If you're a bird, I'm a bird

The first time I heard about martyrs was when I learned about Joan of Arc. I think I watched this Hollywood version. During my college years, I remember reading, She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernell.  That is when I decided that is how I want to die. Not necessarily in a school shooting, but as a representative of Jesus Christ. Ever since that moment, I've had a peace that if I was ever given an ultimatum, I would gladly choose Christ. The Insanity of God movie  was introduced to me at a small group last year and then I participated in  the The Insanity of Obedience  by Nik Ripken book study in a connect group. You can read about my thoughts on the movie here . One day, I found a Hearts of Fire book in my Little Free Library in my front yard. This was before I left for my trip to China. I felt like the book had been planted there just for me! Rarely do I find a book in the LFL that I want to read so I snatched it out immediately...

I'm going to be real, which is what I typically try to be. Our happy family photos on facebook are leggit. Let's be honest, not every moment is pretty smiles though. Typically society filters and guards what we put out there for people to know and see.  Our family felt called to "go out the box" for Christmas this year. We sacrificed time with our extended family to go bless people we didn't know. Instead of buying gifts for people, we rented a hotel room and went to Greenville, SC for family-time and ministry. Our friend, Stephen Jeffrey, told us about Miracle Hill Ministries so we made that our mission for Christmas.  As we were driving up to the Marriott that we found on Hotwire.com for $70/night, there was a Walgreens on the corner. I said, "I like when I see a drug store close by."  Joseph thought I was joking, but I was serious. Little did I know how frequently we would be visiting it.   Our gift wrapping opportunity  at Greenville...