We Shall Be Kindred Spirits

      What would your reaction be if your parents sat you down and told you that you would be moving? Only not from house to house. Or even from city to city. Not even from state to state. But from continent to continent. I grew up in Africa and lived there for 13 years and moved to Denver, Colorado in 2011. I traded dusty bare feet to winter snow boots, nshima (a cornmeal staple) for McDonalds, and walls with barbed wire to peaceful, clean cut neighboorhoods. And I didn't like it all. Some people think that a girl who lived in a dusty, hot, third culture world would love to move to America. But I am not that kind of girl! Africa is, and always will be my home, and for awhile I really stuggled with contentment and trusting in the Lord throughout the entire move. But one good thing came out of the move.

   I had never had a really good friend. There were lots of MKs (missionary kids) but they were always younger than I. All the national girls were always in boarding school. So I had never had the oppurtunity to form a deep, heart to heart friendship with anyone. One paticular day my mom and I went into town to go to the post office (no mail boxes in the driveway in Africa!) and I was suprised to find a package in the mail for me. This certain day I was feeling very down and sad about packing up all of my stuff, leaving my home, and flying across the ocean to move to Colorado. I was getting bitter and upset at God, and it was just a bad day! But a package can make any day better. And this package was clearly God sent. The return address from "The Tuckers, Littleton, Colorado." I showed my mom and she told me this family went to the church my dad was going to candidate to be the pastor for. In the package was a birthday card, bracelet and candy from some of the different deacon's daughters. One girl, Sarah was my age. In fact we are only 4 days apart. (I'm older, thank you very much!)

A couple weeks later I got a letter from Sarah in the mail. Then I wrote back. Then we started to email. We started a friendship via email and then soon enough it was time to meet in person. After traveling across the ocean and long layovers, we landed in Denver. The next day my family went over to her house for lunch. It was....awkward at first! We said "Hi. Nice to meet you." *insert nervous giggles* After a few minutes of awkward silence sitting on the couch, Sarah had the brillant idea to go to the park and swing. (She makes fun of me because I pronounce "swing" like "swiiiiing") It was there we started to talk and talk and form a friendship.

She was running the Colorado Relay and I went along to cheer, eat food, sleep off jet lag, take up space in the van, cheer, sleep some more, take in the breathtaking view of the Rockies, and cheer, and sleep some more. During the night we decided to sleep on the back row, my head in one direction, hers in the other. My leg kept slipping off, so we had the brilliant (at the time) idea to tie our legs together with the blanket. It worked.....until I fell completely off the row with her right after. I don't think the 8 tired men in the van appreciated our girlish giggles!

My dad was voted to be the new pastor of Highlands Baptist Church, and we flew back to Africa to pack up our belongings and get ready to transiton. The Lord knew I needed a friend, and in the past 3 years Sarah and I have shared laughter, tears, hugs, silly times, awkward moments, deep, heart to heart conversations.....we encourage each other, talk to each other, love each other when we are least loveable, we know everything about each other, and are always there for each other. A true friend tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. A true friend encourages you spirtually and helps you grow as much a you can in the Lord.

Now as I look back, I can see why God moved me to cold, snowy Colorado. I needed a friend, and Sarah needed a friend. I have learned to trust God in everything he leads me through, because He has a purpose for everything. Do you have a friend? Take the time to shoot them a email, call them, send a quick text, write a letter. Let them know they are on your mind and you are so thankful for them. If you have a best friend like this, then you are truly blessed. In order to have a friend you must be a friend. Take the time to smile at a stranger. Give a kind word to someone. Friendships can start anywhere!

Love,
(As Sarah calls me) Emy Lee

Burdensome Days

Life's a road trip. Funny how life tends to get monotonous. Get up, take a shower, go to school or work, come home, work on homework, work with children/siblings. Make dinner, clean up, get a run in maybe, and crash into bed to start it all over again. And you do that over and over and over again. And then a bad day hits and BAM! The monotonous days are suddenly looking like beacons of hope, promising a boring day- which has to be better than the day where nothing went right.

I was thinking of a verse. Mark 11:30- For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. And I think, how is the things he is giving me light and easy? Because, you know what. It's feeling like the weight of the world has been laid on my back. And I think of how Jesus was forsaken by God and how he took on himself a cross and all our sins. And that was a heavy burden for sure, but I am wondering, what is considered light? What does Jesus see as light and easy? Does He not promise that there will be afflictions and trials when you are a Christian. How does that make it light and easy for us? We hand him our troubles and sadness, but that doesn't make the problems go away so what did He mean by this?

I have been pondering this for a while. And I don't think I have a good answer yet, but I do know that while it might not seem like I have an easy burden, if Jesus says it is so, then I have to believe that and cling to that promise.

In light of everything that has happened in Boston today, I look at it and my heart is greatly saddened. It really is. We don't have details and the pain that is felt by the runners, and bystanders, and families is incredible, but God promised to take our heavy burdens to exchange them for an easy yoke. It's a tough one to understand, but it is a great promise. With that in mind, I am praying for everyone involved in the attacks today. My heart and prayers go out to them! I'm begging God to give them peace and comfort and healing. Join me in praying for where..."two or more are gathered, there he will be with also." What an amazing promise.

Enthusiastic for Life

 It all started when my sweet friend started talking about her birthday. Mia has Down Syndrome but she is so special to me. She has taught me so much about myself. Most people start talking about their birthday, if they talk about it at all, roughly a month before their actual birthday. Well not Mia. She starts talking about her birthday as soon as her last birthday passes. I'm not kidding! She is SO EXCITED for her birthday. She reminds me all the time. She shows me it in the calendar, she tells me when I am at church, when I teach her piano, whenever I see her, or whenever she is able to talk to me. I mean she is thrillled that it is HER SPECIAL DAY!

I must admit. I love my birthday a lot. I love birthdays in general actually. I get really excited for them. But she makes me seem pretty tame. All that to say, my parents and I were just laughing about how we (and her family and friends) find it so funny that she loves her birthday this much and how she makes sure everyone knows it is her birthday and no one will ever be able to forget that it is her birthday! And then my dad's comment struck me. He said, "Wouldn't it be great if everyone had that much exuberance for life as Mia does for her birthday?!" Wow. Okay. If we were all that enthusiastic about Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and half of Friday, as we were for the weekend, and for any other vacation we get, how much we could get done! It's impossible to walk away from Mia without getting excited about life and birthdays in general. If we were that excited about life and even sharing the Gospel- how much work could we get done and how much joy we would exude in our every day life.

So as you (and me!) slug through our wonderful (ahem) Monday, just think how excited we used to be about a special day that we would look forward to for a long while, as a kid or teen, and how we would get so psyched for that special day-whatever that special day was! That is afterall how we are commanded to be excited about the Lord coming. Strikes me that I get stuck in routine and forget to look forward to that day and also just the joy of living life. So enjoy your Monday, your hectic week, and look forward to that weekend where you get to do something fun! (hopefully)

Happy 16th Birthday Mia! Hope you have a wonderful day on Wednesday! Thank you for teaching me so much by your enthusiasm for life! Love you!

Happy Monday Friends!

<3 Sarah

Busy Busy Busy

This week was crazy busy for me! I travelled through practically every state in the U.S. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but boy oh boy was it a trip! I was going to Nationals in Greenville, South Carolina. We were going to fly, but a "blizzard" decided to blow into Denver. My friends flights were cancelled so they were going to drive. Since I was a part of group competitions, it was important I got there. So we drove for over 24 hours to get there for the competition. There were 7 people in an Escalade, three of them being teenage boys who just happened to be roughly about 6 feet tall. I honestly wasn't sure why I was in the car. Especially when my mom called me and told me that she was on her flight. Heh. Heh. Can't say I was too happy about being in a car for a long time and Mom just FLYING to Greenville y'all.

We got there and there was no rest. We crashed for the night and competition started at 8 in the morning. I taught Bible to start out with. We ran all over campus competing. And can I just say that wearing heels was NOT THE BEST THING TO DO! My feet were protesting at the end of the day! It was hot and sticky everywhere we went, but it sure was fun! I got to see so many friends and compete, and it was just great!

Results for the competition: I didn't place in the top 3 but I did place in the top 10 on several things. (They lost some of our judging sheets so I'm not too sure about some things) Oh well. The week was amazing. The time with friends, new and old, was awesome. And I got to fly home. Best.thing.ever! It sure puts a 4 hour flight in perspective after driving for 25 hours the same amount of distance.

I had such fun with everyone and I didn't want to come back. I love the accents, the south in general, the sweet tea, the college campus, the friends, the weather, how beautiful everything is. It was great! I can't wait to go back next year.

Little shout out: I was able to watch some drama productions put on by BJU students/faculty and I wasn't expecting it to be great, but it was AWESOME! I was very impressed! Should I go to school there for a few years, I will definitely be watching, if not participating in the drama productions. It was a sweet time and I am so blessed to have this opportunity! This week, I am catching up at college. (Oh the joys!) But it was well worth the work I have to catch up on!

Every good and perfect gift comes from above! <3

Have a great week!!!

Slogging Through Life With A Few Confessions

It's a beautiful day here in sunny Colorado. Like flip flops and shorts weather. But there wasn't much time to spend outside today. Life seems to get busier and busier all the time. Sometimes the first time I have been home all day is at 9 at night. And sometimes that gets discouraging. Most of my days are filled with teaching, school, babysitting, and music lessons. And somehow my devotions are set aside. And I get home and I want to spend time with the Lord, but I end up falling asleep. So discouraging. But I have found that devotions can be a time spent in prayer driving to and from school, mulling verses over in mind, listening to Christian music, and when I am able to really dig into the Word I do. And it.it.so.refreshing!

So I offer you this today, stay encouraged. Don't get bogged down. Jesus got tired. Don't feel like you failed because you weren't able to have devotions for a day. Don't give up.  Start up the next day. I would like to challenge you in one more thing. Your prayer life. I tell people I will pray for them, and I used to say that and forget, but now, I make a conscious effort to truly pray for them. When they are on your mind, there IS A REASON! Start praying. Nothing happens by accident. It's amazing what happens to your relationship with Christ when you start praying. I feel I go to Him more often, for little and big things. And prayer does not have to be formal. There is no right way to pray which is such a relief isn't it! No pressure. These are just some things that have been on my mind. Let it be an encouragement to you. And please, if you have something you want me to pray about, I WILL! I really will. Drop a comment and I will pray with you for whatever you have requested. Have a lovely rest of the day! Our God is truly a great God!!

Being a Light?

Recently, I have had the wonderful opportunity to share my faith with people at my school. And as I was sharing, they would ask me, "Well where is this in the Bible?", or "prove it.", "well that's not what I believe." And I began to realize that the true testament of your faith is how faithful you are to learning more and digging into the Word to get answers. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

I also felt convicted about the fact that I am not as "aggresive" in sharing as the Gospel as I should be. I don't mean pushing my reliefs onto someone else, but rather how often do I share what I believe with someone else? Do I live so that everyone knows I am different? Do my words show I am not the same as everyone else? Is my attitude like Jesus's was when He was walking the earth?

I came to realize that a) I do not know enough but through the Lord, I can give the answers necessary. b) I am not a failure if I give the Gospel and they do not accept it. I planted a seed and that is exactly what Jesus wanted me to. c)I need to know more about other religions so that I know what they are referring to when I contrast what they believe to what I believe.

Ultimately, I am simply a person that is doing what Christ commanded, but I can't do it through myself. I also realized to do this, I need to reach out to people. Not the people that are easily loved, but those people Jesus singled out who are not loveable.

Just a few days after Easter, do I still remember the power of the cross?? Do I appreciate the sorrow and pain Jesus went through so that I could be saved? I truly hope so. With these musings and speculations written I go to listen to a song that has moved me because of the power of the words.

Behold our God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th2sCzuzqTg