Prayed Up

We got commissioned this morning, then TRU prayed for us tonight.  Two days of work and TRU Connect group and off we go!

I love TRU church at our house!  

Are You Ready?

Are you ready to go with me to Cambodia?  Remember, you are going with me!  I will feel your prayers and blog with pictures so that you can experience it with me.  Not everyone can pick up and go but it takes a team to go on a trip.  I couldn't do it without the support of each of you.  At this moment, we leave in 3 days!

It is Saturday.  I am excited.  The nerves are going away as the details are getting taken care of.  Not really nerves, just a preoccupied mind.  I purposefully left this weekend free so I could pack and relax and get ready.  I say free, however, I am spending much of today with Adelle, helping her Mom fill out the fafsa, get commissioned at both services tomorrow, TRU Sunday school, a haircut, and TRU church here tomorrow night with 40 or so people:).  But I did spend last night snoozing on the couch in my grubby clothes after a great workout and had a good night sleep.  My to do list is steadily getting knocked out.

And the packing is almost done other than last minute things.

So get excited!  It'll be time to leave very soon!

This Week

Monday He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together.  

Tuesday Love does no harm to a neighbor.  I had a really hard day at work.  I did so much social work I was worn out before 10am.  Crying people, mean people, an angry parent who fried me in a meeting, a lecture from a psychiatrist.....  Super hard day.  Then a lovely meal and Bible study with TRU Connect family.  And a half inch of snow.

Wednesday morning I needed an attitude adjustment and God gave me Phil 4:8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  I reviewed all that is true and noble and right....in my life.  It really helped.  

On Wednesday night and Thursday morning I struggled with a huge lack of motivation and enthusiasm.  God said Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for The Lord, and not for human masters.... And my Bible study lesson was about God's plans and not our own.  Our plans will fail. It is God who does the work.  I really needed that for Homestead.

Thursday God also showed me that I am not as busy as I think I am.  I wanted to meet with Deb, needed to, but when I look at my calendar, I couldn't see when it could happen.  As soon as God showed me that, a clear and perfect time to meet opened up and we spent two hours together praying and talking about the trip and some tough Homestead stuff.  

On Friday morning God helped me get some perspective on some tough Homestead decisions.  I was my normal, peppy self.

I have been emptied and filled every day this week and was able to allow God to do so many great things for people through me.  I was able to model Christ in unique Diane fashion this week.  Thank you, Jesus.

Cambodia

We leave in 13 days!  It is really starting to hit me, we are doing this!

Prayer requests are for final preparations, packing, sustained health, Spiritual protection.

Deb and I met tonight to discuss some of the above.  We are excited and expectant about this trip.  We know that our hopes are to bless Angela and to encourage her, learn from her, pray for her and for the staff and the girls, carry her prayer requests back with us, bless her, but beyond that, God has not yet revealed to us.  But we trust Him and we know that this trip is His, He has orchestrated this and He will use us mightily in is to accomplish His purpose.  We know we will also be be changed.  We know that He will also bless everyone who is supporting us through their finances and prayers.

Excitement!  Yes, a little nervous too, but lots of trust and expectancy.

God is so Good

Two weeks ago I blogged about trusting God with all the many things going on in my life.  I included verses about casting anxiety on God.  I called the entry Good Stress and Prayer.

The next day at Sunday school, Pastor Dave talked to us about starting a revival in each of us.  He had us raise our hands, mostly, I think to get people out of our comfort zones.  He said it wasn't really about raising our hands, but about full surrender to God.  He went on to use a visual of a person who puts their hands partway up or putting only one hand up.  I started just sobbing as I realized that's me!   I trust God, but I hang onto the things that I am supposedly trusting Him for.  I was just wrecked.  How many times do I need to learn this lesson before I stop doing this?  That night, my TRU group laid hands on me and prayed for me.

The following Tuesday, as I was helping some TRU friends through a crisis and waiting for one to give him a ride, I read something in a Christian magazine that said to truly pray powerfully, we need to stop telling God how big our problems are and start telling our problems how big our God is.  Wow, that really resonated with me.  Telling God how big problems are is exactly how I pray.

Last night as I did the lesson to prepare for our TRU connection group, I was reading about Moses.  The lesson said that God revealed His holiness, His power, His name, and His purpose to keep His promises to Moses.  Moses had to come to a place where he believed that God could do what He said He would do.  It said that God does extraordinary things through ordinary people because of their extraordinary relationship with Him.  All we need to do is be wholly consecrated to Him.  

This morning I looked up consecrated in the dictionary.  It means sacred, dedicated, honored, devoted, changed.  Yes, Lord, this is what I want to be.

My good stress list?  Almost completely answered.  Hannah is back in the states safely.  Leah and Scott and I agreed on a doable budget for the wedding.  And she got a teaching job for fall!  The Cambodia trip is fully funded ( and two somewhat stressful activities planned have been changed).  I had a wonderful trip to Key West with my Mom with both of us healthy and no bad weather and smooth travel both directions.  Adelle's mom got good news from her doctor.  Homestead group went well last week.  And we brought some warm weather back from Florida and it melted the snow!

I know that God causes revival in His people while preparing them to be used for great things.  I think that God is going to do huge things in TRU (He already is).  And in Cambodia.  I know if I stay consecrated to Him, I will experience no stress, and actually be filled with excitement for all He is going to do!

More Sunny Florida

Day two.  Slept peacefully until 7:30 or so then got up and fixed coffee and had quiet time on the patio in the cool morning air.  Mom got up and I went for a long walk around the island, both in the resort and by the private residences.  Of course, I was dreaming about moving down here.  Lol.  

Ate our breakfast of sweetbreads and fruit which they deliver to us in a basket each morning then get some sun by the pool.  Showered up then had our lunch leftovers out on the patio.  Love the weather which is about skin temp, cooler in the shade and in the mornings and evenings and warmer in the sun.  

Boarded the launch which takes about 5 minutes to get us over to key west then walked around quite a bit along Duval street, shopping as we went.  We even had some ice cream!  We then took a pedicab to the little organic grocery store where Leah's friend Maggie works but she wasn't there!  So we walked back, a long way, stopping at the local library for a sec.  

We decided to check into the aquarium which wasn't too expensive and thought it was fun.  We saw some cool manta fish, some sharks, some coral, etc.  

We took the launch back to the island and I spent the afternoon by the pool reading and sleeping and sunning which mom rested.

Then we gussied up and went back over to key west.  We walked and shopped and realized we weren't terribly far from the burger place we'd researched on the internet.  It was up higher right along the sidewalk so we people watched while we ate.  I loved it!  The burger was delish, also.

We came back to the island to out little cottage and turned in early and read.  

Today we had our breakfast outside again  and I couldn't resist getting a little more sun before we showered up and packed up. 

 Today we plan to go over to key west agin, shop, eat, then take off for the airport around two.  I should be back to Manhattan between 11 and 12 pm tonight.

What a wonderful, perfect little vacation to take in February!  I loved every moment of it.

Florida

We had no problems on the flight here, answers to prayers.  And it was a miracle that mom was able to cross the ice in the parking lot at kci at 4:30 in the morning Friday.  

We got to Key West about 1 Friday afternoon.  I immediately recognized the area we checked in and got on the launch--it is the place the cruise ships stop so we have been there.  Then we got onto the launch and went out to our little island.  It is just perfect here.  We ate lunch at the pool and waited for our cottage to be ready then checked in about 2.

Our cottage is amazing.  It is actually entirely too big for two people.  It has two full bedrooms and three bathrooms!  Not necessary for just us two!  But that will make it more affordable when we return! From our cottage we can see the pool and we are super clost to the front desk, the boat launch, and the beach.

Yesterday we were so tired we couldn't decide what we wanted to do.  We didn't feel warm enough to put our swimsipuits on although it was warm but breezy.  We rested in the rooms with all the windows and doors open.  Our patio wraps all the way around and there are windows and French doors with shutters everywhere. 

We got dressed and rode the launch back over and walked around a little then decided to eat at a fish place next to bog, open windows.  Then we got ice cream cones and came back to the cottage and went to bed super early!  I slept from 9 to 7:30 this morning!

This morning I beat mom awake and had my quiet time and coffee with the door open and a breeze coming in.  Then while mom showered, I went over to the pool.   And did half hour or so of water aerobics all by myself.  It was quite lovely.  Then we ate sweet breads that were delivered to us complimentary.  

Then we got our suits on and went to the little beach for awhile. 

 It was partly cloudy but so peaceful and relaxing to lit there with the light breeze, reading and napping.  At one point, I looked at the water that we were about 5 feet from and saw  fish that was about a foot long but next to it I saw a triangle fin sticking out.  There were workers there combing the beach and the guy said, "see the sharks?"  Yikes, sharks!  He put his hands about two feet wide to describe the larger shark.  We stayed out of the water the remainder of the time by the beach.  It then started to blow and lightly rain so we dashed to the cottage and warned our leftoversf rom last night and ate them for lunch.  Our little kitchenette is fully stocked with dishes, etc.

After lunch we went to the pool and it was warm and sunny.  We sunned and read and rested and got into the pool to cool off a few times.  Mom didn't make it very long but I stayed out until 3.  

We showered and got back on the launch and went into town.  We walked and shopped along Duval street quite awhile.  There are so many people and they are quite interesting!  The shops are mostly tourist but fun.  There were weird places mixed in, strip clubs, clothing optional bars....  We didn't stop at those:).

We ate some frozen custard then mom wanted to take a pedicab so we did.  We took it to the little organic grocery where Leah's friend Maggie works but she wasn't working.  The pedicab was supposed to return for us but we waited then walked back.  It was a super long walk for mom but she did great!  

We ate dinner at a really nice place called the Rooftop.  Mom had mushroom risotto and I had a New York strip steak.  It was really good!  But the wind kicked up and it was chilly up there.  Not complaining!  

We had to wait for the launch and it was a relief to get back to the cottage out of the wind.  Am watching the Olympics and blogging then will turn in early again tonight.

Having such a great time!  Will add more pics later ( the cloud pics aren't working well.)