I just got back from lunch with my friend Shareen at Panda Express.
Yum. :-) And fun, too. I keep wanting to call it Panda Haven, because that was the name of this great Chinese take-out place in my college town. I loved going there after class sometimes and getting chicken lo mein.

The first part of this week was pretty rough but overall I'm doing so much better and am really encouraged. The messages the special speaker shared with our staff were powerful and thought-provoking ... He talked about not shrinking back from or resisting "the sword" ... in other words, the hard things in our lives that are used to break us and draw us closer to the Father. He encouraged us to see these things as a privilege ... a chance to take up our cross for Jesus. His messages were incredibly challenging ... and yet in a number of ways encouraging, too, at the same time.

I'm looking forward to our staff time of all-night prayer this Friday! Of course, I may need some caffeine before the night is over since I'm on clean-up crew for afterwards. :-) (hee hee) I'm also sharing requests for our work in Bangladesh ... not sure yet what time in the evening (or morning???:o)).

Sally, Terri and I had fun on our outing, and the moving party was fun and the weather was great! Yesterday was neat, too ... after church, I met up with my good friend Lindy who just moved back in town. She is a really strong Christian, and I'm so excited she's back in town; we both love the outdoors and want to become biking buddies. :-) She was telling me about this great trail near her house that runs by a creek and is really pretty. Yesterday we caught up over lunch and then went walking at the nature preserve.

I am learning much about trusting the Lord in all circumstances, even when I don't completely understand what is going on. I am so thankful that my joy is not dependent on what's going on around me ... it feels like the Lord has been impressing that on my heart on so many levels. It's a painful lesson to learn at times but yet ultimately a good and valuable one. I'm so glad Jesus can be trusted always.

Okay, I'm heading downstairs now because we all on staff are having a pizza supper, a time of worship and then special speaker we really enjoy, and I'm hoping to take a quick walk, too. :-)

As this Friday at work comes to a close and I look back on the week, it's been full but a good one, filled with nice weather, good walks, productive days, good times with friends and most of all much encouragement in the Lord in all kinds of circumstances. :-) I am finding that I've been feeling so refreshed lately as the Lord been ministering to me in a special way in my times with Him. I am so happy for how He's refreshed and encouraged my heart.

Tonight I am meeting up with two other gals I work with, Sally and Terri, and going to the Asian supermarket right down the road and to a couple of other places in the vicinity. That should be fun! Tomorrow are two moving parties for friends on staff. I like moving parties ... I just hope the weather's nice. :-)

Another day of great weather.

Tomorrow during morning prayer I'm getting to share in my circle about Bangladesh. The Lord has given me a special heart for Muslims, so it's neat that I'm getting to share about Bangladesh.

I decided to make little prayer request sheets for people, and the Lord gave me a neat idea of something I could do with them! I just finished those so now I'm starting my trek home while there's still daylight. :-) Oh yeah, and I need to go return those markers to Kids Korner (I got to do some arts and crafts this afternoon - great fun! :o))

Please pray for comfort and encouragement for Maddie and her family ... her grandmother passed away during the night. I know that one of the things that really encouraged me and gave me hope when my grandmother passed away in July was knowing that the Lord could have worked in her heart even in those final hours.

It's been another nice day outside, and I'm fixing to walk home and then to Maddie's, because she's invited me to her place for spaghetti and fellowship. Then we'll all head to Tuesday night prayer. :-)

Hurray ...

for beautiful, sunny Texas weather. :-) I enjoyed walking in to work in it, and look forward to walking home in a few minutes, too!

Hope everyone had a refreshing weekend.

P.S. Please pray for my friend Maddie's grandmother to know Jesus! (see more on her comment on previous day's entry) Praise God that He is able to do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph 3:20)!

The other night I went and hung out with some cute children (staff family) while their parents went out. I'm so glad that worked out ... I had a great time with the kiddos, and I think the parents were really happy to get to go out!

The kiddos were so excited about teaching me all the games they learned at their little Valentine's Day party. :-) After supper, we moved all the dining room chairs out to the living room so we could play. One of the games I'd played before, where you all sit in a circle and people are different fruits. Then, the fruits the person in the middle calls out have to get up and move around, then one person is left without a chair. At one point they decided on honey dew and watermelon. Well once I mistakenly said "waterbellon" instead of "watermelon" - and of course we all started laughing uncontrollably. I told their dad not to be surprised if they go around saying "waterbellon" from now on. :-D

Well now my brain is getting sleepy (hee hee) so I should probably head home before I start making up all kinds of silly words on accident. :-) It's been a pretty good day . . . during most of it I was pretty absorbed in a project - thank-you's to ministry supporters for this coming month. It went well, and I was able to finish them. Those are one of my favorite projects to work on, yet most of the other writers don't enjoy working on them all that much, so my coordinator usually assigns them to me now. So it works out great for everybody. :o) I love how that worked out!

Have a blessed weekend, my fellow bloggers and blogreaders!

Last night I had the opportunity to join some others for a "mini postcard party" where we wrote notes to ministry supporters and then enjoyed some fellowship at Cici's Pizza afterwards. A tally of all the postcards written showed that 250 ministry supporters will be encouraged ... which is great ...

And something really cool for me personally is that going into the postcard party I was a little worn out from a pretty challenging day, but by the end of our time I felt rather invigorated and refreshed. :-) Cool how God does that!

This afternoon I enjoyed working on a number of projects, and it made the day fly by, too! Now I'm going home for just a bit before prayer meeting this evening. Listening to worship practice downstairs as they sing one of the songs for this evening, a favorite of mine :-) , I thank the Lord for giving me joy in this day ... and that He is my strength who can always be trusted and is worthy of all glory and praise.

Somehow it's been a rough day. I know we all have those days!!! I haven't had a chance to spend time with the Lord yet today, and I'm sure that will help!!

Sally, one of my good friends that I work with, invited me to hang out with her for lunch and that was nice. We went to one of our favorites, McAlister's Deli. :o) And then she showed me some stuff in Publisher for my next newsletter - YAY! (I've been wanting to use Publisher, but just couldn't quite get the columns to line up for me since I wasn't familiar with the program ...)

P.S. And, DG, thank you bunches for your smiles, hugs, prayers and Reese's PB cup. :o)

God is good and He is always faithful! How happy I am for that.

Okay, so I am seriously loving this weather. :-) Hard to believe last week at this time, some of us were playing in the snow?! Don't get me wrong, I totally like the snow too ... My motto is always that, "If it's gonna get cold, it might as well snow." :-) Snow is beautiful and something I never got to see much growing up. But my ideal weather? Without a question this week's.

[I vote we all grab our stuff from our desks and work on it outside for the rest of this week? Oh wait ... I guess that would mean a bunch of us would need to get or borrow laptop computers ... does complicate matters a bit, I s'pose. :-D]

Today's adventurous moment ...

trying some hot roasted squid jerky that a coworker brought in. ;c)

God has been so faithful. I can't deny, parts of this week were surely hard, especially more toward the beginning of the week. But look at all that He did this week!

*Really encouraged me through my times with Him, and met me at my point of need
*Gave me the strength and discipline for things I sensed Him putting on my heart
*Provided beautiful snow outside ... and the hawk that I love to see outside my window at work :-)
*And other nice things, too!

I'm heading out soon, and looking forward to extended prayer and fellowship tonight with my dear friends here. :-)