Today's weather

Today is a magnificent day, (except for the fact that I must miss Bible Study) The wind is so strong today that the rain is blowing side ways. I have been debating whether to drive in it all morning, but when the wind picked our swing set up and threw it into a tree I decided that I'd better not drive. (We really should have cemented it down.)

I have learned so much about how and why the wind blows, but the more I know the more I am amazed at God's power and grace. It seems the more I understand the scientific explanations I understand that God is perfect and has a plan that restrains the wind from completely destroying us and allows the storms to blow in our lives to remind us of who He is and how He holds us in his hands.

















Here is a map of the winds pummeling California. The red flags are the highest density winds. The white doesn't necessarily represent clouds but rather water vapor in this image, while the lovely spiral is an extremely strong low pressure system pulling all that moisture and wind over California. In other words, Bible study will have to be done on an individual basis for the day.

If you're in California, stay safe and dry today and trust God to see you through your storms.

A Blessing

My Mom 'tagged' me with a blessing and prayer, which I thought was a beautiful Idea, so I'd like to continue the gift. Here is the original explanation.

The idea… it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for one blog friend. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image {I chose not to use the image - Mark} to their sidebar if they choose to. If you recieve a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread here so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world!

Here are those whom I would like to pray for blessing on.

Melissa, my oldest daughter who has grown into such a beautiful woman. Her blog is Libellus Stellatus where her writing and artistic skills as well as her love and commitment to Jesus are made clear. May her year be filled with adventure and joy as she and her husband follow Jesus wherever He leads them.

Elizabeth, my second oldest daughter who is growing into a beautiful woman also. Her blog is You Don't Even Know, where her gift with words and passion are beautifully expressed. May her year and whole life be lit on fire with the passion of Jesus and may her words continue to spring out of her with her ongoing passion and honesty.

I love all of my children very much and if the rest had blogs I would be sending more blessings. However, at the moment my blogging community is quite small. But I can send back a blessing to my Mom who originally sent me one. Her blog Naming His Grace is rich and encouraging and speaks beautifully of Truth and Grace from God. So thank you Mom and may your year be rich with God's Grace and I will always pray that you are rested in Him and filled with his hope and joy no matter what is going on around you.

Here are some pictures of my wonderful family from 2007

Katie and her cousin dressed as sprites

My husband Derek graduating from Bible College












Emma and her Squrrel in our beloved Redwoods










Ethan at his Sabre Graduation with Royal Rangers












Liz going to the ball














Joshua "King of the Hill"

MAPS

I hope maps don't seem boring to most people.

I started enjoying maps on our family trips to Mexico when I was little. I remember lying in the back of our station wagon with a road map and trying to follow it as we drove south. This year I took a statistics class and for one of my labs I surveyed the students on my college campus to find out how many countries they could identify on a blank world map. The results were pretty discouraging.

While I don't expect people to enjoy maps obsessively like I do, I think it is good for us to know our way around the world on a map. This past week major events have occured in Kenya, Pakistan, Chile, Indonesia and of course the ongoing war in Iraq. But how many people hear about the riots in Kenya and know where it is in the world?

I keep a world map over my computer so when I read the news I can look up and quickly identify where the event is occuring. We can have a better perspective of the big issues when we know where they are. You understand the crucial position of Syria and Jordan if you know they lie between Iraq and Israel, and the strain on Sudan if you see that it is divided between northern Africa which is predomenantly Muslim and sub-Saharan Africa which is more Christian.

I have really enjoyed my Human Geography class and have learned much more about the relationship between people and where they live and how they move.

Here are some tips for knowing where countries are.

-Keep a map over your computer
-Keep an atlas by where you watch the news so you can look things up when you hear about them.
-Get a blank dry erase map to quiz yourself or your family periodically. (my nine year old can now identify up to 34 countries correctly)
-If your reading a book, make sure you know where it takes place (There's even maps of Narnia and Middle Earth!).

Enjoy maps, there not as boring as some would suggest.

Happy Mapping!

I've temporarily emerged out of the enchanted portal of higher education

If anybody even bothers to check this blog anymore.....

I wouldn't blame you if you quit bothering.

This was my first full time semester as I wrapped up community college, took a crossover class at CSUS and tutored fellow students in physical geography. That's it though, I'm off to California State University Sacramento in January, and I promised I wouldn't tutor for now.

Just a statement of what I plan to do for the next five weeks...

Read
Knit
Play my clarinet
Read some more
Knit some more
go to a movie
Read some more
Knit some more
and clean my house.

I am glad for the education that God has allowed me and I look forward to continuing it January 28th, but for now, I am going to enjoy my break.

I might even blog some more.

Mercy River

The most fascinating encounter I've ever had with water was a visit to Yosemite National Park two springs ago. Water is in such high demand in California, but you wouldn't know it during spring in Yosemite. Water gushes over almost every cliff face and thunders over rocks on its way to join the rolling, speeding, forward driving current of the Merced River (Mercy River, which is a beautiful image in itself.) I can imagine that early Californians saw all of this water and thought California was limitless and for the taking.

We depend on water, we can't go long at all without it. That which we must have to survive is also at times capable of ending our life in an instant. I was awed as I stood close to the waterfalls of Yosemite and rejoiced in the glory of God. I can't help noting that God's mercy gushes forth and pours into our lives filling a river that hopefully flows out to the people around us. May my river never follow the way of the Hetch Hetchy and be dammed up for personal use.

Rivers

Sacramento is a fairly safe place to live. No one ever worries about tornadoes or hurricanes in the Summer, there are no volcanoes close enough to endanger our lives (we'd be lucky to get some ash fall), and the faults of California surround us but never near enough to scare us. The only earthquakes we feel are the rolling waves from big ones in the bay area.

So what are we afraid of here in the great California valley? Water; that which we long for all summer gives us reason to worry in the wet winters. Not every year is frightening in Sacramento, but occasionally, such as in some El-Nino years, we face the threat of swollen rivers bursting out of the levee systems and ruining our homes if not our lives.

The City was built where the Sacramento and American Rivers meet and join on their journey to the delta. Both rivers are moderated by dams, but the dams can only hold back so much water, so the rivers are filled.

I remember the flooding back in the early eighties, when a certain man I know told his family to pack up their bags and prepare to leave home in the event of the creek overspilling its banks and flooding the neighborhood. The thing is, the creek was at the bottom of the hill and the house was almost at the top of the hill. What does living near the possibility of a flood do to the mind? I've never really worried, myself. Maybe its the memory of playing in streets flooded with water when I was very young and the gutters clogged and backed up. When I was a kid I associated flooding with fun outdoors. Now I've seen suffering from flooding, but I still don't seem phased by worry.

Water, Water everywhere.

For a while, I think I will be focusing on water in our world, because, as you can imagine, water is more precious than gold in many parts of the world, and I think it is healthy to look at some of the situations people face.

We take water for granted in America, as I have griped about to an obnoxious degree. We don't even think twice about getting a drink from the tap,(or buying water bottles if we don't trust the tap), or washing dishes, or showering, or watering our lawns. However imagine living in a shanty town in a developing country.

Your water access would be something like this:

Grab a few jugs or buckets and find a spigot or well somewhere, some distance from your so-called house.

Have a minimum of clothes, because you can't afford more, and also because you must wash them by hand, either in a stream or a bucket from a small amount of water you collected at the previously noted spigot or well.

No flushing toilets.

Carry all sorts of parasites and abdominal troubles because the water is never quite what it should be in your part of town.

What's a lawn, anyway?


I watched a video last semester where a nomadic tribe in Africa only drinks one small glass of water each per day, because they want to make sure that their bodies are not dependent on more, since more isn't always available.

Enjoy your ready access to water, but remember to pray for those who's access is not so easy. And pray that they will know the Living Water as well.