Go Tell

Sometime before Christmas I got an e-mail from my friend B. who I met in Thailand. She is actually a missionary in China and has a precious heart for the Lord and passion for her people group. She routinely sends out e-mails about what all she and her family and teammates are doing. A few months ago she and her teammate C. where out walking through one area that is very mountainous (see above, that is where they were!). They walked most of the way, except for a few times they got "divine" rides with passersby. They went to visit the villages where there are very few believers and spread the Word and encourage believers who were already there.

I used to simply read about stories like this and think "Wow, I can't believe it's really like this today." But having there, I can now believe it. Going overseas on a mission trip to a third world country will change everything about you....or even going on one here on this side of the seas! But that is a simply a side commercial, not what I was planning to say here.

Shortly after I got her message and read her amazing stories, Katie and I were sitting at the table after the girls got on the bus. She was coloring, I was drinking coffee and recovering from the morning mad rush, and she started singing for the 500th time "Go, Tell it on the Mountain..." POW! I have sung that song thousands of time in my 40+ years, but that day it made sense....that is what B. and C. and all the others one out there are actually doing...even K. who is going to East KY is doing that. It was quite a visionary moment for me. Am I going "over the hills and everywhere"? Will my daughters one day? Will you?

O:)
Melissa

God and the Christmas Tree

When we moved into our current house in 2003, one of the things we loved were the 8' ceilings downstairs. My extra tall SH especially enjoyed having more head room. I never even considered it to be a problem until that December when we put our Christmas tree up. I had always thought we had a 7.5' tree, however the poor thing looked totally lost in the corner, all shrunk up and shriveled in height. I figured I might like a new tree that was taller, but since there are no 8' trees commonly found, I knew it would be a challenge. Besides, it didn't really bother SH, so I just keep putting the little guy up.

Well, after 19 years of enjoying of enjoying this tree and some mighty interesting work of God, we bought a new one after Christmas for a steal of a deal. I was very excited to get it home and set up, to see what it looked like and make sure all the lights worked. It was also a 7.5' tree. Well low and behold that new tree towered above the old one! At that very moment, five years after living in this house and having the old tree for 19 years, it occurred to me that our old tree was only a 6.5' or 7' tree!!! Did it ever dawn on me that if I had a 7.5' tree and 8' ceilings that maybe there wouldn't be such a large gap from the star to the ceiling? NO! Did it ever hit me that SH and the tree were about the same size? NO! So all this time I have been thinking I have a 7.5' tree when it was really only 6.5' or 7' !!!!

How often do we stay in one place because we think we can't do any better, only to realize when we do break out we truly can do better! And it's not always as painful as you think it may be to break out. Or maybe it is painful, but in a good way, with double the blessing: wounds healed by Jesus and the new thing!

I just love my Jesus and the way He speaks to me!

O:)
Melissa

Yes I did!

In case all you fans who read my blog are breathlessly awaiting, yes I did get a new mp3 player for Christmas! Woo-hoo! Jesus, worship and scrapbook once again! My Fuze is actually red not pink since pink was hard to find after Christmas. But man do I love it! I even learned how to download a video on it!

Got a post about God and the Christmas tree soon.

O:)
Melissa