Wednesday, January 17, 2024

10 Lessons from College

 Hello friends!

Here's 10 lessons I learned from college. Maybe they can be an encouragement to you today.

1. Ministry happens in the context of relationships.
2. Time is short, so enjoy the season of life you’re in right now. Don’t always be looking toward the next season and miss the blessings of the current season you’re in.
3. Have a routine of set sleep.
4. Don’t wait till last minute to do things.
5. Prioritize relationships.
6. Get out of your comfort zone and meet new people. Somebody is probably waiting for you to reach out to him.
7. Have your time with God every day no matter what.
8.  You can NOT trust your feelings, and there are absolutes.
9. Encouragement and healing go together. When people serve, life is no longer meaningless.
10. Focus on the blessings, good things. It’s easy to find the bad – choose to look for the positive! 😊

Friday, January 12, 2024

Endings & Beginnings

 Life is full of endings and beginnings. They're a part of life, but it can be hard to adjust to  new things, especially for someone like me who doesn’t necessarily like a lot of change. The college chapter of my life is closed. It was great while it lasted, and I have so many precious memories from my time there. Now I’m in a new chapter. In November, my friend from Honduras (her family are missionaries there) told me about another missionary family about five hours away from her that needed a 1st grade teacher for their school. Long story short, I started praying about it and God opened my heart and the door to go to Honduras. I’ve read countless books about {mostly} foreign missionaries through the years and have always admired their tenacity to follow God wherever he lead them. Even though I've always been open to being a foreign missionary, I never actually thought that would be a part of my life. But now, here I am. A real live missionary, as the missionary lady told me when she picked me up at the airport.  :) I arrived here on January 4th and started teaching school on Monday, the 8th.  Since being here, I’ve learned so much about teaching, about Hondurans, and about this beautiful country. My 9 little students already have my heart – I love them so much and am praying for two kid’s salvations. The rest of them are saved. I don’t have wifi at my house, only at the school, so I won’t be able to post as much as I’d like. But I do hope to pop in every so often to say hi and write a short update. Honduras is quite different than the United States, but I love it. Serving God and following him wherever he leads won’t always be easy, but it will ALWAYS be worth it. So my encouragement to you today is this: Keep serving, keep following. Don’t give up even if there’s opposition and people are against you. Just keep doing every day what you know God wants you to do. There’s nothing better than having perfect peace in your heart that you’re exactly where God wants you. Sure everyone’s job will look different. But God uses people in all places to spread the light of the gospel and his love. 

Lamentations 3:51 ~ Mine eye affecteth mine heart... 

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Polished Rocks

Recently I received a green, polished rock. 
It may seem like an odd token, but every time I look at it, I'm reminded of God's faithfulness (specifically in this chapter of my life that's about to close) and that he isn't finished with me yet. Nor is he finished with you, friend. He's working to smooth out the rough edges so one day we'll be smooth, polished rocks. He is faithful to finish the work he started in us. He's in the refining process, and even though it's not always fun, it's necessary. Philippians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"
God can take what we are with all our pain and imperfections and make us what he wants us to be. The end result is more valuable than any comfort or absence of problems. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." 
Sometimes it takes the hard things to change into what we should be. And oh, how thankful I am that God isn't finished with me yet. I'm reminded of this song, 'He Didn't Throw the Clay Away.'

He is the potter, and I am the clay. 
Molded in his image, he wants me to stay. 
When I stumble and fall, and my vessel breaks,
He just picks up the pieces, he doesn't throw the clay away.

Over and over, he molds me and makes me.
Into his likeness, he fashions the clay. 
A vessel of honor, I am today,
All because Jesus didn't throw the clay away. 

Do you have a token of God's faithfulness in your life? What reminds you that he's still working on you? 


Thursday, November 23, 2023

Wishing You the Happiest of Thanksgivings!

 Happy Thanksgiving friend! 
I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with family and/or friends. As we reflect on this day, what is something you're especially thankful for? 
I'm so thankful for God's goodness and constant faithfulness in my own life. I'm thankful for not only the sunshiny days that God allows, but also for the stormy days. Even through storms, God brings blessings, and he always remains the same. He's enriched my life with so many sweet gifts, and I'm so glad we get to take a day to pause and remember. 
Isaiah 51:6 says, "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." I read this verse today and it reminded me of the constancy of God. The heavens, earth, and those that live on earth will fade away, but God's salvation and righteousness will remain forever. What an awesome promise! 

"Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home. 
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied. 
Come to God's own temple, come; raise the song of harvest home."

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise him, all creatures here below. 
Praise him above, ye heav'nly host. 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
Amen. 


Isaiah 25:1
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 


Friday, November 17, 2023

Cincinnati, Ohio Trip ~ July 2023

Here's the next installment of the summer Kentucky adventures. :) 

On the 12th of July, my friend Debby and I drove to Cincinnati, Ohio to explore. We parked and walked along the river, then over a bridge. Enjoy this chronological picture journey of our day. 🙂 (Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge.) 


"American Queen Paddlewheel"
The American Queen paddlewheel is a tribute to the grandest steamboat ever built. The American Queen was constructed during 1995 by the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, which traces its roots back to the Green Line Steamers founded in 1890. The centerpiece of the National Steamboat Monument is an exact replica of the three-story paddlewheel steamboat in the world. Cincinnati continues to welcome the Delta Queen Steamboat Company tourist boats throughout the spring, summer, and fall each year. 
Our first stop was to walk the John Roebling Suspension Bridge. You can see it off in the distance in the picture. It spans the Ohio river, connecting Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky.
A bit of history at this place. 



Lots of beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. 






Views from the suspension bridge...
At first we were only going to walk halfway across the bridge, but seeing the murals off in the distance intrigued us so we walked the whole way. :) 




Each mural was masterfully well-done; a piece of history with a date and title attached to it. This first one was called The Great Buffalo Road: 1800 B.C. 
1782
 G. Rogers Clark, Simon Keinton, & Daniel Boone: Meeting at the Point
1805
Kennedy's Ferry
1856
The Flight of the Garner Family
1862
Pontoon Bridge
Jacob Price ~ African American Community Leader
1867
Vision and Ingenuity
1890s
Henry Farney (1847-1916) & Frank Duveneck (1848-1919): Artists in Residence
1921
Latonia Racetrack
1840s ~ 1940s
German Heritage of Northern Kentucky
Covington: Religious Heritage
1913
"Play Ball" ~ The City of Covington
1914
Centennial 
1922
Daniel C. Beard: Founder of Boy Scouts of America
1937 Flood
1951
Devou Park
2008
Covington Riverfront Tall Stacks Celebration
John A. Roebling: Designer of the Covington Cincinnati Suspension Bridge.
Amos Schinkle: Financier 

These mayflies were everywhere around the murals. They're very interesting insects. 

This suspension bridge was completed in 1865. 

I was impressed with how clean the city and buildings were. There wasn't any graffiti or trash laying around. 
We walked a little bit in Covington, Kentucky, then crossed back over the bridge into Ohio and visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 

This statue is called "Freedom." The inscription by the sculptor on the plaque underneath reads: Mama said, "Go. . .it's our time to be free, too!" With those words, this young boy and his conductor began their trip on the Underground Railroad. But he was so confused...what is this thing called freedom? As the artist, I think these two travelers reached the river and made it to freedom that night. But I have left the details up to you.

Scenes of the city from the top floor in the museum. 




After the museum, we paused to enjoy some great food and fellowship at Taste of Belgium. 

We went back by the museum, even though it had closed, and read some memorials they have out in front. Here's a piece of the Berlin Wall. The inscription says: 
On August 13, 1961, the totalitarian government of East Germany split Berlin with a wall of concrete. Free expression of thought disappeared. From 1961 to 1989, some 130 people were killed attempting to escape through this brutal barrier to freedom. Many others were injured. In the autumn of 1989, hundreds of thousands of East Germans began peaceful marches against the oppressive regime. These courageous acts of resistance were inspired by the civil rights movement in the United States. Their chant was 'wir sind das volk,' We are the peopleimplicitly a reference to the United States Constitution. Ultimately the Berlin Wall could not withstand the desire for freedom and on November 9th, 1989, the wall fell. This section of the wall, a gift of the City of Berlin, honors those who have died seeking freedom without walls. 


Reds Stadium
The building architecture is just amazing! 


Debbie and I really enjoyed walking through the downtown admiring the old [church] buildings.









We saw many pig statues in the city...
Including this Hamlet, established in 2001.😅


More beautiful buildings.



In a different part of the city, we saw this little bird enjoying someone's leftover food. And that concludes the end of that daytrip. 
Here are a few more pictures of the sky and some from a lake a friend and I visited. 

This was my view on the way to work. 

This is Boltz Lake, named after Dr. A. W. Boltz who was Kentucky's first conservation officer in 1904. 


This dog appeared at the lake and swam after sticks we threw in the water. He was super sweet and we enjoyed playing with him. I couldn't help but take lots of pictures. 






That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed. 😊