphoid fever when she was in Mkata, too. that's where i was sick for my one day.

anyway, what i'm getting at is this: i'm asking my friends and family to please cry out to God for mercy upon this place. this town in under a curse, and it is way over time for it to be broken. i know that God is desiring to accomplish great things in this little town. so please pray with me for God's saving grace to destroy the strongholds on Mkata, Tanzania.

News...

i received an email today from Gemma, my teacher when i attended YWAM in Tanzania. so told me some sad news, and truly i am broken in my heart. my eyes are trying to hold back the tears, but it's not working.

the reason for my sadness is this wonderful woman has gone home to her Maker.

this is yunis. you might remember the photo of her when i posted more than a year ago. Yunis has the most happy eyes of any one i have ever met. her eyes danced with joy. it still makes me smile when i see her in my mind's eye. she loved me from the moment we met. i hardly knew any swahili, but that did not stop yunis from talking with me. she forced me to use the little swahili which i knew. and another thing, this woman worshipped her Savior with passion. it radiated from her. Yunis and her husband Mapunda were the most gracious people. Mapunda is the guy on the left, then Japheth, then Abraham.

this is what i wrote when i was in tanzania about Yunis.

one of our projects for the second week was to help put a roof on a small church in the middle of a corn field which located about 4 miles from our base. mostly that consisted of the guys pounding nails thru small tree trunks used as the tressing. plastic bags sewn together were used as the roofing material. pastor mapunga and his wife, yunis, made a tremendous impact on my life. they were serving in a church in Dar Es Salaam when they both felt like they were being called to mkata to open a new church. that's courage, bravery and humility all mixed together. pastor has a heart to know people and to see them come to know Jesus. and Yunis's heart is so gentle, yet she possesses one of the strongest faiths which i've ever seen. she's been diagnosed with breast cancer and travels to dar es salaam ever other week for injections. they don't have a cell phone, live in a 2 room house with a tin roof, don't have a post office box or address, and are people of purpose. they are trusting God to give them members for their little church and healing for the wife's cancer. and i believe they will see the effects of these two prayer requests.

Yunis took me in and from the moment she met me, she tried to get me to speak swahili and express myself. she was patient with me when i stumbled thru my broken swahili, and she continued to speak slowly so i could attempt to understand her questions. she's the first person i've found so far who tried to speak slowly so i could understand. one can recognize that she's an amazing person by one look into her eyes; she just has a way about her that radiates light and kindness. i had opportunities to spend quite a bit of time with this couple the second and third weeks in mkata, and i've come to love them thru that time. yet i may never contact them again, since they have no means of being contacted, except personal visits.

it feels like yesterday when i wrote about Yunis.