ephesians

wild women

I'm in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend, hanging out with a bunch of ladies at Luther Ridge Bible camp. This retreat, called the Wild Women Retreat, is super succesful, filling up four different weekends within hours of registration opening up. I am being sent by my camp to go and see what is going on and figure out how we can do something similar at Carol Joy.

There will be 200 other women there, mostly coming with their own church groups, so I am hopeful to find a friend. I just bought new pajama pants for the pajama party/pillow fight scheduled for Saturday night. This thing could get crazy!

sara and troy are back in rwanda

...and this time they brought Toby! This picture was taken last summer when we were all in Estes Park, but if you want to see actual pictures and videos of their travels in Rwanda this week be sure to frequent their twitter page. You do not have to have a twitter account to see their pictures and videos. Simply click on this link: www.twitter.com/grovesroad

Sara and Troy have partnered with Food for the Hungry and have committed to finding sponsors for over 3,000 kids in one village called Gisanga. They have been to this village the past three years and intend to make this an annual trip. I love this concept of long-distance, long-term, frequent-visit missions. My home church is partnered with a village in Tanzania and they have a similar investment, visiting often. These villages know they have a long-term ministry partner.

And, side note: if you are on Twitter, I just joined. Not completely sold on the idea, other than I do like reading the tweets of the people I am following. I, however, am less inclined to post my minute by minute happenings because I just can't take myself that seriously. But I'm going to try it out for a while.

So look for me: beccagroves29. I'm the one trying to think of something clever and pithy to say, and having a horrible time in doing so. And you may be wondering, why not just beccagroves? Because I disabled that account when I dropped out of facebook and now I can't get it back. Neither can any other beccagroves out there. Argh! So, in honor of my 29th year (which begins on March 18th!) and because I typically use 29 as my exaggeration number (as in, "I could easily eat 29 corndogs right now..." I picked a number to follow up my name.

Tweet Tweet.

confession:

I'm having trouble getting through the prophets. I started reading the Bible straight through about a year ago. And if I had stayed on track, I'd be in Revelation within the next two weeks. But instead, I am stuck in Jeremiah. (I know...I'm not even that far into the prophets! And, Sara, I am so sorry this is your favorite prophet and I can't seem to get started... )

Something happened to my enthusiasm when the story stopped. Obviously I know it's all story, but I liked it earlier when their were people's lives we were following with a plot line and suspenseful moments like, "will they make it across that red sea?!!" But now the story parts are less common and the writing is mostly a frustrated plea by a poor guy who is desperate to call God's people to turn from their wicked ways.

Again, I get that this is a HUGE part of the big story, but I am starting to wish that I would have read the Bible in chronological order (found here). This way these poor prophets would be crying out while I already have a vivid picture of the wayward people in my head. Like the pictures I had while reading 1st and 2nd Kings...

I hope this is all being understood. I'm not actually complaining about the prophets, I'm just confessing that I've lost steam. And it bums me out, because I am the only one who is losing when I avoid this good book. I mean that. I once heard that you have to make sure that you have a way for God to speak to you each day. It could be through prayer or scripture or a sermon or devotional book. But for me, the Bible seems to be the best way I "hear" God.

So it frustrates me that I can't seem to kick this dry spell. Then I read this:
I'm humbled after reading this, because a) this quote is saying a whole lot and b) it is obvious that I am basing my Bible reading on my own interest and mood. As if "squeezing it in" is going to do the trick.

The good news is that I know what's coming up in this book, and I know that the messiah these prophets hint at, and the wonders he will do are still to come at the climax of this book, when a baby comes to save the world.

Until then, I'm pressing on. And I'm writing that so I feel accountable to do so.

simple, personal scrapbooks

My mom lives far from her five grandchildren. My brother lives in Seattle, my sister in Kalispell, Montana and Mom and Dad live in Minnesota. But they do lots of traveling to stay in their lives and for every trip she takes to Seattle or Montana and for every time the grandkids come to Minnesota, she makes an individual special book to give to each grandchild.

Mom will go through all of her pictures and make each grandchild a simple scrapbook filled with pictures from their time together. It's a commitment to pick the pictures and to get them all developed. But the whole concept is simple...and because she's been so consistent, every grandchild has dozens and dozens of these personal books on their bookshelves, filled with pictures of themselves having special moments with the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who they don't get to see super often.

For me, this is memory keeping at its best. The kids adore these special books, and all the while our long distance family is frequently reinforced as they see the pictures of all of us loving each other well.

So the scrapbooking lesson: keep it simple and keep it consistent. Well done, Mom.

And now...be sure to check out Mom's blog today and see her AMAZING flower on Annika's Frenchy Bag. So stinkin cute.