From the heart of a missionary’s wife

I have really enjoyed reading these emails from a dear missionary serving in Kenya. Please pray for them and the country of Kenya during this volitile time.

Jane’s Journal

From the heart of a missionary’s wife in Kenya.

April – May 2008
What are you paying for gasoline? (Or petrol, depending on where in the world you are living.) Can you believe these rising food prices?
In recent months, these questions have been the topic of news stories and conversations. It’s a world wide consensus that we can only expect it to get worse, before it gets better.

Here in Kenya, with the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, we are paying a little over $6.00 a gallon for petrol, and our food prices have increased an average of 25%, with some items more than doubled, and with food production at a record low. We are grateful to have supporting churches that will take this into consideration when they pray for their missionaries.

With my yesterdays

“If I had the chance

To go back again

Take a different road,

bear a lighter load

Tell an easy story

I would walk away

With my yesterdays

And I would not trade

what is broken for beauty only

Every valley

Every bitter chill

Made me ready

to climb back up the hill

And find that…

You are sunrise

You are blue skies

How would I know the Morning

If I knew not midnight?

You’re my horizon

You’re the Light of a new dawn

So thank You, thank You

That after the long night,

You are sunrise

There’s a moment when

Faith caves in

There’s a time when

every soul is certain God is gone

But every shadow is evidence of sun

And every tomorrow holds out hope for us

For every one of us

You are sunrise

You are blue skies

How would I know the Morning

If I knew not midnight?

You’re my horizon

You’re the Light of a new dawn

So thank You, thank You

That after the long night,

You are sunrise

You alone will shine

You alone can resurrect this heart of mine

You are sunrise

You are blue skies

How would I know the Morning

If I knew not midnight?

You’re my horizon

You’re the Light of a new dawn

So thank You, thank You

That after the long night,

You are sunrise

You are sunrise”

~ Sunrise by Nicole Nordeman

The Shack

A book called The Shack is selling like hotcakes in the Christian world. I personally believe it is a very dangerous and heretical book. That is not to say that I think anyone who reads it and thinks it is a good book are heritics, I just believe they have been blinded and confused. I have friends who think this is a wonderful book, and I still love them and would hang out with them anytime. I respect people that like the book, but once again I believe they have been blinded to the true message of the book. To read a more in-depth review (this book should be taken seriously, I know the article seems long but it is best to know what you’re facing) click here.

I am disabling comments on this post because I know it is an explosive topic to many people. I would like to be able to talk with anyone who has questions or disagreements one on one, so feel free to email me at onlyonelife4Him@gmail.com (or my personal email if you have it).  Below is an excellent eight minute message dealing with only one of the many problems with the book.

Because You Can

Every single person has something that they have put off doing. Everyone has their reasons why they can wait. But what most people don’t realize is, there are people who are aching to do something and can’t. Maybe they got sick, maybe their circumstances are such that they can’t do it, but whatever the reason, it really comes down to one little thing:

Time.

People don’t write that book they’ve always wanted to write because, well, it’s just too hard and they can do it tomorrow. Others plan simply to enjoy life, take it easy, tell someone they love them, well, one of these days.

I feel like screaming to those people. Life is short!!! Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I sure didn’t. If you don’t use the opportunities that God gives you now, who’s to say they will be around tomorrow?

Who knows what circumstances will prevent you from writing that book, from going to college? Who’s to say that you won’t be ripped away from everything and everyone you ever loved?

Who knows? God does. That’s why He gives us the opportunity today! Tomorrow may never come.

Tomorrow may not be the same as today.

Take each moment to truly live. Even after the dark times you could look back and rejoice. Even during the bad times. You will have no missed opportunities. Take nothing for granted.

“We don’t choose the best moments of our lives. God chooses them for us.” (Sisterchicks)

“The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.” ~ Psalm 16:5

“Resolved - to live with all my might while I do live [and] never to lose one moment of time, to improve it in the most profitable way I can.”

Do it because you can.

Work, work, WORK

For those that haven’t heard yet, I GOT MY JOB! I was tremendously excited and then began to panic a little. I’m a worrier, and I never believe in myself as much as other people. So far it has been good. The first day was a little crazy and I was a little freaked out, but then the next morning my manager acted like I had already learned all the computer junk. (Except for special things). So today I started learning how to change film! She showed me how the day before and I really wasn’t sure about it, and then today I made myself practice once while not looking at it, and then she stuck the stuff in the dark bag and I got to change it in there. It’s sooo hard because you can’t see where any of your stuff is, where any of the tiny slots are, and if everything is good, and you MUST NOT OPEN THE BAG until your film is firmly in the canister. I did it very well though, and she wanted me to change the real roll tonight but we didn’t have time. Next Saturday though! YIKES. I will be so glad when they move into the 21st century and get digital. Good grief. EVERYONE went digital YEARS ago!!! Anyway. That’s one of the many things I don’t understand about this job. That and the fact that they STILL USE DOS. How insane is that? Windows has been around since before I was born. Ok folks? We are now in the 21st century. MOVE ON. Haha, sorry, I had to rant a little there.

The hours have been…much. Which is fine but just looong when

• You haven’t worked in almost a year and:
• When you did work it was THREE HOURS A WEEK. (Which was why I no longer work at the Horrid Chicken Place)

I got to move on to the picture taking portion of the training! That was cool. My manager showed me how to work everything (it is the easiest part of the job…I think if a job is that easy it shouldn’t have so much paperwork and codes and blah blah blahs! Hehe, another vent there!). She assigned me three shots of a “non-sitter” (baby who can’t sit up), three “sitters” (baby who can sit up), and one whateva’ shot. So it was my job to practice on a teddy bear. Absolutely fun except I made the mistake of doing a cute pose for the package and so that makes less in the optionals that people would pay the big bucks for. (I could majorly vent about that one!) My manager said that when I was done she would “tear the pictures apart” and tell me what I did wrong. But when we looked at them she was really impressed and said that I could definitely pose. Woohoo! I almost asked to buy the pictures of the teddy but decided I didn’t want to pay that much money. All in all it’s been fun and today was not as stressful as I thought it would be.

The things that have made me smile after a long day at work are:

• Friday: Knowing I made Kaysie’s day
• Saturday: Watching this video:

Glam Girl

Lakeside Sunset

Authentic Beauty

Rusty Portraits

The most random places can be fantastic backdrops. For example? This empty, rusty, abandoned pool! Thanks for being a good sport Aimee!

A Wonderful Vacation

For the last couple of months I have been planning a weekend get-away at a friend’s cottage. It was so relaxing and enjoyable! Friday I spent half the day at my brother’s work and then The Burg (my nickname for her) came to pick me up. After much suprise over my lack of exsessive luggage we started off on our Sisterchick adventure! Friday afternoon found me resting comfortably in the corner of the intern’s office at the Supreme Court of Geoirgia (where Burrks). The afternoon was filled with reading, a little sleeping, and taking pictures.  After she got done with work we took a little trip across the street to the capital building. A very nice clerk of something or other unlocked the congress (?) for us, and we got to see that, and then went and looked at the senate. It was very interesting.

We finally got to the cottage where we discovered that we were locked outside. Her sister had just left for the evening, their landlord was not home, and we were stuck. We finally pried open a window and she climbed through. The evening found us eating gluten-free pizza (very yummy!), and watching chick-flicks.

Saturday we just relaxed. We got up late, ate brunch outside on the porch, and then sat outside reading and writing letters. I got a teensy bit sunburnt, but it was absolutely gorgeous. We sat around the house the rest of the afternoon. I read and she journaled. We went and picked up another chick-flick and I called my family while we were driving around. Then we had gluten-free pasta (better than regular pasta I think!) outside, and then had a sunset photoshoot. Stay tuned for that this week. We watched a couple of movies, talked, and then I went to bed, cried a little, and wrote an article (stay tuned next week). All in all it was a tremendously fun and relaxing weekend! Thanks Burgy!

And now…Burgy Quotes! (and yes, I carried around a piece of paper all weekend because she said incredibly funny things and I have incredibly bad short term memory problems. )

“”Oh Yay! We can get in the SUV lane!!!” (she meant HOV, lol)

“I’m having a klutzy moment here.”

“Touch my nose!”

“Well it was funny when Rachel did it.”

“Maybe some kind of tradgedy prevents them from cleaning up their yard.”

“*Giggle*”

Me: “Aimee, God put the sticks there!”

Her: “I know, but He didn’t mean to!”

Thank you for a wonderful weekend Burgy!