Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. -- C.S. Lewis 

Last week I FINALLY burned the photos from my trip to Turkey on to CDs for each team member--It truly was a moment of real accomplishment. Mind you, I have had 5 months to do this small task.  Anyways, I completed it and that is that. HOWEVER I have now miss placed those cds. ERGG!! Yes this is my life and I am the sad miss-placer in it. No matter how accomplished I seem to feel, I always do something doofus-y that totally counter-acts my moment in the spot light. ergh my life.

Now that my moment of whining is complete ..... Here are a few photos from the MASSIVE pile of Turkey photos. :) Enjoy.

Antalya, the view every morning! 

It was to much fun to not take a picture. (ps this is 1 of 6) 

God is SOOOOOO good!!!!!! 

Who knew Uno was multi-cultural! :) 

our Hotel in Cappadocia 

City on a hill? ... The country that stole a part of my heart and light a fire for the nations.

The best team ever!!! 

God is sooo Good! This trip left such an imprint on my heart. So many things where planted in my heart that I can not even begin to express. Not only can I not believe I went but that it seems to come in waves of realizations and ..... whoah.. my brain can't handle it. 

Maniac Monday

Last Friday during a conversation with a co-worker about Healing and faith I had a light bulb moment -- not sure it will amount to a hill of beans but I am going to give it a shot.

    The originating conversation is as follows. We were talking about a potential guest (for the show we work on), her name is Abby H. Abildness and the book she wrote is, Healing Prayer and Medical Care. There is a growing number of stories/cases where prayer is seen immensely improving patient's health and aiding in the treatment process. They aren't all stories of total healing from just prayer (I do believe that happens) but a lot of the cases are where the Doctors verify that prayer in tandem with medical treatment healed the patient. God is healing people everyday!

So here are all these stories of God touching people, healing them and meeting their needs. That is awesome! I believe God is totally capable of doing all of that and I believe He wants to do those things for us. Throughout my life I have heard testimonies of where God touched someone's life: either in healing, providing dramatic financial needs and growing limbs back. You know MAJOR God moments.

But none of these things where in my immediate 'bubble.'
**here comes my lightbulb connection**

It is what I would like to call THTOP: That Happens To (for) Other People.

Things like: Natural disasters, major promotions, losing TONs of weight, risking everything to following their dreams, bumping into Mr amazing--go on a couple random dates--marry him and live happily ever after and even Healing. Whatever thing it may be. They are, you know, all the things that happen to others -- "no way that will happen for me things."

What is different between me and those people that live Major God moments?

How do you put yourself in a position to grow in faith to see a dead person raised, see someone's leg grow and to see God heal the sick?

Maybe that is it--Positioning. I am not positioning myself in a place that fully relies on God to intervene and do his God thing.

Kneeling before him, giving him my life, and saying "here have at it sir."

As I wrote in an earlier post, I am praying about going to Herrnhut, Germany for 7 months with YWAM. Before I go, I have a few financial responsibilities I want to handle. Through the lense of positioning I want to re-position myself so today--In front of the world wide web I am throwing my life out as a fleece to God and asking him to saturate it and as a step of my "risking-it-all-because-He-will-step-in" move. I am giving Him the Germany excursion.

I owe roughly 3k on my car and I have about 4k in student loans. At the moment I would be able to pay off one of those. That is all before looking at the different expenses for several trips this yr and the funds for Germany. This is the plan; I pay off my loans and car, leaving Germany in God's hands.

I believe I am supposed to go in Sept--it is a step that He is leading me to take. So seeing as He is leading that direction He can most definitely provide the funds. He will have to provide the funds because I can't. Maybe that is how it is supposed to be.

Deflate

Ever had something really awesome happen to you and someone comes along and totally takes the wind out of your sails? Not maliciously and not on purpose, they had the best intentions however they just wanted to "help" you avoid hurting someone else's feelings.

Yeah it definitely happened today to me -- not once, but twice. (Yeah, totally bummed out my day)

I read a blog awhile ago, Jon Acuff's to be exact, and he reffered to it as a 'Jesus Juke' ... I think....... anyways he was using it in a different context than I am now, but it is a similar idea.

You are on a high, life is in the clouds and the world is your oyster. You just lost those 5 lbs you were working on the past month or you found the shoes you were looking for since last summer--or whatever big accomplishment you reached. Then this oh so helpful 'friend' comes along and says, "you know Fred over there? He has been working really hard the past six months to lose his final few lbs so it would be good not to mention it too much that you lost 5 lbs in 3 weeks. He already struggles with the whole issue."

Have you ever been 'juked' like that?

Okay my deflate today doesn't have to do with weight, even though it would be nice to get fit again. But it was a deflate none the less. I may be making more of something that should just be left alone but it has been on my mind all day.

Is it just me and the people I'm surrounded by that do this?

When something outstanding happens to one person, we have to dumb down the celebration because of someone who can't put themselves a side for a moment to celebrate with someone else?

Hear me on this, I don't mean that those who recieve a good thing, should go around boasting, there should be a time of celebration. It's like when you have an okay job and someone you just met is talking to you about it and they ask your friend standing next to you how their job is going and .... they don't have a job. It totally bumms out the whole conversation.

I want to celebrate achievements with people, I also want to cry with people. There is a time for everything.
Lets celebrate with great gusto when we reach a high point.

So there may not be anyone celebrating here with me now. But I am celebrating inspite of that, gosh darn it. :)
This post may not make much sense, it may also sound like a bunch of complaining, but you are out in cyber world and I am here. I don't know you personally yet, but I want to be able to share the high moments along with the low moments.

Do you have something worth celebrating? 


..I do. Let the party roll.