Mele Kalikimaka???

Mele Kalikimaka to you all.

I can't believe that Christmas is less then a week away. Weird. Being in Hawaii during December is a bit depressing for a girl that grew up in the North West. Last year I don't think I even had Christmas. The J-pan Focus DTS was on an airplane to Japan on Christmas Eve night and I feel like we arrived just when Christmas day was ending. Sad. This will mark my 4th Christmas not at home and I suppsose I'll be okay with that.

But I realize that Christmas isn't about the lights, eggnog (which I personally think is foul), trees, snow, santa, Mariah Careys Christmas album, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, snowman, ginger bread houses, Christmas parties, candy canes, stockings, Charlie Brown Christmas, fire places, and Home Alone... I realize that I'm supposed to say "Jesus is the reason for the season" But sometimes I do miss all of it. But this year Christmas is looking up for me. I get to have Christmas in the place I've always wanted...the East Coast. I get to be cold, wear pea coats and have a real Christmas with a real family. Oh yes...that does sound lovely....

...but really, Jesus really is the purpose for Christmas. I do want to make that point clear. I continue to be dumbfounded by a God who would come in the form of a man to a teenage girl in the most difficult of times, born in a filthy cave...and ended up saving us all. Yes that is lovely. My desire for Christmas is not the 'fluff' of Christmas but to somehow bring the Beauty of Jesus and his message to places like Darfur, Cambodia, Japan, Belo Horizonte and so many other places. To desire for what John Lennon wrote in his song "Happy Christmas (war is over) "

A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let's stop all the fight A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over And a new one just begun"

SexGod

So, a year ago I discovered this genius man named Rob Bell. He pastors a church in Michigan. He has those short videos called "Nooma" as well as one of my most beloved of books, "Velvet Elvis". He's made me want to see God in new perspectives. Anyways, Chris told me he is writing a new book called "SexGod" and I found his first chapter excerpt and its amazing. Here is part of it:

Chapter 1: God wears lipstick
I have a new hero. Her name is Lil. I met her earlier this year when she introduced me to her daughter, whom she was pushing in a wheelchair. early in their marriage, Lil and her husband decided that they would adopt 2 children. As they became familiar with the family services system, they learned that there were kids in the system nobody wanted. So they went to the local adoption agency and asked for the kids with the most pronounced disabilities, the most traumatic histories and the most hopeless futures. They asked if they could have the kids nobody wanted. Over the past 30 years or so , they have raised well over 20 children.
When Lil got to this point in her story, she reached down and patted her daughter and said, "this is Crystal. She's 27 years old but will be about 6 months old developmentally forthe rest of her life. She can't talk or walk or move or feed herself or do anything on her own. She will be like this, totally dependent on us, until the day she dies. And I love her so much. My family and I, we can't imagine life without her. She makes everything so much better."

What's Lil Doing?
She's bringing heaven to earth.
She gives us a glimpse into another realm. Into a better way. The way of God.
She and her family have taken kids who were discarded b/c of their perceived lack of worth and said, "No, you are not to be rejected and turned away. We are going to love you as an equal, as a human, as one of us." They show us how God loves us. They reflect the image. And when you see it lived out like this, you're seeing heaven crash into earth.
Instead of seeing labels like "handicapped," "reject," or "invalid," Lil and her husband and her kids see only one label: "human."

-And so they have only one response: Love.
-And it makes all the difference in heaven and earth.

Which takes us back to something that happened during Colonel Gonin's stay at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp:
It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that was a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not alt all what we wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the postmortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lip-stick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance.That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.
Because sometimes, the difference between heaven and hell may be a bit of lipstick.

Captain Vegetable

When the DTS office has down time it gets dull fast...so I go to TIMES 2006 Best Invention of the year...Youtube. Really? Yea. Those guys were genius. Now their bizillionares just because they upload videos onto the internet. Anyways! I found one of my most favorite things ever...I found Captain Vegetable. Yea, no one in the world remembers him. I've asked around. Which is weird because I thought we all watched Sesame Street growing up. But I watched that show religiously and remember everything (like when snuffelufagus was thought to be imaginary and no one believed Big Bird...but I DID!!)Okay so back to C.Vegetable. Honestly, the bunny was the most horrific and terrifying thing to me in my 5 year old little mind and I swear to you (ask my mother), I ate carrots because of this guy. Fear can be powerful. So I thought I would share the most brilliant of superheros.

Eliah and Chris' Wedding

So I've learned a few things over the weekend because of Eliah and Chris' wedding
1) Weddings are stressful. Hopefully you only have to go through one. Higher a wedding planner because asking YWAM people to do it, only leads to chaos.
2) Being married is prolly the most interesting thing EVER. Youre forever stuck with someone. As they were saying their vows and looking happily into each others eyes, most girls are struck with romance and wanting 'that' moment for themselves. Sadly, I'm not one of those girls. I was thinking "what if I get married and I'm completely bored out of my mind with this 'man' next to me after 10 years...uh oh?" or what if it doesn't last? oh no!!!! yes, I became paranoid...
But the wedding was fabulous and weddings are grand and pretty sweet when they do work and people end up living together happily married and die at age 98 in bed together. hopefully some couples like that will come out of our generation. Here are some pictures of the wedding.



Chris went in for the kiss and I think he might have thought it too short so he kept on going in for more...like 5 more times. Atta boy.
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My brother is a stud

So Garth is back speaking in the DTS Corporate week. For this I am happy. I haven't seen him since April. I guess thats not that long ago but when you realize your brother is a full time missionary in Cambodia, its a reality check you prolly won't see him often in the next oh..upcoming decades. So the week he's here, I'll cherish.
He's speaking on Missions. He got me thinking. 87% of all missionaries are located in 'reached' areas. Where are the missionaries to the unreached? No one is going to the hard places. I dont know. Just a sad statistic and also a reality. I'm so blessed to have a brother who is dedicated to the hard places. Who's given up everything (really...he has) and is passionate about living the ways of Jesus. I think so many people look at my brother and think, "youre intense and crazy...calm down" but I wouldn't want him to change a bit. I only hope I can be half the man (woman in my case) that he is. God is good. Taking a drug addict/alcoholic and making him be someone who oozes Jesus. I am so blessed to be his sista.

Anyways,I'm heading home in the next few weeks. Weird. Kindof exciting and kinda strange. I really have absolutely zero to say right now, but I'm workin' in the office...got to kill some time.