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

The women’s director at church asked me to give a missionary update last night at the Women’s Ministry meeting. She forgot that she had also asked someone else to give some statistics about unreached people groups and the amount of money given to the unreached (meaning having never heard the Gospel before). Needless to say, I told the other woman to share her data with the group. By the way, for every $100,000 people make, $1 is given to the unreached… Speechless. Let’s just say the room was quiet. I still feel like I need to say what I feel God laid on my heart. I’m better at typing anyways so I will write this blog and share it. Hopefully, it will make more of an impact this way.  So I am going to start off by saying that my Bachelor’s degree is in Church Ministries/Missions. I went to Southeastern College AKA Southeastern University 1999-2001. I took courses mostly with guys who wanted to be pastors or youth pastors and a few other females who wanted to be missionaries....

I had professional development yesterday at May River High. For my lunch break, Joseph met me outside so we could eat the lunches we packed.   While I was waiting on the sidewalk for Joseph to arrive, a man approached me slowly saying, "Heeeeyyyy."   I just looked at him because I was trying to figure out if I knew him.   S: What do you teach?   M: 4th grade S: Wow! I could have sworn you were an art teacher. We need more teachers like you. Looks can be deceiving (looking down at his preppy clothes), but I am an art teacher.   M: (laughing) I guess I kind of look like one, but l'm not. S: Right on! Where are you from?   M: Beaufort. S: Wow, Beaufort doesn't have enough people like you.   S: Well, hey, I'm Scott (shaking my hand). Where do you teach? M: Whale Branch S: Whale Branch... M: Elementary S: That's right, 4th grade. S: I'm going to assume you didn't vote for Trump. M: Okay S: Alright, right on, it was ...

I am just so excited about some events coming up. Too many to put in a Facebook post. This next week at school is a big event. Our students have to complete a MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test. They are supposed to take it 3 times a year, fall, winter, and spring, but 3rd and 4th graders are only going to take it twice now. They need to show a year's worth of growth from winter to winter now. My students test this week. I had one test early last week and she showed 12-point growth. I'm testing in small groups at my kidney-shaped table. They will have their privacy dividers so they aren't distracted by the person next to them. They will test on their district issued iPads. I have mints to keep their minds fresh and alert. I will have sharpened pencils and scratch paper. They can go to the restroom when they need to and the room will be a comfortable temperature. I'm bringing in ear muffs from home to muffle sounds in the room. I'm just so excited to see ho...

My husband and I were invited to join our church's missions small group for a potluck dinner and movie last Wednesday night. We took seasoned lima beans and rolls. There was other good food there like ham, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, and a Filipino dish. The food was really delicious and I felt very comfortable in a home I had never been to. There were kids playing in another room, but we decided to get a baby sitter for 3 hours so we could watch the movie without interruptions. I spoke to people I do not normally speak to at church. It was such a peaceful environment and a pleasant evening away from home. So the movie that was being played on the home entertainment center was Insanity of God. I had not heard of the book or movie prior to this night. Most everyone had read the book or watched the documentary already. It was all new to me. The movie contained many testimonies of believers persecuted around the world. When a story about China came on, I perked up...

This is a blog post that has been burning inside. I do not know how else to get it out besides making a post. “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭68:5-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬ Several months ago, around June, I saw a post on facebook from Focus on the Family sharing information about Wait No More . I clicked on it and it led me to another website DSS: Heart Gallery-South Carolina where there are foster children available for adoption. There were pictures of children, a bio, and a short video. I scrolled through the gallery pictures. One stood out to me the most. A 15-year-old boy in South Carolina. Immediately, I felt a connection to him. For some reason, I felt drawn to the process of adopting a teenager, local through foster care. My thoughts, they are older, they may be out of hope thinking they’re least likely...

I am sitting in the public library to get out of the house and get some tasks accomplished; this blog post for one. Sometimes it is easy to get distracted at home. You see something that needs to be done or you want to watch an episode on Netflix or just lay in bed. It is hard to get silence with radio, television, children asking questions non-stop. Have you realized how weird it is to drive without the radio? It is such an odd void. I know this because my husband's car's radio is broken so there is an awkward silence when I drive it. I was hoping to come here to the library to be more focused for this blog. Even at the library I can't get silence. There is a table of three women whispering at a table. Not sure why they don't just don't get a table at a coffee shop or a restaurant so they can talk at normal tones and avoid annoying the patrons around them. I decided to delete the apps that occupy most of my time, my favorite platforms.  I asked myself how an...

I know this post is going to be lengthy and I have been wanting to write it, but the task seems daunting because I don't want to leave anything out and want to express myself fully. I'm trying to remember when I started feeling moved to try out the minimalism philosophy. I think we were living in our December-May rental. Prior to that rental we were in a 1,315 square foot house next door. Our neighbors moved and we moved into their two-story 2,081 square foot house. We actually made an offer on the house, but the whole process fell through, which ended up being a good thing. So instead of buying the house, we got to try it out and I found (and Joseph probably did too), that it was not the house for us. The house was sooo spread out, which I thought was a good thing at first. A l l  t h a t  r o o m. Our 2 & 4 year shared a room like they had in the previous house. Our 16-year old exchange student had his own room upstairs, who we never saw. Laundry room was upstairs...