Wonderings and Wanderings

After church, I drove a friend to the airport in St. Louis. On my way back, I headed to Columbia for an evening with my Peer Learning Group. They are an amazing group of friends and it has been a highlight of 2008 to connect with them. We came together as a group early in 2008 with a shared interest in church planting and the emergent church. We get together to have fun, to encourage one another, to not feel alone in our dreams and our frustrations, to read and discuss relevant books, and to seek God’s guidance.

It was a blessing tonight to gather for supper and also to meet the newest addition to the group – a 6 month old boy from Ethiopia. One of the couples has two youngs son and just adopted this young boy – going to Ethiopia in October to bring him home. He is adorable and sweet and so easy going.
He is amazingly blessed to be their son.

I’m back to work tomorrow after a lot of days off. Hope I can get into the routine again.

I had an email from ModWare this morning stating that they were out of stock on that particular item but that they would upgrade to a larger fire truck valued at $70 – at no extra charge to me saying,

At this time of year we do not like to disappoint our customers or their kids.

Thank you, ModWare, for excellent customer service!  This is very rare these days.

Needing something that doesn’t cost a lot of money yet gives a lot in return?

Give a $10 net in honor of someone and save a child from the life-stealing disease - Malaria.   Its that simple.  Click on the picture below and for just $10 you can send a treated net to a child in a malaria-infested area.

Net.  10 bucks.
Saving a life.  Priceless.

Tonight was the last meeting of my book club for 2008.  We didn’t read a book for tonight’s meeting but instead gathered for food, fellowship, and to plan for 2009.  Everyone was to bring two book recommendations for 2009 for the group to read.  We would all get our first choice and then we would put our second choices into a hat and draw books for the remaining months.  There are 8 of us so 4 of us were able to get our second choices in there. 

We have an excellent line-up for 2009.  I can’t remember all of the books selected at this time but here are a few I remember:

• Three Cups of Tea (my first choice)
• Outlander
• Love, Rosie
• Wuthering Heights
• Traveling Mercies
• The Glass Castle
• Nickled and Dimed
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life

I’m excited about reading this books. I’ve read Traveling Mercies and Nickled and Dimed and loved them both! I’ve read part of Eat, Pray, Love and it was good but I just wasn’t in the mood to finish it.  I will this time though.

The other book that I recommend was What is the What by Dave Eggers.  It is a New York Time’s Best Selling fictionial account of a true story of a Lost Boy of Sudan.  I haven’t read it yet but I’ve read other books along this line and find them very powerful.  So even though the group is not reading it, it is on my “To-Read” shelves in my office.  Yes, plural.  I have a lot.  Some girls buy shoes.  I buy books.

A couple of weeks ago I returned from Kenya and an amazing trip with Africa Exchange. We went to visit our partner school in Ngerenya, Kilifi, Kenya.  We had an amazing visit with the community leaders, parents, and children.  What a blessing to see in person what God is doing through this wonderful community dedicated to kingdom work in their community.  I’ll write more soon.  Please check out my pictures from the trip.

One of the tasks of our trip was to build a swingset for the children.  It was an amazing joy to help those children take their first swings – teaching them to hold on and to pump their legs to go higher.  There were smiles all around.

There are seven other centers and some of them still need their own swingsets.  Will you help out?  We only need $1,325 $1,300 to erect another swingset.  If several of us give a little bit, we can meet that goal.

Click here to give to Africa Exchange – a wonderful, mission-minded organization that is doing amazing things as they partner with Kenyans.

I’m streamlining some expenses and one of the things to go is my Typepad blog. It wasn’t much per month but it adds up. Why spend the money when I can blog just as easily for free at wordpress?

I am able to keep my domain the same and actually have a lot of design flexibility. I also can update the blog from my iPhone. Like I’m doing right now.

I recently created two new sites with wordpress for my areas of ministry at church. They look great, are easy to use and don’t cost a cent.

Check them out:
http://www.refugeonline.org
http://fbcjcmissions.wordpress.com