In His Grip

If You Knew Her You Loved Her

This is a sad day for all of us that knew Miss Valera, but I know in my head that it should be a day of celebration, however my heart is heavy.  This is the day that she is in the arms of the one who she has loved and worshiped for so long, Jesus.  She was able to be reunited with her friends and loved ones that have been cheering her on as she encouraged, taught, and loved all those around her.   If you knew Miss Valera at all, you knew that she was a prayer warrior, you gave her something or someone to pray for and she was on it and would always ask for updates as to how the situation was changing.   Her encouragement and prayer have gotten me personally through several tough times and she was always there to celebrate the victory as well.   She will be missed by us all.  My friend Sheri said to me as we learned of the news, "I am so happy for her."  What a difference we as followers Christ have on the perspective of leaving this life on earth behind.  Heaven is our real home, and perfection won't be ours until we get there.  God made us to spend eternity with Him and although we get a little peek here of His presence, someday we will see Him face to face.  Now, that will be life at its best.  Congratulations, Miss Valera, you are perfection and you now know the BEST of life!!!!

Rays of Sun

This morning the air was so thick with humidity that you could see it.  I took this picture in our backyard and you can see the rays of sun coming through the trees that even my cheapy camera was able to catch.  I love it when you can actually see the rays of sun light like in this picture or up in the sky when you see rays of sun shining through the clouds.  It reminds me that there is a God out there that is much bigger than me and I know Him and He knows me.  Cool, isn't it? 

Three Word Thursday

Freedom to change

 

The Hole in Our Gospel

There are things in my life that just keep coming up everywhere I look.  I find it when I am searching for it and when I am not searching for it.  This thing that keeps showing up everywhere is poverty.  God seems to be continuing to show me that there is poverty in His world and it is all around me.  I can chose to ignore it and it will disappear into the landscape of my world or I can pay attention to it and do what I can to help.  Now the question is, what can "I" do?  There is the inadequacy thing where I am sure that there is nothing I can do to change such a large problem; and the; Why even try, I mean, I am just one gal?, Or God has the perfect person to help, I am sure I am not it.  But I do know that if God were only going to use the perfect person nothing in the world would get done.  God will use those who make themselves available to Him.  I read this book, The Hole in Our Gospel, a couple of weeks ago and I have not been able to get it off my mind since.  I am making myself available to help change the poverty in this world.  Today, I can help with the needs of school children in our area by donating to the backpack and school supply drive at Indian Creek Community Church, I can bring can goods to the Johnson County Parade in Gardner on Saturday, August 8th and place them in the Indian Creek grocery carts as they go by in the parade.  I can do something right now and I will continue to see the poor and under resourced in my world and not look away hoping someone else will help. I will get invovled! 

Camping Weekend

Jeff and I headed out on Friday morning on our inaugural camping weekend with our new vacation home in tow.  Towing our vacation home was not our trouble, it was the canoe on top of Jeff's vehicle that kept giving us problems.  We had to stop a couple of times to make sure all was up on top safe and sound and then we would be on our way again.  We arrive at Pamona by noon and in no time had our camp set up.  Our plan was to call the kids and tell them where we were in the campground, as they were coming after they got off work, but we had no cell phone service.  I had to drive back in about 5 miles until I found service and gave them a call with our campsite location.  We had great weekend even with the pouring down rain on part of Saturday.  With our tent trailer, we were all dry inside with electricity even.  This was my first time camping with electricity, what a concept, we even had air conditioning at night.  Can this really be called camping?

Three Word Thursday

Vacation home weekend!!!!!!!

 

In The Garden

This my clematis in our garden that I have been trying to grow for the last four years now.  I have babied it along and tried everything to help it grow, but it just did not seem to get any bigger than a couple of small sprouts each season.  However, last Fall I decided to cut it way back.  And this year look how great it has become in the few short weeks of this year's growing season. I love this vine and hope it will one day cover this arbor.  Vines always reminds me of this passage in the Bible;

 I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone dose not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  John 15:5-8

Indian Creek Gradner Campus Picnic

Last Sunday was the first ever Indian Creek Community Church, Gardner campus picnic.  After church, we all headed out to Celebration Park were we had great food and fun.  The weather before church looked very questionable, but by the time church let out we had a great sunny day.  There were over 100 people in attendance. There was a water balloon fight, boccie ball,  and we passed out pop ice to everyone at the park whether they were with Indian Creek or not.  The kids as well as the adults had a great time on the play ground while we all enjoyed the pop ice.  It was so much fun and I look forward to more picnics in the future.  You just can't beat hanging out with great people.

Three Word Thursday

Create or destory

Only in a Small Town

When you travel to different places you realize that there are just somethings that you will never see anywhere else.  Yard Birds is one of those places that just cannot be replicated.  It is a local store in Chehalis, Washington, that has been around for years and back in the day there was not only this "small" yard bird but a very large yard bird that you drove through to get to the parking lot.  Sometime back there was a fire that took the "big" bird out.  Only in a small town would such a sign like this even exist.  It kind of reminds me of the old pictures you see of a burger place that is shaped like a hamburger or the ice cream store with giant ice cream cone on top.  We just don't have these kinds of things around any more.  Yard Birds was a department store back in the day that was similar to Wal-Mart and the story is that people came from miles around to shop there.  Now, it is a very large second hand, junk/antique mall.  It is like there is a garage sale going on in there everyday.  You really have to be there to get the full enjoyment.

Finding Treasures

It is so much fun to find these little treasures for such little money.  I bought all of this and spent only $2.50.  Now I know what you are thinking, "What the heck are you going to do with this junk?"  Well, just so you know I will do something very creative and I will post the results here.  I have been wanting to do some altered art that uses old photos and ephemera (I have picked up some of the professional junkin' terms since I have been with my sister).   Look at all those buttons, I have a real liking for buttons, I am not sure why, but I just can't get enough of them.  I had better come up with something to do with all my buttons because my personal button collection seems to be growing every week. 

Junkin' with my Sister Yesterday, Shootin' with the Brother-in-law Today

My brother-in-law is your typical outdoors kind of guy.  He enjoys hunting and fishing, and I was talking about my hunting escapades with the little critters near our home.  He took me out into the woods up the road from their house to do some target practice.  I have not ever shot a gun other than a be be gun.  He gave me a little lesson on how to hold the gun, load the chamber, aim, release the saftey and then fire.  Wow, that was fun.  What a rush!  I love that smell after you fire.  We started out with a 22 and then we shot something bigger with a scope that made a huge BOOM!  Actaully, I don't think that I did that bad.  What a great time.

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Junking with My Sister

There is one thing that I love to do with my sister Lori and that is going to junk shops.  The way that she looks at old items and can see a new and creative use for them and is so inspiring.  She has a space in a junk store in her town where she sells her creations.  You should see the basement of her home.  It is full up with all kinds of things in all states of disrepair waiting for their turn to be made in to something new.  Lori's business name is Cinnabarblue.  

A Blue Life

I am in the beautiful Northwest, near Seattle, Washington.  What brings me here you ask?  Well, one of my nieces is graduating from high school and my sister and her family have lived in the Pacific Northwest since my parents and my younger sister moved away to Kansas, oh, some 28 years ago.  Wow, it has been that long?  If you know me at all you know that I prefer pink to any other color.  My saying is, "when in doubt, pink is always the right choice."  Now my sister, Lori is very different than me in this color thing.  She as always been a blue girl.  Her wedding was blue, her cars have been blue, and whenever I see something blue I think of her.  Here are some pictures of the blue in her life.

Three Word Thursday

What if? Worship!!!!!

Newest Pink Porch Designs

Over at Twice Remembered they are doing a make it Monday.  This is the projects that I have entered.  

These are some of The Pink Porch's newest designs.  I have really enjoyed not only designing new pendants and soldered charms.  But I am also learning more and more about Photoshop and how to manipulate pictures and designs to work for my uses.  I am starting to feel very technically creativity.  I have never thought of myself as very technical but I am enjoying this new skill and the endless avenues for creativity. Each of these designs are custom and made with love and care.  If you want to order something for a special someone or you just need something a little special for yourself, just leave a comment here and I will get back with you.

  

Serve Day!

Saturday was filled with some hard work and a great time at the What if the Church? serve day.  We met some great new people, and worked with some old friends too and got a lot of work done for the Urban Scholastic Center.  We had just over 100 people working at our sight with around 19 of them from the Indian Creek Gardner campus.  The jobs we did ranged from painting, to cleaning, and removing and planting shrubs.  It was so fun to see how much was accomplished in this one day and if we continue to work together as churches we can change the city, the country, and ultimately our world.  Isn't that what the "great commission" is all about?  I am looking forward to the city-wide worship event on June 3rd at Shawnee Mission Theater in the park at 7:00pm.  Hope to see you there.