Christmas dinner with my parents was nice. We had roasted herb chicken, asparagus, cranberry sauce, lima beans, and more. :o) And later that day, we got to go over and see my cousins!

One of my cousins had his dogs with him. It was pretty funny, because I was petting one of the dogs and all of a sudden, it just climbed up on my lap! And this was no small dog, let me tell you! :o)

I drove back on Tuesday ... 11 hours! I enjoy roadtrips, though! I was especially excited becuase I was able to find a route where I didn't have to take 635. Yay! [I have no problems with 635 on a Saturday morning, but on a weekday the traffic can be pretty heavy ... especially if you're not used to big-city driving. ;c)] And it took me through some pretty countryside, too, so that was nice!

I even made it back in time for Tuesday night prayer. It was so good to see everyone again! I am so grateful for both my wonderful family back home (and my sister and her family a few hours away in Texas!) and the wonderful extended family the Lord has blessed me with here. :o) It's been really nice to be back in the office, too.

Yesterday I found out I would be working for a while in our gift entry department, along with another writer! [They always seem to be busy, and have been especially busy with it being the end of the year ... their busiest time, I think!] It's a privilege getting to help out in this department, and there are always so many neat things to do in there. I couldn't believe how quickly this day went by!

It's exciting, too, to get a glimpse into the hearts of our sponsors and donors - we've been blessed with so many great people whose hearts the Lord has touched to give to and pray for our ministry.

I had the opportunity to worship at my parent's church this morning. A special part of the service was seeing a 74-year-old woman get baptized and join the church. What was incredibly exciting to me is that she came to know Christ through some of the Hurricane Katrina outreach. It was such a great moment, watching her up there with her "family", this really neat married couple who basically adopted her. Through the love they showed her as relief team workers fixed her home, she came to faith in Christ!

I could see this married couple just beaming as they stood up there with this precious woman as she eagerly affirmed her faith in Jesus and agreed to support the work of the Lord's church. I am truly touched by this couple, as they have come here from South Carolina to live among the people of the Gulf Coast and reach out to them. They are retired and are giving of their time to do this. And I can tell they really love the people here!

Their lives are such wonderful examples to me. And time and time again, the Hurricane Katrina outreach has reminded me in so many ways of the outreach of GFA's missionaries among tsunami survivors. I always love seeing and hearing about the Lord's work around the globe ... both on the other side of the world where so many long to hear the name of Jesus, and here in my hometown.

As I sit here typing this story on Christmas Eve, I can't help but think how fitting this all is ... how encouraged I am to be reminded of the Lord's work through His Church around the world, even as we celebrate Jesus' birth. Praise God.

We didn't get to have our cousin over yesterday for supper after all, for my mom woke up in the morning with a stomach virus. :o( Poor thing! But thankfully, the virus only lasted her yesterday and she felt all better by this morning. So she wasn't feeling badly for very long ... and we got to have our cousin over for chicken pot pie tonight.

And last night I did still get to visit with my cousin and watch The Santa Clause II, which was a cute movie and quite clean, too!

My dad and I went earlier today to visit some dear friends and supporters of mine who now live out on a farm. We also got to meet their daughter and young grandson! And then tonight when our cousin came over, we had our chicken pot pie (yum!!!) and exchanged Christmas gifts. We had a nice time.

Oh, and we also watched A Christmas Carol. There was this one part toward the end that my mom and I got the biggest kick out of ... "Scrooge", played by Patrick Stewart from Star Trek, is at a church singing, but he totally doesn't know the words of the song. So this kind gentleman sitting next to him leans over and lets him share his songbook. Well, after just one really quick glance down at the songbook, "Scrooge" suddenly seems to know all the words of the song and is looking up, grinning, and totally singing along. It was too funny! We got the biggest laugh out of that. :o)

Our lunch (my mom and I) yesterday with a couple of ladies from church went well.

The weather here today has been rainy and rather dreary looking! But I did get out for a little bit this afternoon, and ended up at Subway enjoying one of their double chocolate chip cookies and doing some journaling!

Tomorrow evening we're having our neighbor and cousin Mike over, for a meal and fellowship. (We'll also be exchanging Christmas gifts) I look forward to the time we'll have with him. And my mom and I are making chicken pot pie - one of my and my cousin's favorites!

Today I made chicken stirfry!

Also my parents and I took a walk around the neighborhood, late in the afternoon. They went back to the house but I extended my walk a little longer, going around some of the new neighborhoods that are in the process of being built - and spending time with God.

Tomorrow I am getting to spend time with some friends, going to Hattiesburg.

Post #464.

Full day. Left my parent's house around 9:20 for the church service of my college church in Mobile. Had the opportunity to share briefly during the church service.

Afterwards, one of the couples did invite me to lunch with them. :o) We went to Longhorn Steakhouse, and there was a 15-year-old boy who joined us as well, who is very interested in missions. (Of course he was full of questions and I was glad to answer them! :o)) So that was neat!

Then I left a voicemail with Barbie and Harry since we had arranged for me to call and visit sometime after lunch. While I was waiting to hear back from them with directions, I returned a call from a good friend from my hometown. It turns out she and another friend of ours had decided to make the hour trip to Mobile today too! So I briefly met up with them at Target (their last stop in Mobile), which was kind of cool since it was my first time to see them since coming home this trip.

After being with them for about 15 minutes maybe, I heard back from Barbie and Henry and drove the 7 or 8 minutes from Target to their apartment. We had a really nice visit, and I got some good pictures of them, too! Barbie was so cute - she was going about moving trash cans, etc. out of the way so they wouldn't be in the picture. :o) Her husband was teasing her about that.

Barbie faithfully prays for me (and financially supports me), and she was sharing how she is on a list where she receives these prayer requests regularly for the president and issues he faces as he runs our country. I have a feeling she is quite the prayer warrior! She also helps keep children on a regular basis for the church's ESL outreach, and I'm sure she reaches out to people in other ways as well.

What an inspiration she is to me - I hope I'm still that active in prayer and serving the Lord when I'm 77. :-)

My road trip back to the Coast went well. The first 50 miles were overcast and foggy for my drive, but then the sun came out and gradually the pretty blue skies came. :c)The drive was a refreshing time, and somehow the Lord used it to remind me in wonderful ways that He can totally be trusted with those things that are on my heart - that HE will work them all out. Praise God!

Oh, get this! As I was leaving my apartment around 7:30 this a.m., I got to meet my downstairs neighbor. She and I started chatting, and she was really excited when I mentioned I worked for a missions organization. It turns out she's a Christian! We ended up having a really good chat for a number of minutes, and then chuckled about the fact that we both really needed to get going (turns out she was also heading out at the same time, to see her daughter in Atlanta for Christmas!) ... and decided we should definitely hang out when we get back in town!

It was so good to meet her, and I would love to see if she'd like to join me for Tuesday night prayer meeting sometime soon!

Tomorrow morning I head over to my college church to see them all and visit with dear friends and supporters. I look forward to seeing again all the wonderful couples and families there who "adopted" me when I went there during my college years; they're so special to me. Often one of the couples will ask me to lunch when I'm in town (that's fun!); I do know for sure that after church I will be heading out to Barbie's and Harry's apartment to spend some extra time with them. :o)

Well I'm getting a bit sleepy and still need to get ready for bed. ;c)

What a wonderful day it has been, for the Lord continues to fill my heart with such joy! As soon as I do a little more work on a project, I will probably head out to go run an errand and then come back pretty soon to my apartment to get stuff done around there, such as more packing.

It is looking like it will be nice weather for my road trip back home on Saturday. I'm so glad.

All I can say is ... Wow. There is such joy in the Lord, in being in His presence. There is nothing like it. And this joy transcends all circumstances and human logic. How wonderful. Truly the JOY of the Lord is my strength.

I am working on getting projects done before I go home Saturday for the Christmas holiday. And overall, that is going well. There are still some things that need to come together. Tonight I may be able to work some more on things ... I also want to spend some more time with the Lord, continuing to seek His heart for what He would have me share tomorrow during staff prayer (for field prayer requests). And I need to go to The Colony Resale to use a "kind of expired" credit. :o) (They are nice and give me much grace with that, although I generally try not to take advantage of that! Thankfully this is only a few days over. They are so nice, and they probably know I'm a good customer, too. :o))

I hope you all are doing well, encouraged and strengthened in His joy.

The Charlie Brown Christmas play was nice. There's always been something about the Christmas season for me ... well, it's definitely incredible most of all because of the Savior's birth. There's also something else I've always liked about the season and don't even know that I could put it into words. It's always been a special time for me ...

Catching up with my good friend from work yesterday was nice, too - we both had a good laugh because 15 minutes before our time to meet for lunch, we both ended up (independently of each other, of course!) in one of our favorite stores - Christopher & Banks. :o)

The week will be a busy one, working on getting all my projects completed by Friday since I travel back to the Gulf Coast this weekend for the Christmas holidays. Add to that our staff Christmas party, packing, getting together gifts for friends back home, and some other things on my heart as well, and you have a small glimpse into my life at this moment. ;-)

I find myself lately really leaning on the Lord and finding much rest in Him, and encouragement and peace. I am very grateful for that. There is nothing like being in His presence.

So it's the weekend! I think it will be a nice one. Tomorrow night I'm going to supper at the home of a dear family on staff, and then a couple of us young people (my friend Dorie and Ruthie, who just recently arrived on staff) are taking their children to a Charlie Brown Christmas production. :o) We'll also be meeting up with others from the office, and probably going to a family's house afterwards for more fun and fellowship. [Of course we'll take the kids home first if that's past their bedtimes. ;-)]

Then Sunday I will be in the church nursery and then after church am meeting up with my friend Michele for lunch. We've been wanting to hang out and fellowship again for a while!

So I think it will be a nice weekend.

Lately in my life I have been seeking the Lord about some things and crying out to Him. I have often lately been able to spend some time in the Lord during the first part of my lunch break, and I just wanted to share some things to show how He really encouraged and ministered to me today through this time together ...

* From a song we sing in prayer meeting:
Holy Fire, burn away my desire for anything that is not of you, but is of me;
I want more of You, and less of me.
Empty me; empty me.
Fill me. With you, with you, with you.

* From Philippians 3:8:
"...I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord ..."

*From another song we sing in prayer meeting:
It's all about You, Jesus.
It's all about you, for Your glory and Your fame.
It's not about me, as if You should do things my way.
You alone are God, and I surrender.

*From Philippians 2:10:
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Wow! This is what it's all about. It's so refreshing to be reminded of that.

*One of the requests for myself in my prayer notebook is that I would be broken and have the heart of a servant. I felt renewed and refreshed as I prayed this today. And I thought to myself, My deepest longing is to know HIM more and to find ultimate and deep contentment in the sunshine of HIS face.

The things I have been crying out to the Lord about are still not "out of the picture", and I have been going through some confusing and at times painful things, but I can't begin to tell you just how encouraged and refreshed I was through this special time with Him.

Even when it's hard, my heart is to continue to seek to find my sufficiency in Him, and have His steadfast joy and contentment in all things.

This is my 457th post. [No, I haven't been counting them ... the blogger program automatically tells you how many posts you've made. :o)]

It is so nice outside ... I am just debating whether to brave the cold [not too bad, but a little chilly!] and take my walk at the nature preserve! I think I'll be okay if I bundle up ... don't you? :c)

Yesterday was nice. I spend most of it with a friend from work ... after waking up at 11:00 after all-night prayer. :o)

Two things I came away with from church and Sunday school this morning ... they're both things I knew already, but it's always so good to be reminded:

1) Finding our full significance and security in Christ frees us to truly love other people. It's always great to be reminded of Christ's utter sufficiency, and I long to keep my eyes fixed always on Him.

2) Incredibly, if we have received God's free gift of salvation in Christ, when He looks at us, He doesn't see our sinfulness but His Son's righteousness. Even though we are sinners in desperate need of His grace (and still in need of His grace and working in our lives so we can be transformed to be more like Jesus), He loves us with the same love He has for His perfect, beloved Son. Amazing.