My Valentines: Dad, Mom, Christie, Sara & Peter

Matthew, a friend and co-worker posted a sweet Valentine to his wife on her blog this morning.

"Amy, you are my pink. Will you keep marrying me every morning? I promise to keep you filled with coffee and give you something to be passionate about. Even if it means being passionately annoyed!"

So, so sweet, Matthew. Good job! Check out the post and enjoy Matthew's creativity & Amy's good words. http://minismith.com/

Stuart Beach

The water really was this color!

More Pictures from Stuart, Florida

Peter was presented with a scholarship at the Martin County Fair's opening night.

Walking around the fairgrounds brought back memories of high school. I entered photographs, sewing and science projects in 4-H.

The hat was bought for the fair. :-)

Florida is beauful! It's 75 degrees... oh it's good to be home.

Family Picture


Christie-the birthday girl

Cynthia Roderick, Mom and me at Christie's 24th bday party.

Currin trying on Dior sunglasses.

We couldn't keep all our shopping in bags of the back of the PT Cruiser.
Fun times with the Nabor girls- all day shopping. What a blessing to see them in Florida and hang out. Randy was teaching on mercy ministry and inner city churches.

I'm in Florida for business for two weeks. The first week is with our team leaders attending a church planting training in Orlando. The second week will be spent in Jacksonville for our team leaders' retreat.

My rental car for the next 10 days!

I love having my own room - king size bed and all!

Snowing in Philadelphia, PA

Snow has come down for two days straight now. The snow is kinda sticking- the ground needs to freeze a bit more. I am like a kid when this white stuff falls. This picture was taken outside World Harvest's offices.

Geocaching

Tammy and I did a tour of small, neighborhood Philly parks. We found 6 out of 8 caches. It was fun to discover parks I'd never been to before. In this adult treasure hunt called Geocaching, the point it to find a hidden objects by using your GPS.

One of the caches was hidden at the Rodin museum in the art district of Philly. Unfortunately, we didn't find it. But we found the statue that reminds me of my dad. He had bookends of Rodin's The Thinker. It's one of the most famous parts of the larger art piece call Gates of Hell.

Going Geocaching this afternoon...

I've never done this before but a new friend of mine loves it. We're going to look for treasures in the art district of Philly using her GPS. Check out the history of geocaching:
http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx

Post- Urbana

Five of us flew back to Philly together after Urbana. We ended up having a 5 hour layover in Chicago. We took advantage of that by sleeping in the airport. Our plane touched down later on Jan. 1st and I hit the sack around 1:00am. I slept until 5:00pm on the 2nd. Yes, that's 16 hours.

Urbana 2006

The exhibit hall- you can see WHM's booth. It's the one with the large banner that says "Get Lost. Find Life."

Below is a link to a video of worship bringing in 2007. The girl you see a few times is, Talitha, one of my roommates. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7890765848254095613

Some more pictures from Urbana...

Worship at Urbana 2006

World Harvest Mission Urbana team


I ran into friends from the past at Urbana

Theology has always been important to me. I really value what I learned in high school through a church Bible study and all I learned at Covenant College. In the last two years I’ve wanted to see theology have practical implications. In the face of life, hardships, death, disappointments how do the truths of theology make a difference in the way I live?

My pastor in Philly gave me a book called The Practical Calvinist. It’s a book that colleagues of D. Clair Davis put together upon his 30 years of teaching at Westminster Theological seminary. Clair Davis wrote an article for the Presbyterian Journal on December 3, 1986 titled "What's so good about being a Calvinist?"

Davis writes that Calvinism applies the Bible where we need it most. "Think through the basics. Jesus died for you personally (Personal Atonement). He loves you, not what he can get out of you (Unconditional Election). He pours out his love on every bit of you, not just on what you think is your sweeter and nicer side (Total Depravity). His love is stronger than all your doubt and foolishness and fear put together (Irresistible Grace). He keeps on loving you, all the way through to the end (Perseverance of the Saints). That's the Five Points of your Father's love!"

Unconditional Love

I was faced with real ugliness in my heart tonight. Talitha, my roommate, allowed me to talk, cry and process. As Talitha prayed I realized I didn't want to pray to my Father because I felt so horrible. But wait... Jesus always sees my ugly heart. It's me who is blind to my dark heart. Grace is so undeserved and yet amazing. Why does our Father love us? Not because of who we are or what we do, that's for sure. The Gospel logic isn’t logical at all. But that’s the point, right? Thank you, Jesus!

Jesus I Am Resting, Resting

You can hear one of my favorite hymns at: http://www.purevolume.com/matthewsmithalliowe

Jesus I am resting, resting
In the Joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For by Thy transforming power
Thou hast made me whole.

Chorus: Jesus, I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.

O how great Thy loving kindness.
Vaster, broader than the sea!
O how marvellous Thy goodness,
Lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved,
Know Thy certainty of promise,
And have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,
Satisfies my heart;
Satisfies its deepest longings,
Meets supplies its every need,
Compasseth me round with blessings;
Thine is love indeed!

Ever lift Thy face upon me,
As I work and wait for Thee;
Resting 'neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth's dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father's glory,
Sunshine of my Father's face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting;
Fill me with Thy grace.

Discovering Jackson Pollock

David Letterman recently had an older woman on his show who believed she had an original Jackson Pollock painting. If it's a true Pollock, it's worth a lot of money. I enjoy art but didn't know much about Pollock. I "googled"him and found out he was an American, abstract impressionist who lived from 1912 to 1956. There's this great website that allows you to paint in a Jackson Pollock- manner. Go to this link and then drag your mouse over the screen. A double click changes the paint color. Have fun! http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

The Philadelphia Art Museum has his "Male and Female" painted in 1942.

Two weddings in one day...

Megan, Liz & me at Trippy & Lisa's wedding

Emily, Megan, Susan, me & Christian at Susan & Justin's wedding

Peter Gay, me & Megan at Susan's wedding

1998 Toyota Camry- with a sunroof!!!

Praise God for providing the perfect car for me. It was a HUGE added blessing to have my mom in town the weekend that I went to look at this car. I sent out a prayer request to over 150 people on the 16th, looked at this car on the 21st, made an offer that night and picked up the car on the 23rd. Just in case you don't realize it- the 23rd is exactly a week after I asked for prayer. God doesn't always work such an amazing deal out so quickly. I'm glad He did though because my car has stalled on me at least 5 times in the last week. God is faithful to His daughter!

My roommate, Talitha, introduced me to a crazy website full of random quizzes. I took the "What Kind of Intelligence do You have" quiz. (http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofintelligencedoyouhavequiz/) Here's the result. I think it's pretty accurate...

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

God, enter into our joy and pain with us. Show us we're your sons and daughters who can climb up into your lap and be loved and accepted completely by You. This is my prayer today.

Netflix has allowed me to expand my movie watching. I never would have put the three following in my queue if it wasn't for friends recommending them to me.

The Lost City (Peter Gay)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343996/

The Chorus (KJ Macha)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372824/

Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now (Janine Anderson)
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=289407