6 flights

It had been 8 full months since I had been on a plane.  I went to Ireland to help with some camps at the end of June '08 and got back on a plane at the beginning of March '09 for a training session in Toronto.  

Yes, I have a pretty cool job.  Many things escape me... I am NOT Captain Obvious.  But one thing I do know is that God has blessed me in SOO many ways over the past 4.5 years and while I don't have a top 10 list (yet), I know that many of those are because of my job at Upward.  So, while I get to travel the globe in helping tell kids and their families about Christ, I get to see other people, places and things that God has made.  And it blows my mind.  

I love that even though I was on 6 planes in just a week's time, God used the time in between those flights to re-energate me.  In meeting a group of South Africans (and a Brit) while in the UK, He let me see that His people are energized!  Holy cow - it was a small group, but they are pumped.  They are ready to take the UK by storm and let them know who this Jesus is.

The next "in between" was Ukraine.  This was my fourth trip there and while Ukraine is a cold country and you can still feel Soviet oppression, you can't help but SEE that God is working.  And in huge ways.  Each time I land, I'm blown away by the people I see in line as well as behind the glass window at customs.  I mean, my heart just breaks.

If you haven't heard the song Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath, go listen to it (and watch the vid) on YouTube.  No, seriously.  Go watch it now.  It'll just take 4 minutes and 2 seconds.

But then God lets me see the people I know.  And He introduces me to other believers.  And my heart soars because He's working!  He's working all around us.  We just have to ask Him to let us see where He's working so that we can go and join Him in that.  

My prayer over the past few weeks has been for Him to do just what the song says... as cheesey as it may be.  But I really want Him to open my eyes.  I'm tired of looking through my own and seeing only what I want to see.  I want to see what He sees.  I want to see where His people are, I want to see where His people need help, I want to see where His people need love.  I also want to see where He wants me in terms of those who aren't His yet.  I want to see how He needs me so that the people who have no hope can have all the hope that He gives us.

And that's going to be hard for me.  I don't say that in an "I'm so humble" kind of way either.  I'm serious.  It's SO hard for me to step out because most of the time I just. don't. know. what. to. say.  Period.  God has given me some good ears so that I can listen.  He's given me a heart that can hurt or rejoice right along with you.  But any words that come out of my mouth in regards to what He's doing around me... that's ALL Him.  There are many words that come out of my mouth that are NOT all Him... but that's an entirely different post.

I'll put some pictures up from the latest trips soon, but in the meantime... go watch Give Me Your Eyes.  If you watched it when I asked you to above... then go watch it again.  I promise another 4 minutes and 2 seconds won't kill you.  :)

7 months

... from today I'll be in Provence, France taking pictures with a National Geogrphic photographer. Yep... you read that right!!!!!!!!!!!!! National Geographic does expeditions around the world, a handful of them being devoted to photography. And I'm going. In October. 2 weeks before my 30th birthday. And I could NOT BE MORE EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

God has orchestrated this entire thing and I'm just dumbfounded. A couple of months ago I got online to do a search to see if there was any way that I could work with a photographer in France. I know, it's a broad search, but I was curious. I was thinking the newer version of the movie Sabrina and was willing to do anything - including grab belts for the models in the shoot. Of course I would know what a "centure" was so I'd be able to pick out the belt :) Anyway, I digress...

This past Sunday as I was flying home from an Upward Leadership Training Conference in Toronto, I was flipping through the February issue (even though it was already March) of Delta's Sky Magazine to find the feature article, She'll Always Have Paris. This is where I "met" Catherine Karnow for the first time. I was in love with her work and with her job.

On Tuesday, I had decided earlier in the day that with my 30th birthday looming just 7 short months away that I was going to take a trip to the south of France with a bag of clothes and my camera. I'm a big girl, I can totally do a trip like that!

Well, I had some time after work on Tuesday so, I looked Catherine Karnow up online and found that she does one-day workshops about travel photography. PERFECT! That's what I need! Well, after a few more clicks and a little more surfing... I landed on National Geographic's homepage and that's when I discovered that they conduct Photography Expeditions around the world. Seriously? And do I see... no way. Is that a picture of... wait a minute! That's Provence. That's a photographer's dream. Did I just fall into a dream? For real? Please, pinch me.

Well, I see the cost of THIS excursion and realize that I don't have that kind of money just laying around in the bank. But, I call my mom to tell her about this amazing trip I had found. I was grinning like a fool... I had to tell someone about this!! So, she looks it up online and is as amazed as I was. I mean, wow. Just wow. So, we get off the phone and I go and meet my cousin for dinner to celebrate her birthday. When I get in the car, I return the voicemail my mom had left and the conversation went like this:

Mom: are you sitting down?
Me: Well, I'm driving home, so yes.
Mom: You may want to pull over.
Me: Why?
Mom: You're [family] is going to send you on that trip for your birthday.
Me: OH! MY! GOSH! OHMYGOSH!!!! HOLY COW! OHMYGOSH! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?

This went on for about 5 minutes. I seriously had no other words. God is so good and I can't believe the things He is laying in place for stuff like this to happen. I'm SSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited.

No one is going to be able to stand me for the next 7 months... ;) WOOHOO!!!!!

8 people

Allen and Courtney Tipping are expecting their first child soon!!

They're also expecting their second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth child soon... Yep, you read that right! Their family of two will soon be a family of eight when all six of these babies are born. As you can imagine, they are very excited, very nervous and very reliant on the Lord.

Please keep them in your prayers. Courtney went into the hospital a few days ago when she went into pre-term labor. With multiple babies, pre-term labor is common, but as always, the longer they can stay inside their momma, the more developped they will be when they are born. So, she is about 19 weeks along right now and the doctor is hoping to get her to 26 weeks. After that, his goal is 28 weeks.

Please keep up with them on their blog, www.thetippingfamily.com, and keep them in your prayers. I've known Allen since college and it's crazy to think that he and his precious wife will soon have six babies on their hands. What is awesome to see though is how much they are letting God lead.

Allen and Courtney, thanks for your encouraging faith as God leads you on this journey!

9 questions

1. why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
   
2. why don't i talk to God like Moses and David did?  
   
3. when do we officialy have to "grow up"?
   
4. why don't people believe God exists?
   
5. how do we get one of those replicators that they had on Star Trek?
   
6. how was anyone able to come up with the idea of "normal"?
   
7. who decided that girls = pink and boys = blue?
8. when do i get to meet "the one"?
9. why do we make the gospel more complicated than it really is??

10 days...

... left in February. Just in case you were wondering.

11th verse, 26th chapter of Exodus

Then make fifty bronze claps and put them in the loops to fasten the tent together as a unit.
-Exodus 26:11

You may be wondering why in the world I'm putting this seemingly obscure verse on my blog. The reason is actually two-fold. 1) The "countdown" is down to number 11. 2) God wanted to remind me that He's in the details.

Part of the joy of reading through the Bible (see Goal #5) is that you get to go through all of the good stuff, the bad stuff, the ugly stuff, the exciting stuff and the boring stuff. Yes, there is bad stuff (um, the Fall would be bad stuff #1) and there is boring stuff (please see the Regulations About Mildew in Leviticus 13. Mildew? Really??).

Right now, I'm in Exodus reading through some of the "boring stuff" regarding the tabernacle and what the priests are to wear. I've done Beth Moore's study on the Tabernacle and I realize that God has every (boring) detail listed for a reason. It will blow your mind when you consider what each minute piece of the tabernacle represents and why it's included. However, sometimes when you're reading through, it just gets boring.

So, as I hit that wall yesterday, I asked God to talk to me and reveal Himself to me in a way that I wouldn't see by simply reading through the "boring stuff". And guess what... He spoke to me.

For the past few months I've felt as if I'm in a holding pattern. I've been restless and I don't know why. I'm leaning on Him and learning about Him. I'm talking to Him and listening to Him. I'm serving Him and loving Him. And hopefully He's using me in the lives of people around me. But all the same, I feel as though I'm waiting for him to give me the GO... I just don't know what the GO is for. So, as I'm reading through all of these minute details that don't seem applicable to my life in February 2009, it hits me. God is in the details.

God is in the details and it's the details that make up the whole picture. God gave Moses instructions on how to make these bronze clasps and what to do with them. Why? Because they would fasten the tent together as a unit. They would bring the whole thing together! If the clasps hadn't been there, the curtains wouldn't have held up, the tabernacle wouldn't have had walls and the whole plan would have been pointless.

So, while I'm sitting here and living this life that He's laid out for me and sometimes think that nothing is going on, God chooses to remind me that yes, He's working. The whole plan can't come together if He doesn't have every little detail in place. He's works like that throughout creation and if I've said it once, I've said it a million times... I'm glad He's in charge and remembers all of these things because if it were up to me, I'd forget something small but important and we would all be wading through mud instead of walking on land because I forgot that one element that makes the ground solid.

God uses the small stuff to make up the whole picture. I just hope I can remember that when my life seems "boring" and that I'll praise Him for what He's doing that I can't see... yet.

I'm not normally a big "poem person" but this was on Arica's blog and it just resonated with me and where I am with God right now. Do you ever have those moments, days, months or years where God is just asking you to wait?? Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's needed and sometimes you just don't have any kind of clue as to what in the world God is doing.

Luckily though, I know that HIS plans are what matter and HIS plans are what I want. Any time I've tried to do things on my own, I've either failed, failed miserably, or failed and had things blow up in my face. No, really, they actually did...

So... while some days I feel like I'm waiting simply as a last resort, today I'm making the CHOICE to wait. Because clearly God is working and personally... I'd rather not get in His way :)


WAIT
by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate...
the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!"
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I relate
hangs in the balance and you tell me to Wait?"
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign.
Or even a 'no,' to which I'll resign.

You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply.

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
as my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting...for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine...
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
you'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
when darkness and silence are all you can see.

You'd never experience the fullness of love
when the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
the faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

You'd never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
but oh, the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you.

So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still "WAIT."

One Goal Down

Well... I did it! I chopped my hair in order to donate it to Locks of Love. It's been about 5 years since I've had my hair this short. But I really like it!

Sing Out Loud

please, Please, PLEASE read Josh Ridings' new blog post. it's amazing....

Hello, my name is Billy Graham

12 Goals... because I don't do resolutions

1. donate my hair to Locks of Love
i've tried before but have been unsuccessful. they need 10 inches so i think by summer i'll be able to chop it without going with a pixie cut.

2. read at least one non-fiction book for every two fiction books i read
i love reading but i don't stimulate my brain with non-fiction :)

3. go see family in easley
they are just down the road. i have no excuse.

4. get in better shape
i know i know. it's cliché but i feel better when i work out and we are supposed to take care of the bodies God has given us, so it really just makes sense.

5. read the bible through
lee cunningham posted a chronological plan on facebook so there's a group of us reading through it. last time i tried i got about 3/4 of the way there so i want to finish this time!

6. go at least one date
no idea how i am going to make this happen, but well, surely it's possible.

7. save some money
i went through dave ramsey's financial peace this past summer and so far so good... i just want to stay on a roll :)

8. write at least one note/letter to a friend a month
i've been wanting to do this for a while but just haven't. so now it's in writing and i have to... right?

9. deepen my prayer life
my relationship with Jesus is more important than anything. but i don't always treat it that way. and again, i have no excuse.

10. purchase a pair of name brand jeans
i know it's kinda silly but i just want to. they're great jeans and really are worth the price! and since i know how to budget now, i can save up for them and not go into debt to buy them :)

11. be better about updating my blogs!
it's not super easy to do since i don't have internet at home but i'll just have to be more intentional about it

12. launch photographsbysabrina.com
keep your eyes open... i'll keep you posted!

HAPPY 2009!!!