Grateful Friday

Well, thanks to Jamie's perseverance, I now present you with my Grateful Friday list.
Praise God for:

• A great visit at LeTourneau this week!
• His grace and questions in Bible study!
• Supper with Summer and Casey (and awesome chicken pot pie)!
• The start of plans to take two weeks in the spring to travel and visit supporters!
• Plans for my friend Jacy to come to KS with me for Thanksgiving.
• Using Jessie and I to encourage a random lady at the post office.
• Empty helpdesk inbox! Well, during Monday and Tuesday at least...
• The promise of God to send more laborers into the harvest field.
• Dad being almost finished drilling wheat.

(I love you, Daddy!)

Visit to LeTourneau U.

I was so excited today to get to represent GFA at LeTourneau University's career fair. Three of us GFA staff left Carrollton at 5am and drove the 2.5 hours to Longview, TX where we set up our display and ate an amazing continental breakfast. It was a blessed day - the Lord brought so many young people by the table who had a heart for the Lord and a desire to serve. Pray that the Lord would lead us to the right people to come as summer 2009 interns - web people and IT people especially.

We had five awesome LeTourneau interns at GFA this past summer. They had been busy spreading the word - thanks, guys! I'm excited to see how many of the LeTourneau students might make it to all-night prayer meeting next Friday! (Come on... you know you want to come...)

"It was the Lord"

There are days when that's all you can say: "It was the Lord, not me." Here's a few recent examples...

• Peace the last several days. Thank you guys for praying! I know that many of you have been reading between the lines (or in the lines) and seen how stretched and overwhelmed I've been. This week has been so much better!
• Striving Lessons from last week. The topic of "the servant of the Lord must not strive" came up in Bible study last week (2 Tim 2), but then it came up again as I was reading chapter 9 of Touching Godliness Through Submission. What timing of the Lord to plan both of those things for the same week!
• Questions for Bible study this week. I was clueless on how to guide discussion for this chapter until we were praying in DT meeting. Then suddenly the questions were there in my head. Whoa - thought I - I didn't even realize that there were three groups of people described in 2 Timothy 3!
• Divine appointment at the post office. Jes and I went to the post office to get my mail this evening. Another lady arrived about the same time to get her mail. She had huge bags under her eyes and was dressed sloppily. My heart was touched and I asked how we could pray for her. She was blown away. She kept muttering, crying, and saying, "Did you plan this? Is this real? Am I dreaming? Who sent you?" Shaken, she left out the door without giving us more than a generic answer of "Of course, I need prayer. Everyone needs prayer." But it was completely evident that God had orchestrated that meeting. You can pray for "Chrissy."
  

Blessings!

Guess what? I have dual screens at the office! Well, one is my laptop screen and one is an external monitor. But I, who used to be highly skeptical of people who needed two monitors, am happily using two monitors. My Office 2007 and Systems Helpdesk forms go on my left monitor and my Office 2003 and Software Development Helpdesk forms go on my right monitor. It makes some things (like new staff/volunteer tickets) go so much faster.

Another blessing - we were over at a friend's house for an Autumn Party with cider and cookies and pumkin cheese cake last Saturday evening. THAT was a blessing in and of itself. But then as we were watching a movie, I started using a friend's lap as a pillow. And she started running her fingers through my hair. And she continued to do that for the entire movie. For those who don't know me, that's about the best gift someone could give me. I was so relaxed at the end. Ahh....

I went to see Wall-E last night at the dollar theater with my cousin and some friends. I think the McDonald's afterwards was more fun.

And we finished writing invites for our tea party this weekend. And I got my reimbursement forms filled out. Now I just need to get my insurance forms filled out for this next year and work on Bible Study and newsletter!

Nike shoes and a New believer

Today was another one of those scary days - evangelism outreach. To be quite honest, I'm always a little scared and intimidated when we set aside time to deliberately witness to strangers. Sharing the Gospel is something that I'm learning to do in my everyday life at the gas station, the grocery store, and other places. But anytime, it's very stretching for me.

Several GFA staff and School of Discipleship students went to a large outdoor market today for evangelism. One of the students and I were paired up as a team, handing out tracts and talking to people. We met and prayed with Jori and Georgette (already Christians) and spoke with several others including Brandon, Tony, and the-lady-who-looked-very-sad-and-spoke-no-English. We continue to pray that the Lord will work in their hearts and bring them to know him.

We also spoke with Elizabeth - a young Hispanic lady who was manning a Nike booth. Short version of the story: Elizabeth didn't really know anything about God or Jesus. We shared the Gospel message and she said she wanted to ask God to forgive her of her sins. I told her she could talk to God just like she talked to a friend. And so she did. "Hi God..."

To be honest, I've never shared the Gospel message with someone who wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior at the end. I keep wondering if I explained things right or if it was all real. I do have her phone number and email address and plan on getting her in touch with a local church (she's about 45 minutes away from where I live). She doesn't know any other Christians. Please pray that God will lead me to a church family that will reach out to her. Pray for her to read the Gospel of John we gave her and for the Lord to make himself real to her. And pray for her dad who has recently returned to a drug and alcohol addiction.

Angels in heaven rejoicing...

GFA School of Discipleship

Quick note. The Road to Reality Intership is changing names, so I'll be referencing things a little differently on the blog.

Road to Reality Internship --> GFA School of Discipleship
Intern Discipleship Team/IDT --> Discipleship Team
interns --> students

Yes, I still work with the program. Yes, I still have two students living with me. They graduate from the one year program in December. Please pray for us to end the year well!

Not really sugar...

Too much sugar isn’t good for me. So when Domain Admin went to get coffee and offered to bring me back a snack, I resisted the urge to ask for a candy bar. So he brought me Horizon’s Chocolate Organic Reduced Fat Milk instead.

Since it’s organic, it doesn’t count as sugar, right?

Yay for...

• Homegrown apples from Yoakum, Texas
• Homemade peanut butter cookies (although, they turned out a little funny... I think the peanut butter we used had a weird amount of fat. The cookies were a little, um, I'm not sure how to describe them. Thick? Heavy? They looked beautiful, but were a little chewy. Except that we had chunky peanut butter. So they were a little crunchy too. You figure it out.)
• Handwritten note from a dear college professor (even if it was to tell me she's at Sterling Presby Manor with a broken leg. Handwritten notes are always wonderful! Oh, and she's planning on moving back to her own home in November, so it's not long term.)
• Kit Kat bar to share with a friend.
• Dark chocolate shared by a friend (and it's a good thing it was in a pink wrapper. Otherwise my cousin would have eaten it!)
• Peace (well, at least when I have it. Which is more often than it was. The servant of the Lord must not strive...)

T-I-R-E-D

Jes and I just finished a delightful game of Scrabble over at a friend's home. She beat us soundly, but it was still fun and we even used some good words: axle, zeal, midges, sludge, bogey, wafer, savor, batches... I ended up with the "z" (zeal), "q" (queen), "w" (wit), and "p" (pout). With church this morning and a nap this afternoon and supper and Scrabble with a friend, it was a good day. I've got a few things to do for work in the morning, but I'll try to go to bed tonight before I catch my second wind. Thanks for your prayers!

Still stretching...

It's been a stretching week for me. Really stretching. Your prayers are always valued.
Small joys/funs of the week:

• Strangely craving banana bread after Thursday's staff meeting and KT delivering an entire loaf to our department!!!
• Gifts of 6 different bars/pieces of chocolate to my desk this week!!!
• Finding Jaime's review of Revolution in World Missions!
• Leftovers available in the Cafe when I took late lunches this week.
• Watching "For the Birds" with Auntie Candy this evening. Squawk!
• Helping Brother K.P. fit his new bluetooth headset.
• Receiving an unexpected financial gift from a college professor.
• Unplanned supper with a friend tonight
• Domain Admin was back today and was perky!
• Going to bed.................

Stop and take time

I talked to my brother-in-law briefly this evening. He was hoping my day had been less busy than the previous two posts. Comparatively, the emails were fewer. I think I only handled about 54 today. But then again, I was only at my desk for about 3 hours in between troubleshooting and working on a special project.

System Admin was back in the office today, but leaves for 10 days starting tomorrow. Domain Admin starts back in the office tomorrow (yay!) but then Network Admin leaves for a week on Sunday. I'm thinking I'll ban any more vacation days for anyone!

With Blackberry setup questions and new cell phone setups taking place and needing clarified this evening, I stopped by my laptop to send out an email or two.

But now - now I get to set aside my rushed day and sit and learn from the Lord. All the intern girls and IDT are getting together and Rach - one of my best friends here - is sharing with us this evening what the Lord has done in her life! I'm so thankful and so blessed!

210 emails?

I felt busy today. I checked my email count at the end of the day and realized I had handled (read, sorted, replied to, touched) around 210 helpdesk emails during the day. With an 8 hour day, that only averages out to 26 or so per hour. That's not a crazy-high amount for helpdesk, but it still classifies as "busy" to me! I made or received about 34 phone calls - probably all but four or five of them were helpdesk related. Between a printer acting up and volunteer logins getting set up and not-so nice database errors, we kept busy!

Someone called with an error that was showing up when they were accessing our main donor database. "MySQL error: Server shutdown in progress" YIKES!

With my Domain Admin on vacation and my Systems Admin out sick the last two days, I'm really looking forward to everyone being back in! Unfortunately, that won't happen for another two weeks...

I was thankful today for the gift of faith - "faith not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." The Lord blessed me with the desire to believe for a specific thing to happen. And even when I couldn't see it happening, the belief and faith was still there. It's amazing how much of a difference faith can make in your outlook.

I believe, God. I believe that you will be glorified in this situation.

"What if [specific thing] looks like it miserably fails? Will you still believe that I will be glorified?"

Yes, God. Even if it looks to me like it a failure, I believe that you will still glorify yourself through this.

Surprise Book Review

It was a pleasant surprise to check my Google reader this evening and find a book review on Revolution in World Missions. Jaime had ordered a copy and read it and posted her thoughts. Wow! We share copies of the book with thousands of people, but it was so encouraging to me to see how the Lord could use it to impact one of my friends. Thank you so much for taking time to share that, Jaime, and for spreading the word.

If you've stumbled here from Jaimer's Blog or just want more information, feel free to use these links to get started:

• Get your free copy of Revolution in World Missions
• Sign up for GFA's email updates
• Find out more about sponsoring a missionary or even sponsoring me.

Camping, Catching, and... some other C-word

Okay, so alliteration is not my gift this evening. I'm not sure I have a gift this evening -- besides procrastinating my outline of II Timothy. Apparently my computer is in league with me because it is refusing to read my brand new SD card. My camera reads it. But my computer won't. And it has camping pictures on it...

The R2R interns and the IDT went camping this Saturday/Sunday at Beaver's Bend State Park in southeastern Oklahoma. We had a great time of canoeing and camping and hiking. It was a delight to wake up in the cool of the morn ("cool morning" doesn't exist in Dallas) and have quiet time by the lake, watching the fog drift gently... We saw lots of wildlife - deer, a walking stick, praying mantis, lots of spiders, and a crow that served as an alarm clock. Too bad he was sitting too far away for us to hit the snooze button!

Work at the office is busy as usual, but I was able to get some work done today. (On days that I don't get "work" done, I'm usually working on emails or phone calls as they come into helpdesk. That really is work too! I guess I need to figure out a better way to word this...) I love my job as helpdesk, but we really do need more staff! I can't keep up with it all.

Persecution and events in the world: It's overwhelming to me. Orissa is still suffering violence against Christians with other 13,000 refugees now in relief camps. Persecution is spreading to Chhattisgarh and other places. Flooding in Bihar, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh has killed 200 and displaced millions. Today's media reported the killing of Christians in Mosul, Iraq. We've received so many updates and stories that they're all beginning to sound the same. I need a fresh heart.

Want to help? Sign up here to be part of the GFA prayer team!

Incomplete

Started to blog. Got distracted. Friday Night Prayer was great. Jes did a wonderful job sharing about her time in India. Lord answered prayers. Rested. Slept. Laundry. Clean Sheets. Hope Fellowship is going to be promoting the Christmas Catalog in December - yay! Hot chocolate and games with friends tonight. Good. Praise God for Starbucks gift cards! Needing to trust God instead of trying to accomplish things myself.

Convoluted connections - Jo Shetler (author of one of my favorite books And the Word Came with Power) spoke at MissionsFest Seattle this weekend. I wasn't there. But a friend blogged about her sharing time and included the comment: "She particularly emphasized the efficacy of prayer, saying repeatedly that God answers any prayer that will bring Him glory"

God answers prayer. I needed that reminder.

Gotta sleep. G'night.

Lunch with friends

I had lunch with my department coordinator and his wife today. It was a birthday lunch. For me. For my birthday two months ago. :) D&H have both had their birthdays since mine, so maybe it was a birthday lunch for all of us. But my coordinator paid. :)

D&H - You guys are a blessing to me. Thanks for being available for random late night talks and cries and visits. Thanks for fellowship nights and Chupp-a-chinos. Thanks for Millard the Monkey imitations and knowing about every topic between A and Z (and quite a few outside of that range as well). I love you guys!

Noble or prideful?

Excerpt from the book Blue Like Jazz:

A few years ago I was listing prayer requests to a friend. As I listed my requests, I mentioned many of my friends and family, but never spoke about my personal problems. My friend candidly asked me to reveal my own struggles, but I told him no, that my problems weren't that bad. My friend answered quickly, in the voice of a confident teacher, "Don, you are not above the charity of God."

In that instant he revealed my motives were not noble, they were prideful. It wasn't that I cared about my friends more than myself, it was that I believed I was above the grace of God.

...I am too prideful to accept the grace of God. It isn't that I want to earn my own way to give something to God, it's that I want to earn my own way so I won't be charity.

That's me more than I want to admit. There's still a part of me that desperately wants to achieve goodness on my own instead of being dependent on someone else (even God) to gift that to me.