A Picture's worth a thousand words...

And a whole lot quicker to look at!

Hello All (4 Readers) -
I created a DropShots site to share photos easily. I have added to links at the side under Interesting Reading (only this is viewing more than reading): "Jan's photos." I got a camera recently and have been practicing taking photos over the holidays. So that is mostly what is up there. My standard disclaimer - this will (should) be more interesting once I am in Kenya.

Happy "reading."

Is Kenya Falling Apart?

It’s very good to have started the year in much prayer. I’m praying often now for the events happening in Kenya. Every time I look at CNN on the Internet – it’s one more bit of news that seems a little more hopeful than the last bit of news. I would urge you to continue to pray for peace. It’s really a miraculous answer to prayer that the opposition’s “peaceful rally” planned for earlier today got called off since it was ban by police. (It didn’t really happen in time to inform the citizens.) But none-the-less Desmond Tutu’s arrival and discussion proved helpful. Now it seems Kenya’s attorney general has called for an independent recount. As it is President Kibaki’s reported to have won by only a very narrow margin.

If you are inclined to pray, please continue to do so.

· Pray for humility among these Kenyan leaders – something rarely found in Africa.
· Pray for the quick recovery of the nation now torn by ethnic clashes.
· Pray for real reconciliation to occur and real repentance between tribes.
· Pray for those who have lost loved ones, for their healing.
· Pray for the poor. They are a growing majority in a country that has recently experienced a booming economy. There will be plenty of work to be done in recovery of homes and resettling displaced people.
· Pray for God’s blessing to return to this nation and the work of those who are helping to rebuild it.

Kenya has been a model for peace and stability since gaining independence in 1963. I’m praying for the redemption of that reputation. Honestly, I expect more of Kenyans. I can only guess the growing poverty rift has really heightened people’s discouragement thus precipitating this violence.

Thank you for your prayers.

Prayer

I don’t normally recommend sermons but the one we had this weekend on prayer was excellent, very motivating and helped me with the perpetual “why?” question. It’s not about me, it’s about His glory.
Here’s the link.

Happy and Prayer-filled New Year!

The dumbest things make me cry

I miss my mom

I was just reading through some recipes trying to choose what to make for a New Year’s brunch. I came across a recipe in my mom’s handwriting and just after the fond recognition of it being hers I burst into tears. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago too. I was sorting through the many donated children’s books given to the missionary apartment. I came across one about this mother who had a little boy that she would rock and recite a little poem to about how this would always be her little boy, no matter how big he got and she would always love him. As the book progresses, the boy gets older but the mom still takes that big boy or even man in her arms and rocks with to this verse. By the end of the book the son rocks his aging mother. The whole scene sent to down the memory lane of missing my own mom so dearly. I can hardly type this without it all coming back again so vividly and fighting off the tears again.

This was my third Christmas without her.

Remedy for Numbness

I haven’t been blogging much. I am trying to figure out why. I have time to read blogs. You might offer that it’s a busy season. It’s understandable that I haven’t been writing much. But I don’t buy that excuse. I think I might be just a bit numb. I set my expectations low for Christmas this year (for the most part). I had a nice dinner with my older brother and sister-in-law a few days before Christmas.

I spent Christmas eve with the Maves Family. It was nice to see the girls opening gifts and all excited. I managed to get to church twice that day.

I remembered again why I love the 10:45 pm service at Bethlehem. It’s the right time in all the hoopla to slow down and focus. I always love the music that is chosen. The lessons that are read are so clear for helping me focus. The message Pastor John gives isn’t holiday fluff, it’s straight to the point of Christmas. Some of the numbness melts away and I remember why there is so much hoopla this season.

Jesus came. He came to be with us. – Emanuel –

He came to die. But for his death to accomplish what it set out to do, namely pay the price for our sin, Jesus had to come as one of us. He had to be born a little vulnerable baby, grow into a man and experience life the same way we do in order for him to be what we needed to atone for our sin. Pastor John puts it so much better. Here’s his sermon from this past weekend. It’s worth listening to.

I spend Christmas day with the Jones family. Zach and Andrea live there too and we had a very nice Christmas breakfast. Eventually more friends arrived and then somewhere along the day I lost focus again. Two more large meals, lots of Christmas cookies, kids playing or fusing due to lack of sleep and abundance of sugar, squeeze in a movie and no wonder I’m numb. I finally get to the 26th and I have what I call a “Christmas hangover”. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol, it’s all the overdoing it; I’ve had too much food and not enough sleep. But more than that I haven’t remembered, let alone dwelt on what Jesus has so incredibly done for me.

It’s fun to spend the holidays with friends. It’s natural to miss my mom and wish she were still here. But clichéd or not, Jesus really is the one thing that I should be focusing on. Not because Jesus is a “should” but because he’s the part of Christmas that doesn’t disappoint. When I have come down from the sugar high and slept off the days of short nights I have one thing alone to look forward to: Jesus.

Hopefully, my focus will generate thoughtfulness here on the blog, too. I am so grateful for Jesus what came to die for me and grateful I am still able to remember, focus on Him.

News in Madison, Wisconsin

Ed Brown is the guy that Craig and Tracy Sorley asked to set up the US office of Care of Creation after they had started their work in Kenya under the Southern Baptists. This morning Ed sent us a link from a Madison newspaper that did an article on him. If you would like to read it here is the link.

lola bea

This is a little person I have known since her birth. In a couple of months she'll be three. I see her at least weekly and many weeks I see her two or three times.

Yesterday I arrived at her house and she said to me, "Who are you?" This is Lola Bea's advanced sense of humor. I replied, "You know who I am!" in a sing-songy manner as to communicate I was getting her joke.

Then she asked in her same inquisitive manner, "Are you the other Auntie Jan?" I could no longer keep a straight face. Others in the room starting laughing too.

I'm left to wonder, how do little people get so funny?