The Bravest Thing of All Is To Hope

"And in the dark we climb this slope
'cause the bravest thing is always hope."
Binary from The Light of Things Hoped For by Brave Saint Saturn

"Deepest oceans of despair
This vast and somber
Charcoal night of space
Have you given up yet?
What hope lingers in the crevasses and corners of your soul?
I know you
You haven't given up yet
You are brave in this darkness, Saint Saturn
Sometimes the bravest thing of all is to hope"
Atropos from The Light of Things Hoped For by Brave Saint Saturn

No profound thoughts to go with it. I'm just enjoying their music right now. I'm also enjoying having BonnieJean, Chera, Ethan, and Naomi all home and in the same room.

The headache and stupid feeling from yesterday is gone, praise God! I just have zip energy but I can handle that, kind of.

I'm rereading Jane Austen's Emma. I had forgotten how funny Mr. Woodhouse is. "Poor Isabella..."

I'm also finally reading Rodney Stark's Victory of Reason. It's been recommended to me for forever. I'm only in the first chapter but it's good so far. It's a deep enough book that you have to take it pretty slow.

I got some wrapping of Christmas gifts done today. I love wrapping paper and pretty bows, but I am so bad at it. In fact, right now I can see the lovely gold ribbon that matched BonnieJean's black gift bag so perfectly lying on the floor next to said classy black bag. *sigh*

I have an itch to go Christmas ornament shopping. I'm noticing some terrible holes on the tree right now. I want to get some pearlescent (sp?) gold balls and maybe some more red ones, too.

I've decided to quit the praise band. Sunday was the third or 4th time I've shown up for rehearsal and had no music stand, music, or microphone. So, I'm taking the hint. I'm trying to extricate myself quietly. I just have to come up with an innocent but honest answer for when everyone starts to ask me why I'm not playing anymore. BonnieJean and Dad both suggested finding another group to play with because it is something I have really enjoyed. Something to think and pray about.

Trite

"A once effective phrase or idea that has been spoiled by long familiarity." according to Merriam Webster.

I've decided that I don't like this word. Just because something has been said before doesn't mean that it's not true any more. If a phrase or word expresses what you mean exactly who shouldn't you say it? I think the only words that are truly spoiled by familiarity are swear words. What people really mean when they say something in a conversation is trite is that I think the person insincere. People too often say something because they've heard other people say the same thing in a similar situation. They don't know what it really means or don't really mean what they're saying.

In writing, I try to avoid common phrases just because originality is one of the purposes of writing to me. It's also one of the most enjoyable things about reading. An original phrase is a delight. However, I don't discount a write for using something that is common effectively.

In art, particularly photography, there is absolutely no such thing as trite. People who use the word trite are just trying to push the framework of fashion into art. Fashion wants everything to be new and edgy so it rejects things that are good just because it's common. Therefore lots of good things such as photos of blue bonnets, paintings of landscapes, and bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace" are all discarded as 'trite'. Why? Just because lots of other people have taken pictures of lots of other blue bonnets doesn't make this photo a bad one. Just because lots of other people have painted lots of other landscapes doesn't make any one of them less beautiful. And just because it's traditional to play "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes doesn't make it sound bad. Tradition can be a good thing.

And certainly 'trite' has no place in talking about truth. If anything we need truths repeated over and over. "Peace on Earth! Goodwill to men!" "He is Risen" "Blessed be the Name of the Lord". As Kirk Youngblood said the other Sunday God won't care whether a church is innovative, creative, or on the cutting edge, but whether or not the sheep were fed the Word. Truth bears repeating and it never becomes trite.

Humor from church

Mike, Jim, and Greg (music director, guitar player, and bass player, respectively) tease me to no end about my height. They never cease to amuse me and everyone else! I came into practice once and Jim had lowered my music stand as far as down as it would go. Greg hums "It's a small, small, world" when I walk into a room. Mike calls me "our representative from the little people village" (whereas he calls Jeff, the most Indian looking Indian in OK, "chief of the village people"). Today when I got up to talk about doing missions at VBS Greg got Dad to yell "Stand up!" It was hilarous!

Also when I got up to talk about missions, Gyda called me Sandy for some weird reason. So when she handed me the mike I said "Thank you, Glenda."

This morning Bro. Tobie got up to do the announcements and said "Good Morning! Welcome to First Bap---North Park Trinity Baptist." Unfortunately, his mike was off so only those of us up front caught the gaffe. We nearly died laughing.

A couple of weeks back Sarah, a girl in our church, was talking to Sam, a gentleman at church.

Sarah: How old are you?

Sam: 49 (or something, don't remember).

Sarah: Are those your own teeth?

Sam: Yes.

103

That's the current temperature here in sweltering NE OK. Yuck.

The Rogers County Republican "Government Serves the People" Cookout was a success! We raised over $400 net profit--that is more than what we've had in the past 3 years!

Poor Joshua has poison ivy. It was so bad this morning that his eyes were swelling shut. Mama packed him off to the doctor this morning where he got a steroid shot and cream. He's already looking better much.

We have had baptisms the last 3 Sundays!! Praise God! I'm so excited to see God working!

Also on a church note--I'm helping with the Missions room at VBS this year. Shawn Hines will be in charge of it. I did the missions room 3 years ago and just loved it, so I'm excited to get to do it again. Mama has already said she'll help me with posters for each country.

I get to go shopping with Mama this evening--fun!

Learning faith and patience

is no fun. I want a well-paying, political job so bad and I want it now. Bruce Long was very encouraging this morning in Sunday school. He reassured Samuel and I that as we continue to live for Christ He will provide the perfect job that we want so bad. However, he also threw that "wait on Him" bit. *sigh*

Bulletin from the Couch #2

  Just a quick couch bulletin before I start on my capstone powerpoint.

  People are constantly asking me what I did to my foot.  I use the story Jason suggested: "I got in a fight with a squirrel."  Sunday, little Owen Beuhler asked me and I told him the squirrel story.  He didn't fall for it.  We shared a laugh and then I started to tell him the truth.  "They took my ligaments out and gave me some ligaments from a dead person.  They screwed the new ligaments into my bone with a screw that will slowly dissolve."  Owen looked at me for two seconds, said, "Uh-uh.  I don't believe you."  Then, being the distractible eight year old that he is, ran off.  I laughed about that all afternoon.

  School is avalanching down upon me.  Please pray that I get it all done and done well.  Pray hard.

  Chera's going to come see us about a month after graduation!  We haven't set a solid date, but I'm already majorly  excited!

Another quiz

You’re St. Jerome! You’re a passionate Christian, fiercely devoted to Jesus Christ and his Church. You are willing to labor long hours in the Lord’s vineyard, and you have little patience with those who are less willing or able to work as you do. Your passions often carry you into temptation zones of wrath, lust, and pride. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

This and that

  I love my praying friends!  I have friends that I haven't seen or even maintained contact with, suddenly reconnecting with me and praying for me.  I have a group of ladies older than me in age and in faith that all pray for each other.  My Sunday school class prays for me.  My karate class prays for me.  My parents pray for me.  The Teagues pray for me because of the Friday Bible study.  Chera and JC pray for me.  I'm sure there are many more people that pray for me that I don't know about or just don't remember.

  It seems like I'm suddenly much more aware of who's praying for me.  I think even this is an answer to prayer.  I've been praying for a new understanding of God's love and working in my life.

Blah

  I was driving along Scottie's road today and stopped to watch a grey heron.  It's amazing how still those birds can stand.  Occasionally, I could see the feather move some of his breast feathers, but other than that he could have been a statue.  He made a good illustration for "Be still and know that I AM GOD."  Compared to that bird, I don't know how to be still at all.  Even when I'm sitting stock still, my mind is still going in a million directions.

  I finished today--thank you Julie!  It is a great read.  I wish I had read it before Dr. Taylor's campaign class.  We, sadly, didn't cover anything about vote fraud in that class.  Now, I need to look up OK's rules on provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and voter registration.

  Sometimes being a girl stinks.  I have been outragiously hungry and craving sweets all day, not to mention being totally lethargic and getting nothing done.  Granted, I like this better than forming a permanent ovarian cyst every month, but it still stinks.

  I realized the other day that I was looking for a job this time last year.  Last year, I was much poorer than I am now and had been unemployed much longer.  God gave me the perfect job for that time, pulled me away from it when the time was no longer right, and is going to work this out yet again.  So quit freaking out already, Anna!

  I'm desperately trying to learn some fiddle fills for Beulah Land before Sunday.  My church family is so patient with me.

  I got my desk completely clean yesterday!  I feel so much better having that done!  Now, let's see if I can keep it that way.

  I'm going to go curl up with a book and a fleece.

I should be in bed

so of course I'm writing a blog post instead.

  I have turned in almost everything for Internship II.  I only have two forms left to turn in and I need Julie's signature for one of them.

  I'm working on the group historical analysis project for Research Methods II right now.  It's going very well.  we each take a court transcript and identify categories and types of evidence.  So far I've found three in Samuel Wardwell's trial: confession, physical affliction, and eyewitness testimony.  I hope the rest of my group is making progress as well.

  I really like the songs we're doing in church on Sunday.  I'm not much into listening to Christmas music, but I sure love to play it.  I actually get a solo part on Three Kings this Sunday.  I'm nervous already.

  The weather keeps getting colder here.  I've rediscovered my black trench coat the last couple of days.  Today the wind was really strong.  I felt very dramatic striding purposefully across the campus with my black trench coat billowing out behind me.

  We're doing another church directory and we're having the same company do it as last time.  I'm really excited.  The pictures they did last time were incredible.  Our's was the best family portrait we have ever had done.  Which reminds me that JC asked for a copy of it...

  I only have three major school assignments left: journals for Social Systems and Problems, and the two final papers for Campaigns.  Minor assignments left are the historical analysis and final for Research Methods II, finals in Public Policy, Literary Traditions, and Social Systems and problems (which all be in class), and one presentation for Public Policy.

  I love Mama's cream cheese icing!

  I need to start thinking about Christmas shopping.

  Ok, now I'm going to bed.  Love y'all!

People are so patient with me. I was terribly out of tune this morning, but nobody said a thing. Thankfully, most of the time I couldn't be heard, but I know Mike, David, Craig, and Ashley could hear me and they didn't even blink. If I miss a couple of weeks they ask me why and always act thrilled when I show up. They'll are all so nice.

Dad is making incredible progress on the shed roof. We're at the exhaust vent, drip-edge, and tar paper stage.

Caleb is such a great sound effects technician. He's pretending halo in front of me with a quite impressive variety of sounds.

The Hebrew alphabet is so gorgeous.

Chera called me today. I just love talking to her!

I need to get to bed. I've been working on this blog post almost all evening and it's not even long. I just kept getting distracted.

Dad will be home Wednesday night!

I have some kind of bug--everything wears me out. I thought it was walking pneumonia, went to an urgent care place today and he said my lungs are clear. He wants to run a thyroid test tomorrow.

I'm really enjoying the creative writing course I'm taking. Poetry is not as dreadfully hard to write as I thought it was. :)

Scottie had a wonderful sermon this morning about love and truth and confronting sin. Scott and Sammi Marsh sang a song called "Slow Fade" that went with the sermon perfectly.

I start fiddle lessons tomorrow. I'm so nervous and excited!

It's lightning so I'd better close this down. Love y'all!

Quote from Church Nursery

*In a full whine/scream while disintegrating into tears* "YOU'RE NOT MY BEST FRIEND ANYMORE!"--Anna, 3 years old, after I made her quit pulling a bag down off its hook.

OK, hope is restored. I'm back!

Camp kept us real busy but it went great. I had Kuyu and Mrs. Jernigan helping me with 15 kindergartners the whole time and then half a dozen other people in and out as their patience lasted. :) Let's just say we had 2 little boys who were...difficult. The youth group was awesome and Kuyu and Ah-chung MADE the camp. Parents came to the presention at the end where the gospel was presented, we got to give Bibles to all the kids, and 9 kids came to Sunday school this morning all which were major goals for the camp. I'll post pictures soon.

It turns out that the wife of the pilot who died in the crash with Jonny is here illegally from Vietnam. She has a 5 month old and 18 month old and the government wants to send her back to Vietnam WITHOUT her kids! So the Hopes and their church are trying to work it out where all 3 of them can move to AR with them. I sure hope it works out. It would be so awful to separate them after losing their dad and husband. The Hopes' behavor is such a witness, too.

We leave for Taiwan on the 29th where we'll spend 3 days at the school where Drew and the rest of the King Car teachers are doing and then fly home (*Brave Saint Saturn voice* HOME!) on the 2nd. This leaves only 2 weeks left in Kinmen. Let's go into full bore panic now.

Andrea and Young (Pastor Samuel and Joy's kids) and Tony and Ebony (kids of a family who used to go to church here and now live in Thailand) possibly might get to come to our house next year for summer vacation. I sure hope so! I've had a ton of fun with Young and Andrea and have heard lots of good things about Tony and Ebony.

I'm going to go read all the millions of blog posts I've missed. Love y'all!

Since I last posted I have...

been a team leader at the COMMIT conference and learned tons and was very much encouraged and hopefully helped the girls, too. I also canoed, paddleboated, and rappeled (50 ft!)

Passed the World Civilization I CLEP.

Signed up for Speech, Intro to Sociology, Foundations of World Language, and Perspectives on Human Behavior. I want to take another junior level course but the advisor asked me to wait to sign up for until I passed more CLEPs. He seemed afraid that I wouldn't actually pass them and then it would be too late to sign up for the gen eds. So I'll pass some more and show him, although I can see his concerns since he doens't know me or much about CLEPs. So far they're all MWF classes which means I could work Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Had a brother go and come back from the Phillipines where God did all kind of awesome things that Samuel will post on his blog (hint, hint.)

Played a violin special at church which was very well recieved.

Did nursing homes with Dad.

Saw great progress in the younger white belts' blocks.

Started planning an Easter package for Chera and almost immediatley after received a cd for me and BJ which we are enjoying immensely. Thank you!

Got way behind and then caught up on friends' blogs.

Cut back on sweets.

Managed to miss stretching a couple of times and got very stiff.

Worked alot.

Had my desk and room go through several cycles of messy and clean. Right now it's messy.

And now I'm going to go watch The Pursuit of Happyness. See y'all!