Thank you

Thank you to everyone who was praying along with me yesterday for the Carty family. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the sell of their home.

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.



The word of the Lord: "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you.' So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant." 2 Samuel 7:27-28

you are a trustworthy God and you have promised good things to your servants the Carty's. I thank you for your provision already with their funding, and going out on faith, and I ask that you complete the promise to provide for them by getting their home sold.

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.


It's me again God. I know that you never get tired of hearing from your children and that you delight in us. You say in your word: Matthew6:28- 34 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

So we don't worry about when the Carty home will sell for you have perfect timing and it will be sold exactly when it's supposed to be. Just as you provide for the lilies of the field - so will you provide for the Carty's. Thank you for answered prayers and daily reminders that we are held in the palm of your hand!

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.

Great comforter! I want to spend this time in prayer lifting up the family that Bart and Heather will be leaving here to go serve you. I don't know about Bart and his family - but I know that Heather is very close to her mom and sister. Heather recently lost her dad and it can't be easy for her mom to have her move so far away - so I ask that you would comfort her and reassure her that you have Heather, Eden and Bart in the palm of your hand. And I continue to plead for the sell of Bart and Heather's home, God sell it today!

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.


God my provider. I want to spend this prayer time praying over all those who have pledged to support Bart and Heather as they follow your calling on their life. I thank you for those that you have blessed with much who give much for the glory of your name. I ask that if the delay on the sell of their home here is due to not having full funding for their trip that you would provide it - and that you would sell their home so that they can begin the journey you've started them on.

Hello all, There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.

Big daddy God, I want to pray for little Eden as she travels to Central America with her parents - oh what a journey she is going to go on - to see first hand from her parents example the ways You can move when we let You. For her to see this kind of obedience from such a young age is a gift that not many children get to see. I pray that you would protect her heart, spirit and body as she travels with her parents - protect her from illness and danger. I pray that you would begin to stir in her even before she knows what it is a desire to reach people for you and show them your love.

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.



Ruler of All, I want to pray for the people groups that Heather and Bart will be ministering to and sharing You with. I pray that their hearts would be open to you and though it may be hard for them to comprehend your love for them I pray they would see it through Bart and Heather. I also want to pray for all the others that they will be ministering to. I ask and plead your protection over them as they go where you have called and your rest and peace while they are being served by Bart and Heather. You are an amazing God and have such incredible things in store for the Carty's - I pray that their home would be sold so that they may begin to do all the great things you have planned!

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.


Father I want to thank you for the obedient heart that you have given the Carty family. I thank you for the example they are to me that no matter how scary it may seem to uproot everything, leave a steady income, and go to a place that they've only visited once that because you have called them to it they will go. I thank you that you have promised to be with them every step of the way - all the way my Savior leads me. If you call us - then you will provide and that includes the selling of a home. God I pray that you would sell their home today!

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.

God, I want to pray for the family that is moving into the Carty's home. I pray that they would come fast and claim the home you have for them. If there is something holding them back from moving forward like waiting for their home to sell I pray that you would work in that situation - free them up to be able to buy the Carty's home and let them move on to where you have great plans in store for them. If they are in an apartment and they are waiting for the lease to be up I pray that you would put a itch in their spirit to start looking now for their home. God - move this process along at whatever stage it has stalled at. You made the heavens, you raise the dead to life, you created all things and I know that selling a home is nothing for you to do. I ask that you would do it!

Prayer for the Carty Family

Hello all,

There is a family in my church who has been called as a family to the mission field in Central America. The only thing they are needing is for their house to be sold. Our mission group has each taken a day to pray and this is mine - so every hour I'll be praying on here for them. Please join me if you think about it.


God - your timing is perfect, and though we may not know why the Carty house hasn't sold there is a reason for it. I ask Lord that you would reveal to the Carty's if it's something they need to resolve with people in their lives, or something that can only be done here in the states. If there is some way they still need to prepare I ask that you would open their eyes to that and help them to get that done.

Updates

I went back and checked and it's officially been almost a month since my last "weekly" update - I'm not good with these things- but I'll try to do better from now on.

1. Weight Watchers - I'm pretty sure that the reason I haven't posted the past few weeks was because there was some gainage and I didn't really want to put that down for the world to see (wait - isn't that what I'm doing now?!?!). Well I've officially gained my second star!!! For those non-weight watcher people out there - you get a star for every 5 pounds lost. To date I've lost 10.2 pounds!! Slowly but surely I'm getting there. All last week I worked out in the gym - so that's good. I've finally got a good routine going in the evening that not only gets me working out nightly - but it also helps me to eat earlier than I had been.

2. Mission Trip Update - well its 6 weeks and counting until I leave for my trip to Russia - and as the days tick by so does my passion for foreign missions. I still don't know where God ultimately wants me, all I know is that I'm willing to go wherever he leads - whether that be Russia, Uganda, Ethiopia or someplace not yet revealed to me. Go back to my post on the stop lights for more in depth about this.

3. Diet cokes - still haven't had one. My last diet coke was on 8 March 09!! Can you believe it? Going from a 12 pack a day to zip a day and drinking more water in one day than I normally would in a week an a half - no kidding!! It just goes to show you that you can do ANYTHING with the right motivation and the right heart. I knew that I wanted to be at my best for the kids in Russia and that was more important to me than drinking diet coke. It's the same thing with eating better and exercising - when your mind is in the right place it's not a chore or a hardship (though it may seem like it at the time while you are sweating profusely and trying to remember to breath and not pass out while working out your very out of shape body) it's something you (at least I do) look forward to because you know what you're working for and why you're working for it.

I know I'm asking again

I feel like all I do these days is ask for money.

While I still owe 700 on my Russia trip - God has laid this really heavy on my heart:

What is a life worth to you?

Is it worth a tank of gas?

Is it worth a dinner for two?

Is it worth movie, popcorn, and a drink?

Would you save a life for $30?

Billy and Cindy Foote, who have lead worship at our church several times, are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia and are making this plea:

“Our adoption agency is seeing an increase in the number of significantly malnourished babies coming in to their partner orphanages. Our agency has a transitional home in Ethiopia where children/babies chosen to be adopted are taken in and cared for until the parents can travel to get them. Many of the babies can not be referred to parents until they are healthy.

But our agency can not take on this task without donations of this formula and then sending that formula over with traveling families who are headed to Ethiopia to get their children and can take extra suitcases of this formula.

The 2 formulas we need to send are called Nutramigen and Alimentum which can be found at Wal-Mart or HEB. The formula must come in powder form because there is no refrigeration required and it’s lighter for travel or shipping.”

It takes 2 cans to feed one baby for a week.

So I ask you again – Would you save a life for $30?

If you would like to help donate formula contact me at rldinkins@aol.com and I can let you know how you can save a life!!

Mangroves

I was reading a new post from a new blog friend at Abiding There - great woman with an incredible story, family and heart for God. After reading this post I knew that I wanted to post about it myself, so I asked permission to "steal" it. Permission granted. Thanks!

Ok - so for those of us Texans or any of us not living in the tropics who don't know what a mangrove is - it's a tree that grows along the coast in the tropics and subtropics. It's extensive root system serves as a filter: a net of sorts, capturing things that might damage the ecosystem, but also acting as a refuge for sea life during storms.

I had no idea about Mangroves until I read this post from Abiding there. (Are you ready for how amazing God is!!!)

What she went on to explain was that Mangroves are a tree that needs fresh water to survive. Yet they grow in salt water. Because of this (or because the God of the Universe is so incredible -that he makes himself known throughout all his creation!) the root system is designed to filter the water. (the rest is basically the post from Abiding There)

The leaves of this plant grow in organized clusters near the ends of each branch. When the root system filters the water, it sends the {poisonous} salt water to one chosen leaf in each cluster.

The other leaves get the filtered fresh water.

When you see mangroves, there are a few yellow leaves scattered among all the healthy green ones. - see that ONE yellow leaf in the bunch there -

Those yellow leaves are the chosen salt water receivers.

It is their job to die so that all the others may live.

Sound familiar?

God sent his son to die so that we might live! I don't know what's more amazing - the fact that God over and over displays his love for us in and through his creation, the world- or the fact that I'm still in awe that God would love me that much that he would place reminders all over the place so that I could never forget.

Quote from C.S. Lewis and John Piper

“I was standing today in the dark tool shed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it was the most striking think in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.
Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no tool shed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, ninety-odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam and looking at the beam are VERY different experiences.”
C.S. Lewis

“The sunbeams of blessing in our lives are bright in and of themselves. They also give light to the ground where we walk. But there is a higher purpose for those blessings. God means for us to do more than stand outside them and admire them for what they are. Even more, he means for us to walk into them and see the sun from which they come. If the beams are beautiful, the sun is even more beautiful. God’s aim is not that we merely admire his gifts, but, even more, his glory.”

John Piper in response to the illustration from C.S. Lewis

Don't Waste Your Life

Great title for a book. But this one is so hard for me to get into! It's by John Piper, and it's a reading requirement for my mission trip this summer. I'm supposed to be about 1/2 way done and I might be about an 8th.

Guess what I'm doing during my lunch time today.

Seriously!!!

Ok - I've got to use this puppy to complain for a moment.

Today's "Administrative Professionals Day" - a glorified way of saying Secretary's Day. So this morning I sent out emails that looked like this to all those Secretarys that I work with:

Happy Administrative
Professionals Day!!!

Have a great day!

I searched for the flowers and then put the email together(not all that hard I know - but at least I emailed everyone separately and not in one mass email). Then about an hour or two later I get that same exact email from one of the people I'd sent it to - only they had mass emailed it to all admins with their signature at the bottom and included me and one of the other girls that I'd sent it to.

Don't really know how I feel about that - I know that I shouldn't be upset - but I kinda am. Let me rephrase - not upset persay - just a little annoyed. Oh well. I'll get over it.

For all those out there reading this who ARE Admins :

Happy Administrative Professionals Day!!!

Have a great day!

Give a dad a camera. . . .

and he cuts your face off . . . .

Or at least the top of one child's and the bottom of the other

No this was not a hack of a cropping job on my part - this was my dad's idea of zooming in. What a goof!! At least Sarah and Susanna look good - as do Rachel's eye and a half.

hahahaha!! Love you dad.

Jeremiah 1:5-10

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD!

Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."

But the LORD said to me,

"Do not say, 'I am only a youth';

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,

and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

declares the LORD."
Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth.

And the LORD said to me,

"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant."

God's words to Jeremiah are a calming balm on my anxious heart. Sometime, ok MOST times I feel like Jeremiah when he cries out "Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth". I realize that I'm not a youth, but I do feel like a child still and not one with enough experience for people to listen to. But God's answer is resounding and resolute:

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the LORD.-

So there is no need to worry. Thank you God for time and time again affirming your call on my life.

School Loan

About _?_ years ago I made the WRONG choice to go to college - or try to go to college. If there's one thing I've learned about myself it's when I do something I go all out, so instead of going someplace local, community college or something like that - I went to a private college. A VERY expensive private college - FOR A SEMESTER!!!

I knew I wasn't supposed to go to college - it's not for everyone - but I went because I was pressured by my (at the time) Pastor and his daughter - my friend, and "encouragement" from my parents.

Well needless to say I took out a loan to be able to go and it was A LOT - and I was not smart enough to start paying on the interest right away so it built up A LOT. Well I've now been paying on it for several years and it's FINALLY below $10,000. I realize that's still a HUGE amount - but for it to be in the 4 digits rather than 5 is an amazing feeling!! I'm making progress!

Thought I'd share.

Sitting at a red light.

Ok, so if any of you reading this go to church (I know most if not all do) than you've heard the stories preachers tell about life experiences and how God reveals himself through them (If you go to my church - some of the stories are AMAZING) - but I can't say I've ever had one of those times til now.

I mean, God speaks to me through songs, and his word and other people, but I've never been driving down the road and heard a clear word from God. - til now.

For a while now I've been talking to people and writing on here about what God is planning on doing with me, and the unknowing - but knowing there's something. I've been trying to be patient, and just listen and wait for the go ahead and working so hard on not going before the Lord in what he has in store for me.

Well the other day while I was driving it hit me. I was sitting at a red light, and in front of me were about 6 green lights that I could see.

All I could think of was - THAT'S ME!!!!

I'm sitting here waiting for what God has in store for me, all the while he's revealing a piece at a time of what he has planned for me. It's frustrating because I want to be there NOW, to go NOW - but here's where the traffic lights come in to play.

If I go when the lights red- duh - I could get hit by oncoming traffic because it's not my time to go. And while all those lights ahead of me are green, even if I make it through on coming traffic I might miss a turn because I'm speeding full speed ahead. Not all those green lights are for me. Just because the lights green doesn't mean I should go through it, in other words - just because I could go to Russia full time, or move to Uganda doesn't mean that's what God is calling me to. I need to wait on my navigator - wait until it's my time to go, and then go where HE says, not just where I can.

Am I making any sense?!?!? I am in my head - but I don't know.

Basically where I'm at now is waiting on God. Seeing the paths he could lead me on - Russia, Uganda, right where I'm at . . . . and waiting on God to reveal which path he wants me on.

Wonder Working One

You hold the world in Your hands
The universe heeds your commands

You'll finish the work you began

YOU ARE ABLE

You hold the power to save

The day You arose from the grave

That's why we stand here and say

We are grateful

Wonder working one

You are Jesus God's own Son

Until our time on earth is said and done

Keep working in us - Wonder Working One

You are with us

Spirit lead us

Blessed Promise of God

I think my favorite line in this song

(if it's possible to cut it down to one line - the whole song is truth!!)

is "You are able!"

God is able.

If he's called me to something, no matter how out of my realm of reality, he's able to carry it to fruition.

I think too many times we (I'm grouping you in on this with me) know in our hearts that God is able to do unimaginable things, but our head knowledge and reason gets in the way.

But if you take one thing away from this today - God is ABLE!!!!

Amen!

It has arrived

What has arrived you ask . . . .

Well for one my 300th post. I can't believe it. I took a "sabbatical" in the middle when I was without a computer - but I've tried to keep up with this here bloggie.

So - woo hoo for the big 3-0 . . .0 :)

But the MAIN reason for the "It has arrived" . . . Drumroll please. . . . .

bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum bum-da-dum
(how exactly do you spell a drum roll . . .you get the picture)

My passport has finally come in!!

So shiny and new, and blue and gold. So very American.

Actually if you really look at it (those who have a passport have you REALLY looked inside it?) There are quotes from past presidents, lines from the Star Spangled Banner, pictures on each page of American Icons.

It's just so patriotic. I love it. It's mine.

More than that - it means that the only thing left to do for me to be able to go on the Russian Mission Trip is to raise the remaining $700!!

I say it a lot - but it's the truth -

My God is a Great and Glorious God!!

Russia Updates

Come to find out - I thought I had a little over 1200 left to raise - but actually there was a miscalculation and I only owe $800 (ha - I think it's funny that I can say ONLY and really mean it).

God is so good - I can not wait to see what he has in store for me.

Russia

Keep praying for what God is stirring in me. I know he's calling me, I just want to be sure where I go is where he's leading.

I keep finding all these amazing sites from people whom have allowed God to wreck their lives for the Glory of God!! It's such an inspiration and makes me want to get out there. I just want to make sure that I'm not running ahead of where God is calling me.