It Just Keeps Getting Better...

21 days till we get married…
17 days till Christmas…
13 days till we come HOME-

It seems like much of our lives lately have been surrounding countdowns. Yet at the same time, if we were really honest with ourselves, instead of wishing away what we’re in the middle of right now, we are eagerly anticipating the wealth of goodness God continues to lay before us. In most areas of our lives, our mantra has become, "It just keeps getting better!" These past few weeks have been beyond description. Life is a constant daily adventure. And even in a South American country in the rainy season with few classic Christmas decorations, absolutely no real Christmas trees around, and no copies of It’s a Wonderful Life to be found, the spirit of Christmas is still very much in the air. Tim and I have counted ourselves blessed beyond words to live in this country, know these people, experience such rich community, and work in such unbelievable jobs that it hardly feels like work. Instead we find ourselves saying, “I can’t believe I get to live this life!!!”


This past Thursday, our school celebrated the Christmas season with an unmatched program of singing, skits, worship, and the gospel message. In a Christian school where only about 40% of the families claim to know Christ, it was a powerful time that we pray was life-changing for many parents and siblings as they watched the students rejoicing in the upcoming birth of our Savior. My class used their creative skills to dream up a skit called “Versions of Christmas: What Is Christmas Really About?” Not only did they put on a hilarious performance, but they ended by reciting Luke 2:10-11 together, “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people! For unto you is born this day, in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!’”

Tim and I are very much ready to get married! There has been a running countdown on my white board in my classroom of “______ days till Miss Brenton is Mrs. Scarborough!” It’s been fun to share our relationship with my kids, and pray that they have a glimpse of what it looks like when a couple finds a vision together through the Lord and attempts to build a relationship around Christ as the foundation. Needless to say, my class, in fact the entire school, has grown very fond of “Mr. Tim,” and just a few weeks ago when Tim entered the cafeteria during lunch for a surprise visit, the whole elementary school erupted with a cheer of, “TIM!”

Yesterday my class celebrated with us by throwing a wedding shower 5th grade style! The time was complete with tag in the backyard of one student’s house, hide-and-seek, and of course a “makeup” session where we both were face-painted in outrageous colors by dizzy, blindfolded children. Needless to say, we were a sight for sore eyes. But again, as we left with our heartfelt Bolivian gifts and a homemade card from my students, we were in awe of God’s undeserved blessings for us through the lives of the ones we are supposed to be ministering to!

Tim and I finished our marriage counseling just last week with a wonderfully wise and generous missionary couple here. As we discussed everything from conflict to families to money to sex with the Jameses, we thanked the Lord for a couple overseas who could speak truth into our lives and cause our eyes to be opened to the potential areas of weakness where the enemy may attack in these next vulnerable months. One of our greatest joys in this season has been the ongoing outpouring of this community into our moldable lives! We have found ourselves pursued by many Christian couples in a way that we might not have experienced had we moved to a brand new place to start our lives together in the states. The wealth of knowledge and insight that so many have offered has been invaluable to Tim and I, and it all came to a culminating celebration last weekend.

Last weekend, we were blown away by our 50 friends who came to our fiesta shower! One dear family hosted the event, and it was an all-out celebration with many of our favorites – queso and chips (hard to come by here!), enchiladas, and even our very own mariachi band! We even got to cut the cake here and throw in the Bolivian twist of smashing the cake into one another’s faces. The group surprised us by collecting money for our honeymoon as well as sending us out in the true fashion of this community by covering us in prayer! It was a rich time, as we have mourned the loss of not having these dear friends there at our wedding. Of course, we ended by demolishing our homemade piñata and fighting with the kids over the slew of candy.

All this to say that we have found ourselves in an ongoing season of Thanksgiving, as we are continually blessed by the love and encouragement of friends here. Very little about our engagement and story has been orthodox, and even coming home a week before our wedding seems preposterous to many folks, but we would not trade our lives for anything. Thank you for your ongoing support and the reminders from so many back home that we are exactly where we need to be! We hope to see you in only 21 days to celebrate the wedding bash of the century…

fly the ocean in a silver plane
see the jungle when it's wet with rain
just remember till you're home again -
you belong to me

-jason wade, "You Belong to Me"



Perhaps the all-knowing deity is the only one who can claim the knowledge that, "Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart." I'm learning how this often negative-sounding word has powerful implications of my God's love for me.

How to sum up the past 5 weeks of being "back"? Bolivia seems much the same- as one of my New Zealand friends here appropriately put it, "a million billion dogs on the street that poo in exactly the wrong spot, people throwing non-biodegradable litter out the car/bus window, men that publicly pee in the corner or on a wall...shops that carry absolutely no change, shop-owners that lie to you about carrying absolutely no change...one-way streets that aren't labelled...restaurants that serve you bacteria-infested food that cause dire bodily consequences. It's funny how there are some things that you just don't get used to." Couldn't agree more. And yet this country is remarkably more beautiful than I remember. Perhaps it's the landscape that is breathtakingly raw and dangerous, the man in the grocery store who helps me pick out the best tomatoes each week, the precious girls playing games on our apartment steps, or my middle-aged Bolivian friend who owns the postcard store who not only remembered me but exclaimed, "You came back!" when I first stepped foot back in the run-down shop.

My days consist of loving the job of teaching 12 rough 5th graders, immersing myself in the weighty concerns and needs of my students, taking Spanish classes from the one-toothed wonder Jaime, breaking down walls around the hearts of an eclectic mix of 5 senior girls, learning to love all-Spanish church that has provided such an encouraging body, and escaping every once in a while with some American staff to have a taste of the familiar in a very foreign world. I LOVE living here, truly. And I love how the Lord speaks to me in a myriad of ways through voices and scriptures that are almost painful to receive at times.


I recently asked my students to write prayers to God, sharing their hearts with Him and asking Him to help them in the ways they want to change. Some of their requests were candid and humorous, "to get as tall as a jiraff well not that big but bigger than what I am now I don't feel as tall as I use to," while others were sobering and opened my eyes to their hurt. One student wrote in his developing English, "I whant to help more my mom because my dad is not here," while another simply asked, "for a frend," and yet another confessed, "sory for all the bad things i did and the wones I will do, I need a gide to find my way."

My favorite (am I allowed to have favorites?) prayer was from a Korean student who speaks little English and rarely talks, let alone opens up. "Dear God, I want to grow, grow up and change everything and lern evething of you and I want to think about you and talk to you everyday." Gulp. Needless to say, I was humbled by my students' hearts, the reality and bigness of their struggles, their desire to change, to know Him more, to find Him in all this.

How do I even recap what God has done in my heart through all this? What I feel so strongly that I want to share with you? As I recently read in Mike Mason's The Mystery of Marriage, "What sort of love would it be if our Maker looked on tolerantly and dispassionately as we destroyed ourselves, cutting ourselves off from our own life? For the Lord knows that He Himself is our Life, and His jealous possessiveness of us is thus an expression of the greatest possible concern for our well-being." He quotes St. Augustine, who knew this truth full well when he said, "You made us for Yourself, and our hearts find no peace utnil they rest in You." As Jason Wade sings, "just remember till you're home again, you belong to me." I can travel the world, but I am not to forget that my life is not my own, that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20), that I belong to a Heavenly Father.

So I've been so convicted lately of how often and easily I choose to withhold love from people. The verse, "For you have not been given a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of POWER, of LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE," (2 Tim 1:7) has been heavy on my mind lately and I've been mulling over it in my heart daily. I've been praying to be humbled, and it's so painful, almost a scraping off effect at times. The other day during our staff devotional, when our principal Jason shared that the father of David, our Bolivian business manager who has been in a coma now for 5 months, recently accepted Christ, I began weeping! I was truly touched that this man was drawn to the Lord through the painful loss of his son, but more than anything, I was so convicted as I heard the Lord whisper to my heart, "THAT is what is at stake. When you choose to withhold my freely given love, eternity is at stake-" and not at all to say that i have any control over people's salvations, but the very thought that I could miss out on being a part of bringing someone into the kingdom of heaven because of my petty selfishness is frightening indeed.

Wow, quite a bit of thoughts I just poured out. Usually I feel that my life lessons here are more concise, easier to package and present. But today I feel really strongly that I need to get this all out there! To encourage those of you who may have forgotten that there is a Jealous and Intimate God who is after your heart. To remind us that when Christ commanded us to love our enemies, he meant nothing short of pouring out our lives for those who will spit in our face. To cause you to live and act knowing that what we do in life echoes in eternity, and that the gospel has been entrusted to us as no meager life calling.

And finally, pray for Tim and I, as he wraps up the last bit of business in the states before heading to Bolivia to join up with me here. Pray that the Lord would continue to richly provide, as He has so faithfully and abundantly, so that Tim and I can finally do ministry here together!

Divine Romance

"The fullness of
your grace is here with me
the richness of
your beauty's all I see
The brightness of
your glory has arrived
In your presence God
I'm completely satisfied

For you
I sing
I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart, and my hands
to show my love
to show my love

A deep, deep flood
An ocean flows from you
a deep, deep love
yeah it's filling up the room
your innocent blood
has washed my guilty life
in your presence God
I'm completely satisfied."

-Phil Wickham

I am overwhelmed by the beautiful love story the Lord has crafted and allowed me to be apart of. I never dreamed it could be this good. For those of you who haven't yet heard the news, Tim and I are getting married! He flew into Bolivia to surprise me for my birthday this past week. It was unreal, and definitely the most unexpected and wonderful gift I could have received. I think I'm still in disbelief that I am engaged, total shock that this man chased after me so relentlessly, and still stunned by the fact that this tangible pursuit is greater than I ever dreamed it would be.

On Tuesday morning, Jason, our director at HIS, told me he had something he needed to show me in his office during recess. He put in this DVD I knew had to be from Tim, and I began to watch as he sang happy birthday and told me how bummed he was that he couldnt' be there with me to celebrate. He then shared some verses that have been our prayers for each other over the course of our relationship, and specifically how the Lord has so beautifully drawn our hearts together to the point that we know we're ready to start our lives together over the course of the past 5 months. The last segment of the video closed with him saying, "I need you to do one last thing for me, I need you to turn around..." And you can only guess who was standing in the doorway...I screamed and apparently shouted repeatedly through an outburst of tears, "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING HERE????" It wasn't until after he had proposed and put a ring on my finger that I pieced together the "why" of his trip:)

But honestly the best part of the week with Tim took place on Friday morning. I had the opportunity to speak at our high school chapel. I opened by holding up a huge stack of letters my fiance' (it's so great to finally get to use that word!) has sent me over the course of my past 5 months here. While this tangible pursuit has been far more unreal and beautiful than I ever dreamed for myself as a little girl, I shared that Tim would be the first to admit that this will always pale in comparison to the intimate love we know in the Lord.

I then presented to them a painting of the ocean, and how it brought me back to times when I would ask my dad as a little girl, "Daddy, how much do you love me?" Thinking he would respond with, "From here to that island so far away," or some other measurable and overwhelming distance, he would instead always reply, "Oh Whitney, more than you'll ever know..." I desired something tangible, a containable amount to wrap my mind around, a description that would allow me to know the breadth and depth of his love.

I shared a verse that has been my battle cry throughout my time away here, verse 8 of Psalm 143, in which David says, "Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust..." Why? I have asked over and over again, Does David plead with the Lord specifically to know and hear from Him in the morning? Why is his desire to, "Let me hear," as opposed to, "Speak to me"? I began to understand just where David was coming from this semester, that I have a great and horrifying tendency to forget and allow my heart to be lured away from my first love. It's as if David knows that the Lord is present and all around him, yet he desires and needs the Lord to overcome his deafness and inability to hear the whispers He is in fact speaking to him each and every morning.

I then began to "ruin" my painting, splashing dull colors over the once vibrant and powerful picture, illustrating how in so many ways I mute the extent of what He longs to offer me, when He says, "I came that you might have life, and have it to the fullest." I push away, withdraw, separate myself, construct my own pride, refuse to lean on Him, build walls around my heart, ultimately blinding myself to this picture of limitless love, to the reality of His daily pursuit of my heart.

Tim then played several worship songs, including "Divine Romance" above, as I "redeemed" the original, turning the messy lines and splattered paint into His outstretching hand, reaching down to little broken me in the bottom right-hand corner. Tim shared with me later that as he looked out over the crowd, he saw tears being wiped away and almost visibly the walls being torn down.

What an unreal blessing, to testify alongside the man I love that what we have together is only a reflection, that the best it gets is the picture before them, the truth found in the words of the song. It was an inexpressible joy to once again lead and worship next to him, just as we grew to love at camp, and know that we are beginning a lifetime of loving the Lord together. What a great reminder that this is not about us, but that we are caught up in something so much greater than ourselves.

I could barely finish through humbled tears, but closed with several verses I have come back to over and over again most recently, "For I am convinced, that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).

So, thank you dear friends, for sharing in our unspeakable joy- I cannot wait to return in a few short weeks and celebrate with you in person! May you richly experience a pursuit that is beyond human description, limitless and undeserved, and would you seize opportunities to proclaim of this love to those who are not seeing the beautiful picture or hearing His whispers each morning.

aprendiendo poco a poco

“Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the LORD, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
-Romans 11:33-36

Yo estoy aprendiendo espanol poco a poco. Yes, it’s true, I am learning Spanish little by little, but this phrase can honestly be applied to every other area of my life as well. While my days are spent teaching, I’m learning infinitely more. In fact, what I’m teaching seems to be only an overflow of what I’m learning each and every day, in every arena of my life.

Let’s start with Spanish. Perhaps one of the biggest myths I bought into in coming here was that I would simply pick up the language, that by the effortless process of diffusion I would wake up one day and be fluent. Haha, not so, I have learned. For me, the process of learning this supposed “facil lenguaje” has been painstaking, humbling, even embarrassing. Just the other night, I commented to a Bolivian waitress when asked if we wanted more to eat, “Estamos muy lindos!” While I meant to say, “We are very full!” I instead informed her, “We are very pretty!” Good one, Whit. I’ve heard it said that in order to get one sentence right, you first have to say about 100 incorrectly. I’m beginning to think it might be more like 1,000 for me…

What about in my classroom? Well, let’s just say that my students are a far greater example than I of what it looks like to love unconditionally, to overlook the outward appearance and annoying behavior of some, to not think of oneself in the call to sacrifice, and instead love recklessly from an overflow of the heart. Recently, my students brought me to tears as I watched them organize a bake sale to raise money for a loved Bolivian staff member in the hospital, in great need of funds to foot the bill for his many surgeries and costly, life-sustaining meds. Together they collected over 800 Bolivianos, roughly $100 to support David and his family. I know, unbelievable. I wish you could have seen it.

And as for me and Tim, well this area is certainly not excluded. Since his recent return from the Dominican Republic, his heart has been sold on the idea of going back. As a result, we’ve recently talked more about the future than ever before. While the Lord has placed a definite desire in both of our hearts to get married down the road, we also feel a sense of obedience knowing that this decision is what the Lord wants because it will ultimately bring Him the most glory, that together we will be greater for Him than we could be apart. But dang, is it challenging. I have never been so tested in patience, in waiting for the Lord’s timing, in trusting that He will provide and continue to open doors and lead us where we need to move from here. I often find myself in doubt that He is capable, but praise Him that He is not thwarted by the size of my faith.

Spiritually? Well, honestly, I have found my heart crying out to the Lord most recently out of frustration, even anger sometimes, just in hard days of missing home and big events in people’s lives, “God I have sacrificed so much for you! This is so hard, why do you ask me to give you anything else? Would you please give me a break…” Then just last night I was overwhelmingly convicted and comforted and cradled all in the same moment. At my church youth group, I heard the Lord so gently but firmly speak truth to my heart, “Remember, beloved, that the cost for your sin was my life. You were and are worth it to me. But know that if you now really want to live for me, like you say you do, than I ask you to give me your whole life as well, holding nothing back. Am I worth it to you?” Then just this morning, to hear a message entirely in Spanish surrounding the verse, “Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” So true. My life is not my own, and thankfully so. When I step back even for a moment, I realize that I would not trade for anything this beautiful life that I can’t believe I get to live.

“What I am describing now is so great a joy to Jesus that he counts as nothing his labor and his bitter sufferings and his cruel and shameful death. And in these words: if I could suffer more, I would suffer more, I saw truly that if he could die as often as once for every man who is to be saved, as he did once for all men, love would never let him rest till he had done it.” -from Julian of Norwich: Showings

“The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility—I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says—Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.”
-from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

As we approach “semana santa” and prepare to mourn in the death and rejoice in the life of Christ, would we see the price for our life paid in full before our very eyes, experience that kind of love unmatched, and admit that while we are broken and poor in spirit, he blesses those who eagerly admit such shortcomings. In fact, he celebrates such weakness and invites us to be a part of something far greater.

Me gustas tu

Hard to believe I’ve been here over a month now, that I’m actually in my 6th week of teaching! Really?!? Que raro… Time certainly does fly here, at an even faster pace than it ever seemed to at home. Each day in the classroom I’m amazed at how we seem to jump from morning meeting to lunch and then suddenly the buses are here. Last week, one of my most unique and hilarious students, Joaquin, exclaimed with a huge grin as we were lining up for almuerzo, “Whoa! The day’s more than half way over—I like being in your class!”

I forget how fun school can be at this age—we are erupting our homemade, exceptionally-decorated volcanoes tomorrow in a huge competition between the horribly disadvantaged 4th graders. They don’t have a chance. The rest of the elementary school is voting on the best experiment, based on volume of eruption and creativity in design.

We have been acting out scenes from our class read aloud, C.S. Lewis’ Silver Chair, and plan on coordinating a play soon for the rest of the school (yet to be determined). We are learning how to write like real authors, and the creations these students invent blow me away. Math has been quite a challenge, as I’ve come to realize that conceptually most of the students are years behind where they should be, although I love pushing them and seeing them achieve far beyond what they believe they’re capable of.

One struggle I face daily is how to empower them to think critically. We always want to be spoon-fed information, don’t we? Often in our laziness we forget the joy of discovery and attempt to purchase the quick answer, or buy the easy way out. In my students' responses I see how we are conditioned to be passive, choosing not to search in a way that requires too much effort. Perhaps one of the greatest joys of this job is asking a deep, thought-provoking question, sitting back as they turn to each other waiting for someone else to take charge, when all of a sudden a student erupts with, “oh- I think I know!” and an arm flings high in the air, often accompanied by a half-hop out of the student’s seat. I delight in seeing the light bulb not only click on in one’s mind but blind the rest of the class as well.

We recently put together a huge puzzle we like to call the “Big Picture,” under which the caption reads, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” I found a beautiful scenery photo in National Geographic and cut it into 30 tiny squares. As a class, we all worked on translating the image found on each of our squares onto much larger proportional blocks of paper. Finally, we put all the pieces together, having never before seen the original picture as a class. The result, which is now proudly displayed on the wall for everyone to admire, is a far from perfect yet stunningly beautiful composition of every student’s best work. When we look at each frame apart from the big picture, it’s hardly more than random colors and seemingly aimless lines. However, when you step back, our big picture is truly awesome. In our class discussions surrounding the project, I have loved hearing the students outwardly process this abstract idea, that perhaps we don’t see it all. It serves as an encouragement that maybe God is up to something far greater and more astounding and good than we realize in the midst.

Quite simply, I truly love it here—I could not be more thankful to be living in this place. I’m patiently but diligently “apprendiendo espanol poco a poco.” No one told me that learning by immersion doesn’t mean that you merely soak up the language like a sponge in water; the process of learning in spite of my dense mind is far more awkward and exhausting and unnatural than I can accurately relay. Yet thankfully I have time, and I’m committed to learning to really communicate. It’s amazing the repercussions the Tower of Babel has on our lives even still-

My Bolivian family is an embodiment of real joy and true generosity and genuine patience. My students are a blessing and in their hugs and surprising encouragement I sense God reminding me that their lives are going to humble me and teach me a love that knows no bounds. My relationship with Tim has grown and deepened since being here, and we are both awed by how the Lord continues to draw us together despite distance and grant such delight in praying for each other in the absence of daily communication.

So, as I listen to the French artist Manu Chao (I highly recommend downloading “Bongo Bong” or “Me gustas tu”) in order to connect to Bolivian pop-culture and improve mi espanol (and now I’m just addicted to the music), I want to leave you with this:

“Let the WORD of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in ALL wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Colossians 3:16

Let us be immersed yet truly soak up the Word no matter the cost of the search,
and encourage one another to keep an eternal, big-picture perspective,
all the while worshipping in whatever place and role and stage we find ourselves in,
and live in gratitude for all we’ve been given that we will never deserve-

Merry early V-Day friends:)

Bajo en la esquina, por favor!

It’s difficult to find a place to begin-
It’s hard to sum up or even wrap my own mind around, and I’ve been taking it in firsthand. This has undoubtedly been one of the fullest, most overwhelming, undeserved, beautiful and literally breathtaking “semanas” I have survived to date. Would these journal excerpts and stolen words provide a snapshot of my first week here in Bolivia.

1.06.07
“Lord, the day is finally here, and I can hardly believe it. I’m sitting here, in the Miami airport, looking around, feeling alone because I am already in a foreign world- wondering where the adventure is in all this- Lord I feel like I’ve heard and said that word millions of times in the past few months and even before…pretty sure I’m living in what some would call an ‘adventure’ right now but it feels pretty weird, uncomfortable…”

1.07.07
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9

“…behold, the Lord has gone out before you…”
Judges 4:14

1.08.07
“God, I can’t believe I get to live this life.”
Rob Bell

"In the quiet, in the stillness,
I know that you are God.
In the secret, of your presence,
I know there I am restored.
When you call I won't refuse.
Each new day I get I'll choose-
There is no one else for me,
None but Jesus.
Crucified to set me free,
Now I live to bring you praise...
And all my delight is in you Lord
All of my hope
All of my strength
All my delight is in you Lord
Forevermore-"
Hillsong

1.09.07
“My soul languishes for your salvation; I wait for your Word. My eyes fail with longing for your Word, while I say, ‘When will you comfort me?’”
Psalm 119:81-82

“This wall is glaring and it’s too hard for me to climb,
I’ve ran and ran and now there’s nothing left behind,
I see a picture of a broken man inside,
I’ve tried and tried and now there’s nothing left but time…
And I’ll wait, for you,
I’ll wait for you alone,
And I’ll wait, for you,
I’ll wait for you alone…”
Mat Kearney

1.10.07
“I am quite possibly the closest I ever have been to simply doing life with you- needing you, constantly aware of your presence almost like a needy child, clinging to her father. Lord would you teach me raw trust. I realize I’m a being ruled by emotional stability. Would truth be my anchor, your faithfulness my cause me to surrender everything blindly and overrule my shaky spirit.”

“Among His countless children, whom He so greatly loves and whom he heaps with tenderness and favors, there are few indeed, who truly entrusting themselves to Him, live as veritable children of God…And so it is that He welcomes with a love of predilection those souls, all too few in number, who in adversity as in joy, in tribulation and consolation, unfalteringly trust in His paternal love.”
Brennan Manning

1.11.07
“Once again my heart cries:
‘Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.’ (Psalm 143:8).
Would you wake me up with this every morning.”

1.12.07
“I’ve been struck with a stark realization that I know little to no scripture by heart and a conviction that I want to memorize verses so that I know them cold…when I wake up dead to the world each morning, would that be all I can muster up to say…It seems ever more necessary that I pray for you to incline my heart to the scriptures, to love your Word, to fasten my steps and actions to it and build my life around it.”

“Lord, I don’t know how this is- but I feel more loved here now than ever, more lifted up, backed, supported, encouraged, both by soul mate friends and family at home as well as new amigos here. How precious that distance holds no bearing in your divine economy…”

1.13.07
“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, will all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit…”
Ephesians 6:17-18

“Lord, would I ‘continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not move away from the hope of the gospel that I have heard.’ (Colossians 1:23) Lord what does it take? I’m not sure I know what it means to be firmly rooted and consistent…”


And so I leave you with this:
“For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
Colossians 2:5-6