"The Giver of Life with No End"

"We will stop. And give You praise. For Great is Thy Faithfulness."

Some of my most precious memories are of my dad leading worship. He often quoted a favorite southern baptist preacher by saying 'if you aren't crying or sweating, leaking from somewhere, you aren't worshipping!' There are some songs, that when I hear them, I hear them only in his distinctly beautiful voice. The lyrics of this song are so powerful and challenging and the sound, to me, is comfort and familiarity. And if you like this version, you should call my dad and have him sing it for you.

We will remember 

We will remember

We will remember

The works of Your hands

We will stop

And give you praise

For great is Thy faithfulness

You're our Creator

Our Life-Sustainer

Deliver, our Comfort our Joy

Thoughout the ages, you've been our Shelter

Our Peace in the midst of the storm

With signs and wonders

You've shown your power

With precious blood You've showed us Your grace

You've been our Helper

Our Liberator

The Giver of Life with no end

We will remember

We will remember 

We will remember 

The works of Your hands

We will stop

And give You praise

For great is Thy faithfulness

When we walk through life's darkest valleys

We will look back at all You have done

And we will shout "Our God is good! and He is the Faithful One!"

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

To the One from whom all blessings flow

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

To the one whose glory has been shown

We will remember

We will remember

We will remember

The works of Your hands

We will stop

And give You praise

For great is Thy faithfulness

I still remember

The day You saved me

The day I heard You call out my name

You said you loved me

Would never leave me

And I've never been the same

We will remember

We will remember

We will remember 

The works of Your hands

We will stop

And give You praise

For great is Thy faithfulness

Today, on the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr, I celebrate that he was a work of God's hand. A man who dared to step out and stand in the gap for all of the Creator's children. I can't imagine how my life, my family and ministry would be different had someone not stood in that gap years ago. 

His faithfulness is great. 

One Hand of Weeks.

First, look at how cute we are.

Happy 2012! I don't think I can recall a New Year celebration that I was more excited for. 2011 was great, but 2012 is going to kick all the other years' butts.

My sweet little Cole (who is bigger than me now) and I rang in the New Year in the pediatric wing at Banner Thunderbird hospital. A few days earlier, we discovered he had a funky infection in his lung. But he is finally home now, after a week, and the yuck of 2012 is behind us.

So five. Five weeks. Now that I'm down to one hand of weeks, I am realizing that is not a lot of weeks. I have been going through phases of anticipation:

Phase 1: Disbelief.
I was feeling so overwhelmed with excitement and anticipation, that I actually had a hard time grasping the way God so beautifully opened this door. I spent much time during those first couple of weeks at the end of November praising God for His plan and for putting people in my life over the years who have taught me how to turn the pen of my life story over to the Ultimate Author.

Phase 2: Anxiety.
Right now I'm thanking God that He got me OUT of this phase and that it really only lasted about a week. But it was intense. I didn't have any fears about Haiti, but I started to question myself. I found myself pondering the "Am I ________ enough?" questions. Strong enough. Smart enough. Just enough. Praise God that His nature is good and perfect because He gently tapped my shoulder and whispered 'sweetheart, I am enough. and I choose you!' Ah. Goodbye phase two.

Phase 3: Preparation.
I would like to say that I've been working consistently on the 'stuff' I have to prepare before my move. But I'm just not that good of a person. It hit me a few weeks ago that I actually had things to do. Things like getting my health insurance squared away, boring stuff like that. But I got bored, so that phase didn't last long either.

Phase 4: Sad.
I'm sure I'll visit this one again, but I had a few days recently that I was very aware that I would be without my very favorite people in the world in just a few short weeks. While that was so hard, and I had to pray through this stage, I have to remind myself that He is my Ultimate Comfort.

Phase 5: Ready. (Current)
So I'm not actually ready. My room is a mess and I still get to spend a few days in Colorado next week, but I feel a peace and a calm that is sweetly familiar.

I like this quote:

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Thurman

Haiti makes me come alive.

Please be praying for me. This transition will be weird, and will certainly be hard. Pray that I would find comfort in our Faithful Father and that I would make the last 'one hand of weeks' super fun and full of love.