Rainey Days

Today I will give you some highlights on my current trip to Virginia Beach, where I am spending a few days. Thanks to my mother's new job at Holiday Inn, I was able to get a great rate here for a few nights--and with the current price of gas, staying here from Saturday to Wednesday for services comes out about even to driving back and forth. SERVICES Sunday I had services first at New Creation AG in VA Beach and then at Ocean View AG in Norfolk that evening. Both services went well. It was my first time to visit New Creation, although I had met the pastor's wife, Debbie, before and found her to be a kindred spirit. They were having an afternoon barbecue at the music leader's home, as a Memorial Day celebration, so I got to eat some great food! Hamburgers, hot dogs, sweet watermelon and homemade brownies. YUM! Plus, I enjoyed the conversation a lot. Ocean View in Norfolk welcomed me warmly back for another time. I spoke there four years ago, with my mom along for the...

Its barely 2:30 and traffic headed south on Ritchie Highway is already backed up as far north as Glen Burnie. I wasn't able to see what the problem was or how far down the traffic jams starts. I could only assume that it was all holiday weekend traffic headed to the Eastern Shore. All I have to say is that you couldn't pay me enough money to sit in traffic like that from Glen Burnie to the Bay Bridge (and possibly beyond). Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!

Okay, okay. Obviously, it's been a while since I've posted. I feel badly about that. I think there may still be one or two people who care about this blog. Lately I've just started feeling like this blog is just another chore hanging over my head. It used to be fun for me; some days I couldn't wait to write about what happened that day. I found events and situations in my life even more interesting because I knew that I would be able to write it all up on my blog later and retelling it would be half the fun. But somewhere in the last few months, I lost that joy. I'm still reading good books, still having new and interesting experiences. I've still got "thoughts" scrawled out on Galatians and on into I Thessalonians, now. And I'm not ready to abandon this blog completely. I just need to get re-energized and motivated to keep on blogging.

I wish you could see how different things were this morning as I walked into my French church home in Bordeaux. I could picture myself walking in there in December of 2005, not knowing a soul there and feeling so uncomfortable in my American-ness. It took almost a full year before people finally got to know me, started to invite me to their home for lunch after church, and started to give me a role of my own in the youth group leadership. This morning I walked in with my colleagues, who have only recently moved in to this area. They don't speak French well and don't know anyone in the church, and I totally identified with their uncertainty--even with their choice of seats, way over against one wall. This time, however, I knew everyone. The pastor recognized me from the pulpit just before his sermon, causing all eyes to turn to me. I was surrounded after church, not only by the young adults, but even by older adults that warmly welcomed me back into their midst. The young ...

This is the question I was asked this morning by a total stranger. I was in a used book store with two books of French paperbacks. I wanted to sell them to the manager and once she found out I was American, she asked, "So, Clinton or Obama?" I laughed and said, "McCain." She went on to suggest that we needed younger, fresher blood in our government and we had a spirited discussion of American politics for a few moments while we wheeled and dealed over the books. I had been in France only a matter of hours and it was the second conversation about politics I'd had! After the quickest overseas flight and layover ever--seven hours from DC to Paris, 45 minutes of crossing the terminal at a run to make the next flight, and an hour to Bordeaux, I met my friends and colleagues at the airport. I lost an entire night's sleep, getting only an hour catnap on the second flight, and I had to work a full-day's work immediately after arrival. One of the most pressi...

Freedom. In a country like ours, this is a word that gets bandied about pretty freely, if you'll pardon the pun. Freedom is not just a political concept but it is the very core of our Christianity. God created man with a free will. We can choose God or not, love Him or not. We have complete freedom to choose our spiritual destiny. I think that most people think of freedom as no limitations or in a different way, all possibilities. You can picture a tiny dot with arrows going out in all directions, like a child's drawing of the sun. Freedom means you can make any choice, right? When I think of our response to God, I realize that our "free will" still involves a limit: by not choosing to be redeemed by God, through His plan of salvation, we are limited to hell and being separated from God. I was thinking about this during the last two weeks--I'm not an abstract thinker by nature, so it takes a while for things to percolate in my brain. I've come to the...

Every time I have a long list of things to do, just when I think this is a good day to get a lot accomplished, I can count on everything around me breaking down. In a two days, I have a heavy schedule in southern VA, followed almost immediately by my Arabic final exam, only a few hours before District Council, just before I leave for six days in France. So I have a lot on my mind and even more on my "to-do" list. But this morning, my father is gone for a five day work trip, leaving my mother with the three grandchildren to babysit. The dog was deathly ill. The cable and internet were down for hours today because the electric company is working along this road. My grandmother came over to fuss at us about her cable being out, and I've been trying to get laundry done all day. At this moment, one child is asleep on the couch, one is crying for more cheerios, and one went to her own house for naptime (thankfully). My mother has appointments this afternoon, so I'm w...