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I am incredibly thankful and enormously blessed to be a part of a what some people call a "small group" or a "life group" or a "community group". Some might even call it a "Bible study group". In reality, all we are is bunch of young twenties who want to live life together, know Jesus better, and share him with the people around us.  So we spend hours together - sometimes it's just a few of us around a coffee table, and sometimes it is twenty or more of us enjoying a potluck meal together. Sometimes it looks like playing games around  a campfire until late into the night, and sometimes it looks like singing Christmas carols at a retirement home. We can be silly together, but we can also get on our knees together. We talk about light hearted life, and we talk about the deepest things on our hearts. That's the beauty of the body of Christ, and I feel like I have tasted its sweetness through this group of brothers and sisters.  We also meet

Sometimes I am standing on the shore in front of the Red Sea.  Have you ever thought about what it would have been like to actually be there, standing on the shore of the Red Sea when the Lord began to stir the waters and draw them back on both sides?  I wonder what the Israelites felt. What was going through their minds? On one hand, they probably stood in absolute, mouth-hanging-open awe and wonder. On the other hand, they were likely more terrified than ever before in their entire lives. Maybe they couldn't keep their eyes off the phenomenon before them, but at the same time maybe they wanted to hide their eyes in fear. Their feet were probably jumping to step onto that soft sea bottom, yet their feet were also shaking in their sandals, unable to move from fright. Were they looking out over the miraculous pathway, ready to step forward...or were they looking over their shoulders back at Egypt, tempted to just turn around and go back right then and there?  They had to be thinking

We had been walking along a narrow trail in the woods for a while now, surrounded on both sides by trees and brush. I like the comfort of the woods, maybe because I feel like I am snuggled up and tucked away somewhere wild and safe.  But I sensed we were getting closer when the foliage started to thin a little to the right, and we began to catch glimpses of the valley below. I knew that we had arrived when the trees stopped in their tracks, as if they were afraid to step out on the large rock jutting out before us. I stepped out onto the rock, no longer surrounded by the protection of the forrest, into a wide open space with only thin, cool, whispy air. I walked to the very tip, wondering if my weight could possible shift the ledge, yet trusting that nothing could possibly move this massive, ancient rock that reaches out over the Ozark Mountains.  In that moment of exposure, I looked out over the vast valley below me - which had been covered up from my sight by the trees only a few mom

The alarm clock goes off. 5:30 am. I check the thermometer. 30 degrees even. It's a perfect day to climb Pinnacle Mountain. I slip on my warmest clothes and wake up my sleepiest friends, and we all jump in the car. We meet some more friends at the base of the mountain, and we begin our climb to the top by headlamp, our breath forming little puffs of cloud in the freezing air. We laugh and joke all the way to the top, partly because its too early to be awake and partly because normal people don't climb Pinnacle when its this dark and cold. We get to the top just in time to see the horizon turning a rich, firey orange - the kind that only God can paint. We get the water boiling just in time to sip hot chocolate as we watch the sun rise over Little Rock, glowing on the Arkansas River, illuminating the fall colors on the trees, and lifting the fog from the valleys. And I am reminded again that I just do not watch the sunrise often enough. There is something magical and myst

With Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of days, I want to give a shout out to my favorite thankful person. To me, he is the perfect example of thankfulness, and his story is worth retelling.  He's a leper. Well, not anymore. But that's how his story begins. Shunned from society, having only nine fellow lepers as companions, feeling sick and ugly all the time, this man lived in an untouchable, unapproachable, unlovable state. His skin was probably grotesque. His face may have been disfigured. He might have even been missing fingers and toes, eaten away by the numbness of the disease. He likely stunk. He definitely felt terrible, from the shallowest sensation of his skin to the depths of his heart. Until he met Jesus.  As he walked down the street yelling "unclean!" with his nine sick leper buddies, people backed away. Some may have even run away. But none wanted to be anywhere close to a leper, none the less a group of lepers. Except one man. When everyone else scatte

Visa applications, doctors'  appointments, vaccinations, a year's supply of medication, purchasing  insurance, international credit cards, an international driver's license. All of these were items on my to-do list this week. My life has been so full and intense the past few weeks that I felt that it's kind of a big deal to move to another country.  Not only is there so much to do in preparation, but there is also much to do once I get to Burkina Faso. This also feels like a big deal: starting a center for infants in distress, starting a medical clinic, serving as a missionary nurse... Sometimes the pressure gets a little too high. Maybe I place it on myself, or maybe it is unintentionally placed on me by others. I just wonder if sometimes people put foreign missionaries on a pedestal. Let me just bring things back to real life.  Contrary to popular belief, I am not going to Africa to save the world.  I won't be working in a clinic the day that I arrive. I won't

I am so glad this is the last time I have to do this, I thought to myself when I crawled under the covers at 7:30am this morning after work. I thought the same thing when my body woke up at 10:30 am, then at 12:30 pm, then again at 2:00pm when I could not fall back asleep.  But when I pulled into the parking lot for the last time, swiped my badge for the last time, and ordered to-go from Olive Garden for the last time, I kept thinking, I sure am going to miss this a whole lot. It especially hit me when I said goodbye to the day shift nurses for the last time. It's the people that really mean the most, and I am thankful to know such amazing nurses, scrub techs, and doctors. I am going to miss them the most.  The truth is I don't work in a perfect place, but I sure do love it anyway. I love the night shift, the people I work with, and the honor of being present with a family when a new life is brought into the world. Now the time has come to say goodbye for now and step towards

After eight hours in the car, multiple Twila Paris CDs, a sweet tea stop,  and only one slight directional fiasco where a map might have been thrown across the car, we happily arrived to our final destination. Road trip successful. Welcome to Louisville, Kentucky, for the long-awaited Global Missions Health Conference.  I went into this conference asking the Lord to speak to my heart. Over the last few weeks, I had been fighting fears of inadequacy. After all, who am I - a new grad nurse who only has one year of experience - to go to Africa? I feared facing things that I would not know how to handle. Maybe I need more school, more training, or just more time before actually moving. In addition to that, I haven't been to seminary. Am I even able to communicate the gospel in another language in a culturally relevant way?  Was I really doing the right thing in moving to Burkina?  So I asked the Father to speak to my heart this weekend and remind me why I am going. He must have smiled

Do you ever hear that one song that resonates with the depths of your heart? Everytime you turn on the radio, you want to hear it. Everytime you plug in your ear buds, you choose it. Every time you pick up your guitar, you want to play it. You can play it over and over and over again and it never gets old. You want everyone you know to hear it. It speaks so much of what you feel and believe that you could have written it. It is like an anthem of your heart.  I have a couple of songs like that for me right now, and I want to share these treasures with you in hopes that they will speak to your heart like they have spoken to mine. Maybe these songs will even encourage you to find anthems of your own.  The first is "Anchor" by Hillsong. Listen to the music here:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a0cvcLy5tFc and  read the lyrics below. I have this hope As an anchor for my soul Through every storm I will hold to You With endless love All my fear is swept away

"Is there any pleasure on earth so great as a circle of Christian friends by a fire?"  This quote by C.S. Lewis is possibly my favorite one. He said a lot of deep theological things, but these words ring true to my heart more than anything else he ever said. It's simple, but it's so true.  I know this because I went camping this last weekend at one of my favorite places in the whole world - the Buffalo River Valley. I arrived at camp early in the afternoon and enjoyed riding my bike, setting up camp, laying around in my hammock, building a little fire, and getting out the hotdogs and s'mores. But something was still missing, and camp wasn't complete until two cars pulled up and eight friends got out.  Soon, the sound of the crackling fire was covered up by talking and laughing. The lonely campsite turned warm with friendship. We sat around the campfire until late in the night, just sharing life together.  There truly is no pleasure on earth like a circle of br

Pulling into the parking lot of the Tropical Smoothie Cafe, I chose my parking spot carefully. I normally don't care where I park, but since my bicycle was on the rack on the back of my car, I selected a spot where I would be able to see it. After ordering my smoothie, I sat down by the window and picked a seat where I could sip my peaches n' silk while still keeping an eye on my bike...since it is probably the most valuable thing that I own.  That's when it hit me.  I am being just like my dad! I had no reason to be worried about anyone stealing my bike. Out of habit, I did what I have always seen my dad do - I parked close by and sat by the window so I could watch my bike. He always does that, and now here I was doing it, too!  Do you ever have those moments when you realize that you are acting just like one of your parents? When I pack a suitcase and find myself rolling up all my clothes instead of folding them and then packing them neatly inside, I think, oh my goodness

"When I was your age, I too wanted to go on the mission field right away," she began her story by telling me this. "A lot of people delay going to the mission field. They wait to get married, they wait to have kids, and before you know it they settle down and never end up going at all." I don't want to be one of those people, and neither did she.  "When I got a place of my own, I avoided buying a vacuum cleaner," she continued her story. She wanted her home in the United States to be a temporary place. She didn't want any attachments nor anything to tie her down. "If I got a vacuum, then that meant I would have to commit to cleaning the floors every week. But I didn't want to clean my floors week after week. I wanted to move overseas and be a missionary."  Well, the floors got pretty dirty after a while, and this friend of mine was forced to go out and buy a vacuum cleaner one day. She kept it in a storage unit with some of her other

When I was a little girl and would go shopping with my mom, I remember how she would sit outside the dressing room and beg me to come out and model each outfit as I tried it on. When I found just the right one, something that fit well and looked nice, she would say, "That befits you!"  "Befit" is probably not a word that you use everyday. I sure don't. In fact, the only time I hear it used is when people are talking about the way clothes fit. I find it unique and interesting that the Psalm-writer uses the same terminology to talk about praising God.  "How good it is to sing praise to our God. How pleasant and fitting to praise him!" (Psalm 147:1) In other words, praise is befitting on the Lord. It fits well and looks good on him!  Everytime we worship the Lord, we clothe him in garments of praise and adoration. And when we do, he looks stunning and brilliant, radiant and gorgeous. His praise is glorious, and it fits him just right.  I am learning anot

All you have to do is watch the news to see that our world is full of hurt and suffering. Most of the time, however, it doesn't even take a television. Everyone knows the pain of the world by our own stories, our own personal experiences.  I discovered an interesting passage in the book of Hosea this week, which caused me to contemplate these things. The first few verses of Hosea 6 say this:  6  “Come, let us return  to the  Lord . He has torn us to pieces  but he will heal us; he has injured us  but he will bind up our wounds. 2  After two days he will revive us;  on the third day  he will restore  us,  that we may live in his presence. 3  Let us acknowledge the  Lord ;  let us press on to know him. As surely as the sun rises,  he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains,  like the spring rains that water the earth."  Is this saying that God tears, that God injures? Is it possible that God actually causes pain in this way? It reminds me  of the age old question,

Late in the afternoon, the sun made patches on the road as it passed through the leaves on the trees. It just wasn't quite as hot today as I expected it to be. I  stopped pedaling my bicycle for a moment as I coasted downhill, just to take my mind off my beating heart and burning legs and to enjoy the breeze. Today, that breeze was just a touch cooler than normal.  That was the moment that I noticed it. The first hint of autumn.  If you pay attention, you will catch it every year. Sometimes it is that first morning that you wish you had worn a jacket. Sometimes it is that first little red leaf on the tree in the backyard. If you are not attuned, you will miss it. You will wake up one morning and autumn will be in full swing. But if you are like me, you eagerly anticipate not just when fall arrives, but also the coming of it.  "What is it that you love about fall?" My friend asked me out of curiosity as we rode our bikes together that afternoon.  "Oh, it's everyth