Month: February 2013

Sprouting!

/ faithsweatandtears / Leave a comment

Spaghetti squash - Feb13The spaghetti squash & green beans are sprouting! We are so excited & can’t wait to start planting our seedlings in the outside garden. Spaghetti squash is sometimes $2+/lb, so it would be awesome if we could grow our own! We tried planting some seeds directly in the garden last year, and they didn’t take, but the seedlings are off to a terrific start!

Most of the seeds that we are nurturing under lights indoors are ones that we’ve gathered from fruits & veggies that we’ve eaten, like bell pepper, eggplant, strawberries and spaghetti squash. Some are attempts at starting new plants from cuttings, like potato eyes and onion tops. Some are from seed packets, like basil, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes and pumpkin. We have quite a variety – even some apple seeds, though I have no idea where we’d actually plant an apple tree!! Perhaps we could get it started in a pot and then sell it.

Speaking of selling our produce, we have a plan for the spring/summer. My eldest and I are planning to go to Brazil with our church for a construction/Vacation Bible School project, and we need to save up to pay our way. We have been thinking of some ways to set aside money, and then the other day, No. 2 shared a great idea. I was watering the seedlings and made an off-hand comment that we might actually have enough produce from our garden this year that we could take some to the Farmers Market to sell.

In one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moments, No. 2 said, “Mom, why don’t we just give our extra stuff away, instead?” So, we talked about it and decided that if we grow enough fruits & veggies to sell the extras at market, then we’ll use those proceeds for missions — either our Brazil trip fundraising or just our regular missions offering. With that kindhearted idea of his in mind, I’m praying for an abundant harvest! What a wonderful hands-on way to get the kids involved in ministry!

Speaking of the Brazil trip, I’ll share more as we get closer to the time, but we got our passport pictures yesterday, and we have an appointment later this week to turn in our paperwork. We are so excited!

Spring is near!

/ faithsweatandtears / Leave a comment

2013-02-04 10.12.00The groundhog didn’t see his shadow on Saturday, and look what  I discovered when I arrived at my office this morning: My sweet little geranium has a new shoot growing!

This is the funkiest plant I’ve ever had, and the silk butterfly pick makes me smile. The geranium used to have a couple of different shoots, and at one point, it stretched about three feet straight up! It was the craziest thing. I cut it, primarily to keep it from toppling over, but also to see if I could root the cutting. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, but the plant lives on determinedly.

It’s exciting to see new growth, after all this time. I can’t wait to see its pretty pink blooms again … soon!

Big Dreams

/ faithsweatandtears / Leave a comment

I have some Big Dreams. You might call it a Wish List or a Bucket List, perhaps, but I call it Big Dreams because not all of them are within my control to make happen. Some of them are things that I pray about (perhaps not as earnestly as I ought), and several are things that I have had on my heart for many years. I have been thinking about some of them quite a bit recently, so I thought I would jot them down for posterity.

Without further ado, here is a sampling of some of my Big Dreams (in no particular order):

  • To visit places that I saw as a small child but don’t remember: Italy, Germany, Spain, France, The Netherlands
  • To see the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere (Lord willing, this summer when No. 1 and I plan to travel to Brazil!)
  • To visit Scotland and Australia
  • To witness (and hopefully participate in) the baptism of each of my children (2 down, 3 to go!)
  • To manage my finances so that I can live on half of my income and give the rest to ministry
  • To return to China and see the Great Wall (which I didn’t get to see the first time I was there)
  • To be the first author of a published academic work
  • For my research/academic work to be cited by others because it is relevant and informative
  • For my spouse to challenge me spiritually (not in a Bible-drill sort of way, but in a How-can-we-grow-together-and-further-the-ministry sort of way)
  • To publish a novel
  • For my boys to become godly men and marry like-minded women

There are surely others mulling around my head, but those are the ones that come to mind off-hand. Do you have any Big Dreams?

A Refuge for the Righteous (Prayer Devotional for the week of February 3, 2013)

/ faithsweatandtears / Leave a comment

On May 11, 1953, a stormy afternoon turned deadly for 114 Wacoans as an F5 tornado ripped through downtown, leveling hundreds of businesses and homes and leaving nearly 600 survivors injured. Dozens who sought shelter in a department store were killed when the building collapsed. The tornado tied with a 1902 storm as the deadliest on state record. Thankfully, in the nearly nine years that we have lived in Waco, only once have we had to enact our family disaster plan.

We frequently talk about what to do during tornado watches and warnings, but as the neighborhood siren sounded that night, we put the plan into action. We brought pillows, blankets, books and flashlights into the master bedroom closet and hunkered down with a radio to wait out the siren. We read together, listened to music, prayed for safety and tried to stay calm. We were thankful for a safe refuge.

Psalm 37 talks about waiting out the storm when wickedness seems to surround us. Does it ever seem like the liars and cheats get away with their unethical behavior – and even rewarded for it? Verse 7 tells us: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” (NIV). The chapter goes on to say that “the power of the wicked will be broken” (v. 17) and that the blameless, the generous, the peace-seeking, the ones called righteous, will find refuge in the Lord.

Refuge is an interesting word. It means to have a place – like a storm shelter or bedroom closet – in which to hunker down during times of danger. Please note: Having a place of refuge does not exempt us from being in danger! God did not promise that we would be removed from perilous situations, but that when trouble comes, we can ride it out with him as our Protector, our Salvation.

Psalm 37 tells us to put our hope in the Lord – to walk boldly and live generously, knowing that our inheritance is in eternal things, not the fleeting perks of this world. We do not have to live in fear!