Take Heart

You're not going to believe this, I just saw a cloud that looked exactly like a cotton ball.

-Rose Nylund

What a wonderful morning.  I'm sitting at Dunn Bros getting in some pre-work work in, and God couldn't have blessed the time more.  I was reading Nehemiah (my interests were sparked a few weeks back thanks to Jeremy Risner's sermon at C2) and I encourage you all to sit down right now and read the first three chapters.  

You have here the story of God putting a mission on Nehemiah's heart:  to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, for Jerusalem's walls had been destroyed, and the people of Israel scattered.  So what does Nehemiah do in chapter 1?  He prays and fasts.  And his prayer is built upon what God had already promised to Moses: 

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, ⁹ but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name." 

So Nehemiah's prayer was simply for God to be faithful to His own promise.  (Spoiler alert: God is really good at being faithful) So Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem, he gathers the people, and the begin working on rebuilding the wall.  Chapter 3 is all about who pitched in, quite incredible how each family did their part.  And just like today's 'rebuilding the walls' there was opposition and doubt.  

4:10 "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to their work."

4:11  "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."

4: 12"Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

So what happens next, what happened to the opposition's plan?  "...God frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work."  Each person returned to his or her own share of the wall and continued on, and as it says in verse 16, half the men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor in case of enemy attack. With one hand they did the work, and with the other they held a sword.  Allow me to skip ahead.  The walls were rebuilt.

I'll conclude with this, I'm going to let you draw your own conclusions and parallels to this word, but here's one last verse from chapter 4.  Enjoy your day gents!

“The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. ²⁰ Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”

I continue to value and need your prayer everyone!

Bananas

My Mother always used to say: "The older you get, the better you get - unless you're a banana."

-Rose Nylund

Is it sad that for me to type the word 'bananas' up there I had to sing that Gwen Stefani song?  Music is the means by which I've learned countless words (Aardvark, for example, I learned from the Spelling Bee episode of Arthur).  There's a lesson in here somewhere I know I could tie in with India and if you ask me to I will but for now I'm going to move on.  

There is no reason this post is titled 'Bananas'.

So my goal of being weaned off caffeine is going pretty well I'd say.  I accidentally cured a migraine headache with excedrine and afterwards realized it's basically a caffeine pill (whoops) but after that I've been pretty good for as bad as I was.  Do you know what the definition of 'caffeine' is?  

crystalline compound that is found esp. in tea and coffee plants and is a stimulant of the central nervous system.

What could possibly be so wrong with that?  Stimulating Erin's ole CNS means good things for her team I assure you!  But why no caffeine?  When I worked at Kanakuk it was the same deal.  They asked us to rely on God for our strength and our energy instead of coffee, and man I tell you, I most definitely argued that using what God gives us IS relying on Him!  God GAVE us coffee beans for us to build machines and brew!  (With that logic I started using those Starbucks Via packets and found out that was bending the rules.  whoops again.)  So why break my caffeine addiction?  How bout because it's an addiction?  And this addiction like any other requires self discipline (why does self discipline keep coming up Lord???).  Our team is memorizing 1 Peter 4:7 which says:  "The end of all things is near.  So be clear minded and self disciplined so you can pray."  I think these 'self control' and 'prayer' memo's I've been receiving all over the place are working in tandem.  Prayer is a self control issue for me.  (heck sitting still is an issue for me.)  I've been victim to a clouded mind that can't seem to pray, as well as a mind that would rather sit down and watch reruns of Chuck on dvd than find a quiet place to pray.  So it seems I need to be less addicted to worldly habits and more addicted to Godly ones.  So this week, prayer warriors, pray for Turbo to have more self discipline (so she can pray!).  

Thanks kids, 

Turbo

welcome prayer team

“I always tape my Christmas show in advance. That way I can spend the season of joy and goodwill with my only sister in Florida. She’s kinda a creep but she’s got a pool.”

–Betty White

Let's let those wise words sink in.  And now with that being said:

Today I'm in Columbia Missouri, but less than a month from now I'll be in Chennai India.  So I figured I'd do what all word travelers do and create a blog to brief and update my team of prayer warriors.  You don't have to check it often, but daily prayer is most appreciated as pretty much anything you assume I'm going through is most likely what I'm actually going through. 

Here's part of the plan:

June 11:  Erin starts taking Malaria pills
June 13: Erin drives from Columbia to Chicago and hops on a plane at 8:00pm
June 14, 3AM: Erin arrives in India

So for the next 25 days I'm in preparation mode.  I'm memorizing scripture, writing devotionals, organizing a drama for the schools, trying to wean myself off American sugar, and praying for God to prepare my heart and body for India.  Misison one, prayer team,  is to pray for energy.  I want to receive an energy from the Holy Spirit that is so beyond my own capability that it can only come from God, and by that fact, glorifies God.  I want to be literally wired for an entire ten days so that by the time I meet up with my teammates at the airport through when I say goodbye to them back in Chicago, I am charged and ready with heavenly Red Bull for whatever conversation, job, or study comes my way.  So.  Prayer for the day:  ENERGY!

Thanks kids, love you all

Turbo