Jump Over...

... to my photography blog (click on the Photographs by Sabrina logo to the right or on the picture below) and check out the contest!!!

3 Inspirations

Three things have inspired me to be a better person today*. They are as follows, in no particular order...

• My Charming Kids You HAVE to start reading this blog. This lady is amazing and I could spend all day reading her stuff and looking at her pictures.
• Jasmine Star This woman is about 6 months younger than me and I totally want to be like her when I grow up. She's a Rock Star. In every sense of the word.
• Picture of the Day I just love pictures (obviously...) and a couple of things have inspired me to try and do a picture of the day on my Photography Blog. But it will have to wait... at least until tomorrow :)

And until "tomorrow" comes, here are a few Picture of the Day sites:

• Kodak's site
• Hobart Daily - a photo a day from down under
• Photo District News - check out this particular picture. Wow.

*Disclaimer: many people I know inspire me on a daily basis and to list them all would take up the entire page. Therefore, this post is limited to those outside my circle of influence that have made this particular day inspirational.

4 Prayers

This past weekend I was at Bonclarken for our student's mission trip planning retreat, so I missed service in the morning at Grace Church Downtown, but was able to make it to community group that afternoon. Well, we were discussing the sermon, which was based on Ecclesiastes 3, and the sovereignty of God. And today He showed me just what that means.

This morning I realized that there are four pretty big things on my plate right now that I'm praying through. With two of them I've been seeking answers for a while. The other two have only just come in front of me in the past few days. Well, I was doing normal work stuff at my desk when I got up to go get something off the printer and then take it up to the accounting department. One of the guys I work with walked into the mail room where I was and said he had a random, off-the-wall question for me. Sure! I love random, off-the-wall questions! (Now, I should tell you that while I see this gentleman almost every day, we work in different departments and it has (sadly) been a while since I've had any kind of in-depth conversation with him.) Well, he then asks me if he could be praying for me about anything.

I just stared at him.
And then the tears came.

He said that God had just let him know that Sabrina needed prayers in discerning some things right now and to be reminded that she's loved and appreciated.

I just stared at him.
And all I could say was wow.
And the tears kept coming.

God is SO big. He is SO huge. He is SO good.

And even when I'm struggling and just trying to wade through the waters that I'm in, He's there and He's guiding me and He's looking out for me. And He even sends people to remind me of that.

And that's not all :) Around 4:30 or so, one of the ladies I work with stopped by my desk and just said, "I wanted you to know that I've been praying for you about things."

Not only did God blow me away once today... He did it twice.

We serve a pretty stinking awesome God. I dare you to tell me otherwise.

half-five...

...is what time I got up this morning. But after I woke up at 4am. Luckily for me, I'm in the Pacific time zone (in Arizona) so my body was telling me it was 7am and time to get up. I mean, I was awake at 4 and WIDE awake at 5:30. Kind of sad, but it was nice to have a leisurely morning before breakfast at 7:30. Now, if I could only get in bed early enough to wake up at that time and have a leisurely morning every day before work, I may actually enjoy getting up. But no, I stay up way too late doing.... well.... I don't always know. It's amazing how it seems to important at 9pm to watch this week's 2 hr Biggest Loser episode that's on my DVR. Because, you know, it's not like it won't be there tomorrow. I mean, that's just an example. I don't make silly choices like that. I always go to bed when I should so as to get a solid 8 hours of sleep.

Pshh. Right.

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.