to honor the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School

 a day of silence

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Olivia Engel, 6 

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine F. Hsu, 6

Catherine V. Hubbard, 6

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6 

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison N. Wyatt, 6

Daniel Barden, 7 

Josephine Gay, 7

Chase Kowalski, 7

Grace McDonnell, 7

Victoria Soto, 27

Rachel D'Avino, 29

Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau, 30

Dawn Hochsprung, 47

Anne Marie Murphy, 52 

Nancy Lanza, 52

Mary Sherlach, 56

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--

It gives a lovely light.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

just a random post...

I have been a horrible blogger lately.  Oh well.  I just really didn't feel like posting, and I didn't have anything to post about.  But now I do!

First off, I wanted to ask you all to pray for the family of Bob Jennings, a pastor in Missouri who died this past week.  Bob had been ill for quite some time; I believe he had cancer, but I'm not positive.  I've really enjoyed reading Bob's posts over the past months updating on his deteriorating health and how he was basically preparing to die.  You can find two of his posts that I found most encouraging here and here.  Please keep his family and friends in your prayers.

Look at this baby praying mantis!  I found him about a week ago on our counter and almost swept him onto the floor before I even saw he was there.  It was just incredible to see God's handiwork in such a tiny creature as this!

This past weekend I went to Juarez, Mexico with Rachel, my dad, and some people from our church and Church of the Redeemer.  Rachel and I spent the whole time at Rivers of Mercy Children's Home.  We helped out with laundry, made breakfast, and just spent a lot of time loving on the kids.  I had such a fantastic time; I could have spent days with those kids!  I speak about a thimblefull of Spanish, but I actually got along pretty well.  Sadly, I only took four pictures the entire time. :)

 This little cutie pie was Rubi. :)

Rubi and Rachel

Visiting the orphanage helped confirm for me that that's what I want to do with my life--minister to children, specifically orphans; through teaching, but also through just caring for them.  It was awesome!

hope and prayer

Hi everyone!  I wanted to kind of deviate from my regular posts and just bring up some things that I think we can all be praying for.

• Obviously, the priority on everyone's mind right now is Hurricane Sandy and those affected by it.  Specifically, let's pray for the families of the people who have died, and also for the continued safety of everyone in harm's way because of limited electricity, flooding, high winds, etc.
• I also wanted to bring up the deaths of two preschool children who were killed when their school bus crashed yesterday.  I can't imagine the grief that their families are feeling right now!  Also continue to pray for four other children who are in the hospital, as well as the driver of the bus, who must be dealing with some incredible guilt and grief right now.

I also wanted to post this video, which is Barlowgirl's last song ever as they have chosen to go in a different direction apart from the music industry.  I've loved listening to their music over the years, but I was so glad they put out one last song.

 

God is so good in how He always sovereignly works in our lives so perfectly.  I feel like He's really been teaching me to hope.  On the last day of 2010, I posted about how my "word" for 2011 was going to be "hope".  You can go there to read about why exactly I chose that, but I've continued to feel that God is teaching me to hope in Him, and not be afraid to have hopes and dreams for the future, because He'll do whatever's best.  Even if it sometimes doesn't feel like the best at the time, it will be the best.  Over this past week, the Lord has been bringing this thought to my mind again, and I just loved how perfectly this song fit in with what He's been teaching me.  His timing is amazing!

Anyway, I hope that this song encourages you and that you'll pray for those things which I've brought up in this post.  I'll be posting another 20 random posts "post" soon; talk to you then!

99 Balloons

How deep is His love

These past weeks have been hard.  Ten days ago, there was the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.  Then there was the nuclear crisis there as well.  Along with all of this rocking the world, in some cases quite literally, things were going on in the personal lives of some of the people I know.  Last Tuesday night one of our church elders was taken to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms.  He couldn't speak properly, and over the course of a few days we found out that he was sick with herpesviral encephalitis.  It's a very serious disease, and we didn't know whether he would live or not.  Then, last Wednesday morning, we got another phone call and found out that one of our church father's had lost his father that morning.  His dad had very poor health, but they still weren't expecting his death quite so soon.

Yet even in the midst of all of this, there is hope.  In Japan, we know that God is taking care of those people just as He sees fit, even though we don't understand it.  This morning our church elder was released from the hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery.  And for the family who lost a father and a grandfather, there is the promise that they will see him again in Heaven.  Just a few years ago he came to Christ, and they are looking forward to not only seeing Jesus in His kingdom, but seeing this man too.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'

Jeremiah 29:11-14

How great is His love!