Posters and signs like this are all over London as the city prepares for hosting the Olypmics in just a few weeks. I find myself laughing when I see these posters.. they are so clever! Some for the Underground, some for the motorways, some for shopping centres. I have never been this close to an Olympic site.

Gideon

As I am reading through the Bible... not as consistently as I would like... I was reading in Judges yesterday and was struck again with the story of Gideon. 

"For the Lord and for Gideon" was the cry of the 300 men whom Gideon took with him to defeat the army. And they easily won because the Lord was on their side from the start! But Gideon from the beginning was not so sure about the whole thing.

God was so patient with Gideon and kept pushing him to move forward and trust. I often feel like this with God. He is so patient with me. And He keeps pushing me to move forward and to trust Him implicitly.

growing old biblically

I watched this clip from Francis Chan about growing old biblically on Randy Alcorn's website. I want to watch and listen again and again. It reminds me of how I want to live my life.

This world is not my home, I am just passing through. And my role in this world is to be who God calls me to be. I want to love Him and serve Him. I want to not be entangled by the things of this world.. those things that do not bring me closer to Jesus.

I am only in my 30s, but I want to live every day as though I will see Jesus face to face tomorrow! 

learning when laid up

I think one of the hardest things to go through when you move to a new place is getting sick or injured to the point of needing professional attention. In your home culture, or any culture where you have felt at home, the proceedings for finding a doctor are known to you. In a new culture it is unknown and you must then do research, ask questions and make discoveries.

I injured my back this past Sunday night. This put me on the road to discovery of finding a chiropractor... except.. here in the UK, I discovered, you go to an osteopath instead. So a few people tried to think if they knew of any osteos in my area.. nope. I did some online research and found one.. except he only works part time in my area. I did get an appt with him on Wednesday. He confirmed that I did injure my back... it is still very inflammed....and I need to be careful even after the inflammation goes down and he gets things back in place. He was great!  I am so thankful to God for connecting me to this osteopath.

And when I can walk long distances again, I can walk to his place instead of needing to wait for someone who has a car who can take me, or hiring a taxi. Another thing I am grateful for. Someone who is fast becoming a dear friend here. She has been a great help this week.

The past few days, I have spent either laying down or standing up. At the beginning of the week it was 99% laying down. Now it is more 60% laying down. Progress!

But in this laying down time, I am grateful for the learning of new systems, the fellowship of dear people and time to think.

Sunny St. Andrews, Rainy Birmingham

 It was so good for my heart to go see Allen and Amanda Jones in St. Andrews this past weekend.

The Lord knows I needed to be around people who know me and could remind me of the ways He has made me. People in Rome and in my sending region don't know all the gifts and skills God has given me. I have recently been evaluated by many people who don't know me very well and it was difficult to hear a lot of what they said. I am processing it and asking the Lord to reveal truth to me. Allen and Amanda were a huge blessing in this process.

The sun was out almost all the time I was visiting.
It was lovely!
We had great fish and chips,
great conversations,
wonderful views of the sea and the scottish countryside.
I got to play golf in St. Andrews... mini golf.. but golf. :-) right next to the real golf course.

My heart is happy after this trip. 6 hour train rides up and back were relaxing.
I got back to rainy Birmingham... but it was nice to see friends on the train from the centre out to my area.  And I have the memories of seeing the Island of May across the sea and playing golf at St. Andrews. :-)

I love the SEA!