Christos Anesti!

Happy Easter, everyone.
And thank you to my Jesus, who has completed it all for us.

How vs. Why

I love my church. I love serving there, I love the people. I love learning about how we do church with our pastors, and how important it is for the church to do things excellently as a light in the world that brings honour to Jesus.

Danny and I get to do neat things with church all the time, and it reminds me a little of Acts 2. We decorate things...

We get eat lots of yummy things together, like crazy-choclate-y batches of Susan's brownies...

And we get to be part of an amazing group of people who want to make a difference in the world.

  

But sometimes I get the feeling that I'm getting a little task-oriented when it comes to church life. I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities I'm given to learn how it all gets put together, but I know that there's got to be a better way when I sometimes feel overwhelmed or really tired.And I finally understood why last Tuesday evening around 8pm.

Because last Tuesday at 8pm, as Danny and I were taking our friend home from sharing dinner with us, I was bequeathed with a moment of clarity. Our friend is a beautiful person. He is incredibly loving and very considerate, and he also happens to be mentally and physically disabled. He is very social, but he lives by himself, and I was struck by the possibility that his life might be very lonely for him at times. 

I HATE that. Maybe I've been focussed on the How of doing church, but I had a great big smack in the face of Why we do church in the first place. I don't want anyone to be lonely if there is no reason why they should be. I just want to be able to welcome everyone into my church family with open arms so we can love them and help them to not be lonely anymore, and show them the love of God. Because that's really why we come together at all. It doesn't matter how cool or smooth church services are, and whether or not we remain on the cutting edge of technology if people can walk through the doors and experience the incredible love and acceptance of a group of people that love and honour Jesus. I hope that I never lose sight of that again.

Assignment Time

It is ON.
Practically one a day, this week, just like the apple that the doctor prescribed.

Bibliophilia

I miss reading.
Over the Summer, I was able to get through so many amazing novels; I had so much time and free mind-space! I attacked 'The Life of Pi', 'Prodigal Summer' & 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'. I read and re-read. I frolicked through bound oceans of the written word.

And now I'm back at school for my final semester. My reading pile currently consists of volumes on evangelism, death rituals and gerontology [Those last two aren't actually related, by the way. Bible college isn't overly morbid!]. As much as I absolutely love to learn...I miss fiction. I long to take hold of 'Gullivers Travels' and anything by St Theresa, Kazuo Ishiguro or Beryl Bainbridge.

Hold on, beloved bookshelf. Just a few more months and I will return to you.

"Studying": YouTube Explorations in Procrastination

Today's disastrous, and sometimes awkwardly seedy delights;

 Oh, yeah.

Floods, Cyclones, Earthquakes, Tsunamis

It seems to be the way of 2011 thus far. And so it seems that Matthew 24 has become the hot-topic bible reference of the moment. Of these moments. Of these terrible calamities.


'Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, 5 for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. 7 Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. 8 But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.'

I can't get it out of my head.

Ode to Outside

I have a friend named Danielle. She is lovely; She has shiny princess hair, a shiny camera and is an excellent conversationalist.

 

[That's her on the right, next to her amazing talented sister, Lauren]

I have a wonderful husband named Danny Lambert. He is tall [er than me], likes to drive cars in marvellously physics-defying ways, and very sweetly endures hours of Gilmore Girls boxset-viewing with me. He also surprised me at Christmas-time with my very own shiny camera. I named her Danielle, too, in honour of my wonderful husband, the Giver; and my lovely friend, the Photographer, who treads the photographic path before me.

 

[Ok, so we're a little orange here...But I do love experimenting with Picnik]

Yesterday, I got to combine the two Danielle's with the unfamiliarity of the generally-avoided outdoors, and went on a nature walk. I saw many green things. Sort of.

Obviously, I'm not super woodsy, but I do harbour a minor penchant for chlorophyll. I even think of it every morning as I attempt to swallow my ridiculously oversized multi-vitamin. The soothing green of chlorophyll in my mind has thus-far  proved distraction enough to get pills to slide awkwardly down my throat.

Let's just say that I'm not prone to being super observant in unfamiliar environs. Overwhelmed by so much outside, most of the afternoon went a little like this:

   ME: [Half-heartedly snapping a lack-lustre picture of something in a meadow-y brown/green combo]
   DANIELLE: Oh, look, a dragonfly(/flower/cool bug/something amazing)! It's so blue/red/spider-webby/interesting)!
   ME: [Bewildered] Seriously? Where?
   DANIELLE: [Bending studiously on one-knee to take a brilliant photo of an intricate piece of The Wild]

   ME: [Lamely] Oh, right there...Huh.

Instead of the wonders of God's creation, I found interest in the relatively few items of man's creation, shoved unceremoniously amidst such glorious afternoon-y splendour.

Despite my initial aversion, however, I did find one pretty incredible piece of outside that immediately claimed my heart.

 

This tree is incredible! It was so vibrantly colourful, it practically illuminated the whole hillside with green joy. It had a swing and everything.

As much as I love, love, love spending time with my human Danielle and my new favourite tree, I am yet to be converted: I got a blister, dude. 

It's raining, it's pouring

It's been quite a while now since I've had a desktop. Since the last time this precious bundle of wires made an appearance in my life, Danny and I have moved in with our friends, we bought a new car, finished youth ministry, I started wearing my own pair of Macbeths and I rounded out the Summer of literature with only one overdue book notice.

So now I'm back to school for my last semester in a new house, with old friends, driving in a new car, wearing new shoes, taking pictures with a new camera, reading books rather than doing youth ministry in anew year and a new season. Well, ok, there are other things, LOTS of other things...but I'm kind of looking forward to just experiencing the rain outside right now, and contemplating future-catching-up. It feels nice to be back, with things to say, and no specifically pressing need to say them all at once.

Worry and Bad News

Is there anything worse than the agony of  not knowing?
I don't know if there's anything that can compete with it.

I wish I could say differently, but I'm not that great at handling not knowing things: Where we'll move when we have to pack up house really quickly and go...somewhere. How things will turn out in lots of different kind of situations. I guess I've got control issues.

But to top all of these has got to be someone telling you they've got bad news. They can't tell you right away, but there's bad news. That's it. Just bad news, coming your way. Could it sound more ominous? What do I do with that? I feel so helpless, and future-guilty; wary of all the ways that I am possibly implicated in the bad news that is yet to be unveiled.

I don't like it. I don't know what to do in the meantime. I don't want to be stuck like this, but I've yet to learn how to give over that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that occupies itself with worry in these types of situations. Yuck.

Since last Wednesday...

It's been...interesting, this last week.
I was going about a regular Saturday: rejoicing over finished papers, contemplating when I would be able to get the final one in between baby-clothes shopping with Susan, lifegroup, iceskating with youth and all of the regular Sunday things that we do. It was a full on weekend, even more so than normal because Danny was preaching on Sunday morning...until we got a phone call from our landlords. They'd found a new tenant for our little unit after a few months of searching, and wanted to know if we could move out by the following Friday. I'd totally forgotten that we'd ever even planned to move out! Our original plans fell through a while ago, so the whole moving concept came as a kind of shock to me.

So in the last two days, we've moved house. Mostly.
We're all moved out of our lovely little Notting Hill. The carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow, and all of our things are safely stored in Danny's parent's garage. And we are being stored with Rikki, Susan and BabyMicah for a couple of weeks until we find a new place to live.

Right now I'm desperately trying to finish my last paper for the semester so I can get on with exactly that: finding a new place to live! I could definitely do without anymore moving for a very, very long time.

The Ultimate Wishlist

Because it is kind of Christmas time, and I wish to feel like I'm five years old, all over again. So here it is...

The Ultimate Wishlist of Gigantic Porportion and Fantastical Notions:

• A political worldmap the size of a wall...kind of like this (p.s. Tollipop love!)

• Macbeth sneakers

• Complete Gilmore Girls & The West Wing DVD sets

 

• A lifetime supply of Moleskine Journals

 

 ...or even an engraved version

• A glue gun for adhesive excellence

• A date with Brooke Fraser

• A selection of black ink Sharpies, a Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip and a Uniball Vision Roller Fine point pen that never run dry

•  A Pug! ...but one without the inevitable halth problems that come from breeding the squishiest little bundle of cuteness ever.

•  A Moby wrap. Maybe it's a little strange, considering that we don't even have any babies...But being well-prepared never hurt anyone!

• A Canon EOS. Of any kind. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to photography, but I'd love to be able to do that with an EOS in hand(s).

 

• Lots and lots and lots of photoframes

It's a Wednesday

Today I:

• Accompanied my favourite blonde lady to get her son circumcised. It was super interesting, and Micah didn't even cry at all over it.

• Thought about my thoughts about Christmas

• Thought about my thoughts about Parachute band and my new favourite song by them, 'Living Rain'. Asking for God to reign over 'my life, my land' resonates with something in me that I didn't know was there. Asking the Holy Spirit to reside over my street? It's new to me...but kind of ties in with what I'm thinking about the mission field for Christians. We have this light, we're supposed to be shining it, and asking for God's help in that. I am needing to become more intentional with the living out of my faith, methinks.

• Watched Braveheart

• Cried over Braveheart. Repeatedly. It seems to be a growing trend.

• Waved good bye to Danny Lambert as he left on a boys night to the drifting track in honour of our friend, the upcoming groom.

• Thought about the Kingdom of God

• Ate icecream!

• Interviewed my friend Bevie about her thoughts on Pentecostal doctrine and practice

• Stuck new photos up on my kitchen wall of new babies, old friends and new ones.

When I study...

This is what Me Writing Assignments looks like:

Chaotic,

all consuming,

and not to be disturbed.

 

As much as I truly do love to learn, I feel like I am taking a very long time to learn how to be on top of the assignment-writing game. But there is still time. And there will always be something excellent and interesting to learn about!

...Until then, I have 10 days, and 2 papers left. 

Next stop: Summer Semester.

Janelle Monae

New person of interest: Janelle Monae.

 

Aside from her hair, which I think I might possibly love, I just think she's really...interesting.

Oprah

Dear Oprah,
Your stories about child neglect are just a little too heart-rending for me.