SEVEN: Waste Week

Okay, so I’m not exactly a tree hugger.  Littering makes me a little mad—especially the coors lite cans thrown into my yard.   I’ve always seen the whole “green” thing  as a liberal democrat issue because it seems to me that many of the folks who are so outraged by an endangered species often care little about unborn babies being killed.  So… that makes me have to be against them on everything…right???

And for real, what difference does it make which bin I throw my water bottles into?  Am I not just wasting water by having to wash dishes and cloth napkins? And honestly, how do we even know what really happens to the stuff in the green bin I put out every other Wednesday—does it really get recycled or does it get tossed into the same dumpster my trash went in on Tuesday?  Does God even care how much paper I waste or what kind of gas I use?

“The earth is defiled by its people.”  Isaiah 24:5

“They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.”  Isaiah 5:12

 “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  Isaiah 40:26

I get the idea God likes his earth pretty much. 

When I give a gift to someone--especially a treasured gift-- it makes me sad if it’s not taken care of.

So.  I’m gonna try to do better.  Recycle.  Use less.  Save more. 

·         Taking my lunch to work makes me use less gas (not to mention saves me $$ on junk I don’t need anyway)

·         Using  dishes instead of paper –well, it’s just nicer anyway

·         Tea (and in 16 days COFFEE YAY) just tastes better in my pretty yellow mug than in a Styrofoam cup that will not disintegrate until starwars

·         I will have homegrown sage for my thanksgiving dressing!!

creative lunch packing! Tuna in a jelly jar.  Crackers wrapped in the napkin :)

My daddy grew sage and dried it for me.  He would be proud!

Office Recycling (i get weird looks)

SEVEN: Media week

No:

facebook

Instagram

Twitter

* tv

Iphone aps

Internet (except for work)

Frivolous texting

Radio

Stupid games

*Since my husband was not participating, I will admit that the TV was on some when he was home.  But he mostly watches movies we’ve seen 723 times-Bourne, James Bond, the patriot, etc. I didn’t think that even counted.

I didn’t die.  Even though I had 32 notifications, I really don’t think anyone missed me! Seems everyone just wants me to play candy crush saga

 

What I did
     ·         Re-vamped my budget-went through every expenditure for July and August, seeing where  the money is high tailing it off to.  (Spending week is right around the corner)
     ·         Cleaned out the laundry room, making room for Terry's wonderful canned goods!
     ·         Read some books (started Interrupted and it scares me! Am I honestly ready for God to interrupt my comfy cozy life??? )

 

 

What I missed
      ·         Music in my car! (But the worship time at church this past sunday was so awesome!)
      ·         Emma videos on insta (but looks like she didn’t post much!)
      ·         Reading blogs












What I learned

      ·         I don’t want to be a slave to media-I want to actually be with the people I’m with

      ·         This question:  “How much time do you spend absorbing biblical truth compared to absorbing media?”  oh just stop it!! Why can’t you just make me feel warm and fuzzy!

      ·          “The dangerous part of our social media and technologically saturated world is not its existence, but what it distracts us from.”  Brandon Hatmaker (Jen’s husband)

      ·         I must recondition myself not to feel compelled-pressured-to immediately reply to every text, email, and FB message

      ·         FB can be a breeding ground for gossip. (get outa town! Really???)  I read a vague post and my mind goes nuts.  I have permission to unfriend toxicity.

 

In other news: I miss you, Coffee. Only 20 more days until we’re singing, “reunited and it feels so good!!”

 

stuff

It's Possessions week!  Give away 7 things for 7 days.  What could be simpler?  My goal in this week was to make this about making connections.  My favorite 7 quote this week:  "It's not that Christians don't care about the poor, Christians don't KNOW the poor."  owwwie. 

This is not about de-cluttering my house just so i can go buy newer stuff to fill it up again.

But I will admit, my kitchen cabinet doors now close and open without stuff falling out!  that's a nice new side effect!

So far my favorite moment has been my RED coat moment.  I truly loved my RED winter coat.  It's about 2 years old, but with our mild winters hasn't seen a lot of action.  So when I asked about a particular young lady (I think I'll call her Esther-she's really really brave and loves God fiercely!) whom i knew was in need of many basic things, i was told she probably had the summer stuff covered, but she'd be needing some winter clothes and maybe a jacket.  my RED coat.  Please not my RED coat-i'll give her my denim jacket, how bout that?  okay, mutter, eye roll.  Saturday morning i went through my closet, grabbed my RED coat and a few other things, and headed over to see Esther.  I felt a bit awkward.  I didn't want to make her feel weird.  Didn't want to be the church lady here on a project.  How ironic that she put me at ease the very second she saw me.  She grabbed me up and loved on me.  But here's the thing.  While Esther was so grateful for my RED coat, that wasn't what she was concerned about at the time.  She had just spent the night in agonizing prayer for a wayward son who was making some really poor choices and affecting everyone around him.  We laid aside the clothes and began to pray for this prodigal to come home. that he would come to know our Jesus and understand that only He can fill his empty places.  i wouldn't trade this moment for all the RED coats in Macy's! 

Here's what i'm still struggling with--that same old question...How much stuff  is okay and how much stuff is stupid ridiculous? i have a hair appointment today at 4:45.  i will spend more on my hair than some people around the world make in month.  I saw a tweet by Jen Hatmaker yesterday about hoping her cute boots were visible on the TV interview she just did.  I watched her HGTV renovation of their newly purchased farm house.  Immediately my fleshy side--you know the side that compares and competes--went into overdrive.  IF THE AUTHOR OF THIS CRAZY BOOK CAN HAVE STUFF SO CAN I!!!! Can i sound more like a 3 year old? but seriously,  i give to my church.  i give regularly to other ministries.  i give to special offerings. i even gave $7 to the homeless man at Dollar General. But am i justifying all my stuff?  i don't know the answer.  i just don't.  Why did the rich young ruler go away sad? He loved his stuff more than he wanted to follow Jesus.  i am so trying to learn this.  i don't want to go away sad.  i want more RED coat moments. 

clothed with pride

SEVEN-Clothing Week:  i came into this week just a little smug.  after all, i'm not shackeled by the bondage of outward appearance.  not me.  i felt a little sorry for some of the others though.  poor girls.  they really have some work to do on their issues.  then THIS happened...  I totally flipped out  when i came to the realization that i'd worn 6 of my 7 sanctioned clothing items on the first day.  My funeral suit & shoes and my red summer blast t-shirt (forced on me by children's ministry) with jeans and flip flops.  THANK GOODNESS i found out i would be off work one day during the week.  At this point i'm just thankful Jen didn't mess with my make-up (shudder). who's got issues??? this girl.

Pride.  that's my uniform.  Pride accessorized by jealousy.  i want to be thin and tan and cute and well dressed, shopping at the little boutiques.  And this desire is motivated by nothing holy.  nothing innately good.  not because i want to please Jesus in any way.  it's purely motivated by wanting to be liked OR wanting to be envied by someone I DON'T LIKE! Golly gee wiz I'm a cold sloppy mess.  (i'd say hot mess because that sounds much trendier, but there's nothing cute and trendy about where i am right now)  i have one "friend" that makes me so mad because every time i see her she's wearing something new (that's my exaggerated assessment, not  truth). Shouldn't she care more about the poor??? Doesn't she realize how self-absorbed she is????  Righteous Anger?  Nothing but jealousy. i'm thinking clothing week needs to be extended a few more days. i have way too much work to do here.

So just how do i take off this garment of pride--this adornment of jealousy? It fits so well and has become so comfortable!   James says if i humble myself, He will lift me up.  That's the one thing God won't do for me-the humbling part.  It's my deal. my choice.   But then He promises to do the lifting part.  When I'm embarrassed, i just want to hide.  This past week i made a ghastly mistake at work.  I put the WRONG time for a funeral service in the paper!  it was awful.  my first thought was how can i cover this up? How can i blame the newspaper?? But there was no way out.  i had to own it.  i did.  but it was no fun.  i hid out in my office the rest of the day.  avoided my boss as much as possible.  apologized at least 4 times.  i soon came to realize that what bothered me most was how incompetent it made me "look," not feeling bad for the family whose service time was wrong, or for the people who may have missed it or been inconvenienced by the error.  i looked bad.  poor me. 

Pride is so ugly.  take it off.  throw it away.  You know what's pretty?  a gentle spirit.  Phil. 4:5 says, "Let your gentle spirit be known by everyone."  the one thing we're allowed to show off! Here's the Msg. version:  "Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them, not against them."  Now that's a beautiful outfit.  accentuated by pearls of Grace

yes...i do believe clothing week needs to go another week-haven't even gotten to the poor garment industry workers and the kids in Haiti wearing Halloween costumes!

Every 5 Seconds

Seven.  After reading Jen Hatmaker's book, SEVEN, An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess I approached my small group girls about doing the small group Bible Study by the same name.  I think most anyone who's reading this probably has heard much more than they care to about this book of craziness, so I won't go into detail about the whole deal.  If you want to  know more about it you can google it.  There's lots out there.

 Today we start Food week.  7 foods for 7 days.  Last night at small group we watched the video and I was stunned by what I heard.   I guess i was just expecting more mechanics and encouragement as Me Myself and I make this huge sacrifice of fasting.  I mean my heavenly stars above!!!! I'm giving up French Roast for this thing!!!  This is after we had just discussed Isaiah 58 and talked about how this is not about legalism and our focus should be on the heart and spirit of the fast, not all the food details! 

This is what I heard:  "Every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger"  That's pretty much it.  That's pretty much all I remember--every 5 seconds.  In the time it took to watch the video, 240 children died of hunger. While I slept in my king size bed still too full from taco salad, 5,760 babies starved literally to death.  While I put on my makeup this morning we lost another 120.  While i gobbled down my egg at breakfast, another 60.  In the time it took you to see my post , click on the link and read this far, another 3 or 4.  Children.  Babies.  Kids.  They died.  from being hungry.  How am I supposed to be okay with that?  How am i supposed to not be bothered that children are dying and I have food to throw away?  If I don't get another cotton pickin thing out of this ridiculous study, then it has been worth my time. 

How many times have i thought, "God, why am i so blessed and why do you let people go hungry?"  He is asking me the same question.  "Marla, how can you let babies die of hunger?"  Every 5 seconds.
to quote my daughter, "I can't Un-know this!!"   Every 5 seconds. 

There is one other thing I heard last night. www.kiva.org I went to the site, read a little more about this concept of microlending and made an insignificant loan to a woman in the Philippines who is trying to feed her family through her little sari-sari store.  She will repay this loan (there's a 98.85% repay rate!!!) and then I can choose to take my loan back or reinvest it in another family in poverty.  What an awesome concept!   This gives me just a little ray of sunshine.  But I guess in all honesty, it helps me feel better about what I'm fixin to eat for lunch and the children who will not make it through today. 

every 5 seconds...

what do you know...i guess i did rant against injustice.

Some Random Haitian Thoughts

I started the trip taking notes randomly, so I think I will just share them randomly.

1.  I gave Stephanie such a hard time with her "Tigisms", but here's a quote from our Shannie that made me smile today:  "In America you see little quilts from the Airplane windows.  Here, there's just nothing.  Maybe a mountain."

2.  8 hr bus ride. 1/2 the day we flew in, then stopped for supper and spent the night because the DR - Haitian border closes at 5 pm.  I remember laying down after a very long day.  I started praying for rest and a good night's sleep when it occurred to me that I don't remember Jesus or Paul ever praying for their own comfort.  Not once. Not in jail.  Not in the garden.  Not on the cross.  Even in prison, Paul prayed for spiritual wisdom and revelation, not rest.  In the garden Jesus prayed for his followers to have unity.  He prayed for me, not that the crucifixion wouldn't be painful.  I am so spoiled. 

3. First day in country. grab a bunk. Clinic is set up. Rest. After lunch, the people start to come to the Clinic. We have a NP, April Robbins, 2 RN's, Mary Darby and Melanie Ard; and a Respiratory
Therapist, Chasity Hall. The large group is waiting in the church and 10-12 people at a time are sent up to a pavilion where Matt shares the Gospel message through a translator before assessing patients begins. Kinda like when the nurse calls you in the waiting room and you think FINALLY, but then you just go to another waiting room! Then, Chasity runs triage-getting their ailments and "medical history" which is such a ridiculous statement for me to make. Medical history? They have no medical history. Blood pressure is checked and a dose of "worm" medicine is given to each patient (at least what we can keep Renea from taking herself!) We are not equipped for anything serious. But during the afternoon, we see a strange sight. A woman is being carried up to the pavilion by 4 men in one of those plastic patio chairs. Remind you of a Bible story?? She's obviously in bad shape. Her breathing is erratic and she is so swollen, fluid is seeping from her pores. Not sure all of what her problems are, but she has a 4 month old baby and has never fully recovered from complications experienced at birth. All the medical staff comes out to see her because there is no way to get her inside. The translators share with us that she believes there is a curse on her. We pray over her even though she cannot understand. The Holy Spirit translates as we boldly go before the Throne of Grace. HMM takes her across the border to the closest medical facility which is not much better; it's a little like a trying to do surgery at your school nurse's office! All has been done. She is placed in God's care as we watch the truck leave the compound. A day or so later (it all runs together!) we found out the precious lady did not survive. We are so broken by the news. This would never happen in the riches of America. On Sunday afternoon we are allowed to visit the family. We are greeted so graciously by the mother. We ask if we can pray for her. When the translator explains, she immediately hits her knees as we all gather in, laying hands on this broken heart for whom Jesus came. It's an amazing time. Healing. Comforting. 

 

Haiti Through Junior High Eyes

 just got back from Haiti a few days ago.  God put together a very unique team and for eight days we did our best to share Jesus with hopeless eyes.  My plan is to share several posts about the trip, each focusing in on different aspects or experiences.  so here's the first

i love mission trips but i especially love watching the "first timers" who have no idea what is just around every corner.  We had three on this trip who quickly came to be known as the "Junior High Girls" and they were a blast and a blessing!!  Now, let me explain...they are not 13 or 14 year olds, but they were the youngest of our group and all three were wide eyed first time mission tripers. here's the deal...  in every jr. high group, you've got these 3 types:
1.  The leader--bold, fearless, strong, and willing to do anything.  we know her as Sassy
2.  The sweet shy one--a little unsure, but LOVES deeply and has a heart of gold.  Meet Shannie
3.  The crazy one--inquisitive doesn't quite cover it-there's no telling what she might say or ask, loves to laugh, loves Jesus, loves people.  AKA Stephanie!
here's where it all began

  "It's about to get real, real fast" Tig

And real is indeed what it got. 
God used each of these sweet girls in so many ways.  He used them to give hope to the Haitian people.  He used them to give joy to our team.  He used them to make much of Jesus.








One of my favorite Sassy moments took place on Sunday night as we gathered for worship at with the congregation of Pastor Vilma's church.  Let's just say freedom rang and by the time we sat down for the sermon, i was sweating like a pig after a Zumba workout!  Sassy did not hesitate to join in the dance, which gave us all the courage to forget ourselves and  remember Who we were there for.  The joy on her face as she worshiped the One who created Haitian and American and brought us all together was a beautiful sight to behold.

Sassy and Moses, one of our translators who also lead the way in worship Sunday night.









Shannie-would you like to know how Shannon got this perfect little nicname?  Well, naturally, at VBS, she was the one who received all the love notes and letters begging that she promises to come back soon! Yes, Stephanie, (I can hear her now), you got some too!!    2 young boys slipped past the water line that ran through the compound (this is the line the kids know they are not supposed to cross) to bravely deliver them to Shannie as he called her in his note.  Now, here's the good part.  After talking to them one evening after supper, Shannon decided she had to find a way to share the Gospel with them.  Much to her disappointment the boys didn't return the next day.  She went out to look for them at least 3 times.  But the next day they were back and using the oldest boy, John Michael, as a translator, she did indeed share with them the truth of God's Word and at least one of them came to know Christ.  Way to go Shannie!!!
 



A little Haitian boy shows Shannie his color sheet at VBS







Stephanie.  What can i say....really...i'm trying to think of what i can say that won't incriminate or embarrass us all!! What flitters through her sweet little brain just bounces straight out of her sweet little mouth.  But I will never forget the look on her face when she laid her stuff down on her bunk that first afternoon in country.  Stephanie didn't just tear up...She sobbed.  Her heart was completely broken in two by the sights, sounds, smells and the absolute poverty, the likes of which she had never seen.  In that moment, she will tell you herself, she was forever changed.  But in between taking blood pressures at the clinic and teaching the lesson at VBS, she kept us all laughing.  Just when someone would feel defeated or just plain tired....Stephanie!  Here's a couple Tigisms: (i'm only sharing a couple because Renea is working on a book deal and I don't want to plagerize)
"Just because you get bit by one little mosquito, don't mean you're gonna get the chung-cung flu." (followed by eye roll)
"What do they eat? there's nothing out there but rocks and tumbleweeds!" (She's confused with Texas?)
"Marla, I'm itchy.  It may be the cracker crumbs in my bed, but I really feel itchy.  Marla, do you think it's the crumbs???"


Stephanie teaching the VBS lesson on Noah's Ark      

There's more.  so much more.  I'll post more expereiences in the days to  come. 

Very thankful to have been blessed by this trip! 

you've probably seen all these pics on FB or Insta, but just in case.....

       

 You make your own caption for this one!!!

Jr. High Girls with their chaperon, Renea  What the what???