Well, I had traffic court today. Thankfully, I won't have to pay the ticket. However, I have to do 16 hours of community service, but it just so happens that I work at a homeless shelter and I don't get paid full wage so I can count my normal work hours as community service hours. Praise the Lord! The ticket was 1/2 of what I make a month.

In other news, I have 2 weeks left in OK. How crazy. My time here seems as if it has just begun and now it's all about to end.

God has really been teaching me about what it means to trust Him with everything. The car accident was a huge wake up call for me. It's so easy for me to trust Him with the small things, but when it comes to the bigger issues I have a tendency to adhere to them. Thankfully, in the midst of my inadequacies I serve a God who is perfectly adequate. I cannot succeed at this task on my own. I am, by my very own nature, a failure. My identity is in Christ and that makes up for all my imperfections. "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see and the more I sing that sweet old song the more I understand that I do not comprehend this love that's coming from Your hand"."Oh to grace how great a debtor..."

Some thought provoking quotes

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world".

C. S. Lewis

"Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription."

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

"There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of God. One either sees the powerlessness of man without God, or the strength of man with God."

Blaise Pascal

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A flower quickly fading

It’s amazing how we take so much for granted (finger pointed at me). I have really been thinking about life and just how precious it is, especially with all that has happened in the past few days and weeks (Hurricane Katrina, 4th Anniversary of the World Trade Center Attacks, and a car wreck). Nowhere does it say that we are guaranteed tomorrow. I often live as if tomorrow is certain and don’t take time to really embrace those things and people that are so amazing and right in front of me. I also act as if my circumstances are guaranteed and as we have all seen, that too can be gone in the blink of an eye. I guess we never really know how much people actually care until something happens. I should have flipped over in that car, but by God’s grace I am only sore (and the same goes for Kate). My world has been shaken, but I know that God has an ultimate plan and a lesson. I am thankful for life, friendship, love, family, etc. I guess sometimes it takes a scare to open our eyes, namely mine.

“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14

“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah” Psalm 39:5

Hard Hit

Here is a combonation of 2 emails from a friend who lives in Baton Rouge:


Hello All,
I come to you guys completely humbled and at a loss for words. A city that I have practically grown up in is completely destroyed. I have been without electricity, water and phone for three days and we are just now slowly getting those luxuries back. I watch t.v. and feel helpless and as I sit around this coffee shop this very moment people are crying, desperate, homeless, unable to find friends and family, and without anywhere to go and rebuild their lives. Guys I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and I ask that you continue to lift our state and its citizens up to our Lord. My internship is closed until further notice, so this will probably prolong my
graduation date; however in the meantime my friends and I from school have been baking sweets and bringing them to the shelters...
to lay some more prayer requests at your feet. Let me first just say that the devastation that hit New Orleans did not just affect that area, but cities all across the south. Last night I went up to a local relief center to sort clothes, serve food and just pray with the refugees. There was a lady who needed deodorant, shoes that woul fit or even just a blanket and we didnt even have that to give. Then this morning I went to wal mart to buy
some necessities to bring to another relief center and let me just say that they could not accept donations fast enough. From there I went downtown to the River Center to serve breakfast and lunch and I left with a thousand emotions dashing through my head. There are riots breaking out, looting, robberies, and law enforcement agents all over my city. I feel like a prisioner in my own home. Across from my neighborhood they are putting up a Tent City to house refugees, which I think is great; however, it is the most
dangerous of New Orleans moving in across from my home. They are even suggesting we dont walk or drive around just because. What is my hometown coming to? I feel sick to my stomach, like I could throw up at any moment, not just because of the danger but also for the 40,000 homeless visitors we gained almost over night. I could go on forever,... Oh and some of you asked what was needed, well here goes from most needed to least...Money, water, pillows, hygeine products, clothes, towels, and baby products. Please continue to pray and lift up this nightmare that I am now living in. Also, please pray for my heart. After serving today I got teary eyed and heartbroken while also being very frustrated and disturbed by some of the people. ~Becky

~There is a scene in "Hotel Rwanda" where the main character, Paul, is looking at footage of the slaughtering of the people he is trying to rescue. The video guy offers an apology for what he has captured on film. Paul then says that it is good for people in the states to know about the horrible things happening in Rwanda. The video guy responds by saying something like "they will watch it on the news and then go right on eating their dinner". Let us not be like that, ever! It is so easy for us to say "I'll pray for you" and then never do it. "Let your yes be yes and your no be no"...