Up A Ladder

[Note: To see a couple more pictures and to give credit to the photographer, please go here.]

Conversation with a Sibling

"Kathleen, I do not want you to go to Mexico."

Me: "Come here."

*A hug and some silent tears*

Me: "You know I love you and I am going to miss you?"

"Yes."

Me: "And you know this is what Jesus wants me to do, right?"

"Yeah. I know. But that does not mean I am not sad about it though."

Me: "You know Jesus loves us, and only wants what's best for us?"

"Of course."

Me: "I am going to be sad to be away from you too, but I think we would both be more sad if I stayed here."

"I guess that's right."

Me: "Besides, I will have Skype, so you can see still see my pretty face."

"Hahaha. Yeah right."

*Hops up and moves on with a smile*

Just tabs?

When he was younger, my younger brother Andrew was very passionate about saving the taps of off cokes. Sometimes it got to the point that I thought it was obnoxious. I mean, they were just coke tabs. But why was he collecting them? Because he could give them to a lady from my church and she would take them to Mexico to give to native missionaries who worked there. They in turn could turn them in for money. Andrew had people everywhere saving these for him. And who could deny such a cute four-year-old? Five years later, people are still saving tabs to give to him.
You know that song that goes, "Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed"? I remember stepping back, watching Andrew count out those precious tabs, crying, and thinking, "He is going to have a crowd of Mexican Indians come up to him in heaven and say, 'I am here because of your faithfulness as a young boy.'" I can hardly wait to see it!
But I may be able to catch a glimpse of it sooner than I thought. I am going to be living with those same missionaries who Andrew labored so faithfully for. Lord willing, I will meet some of the fruit of their work, and realize just a bit of the impact that Andrew has already had for eternity.
And you know that it can only be the Lord when faithfulness in collecting coke tabs is turned into changed souls for eternity! Just tabs? I think not!

*Edit: Andrew read this and told me he thinks he was five or six, not four when he started.*

Another Bridge

I leave for Mexico Friday.

Downright Giddy

"Disposing of property by voluntary transfer without receiving value in return."

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

"Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege."

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

I was talking with a very dear friend about the reality of the above statements, particularity the one directly above. As I was expressing, I love gifts. Especially the unexpected, random, "just because I love you", sort of gifts. The are so much fun and most of the time make me speechless (um, yes me, speechless!) and leave me in shock.

But giving, not being given to, is a different story. Many times it just seems foolish, because well, the nature of giving, is that you really have no good reason to give that person anything. You make like them or think they are cool, but since when is that a basis for giving. Yet, that is what makes giving so darn wonderful. I friend told me today that it just makes her downright giddy to give. A good way to describe it. And it is especially grand when you know it is exactly what the Lord would have you to do. There is just something freeing about completely thinking about another person and not myself. Isn't it that the way we were designed to be anyways?

And now I am getting to the point where I am just rambling, but these truths are ones that God has impressed on me in many ways over the past several weeks. In fact, it is at the very core of who He is....

"For God so loved the world that He gave..."

Goodnight World

I am writing for the sake of writing. Sometimes it is just helpful to get thoughts out of the brain and on paper (or a computer). It always makes things seem clearer, so hopefully t will work this time. I have lots of thoughts in this wee little brain of mine, but they all seem kinda muddled and the ones that are clear seem pointless. How is that for a great combination?
This past weekend I went to camp. I thought I was going to set tables and clean bathrooms, but it end up that they needed a couple more chaperons for the weekend. When I told my older brother what I had done for the weekend, he said "I guess they are taking and anybody now a'days?" SO encouraging! Basically it was my job to make sure nine thirteen and fourteen year old girls made it where they were supposed to go without harming themselves in the process. Oh, and make sure they got to bed at a decent hour. Easier said than done with them being away from home for the weekend, packed full of sugar, and what is that over there, but a BOY!! Yes, we were an easily distracted bunch! It is amazing how the good Lord still works in our lives, constantly drawing us to Himself, despite us being ourselves. That is just one of the many reasons why I am fond of Him.
For work right now, I am doing odd jobs for people and teaching swim lessons a few hours a week at the Y. Before now I has never really taught a swim lesson, but I learned a good bit working in aquatics camp this summer and I am learning as I go. Some people had told be that teaching was a pretty horrendous job, but I am actually pretty fond of it. My last class of the night is helping in an adult beginners class. There is one male and he is seventeen. The rest are female and I would guess they are all over thirty-five. If I was a comedian, I would forever have material from this wonderful group of people. They are all coming over for dinner after class on Thursday. Praying for a way to tell them of the abundant life they can have in the Savior.
Other than working here and there, I have been traveling a good deal, spending time with people, other odds and ends(like doctors visits with lots of shots! but good news is I am healthy and have prescriptions for meds I might need over the next year.), and packing....
My plans for going to Mexico right now are thus....
Will be leaving sometime between the 18th and the 23rd of this month. It depends on what is best for the people down there and a couple of other little things. That is as early as ten days from now or two weeks from tomorrow! I will fly from Atlanta to Mexico City and more than likely take a bus from there to Rio Blanco. I will be traveling with a missionary, so praise the Lord I will not be going alone! Although, I am never really alone, right? Yet another reason to love my Lord.
I have come to the conclusion that I may finally learn to watch my tongue over the next few months. I mean, I will not really be able to carry on a conversation for three months and whatever I do say, I am sure I will have to think long and hard about. Most of the regrets I have in my life are from saying whatever I think before actually thinking. You would think that I would have learned my lesson by now, but alas, it is not so. Makes me excited.
Right now I am listening to a message in Spanish from the chapel that I am going to be a part of down there. I only catch a few words here and there, so I have no idea what is going on. Maybe I will listen to that same sermon a year from now. Hopefully the conclusion will be different.
Well, I think I started this post a couple of hours ago, stopping here and there to get other things accomplished. So, goodnight world.

Random Winner

One evening, a few weeks ago after work, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. It had been one of those days at work, and I was just plain out.of.it. I got up to cash register and was off in a daze when the lady said something. *Darting my gaze upward, and shaking my head* "Ummm, what?" She repeated herself and said something about giving a dollar to dying kids, or something like that. At that moment, I could not have cared less about dying kids, but I did not want her to know that (because my worth is defined by what the cashier thinks of me) so I said, "Uaaa, sure. I mean, of course."
Well when I was on my way to Michigan last week, I got a voicemail, that said, "Congradualtions, Kathleen, you won our drawing for a charcoal grill." And then I rembered that the buck I had spent the few weeks before entered me in a drawing. I was unbelievably excited. More than an average person would be about a charcoal grill, becasue, well, I had WON something! I hardly ever win anything! I mean, it is not like I enter drawings and the like often (only when caring about my repuatation, obviously), but I actually won. It was a pretty great feeling.

Buuuutttt, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Becasue, well, I am going to Mexico pretty shortly here. I asked around to see if anyone wanted it. All answers where a negative, so the guy who was going to load it into the car took it off my hands. And I think he was pretty stoked. I still was. Becasue even it is not in my possesion, I won it.

80. Go to Michigan

Check.