Three things

I am so bad at staying in contact with people. I have realized this more and more in recent weeks as I have let e-mails sit unopened in my inbox. Not because I don't want to read them, but because I don't want to forget to reply to them. GAH! I am so bad at being in contact with people.

Ok, so life has been moving at a pretty hectic pace in the last month or so too... which is why I really need to get off my butt and do some communicating... but it is getting so bad that I don't even know where to start.

If I haven't e-mailed you back... I promise I will!! Just let me make it to April!!!

OK.

SO.

Three things in the last few weeks have been AWESOME.


Here they are:

1. My trip to the Dominican Republic.

Yup. I was nervous. My second adult mission team (Russia trip #2 being kinda the first)... my history of not always playing nice with others. It could have ended in a big old mess. Instead, after the blizzard cleared we left 2 days late... worked REALLY, REALLY hard... I got about 10 marriage proposals out of batay #7, one guy even wanted me to come live in the house that we were putting a cement floor in with him. Nice. Also funny when people think that I don't understand what they are talking about in Spanish. Uh. I do. It was a GOOD, GOOD trip. I got a ROCKIN tan... I must say, way better than anyone else on the team... WAY... good thing I spent all those years in Brazil practicing maximizing my tan potential!! It was quite the trip. On our last day, we even went to the beach. NICE!


#2. Holy Week
Ok, so usually Holy Week is nothing but a big old ball of stress for me. I hate it. Its kind of like the last few weeks of advent. I'd just rather sleep through it all. This year though, maybe a bit because of coming home from the mission trip on Palm Sunday. IT was good. REALLY good. Kim preached an awesome Holy THursday message about how everyone is welcome at the table. EVERYONE. Ohh-hoo. You know Carly loves that!! It was a good reminder and a good thing to hear with things the way they are. EVERYONE IS WELCOME... love it. Then we had communion sitting around tables at the front of the sanctuary, serving each other. OK, so I hate having to be so close to people... but let me tell you... it was GOOD.

THEN... the prayer vigil was Friday night to Sunday... and this year... it was EXHAUSTING. Less than 2 hours of sleep in 3 days... ugh. BUT... it was GOOD. I mean, really, really good. Kim had the idea of putting lanterns around... the idea of keeping watch... oh, it was GOOD. And it is just such a quiet, reflective weekend... which is awesome, since the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday seems so... lost. LIke, how are you supposed to feel and act? How can you be reverent? SO. Carly loves, loves, loves the Prayer vigil. (Even if I did start it as a selfish observance... it is GOOD!)


#3. Easter Sunrise Service.
Ok. So. Paper Lanterns. That is what I have to say. At sunrise on Easter morning the prayer vigil ended with the Psalms in the quiet, dark sanctuary. We went outside to the field and had singing, prayer, and SKY LANTERNS. Seriously... watching those things rise in the cold, cold air, after spending the entire weekend quietly and prayerfully. Yes. Good. Uh huh.

SO. That's the stories I have to tell.

Learning lots about God these days and being blessed, blessed, blessed in ways that I absolutely do not deserve.


Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed!

back in town

AHHHHH. I am back from the Dominican Republic and my week of mixing cement and being harassed by foreign men.

I have to say, 10 marriage proposals in one week. What's a girl to do!

Really though, I had an amazing week serving amazing people in one of the poorest places I have ever been. Six of us put new floors into 8 house for 11 families while others pulled lots of teeth and treated lots of people in pain. I got to spend time with people from the church that I don't usually spend time with, because they are ADULTS! It was a trip that surprised me and blessed me...

and I plan to write more here in the near future.

For now... I am home. Kinda tan... and really tired!!

Trying to head south... kinda

Ahhh. How often do I wish that I could spend a few days with absolutely nothing to do? How often do I wish that I could sit somewhere and not do a thing but sleep and eat and sleep some more.

Yesterday I was supposed to leave on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. On Friday it started snowing, turned into a blizzard and cancelled all our flights. Yesterday I got stuck at a hotel in Kentucky, waiting for the Cincinatti airport and the wonderful (sarcasm!) American Airlines to put me on a plane south.... to warm up this winter weary body.

Yet here I sit.

Since yesterday morning we have been hanging around the hotel. I am tired of it. Apparently having nothing to do is not as great as I like to think it is. I AM SO BORED!!!

Tomorrow morning at 7:15 we are apparently going to fly south. Of course, it IS supposed to snow again tonight, but there is at least hope for some warmth in coming days!!!

SO... my trip to the DR will be 2 days shorter than planned... but someday we ARE going to make it.

Kinda!