new happenings

I’ve been inspired by my friend, Eva. You should subscribe to her.

She frequently updates her blog with neat quotes, songs, pictures, cool finds. Mainly it’s a tool to help her remember things and I have LOVED it. I found a pretty cool site today that I thought was worth remembering and wasn’t sure how to do so. Then I remembered Eva and her blog and thought that I could remember things via my blog. Sorry if that’s annoying, but maybe you’ll find some cool stuff too.

I really want to try out this (and you should too): 
www.bookmooch.com

Can’t Wait for This One

 

The wild rumpus begins on october 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory.

“They come and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”

- Spurgeon

I discovered this blog this summer called “Of First Importance,” focusing on what is (can you guess?) the most important thing… the Gospel. Each day they have a new quote from an author or somebody reflecting a truth of Christ or the cross. I highly suggest you check it out: http://firstimportance.org/

The above quote has been my favorite thus far.  

mm… enjoy.

Daryan Update and Quote

…So, I made it back to America. A while back. It has been great so far. Apart from friends and family, the two things I am enjoying the most: independence and hot dogs.

Daryan Update: His pulmonary pressures were still pretty high for a while. The doctors put him on some kind of nitrogen to lower it. After a while, they finally took him off of it to let him breath on his own. His body did not cope like we had hoped it would. After a chest x-ray, the doctors say his heart is in the best condition possible, but his tiny body is not healing and strengthening like it needs to. PLC had to work to get his visa renewed because of his long hospital stay (way to go!!) His pulmonary pressures are still high, but he is definitely hanging in there. Keep this little one in your prayers as his body fights to hold on.

I’ve also enjoyed seeing the Harry Potter movie and have since begun to reread the last few books and thought I’d leave you with one of my favorite parts of the sixth book (also my favorite). The fight between good and evil is a refreshing picture of the battles we face daily (the Ephesians 6 kind). As Daryan fights to survive, I thought this was appropriate:

But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew – and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.

Daryan.

This video was made a few hours after Daryan’s surgery. He was doing great, but since this video was made, he has been intubated and his lungs have still not strengthened enough for him to breathe on his own. This video moved his mother to tears. Please lift up this little one, he’s still in a fierce battle for his life. These are the most crucial days for him.

more about “Daryan. “, posted with vodpod

 

Heart Surgeries – This is CRAZY!!

It has truly been an amazing experience walking alongside these families as they receive heart surgeries. We have laughed with them, cried with them, prayed with them and played with them.

The other intern here got a phenomenal opportunity to sit on on Mohammed’s surgery today. He caught some of it on film and also got some pretty crazy pictures. Daryan’s surgery is scheduled for Monday. We’re hoping the little guy is a fighter – he is in for a tough battle!

Here is the video. Aren’t our bodies amazing? I cannot get over this.

more about “Heart Surgeries – This is CRAZY!! “, posted with vodpod

 

Community???

*caution: The word “community” is about to be used a lot. Sorry. I don’t know a better alternative.

All of the girls were talking about some things today and trying to process life here in Iraq and some of our struggles. I’m think I’m quoting Christin who said, “Probably the best thing about this summer: community. Probably the hardest thing: community.”

One thing we’ve wrestled with is how to exactly handle is the community here.

Let me set the scene: There are 7 long-term team members here in the city. 2 kids. And 8 college students. The 8 students, 2 kids, and 2 of the long-termers are all living under one roof. These are all the people that we work with, live with, play with, pray with and worship with. Every aspect of life here is with these people. We are also not allowed to go out by ourselves. So we have to rely on each other. This is communal living at it’s finest… also like I’ve never really lived it before.

Before I left, this was something I talked about, worried about and prayed about. It is important that we are united in the spirit. Community is something that the enemy can so easily destroy. Community is something that I thrive on and rely on. It encourages me as well as refines me. It’s the body. And something that I’ve grown to long for and treasure.

At the beginning of this summer, we were all pleasantly surprised by the unity we had. We came together at night to share life stories. We prayed together at least weekly, confessed to each other, played cards together. I was shocked. I guess I never actually thought that real community was possible.  (Why did I think that God was not capable of that?)

Then weeks 3 and 4 hit. The new-ness and the “honeymoon” phase was over. We got tired.  There was no energy left to come together. So we basically stopped. Not completely. Some of us wanted alone time. Others of us hung around at night, attempting to play games and sometimes complaining/talking about (not sure if it was complaining)/trying to solve our lack of community.

Around this same time, I slowly started to wake up later and later, meaning that the my time in the Word and with the Lord grew shorter and shorter until it was a quick flip of the Bible in the morning (if that) and a few prayers scattered throughout the day.

All this time, we’re still talking about how we lack unity, etc. etc. Some people sought solitude. If 6 out of the 8 of us were in one room, it’s like it wasn’t good enough. But if 2 were being filled through their alone time, what does that mean about the rest of us? Do we hold off our coming together to wait for the other 2, who might not even want to come together?  I sought to put an end to the Internet (a new addition to the house, which allowed us to be on our computers at night). What I didn’t seek was Christ.

Only today did we start to really dig deeper into our apparent lack of community. The connection was made that when I fell off the discipline track, I began to seek fulfillment in those around me. When our discipline suffered, our community suffered. 

There is definitely a difference between actually real community and a “sense” of community. I was trying to grasp and hold onto the emotional high of coming together and feeling like we were close, not actual let’s-dig-in-and-live-life-together.

Fulfillment needs to first come through Christ. Community is definitely a part of that and for sure enhances our walk with the Lord. It is not at all a subsitute, but a supplement.

Tonight at homegroup, we sang the song “Give Us Clean Hands” and one line hit home with me like it never had before: “Let us not lift our souls to another.”

I hope that these are lessons I carry with me… to my friends, to my roommates, to small group. May we (may I) seek Christ before others and know that fulfillment comes from Him, primarily and ultimately.

*disclaimer: Christin and I just realized we were posting almost the exact same thing. Even some of our wording is quite similar. Check her’s out for a different twist: www.grace-for-peace.blogspot.com Talk about community, eh? At least we’re like-minded in something!

One Week???

I know you are probably thinking of the song by Barenaked Ladies… but I am referring to how my time here is shortly coming to a close.

Now you’re probably thinking, “What? Why? I thought you were staying until the end of July?”

Glad you asked. Well, PLC is sending another group of kids to surgery before the end of the month and another intern and I are accompanying them, along with the Courtneys, to Turkey for a week. I am pretty excited about this. I don’t really know what to expect. I am looking forward to spending time with the Courtney kiddos, and I am not really sure what else I’ll be doing.

So there’s one week. One week left. One week to say goodbye to our friends here. One week to finish up the rest of the work here. One week left of (in-person) relationships with the team and the other interns (whoa). One week to prepare for Turkey… 

Hoping for the best in this last week!

The Shad Faraydoon Memorial Fund

There has been a fund started in honor of Shad, the little boy that passed away at the beginning of our time here in Iraq. Shad did not receive surgery until he was 10 years old. If he was operated on while he was a baby, Shad would still be with us today. If you did not get a chance to read Shad’s compelling story, click here. To donate to the Shad Faraydoon Memorial fund, click here. The goal is to fund 10 infant surgeries by raising $50,000 so they will benefit from early intervention.

Sesame Street

We are tired. You know that feeling when you feel like you could just sleep forever if nature would let you? That’s how we are. We cancelled our weekend plans to get some alone time, relax and rejuvenate.

You can see it in anyone’s face. I don’t really know what it is. Some of us stay up late on some nights, some of us go to bed early, it ususally switches. Maybe it’s just the stress of acclimating into a new culture. Maybe it’s our schedules. Maybe it’s trying to make friends and figure out how to talk to them. Maybe it’s the picnic we went on last weekend and never recovered from (picnics are the most relaxing and draining thing here. It’s so weird.). Maybe it’s a lot of things. But we are tired.

This past Wednesday, we got home around 6:45 from hanging out with some friends at the park and we were exhausted. We collapsed into chairs and the floor of the living room just as Emma (the 3-year-old we live with) was putting in a movie. It was Sesame Street: Three Bears and a New Baby. This is probably the most relaxing movie I’ve ever seen.

About 30 minutes later, we realized that Emma had abandoned watching the movie about 5 minutes into it and that there were 6 of us college students transfixed by the story of Baby Bear and what would happen when his new sister arrived.

There wasn’t anything I would rather have done. It was the perfect entertainment for our amount of energy and attention at that moment. I never thought I would say this but, today, I am grateful for the writers of Sesame Street!

I’m gonna go take a nap.