Of Great Importance!

I just learned that we are going to take in some of the overflow of orphans from Haiti at Restoration Ranch IF we can get the four homes (building pictured above) finished in the next few weeks. We need your help with funds to finish the work so that we can give some of the 100,000 Haitian orphans a new home.

Please send the funds to our home church:

Bethel Worship Center
814 Fair Street
Camden, SC 29020

Write a note in the envelope or on the memo line : RR - Haitian relief.
Thanks for all the help and prayers!

Haiti Relief

I'm sure everyone is aware by now how bad it is over in Haiti and how desperately they need all the help they can get. My parents are working with several different ministries right now and have a list of supplies they need as soon as possible.

Please take a look at their blog for more info: [link].

Keep Haiti in your prayers.

The Wonders of Pondering...

Have you ever read a book with someone?
I remember one of my favorite childhood memories was when my dad would read to me just before bed. I know you see that in movies and stuff, but how many dads actually do that? And how many dads--if they do that--read a fantastic book like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

I can remember the beginning of my reading career. It was in kindergarten. My dad had come in one day and we were supposed to all be reading to our parents or something. Anyway, I was sitting in his lap and I remember faking it. I didn't want to try so hard. I didn't want to look silly in front of someone so smart, someone I admired and loved. So I would look at the pictures, make up my own words (from what I remembered of the story) and turned the page "before" he would get a chance to look at the real words.

But I admired him with reason. He was smarter than I.
"Britt," he said while turning back to the previous page, "how about reading this word to me again." He pointed at one of the various words on the page. I stared at him blankly, wondering how he had figured out my clever trick. Thus it began. Slowly, even painfully at times. Now I can't get enough. And recently, it's been with one or a couple of others.

For example, a few months ago my friends and I decided to begin reading a book together called Before You Meet Your Prince Charming. Maybe it sounds cliche, but it's really very challenging. It's neat to see reactions, hear different perspectives, clarify and delve into... We're picking it apart piece by piece, weighing it against our different experiences and what we know as Truth. We keep a journal to track our progress along the way.

And today I was reading Crazy Love with my mom. Another very challenging book, but a very good read if you're willing to apply what you learn. We'll finish tomorrow before I leave for school again. We did mani-pedi's tonight. :)

I love my family very much. I thank God for what He has blessed me with, and I look forward to seeing them again this summer (which seems to be getting busier and busier). I don't want to wish any time away, or even to ask it to move swiftly. That would be foolish. I need this time to learn some things. I don't even ask that it would be easy. Only that God would be right by my side through it all, guiding me and guarding me.

This year I will learn.
This year I will train.

It's time to get ready.
Right now is preparation for a time soon to come.
Acercate, mi Dios.

Thank You, Lord...

^{O my soul, rejoice!}

As I look back through my prayer journal for the year 2009 I can the see the mark of God's faithfulness over and over again. He has been with me every step of the way. He never left my side. And I am thankful... you can see it splashed most every page.

In this year 2009, what have I learned?
I will take an excerpt from one of my prayers this summer:

I will forgive; You forgave me.
I will let go; You're in control.
I will believe; You are trustworthy.
I will be patient; it is a virtue and pleasing to You.
I will have joy, for You are my salvation.
I will remain; You will never let me go.
I will persevere, for you have promised a crown of life.
I will trust; You are faithful.
I will sing; You sing over me.
I will be still; You are God.
I will pray, for You hear me.
I will glorify; You are King.
I will please; for it is my deepest desire.
I will walk confidently in my steps; You have told me so.
I will love; You have loved me first.

Any more to add?
I will dance before You just like King David, for he was a man after Your own heart. I will wait on You and not waste this time; what You offer is worth waiting for. I will rejoice always; You have brought me to life. I will live free, for who the Son sets free is free indeed. And above all: I will focus on my relationship with You, for that is all that matters. May this vapor of a life be a glorifying flash of light for the One who made me.

Thank You for an amazing year, Lord.
Do Your will in the next.

I love You, Abba.

One After Another...

_{Two devotionals that spoke into my life.
--By Darlene Sala--}

God and My To-Do List

What do you have written on your to-do list for today? Will you get it all done? Will God feel let down if you don't?
Many of us feel God is disappointed in us if we don't accomplish all we hope. Somehow we must feel that if we could just get it all done, we'd sense His smile of approval. We feel guilty when at the end of some days not even one item on the list is crossed off, because the day just didn't go like we planned. And we figure God must be pretty disappointed with us, too.
But Jesus did not come to earth to help us get more done. He came to make it possible through His life and death and resurrection for us to have a personal relationship with God. Not just "fire insurance" to keep us out of hell, but day-to-day walking and talking together.
I like the phrase "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" used in 2 Corinthians 13:14. God the Holy Spirit lives within us, and that means we can have fellowship with Him through His Spirit. That means we can sense His presence right where we are in the middle of our circumstances.
It is not enough to organize your life so that you get the most important things done first--unless the very first thing on your list is your relationship with God. It's not enough to learn to win friends and influence people, as good as that is, unless the #1 Friend in your life is Jesus. It's not enough to learn to think positively unless your thoughts throughout the day center on God.
God's love is neither increased nor diminished by the success of failure of your to-do list. Instead He wants your first concern to be how you can fellowship with Him on a closer, warmer, and more personal level, no matter how efficient and organized--or inefficient and chaotic--your life may be.
When you have that sort of relationship, you can trust your to-do list to Him. He knows better than you what you really need to accomplish.

["It's all hinged on your relationship with God."]

-=-=-=-=-

Wait

The psalmist urges us:

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Over and over the Bible repeats these words: "Wait for the Lord." Wait for God to act. Wait for Him to do what no one else can do in your situation. This kind of waiting doesn't mean drumming your fingers on the table while you accuse God of being slow. Instead, it means you take courage--you take heart--because all the time you're waiting, in your heart-of-hearts you truly believe He will act in time.
"God is seldom early, but His is never late," says my husband. In fact, they'll probably chisel it on his tombstone someday because he not only says it, he lives it. Yes, the God who invented time will answer before it's too late.
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody had a brother who was an unbeliever. For forty years Moody prayed that his brother would turn to the Lord. But he never saw it happen, for Dwight L. Moody died still waiting for his brother to come to Christ. What Moody never learned on earth, however, was that after his death, his brother did come to a saving knowledge of Christ. God did answer Moody's prayers. The God who said, "Wait for the Lord," was faithful to answer.
The circumstances of your life may look like a tangled mess of threads instead of a beautiful tapestry. Put God in charge and wait for Him to act. Nothing is impossible with Him.
Hannah Whitall Smith wrote, "It is not hard...to trust the management of the universe, and all of the outward creation, to the Lord. Can your case then be so much more complex and difficult than these that you need be anxious or troubled about His management of you?"
Yes, God wants to be the manager of your life. Think about that next time you look up into the sky and see the heavenly bodies that God keeps going in their precise orbits. Think about it when you watch the Discovery Channel of TV and marvel at the intricacies of the cycles of life that God sustains on this earth.
If God can manage the universe with such skill and care, I suspect He can handle your life's pressures and challenges as well.

["The Lord knows when a sparrow falls from the sky. Are you not more valuable than these? Be anxious for nothing. Do not worry. Be not afraid..."]

--
^{Devotions from "Encouraging Words for Women" by Darlene Sala}