Fall Pics from My Neighborhood

Fall is just beginning to arrive. Most of the leaves have not started to change colors yet. If I can be lucky enough to get a shot of a monarch, I will post it for you to see.

Papaw's house (and mine) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our driveway

Friday Mentoring Group

. . . . . . . . . . Our Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris making capuccino


____Graham enjoying a banana___
Today our missions mentoring group met again. We meet every Friday morning to spend time with our mentor Chris Flanders. Althought we get lots of excellent mission training and preparation in our degree here at ACU, there are topics that are not covered in our courses. We also work on spiritual development together. We are accountable to help each other maintain our focus on the heart of God and his mission. These are some pictures from our group today.

Papaw in a Cape

Today Papaw and I went to get our hair cut in a town near by. I brought my camera along so that I could sneak some pictures here and there. Here is one of Papaw. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the migration of monarch butterflies. I am disappointed that I didn't think to do that.

The Arrival of Fall

Well, this is my last morning here at the dorm. Next week Angela will take over for me. Today is such a beautiful day, for autumn has finally arived! God sent us a strong wind from the north last night that brought cooler weather, and hundreds of monarch butterflies. They were all blowing from northeast to southwest in the wind.


It is so cool this morning that I am wearing a long-sleeve shirt. Yesterday the temperature reached above 100, and this morning it got down to 55. Amazing! Times like this remind me that God is in control of the weather.

This morning I am supposed to lead worship in the ISA (International Student Association) chapel. I was going to work on my powerpoint presentation this morning here at the office, but the file did not convert well from my Macintosh to this PC. I am sure we will all still be able to praise God :)

Little Divine Encounter, Changed Life

You know how sometimes God brings people into your path that change your life...? Sometimes they are small changes over time, and other times those angels effect life altering changes in just a few moments.

Monday morning, one hour with Randy changed my life.

I want to give a little background first...

Two years ago I went to a conference at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. It was a 12 period of intense prayer and fasting together with thousands of believers. I had never experienced anything like it. I was awakened in a new way to the power of the Spirit that day.

Randy was there that day, but he was just a side note in my story. Many college students from FountainGate Fellowship had told me about how Randy had changed there lives when he had pastored the youth in Abilene, and then finally I saw him there on the field of the Cotton Bowl among the thousands of us. But I wasn't so sure about this Randy. In fact, I was judgmental of his Christian walk.

As we prayed and cried out before God, this guy was dancing, hollering, and... speaking in tongues!!! My rational mind began to evaluate, "Can he do this? Nobody is interpreting? Is this scriptural?" Needless to say, I was challenged. I didn't meet Randy that day, but I observed. That same day God's Spirit moved in me, and my life was changed.

Monday I met with Randy at Java City for a cup of milk, and we shared our stories for an hour. Halfway through our conversation, he shared with me the statement that changed the way I see my existence in this world. Randy said that as we had been talking, he had already been in touch with the Spirit numerous times asking for divine guidance that God might give him words to touch my life. He was communing with the Spirit of God as we talked! I didn't know why that conversation was transforming me, sparking a new thirst for communion with my Creator, but that was revealed to me. The eyes of my heart and spirit were opened!!

Since that conversation, I haven't had a perfect cake-walk of uninterrupted, ethereal walking with God, but I have been different. I am beginning to cry out more. I am beginning to pray was I converse with others. I am beginning to desire the things of God more at each moment because someone took a little time to show my how. Randy, thank you. Your little time investment will have eternal results.

"God, thank You for divine appointments like the one you made for Randy and me Monday morning. Draw us near to You each moment. Spirit, fill our hearts, our conversations, our moments of solitude. Open our eyes to the divine appointments You are making for us at each step of the day. Show us how to live in You.

"We want You. We love You! Like our father Moses, we refuse to march forward without You. That would be futility. Lord Jesus, come. Holy Spirit, come. Replinish our dry soul with Your streams of living water!"

Dorm Time Winding Down?

Well, the saga of early mornings at the dorm office may be ending soon. Last night I invited the other staff to take over my post, and I have already had one offer. That is really exciting because I could be getting back to my normal sleeping schedule soon. I have been sleeping from 3 - 5 hours per night during the week for most of this semester. I have been needing a change, and the Lord is faithful to make a way.

I have to be frank; I will really miss the peaceful bliss of these early morning hours. It is such a beautiful time to be alone with God, but He will not be going away. I will simply have to seek other times to be alone in solitude with Him.

DFW to Pick Up Selvin

Students Shared Desk at Morris Hall early in the morning.

View from my desk at work in Morris Hall

It sounds like Jasper got hit pretty extensively. Many people have not returned to the city because there are no services or utilities. I saw a report on ABC News yesterday morning of an older lady's house that had 2 pine trees drop right in on her bed. She had just arisen a few minutes earlier, praise God! In nearby Kirbyville, a house with seven people was lifted off of its foundation and just floated away as if it were a boat. This weekend my friend Jackie Gipson and her mother will return to Jasper from Abilene to assess the damage to their own house.

Yesterday was an exciting day for me. I went to Dallas to pick up my former roommate Selvin Monterroso who has come to defend his thesis for his Master of Theology. I moved to Florida at the end of 2002 which is when we ceased to be roommates. He has since returned to Honduras. I remember beautiful times we had together, like singing and playing the guitar, shivering in the freezing house, and eating salads made of cilantro and radishes. haha. Those were the days!

I really appreciate my prayer partner, Rolando, who traveled with me to help me make the trip safely without falling asleep. He carried his iPod with an FM transmitter and he was the DJ of our own little FM radio station. ;) We made it home safely, Praise God!

Last night I got home at 1:00am and then I got up for work this morning at 4:00am. There is not much energy left for me to make it through work and then class. May the Lord give me strength.

"Lord, thank you for the strength you have given me to arise and praise you this morning. Thank you for being here with me this morning. That is my desire, to be with you! To walk with you, talk with you, become just like you. May my soul be completely satisfied in your presence."

The Eyewall Over Jasper

I just arose here on Saturday morning for my weekend class. The national news said that the eyewall of Rita is passing over Jasper at the moment dropping a wall of 12 inches of rain. The sustained winds are still at 100 mph. Jasper is the city I grew up in. The city had a mandatory evacuation yesterday, even though it sits 70 miles inland, and I pray that the residents did get to safety.

Sh'mah Yisra'el. Adonai Eloheinu. Adonai Echad.

My Home Getting Hit

As we wait for the eye to move ashore, we pray. I talked with my cousin Mike in Houston, and he said that yesterday morning they were not able to leave Houston because the traffic was at a standstill. I thank God that the storm is not headed straight toward Houston any longer, but the bad news is that it is headed straight to the region where I grew up. The Piney Woods of Texas is getting inundated with torrents of rain and wind. I pray that God will keep many of our friends and family there safe.

My home Abilene (more than a six hour trip from Houston), is filled with evacuees. Every hotel in town is full. Many churches are full, and every shelter in town is filling to capacity. The State of Texas has been very gracious to receive and help evacuees from areas hit by the two hurricanes. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus.

Presos no Metrópolis de Houston

Sarah, Mike, and Me in Galveston, Texas

Recebi notícias do meu primo, Mike, e eu soube que eles nem tinham conseguido sair da cidade de Houston por causa do tráfego. Até começar a viagem se tornou impossível, então eles decidiram ficar lá. Agradeço a Deus que parece que o furacão não vai passar diretamente sobre eles.

O que me dá pena que eh está entrando diretamente sobre a região da cidade onde eu fui criado. Continuemos orando por todos eles. Eu sei que num momento assim, a maioria de nós nem temos palavras para orar, mas clamemos as Ele! mesmo sem palavras.

Talvez a coisa principal que Deus quer seja que nós clamemos a Ele. Talvez Ele esteja apenas querendo restaurar um relacionamento conosco.

Deus único e soberano, nosso bom Pai, fica com todas as pessoas do mundo que estão sofrendo.

Sarah, Me and Mike in Houston

A Vinda do Furacão

Ontem eu falei ao telefone com meu primo Mike em Houston. Ele e o pai dele (Steve), estão viajando hoje para fugir do monstro Rita. Meus avós também viajaram. Por favor, estejam em oração por todos aqueles que moram na beira do Golfo do México. Que Deus os proteja e conforte, e que nós possamos estar dispostos a ajudar como for apropriado.

What Happened to Home?

5:40 in the morning here in the office, and I sit. Time almost stands still. Yesterday's newspaper spread out to my left, a dimly lit lamp breaking up the pre-dawn darkness to my right. I sit here alone. At least if you were to look in here, that's the way it would seem, but I am not alone. The presence of the Lord is heavy here is I cry out.

Millions! Millions of people have fled their homes at this time. Some will return home to comfort as normal. Thousands will return to repair extensive damage. Tens of thousands will never return home... or home will not return to them. Rita lurks off the coastal shores of Texas: 175 mph/282 kph sustained winds.

Some of us will go home after work today thankful we have our homes. Others of us will receive evacuees into our homes. But does that make us heroes? Are these people just helpless victims? Do they have nothing to offer us? Maybe their lives are speaking volumes to us. Maybe they will teach us if we will just listen.

Reflection
We live in a transient society. Many children move countless times before they reach maturity. Where is home? Houses are destroyed every year by earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, wars. Where is home? Our neighborhoods change. People different from us move in. We no longer feel the sense of comfort and safety we used to when we approach the driveway after a long day in the world. The tempestuous world seems to be coming to our doorstep. Where is home?

Ever since the very beginning, our ancestors in the faith have been searching for home. "A wandering Aramean was my father..." Every Hebrew identifies with this not-so-fairytale beginning of the Israelite story in Deuteronomy. The Israelites recited this when presenting their tithes before the Lord. They were delivered and given a promised land, but they were to always remember that their destination was not Egypt, Jerusalem, or Babylon, but the Creator God himself! He is our ultimate destination. We will always have a since of longing and homelessness until we are delivered to our final destination.

When the Messiah came, he lived as a wanderer, a pilgrim: "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). He came from God, and to God he was going. Jesus was not complaining, but stating his reality. He understands our feeling of homelessness. All of our shelters in life or just temporary places to park and rest for a while: our houses, our offices, our beautiful church buildings. But these places do not define us.

"On any given night, however comfortable we may be and however secure our futures may seem, we remain vulnerable to a certain heaviness of heart that can come upon us for no apparent reason at all. It may begin as a flutter in the chest or as a full-blown ache--a sudden hollowness inside, a peculiar melancholy, an inexplicable homesickness. Have you felt it? The sense that there is a place you belong that you have somehow gotten separated from, a place that misses you as much as you miss it and that is calling you to return, only you do not know where, or how to get there. All you know is that you are not there yet, and that your life will not be complete until you are" --B.B. Taylor, The Preaching Life, 158.

A Blessing in Homelessness?
Maybe this feeling is more a blessing than a curse. Maybe it is God's gentle tugging at our heart. God is helping us not to become too settle so that we remember we are not home yet.

For those of us helping the homeless, "We cling to the illusion that some of us are blessed and some of us are not, and that it is our job as those who are blessed to rescue those who are not. We labor under the illusion that our work involves "us" and "them," with us--the caregivers, the helpers, the lucky--on one side of the counter and them--the clients, the supplicants, the unlucky--on the other. We succomb to the illusion that they can all be saved if only we will work enough hours, find enough money, get enough publicity" --Taylor, 160.

Our father Abraham was a wanderer, Jesus had no bed to lay his head, and God reminds us that it is by his grace alone that we live as we make our way home--back to Him. There is no "us" and "them." We "us" are all line up on the same side of God's counter: asking, waiting, longing, groaning. Not home, but headed there.

God, we cry out to you!

Save those who are suffering the storm!
Intervene in your divine mercy!
Walk with us in this devastation!

Remind us that even though we are not home,
You have promised us a home.
Your promise never fails.
Thank you, God.
Thank you for your everlasting promise.

Refreshing

What a pleasure it is to live under the daily transformative work of the Spirit of God! His breath blows through us daily, restoring our souls and giving us new life.

This morning I have been reading about some of the work of the Spirit in Norway. It is really exciting to read testimonies about what the Lord is doing there! I have been reading Anne Maria's blog, and everything she says is seasoned with the salt of Christ. May God bless the disciples of Christ in Norway as they seek to follow the leading of the Spirit and obey God's word.

Yesterday I was reading from Barbara Brown Taylor's book, The Preaching Life. She has a beautiful article about the story of the widow's mite from Mark 12:41-42 called, "The One to Watch".

I need to leave work in the next few minutes, but I hope to come back later in the day to comment about this article. Perhaps it will have to wait.

Go with God.

Early Morning Inspiration

This morning as I was walking to the office, I was overtaken by the beauty of the pre-dawn hours: the cool air, the bright stars above, the quietness of being awake while everyone else around is asleep. It was really an amazing experience. My heart was exploding with worship to the Father.

Now the challenge is to continue to have a heart of worship and gratitude throughout the day, to see the ways in which God is revealing himself to us in the ordinary. Every leaf connected to a tree through its branches is a wellspring of life. The rich sap from the tree flows through its veins, and the leaf gives life to all around by the oxygen it produces and the nutrients that abound in its very being.

So is the person who is connected to the Creator through the Messiah. He is a spring of life to all around him. People are attracted to the tree that sustains him because it is the fount from whence life proceeds. Apart from that sustaining flow, life quickly fades into death. May we remain connected to the Creator.

Family Decision Making

Eu gostaria de saber como é que a sua família toma decisões:

Quais são os membros da sua família nuclear (que moram na sua casa)?
Quais membros têm o direito de oferecer a sua opinião quanto às grandes decisões da família?
Quem tem mais influência nas conversas familiares?
Quem toma a decisão oficial no final das contas?

Podem deixar uma resposta ou escrever pro meu email: bdh98a@gmail.com

Our Response to the Philippian Christ Hymn

How crazy is it to want to share in someone's sufferings, and in their death?!

I want to know Christ,
and the power of his rising;
share in his suffering,
conform to his death.

When I poor out my life
to be filled with his Spirit,
joy follows suffering,
and life follows death!

Sometimes we lose things that are very dear to us. Sometimes God let's us suffer for the honor of his name. Why would he do this? Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom were two Christians who went to a concentration camp in Holland for harbouring Jews.

They suffered greatly consequences that were not their own. They new that the apparent reality, those things that were tangible and palpable, were not the ultimate reality. They were placed in the camp at Ravensbruck to share in the Messiah's suffering and give many Jewish new glasses.

They shared with them the reality of the Kingdom of God. The God who came to earth, suffered and died for their deliverence was right there in the midst of their suffering. The holy scriptures sustained them when bread was lacking and their strength had failed. The Nazis could take their lives, but yet they couldn't. They now knew that their sufferings were a part of sharing in Christ's death, and ultimately by faith they would share in his resurrection!!!!

Many women were saved because of the Ten Boom sister's sufferings in a concentration camp not design for them. God's reign came to that camp!

Christ did suffer and die out of humble obedience before he was exalted. We, his followers, are not exempt! We are called to the same path. And it is a glorious path, though not in the eyes of this world. It is a glory that can only be seen with eyes opened by the Spirit of God.

Pauls says, "Yes, I gave it all up in order to know him, that is, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings as I am being conformed to his death, so that somehow I might arrive at being resurrected from the dead." Philippians 3:10-11

This is Paul's life response to the Christ hymn that had been passed on to him:
"Let your attitude toward one another be governed by your being in union with the Messiah Yeshua:

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not regard equality with God
something to be possessed by force.
On the contrary, he emptied himself,
in that he took the form of a slave
by becoming like human beings are.

And when he appeared as a human being,
he humbled himself still more
by becoming obedient even to death --
death on a stake as a criminal!
Therefore God raised him to the highest place
and gave him the name above every name;

that in honor of the name given Yeshua,
every knee will bow --
in heaven, on earth and under the earth --
and every tongue will acknowledge
that Yeshua the Messiah is Yahweh --
to the glory of God the Father.

-- Philippians 2:5-11

May we do the same...