Pray for Matt and his family!

PRAYER alert! Last week I mentioned Matt who is stepping in as our Network/System administrator. This weekend, his dad was admitted to the hospital with heart attack symptoms. Two of his three boys were sick with the stomach flu this morning. We just got an email update saying that Matt has taken one of the boys to the ER with severe stomach cramps and low blood pressure. And Matt just got word that his dad is having five-way bypass surgery in the next two days.

PLEASE keep Matt and his family in your prayers. Pray for healing for his dad and the boys and for peace and guidance as Matt takes care of his family here and travels back to AR to be with his parents during the surgery time. (Matt is an only child, so he really needs to be there.)

Continuing on

I didn't want to leave you hanging - thanks for all your prayers! A lot of people have been praying and I'm doing better. Still tired. And still working on it.

Praise God for a clean room and a clean house and a clean bathroom and grocery shopping done. And praise God for helpful staff at Tom Thumb grocery store who give me the discount even when I mess up the silly coupon deals.

I'm off to nap.

*sighs* And now I just discovered small wood-type ants swarming around my bedroom window.

One of those day

It was one of those days... If you would have peeked in my room at 6 this morning, you would have found me praying in bed with the light off. Never a good way to start the day. (Warning: emotional female. Guys reading the blog: skip to the end.) I lost my temper at a co-worker (but came back and apologized). I muffed a project that I was planning and found a large hole in a project I thought was finished. I missed my lunch slot (my own fault) and ended up lunching about 3:30. I think I cried more times than I could count before the day was over. I cried for a friend whose sister passed away and cried for guilt over my own failures and for sorrow over broken relationships and for shame over my own emotions and for despair over my inability to hear the Lord's voice. And just generally cried. The ladies on staff had a time of worship and teaching this evening. I cried some more as I ran the sound system.

(Guys can pick back up here.) I was getting ready to head home after Ladies' Meeting when I received a phone call from one of my roommates already at home. "Ants!" she cried. "There are ants streaming into our kitchen from the skylight. Huge ants! More than I can count!"

Well, I figured out how to get up on our roof, but without caulking tools, the best thing to do will be call the landlord in the morning.

*insert 20 minutes of fixing box fan* With the house reaching 80 degrees during the day, the girls have asked about keeping it a little cooler. We'll try opening up the house at night and see if that helps. I just didn't realize the box fan was broken. But the girls' room backs up to an alley and we're just a block from a six-lane road. The noise level is a little loud at night to keep their window open, so we'll have to pray for another solution.

Lord, it's a good thing your mercies are new every morning. In about 15 minutes, the new morning is going to arrive and I'll be needing a huge batch of mercy for this next day. Would you please help?

His strength is perfect

His strength is perfect when my strength is gone.

He'll carry me when I can't carry on.

Raised in His power, the weak become strong.

His strength is perfect.

His strength is perfect.

Kansas and Beyond

Another week has started -- another week that you and I get to labor together and intercede for those who have never heard the good news of Christ. Praise God!

He is Risen! Easter weekend brought a trip to Kansas with Cas and Jes. All of my younger siblings were there and the weather was beautiful. We slept, read, played tetherball, had a wiener roast at Grandmother's house, picked the nutmeats out of black walnuts, bought a new chain for my heart necklace, enjoyed cherry limeades at the Irwin-Potter soda fountain, and enjoyed Mother's coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, and fresh baked bread. Yum, yum!

This week has already brought its challenges. My half-day high school help was out of the office today and our new Desktop Admin was out sick. Praise God that one of our Thursday volunteers was in the office when the video mac refused to boot up. The Thurs. volunteer was the only one who knew the magic combination to make it all happy!

This week's lesson to try to remember: I don't have to feel overwhelmed. I take those emotions to the Lord and ask Him for his direction each day. And He shows me. And I can trust Him. I get to be faithful to what He asks me to do. And trust.

....oh! but sometimes it is so hard!

IT and Kansas

First things first - Cas (one of my interns) had her birthday today! We celebrated with supper out and Bible study over scones and tortes. Happy Birthday, Cas!

I mentioned "staff changes in IT" and our desperate need for staff in a previous post. Here's a quick rundown. Our Desktop Admin was transitioned out of IT two weeks ago to start GFA's Spanish department. Our main Helpdesk and backup person ended up leaving the ministry last week. And this week the news was announced that our Network/System Admin is moving to Canada to help lead our office (not the IT) up there.

Three staff transitioning out in ten days. Praise God for Matt who is stepping in as our Network/System Admin! Matt has been in the GFA office for only 7 months or so, but the Lord has given him a lot of grace to learn the heart of the ministry and the leaders quickly. He's been a real blessing to work with!

Please pray for PE as he moves to Canada to lead the work up there. Pray for the Lord's preparation and grace for him and the Canada staff. Pray that they would unite as one family.

Please pray for Eric, Matt, Josh, and myself as we work together to keep things running. Even just this morning, we had three servers having problems for unknown reasons.

On the YEAH! side, I'm heading for Kansas tomorrow to see my family for the three day weekend. And I'm off to bed now. If you read this tonight, pray I sleep well and can get up and pack in the morning. :)

Wiped

I'm pretty wiped this evening. Life has been slower, but full of things to work through. Here's a few updates:

• We attended the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dallas. This wasn't the "official" Dallas parade, but there were supposedly close to 100,000 people attending. Most of the people I talked to were either Wiccan, Goth, or drinking beer. It's perplexing and sad--this day commemorating someone who spent 30 years of his life spreading the Gospel and standing up against the evil of the Druids was mostly celebrated by people through drunk orgy and indecent fantasy. Pray for those people who received tracts or had personal conversations with us. Pray for Rachel and David and Caleb and Cordelia and Shana to know the Lord.
• Praise! My newsletter is 2/3 done! Hopefully I can get it finished up tomorrow and mailed out before this weekend.
• I leave for KS and Easter in three days. My two intern girls Cas and Jes will be coming with me.
• Pray - that I would awake and pray and have time with the Lord in the morning. And for wisdom in preparing for Wed. Bible study.
• Pray - for those I share with to know my heart and that the enemy would not be able to twist my words.
  

Prayer, praise, and more

Just when I thought things couldn't get crazier, they do. Oh well, more on that later.

Praises:

• I was needing to meet with someone today - I've been trying to track her down for three weeks to get a NAS permissions issue figured out. Before I could open my email this morning, the someone stopped by my desk, "just to say hi." That's all? You came all the way to my office just to say "hi"? "Yep, that's it." No hidden agenda? No particular reason? "No, just decided to come say hi." So we spent about 90 minutes and got the permissions issue hashed out. Praise God!
• I got some things done today! Not my newsletter, but other past-due things. :)
• Praise God for a fun time of fellowship with the GFA IT staff this evening over potluck!
  

Prayers:

• Several staff and the interns (including myself) are heading to the Dallas St. Patrick's Day parade tomorrow morning to share our faith and pass out tracts. Pray that the Lord would lead us to the right people and that He would be working in their hearts both before and after.
• Pray that I would have inspiration and "do-it" for my newsletter this weekend!
• Pray that I would have grace and love.

Funniness: I don't usually post links to videos, but this one is an exception. Stop by this nicely written review on scanning pens and watch the first 45 seconds of the video on the left side of the article. Hilarious!

Blog updates

Well, my life is feeling a little overwhelming at the moment, so I'm doing two things (among many). I'm signing off of facebook for a time (too time consuming) and more frequently updating my blog.

Does that sound contradictory? Well, the main reason I've been using facebook is to keep connected and leave random notes for friends. The main (stated) purpose for my blog is to keep in touch with my supporters and let them know how they can pray. I know, I know. I can use facebook for that too. But there are a whole lot of other things I can get distracted with on facebook as well. Why am going to update my blog more often? Because I do covet your prayers.

Random updates:

• I'm using Google Reader to check my friends blogs...and loving it! Very easy to setup!
• Congrats to Me on her new house and phone.
• Congrats (belatedly) to LT on her recent birthday. As soon as I can find those earrings that I bought, I'll mail them to you - I promise!
• Persecution is picking up in Asia. Sign up for the urgent prayer emails to hear about stories as they happen.
• Bhutan is about to become a democracy instead of an absolute monarchy! Elections are scheduled for March 24th. Pray that this will lead to a new openness to share the Gospel.
• Due to recent staff changes in the GFA IT department, I'm taking on additional responsibilities. We need additional staff desperately!
• Pray for: My newsletter to get done, my work to be timely, my focus to be on the Lord, Cas and Jes to grow in the Lord. And (me) not to be overwhelmed!
  

Me getting better.

I'm getting over the sick, but still struggling with a cough and a bit of a headache today. Probably due to a couple late nights.

Had a great time with the Lowry's and the Helms' on Monday night. Papa Murphy's pizza, the Helms' four kids, great fellowship, and a good time of sharing. Very much fun!

A. Lowry is here in the Dallas area getting special contacts for her eyes. When I saw her Tuesday afternoon, she was jumping up and down with excitement. She hadn't seen that well since she was in junior high! PLEASE PRAY for the continued fine tuning for the contacts and for complete healing for her eyes. They are really bad.

Me knows grammar. I know - my use of the word "me" recently has been astonishingly rampant. I'm not even using it to refer to one of my favorite friends. (i.e. Me has moved. I hope Me gets unpacked at her new place soon.)

I know. My grammar is getting worse with time, but I have a question for my grammatical friends to answer.

The light bulb in your kitchen light fixture burns out. You comment on it, saying:
a) That light bulb needs replaced.
b) That light bulb needs to be replaced.
c) That light bulb needs replacing.

Which would you normally say and which is grammatically correct?