Friday

Today you wept.

Today you were betrayed.

Today you were unfairly tried.

Today you were as silent as a sheep led to the slaughter.

Today you were scorned.

Today you were spat on.

Today you were hated.

Today you were beaten to the point of un-recognition.

Today you were abandoned.

Today you were denied.

Today you stood alone.

Today everyone stood against you.

Today you were traded.

Today you carried your cross.

Today you were crucified.

Today you did all things willingly.

Today you suffered.

Today you had compassion.

Today you breathed your last.

Today you claimed it to be finished.

Today you took my sin.

Today you took my shame.

Today you took my guilt.

Today I remember the cost of my freedom.

Today is Good Friday.

And There Was Light

So, as much as I love our new apartment there are a few things about it that I'm not a fan of. One of those things is that there are no overhead lights in any of the rooms except the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. Which leaves the two bedrooms and living room with a necessity for light producing objects. We got the bedrooms taken care of with lamps we already owned, but we were unsure about what we wanted to do for the living room. So for the last month and a half the lights from the dinning room and kitchen have been the lights we've had on at night to try and illuminate the living room. Which has left the living room fairly dim.

But thankfully I have a new friend here, Beth Randall, and she has some creative juices flowing through her veins. So over the last few weeks we have been brain storming some lamp ideas and we finally came up with one we liked. We spent a Sunday afternoon with my other new friend, Gracie McGeehon (Beth's sister), and retrieved all of our parts and built our creation.

It began with 6 Dollar Store frames.

We added fabric. 

Attached them to a wooden embroidery hoop. 

And the shade was complete! 

Then we simply used twine and attached it to our awesome looking rope which held the light fixture. 

 And then we hung it up!

Here's our victory picture! 

And here is Eddie mesmerized by the awesomeness of the lamp.

I think this may very well be one of the coolest things I have ever worked on. Thanks Beth and Gracie for your help in bringing some light into our lives!

Safely Home

I just got done reading a book called "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn and I think I would say that it is probably one of the most influential books I have ever read. I know, that's some high praise for a book. But let me explain.

For me, I resonate with books that tell stories, either fiction or non-fiction. Not that I don't like or am not affected by theological or instructive books, I just find myself more convicted and changed by stories. For example, I am more convicted by my lack of faith when I read about Hudson Taylor than I am when I read a book about faith, how to have it, and what it does in my life. When I see faith, grace, love, etc lived out in other people, fictional or not, I am affected more than if I just read books that talk about faith, grace, love, etc. And because of that, I tend to read more biographies and Christian fiction.

"Safely Home" is a fictional story based on some real life events and people. Here is a short synopsis:

Executive Ben Fielding hits upon a perfect plan: he will make his company millions of dollars by using Chinese labor to manufacture its electronic components. To kickstart his plan, he visits China, where he stays with college roommate Li Quan, whom he hasn't seen in over 20 years. From Li, Ben learns that his initial impressions of China from his research and from visits over the years are false, but Ben doesn't believe Li's stories of the persecution of Christians until Li is taken to jail. As Ben rediscovers Jesus through Li's faith, he discovers the truth that God does not promise an easy life on Earth, only eternal happiness after death.

I don't want to give away too much of the story, so I won't give specifics. But I was convicted of a lack of reliance on and love for Jesus Christ, a lack of love for the lost, too much love for the comforts of the world, and not setting my eyes and my heart on eternity and eternal things.

If you enjoy reading a good book and want your faith and your heart stirred and refreshed for Jesus, I recommend reading this book. And if you do read I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Jehovah Jireh

"Give us today our daily bread." Matthew 6:11

The truth that the Lord will provide for me is probably the one truth my heart has the hardest time believing in. When circumstances arise in my life where I think I won't have what I need, my heart goes immediately into panic and manipulation mode. And it's taken me to evil places in the past.

Thankfully, the Lord is gracious and wants me to have a solid faith in his provision and so he keep pushing that tender place in my heart. Here's the most recent example of that.

Last Friday I took our car into Breaks Plus for an check-up and oil change because we got a coupon in the mail for $25. They first came out to tell me that the breaks were almost at a critical point, that they needed to be changed and that it would cost about $500. I called Eddie and he said that he could take care of the breaks and to just have them do the oil change. And so that's what they did. But then as they were ready to pull the car out of the garage and give it back to me, it wouldn't start and "made a clanking noise" according to the mechanic.

Long story short, after being there for 3.5 hours they determine that the timing chain probably broke and that it was going to be about $600 to fix. After calling Eddie (in tears) he told me to leave the car there for the night and that he would deal with it tomorrow. Eddie and several others were quite suspicious that our car just up and broke while at the mechanic and so he wanted to go in and get the story from them directly.

So on Saturday, Eddie and I went back to Breaks Plus and ended up having the most weird conversation with a guy that worked there who is also a youth pastor at a local church. He was clearly very excited about the Lord and even wanted him and his girlfriend to hang out with us sometime. So though we walked suspicious in ready take our car somewhere else, we left in faith trusting that this guy was genuine and really wanted to take care of us like he said he did.

And the Lord is faithful and does provide. It turns out that they weren't trying to pull a fast one over on us. There really was a problem with our timing chain and it's the Lord's good plan that it broke there. If we had been driving the car while it broke, it could have done serious damage to our engine and we might have been in an accident. Our car was fixed by Monday and they even gave us a huge discount. We are very thankful for our new friend Kevin who was a tool for God's provision in our lives. Our car runs great and is even more safe now than it was before.

Thank you, Jesus, for taking care of us. And thank you for refining my faith.

Officially an Arizonan

So, I think I can officially call us "Arizonans" now that we have an apartment and are completely unpacked. To check out our new apartment you can watch the video tour here. Yeah, it's pretty great.

The whole moving process was crazy. We finally got our proof of income from Eddie's employer on Thursday, Jan 20th (read about that story here) and we took it straight to the apartment complex. We got our application completed and were told that we could have our apartment by Saturday the 22nd. So that Thursday night at midnight we caught a Greyhound bus from Phoenix to Albuquerque. We arrived in NM at about 10am, had breakfast with Eddie's mom, picked up our truck and made it to Eddie's parents house around 1pm. We rested up for a little while and then loaded our truck. Eddie's mom graciously made us dinner, we spent the night and took off about 8am on Saturday morning. We arrived back in Mesa around 3pm, signed our lease and unloaded our truck with the help of the Pullen's and Gaudy's and spent the next three days unpacking.

So it was a whirlwind of a weekend but I am so thankful that the Lord worked it all out. He has been beyond gracious to us. We have received financial gifts from friends to help us get settled down here. We have been blessed by the Lord answering the prayers of our friends and family for protection and provision for us. And we have been hugely blessed to lock arms with a solid group of men and women down here who love Jesus Christ and yearn for him to be glorified in this city. And though I miss everyone back in Fort Collins I really believe that God has transitioned our hearts and made a home for us here in Arizona.

So Colorado, you were a great place to live and we were blessed to be Coloradoans. But our relationship with you must change and we can no longer be claimed or labeled by you. It's not you, it's us. We've been called elsewhere. Our memories of our time with you will always be with us, but we are out to make new memories. We are now Arizonans.

The Apartment Dilemma

God has been really good to us. Eddie and I both got jobs within 2 weeks of being here. (Eddie is working in the tech department at Mesa Community College.) We've also been so blessed to have the hospitality of the McGeehon family; I'm pretty sure that they would have us living here permanently if they could.

But my heart yearns for my own home. We have been "couch hopping" now for about 7 weeks and I am ready to have our own place with our own bed and our own stuff. I also really want to be able to use our place for inviting people over for meals and coffee, but I can't really do that when I am the invited guest. So although we have been truly blessed by the hospitality of our brothers and sisters in Christ, I am ready to get an apartment.

We didn't want to get an apartment before we got jobs here, since that seemed unwise, but within 48 hours of being here I had been hired at Paradise Bakery, so we started our apartment search. We looked at a couple different places and decided that we wanted to live in the same apartments as the Gaudy's (who had already signed a lease) and so we started the paperwork with The Montego Apartments. But most apartment complexes want proof of your income in order to approve you. After explaining our situation and showing a bank statement of how much we have in savings they said that we just needed income proof for one of us.

And so it began. Apparently Paradise uses a third party company to provide proof of employment and income, but because I haven't actually gotten paid yet I can get the proof we need from that company. So that has been a dead end. But thankfully Eddie was also hired and so we decided to get proof of his employment instead. And yesterday we were so close. Eddie went in and got a signed letter from his HR department and we took it over to the apartment. But we left the apartments dejected after being told that the information the apartment needed wasn't in the letter Eddie was given.

I was so disheartened. I had really thought that yesterday would be the day when we would finally be able to put in our application and hopefully have our apartment by this weekend. And I realized by the way that my heart was reacting to the situation that I needed to give this whole apartment thing up to the Lord. I wanted an apartment so badly that I was unwilling to trust in his timing for when we would actually get one. So after a little alone time with the Lord and some gospel preaching to my heart, I was able to repent of my lack of faith and put it back into my Saviors hands.

Today we plan on trying again. We'll drive back to Eddie's work and see if they can put the pertinent information into another letter for us. And by God's grace we'll be able to finally get the ball rolling on our apartment. But if it doesn't happened today, then I will praise the Lord that we are not homeless and that we have a place to stay as long as we need it. God has provided even if it isn't exactly the way I want him to.

So Much Citrus!

Never before have I lived in a place where I could walk outside into the back yard and pick fruit at will. But here in AZ, I can! The McGeehon's have a really awesome house with a big beautiful back yard filled with citrus trees.

 A lemon tree, from which they make fresh lemonade.

      Grapefruit Trees

(Eddie has been enjoying fresh grapefruit for breakfasts)

       Orange Trees

    And Tangerine Trees 

 And I can just walk out and pick whatever I want! It's Amazing!

                                                  

I'm liking Arizona! You all should come visit us and we'll send you home with some fruit!

Arizona Update

I am writing from sunny Mesa, AZ, where the sky is clear and it's a nice 63 degrees outside (which is apparently a little chilly for winter). We've been here for about 5 days and it's already starting to feel like home.

The first night we arrived a bunch of people had a potluck for us at Owen and Shirley McGeehon's house (Owen is the other pastor of the church down her). We met a bunch of people from the church and felt very welcomed. We've also been staying at the McGeehon's, which has been really fun. We've taught them how to play 50 and the List Game.

I got a job at Paradise Bakery. I barely had to work for it. My manager from Panera called down and told the manager here that she should hire me... and so she did. I have orientation this Wednesday and will be able to start training after that. So that is a definite answer to prayer and we are thankful for God's quick provision.

Eddie is still looking for a job. He has been really faithful in sending out his resume and applying for jobs. So we could still use prayers for that. I am praying that Eddie will find a job that he really enjoys, will provide for a family and one that he will be able to have for many years. And we would like to wait on getting an apartment until he finds a job.

So there's a quick update on how things are going for us. God has been so good to us in this transition and so we praise him for that. But we also still need him in so many ways, so thank you for your prayers.

And here are a few pictures from our drive. These are all in northeastern AZ. Sorry the quality isn't so good, I took them on my phone.