Viva Mexico

We flew out of Mexico Monday morning.  Sunny, warm, bright. We flew above the clouds almost the whole way back.  Then we could see Missouri and Iowa with all their corn fields.  Then I knew we were getting close to home when everything was white again.  It was crazy to take a 3-4 hour flight and be in totally different worlds.  I pulled out my puffy warm jacket and replaced my sandals with flats as we headed off the plane in Minneapolis.  Here are some fun memories from our quick trip to Playa del Carmen.  And by the way, my husband is the greatest, isn't he?! What a great surprise!

The first morning we got there

Hubs!

We saw iguanas everywhere!

Beautiful!

The resort

Taking a break from the beach

Climbing around the rocks and ruins

Another camouflaged iguana

The resort had its own flamingos

Palm trees everywhere

Yummy food! This was french toast and granola 

The resort lobby at night

We love traveling, warm weather, beaches.  I can't believe we got to go.  It was so fun

Thirst

Every other Wednesday night some girls come over for a Bible study and we've been going through different sayings of Christ on the cross.  When I came across "I thirst," I was a little baffled compared to the more common "It is finished"-like phrases that you'd normally think of about the subject.

But it was so encouraging!  God brought my heart to worship!  Here's some of what we went through:
We first asked what it means to thirst- longing, unmet desires, wanting more, etc.  Then we talked about other places in Scripture where thirst or hunger are talked about.

Psalm 143 helped us to realize first that it's our souls that thirst.  So the Bible isn't just talking about physical thirst, but spiritual longing!  My soul does thirst.  I do long for God (and often other lesser things).

Then we looked at Revelation 22:12-18 and Isaiah 55:1

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' Let anyone who hears say, 'Come!' And let anyone who is thirsty come - let anyone who wishes, take the water of life free of charge." I warn everyone hearing the words of the prophecy in this book that if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues written in this book."

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare."

How sweet that anyone who thirsts can come to God.  The only requirement is thirst- need, humility, knowing you need God and can't do it on your own.   A good record, morality, past relationships, church attendance are not necessary.  Just need.  And we don't have to pay.  Without money and without price.  We don't do anything for it.  We simply get to "delight in the richest of fare."  God wants us to enjoy feeling full!  Christ is so different than any other call!

And it's God who invites us to come.  He says "Come."  It's the Spirit and the Bride (Jesus) who beckon us.  God invites us to Himself.  He invites us to be satisfied and to be full- full in Himself.  We eat being satisfied in Jesus that he’s satisfied our debt and we get excited that though we don’t deserve God but we get Him for free.  I been loving thinking that being a Christian means simply 1) seeing our thirst, 2) delighting in the fact that we can come, buy, and eat without pay!  John 6:35 and John 4:13 also remind us that it's Jesus ALONE that will quench our thirst and never make us thirsty again.

But now, what does it mean that He said "I thirst" on the cross?  Thirst is in an ultimate sense longing and desire put in our hearts to be united with God! So thirst is an expression not being with God.  So eternal thirst is hell (see Luke 16 for more).  Scripture says we’re apart from Christ until we realize our thirst and we come and drink…and that we deserve never-satisfied thirst.  So eternal thirst, never quenched is hell.  And Christ on the cross is bearing the wrath of for us and took all the separation from God that we deserved, for us.  Christ went and endured everything that we should’ve endured! How incredibly gracious!  So on the cross He was feeling the separation from God that we should’ve gotten.  All of eternity for everyone in an instant!

This was so worshipful for my heart and reminded me of the gospel in a fresh way.  God is gracious.  

And in a few hours, A and I will be off in Mexico...a taste of heaven!  Time with the hubs, sunny 80s, unending guacamole, and beautiful beaches.  Can't wait.  

Whirlwind

Just dropped hubs off at the airport.  Cannot wait to see him Thursday.  Cannot wait to head to Mexico with him the next day.  Can wait to pack again.  And do more laundry.  And sit on a plane and eat airport food.

But first things first, India was great.  Physically draining, but encouraging in every other way.  Seeing friends, giving them gifts, encouraging them was so so sweet.  Actually knowing my way around north Delhi was weird, but great.  It was like my mind went into auto-pilot.  All those Hindi phrases I'd learned came back and the experiences of rickshaws, the metro, saris, lentils, smell of authentic Indian food, easily spotting all the white people super easily, looking and feeling like an outsider, Indian showers (aka buckets), the necessity of carrying toilet paper with you, and my idea of a "roomy" car re-shifting again.  A and I went to help acclimate 2 staff leading a team of students this summer.  We connected with school officials, met with students we had relationships with, toured the school, reconnected with church leaders, exchanged money, showed them all the transportation how tos, Hindi phrases, cultural dos and donts, and showed them how to get to major tourist sites: India Gate, Chandni chowk, Red Fort, Bangla Sahib (hu-mongo Sihk temple), arranging a trip to the Taj Mahal and palaces in beautiful Rajasthan.  Can I tell you how much a frilly coffee drink can make me feel at home?  We splurged a couple of times and went to Barista- a Euro version of Starbucks that are all over Delhi.  So good.  Yum.  I praise God that coffee is a universal treat.  And I think Hubs was grateful that he knows a secret to temporarily soothe me/wake me up/quiet me down/generally make me happy no matter where we go :)

Me and Remya in her dorm in India.  Yes, that ghost on the right is me...it's been a while since my skin has seen the sun (a little side effect of being a Minnesotan)!

So after getting used to the 11.5 hour time change in India, it was time to come back.  And I've been fighting to stay awake past 9 pm and sleep in later than 6 am.  Ha.  That sounds crazy.  Lame for a 25 year old without kids!

But I'm also feeling better.  Or at least starting too.  The fever is long gone, but a cough has stayed and continues to fade away.  Sadly though I think I forgot what it feels like to be in 20 degree weather and it hit me when I was filling up for gas one day.  I'd forgot what it feels like to have frozen ears and dry hands and wet sludgy shoes.  Here's when you know you're back in Minnesota or at the Minneapolis airport:

Yes, that's snow in the walkway from the gate to the plane.  It's everywhere!!!

And here is the view of my city from the plane. Yes, that's all dead trees and snow.  Ha.  

As soon as we got back from India, I left with al the staff women I work with for a little weekend retreat.  It was so great!  I love these friends.  One gave a little devo Saturday morning and it was so sweet for my heart.  She talked about how the gospel is not just Jesus' death, but His perfect life, perfect death, perfect resurrection and perfect glorification in heaven now.  Man I couldn't journal enough.  Thinking on Jesus' absolutely perfect life made me realize how crappy I am at living even a semi-good life here.  I felt convicted about all the jealousy, impatience, superiority, false humility, manipulation, pride, rudeness, selfishness in wanting my way, control, and gluttony that day.  It was only 10 am.  Shoot.

She also talked about what it will be like to stand in front of God in judgement and having satan read off all the accusations against us.  I picture myself feeling so little, so overwhelmed.  It would all be true.  Everything I've done, satan knows too and he's ready to throw it at me.  He's the great accuser.  That's his job.  But, though I'll stand there forever and satan will be yelling and insulting me and revealing all my sin, I will be able to lift up my head and point to Jesus.  Satan is right, I've done all that.  And I deserve to be with him and never with God- forever.  But I'll say Jesus is true.  He's my only hope for knowing and being with God.  And I'll say that Jesus said He was the way and the truth and the life.  And that the only possible way to get into heaven is to be clothed with His righteousness.  And He's promised it to me.  It will be overwhelming to see black and white all I've done to accrue destruction, but that Christ will hold out His hand. Wow.  What an insane gesture to me.  How worshipful it will be!

It makes me sad that I have to fight to remember this sweet news.  And that a lot of times it isn't sweet.  But how amazing will it be to constantly worship in heaven.  The reality of my unworthiness and God's perfect holiness, mercy, love and grace will be undeniable and ever present.  That's heaven: constant worship. I can't forget or screw it up.

I can't wait.  That's Christ-centered joy and hope: longing for heaven and having confidence in it.

This verse has been sweet since that morning: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us"
2 Corinthians 4:6-7

under the weather and over the seas

Boo.  The flu, colds, coughs, sneezes are running rampant up here.  Along with snow.

I've already gotten stuck in unplowed roads twice- Sunday night and Monday morning.  Yes, when Andrew was out of town.  Thankfully my nice staff team and random strangers were kind to help and neither ended up being a huge ordeal.

But sadly my scratchy throat has morphed into coughing, fatigue, and general ickiness.  Hoping though that it goes away soon.  Like really soon.  We hop on a plane tomorrow for India. 14 hours of uncomfortable seats, no personal space, airplane Indian food and recirculated air sound exponentially worse with feeling sick.  So we're praying I'll be feeling better by tomorrow...

I am however, very pumped about the 70 degree weather I'll soon encounter.  Yay! 

Ladies lunch

This weekend inaugurated the two craziest weeks for me and Andrew this year so far.  He left early this morning to teach a Perspectives class down in Iowa, which is a missions seminar "on the world Christian movement."  It's a great class and gives lots of history, practicals, and vision for Christ's name going to the nations.  Anyway, he'll get back in a few days.  The following day we'll fly out to India for a week and a half to acclimate some other staff for their summer trip.  The next day of getting back I'll have a staff women's retreat up in Bayfield, WI.  When I get back, Andrew flies to Colorado for a support raising conference. Whew.  That wore me out just saying it.

But then...

We go to Cancun!  Andrew surprised me with an anniversary trip we'll take during student's spring break.  Though we got married in April and we'll take the trip in March, it counts.  Ya know, he is just the best!  He found a last minute deal online, but I have no idea of the details.  I wanted to know about one thing: warmth.  This filled my mind:

Since he was leaving, we planned to have a date out on Friday and night on Saturday because I planned to be a women's conference on Saturday day.  On Friday we headed out to get burgers and go see "The King's Speech."  The movie times gave us less time to eat dinner to we settled for SmashBurger instead of the Minneapolis classic Annie's Parlor.  SmashBurger was really good though and we had enough time to hike it to the theater, get tickets, etc.  The movie had enough history and hint of war and leadership for him and wit and interesting and developed characters for me.  We both really enjoyed it.  Saturday was great but then we got at call in the morning from a friend who was performing a marriage ceremony that afternoon. He had laryngitis.  The one thing you need to marry someone is a voice.  Anyway, I left the conference early and Andrew cancelled all his administrative plans and we headed down to Eden Prairie so Andrew cold marry some students we knew.   We got there,he did a run through of the ceremony, performed it, then we were out!  We were glad to help, but Andrew had a lot of stuff to get done.  Poor guy!  But he is a servant and we were grateful to help!

With all that, Andrew left today and I didn't want to be alone doing errands so I invited several girls over for lunch.  I made a bunch of different salads so there'd be little prep time after church.

Here's the run down: sun-dried tomato pasta salad, strawberry poppyseed spinach salad, Caesar (I threw that in when more girls than I expected stopped by), 4 bean salad, and a chicken waldorf salad.  Yum!

Here are the recipes:

• Sun-dried tomato pasta salad- I used about half the tomatoes, omitted capers and olives and added 1 small yellow bell pepper.  This one was my favorite.  I will definitely make this one again!
• Strawberry poppyseed- I was going to make this one, but ran out of time so I quick cut some starwberries, mixed in some asiago cheese, and poured some poppyseed dressing on top
• Caesar- this was my back up in case I wouldn't have enough food, so it was from a bag at Aldis- a steal at 1.89 per bag, I used 2.  
• Four bean salad- originally a 3 bean salad, but I also added black-eyed peas; subbed fresh parsley for dried, and red wine vinegar for the vinegar they called for.  Very good! I'll make this one again too!
• Chicken waldorf- I added 1 breast of shredded chicken, subbed fresh orange juice for lemon (grocery store was out) and used light greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise because I hate the stuff.  Makes my skin crawl.  Next time I'll add a little more fruit juice, salt and pepper

I really enjoyed having them over and it made me look forward to the afternoon instead of dreading the silence of our apartment.

Oh yeah, and we're having blizzard conditions and its been snowing all day.  

heart day

I love my husband.  I loved getting to celebrate God's biggest gift to me on earth- Andrew!  Though Monday was officially Valentine's Day, we had to change it up due to our funny schedules.  We were on a retreat with students all weekend.  It was a blast.  But that plus a busy Monday left us to figure something else out.  A was stressed about getting the retreat on track last week and had to prepare for all the meetings/trainings he was doing on Monday, so I said I would plan an evening!  This is a milestone, because my husband is king of planning, foresight, and surprises.

In the mean time while Andrew was napping after the retreat on Sunday I made a quick banner since we were celebrating by having friends over later.

Service is not my love langauage...at all.  But it's his so I really wanted him to feel appreciated!  After the retreat I washed A's car and tried to clean up the whole apartment.  I really wanted him to feel stress free and served. After he took a nap, (and I whipped up the banner) we got all dressed up (which he also loves) and we drove down to Zelo's on Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis.  Then we came back and instead of making the strawberry shortcake I'd planned, we made my back-up plan: chocolate covered strawberries! So good!

chocolate = demolished

Then after a day of meetings on Monday, A planned with some of our great friends to host a little Valentines get together that night.  Hubs grabbed some vino, roses, notes, and decorated the apartment while I was scooted out of our place.  Three couples came who are our co-workers, church family, and incredibly great friends.  The other husbands brought a cake (yum!) from the best local bakery in town, made a fun romantic playlist, and one questions and rules to play the Newlywed Game!   Sounds a tad cheesy, but it was such a blast.  But really A and I were the newest married by a few years and one couple was going on 20+.  Regardless, it was fun to laugh with friends.  We came in third.  Which we'll take.

Hub's addition to the decor :)

great friends Lisa, Theresa and Samm with that strawberry cake at our place

Sweet roses from the hubs that I put at my bedside table

And weather update: GOD LOVES ME.  It's been in the 40s and nearly 50.

In Minnesota this means: flats (no boots) for the first time in 4 months, sunroof, no scarf, no gloves, light jacket and sanity!  I really have been in the best mood and have literally been praising the Lord since!

can't you hear the angels singing?!

and yes, that's snow still everywhere, but thankfully it's melting!

 This is for evidence.  And to remind me God is faithful since it's supposed to snow for the next 4 days.  

loathing to truth

It's been cold here for a few months now.  It's just that, well, it's finally getting to me.  I was enjoying the snow, finding things to enjoy about the cold and the winter, but I'm starting to loathe it.  Here's my weather forecast for the week:

And this is without the windchill...which means minus 5-10 degrees.  A long sigh.  

This is the time of year when I've got to start speaking truth to myself.  This is where He has me. He is for me and withholds no good thing (Ps. 84:11).  He knows the plans He has for me and He desires to prosper me, give me hope, and a future, and not harm (Jer. 32:11).  He is in control.  He is good.  

And...this light and momentary suffering is preparing me for eternal glory (2 Cor. 4:17-18).  Dang cold weather will be gone soon and is God's way of getting me ready for heaven.  He wants me to look to the unseen things and not the seen.  God wants me to realize that this world will not satisfy, but only He will.  He reminds me that weather will never fulfill me.  Disappointments are pointers that my Christ is the only thing that will never disappoint, falter, and be loathe-able.  So really, I can thank God for this icky cold because He's drawing my eyes up to Him.  Not to mention all the dependence on Him that I need for supernatural warmth. :) 

Dear friends from warmer places: please don't remind me how much warmer it is there.  You are tempting me to covet :).  I actually changed my default weather locations on my phone to Minneapolis, then some place in Canada (because I tried somewhere in Alaska and they were still warmer) THEN Atlanta, THEN Delhi, India.  I am merely protecting myself from temptations of discontentment.

Anyway, Andrew and I were at a marriage retreat this past weekend and it was awesome!  It was great content but also great to escape and spend time alone together along with time with fun friends.  We love our church and love how much they value marriage, value good teaching, and value connecting with one another.  Betsy and Gary Ricucci came and spoke (from CJ Mahaney's church Covenant Life in MD). They were a sweet, down-to-earth, engaging couple. Their book, "Love that Lasts" has been one of or church's favorite marriage books though we've never read it.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some good thoughts from it soon.