the waiting game....

My lesson from (Beth Moore's) Esther this week is on waiting. When is it the right time? When is it time to wait? When is it the time right for me or someone else?? It's a great study and this is a great lesson for me. I CANNOT wait for anything-ever. I can NEVER wait for presents. Dave has never surprised me with a gift b/c I bug him so bad he caves in so I'll leave him alone. I'm not good at waiting on answers, appointments....anything. I have NO patience and struggle with the "wait and see" game.

When Dave and I were just married we were landlords of a real cute (and OLD) duplex. we had the kitchen remodeled. when we tore down the walls we found old treasures! Someone in the house must have had a drinking problem and tried to hide the whiskey bottles behind the kitchen cabinets. We found bottles from 1930 (one of them had mouse bones in it so we left that in the wall) we found a program from Grandville prom in the 50's and old cards. most of the stuff had been chewed a bit by mice (??) we kept one whiskey bottle & put the rest in a box with some of our own little memories for the next person who tears down the wall. These treasures were so fun to discover b/c they were from so long ago. If we had torn into a wall that was only a year old, we would not have found anything too unique. It would not have been the right time.

There is something I have been struggling with for a while now and God (and Dave) keep telling me to wait. BUT I DON'T WANT TO WAIT!! I'm too used to living in a world of fast food, my internet compatible cell phone, instant messaging, express lanes. Who waits for anything anymore? Lord, I need patience. I need to focus on God's timing b/c He has the best plan for me in store. It's obvious He is telling me to wait-for who or what? I'm not sure. I'm also not good with subtle so I will need the answer on a neon billboard saying "IT'S TIME!"

Ok, Lord. I'm putting this struggle in Your hands for you to open and prepare for me when we are ALL ready! I won't put it behind a wall, just in my open hand for you to take (and take care of my heart.....)

Beautiful ONE I adore, my soul belongs to YOU!

Oh Abba Father! You are so beautiful! You are the GOD who sees, the GOD who hears, the GOD who provides!! I have no words right now. I am in awe. Thank you for my beautiful family. They bring me so much love and happiness! Thank you for the beautiful sunshine! I am looking forward to going to work and playing with the beautiful flowers you create! (and the delicious tomatoes!) Right now I am here praising you for answered prayer! Thank you for answering our prayers above and beyond what we even asked for!!

My dearest friend (we have been best friends for 25 years-since the first day of kindergarten!) is a wonderful mom. She has a darling 2 1/2 year old daughter (who we have betrothed to my 2 1/2 yr old son) We have been praying for another sibling for Presley. Not only did God answer with a big o' YES-but TWINS!!!!! I am so excited for her! I can't wait to be an aunt to TWINS!! My Tuesday prayer group prayed for her for just 2 weeks before we heard the good news that she was expecting. Then another 2 weeks we prayed that the baby would look good for the ultra sound & that's when we heard this exciting news! All I can say is thank you Father! thank you for my dear friend! I love her. and thank you for these precious babes you have blessed her with! I have always believed in the power of prayer. I was amazed at how fast & abundantly our prayers were answered!

Beautiful Bangkok

Bimala and I

Bimala runs Higher Ground Cafe in Nepal. Her husband is a pastor. They hire women who are at risk to work in the bakery. When the government decides to shut off the power, the women make beautiful jewelry. She fiercely fights for the Nepali women, and she has such a big tender heart. I love her!

Jane, Ruth & I

Jane is a nurse. Ruth runs Divine Inspiration. She teaches cake decorating. She went to Nepal to teach Bimala's women how to decorate cakes before moving to Cambodia to start her ministry. Both women are form Australia and are moving to Cambodia. Ruth will teach girls how to bake & decorate cakes and Jane will teach them health issues and run a clinic for a while for at risk and rescued girls. They are both wild and sweet. I love these girls as well!

Here is Ruth giving a brief on her ministry while we were in Bangkok


Here we are praying over Bimala, Ruth & Jane before sending them to Nepal & Cambodia. This was an incredible, emotional and powerful time spent together.



Here is our group!

Dani & Liz

Liz is Dani's cousin who lives in Bangkok with her family. They work with trafficked & at risk girls. Becky says she hopes Liz will take over W.A.R. someday. She would be great at it! She is so sincere and an absolute riot! This was before the banquet we threw for the rescued women! These are such beautiful girls (who will probably break many hearts when they go to college!) I love them too!

Here I am decorating the tables for the banquet. The theme was you Are the Bride of Christ. We decorated like a wedding reception. It was absolutely beautiful!

Here was the cake & Ice Sculptures (which were melting so fast!) The cake was pretty tasty-especially after eating jelly fish & chicken feet soup & whatever else we were eating!

The decorated tables

a precious girl playing music in the market

in the market

i wanted to taste these yummy looking treats so bad but we were told we probably better not eat anything from the market

we called this the Hobby Lobby corner. It was full of craft supplies

Some TukTuks lined up down an alley

the streets of Bangkok

Holy water at the Buddhist center

This man was releasing birds-this is how their prayers are sent up to the spirits

so many elephants at the Buddhist center

here was the Buddha/Hindu god. It's kind of a mix between the two

dancers at the buddhist center and a man praying with them

This is a statue of the king on one of the sidewalks. There were pictures of the King all over the place. There is also Buddha shrines all over too where people leave flowers & food & drinks & offerings for the gods

a river boat

so many masks all over. they were so ornate but odd looking

yard workers

more of the city

here is the night market of PatPong. everything was so vulgar. The left side of the picture was the "night market" that appeals to so many tourists. This is set up in the middle of the road. On the sidewalks are the bars & brothels.

Some more of PatPong and the night market again. The yellow "menus" the girls are holding in their hands are price lists of what you would like to do with the bar girls. There are pictures and descriptions and prices on these "menus" and they shove them in your face as you walk by wanting you to buy a service or a girl

creepy lucifer "disco" it really felt like we were in hell on these streets. it was so hot, we could hardly breath b/c of the heat, the horrors we saw & the evil oppression we felt.

again the night market on the streets of PatPong.

a street vendor

a beautiful dancer on our dinner cruise

my dinner on the cruise

some beautiful buildings we saw on the dinner cruise

Beautiful Bangkok

i loved the hot pink taxis!

one of the malls

a tuk tuk

this was a god house. they hoped the spirits would live in these godhouses & hopefully not in the hotels and homes

they beleived the pointy things on the roof would poke the evil spirit's in the butt so they could not sit on their roofs very long

a little garden at our hotel

bangkok

even Ronald McDonald was proper in his bowing. my receipt from McDonalds said "McThai"

Jeannie is one of the jewlery designers for W.A.R. here she is working in the store witht he girls who own this bead store

Open Arms for Asia

This is an incredible ministry. Tom, an incredible guy from our church (http://www.crossroads-bible.org/) is running this program with his family in India. On Tuesday we are going to see Slum Dog Millionaire @ Knapps corner (tickets are $15/each.- that is the cost of the movie ticket, a bucket of popcorn & pop) all proceeds will go to Open Arms for Asia http://www.openarmsforasia.org/


"There is no one like our God! Greater things are still to come, greater things will still be done in this city....."

God is the God of Grand Rapids, Bangkok, and INDIA!!

God answered prayer

my neighborhood prayer group has been praying very specifically for the last 2 weeks and God has answered our prayers!!! We are VERY excited and thankful for this blessing.

i have been a little busier than i usually am this time of year. on top of working in the greenhouses, i have my neighborhood prayer tuesday mornings, my Esther Bible study tuesday nights, my neighborhood Bible study every other wednesday morning & on the opposite weeks i babysit at mars hill for the moms inc., i have my parenting study wednesday nights, i'm on the committee for women's retreat (which is going down this weekend!) and now i am volunteering at w.a.r.! i am excited about this b/c i can't shop or donate much right now with dave's job up in the air, but any thing i can do to help i am exited about! hopefully this summer when my schedule slows down more i can put in more hours :) this weekend was my first volunteering opportunity (stuffing 500 envelopes) and i even had eddison help-he thought it was real fun! he has such a heart for these women already & he is not even 6. his eyes always get all teary & he asks "why do people hurt these women? tell them you have a son who is 5 and he loves them." he is such a tender heart and i absolutely love him! thank you Lord for my precious boy (i pray henry will mellow out a bit too????)

thank you Father for the beautiful sunshine today, answered prayer & the heart of my 5 year old!

HOOKERS FOR JESUS

So i couldn't sleep last night & was flipping through the channels & heard "blah blah blah "hookers for Jesus". I stopped & it was some Nightline story on a former prostitute in Las Vegas. Her name is Annie. She had been convicted by the Holy Spirit, turned her life around-BUT COULD NOT FIND A CHURCH WHO WOULD ACCEPT HER! Oh how sad!

I just kept thinking about what Becky asked us in Bangkok "How would we feel if a night girl came into our church & sat in our pews? Would we accept them? How would we feel having them around our husbands?"

Annie started a "hookers for Jesus" program to reach out to girls on the strip in Vegas, invite them to church & turn their lives around. Here is a link to the story (it's kind of lengthy-sorry) but it moved me & it was so excited seeing the girls pray before outreach! What touched me most was her last comment:

For Lobert, bringing these women of the night off the street and into church is her life's calling. "They are still daughters. They are still sisters. They are human. They are real. They are not some rejected tramp or some rejected leper that can't be loved."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=7061434&page=1

We can still be Jesus' eyes here to all the people we see. They ALL need LOVE!!

Again-the story is kind of a long one, but it broke my heart to hear of the struggle Annie had to go through just to be loved and accepted.

this might make your stomach turn...

here is a bit of what we experienced in PatPong. This is wikipedia's description of the red light district http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patpong. This link talks more about the sex trafficking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Thailand. Note how it grew in popularity (visiting US soldiers) and how much $USD Thai brings in from this industry. We are as much of a problem "supporting" these businesses as the traffickers are by "selling" the girls. The description IS graphic....

It was Dave's birthady this week (love you babe) I just can't even tell anyone how much I love him. I used to be so insecure, even a little down-ok sometimes I was VERY down and no one could get me out of that funk. Then Dave came along. We have been friends my whole life (just a littel added bonus!) He makes me feel so beautiful, loved, special, needed, strong, confident. He is my best friend. I could not have come up with a better husband on my own. He is totally a gift from God. Thank you Father, for allowing my to spend my life with my best friend. He is more than I could have ever hoped for! Not only is he great, but he makes me want to be a better person & he makes me feel like a better person. Thank you!

I love this song by Newsong & Natalie Grant (when God made you)

It’s always been a mystery to me

How two hearts can come together

And love can last forever

But now that I have found you, I believe

That a miracle has come

When God sends the perfect one

Now gone are all my questions about why

And I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life

Chorus:

I wonder what God was thinking

When He created you I wonder if

He knew everything I would need

Because He made all my dreams come true

When God made you

He must have been thinking about me

I promise that wherever you may go

Wherever life may lead you

With all my heart

I’ll be there too

From this moment on

I want you to know

I’ll let nothing come between us

And I will love the ones you love

Bridge:

He made the sun He made the moon

To harmonize in perfect tune

One Can’t move without the other

They just have to be together

And that is why I know it’s true

You’re for me and I’m for you

‘Cause my world just Can’t be right

Without you in my life

Tag chorus:

He must have heard every prayer I’ve been praying

Yes He knew everything I would need

When God made you When dreams come true

When God made you He must have been thinking about me

I love you Dave!

so random..........

so i realized my header was WAY too long. i started thinking of a single word or little phrase to "name" this blog (which was ONLY going to be about my trip...but apparently i am kind of liking the bloggy word thingy for now-until summer. then we'll see...)

so i tried to come up with something cutesy & that rhymed. i could be the stoner corner (only b/c of the last name) but that just didn't seem very appropriate. then i liked the word kaleidoscope (more for the meaning) "continually changing patterns, shapes & colors". i feel that's a pretty accurate description of myself. how else do you describe sinner saved by grace, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.......? who i am usually depends on who i am with. if i'm with my family, i tend to lean on them & be the "daughter"-usually in need of some reassuring words (especially when it comes to dave's job lately-will he have one or won't he??? ever changing) when i'm with my boys i'm mother, supporter, teacher, nurse, chauffeur, housekeeper, etc...... so, i feel like a kaleidoscope :) but then i settled on adoration. not because i think i am good at it, but it's something i hope to accomplish (but usually fail) daily. "act of paying honor as to God, worship, fervent & devoted love". i'd love to say i bring glory to God in all i do. i'd love to say you can see His love through me in the smallest of things, but you probably won't when you look at me. i fail daily. i usually know a "better way" than God's way. i'm so thankful for His grace! i don't follow Him like i should. instead of leaving me face down in the dust or saying "told you so" He picks me up and carries me. so, i don't follow Him daily, He carries me daily. so adoration is something i would love to accomplish daily

on another note..i have mentioned before that i have been following a blog bring the rain (http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/) i have not read it since i have been home so was quick catching up on her posts last night. this is an incredible woman who has gone through an unimaginable tragedy. she has so many followers and so many leave comments (so many that i don't read them but i am sure they are very nice) it seems that someone was tearing her down with their comments. here is a grieving mother who started this blog that has touched so many and someone is kicking her while she is down. it was so heartbreaking. why do we do that? why do we spit out such hurtful words, and often to people who are already hurting? we had friends go through a serious accident several years ago, and while people are maybe trying to say something kind, they'd say something hurtful or stupid. i just love chuck swindoll and have had this in my Bible since i was a sr in high school:

"The longer I live, the more I
realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to
me, is more important than facts. It is more
important than the past, than education, than
money, than circumstances, than failures, than
successes, than what other people say or think or
do. It is more important than appearance,
giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a
company, a church, or home. The remarkable
thing is that we have a choice every day regarding
the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot
change our past. Nor can we change the fact that
people will act a certain way. We also cannot
change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is
play on the one string we have, and that is our
attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent
what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to
it. And so it is with you - we are in charge of our
attitudes." (From Improving Your Serve)

our true attitudes are reflected in our speech. what spills out of our mouths is what's really in our hearts. so we tend to say hurtful bitter things b/c there must be pain & bitterness somewhere in our hearts (i don't know how to relate this to saying stupid things-i often say really dumb things too) Matt 12:34 Jesus says "for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" we can look at peter. he said some really stupid things, and even denied Jesus. yet, Jesus forgave and loved him unconditionally. it still hurts when we hear cruel things.

crafts...........

i LOVE taking junk & turning it into my little treasures. actually i just love doing my own little crafts. i have a couple obsessions: glue & paint. you can make anything new with these :)

while we were in thailand, we were talking about sanctuaries. how we are sanctuaries and we need our own sanctuaries. i had taken our spare room & turned it into my own little retreat this past summer. of course it had to be the girliest room in the house since it was "mine". so i picked out a soothing color of blue (inspired by a tiffany box) and my favorite crate & barrel quilt & came up with my own little retreat. i had an old little dresser that used to be my parents and painted it a pale yellow (i really like the shabby chic looks...) plus threw in a desk we found on the side of the road for free (to hold all my craft supplies!) so, i thought i'd post a few pics of my fav crafts lately involving glue, paint & my craft/sanctuary room :)

these are my magnet boards. they're made from old cookie sheets. i screwed an empty soup can to the one board for a pen holder

my "cork board" made from a cookie sheet & wine corks

here is my mom's old dresser repainted a pale yellow

this is the desk we found on the side of the road for free. it works great to store my craft supplies and i put some of my favorite art projects from eddie under the glass top (i'd like to repaint this a fun color this summer.....maybe an orangey color??)

below is my "blessing box" it's covered w/pics of the boys & inside are index cards with verses on them (by category) that i pray over my boys.

below is my recipe box. i found this plain box @ target a few years ago and once i got into my glue phase, glued pics of the boys all over it (ones of them & food of course!) and gotta love the rub on letters!

and below i have my hand stamped charms. i was busy with these around christmas. i had alot of people order them for friends and family (these are just 2 pictures, but i also have star charms that i put initials on & copper charms & all different shapes & sizes in silver & copper) i've kinda burned myself out on these though and haven't been making as much. i enjoy it once in a while, but usually i get too gung ho into a craft & do it so much i get sick of it (unless it involves glue!!)

so....these are my fun things i like to do in my little sanctuary & a few pics of my sanctuary :) i know, these have nothing to do with my trip or anything, but thought i'd share anyway (plus i've had crafts on my mind since i am in charge for our women's retreat coming up....)

hope everyone is enjoying the gorgeous SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!