Belinda's challenge

The huge orange orb of a moon spoke to me as it rose over the horizon, telling me of the Father's glory. I had hurried down the road, catching glimpses of it through the sparse spaces in the woods. I was finally able to pull into my sister's driveway and take out my camera to try and get a picture of it as it rose through the trees that were devoid of leaves in the cold winter air. I took picture after picture, balancing my camera on the top of the car to try to keep it from moving as the shutter speed had to be so slow to catch it without a flash. Why is it our pictures can never convey the specialness of God's creation; inadequate glimpses of the awesomeness of what He created with just a word!

FALL HIKING (a short story)

We have been backpacking in the North Carolina mountains for the last 12 days. My friend Toni and I have been doing this every October for the last several years. There is no more beautiful place on earth than the North Carolina mountains in October! The air is crisp, the smell rich with the loamy earth, the leaves beautiful hues of red, gold and yellow! We keep our hikes near the creeks as we love to hear the sounds of the rushing water. We often stop at different waterfalls to eat our lunch and revel in the sights and sounds of water cascading down the mountain wall. Sometimes we even get the courage to jump into the water, gasping as we come up, laughing at each others expressions because it is so shockingly cold! I can’t imagine doing this with anyone but Toni. She is super creative and a joy to be with. She gets up early in the mornings and heads out for a little private time with the Lord. She has brought her wooden recorder with her and I can hear the strains of “This Is My Father’s World” wafting through the trees. Toni has always been the one to take care of our backpacking menu. She has figured out how to take backpacking meals way beyond the usual freeze dried concoctions and beany-weanys!! In fact, last night for dinner we had chicken with artichoke hearts over egg noodles and strawberry Jello with fruit for dessert! She takes the Jello and puts it in a water bottle and submerges it in the creek for awhile and there you have it! She does the same with instant pudding. It is always fun to see what she is going to pull out of her backpack for the next meal. Last night we made our camp by an old homestead that had nothing left standing except an old brick chimney. You see many of those lonely sentinels scattered throughout the southern landscapes. As we sat around after dinner we invented stories of who lived here and of their loves and losses. Times change, seasons come and go, and yet, our hopes and our dreams are in most ways the same as the family that lived here on this mountain those many years ago: The desire to be loved and appreciated, to have a home where harmony rules and is a safe haven from the discord of the world. Unfortunately, this morning we left the mountains to head back to civilization, jobs and the every day world. As we came down into Brevard we had to stop by the mall to pick up some supplies for our long drive back home. In the midst of the cacaphony of too loud music, too many people and too many lights I felt that sense of peace that had come to me from two weeks of reveling in God’s beautiful creation start to sunder under the gaucheness of the world we live in. (Five Word Monologue: waterfall, mall, strawberry, sunder, brick)

Exercise???

Okay, Okay, I am really trying to do something about exercise. Two weeks ago I had one hike that gave me my hours for two weeks, but that isn't going to last forever! Today I downloaded two different exercise videos! One for "fat burning" and one for stretching. I got so tired just watching the fat burning one that I had to pause it in the middle and go eat some m&ms!!! I've gotten to the point where if I painted the front part of my wet suit white you would take me for an Orca! Well, actually, it would be more like keep it all black and you would think I was a walrus! It is pitiful. But, summer has hit here with a bang and it is HOT and HUMID outside, with the humid part there all the time! So, hopefully with these videos I can exercise in my air-conditioned bedroom. Here in the Philippines, I don't cool my whole house as it would cost me an arm and a leg - well, that would take care of some of the weight loss! Just kidding! So, please pray for me this next week as I try to rotate the videos doing one every day. The stretching one is just 10 minutes so will be my "off" day video, but still need your prayers that I will be disciplined!

GO EAT WORMS!!!!

You know that ole saying, something about "no one loves me, everyone hates me, I guess I'll just go eat worms!!" Did I get it right? That's what I feel like right now - just going home and sitting around eating worms! It doesn't help that I am in the middle of a study of a book; Cat and Dog Theology which we sort of thought was going to be a little fluffy, but has been really convicting. It's main premise is that the Lord's first and foremost concern is His glory, not our comfort, blessings or ease. I must admit that I am very much a cat (the one who is most concerned with his own comfort, blessing and ease) and am not thrilled at the place the Lord has me right now in ministry! I was recently told that on a certain psychological test that I ranked high in my desire for people to like me. My reply was, what's wrong with that, I think everyone wants people to like them. Well, I was informed that I needed to be careful that I didn't make decisions based on how people would perceive me in all of it, but to make wise decisions that were based on truth. Since I have learned this about myself, the Lord has pretty much put me in a position where I am constantly having to make decisions that are not popular and I am certainly not liked a whole lot. In fact, I am pretty much the "bad guy" right now and I must tell you that it is not fun. If I ever had thoughts that I wanted to be an administrator they are now totally out of my head! I want very much to go back to my little ministry corner and do my little thing and not even ever hear about the rest of it! In fact, I would pretty much like to go back to my little corner at home-home and sit on the deck and watch the blue birds and wait for the deer to come in and feed and see the squirrels running from tree to tree and thank the Lord for all His creation - except for the last one! Well, now you know my heart at the moment, but know also that I know that I have a mighty God and He is able to get me through this time and make me closer to His image and give me even a closer relationship with Him - and I pray that through it all His glory will be shown in a great and might way. As I look around me I see the Lord working really hard things in many of the lives of His servants and I know He does have a plan in it all.

THE GREAT FRUIT BAT ADVENTURE

I recently found out that in an area about 2 hours away from us there was a colony of fruit bats living out in a rain forest. Fruit bats are a very large species of bats that can have a wing span of up to six feet. Well, naturally, I wanted to go see the fruit bats. So I asked this person that I knew who lived in the area, Steve, a peace corp worker, if it was a hard hike to get in there and see them. His reply was, "no, easy hike. It is on fairly level ground, you do have to cross a stream a couple of times and at the very end there is a little bit of uphill climb." So, I thought, piece of cake, I can handle that. NEVER trust a 23 year old skinny peace corp worker!!! We did not have to just ford a stream, but we basically had to slog through the stream, upstream I might add for miles!! He was right, it was fairly level ground, but if you are following a stream UPstream, you are going up in elevation! AND, we were walking through 2 to 3 inches of water the whole time, also having to climb over rocks and holes in the stream. AND, the stream had a gravel bottom so the gravel was getting into my water sandles and chafing against the skin of my feet!

I was with a group of 8 and there was only one person there who was anywhere close to my age. I had at least 20, sometimes 30 years on most of them! I kept trying to be quiet and take it like a woman, but after about 40 minutes I said, "guys, can we please take 5?!?" It was killing my pride, but I figured that was better than killing my body!! Well, after another 10-15 minutes of walking I said that we should be real near, and the peace corp worker said that no, it is an hour and a half EACH WAY!!! Well, it was at that point I knew I was in deep doo-doo!! We finally got to the "little bit of a climb" part and it was the steepest trail I have ever seen! By this time I am mumbling to myself and in my mind casting nasty thoughts toward all peace corp workers in the whole world!

I asked Steve about how long was it up the mountain and he said about 20 minute walk. Well, yeah, if you are 23 and in shape! I told them to go ahead and I would catch up with them. They wanted to wait for me, but I finally convinced them to take off. Needless to say, I would have been perfectly content to wait for them there; at that point I didn't care if I ever saw a fruit bat! But, my pride prevailed, and this one Filipino guide came coming back and saying "mahirap" (difficult), but come on. He even at one point took off his t-shirt and wanted me to hold one end so he could help pull me up the mountain!! That wasn't going to happen! So I would take about 25 steps and then fall panting to the ground and he would laugh and I would cry and then get up and take another 25 steps. I FINALLY MADE IT TO THE TOP! And there were the fruit bats - across a valley, in trees on the other side of the valley! I could hardly see them in my telephoto lens!! Actually it wasn't that bad, it was great to see them and that is a photograph I took while at the top of the mountain.

I wish that was the end of the story, but of course now we have to get all the way back!! By the time we had gotten to the bottom of the "little bit of a climb" part of the walk my legs were shaking my muscles were so fatigued!! But, it was not like I could tell somebody to go get the car, we were in the middle of a rain forest!! After another grueling hour and a half we were back at the car with me swearing I would never again ask anyone under 50 to guage the severity of a hike for me. The photo below the one of the fruit bats is my feet the next morning! I am doing church at home today cause I can't get them in a pair of shoes or sandles yet! If any of you want to see the fruit bats when you come over, I will gladly send you out with Eddie, the guide, and be waiting to minister to you medically when you return! By the way, I got in my hours of exercise for the next two weeks all in one day!