It would be hard to describe how I've been feeling for this last hour.

But I will try.

Earlier today I'd been feeling overwhelmed with articles, deadlines, etc. And some areas of my life that I need to grow in.

But then my friend (and former roommate) Tirina and I met for our weekly prayer time. And wow -- I felt so encouraged by the time we were done.

Now I feel ready to tackle things. Ready to "take on the world". Well, in the Christian sense of the word, anyhow. :o) And just now, sitting at my computer, God gave me the words for the first paragraph to a short article I'll be working on tonight that's due tomorrow.

All I can say is, God is good.

We all went and saw Narnia last night.

It was good.

Aslan, the lion, was such a beautiful picture of Christ. The way he came out of his tent and everybody bowed down. A powerful moment. Truly God is worthy of ALL my worship.

The scene where Aslan was killed was pretty gripping, too. To think that Jesus went through that and worse. Wow.

Then there was the part where Aslan told Peter, who was frantically searching for his brother Edward, "I want to be sure my family is safe, too." Made me think of the heart of the Father, who loves mankind so dearly and "is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

That should motivate my life.

It's Friday.

I'm fixing to head out and go home so I can get ready to meet up with some friends from my S.S. group at the Olive Garden. :oD That should be fun.

Also planning on working some on articles for work this weekend. And wanting to pick up and clean around the apartment.

I hope the weather's nice so I can go walking tomorrow. I'd love that!

I feel like now I should say something incredibly deep and profound or something, but nothing is coming to me. What can I say? It's Friday. :o)

It's a beautiful day outside. I love this weather.

Praise God, I seem to have gotten over my "research block" to a large extent. At least the article is started and I have a feel for general direction I'll be going with it. :o) So thankful for that. There is still much to be done, but by faith it will be done before next Tuesday or even before!

P.S. Speaking of "by faith", my crockpot was indeed full of cranberry chicken this past weekend. And there is now some cranberry chicken in my freezer.

I'm back. And it's a Monday.

Overall today's been a good day I think. :oD Perhaps except for the "writer's block" I've been experiencing. Well okay, so I guess it's cheating to call it writer's block since I haven't technically gotten to the writing stage yet ... Is there a such thing as RESEARCH block? :o) I could certainly use prayer that these articles would come together in a timely fashion and most of all that they would be Lord's words, not mine.

It's beautiful outside. I love such weather. I only wish it didn't get dark so quickly these days so I could more easily go walking after work. Oh well.

I still think about the movie I watched last Friday. Incredible. I don't want to forget its impact ... nor the things the Lord wants to do in my life through it. I think for me, the challenge is first knowing those things, and then, having the discipline to do those things. I just know I don't want my life to be "mediocre" ... I'm really sensing the Father calling me to a deeper committment. And I don't want to shrink back. Although even as write these words, it is with a little bit of trepidation as I wonder what will be asked of me.

[BTW, Nicole, it's been so much fun to read your comments on my blog ... I love getting comments! If you look on one of your recent entries on your blog, I think your Saturday one, you'll see one I wrote you, about our "trip" to Wal-mart this weekend. :oD]

Angie and I ran into each other at the soccer field around 3:00 ... where we all from the office were going to play soccer, but only a few of us showed up. So anyohw, Angie and I went to Panda Express together and split a two-entree plate. That was fun.

Yesterday I met up with Windi to attend a health fair at the church. It sure was fun walking around the different booths ... and grabbing all the freebies. :o) Among the most notable freebies, my favorite by far, was a bright pink water bottle from Baylor Medical Center.

Definitely a keeper.

Girls nite out.

Mall, Chick-fila, Shopping, Chocolate, and a movie.

What more could a girl want? The movie was incredible, actually, AND showed me that there's SO much more I want. Not stuff ... although, yes, my flesh too often craves stuff. No, not stuff. Unless you're talking about hte kind of stuff that money can't buy. Stuff of the Kingdom.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

8:30 or thereabouts. Still a good hour and a half before the movie starts. Tami, Robin, Wendy and I at Pacific Sun because I want to look for clearance cloth belts that I use as headbands. They're hanging out and chatting. I'm in line to buy my $2.99 headband ... it feels like the people ahead of me are taking a century, but maybe just because I feel people are waiting for me.

A lady with grayish hair put up in a "showercap-like" contraption is in line with what I assume are her children and grandchildren. She's just kind of standing there ... but a little close for my comfort level. Especially considering a non-too-pleasant odor is coming from her direction. I mean, forbid, what if one of the guys standing behind me thinks it's me? Involuntarily, I step back. Then suddenly I hear the Lord's voice in my heart, "She is one of the people I love, who needs to be reached with the message of my love. She is one of the people the native missionaries in Asia (www.gfa.org) are sacrificing of themselves daily just so they can reach with my love."

Looking back on that incident, it's incredible to think of how it also ties in with the movie we watched. Amazing to me lately how God has totally been driving themes into my life repeatedly. But in such a faithful yet very patient and kind way. He's AMAZING.

Anyhow, about the movie ... If I let it, it quite possibly has the opportunity to radically change my life from this point forward. It was ... out of this world. The Lord spoke to me throughout it. The deceitfulness and utter depravity of the human heart. The blindness of so many people who have never heard of my Jesus as I have! The awesomeness of God pouring out His abundant love, compassion and forgiveness through His people, when humanly speaking it would seem impossible. The fervent dedication of one man to reach a remote tribe with the Gospel, even if it meant losing his life. The passion and drive God gave him for the Kingdom's work. "Betty, we don't have two years. We have ONE CHANCE to reach these people" That grabbed me. Made me want to be much more dedicated and focused on the task He has given me.

Then my devotional this morning, from Streams in the Dessert, quoted Acts 20:24 about Paul not counting his life dear to himself for the sake of the Kingdom.

Incredible. May I be given the grace to actively apply these things in my life. I want my life to forever be different because of this night. Amen.

Last night was our bi-monthly ladies' meeting at the ministry. It was incredible ... I felt like the message was spoken directly to me. It was SO good.

But oh, how could I even begin to share all of it? In a nutshell, in my oh-so-eloquent summary, what I got out of it was, "Just do it. Just surrender. Those areas in your life that you need to grow in and change? Just do it. Not on your own strength, of course, but in HIS strength." She talked about how we always say "someday" but that "someday" will never come if we aren't proactive in letting Him change our hearts and lives.

The bottom line of it for me was her statement that change in your life is just a prayer away if you're willing. I was thinking, Yeah, Rachel, you knucklehead, you. Change can take one prayer or a long time, depending on how surrendered your heart is to His purposes in your life. :o) Definitely very powerful. And something I so much want to be diligent to apply. I feel this week that I've been learning SO much. Now I just need to be faithful to APPLY it. As NIKE would tell us, "Just DO IT."

I thank the Lord for all He's been teaching me. I feel so encouraged. But now my hair very much needs a washing so I'm going to head out so it can have time to dry before I meet up with some church friends to go see End of the Spear. (I saw the preview online today and it looks very powerful.)

Looking forward to tonight.

An Ode to the Little Things in Life that Are Really the Big Things

Windchimes with little pewter butterflies.
Last night around 10:30 P.M. after eagerly gulping down an oven-roasted chicken salad--my supper--I went to Walgreens to check out the "free with mail-in rebate" scene and, on a whim, decided to buy some windchimes. [You might wonder, and rightly so, what I was doing eating supper at this unearthly hour! Well, you will find out later if you keep reading. :oD] They are cute and at only $1.99, much cheaper than ones I'd seen in the stores before.

When I got home with them and hung them up on my upstairs balcony, I got to wondering if they were the same as my next door neighbors. [They're not, it turns out.] Not that it would matter.

I like my next door neighbor.

And I like my blue metallic and silver pewter windchimes.

A package of M and M's.
I promised you I would tell you why I was eating at 10:30 last night. Okay, here goes. I left the office at 6 p.m., headed over to church for the mid-week service. I was intending to stop and eat something at a fast-food type restaurant along the way, and musing in my head (and with my very hungry stomach!) where might be good to go. Long story made short, all my plans came to naught, as I had forgotten my money AND credit cards at home that morning. So anyhow, when I got to the church I casually remarked to a nice acquaintance in the restroom that I was starving and hadn't eaten. Much to my surprise (and delight!) she promptly produced a package of M and M's that had been at the bottom of her purse for a while. "These are a God-send," I told her. :o)

A crockpot filled with scrumptuous cranberry chicken.
Okay, so mine isn't YET, but (by faith) tomorrow or this weekend it WILL be. :o) Found this great recipe in "101 Things to do with a Slowcooker." But alas, the recipe didn't indicate whether the chicken should be raw or cooked to go into the crockpot. My assumption would have been raw, since it would have ample time and more to get done, but I noticed other recipes that called for cooked chicken. So I asked my mom about it. She agrees I should try it with the raw chicken. I love having a mom I can call at anytime about the little delicacies of life, like chicken and crockpots. :o) The amazing thing is that she just about always has the answer, too.

It's the little things that mean so much.

It's all about you, Jesus.
And not about me, as if You should do things my way.
All this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame.
You Alone are God, and I love You.

Sitting in my chair in our weekly staff prayer meeting last night, I felt like I was singing this as a love song to God. It was an incredible moment when everything else just seemed to fade away, and I was reminded that it's all about Him. Not me. Not my dreams, my desires, my ambitions. Not about the "rights" I may think I have.

Funny how we don't have to be reminded to think about ourselves and our best interests. No, it just comes naturally. We don't have to be reminded to think about the temporal. Instead, we must ever be reminded to think about the eternal, to set our heights on things above.

Today was a good day. Now I'm going to grab a bit to eat, probably at McAlister's (yum!) and then head to the mid-week service at church. YAY! :o) God is good.

Wow. Has it really been over two weeks since I've posted in here? Oops. I WANT to post more ... I will try to, I promise? :O)

Despite that I've been kind of swamped with working on writing stuff for our upcoming Annual Report, this week has been really good so far. SO glad for that. I was just thinking about how this Monday has been so much nicer than last Monday was ...

It was a “normal” Monday afternoon at my sunny spot in the GFA office when I got the call from my mom. Early in the conversation, I knew something had happened. That day, my dad had suffered a heart attack. Even as we talked, he was being rushed by ambulance to the hospital to have stints put in. [If the stints worked, he wouldn’t need surgery.] In that instant, I felt numb. I was in shock, disbelief. I was very close to my daddy and couldn’t imagine anything happening to him. I felt, in a sense, that my whole world had shattered. And yet somehow through it all I felt an emotional calm. I thank the Lord for that.

I later found out it was a massive heart attack, with one artery completely blocked. Yet incredibly, the doctor reported that my dad was doing well for having just had a heart attack, and by just a little later in the week he was feeling “back to normal”. He was in ICU for a day before being moved to the cardio ward for the rest of the week. The doctor says he will have permanent heart damage but we’re hoping and praying this won’t be the case.

WOW --I truly thank God for His wonderful protection! My daddy is at home and seems to be doing well. He's taking several medications now. Please pray with us for his continued recovery and a heart that’s “good as new”. And pray also for me, that regardless of any trial I go through, I would be like the tree described in Jeremiah 17:7-8,“planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and it will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (NKJV).

Well I have to say, so far 2006 has been a very nice year. :o)

Today I went to church and then came straight home and ate a little lunch and hung out around the apartment for a bit. Then I went and chatted and fellowshipped with some women from the ministry.

After that I went walking.

Last night was the New Year's Eve party with my S.S. class. I had a great time!! My only real complaint was how fast the evening went by! Oh well. :o) It was a memorable experience ringing in the new year with friends there. Lots of laughter and joking around for sure.

Laughter is good for the spirit.