To Build a Friendship

6 years ago, in May, my family got an invitation to join a small church ensemble. Daniel and I were nervous, but we agreed to try it out. That first Tuesday, we exited the car and walked to the front door of the Keene NH Seventh-day Adventist Church. The first people we saw were the people that invited us, and they introduced us to another family, the Perrys. 

June 2012

Over time, the Perrys and the Warners became friends, and then became very, very good friends. We bonded over practices, performances, church functions and outreach. 

August 2012

And the Warners moved. And it was very sad. But now, whenever the Perrys and the Warners get together, we pick up right where we left off. 

Monday one week ago was such a time. We got to visit for an afternoon, walking around the Andrews campus, just enjoying each other’s company.

August 2014

And after they left, I wondered, what will it be like in Heaven? Are we so close to God now that when we see Him in person it will be like picking up where we left off? What is our friendship with Him like now, while we are here on Earth? And how does that bode for our friendship with Him in Heaven?

The only reason the Perrys and Warners are such good friends now is because we took time to develop our friendship before.

August 2014

 It’s the same with God. 

Our friendship with Him in the future is dependent on how we develop our friendship with Him now.

God's Most Perfect Gift

Since I've "come home", I've been doing a study on Proverbs 31. So far, I've just been reading the chapter, verse by verse, looking for the practical applications and principles. Today, I decided to go word by word. And it's AMAZING! So amazing, in fact, I wanted to share it with you (at least the first sentence, because that's as far as I've gotten). I looked at the Hebrew, and combining that with the principles I already know from previous studies, came up with this (not quite sure how to explain it, so I'm just going to let you read it).

-The words of Bathsheba to Solomon-

My son, I pray that God will make you into a man that He can trust to care for His most

prized possession. This gift He wants to bestow on you is His most powerful tool. It is a
force for Christlikeness to be reckoned with. It is valiant. It is mighty in the Lord. It strives

to be worthy of of it's high calling. It can do all the things I'm about to tell you

in the rest of this chapter. This, my son, is something you need to be putting effort into-

becoming a man worthy of God's most perfect present...

...a Godly wife.

Joy. Unspeakable.

- Start college at 17

- Finish college at 21 with a degree in education

- Work for 2 years

- Get married the December I turn 23

- Move to a farm in the Great Plains and be a full-time homemaker for my husband. Also help to take care of our chickens (because I love chickens), cows (because I’ve always wanted a cow or two), sheep (because sheep are cool), horses (because what is a farm without horses), and two or three dogs (and a cat).

- Raise 4 or five kids

That was my life plan, as of my 17th birthday. Needless to say, it hasn’t worked out that way. I started college at 22, working on generals since I’m not sure what I want to study. Unless God has a very, extraordinarily short courtship planned for me, there is no way I’m getting married this December. I still want to move to Iowa (just ask Daniel), but I’m torn between making my home in Iowa or a Hmong village in Laos. I still want to be a homemaking, homeschooling wife and mother, but that’s the only thing that I’m sure about from that list.

And, on Monday, April 21, I’m taking another step away from that plan. Monday, April 21, is my last day working away from home for the foreseeable future. I didn’t want to do this at first. I wanted to stay in school, maybe start a business, buy a car… So many things I wanted to do. Without consulting God, I wanted to keep working on my life plan. But I couldn’t finish school if I didn’t have a job (Daniel and I have paid for school once we graduated high schools). If I didn’t finish school, I couldn’t teach. And so the “ifs”, “can’ts” and “I wants” go on.

But I realized this week that it’s not about the “ifs”, “can’ts” and “I wants”. It’s about “what God wants”, and “possibilities” and “certainties”. And, after consulting with my parents and spending a great deal of time in prayer, I know God wants me to come home and really take homemaking seriously, even though I see no reason for it.

As I was typing this up, Mama read this quote: “ [God] does not give His children all the directions for their life journey at once, lest they should become confused. He tells them just as much as they can remember and perform.” (Desire of Ages, 313)

God doesn’t have to reveal everything about why He lead in this decision. In fact, He shouldn’t. This is a lesson in trusting that His way is perfect. And as I’ve come to rest in His plan, He has given me unspeakable joy, not in the action of coming home, but in the knowledge that this is His will. And that is what gives Him unspeakable joy.

(By the way, I'm not just quitting my job. I'm taking over all the housework, cooking, and mastering sewing, knitting, learning to crochet, and all those other housewifely things)

And here is a picture of a cow I took today. Just ‘cause I like cows.

To Stop or Not

“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”

I pulled out of the driveway, headed to my second day at my new job. It had snowed that night and the roads were slippery, so I left early. About 5 miles from home, I hit a patch of ice and lost control of the car. I don’t remember everything, but I remember spinning into oncoming traffic, going up an embankment, and hitting a guardrail before the car shuddered to a stop.

“And by chance there came down a certain priest that way:and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.”

I somehow managed to stop shaking enough to call Daddy. I somehow managed to calm down enough to put on my hazards. I somehow managed to notice a highway patrol truck pass by me.

“And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”

I got out of the car after a long line of cars and trucks passed me. I stood outside, looking at the damage, and watched a tow truck pass by me.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him…”

I felt alone, abandoned, and afraid. Daddy was coming, but until he got there, I was by myself with a car that was making funny noises. There was no Good Samaritan in this story. And it made me think, would I have stopped? If I had been on the other side of the road at 7:20 on Tuesday would I make sure the driver of the little brown car was ok? Would I call the accident in? How important is my neighbor to me?

Honestly, the answer right now is, “No”. I would not have stopped. I would have been more scared about my own safety than whoever was in that car. And I don’t know if I ever will stop. But I know that I’m asking God to give me a Samaritans heart, one that has compassion on other, and not only when they obviously need help, but when their cries aren't audible.

Also, always wear a seatbelt.

Longing for Jesus

I long to go back to Laos.

I long with all my being to go back to Laos.

Lord, help me to long for You more than I long for Laos.

In Linguini We Trust

“We need to put more butter on my pasta.”

Mama looked at my three-year-old brother incredulously. “We already used two pats of butter. You don't need any more.”

“No,” Daniel insisted, “I need more butter.”

Mama sighed and added one more pat.

“Needs more.”

“That’s three pats of butter. If you have any more, you're setting yourself up for a heart attack at twenty. No more butter.”

Daniel missed the significance of watching his cholesterol intake. “It needs more butter.”

“No, you cannot have any more butter.”

Now it was Daniel’s turn to be incredulous. “More butter.”

“Why do you think you need more butter?”

“It needs more butter. I can't see any in there.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

Daniel learned to trust that the butter was actually in the pasta even though he couldn't see it. Unfortunately, this is a lesson I have yet to master. Not about butter on my pasta, but about God’s hand in my life. 

* * * * * * * * * * *

“I need more proof that You're guiding me.”

“My child, I've already shown you so much. Trust me. Trust that I will guide you as I've guided you in the past.”

“But, God, I can't see it. I can't see what You have shown me.”

“I have show you what you need to know. Your faith will not grow if you can see everything I do. You trust that butter will melt on your pasta. Can you trust that I will lead you as you need? This is about your soul, not your linguini. Trust Me.”

15 Things I Learned in Laos

1. Listen to your father.
Daddy: “I think you should be a teacher.”
Me: “I think I want to be a health educator.”
Daddy: “Ok.”
Me: Spend $500 dollars on a health educator course, decide I hate it.
6 months later...
Me: “I don’t know what to do with my life. I didn’t really like the health ed course. Now what should I do?”
Daddy: “I think you should be a teacher.”
Me: “I think I want to be a midwife.”
Daddy: “Ok.”
Me: Spend $250, decide I hate it.
A few months later...
Me: I’m going to be an English teacher in Laos.
Daddy: Ok
3 months after arriving in Laos...
Me: I LOVE being a teacher! I think this is what I want to do for the rest of my life!
Daddy: Yep.

2. You can't judge food by its appearance.

River weed is really good!

3. Kids are cute the world over.

4. Dressing up is a pain, but worth it. Heels are a pain and not worth it.

We went to a wedding, and the road was dirt, and the dirt was soft. 
My heels kept sinking in the ground. 
I was not very graceful.

5. Krataw (takraw in Thailand) is the awesomest sport on the planet.

6. Don’t believe signs in tourist areas.

This is what they said we would see.

This is what we actually saw.

7. Packages from America are huge blessings.
This cannot be emphasized enough. The highlight of our weeks was mail day, and it's terribly disappointing not to get anything. Even if it's just a postcard, send something to your friends overseas!

8. Write out lesson plans. Preferably before teaching.

Textbooks, red pen, computer, and tamarind.
All ready to lesson plan!

10. Never take hot showers for granted.
Or cool ones for that matter. Our downstairs shower thermostat broke, so the shower was either scalding or off.

11. Lao music is cool.

12. When living abroad, adopt a family.

Brothers

Sister

Sister

Kinda like sisters/cousins

Sister

Brother

Brother

13. Hot is relative.

14. Hmong is the awesomest language on the planet!
When nyob zoo is pronounced nyah zhong, you know you have met a cool language. Move over Russian! Hmong is now my favorite language.

15. Go sightseeing.
I didn't go sightseeing until the last week I was in Laos. Mistake. Don't be afraid to be a tourist. Take the crazy pictures. Make memories. You won't regret it.

Conversation with a Student

Yesterday was the first day of Buddhist lent. Everyone must go to the temple to give alms, or risk bad luck in the coming year. All my students are Buddhist, so I was expecting this conversation, but not how it turned out...
Nok: Teacher, did you go to the temple this morning?
Me: No, I didn't. I stayed home.
Nok: Why didn't you go?
Phet: Because she's a Christian. Christians don't go to temples.
Me: Phet's right. I didn't go because I'm a Christian.
Nok: But aren't you afraid of the spirits that will come if you don't go to the temple?
Me: No. My God is stronger than the spirits.
Nok: So your god is Buddha.
Me: No, my god is God.
Nok: But Buddha is stronger than the spirits.
Me: But God is stronger than Buddha.
Nok: How? Buddha is the strongest.
Me: Yes, but Buddha was a man. God created the first man. So God made Buddha, and He is stronger than Buddha and the spirits.
Nok: I want to learn more about God. I want to worship the strongest God.

Please join me in praying for Nok. I hope that all my students will learn to love Jesus.

Korat

The Korat zoo is a great place to vacation. If you're in Thailand and need a place to rest and relax, this is the place. But I'm not here to vacation. It all started in March...

In March, I was planning on going to Saraburi (Thailand) to visit the Adventist university there. I was so excited! Term break came around, and I was sick. In fact, I was so sick I ended up in the hospital for a day. Needless to say, I didn't go to Saraburi.

Then Pi Mai Lao break came around (that would be this week). I wasn't sure if I'd go to Luang Prabang (north of Lao) for the break, or maybe go to Pakse (south of Lao), or maybe I'd go to Cambodia and visit Angkor Wat. I got an email that changed all those plans.

You've been invited to join the Children's Ministry Team for the 2013 Asia retreat!We will be responsible for programming for 24 children, seven hours a day for five days, plus Sabbath Schools on both weekends and a 15 minute presentation for worship on the second Sabbath.  

I'm now in Korat, Thailand, living in a zoo for ten days, taking care of 18-20 children, and sharing a cabin with two amazing people (love you Ebby and Rachel!). The food is amazing, the kids are a blast, and the chance to to spend time with other people who work in Aisa is so encouraging. I'm glad it worked out for me to come here. It's so much better for my character than going on a real vacation. And I might get a chance to go to Pakse or Luang Prabang before I leave. Even if I don't, where God wants me is the best place to be.

More Rain

This past winter, the crocuses came up in February. Our garlic never really died. The kale in the side garden was green, and not because it froze. It was warm. We got the 80s in March. Then came April. Snowpril, as they call it. Then came May, a month of very little rain. Then came June, a month of very little rain. Now it's July 10. We have not had any rain since we moved here to Michigan almost a month ago.
The grass is dead where the sprinklers have not hit. Many trees are dropping their brown leaves. An entire row of trees near the preforming arts center is sporting a bright red crown. We shouldn't be experiencing September vistas with mid-August heat and Sahara levels of precipitation. This isn't supposed to be...
The grass outside the library here at Andrews is beautiful. It's green and lush. It's where the sprinklers are aimed. But as you get further from the showcase area of campus, it gets drier and drier. The grass on my way home crunches into dust under my feet.
A distant acquaintance posted this. I'd like to add a thought:
Every heavenly raindrop is a seed. A seed of love. A seed that somehow grows more rain clouds and sends the rain into another life. And as long as you share your rain clouds, you never lack any of your own...

Amazing things happen in a desert after it rains.

 ************************

God knows we need rain. All we have to do is ask.

Rain

The ground is dry...

The grass is dying...

We need rain...

We need rain.

Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

Zechariah 10:1

Homesick

I'm currently suffering an acute case of homesickness.
 I miss all my friends back east.
 I miss the cool breezes of New Hampshire, the hill where my church is.
The river across the highway...so many memories there.
 And how is Maggie doing?
My house.
My home.
What is Marcia doing this week?
I miss knowing her cheery presence is across the street, most likely scheming up some good deed.
I miss my life in New England.
I don't understand why I'm here in Michigan.
But God wants me here.
 Here where I know all of three families, and one is moving soon.
 Here where I have no clue about anything about my neighbors (except the fact that their children play outside my window 'til 10:00pm).
 Here where I don't feel at home.
********************************
I guess this is good training for my year abroad.
 Trusting God.
Even when I don't understand.
Even when I'm homesick.

I've Been Shot!

I got most of my overseas shots this week. Luckily, I already got my tetanus booster, and I'm still too young for a polio booster. So for now I'm set until next month when I get my second Hep-B. I also have to take a live Typhoid vaccine pill, which is a little unnerving. So, shots in the past, it's back to living grammar! I'm loving it!

Too Busy?

We've been busy lately. 

Too busy.

Busy with school...

Work...

Music...

Friends...

Church responsibilities...

Even ministry.

I'm ashamed to say it, we've almost been too busy for each other. So many things demanding our attention that seem so small.

Just a few minutes more studying...

One more short job...

Just to the end of this piece...

How often do we really get to go phone shopping, anyway...

We were voted into these positions, we can't let the church down by not fulfilling them...

It's already April and we haven't invited the speakers or finalized the schedule for NEYR- it must be done today...

This past Sabbath really brought this fact home to me, and today made it very real. Sabbath was the first time we took a walk, just the four of us, in months. It used to be a weekly event. On sunny Sabbaths we walked and on rainy Sabbaths we read an entire book in one afternoon. But we've been so busy with hurried "Can-we-get-together-for-a-few-minutes-after-Sabbath-School" meetings, that by the time we get home, we're starved, Daddy needs a nap, and by the time he wakes up, it's dark (not that he takes long naps, it just gets dark very early here).

But this week, we got home early enough to drive to the end of the road and just walk, enjoying each others company. The thought came to me that it's very important to put all the "busy work" of life aside in order to spend meaningful time with your family. You don't know how long you will be blessed with their company.

Which is the reason I'm blogging at 9:30 pm. I'm usually asleep by now, but I'm just bursting with words to get out. Why? Because today I haven't talked to Daniel. Usually, when we're both home, it's a running commentary about everything from "Why did God make chlorophyll green?" to "Do you think Mrs. Romney really has two Cadillacs?" But today it's different. Today marks the first time Daniel and I have been seperated for 24 hours, and to be perfectly honest, it's terrible. I miss him. 

He'll be back tomorrow morning, and it won't be soon enough, but I learned a lesson:

Never take your family for granted. They mean more than any possible distraction.

Enthusiasm

Growing up in New England means growing up surrounded with history. The town where I grew up was home to Atlantic Union College (the oldest Adventist school operating in the original buildings), the Village Church (the oldest church build by Adventists for Adventists), the Rowlandson Garrison, and happened to be the oldest town in the county. Lexington and Concord (where the Revolutionary War began) was about 30 minutes from my house. Where I live now, the first Sabbath keeping Adventist church is in my church's district.

The wealth of the heritage in my area is quite impressive. But I have ceased to be impressed. It is all commonplace. I see it all the time.

Some friends came out east last spring and we went on a history tour. AUC, the Village Church, Lexington, Concord and the Washington Church were all on the list of "to-sees". Watching their reactions to these historic places was eye opening. They saw everything with wide-open eyes, drinking in the places and the stories of the people who made them famous. The youngest daughter was so enthralled that she was imagining the "swarthy Indian who was stealthily sneaking through these very woods!"

Their enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself taking a second look at the things in my figurative backyard, and realizing that they are indeed something to take note of.

Today, on my way home from a conference, I was looking through some of the pictures of the tour last spring. A new thought struck me:

Many of us have grown up with the Adventist message. We've read the Bible front to back many times and have portions of it memorized. We are in great danger of loosing our enthusiasm for God and His ways. We must always be taking a second look, remembering Him and His leading. We have nothing to fear for the future, even, or maybe especially, falling into that sense of familiarity that leads to contempt, except we forget how God has lead in the past.

As Bound With Them

The injunctions in the Bible stand for eternity, even Hebrews 13:3.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Slavery did not die out in the 1800s. As I write, it is estimated there are over 10,000 slaves in America alone.

Let's not forget those that are in bonds. If ever they needed our prayers, it is now.

I love to cook. I also love to share recipes. Check out my cooking blog at warnerchef.blogspot.com

NEYR 2012 Audio

The NEYR sermon audio is up! Goto http://neyouthretreat.info/sermonaudio2012.aspx to download!

Just Want to Say...

                                ...I love my brothers :)

                   

It's the little things that matter in the long run.

Taking my nieces and nephew outside...
Blowing up an endless amount of balloons...
Teaching them how to play Canadian duck-duck-goose...
Playing "big kid" bubble chase...
Laying on the grass, staring up at a cloudless sky...
Sighting a hawk circling up above us...
Leaning up against each other, defining "blog"...
Discussing the virtues of the Asian pear, verses the Bartlett variety...

It's the little things.
These little moments...
These little moments...

These little moments that bind our hearts together will prove to be strongholds later in life. They bring us closer together, for longer.

It reminds me of a verse in the Bible. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much..."
If I am faithful to take the time to listen to the "least" of their thoughts, take an interest in the "least" of their passing fancies, they will trust me with the "much" things in their lives when they get older.

Lord, keep me faithful in the least things, so that I can be faithful in much.