Love.

The kids are loving Alaska and the ferry rides that take us along the Alaska Marine Highway System. My thoughts about the kids have been numerous lately as I am realizing that the end of tour is not too far off. I want the best for them. My heart aches with longing to help them more, to pour into them more. There is a song I love by jj heller and one of the verses goes something like this:

Who will love me for me?

Not for what I have done or

what I'll become.

Who will love me for me?

The verse struck me as I imagined the kids asking me this very thing. While Christ can only love us wholly and completely I pray that I would love the children like this; not based on their past, present, or future, but based on the knowledge that they are sculpted and designed in His image.

The song ends with this:

I will love you for you.

Not for what you have done

or what you will become.

I will love you for you.

I will love you for you.

The love that you never knew.

Can you imagine what our days would be filled with if we loved each other with a love not based on performance, status, or any other sort of standards, but loving them for them? I can't promise that I will love this team, this family comprised of people from different nations perfectly, but each day I can aim to love others without requisite.

Yes, these children will do great things. They will bring change and hope to their families, villages, schools, churches, and communities; they are already doing that. I'm just asking for God's eyes towards them, eyes overcome with agape love.

Lord, may your kingdom come to earth. May we have glimpses and moments of what heaven will feel like as we sacrifice our desires to your heavenly ones. Give us your desires God. Burn within us a passion to make your name realized throughout this earth; a passion that burns off the things that hinder.

coffee girls

I would like to introduce you to Priscillah and Naomi.

These two are the ones who have made sure that I am not drinking too much coffee.

I am serious.

Everyday (well most days) I ask them if I am allowed to have a cup of coffee.

Usually if I plead long enough they give in.

But don't worry, they never let me have more than one cup a day!

I love these girls.

.changes.

i know that things change. as humans we are meant to change both inside and out. whether it means changing characteristics about ourselves or where we live, nothing ever stays the same. as followers we are called to change more into the likeness of christ each and every day. some days i am better about laying down my old self and putting on the new.

colossions 3:12-13
therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. bear with each other and forgive whatever grievences you may have against one another. forgive as the Lord forgave you.

we clothe ourselves daily, we change daily. i wish that i always put on compassion and gentleness, but some days i don't. some days i choose not to change and i regret it. i regret not changing to be more like my savior. i have changed since beginning tour 1 year ago. God has guided me as a daughter being led by her father. i have learned lessons that can't be told. i have travelled to hundreds of places and met even more people who are each walking down their own paths. many of these people have encouraged, confronted, and strengthened me. and in the end God has changed me through these people. and life has changed for each of you over the past year. there have been celebrations, accomplishments, disagreements, uprootings.

over the past year i have seen the lives of my friends and family change. many have deepened their walk with Christ, begun new jobs, married, travelled the world, cried, stayed home, kept in contact, laughed, and much more. part of me wishes that i could have been there for those things instead of witnessing them at a distance, but i know i am to be here for this season. and after this season with the ACC, i will change once again. it will be hard. it may be one of the hardest things i have ever done, to say goodbye to the children and chaperones as we have spent 15 months together nonstop. i don't know what changes God has for me tomorrow or the day after that, but i hold to the promise that they are good. for each of us who follows Him, His promises are sweet and true.

the Bellagio

in just a few short days choir 35 will board a plane bound for los vegas. we are currently in fairbanks, alaska but will fly to los vegas for a performance at the bellagio and then fly back to anchorage, alaska. it will be an adventure. i personally am very excited to fly with the children. they talk about flying all the time. and who doesn't want to take a weekend trip to los vegas?!?! i will be sure to take lots of pictures that tell of all of our adventures =)

True North?

I have heard this phrase (true north) for quite a while now and wonder what it means. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Now, to other things. . .

Tomorrow is August 1st. July has made for much time spent outside, some wonderful host families, time at the lake, forest fires, and my favorite, a visit from my family!

.they made me part of their vacation and it was perfect. just what i needed.

.day at the lake. mel's family has a cabin on a lake and invited choir 35 for the day.

it was wonderful and hot.

.time with HF. splash pad and ice cream for the girls makes them very silly.

.please notice the haze in the background. this was from the fires about 20 minutes from town. we are glad to not be breathing in the ash and smoke anymore.

.friends.

.the best way to cheer yourself up

is to try to cheer somebody else up.

Mark Twain

On an island.

For the last week and a half we have been touring Vancouver Island. It has been a nice change of pace and it's so relaxing to see the ocean so much. I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the word FAITHFULNESS. It's a word that stands for loyalty and trust to someone or something.

As a people of a God who is always faithful, we should be a people of faithfulness as well. Looking at those who God has ben faithful to I am shocked somewhat. He uses imperfect people, those who try it on their own first, those who scheme to get their own way, and those who don't always trust. But in the end, they come back. They see their weakness and inability to control and surrender it all to God. God gently welcomes them back and uses it as a lesson to show His faithfulness. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and many more are those who are esteemed as people of faith. Hearing and reading these stories gives me hope that He isn't done with me. He isn't waiting for me to be perfect, but to be willing to be used and sculpted and I am.

Faith, according to Hebrews 11, is not about what we can see; it is about Him. It is about the one that we cannot see. It says in this chapter that "their weakness was turned to strength" and it is so because they allowed God to have their weakness and He used it. God is true to His faithfulness to each generation and I am thankful. I see His faithfulness in my life and I hope that I can show that same faithfulness to Him and His people in return.

I am blessed.

I am blessed.

Beyond measure.

I am blessed by God's wisdom and His encouragement just when I really need it. These last couple of nights I stayed with a wonderful Host Family. They own a farm and it sits on many acres just at the base of the mountains. I was renewed by God's creation. He speaks to us if we are listening. I was blessed by the conversations and the love shown.

We have a song in the concert that begins with our James saying these things, "I have been so many places, I have seen so many faces." And it's true. I have been so many places. I have been blessed to experience places that I never would have been able to go on my own.

Dr. Seuss wisely once said, "Today is your day! You are off to great places! You're off and away! . . . Kid, you’ll move mountains! So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!"

Here are just of the places I've been: