For the last couple of weeks my pastor and his family have been in China to finalize the adoption of their little girl. Thanks to technology, our church family has been able to follow David, Heather and the boys as they blog from China about their latest adoption journey, and it's been humbling and encouraging to read their posts.
Today was a pretty big day for Melanie and me because, well, we hopped on a flight to Ecuador.
Yes. Ecuador.
So basically, you know, it was just a regular Monday for us.
Why, sure.
Needless to say, the whole going-to-Ecuador thing is totally new to both of us, but we're excited to travel again with Compassion International and praying that children's lives will be changed as a result. We'll be blogging every single day that we're away - along with our friends Shaun Groves, Amanda Jones, Patricia Jones, Kelly Stamps and Ann Voskamp - and you can follow our trip on the Compassion Bloggers site.
(Rumor has it that we'll be taking a 40-minute canoe ride to get to one of the Compassion projects, so we'd be mighty grateful if you'd remember us in your prayers.)
(I mean, I can't speak for the rest of the team, but the nature and I occasionally find ourselves at odds with each other.)
We'll be checking in while we're gone - hope y'all have a great week!
- This week a group of Compassion Bloggers is in the Philippines. This post by Shaun Groves is so powerful. It's such a reminder about how numb we become to poverty in other countries - and how numb we become to the abundance in our own.
This morning I saw a comment from Kathryn that asked how she could subscribe to this blog. I opened up a new blog post so that I could answer, and then I realized Hold on - I have no idea how she can subscribe to this blog. Since I subscribed way back when AllAccess first started, it just pops up in my Google Reader every day - but I couldn't remember what process I went through to make that happen.
The cobbler has no shoes, y'all.
The cobbler has no shoes.
Anyway, I did a little investigating in my Google Reader, and I realized that you can't just type in the simple URL of this blog (http://lifeway.com/allaccess) and activate a subscription. It's a teensy bit more complicated than that. You have to use this URL to subscribe:
You can also click on the orange RSS feed button over to the right (underneath the video) if you want to subscribe through whatever feed reader you have on your computer.
None of this makes any logical sense to me, by the way. I sort of operate under the philosophy that if you click on something enough times, it will eventually work.
Perhaps this is why I do not earn a living in the field of tech support.
Anyway, if you have any subscription-related problems, let us know - we may not know how to fix them, but we'll try to find someone who can.
- How important is it to wait on God's timing in ministry? You'll find the answer to that question on the Women Reaching Women blog (it's an excellent post).
- This week Vicki Courtney is filming (taping? I'm not so good with the techy lingo) the DVD study for 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Son. I know she'd appreciate our prayers!
So for the last several days I've been taking an antibiotic that leaves me feeling slightly on the side of foggy and muddled and dazed. I don't know what it is about this particular medicine, but I can't concentrate. Can't stay on a train of thought for longer than about fifteen seconds and then suddenly I'm all, "LOOK, Y'ALL! SOMETHING SHINY!"
And then: "Well, now I'm exhausted. I think I'll go take a nap."
Anyway, this blog post is going to be perfectly suited for my current state of mind, because I just need to share several completely unrelated bits of information. Which is ideal for me right now because, hey, IS THAT A PENNY?
- It's time for the second memory verse of the year for the LPL Siesta Scripture Memory Team. If you haven't joined the fun yet, it's not too late!
- Don't forget about registering for .MOM, which will be in Birmingham on September 23-24 - that weekend be here before you know it! We'll have more info soon about break-out sessions, and while everybody else is ironing out al the serious details, Melanie and I will be working on a special clogging routine for the .MOM festivities. We feel that we can add something really special to the platform by showing off some of our sah-weet dance moves. Don't tell her I told you, but I have it on pretty good authority that Mel has a mean wagon wheel at her disposal.
(And I just made all of that up, of course.)
(But now that I think about it, the whole clogging idea might just have some promise.)
Our little family just got home from our first big round of Christmas festivities. We had big fun with my husband's family last night, with my aunt and cousins today at lunch, and this afternoon we went to see my husband's grandmother - who's about to celebrate her 101st Christmas.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST. Can y'all believe that?
Tomorrow will be jam-packed with open houses and church and cooking, and on Christmas Day my parents will drive over after watching my nephews open their presents in Memphis Christmas morning. We won't get to see my sister and her husband until the end of next week, but that actually works out pretty well since we'll be together when we watch our beloved Mississippi State Bulldogs play in the Gator Bowl. We can't wait. We may even ring our cowbells in the house.
Don't put it past us. :-)
So that's basically what the holidays look like for our family - lots of time with the relatives, lots of time with sweet friends, and by God's grace a fresh sense of awe and wonder when we think of that Baby in a manger, of Emmanuel, God with us. He is everything, isn't He?
Blessings on this Christmas from our family to yours!
A couple of days ago Beth Moore, her daughter Melissa and a group of staff members and volunteers from Living Proof Ministries hopped on a plane and flew to Israel.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there are probably nine or maybe even twelve people on that trip who are well-familiar with Scripture.
And in all seriousness, can you even imagine how much fun they're having? How much they're learning? What a fresh reminder they're getting of who the Lord is and what He's done for us?
Sweet mercy. Just typing about their trip is about to make me break out in a chorus of "How Great Thou Art."
Anyway, if you'd like to follow along with what Beth and the group are doing in the Holy Land, you'll be happy to know that you can do just that over at the LPM blog. It's the next best thing to being there.
About five months ago I posted a list of LifeWay Women folks who use Twitter, and a couple of y'all left comments that said something along the lines of "HELLO, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TWITTER, THANK YOU."
And do you know what? I totally understood where y'all were coming from. Because there was a point in time when I didn't really get Twitter, either.
But now? I think it's a delightful little addition to my web routine. It's a great way to share funny things that happen to you throughout the day (things that might not merit a whole blog post), and it's also a great way to share an incredible deal or an interesting news story that you find online.
More than anything, though, Twitter gives all of us the opportunity to make connections with a wide range of people. If you have a question or comment for someone but don't have his or her email address, Twitter is a great way to try to make contact. All you have to do is to make sure you put the @ sign in front of his or her username (ex. @paigegreene Loved the You & Your Girl event in Olive Branch!).
I wasn't in Olive Branch or Tucson this past weekend for Y&YG or Living Proof Live, but Twitter helped bridge the distance. The updates and pictures from the LifeWay teams in each place provided a fun way to keep in touch with sweet friends.
And if you decide to jump on board the Twitter train, I think you'll feel the same way.
So once again, here's our (semi-exhaustive) Twitter list.
I'm in the middle of working on a post about fear (in addition to struggling with fear, I am also scared to death of it - so you can imagine what a delight and a joy I am in moments of anxiety). But since it's taking a little longer than I expected to pull all the words into sentences and paragraphs that actually make sense, I thought I'd share a few links that may interest you if you're familiar with the faces at LifeWay's women's events.
- Travis Cottrell and his family have been on a great adventure with God for the last couple of months. Here's part one of the story; you can use his sidebar to click through to the other six (yes, I said SIX) parts. So, so encouraging.
- Don't forget about Beth Moore's So Long, Insecurity discussion group over at her blog. It's just week two, so you have plenty of time to catch up if you're just getting started.
When I was a new blogger, way back in ye olden days of early 2006, I joined an online blogger Bible study. About 15 of us worked through Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself, and through that study I made some of my very first bloggy friends.
One of those friends was a girl named Robin, and I was thrilled to pieces that I got to see Robin again last weekend at Deeper Still in Oklahoma City. We hadn't seen each other in about 3 1/2 years, so when I spied her walking across the arena floor, I'm pretty sure that I squealed. Or maybe I yelped.
Robin was with Cindy, another bloggy friend of mine. Both of them are married to men who are on staff at Life Church outside of OKC, and Robin and Cindy have actually gotten to know Pam and Paige (over there in the right-hand corner) through their ministry connections. Not to mention Twitter.
Confused yet?
ANYWAY, because of all those connections, the Nashville LifeWay girls (Pam, Paige, Kris & Teresa) and the Life Church girls ended up at a post-Deeper Still dinner Saturday night. I was tickled to tag along, and I had the best time catching up with Robin and Cindy. And as an added bonus, I got to yell occasionally at the Alabama/Florida football game that was playing on TVs in the restaurant. It was a DELIGHTFUL evening.
We even took a picture.
That's Kris, Pam, Priscilla, Cindy, Robin, me, Paige and Teresa.
Melanie
Melanie
Sophie
Sophie
Paige
Paige
Kris
Kris