242/366

Back to Reynosa, and blessed to be there.

241/366

crafty, but not in a cunning, sneaky, or sly sort of way.

240/366

German chocolate cake and Blue Bell ice cream and Apples to Apples and favorite faces to celebrate with...
happy birthday!

239/366

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
(from 1 Cor. 6:11, 20; Rev. 1:5)

1. Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior’s name
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has brought us nigh to God

2. Let us love the Lord Who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He presents our souls to God

3. Let us sing though fierce temptation
Threatens hard to bear us down
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown
He, Who washed us with His blood,
He, Who washed us with His blood,
He, Who washed us with His blood,
Soon will bring us home to God

4. Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God

5. Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted Him before us
Now their praises fill the sky
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou art worthy Lamb of God

©2001 Laura Taylor Music.

238/366

back to real life in 12 hours or less, and still, glad to be home.

237/366

Big sky, 90+ degrees.
back in south Texas.

236/366

Hot dog,
Dr. Pepper,
beer,
cotton candy,
nachos,
pitcher tossed,
manager tossed,
22 hits,
6 run 8th inning,
home team wins,
family takes up a row of seats,
night at the ballpark.

235/366

I'm pretty sure that he smiled and jumped up and down when he saw us.
Goofy dog. Goofy us!

234/366

Time flying by and farewells required entirely too quickly.
(my tears in a bottle)
Rich fellowship and too much food!
Sunny days and cool evenings.
Friends that are easy to be with but hard to say goodbye to.
Promise and hope and living the walk of faith...

233/366

Every thing so familiar and yet, sometimes surprisingly new and different...

232/366

Still, my soul be still
Words and Music by Keith & Kristyn Getty & Stuart Townend

Still my soul be still
And do not fear
Though winds of change may rage tomorrow
God is at your side
No longer dread
The fires of unexpected sorrow

God You are my God
And I will trust in You and not be shaken
Lord of peace renew
A steadfast spirit within me
To rest in You alone

Still my soul be still
Do not be moved
By lesser lights and fleeting shadows
Hold onto His ways
With shield of faith
Against temptations flaming arrows

Still my soul be still
Do not forsake
The Truth you learned in the beginning
Wait upon the Lord
And hope will rise
As stars appear when day is dimming

(and oh, how sweet, how very sweet, to be in worship that Lord's day. To walk in and breathe in that familiar smell. To greet friends. To hear voices. To hold new babies and hug growing kids. To sing and respond with zeal. To praise and to pray and to be entirely before Him. Oh how sweet, how very very sweet.)

231/366

As the years unfold we begin to understand that we have been introduced to the great truth of pain in childbearing, a pain we naively believed would be confined to labor and delivery, but that visits us at every transition we nurture our children toward: the measured inhale, the steady exhale, the mighty push. And separation. Preschool. Kindergarten. Middle school. High school. College. Career. Marriage. With a familiar aching euphoria, we push them out---from safety and provision to separation and uncertainty. It feels like they would be safer just staying with us, as if safety were the greatest gift we could give them.
Somehow, this painful separation process is for our sanctification as mothers. For years I was not sure what the Bible meant that women would be saved through childbearing, but it grows clearer to me now. I once thought it referred only to giving birth, but its meaning encompasses the span of motherhood. Children are born in an instant, but they are borne across a lifetime. Childbearing saves me because it faithfully (albeit painfully) reminds me over and again that I am weak. It reminds me that I am not self-sufficient, that I do not have what it takes to preserve and protect my children, but that my heavenly Father does. It saves me from the belief that I am God.

from "The Truth About Pain in Childearing" by Jen Wilkin, The Gospel Coalition blog, 21 August 2012

230/366

Birthday dinner in the Old Market, ending at Ted & Wally's.
mmmm...
17 years?!

229/366

like a deep breath of fresh air...

228/366

"The scientist doesn't study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful."
Jules Henri Poincare, French mathematician (1854-1912)

The Science Storms exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was our favorite. We watched Tornado Alley at the Omnimax theater. And I am amazed that the sound of the tornado siren still makes my heart race...

227/366

Girls night out. Couldn't have picked better girls to be out with!

(and fun & tasty food at the Flattop Grill, besides)

226/366

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”


― Henri J.M. Nouwen

225/366

Olympic diving...?
ummm. not quite.
but score it 9.0 on the fun meter.

224/366

Perfection is not easily achieved.
:-)

I've been going up to visit my in-laws at Lincoln Lake for, hmmmm?, 23 years I think? And even though it changes, it is always the same. The landmarks on the way there are the same. The slow pace is the same. We go to the same store, and I eat more Chicken in a Biscuits and drink more soda (Michigan speak: say "pop") than I would ever do anywhere else. Family comes and we catch up and laugh and remember grandparents and little kids grown up and new generations growing and old times and what's new. I get mosquito bites and rub my nose and eyes for allergies and go to bed smelling like smoke.

((smile.))

223/360

"Ok. We'll go and we'll stop at the Arch. And you can even touch it if you feel you really need to do that."
"I do."

I could be the National Park System spokeswoman; I am sure of it.

(at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Gateway Arch)

222/360

Lunch stop.
That is, after the detour necessary after I didn't really look closely at the map and it turned out that we were supposed to be on I-44, not I-40.
I like the state road better than the tollway, anyway...

221/366

Headed north-
hasta luego palm trees...

220/366

Packed and ready...

219/366

It is back!!

218/366

Que rico!

Reynosa- faces

Last week our family had the privilege of serving in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico alongside a great team from Good Hope PCA from Fulton, Maryland, the folks at Isaiah 55 ministries and terrific national partners. We worked hard and got really dirty during the daytime doing construction and renovation projects at Iglesia Presbitariana Buen Samaritano. Then after a few hours of rest, we returned each evening for English Camp at the church, teaching neighborhood adults and kids. As always, I am quite sure we were blessed more than the folks we served. And as always, it is the faces that we will remember for a long time to come.