Choose to refuse

Our God has a sense of humor. I flipped open the wonderful devotional "Jesus Calling" to the 'wrong' days entry, but the first few words caught my eyes, so I read it and was put in my place. Many of us are in a place of unknown and questions and I hope this will encourage you as much as it encouraged me....

"Trust Me and refuse to worry, for I am your Strength and Song. You are feeling wobbly this morning, looking at difficult times ahead, measuring them against your own strength. However, they are not today's tasks - or even tomorrow's. So leave them in the future and come home to the present, where you will find Me waiting for you. Since I am your Strength, I can empower you to handle each task as it comes. Because I am your Song, I can give you Joy as you work alongside Me.

Keep bringing your mind back to the present moment. Among all my creatures, only humans can anticipate future events. This ability is a blessing, but it becomes a curse whenever it is misused. If you use your magnificent mind to worry about tomorrow, you cloak yourself in dark unbelief. However, when the hope of heaven fills your thoughts, the Light of My Presence envelops you. "

(Exodus 15:2, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Hebrews 10:23)

Wow. Chew on that for a little bit and digest it, so that you choose to refuse to worry. Choose to refuse. Choose to refuse. Choose to refuse.

Miracle's do happen

Earlier this year I introduced Miracle to my blog readers. She was found as a newborn, lying in dirt with a dog chewing on her umbilical cord. For the full story, see the entry on Jan 28,2008.
This is the picture she and I took together when she was two months old.


I fell in love with her and would see her often to love on her and watch her grow. Nicky sent me these pictures of her now. Is she not just the most adorable thing??? You can see why Aunty Erin is really really missing her. She is now 10 months old and has started to walk !!! she didn't bother crawling just got up and walked...she is such a beautiful little girl it is so hard to imagine why someone should want to abandon her, but God had other plans for her life....and she is...





a walking Miracle.

In Nashville

Greetings from Nashville... I arrived here yesterday to visit a dear friend, Jessica. She and I met our first week at Univ. of Mary Hardin-Baylor back in 1996, and have been close ever since. During my furlough a couple years ago, I was blessed to be a bridesmaid in her wedding to David White.  This weekend David is gone, so we're having lots of fun catching up, drinking lots of coffee, playing with her dogs, and enjoying the mild Nashville weather.  

My time in Chicago was very good for me emotionally, spiritually and physically. I still get tired easily, so it was nice to have the time to pace myself as I met with lots of people over the 5 weeks I was there. The weather was incredible, except for the 2 very rainy days when Ike came through - yep it even reached Chicago!  Being around my friends really lifted my spirits and made me feel 'alive' again. They encouraged me and loved on me through their words and actions. I stayed in Sue Cortolillo's apartment, the same place where I lived before I went to Nigeria in 2003! So I felt completely at home. My favorite place in her home is the window seat and since she lives on the second floor, the windows look out right onto the trees. I spent hours sitting there thinking, praying and thinking some more. God was near to me and met me in my mixed emotions of joy, confusion, anxiety, excitement, and anticipation.

A friend sent me a small devotional book called "Jesus Calling".  Here is an excerpt:

"I did not design the human mind to figure out the future. That is beyond your capability.  I crafted your mind for continual communication with Me.  Bring me all your needs, your hopes and fears.  Commit everything into my care. Turn from the path of planning to the path of Peace." 

 1 Peter 5:6-7, Proverbs 16:9, Psalm 37:5

Eyes that see

I could not know, would not know. I could not know how Africa would touch me, bend me, remold my heart. Sometimes there is a place you do not know about, but it is still there, outside your knowledge. When you reach this place you change, and you wonder how you could possibly have lived without the knowledge of it inside you. For everything I see now is through eyes that could not see before, ears that did not hear, and a heart that would not understand...*

* taken from 'Into the Nevernight' by Anne de Graaf

some pictures courtesy of Jamie, fellow missionary in Nigeria. www.jamiehigbee.blogspot.com