Adaptations

This past week I got a chance to see parts of Texas that made me want to don my cowgirl hat, get myself a horse and drive some longhorn cattle out west. Did this midwestern girl, gone urban chicago, just really say that she wanted to be a part of a cattle drive? Yes, she did. :) If anything, these past two months have taught me how to appreciate many different ways of living life. Now, I didn't say that I'm going to turn Texan, there is too much Yankee in me to go native southerner, but I can at least appreciate all this southern hospitality and let it rub off on me a bit. And you know, it really is easier to just say ya'll instead of you all or you guys. :)

Okay, now I need some help from all of you who read my blogs. I want to paint some walls in my house but I'm still trying to figure out the colors. Got any ideas? I'm open for creativity here!

Life has certainly been interesting for me lately. I've been here for almost 3 months now and I'm still trying to settle down. I don't think there has been two weeks that have looked the same since I've arrived here, which makes it hard to really have a schedule or to know what to expect. On the positive side though it helps me to live for the day instead of living for planning the following weeks. I've also realized how much I have to learn, but I don't see there being any better place for me to learn than right where I am, working with the people God has placed me among. In some ways I feel myself resisting some things because they seem different or aren't the way I've seen them done before and right there I see that I have some work to do in my mind set. That was the very thing that all my profs both in undergrad and graduate school taught us to be aware of. Being ethnocentric-thinking our way is better than the way of the certain culture you are working among. It's so easy to enter into a situation and do what I've done or seen done before without really looking at the people and the culture of the area and asking the question: "how will the gospel of Jesus Christ be effectively proclaimed and demonstrated here?" And the answers could and will look different from the ways I've done it before. A lot of lessons in adaptation. Adapting to the climate. The pace of life. The value system. The Bible belt. Recreational activities. Lack of good coffee shops ;). Social and political structures. Communication styles. Ministry styles...and many more!
All of this makes me certain that I am right where I am meant to be.

Oh Ike!

Well finally I am able to put up some pictures from Hurricane Ike.
Here we have the tree resting quite nicely on the side of my house. Now in the pictures it looks as if the tree is actually sticking into the house, but it's really not.

this is just a few days later after our great great team of guys cut down the tree and then began to repair the roof. I was back in my house a few days later. And my house is back to it's old new self. Oh the exciting life of East Texas. Haha, what's next???!!!!