Time to go...

Well, the time has come for me to go back home.  I am super sad to leave my family.  I have been able to be with them for over a month and I am spoiled.  I still don't feel too hot and now I have a tooth ache that is really making me miserable.  Thank goodness for left over pain medicine!!  :-)  It has taken the edge off.  I always seem to have things like this happen to me on days when I can't get to the doctor.  Pray that it stays under control until I get back to Nashville on Thursday.  I don't even know of a dentist in Nashville...I'll have to ask around.  

So...time to pack all my things and get a few hours of sleep before my 6:45 flight in the morning.  We have a show in ATL and then a new year's eve show in LA...then it's home Nashville. 

I read this tonight and thought I'd share it with you guys.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Elisabeth Elliot.  She is an author among many many other things...an incredible woman to say the least.  Many years ago someone gave me the book "Passion and Purity"...changed my view on dating and relationships completely!  Loved it!  

Anyway...here is what I read.

In C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, we see with startling clarity the cleverness of the enemy in deceiving human

 beings.  selfishness has a thousand forms, most of which we are slow to recognize for what they are.  I was thinking about the fear of loss and what a stranglehold it can have on me.  As I listed some of the things I dreaded to lose, it occurred to me that this fear is a deadly form of selfishness.  Selfishness does terrible things to us, but it does not stop there.  It does terrible things to others.  "Saving our own skin" usually results in skinning somebody else.  Think, for example, of the fear of losing reputation, opportunity for advancement, credit, recognition, position, beauty, youth, health, money, the love of friends or children, compliments, popularity, security, privacy, rights, people you love, job, home, dreams, and power.

As I considered each of these separately, I began to think what sort of sin each king of loss tempts me to commit.  Then I thought about what kind of faith is required to enable me to commit those fears to God.  Has He, in fact, made provision for these things?  The list is not a list of sins----make no mistake about that.  It is a list of blessings, of gifts from God.  But to grasp them selfishly and greedily, to hang on to them fiercely and allow myself to be enslaved by the fear of losing them, is to deny Christ.  "Do not fear," He says to us, "for I am with you." (Isaiah 41:10)

 

Never thought of it quite like that before.

And...just another little blessing for you...

This....is just about as good as it gets!  Look at that smile! -->

Gage at 6 months old with my mom(or Lolly as the GK's call her)  

Going home...

It's been a really long time since I posted...I suck, I know!  :-)  

I am currently in the DFW airport.   I have been in Africa since December 4th...left the US on the 3rd.  First we were in Lagos, Nigeria...then Calibar, Nigeria.  Our first show in Lagos was cancelled because of torrential rains.  I know it sounds dramatic and it was!  The tents we were supposed to wait in literally flooded and the sound system stopped working because of the water.  It was really bad.  Luckily we didn't ever have to leave the hotel and get out in all that water but some of the artists did and they came back telling us how horrible it was.  Plus, I would've ruined my new awesome shoes and that would've hurt me bad...even if it was for ministry.  Don't mess with my shoes!  :-)  I am Alice Ruth Faulk Guilbert's granddaughter!  

BUT... they also came back telling us about the 300,000+ people who stood out in that rain to hear about Jesus and the music that all the artists had prepared to share with them.  They had to be soaked thru and thru but they stood out there anyway.  I really wanted to see that...even if I had to go barefoot.  Oh well...sometimes things work out that way. 

 The concert in Calibar was great!  Those precious people were singing their hearts out to Jesus!  It was beautiful!!!  

I'm so blessed to do what I do.  I try not to be negative about anything but right now I just want to be at home!!!  I have been on 3 planes...one for an hour...then spent a few hours at a hotel in Lagos...another flight to Frankfurt, Germany...6 hours...had a whole row to myself, which made me so so so happy, then another to DFW...11 hours...no one sitting beside me...slept on and off the whole time...can't believe it!  I am coming to the end of a 5 hour layover in Dallas.  I paid too much money to get a cab to the mall close by just to get away from the airport for a few hours...otherwise I might have gone insane. :-)    SOOOOO ready to get on this plane...my 4th...and see my daddy at the airport so he can take me to his house with the rest of my family...minus Heith, Jess, and Harper.  :-(  I am so ready to see Gage!  My sister just told me he's doing things he wasn't doing when I left a week ago.  He'll probably be asleep but I'm going to go in and look at him...it will get me through until the morning.  :-)

Almost time to leave Dallas so I'll wrap it up.  

Thank you Lord...even though the flying for days really stinks...for allowing me to have this life.  I am so grateful that you have chosen me to do this for a living!  I hope I make you proud!

the apple

First of all, I want you to go and read this before anything else.  It's beautiful.  My friend Angie has an amazing story and if you have time at some point you should definitely go back and read ALL...yes, all of her posts.  They will bless you and cause your heart to be stirred but more importantly they will point you in the direction of the Savior...you will fall in love with him in a deeper way by the way she has chosen to love him in the midst of her pain.  

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time and I am hoping that I can catch up within the next few weeks.  I have some things I want to share and then just some random meaningless nothings that will make you laugh.  I was journaling today and decided to share one of my recent journal entries with you.  

October 22, 2008

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is easy and My burden light."        Matt. 11:28-30

In elementary school I was not the most popular kid.   I had glasses...pretty thick ones if I remember correctly and was pencil thin.  Oh to be thin again!  :-)  I'm working on it!  LOL.  I didn't dress with name brands and get my clothes from the mall.  I wore mostly hand-me-downs.  Mind you, I was oblivious to this.  I never thought anything of it and actually was excited to have "new" clothes.  My parents bought me new clothes too but people in the church would always give me their clothes when they outgrew them.  I was always a pretty easy kid to please.  So, back to the story...I remember one day very well.  It was one of the days we ate our lunch outside.  I guess, from time to time, Mrs. Converse...my teacher...thought it was too beautiful a day to stay inside for lunch.

We opened out lunch boxes...pretty sure mine was a Cabbage Patch Kids lunch box with the lovely Thermos :-)...and we pulled out whatever our mothers had packed for us to eat.  I can't remember exactly what mine had in it but I do remember that I had a shiny red apple.  I'm sure my mom had packed a sandwich and some chips as well but the reason I remember the apple so well is because at some point, and I'm almost positive that it was before I had taken a single bite, it was out of my hands and the other kids were kicking it around the playground.  I was devastated.  I remember my heart breaking watching them kick my apple around that day.  It might as well have been my heart they were kicking around.  It wasn't because I had wanted that apple so badly or that I had been looking forward to eating it all morning...I mean, seriously, I was in elementary school and I am sure I would've rather had cookies but it was the fact that it belonged to me and they didn't care that it hurt my feelings.  I have been called super sensitive on many occasions but I was really sensitive when I was little.  Kids can be cruel and I'm sure that they were just having fun and obviously way too young to think about how it would make me feel but as I was heart broken just the same.  I don't remember exactly what went through my mind but I do remember picking up my apple, post-kicking, and it looked horrible.  It was all bruised and scarred...some of the peeling was hanging off and it wasn't shiny anymore.  I went back to the classroom with my little heart just as torn up as that apple.  We all sat down at our desks and when we all got quite Mrs. Converse called me up to her desk.  I was so embarrassed.  After what had just happened, I wasn't sure what was about to go on.  I hoped she wasn't in on it too and decided I hadn't been humiliated enough.  She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out...a piece of candy.  This story would've been perfect had she pulled out a brand new shiny red apple.  But sometimes stories with happy endings aren't always perfect...which, in a way, makes them even more special.  In front of the whole class she held out that candy for me and told the class that because they had been so mean and had kicked my apple around that she was giving me this piece of candy and that I had permission to eat it right then and there.  It reminds me of a certain prayer..."You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies"  HELLO SOMEBODY!!!!  :-)  I don't remember if I ate it then or saved it but I do remember walking back to my desk feeling so much better.  I felt special.  I felt validated.  I'm sure that I smiled on my way back to my desk and good while after.  I have never forgotten that teacher...Mrs. Converse.  I could tell you exactly what she looked like to this day.  

I will never forget that day...here I am, an almost 32 year old woman, and I still remember the way I felt that day.  As I sit here on my balcony, with a heart a little beaten up, bruised, sometimes kicked around, and with a few scars, I can't help but think of how Mrs. Converse showed me a little bit of Jesus that day...whether she meant to or not.  I feel like my heart has been kicked around the playground again...intentional or unintentional...but today, instead of Mrs. Converse, God has come to the rescue.  He has picked my heart up out of the dirt and is dusting it off in His precious nail scarred hands.  He knows exactly what it's like to have a heart as broken and scarred as mine.   Of course, He's not going to pull a brand new shiny red heart out of his desk drawer but He is going to work on mine and make it as good as new.  Sure, it will still have some scars and the memory being broken from time to time but it will be whole.  It will be washed and mended and covered in the blood of Jesus.  

I know I'm not the only one with a broken heart.  I am sure have been the reason some hearts have been broken. But I also know that in Christ there is total restoration and redemption.  He alone can mend our broken hearts.  He alone can set my captive soul free.  I am so glad that He is always willing to bring healing.  We are in constant need of a Savior.  In the best and the worst of times we can count him trustworthy.  When we feel lonely He is always there.  He is ready and  oh so willing for us to hand over our pitiful broken hearts and let him go to work.  Now, the process is always going to be painful but you can be assured that the end result is a heart that is whole...a heart that is strong.  Trust Him with your heart...there is no safer place for it then in His loving hands.  

"...we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character provides hope.  This hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."        Romans 5:3-5

What a precious gift!!!  

Okay...so I already posted some pics today of Harper (check the post before this one) but Jessica just took these and I had to put them up!  They are too cute.

TUTU...

Pictures

I wanted to make sure and update you on Baby Pratt!  He is still in the nicu but is being given antibiotics for the infection and based on the results of his spinal tap yesterday will get to go home on Sunday!!!!  Yay!  His parents will get to spend Saturday night at the hospital with him before they take him home!  Thanks for your prayers!  

Now for some recent pictures of my niece, Harper, and my nephew, Gage.  They are the cutest kids!!!  Enjoy...

First...GAGE...they need to send me more pictures but these are the most recent!

 almost 3 months old...baby dedication picture
in his onesie that Lolly got him
breanne and gage at our parents house
gage loves his baby Einstein play mat

little shoes
I love this picture!
ready for bed at Lolly and pops house
look at that face!
Harper at 7 and a half months old...crazy girl!!

getting ready to crawl
it's our favorite when she puts her gums together like this!

I love this picture!
all about this face...Harper on her changing pad sitting up like a big girl
happy girl
and again...just happy
so cute in her little smocked outfit
baby dedication photo shoot...




Heith, Jessica, and Harper on baby dedication day at their church in Lafayette, LA
Mother/Daughter pic
more of baby dedication photo shoot....

They are the greatest little people!  I miss them so much!

Pratt. Allen. Fulks.

Please pray for a friend of mine and her little boy Pratt this morning.  I don't know all the details but I just got a text from a friend that informed me that Pratt...born Saturday evening...has been put in the nicu because he is having trouble breathing.  I don't know any of the details but I do know that no matter what the issue, having your brand new baby in the nicu for any reason is a super scary thing.  I am asking all of you to lift little Pratt up to the Lord and his parents Hannah and Clint.  This is their first baby and I know they would appreciate all of our prayers! Her blog is in my blog list.  Thank you!