weekend reading.

a few blog posts/articles caught my attention recently and i can't seem to stop thinking about them, so i wanted to share them on here so you could think about them, too.

grab another cup of coffee and enjoy.

rain down revival
beth moore

"I'm tired of giving God an inch and expecting a mile. I want to go with Him wherever He's going."

when you're done with pundits, soul wrestling & looking at the sky: {25 things i learned from staying with katie davis}
ann voskamp

"Our actual theology is best expressed in our actual hospitality. // And I don't mean that hospitality is one quaint ministry for those good in the kitchen and keeping their house picked up. Hospitality isn't for the good housekeepers -- it's the grid of life for anyone keeping company with Christ. Hospitality is meant to shape our churches and politics, our work and our schools, our home and our faith and our schedules and our meals and our lives."

get ready for all those babies
and the follow-up, revisiting "all those babies"
marv knox, editor, the baptist standard

"If Texas' conservative moral values prompt our state to implement one of the nation's most stringent abortion codes, then we should accept the responsibility for all those babies we will bring into the world. We need to do right by them."

and because all of those are quite heavy, here's something to make you laugh...

happy weekend!

ways you can help.

we are still reeling from monday's tornado and the complete devastation just a few miles away from us. much of our spare time and energy this week has gone into figuring out how we as individuals and we as a church can help our neighbors to the north. most needs are very immediate at this point, changing daily, even hourly, but for now, here are a few ways you can help...

donate money & materials.
giving money may seemingly be the least fun way to help, but let's be honest, it can often be the most effective. especially in the early days, like right now, dollars are desperately needed.

our church has set up a disaster relief fund. we'd be honored for you to give to it and allow us to steward your resources. we're committed to serving moore for the long haul however we can, but a few of the specific needs we'll be focused on include:

• andrew burkhart and his family, who lost their house and everything they own. andrew is the pastor of love & justice, an acts 29 church in moore, and serves on our board of advisors (functions as an elder board until we have one in place).
• love & justice, as they serve the people and needs in their neighborhood. they also have a relief fund set up that you can give to here. 
• chick-fil-a of moore, as they serve their community and team members in need. a couple at our church owns this chick-fil-a and they've already done a fantastic job of assessing the needs of their team members and serving up their delicious chicken to volunteers and families in moore.

if you're interested in donating materials (like holding a drive or collecting items and shipping them this way), let me know and we'll coordinate with the right people. the materials most frequently requested are baby items (formula, toddler food, diapers, wipes), medical/hygiene items (gauze, bandages, neosporin, shampoo, soap), and work items (gloves, trash bags, sunscreen, bug spray, duct tape, flashlights, tarps). journey church is the main drop-off/distribution site in norman, and they're great at keeping their list updated with the most immediate needs, so you might check there as well.

volunteer.
if you're interested in rolling your sleeves up and volunteering in moore (whether you're local or coming in from out of town), i would highly recommend connecting with @servemooreok. it's being led by frontline church in okc and functioning as the hub of several churches in the area (including ours!) coming together to serve moore. their website is continuously updated with needs. be sure to check it out!

also, if you and some friends need a place to stay, let us know! if you have a team coming, check with fbc norman. they're hosting teams in their family life center.

buy a t-shirt.
this is the most fun and easiest way to help. there are tons of shirts being made right now, so here are my three favorite. ALL of the proceeds from these t-shirt sales will be donated to relief efforts. you can never have too many t-shirts, so just go ahead and add one of these to your collection!

this shirt is being sold by touies design, a small business run by one of my friends from syrup. (fun fact: she designed our christmas card!) super cute shirt. buy yours here!

this shirt is from shopgood, a fun little local business in the heart of okc. the best part about their store is that every single item is socially responsible, fairly traded, and connected to a local or international community development project. so great, right?! get their shirt here!

a friend's coworker at old hat designed this shirt. it comes in several different color combinations, so pick your favorite and buy one here!

//

again, thank you to everyone who has been checking on us and asking how to help. please continue to pray for those affected by the storm and for those volunteering in the recovery!

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." -- psalm 46.1

an idea whose time has come.

the last two work weeks have taken me to dallas, okc, and nashville. it's been a nice break from my working from home routine, but definitely a whirlwind. 

my favorite part of the last two weeks has been that my worlds have completely collided. at almost all of these different events, i've rotated between my buckner hat, my prov road hat, and my cara jane hat (is that a thing?). for example, a couple thursdays ago, i went to a foster care forum in okc where i learned a ton about foster care in general for my job, but also learned how our church can be a part of what God is doing through his people in oklahoma to care for kids that need families.

it was incredible to see government officials, CEOs, foster care agencies, community members, and church leaders come together to discuss the future of foster care in oklahoma. if you're at all interested in this conversation, i highly recommend following @BenNockels and @111Project and reading more about the #fosterforum on twitter. they closed the day with a quote i thought could not have been more appropriate:

"There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo

then, last week i attended the christian alliance for orphan's annual summit conference in nashville. if you've never heard of it, it's definitely a conference you should look into if you're at all interested in orphan care. they had a whole slew of incredible speakers and workshop leaders, from david platt to steven curtis chapman to u.s. congresswomen to foster parents and adoptees. catch up on #summit9 on twitter.

i was there for work, but again, i took away a lot of helpful information for our church, too. our church isn't very big at all, but we already have several couples pursuing or interested in pursuing foster care and/or adoption -- like 10 or 12 out of our close to 60 people! we're trying to figure out what it looks like to love these couples well and support them on their journey.

at some point between all the workshops and networking and coffee breaks and exhibit hall-ing at the conference last week, i stopped long enough for the realization to hit me square between the eyeballs -- i get paid to do something i am crazy passionate about, and that is so incredibly rare. i was suddenly filled with an immense amount of gratitude. all i could do in the next session was cry my little eyes out during worship. i was just so overwhelmed by the fact that i was in a room with 3000 people whose hearts burst for the fatherless, and all of us were singing together lines like, "the fatherless find their rest at the sound of your great name"... and as if that wasn't unbelievable enough, i was getting paid to be there. it's my job to get these passionate people started on their journey of foster care or adoption. what a GIFT!

even better than all of that, i was reminded countless times through these events over the last two weeks of the reason why we do what we do and care about what we care about ("we" meaning the bristers, buckner, prov road, christians...). david platt said it this way at summit:

we advocate for the fatherless because we understand that while we were still sinners, outsiders, orphans, christ died for us and made a way for us to be adopted into his family. we care about foster care and adoption because we realize we ourselves were once chosen, rescued, brought in, and called his own. it's the most beautiful story of unconditional love and inexplicable grace -- and to think he calls us to demonstrate and declare this story to the world! 

"My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us -- perfect love! ... First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first."

-- 1 John 4:11-12, 19

noonday & fair trade.

attention all females or anyone with any female on your christmas list -- this post is for you.

i have recently fallen in love with this jewelry/housewares/accessories line (thanks, abby) and i can't wait for you to fall in love with them, too.

let me introduce you to noonday collection:

is your heart not FREAKING OUT?!? you can empower women around the world and look super cute doing it! if you're going to spend money this month (which you are), you might as well change the world while you're at it. 

on that note, i'm trying to be super conscious these days about where our money goes -- not necessarily in a budget way (sorry, chris) but in a "who really gets this money?" way. i'm realizing most of the clothes and products we buy are at the expense (not profit) of people (sometimes children) overseas. not okay, y'all. 

i'm only a recent passenger on the fair trade train, so you should read these posts from others who are much more knowledgable on the subject:

jen hatmaker: the christmas conundrum

katy rose (a friend of mine here in norman): traditions in gift giving

kristen howerton (this one's about chocolate at halloween, but same general idea): the inconvenient truth...

it's a bandwagon worth hopping on (did i just mix metaphors there?), so i hope you'll join me in taking baby steps toward fair trade this christmas season.

"and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday."

-- isaiah 58.10

do you know of other fair trade products or other posts about the necessity of fair trade? please share them in the comments section!

national adoption day.

did you know that november is national adoption month? probably. did you know that today is national adoption day? i just learned that! anyway, if you know me at all, you know that everything about adoption makes my heart freak out. i don't think i can read/watch an adoption story with dry eyes... and i'm hoping chris and i will one day have an adoption story of our own!

all of that to get to this -- i read an article from buckner about national adoption month, which led me to this video of francis chan discussing why believers should be about adoption. i just love the way he describes it -- so clearly and so passionately. it's only 2 minutes long, so you have no reason not to watch it -- enjoy!

Francis Chan For Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

i love the olympics.

i'm already having olympic withdrawals. the husband and i literally watched olympic coverage every single day it was on -- and most nights (missing only 2 i think) we watched all four hours of prime time coverage. i have no idea what we're going to do tonight without bob costas and his way-too-dark hair... and jen hatmaker's hilarious twitter commentary... and nbc's back stories that rip my heart out and make me cheer for people even if they aren't on team usa. i just LOVE the olympics.

how can you not love these people?!

the fab five (or fierce five? whatev.) won team gold -- being only the second american team to do so (and if you don't know that the magnificent seven of '96 won the first one, i'm not sure if we're friends) -- not to mention that they picked up medals in the all-around (get it, gabs) and individual events, too. i may or may not follow all five of them on twitter now.

missy franklin DOMINATED the pool. she seemed so genuinely humble and excited every time she won. i love that this girl would rather swim for her high school team than turn pro.

then for week 2, we turned to the track, and it was game over for china's medal count. i became such a fan of allyson felix. she never missed an opportunity to be super open about her faith and source of strength -- which would've been cool no matter what, but was even more cool since she set a world record and walked away with three gold medals.

i could easily go on, but i'll stop there since those were my stand out favorites. so i'll ask it again -- how can you not love these people?! here's the answer -- you can't. you can't not love them (sorry, grandmother, for the double negative). and that, my friends, is why i love the olympics.

i love the beautiful shows and the incredible displays of talent. i love when a tiny country like grenada wins their very first olympic medal. i love when records get broken and people cross the finish line with utter shock on their faces. i love, love, LOVE hearing the athletes' stories. but i think what i love most of all is the feeling that all of us are cheering for the same team.

think about it -- whether you went to chickfila on august 1st or not, you were cheering for gabby douglas in the all-around final. whether you think john calvin is a hero or a heretic, you were pulling for michael phelps to become the most decorated olympian of all time. whether you're a republican or a democrat, you were hoping for a miracle in the men's 4x100 relay. at the risk of sounding like a naive, airhead beauty pageant contestant wishing for world peace, i wish we could all cheer for the same team more often.

i realize congress will probably never agree on anything ever, but what about the church? i read this tertullian quote recently (thank you, @early_church): "what marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our loving kindness... they say, 'look how they love one another!'" i literally laughed when i read that on my twitter feed. i wonder what he would think of us now. i WISH people would describe us as a loving bunch. i WISH the random american would think of loving kindess when he thought of christians.

all of this to say, while watching the olympics this year, i realized how fun it is for all of us to be FOR the same thing. i'm so tired of the blog posts and tweets and status updates of people being against things. what if we all realized we're actually all on the same team? we're all hopefully on the same mission and working toward the same end, right? i think there's a lot of time and energy being wasted by christians being against other christians when we could all be for loving people that don't know the grace and mercy of jesus. i know, i know... i sound like the kid that says, "can't we all just get along?" ... but seriously, can't we?

big news & a big request.

it's a big week at the brister house (ehh... apartment). aside from literally never turning off the olympics and developing a possibly unhealthy obsession with team usa's fab five, we've been busy with some new things we want to fill y'all in on.

1. today marks 10 MONTHS since we said our "I Dos." double digits, baby! i seriously can't believe we're so close to the one year mark. these months have flown. (okay, okay, this isn't really a new thing, but i couldn't help myself.)

photo credit: whenitclicks

2. i started a new part-time job yesterday! yeah employment! i'll be writing and editing for an international sports ministry called uttermost sports. i'm excited to use those skills and to feel like i'm doing something with an international flare to it (if you know me, you know i need that).

and finally... drumroll please....

3. chris and i are officially starting part-time with providence road today! to say we're excited would be an understatement. we'll be developing the college ministry, organizing the "for the city" work, maintaining the social media accounts, and helping with the administrative/organizational side of things. yeah!!

we've been raising support since may in order for us to be able to come on as part-time staff at prov road, and we're close to our goal, but not quite there yet. would you consider helping us reach our goal? whether you're able to give $10 or $100, any and everything will be GREATLY appreciated!! you can do a one-time or monthly gift; you can give online or mail in a check. seriously, every little bit helps!

to give online, click here, fill out the super easy form, then LET ME KNOW so that i can make sure it gets designated for our account. to mail a check, please contact me and i'll give you an address (sorry, i didn't feel comfortable posting it on here). to contact me, you can leave a comment on this post, send me a facebook message, or DM me on twitter (@cjbrister). thank you for considering supporting us and our ministry in this way!

"I thank my God for your fellowship --

your sympathetic cooperation, contributions, and partnership --

in advancing the good news -- the Gospel..."

-- philippians 1.5 (amp)

reminders from romans.

love from the center of who you are;

don't fake it.

run for dear life from evil;

hold on for dear life to good.

be good friends who love deeply;

practice playing second fiddle.

don't burn out;

keep yourselves fueled and aflame.

be alert servants of the Master;

cheerfully expectant.

don't quit in hard times;

pray all the harder.

help needy christians;

be inventive in hospitality...

discover beauty in everyone.

-- romans 12.9-13, 17 (the message)

i've always liked this passage, and i'm currently struck by eugene peterson's interpretation of it. sometimes the christian life can seem complicated, theology can get wordy and confusing, and doing ministry and mission can mean lots of planning/strategizing/meeting. all of that to say, the simplicity and beauty of this passage are a refreshing reminder of how good it is to love God and love people. 

happy friday, everyone!

introverts in the church.

i like chocolate; chris likes vanilla.
i like to eat healthy; chris could eat fast food every day.
i don't know what i'm doing this afternoon; chris has 5- and 10-year plans.
i like to try new things; chris is a creature of habit.

i could literally keep going for pages and pages. it's outrageous how different we are on almost everything. i think it's our biggest strength as a team, because we balance each other out, but it also causes most of our struggles, because figuring out how to live with someone so opposite of you isn't always easy.

many of our differences can be summed up in this sentence: i am an extrovert; chris is an introvert. we are seriously fascinated and baffled by each other's personalities, because they're so unlike our own. i'm always on the lookout for insights into introversion, trying to understand it better and trying to learn how to love my husband well. so when chris recently read a book entitled Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture, i was eager to get my hands on it as soon as he finished.

i 100% think you should read this book if you either are an introvert or if you're married to an introvert... and i absolutely think that EVERYONE in christian ministry should read it -- introvert or not. chris found incredible freedom through this book, and i gained immense insight into his world.

i had never realized how extroverted in nature the american evangelical church is. we value doers over thinkers, talking over listening, community over solitude, and outward expressions of emotion over internal processing. look at a typical worship service -- we're all about the meet and greet time (which makes introverts' skin crawl), but when is the last time you went to a service that held silence for a significant amount of time? the extrovert in me is uncomfortable just thinking about that!

one of the areas in which this bias is most obvious is leadership. think about it: when you think of the ideal pastor (or youth minister or whatever), what qualities do you think of? it's probably someone who has charisma, is gregarious, has a magnetic personality, and can work a room. but what about someone who is consistent, disciplined, fiercely loyal in relationships, loves to study, and doesn't mind if his work goes unnoticed? whether in leadership or in life, there are SO many introvert qualities that we extroverts would do well to learn from, and at the very least, appreciate. a few examples: listening (in conversations and in prayer), regularly practicing silence and solitude, thinking before responding to conflict rather than reacting, doing a few things well rather than spreading ourselves too thin, serving behind-the-scenes rather than wanting attention... and the list goes on.

obviously, the world needs both extroverts and introverts -- and the church most certainly needs both. a healthy church would be one that recognizes, values, and utilizes the gifts and strengths of both, a church that evaluates its leaders based on faithfulness to calling rather than personality type. as mchugh writes, "When introverts and extroverts are mutually celebrated, not only in word but also in practice, both the depth of the church's ministry and the breadth of her witness are enhanced." yes please!!

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if you're interested in learning more about this introvert/extrovert conversation (in our culture in general, not specifically in the context of the church), then PLEASE check out this ted talk. it's fantastic and absolutely worth 19 minutes of your time. enjoy.

what is a missional church?

it's funny how you can spend three years studying something and still have a hard time describing it. my concentration in seminary was "missions and world christianity," so i literally spent three years talking about mission. i even took a class called "the missional church" (which was my favorite class in seminary), but now that i'm out of the classroom and actually trying to build and be a part of a "missional church," it's kinda hard to figure out what it's supposed to look like.

in the english language, the word "love" has become quasi-meaningless. for example, i love my husband, but i also love cookie cake -- same word, very different meaning. if a word means everything, it essentially means nothing. the same thing has happened with the word "missional" in christian circles. in fact, i was at a conference a couple weeks ago when steve timmis stood up and said, "missional has become a crap word. we just need to throw it in the garbage." (now go back and read that in a british accent like his -- i've never heard the word "crap" sound so intellectual.)

i recently stumbled upon a couple of videos that i think are helpful in describing what it means to be a missional church. they're not perfect, obviously, but i love how simple and concise the first one is, and i love how brilliant and matter-of-fact alan hirsch is in the second one (it's a clip from his talk at the verge conference in february).

i want to highlight EVERYTHING he says, but these are my favorite:

"damned if we're not all sent! every christian is a sent one."

"a missional church allows missiology to determine ecclesiology."

"it's not so much that the church has a mission, it's that the mission of God has a church."

i realize i'm not so much offering an answer, just more voices in the conversation, but hey, at least it's a start at sorting through the "missional" jargon.

college town life.

chris and i moved to norman for the purpose of helping plant a church. we serve in several different ways (as everyone does at this early stage of the church plant), but at the end of the day, we want to focus on college ministry here. we really want to meet and love college students well.

so, for the 5 months that we've lived here, we've been brainstorming different ways to meet the 30,000 students at OU. wow. that can be super overwhelming at times... and by "at times," i mean, MOST of the time. but... good news, friends. we're taking baby steps. i feel like in the last few weeks especially, we've found fun, easy ways to be around college students.

we go for lots of walks on campus (which usually include the stadium, of course)...

we've gone to the free student night at the art museum (featuring their new disney exhibit!)...

we've gone to the real library...

and the more fun library...

we've gone to the men's gymnastics meet (they're #1 in the nation and one of them is going to the olympics!)...

we've run into trouble with the campus parking people (why are they terrible at every college? auburn, baylor, now ou)...

and last but certainly not least, we went to free pancake night at ihop for national pancake day -- where we were surrounded by poor college students.

okay, i know that was a lot, but aren't college towns just the best? we love it. thankfully, we've been more encouraged than overwhelmed recently, but those overwhelming feelings are frequent companions! pray for us as we keep trying to meet students here -- pray that god will provide opportunities and conversations for us. and for those of you who have done the college ministry gig before, we are certainly open to ideas!!

contextualization.

"Mission consists in incarnating Christ in the given time and place, allowing him to be reborn in the given lifeway. A true Christian is but another 'Christ.' The all-important question that faces the Church and all engaged in mission action, be it in a ministry or in witnessing one's faith, is, What would Jesus teach and how would he behave if he were born today, say in Japan, Brazil, Kenya, or for that matter, in my home parish in London, Paris, Rome, Bonn, or Washington -- not two thousand years ago but today here and now? Contextualization is the process by which a local Christian community integrates the Gospel message (the 'text') with the real-life context, blending text and context into that single, God-intended reality called 'Christian living.' By 'Christian living' we mean living as Christ would live here and now -- that is, as he would behave, what he would teach here and now, and what his values and emotions, his underlying premises, attitudes, and drives would be if he belonged to the particular community we are dealing with."

-- Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures

chris and i moved to norman for the purpose of helping plant a new church, providence road. we are very much trying to view ourselves as missionaries here -- just as if we had moved to asia or africa or something. you may think that sounds crazy since oklahoma is in the southern part of america, but 80-85% of normanites are not involved in church -- that's about 92,000 people!

so... a huge aspect of mission must be contextualization. as luzbetak explains above (yes i busted out an old seminary textbook for this one), contextualization involves incarnating christ in your culture, integrating the gospel message with your given context. how would jesus christ live in norman in 2012? how can two texans who didn't attend the university of oklahoma reach the people of norman with the gospel? these are our questions. maybe pictures will help explain our answers.

a good example of contextualization:

an OU football ornament on our first christmas tree.

a bad example of contextualization:

cheering for the opposing team at an OU basketball game. oops. sic 'em bears.

okay so clearly we're still learning here... pray for us!

oaxaca.

i just got back from spending a few days in oaxaca, mexico on a buckner international trip. the group was made up of some incredible women who love to laugh and love to love on children. it was a BLAST. here are all the mother/daughter duos:

and, of course, my favorite mother/daughter duo:

buckner mexico is doing great work. they have multiple community transformation centers, feeding programs, and orphan homes. they're also helping families provide for themselves by giving them chicken coops and greenhouses and teaching them the skills to operate these things. it was pretty amazing to see. our time was mostly spent seeing the ministries, but also participating in them. we helped with the feeding programs, then did some crafts and stories to teach hygiene skills to the moms and children at the community transformation centers. i could post 100 pictures of the beautiful children there, but this girl might have been my favorite little cutie:

oh and did i mention that we got to see the biggest tree in the world?!? if you know me, you know i love trees, so of course i loved it. this thing was HUGE! this is all the same tree:

and finally, last night i returned home to my sweet husband who was apparently MISERABLE without me (just as he should've been, right?). i've been finding little notes all over the apartment this morning -- pitiful, but absolutely adorable.

thankful for another great trip. thankful for good time with my mom and sweet friends. thankful to see god at work in oaxaca, mexico, and to be reminded of his missionary nature and his unfathomable love and care for the orphans of this world.

glimpse.

i hope this video that my brother made gives you a little glimpse into our time in ethiopia. i love the songs that he used. enjoy!

Ethiopia 2010 from Drew Crowson on Vimeo.

faces.

after 24 hours of flying, we made it back to texas last night. it's good to be home, but i can't get these sweet faces out of my mind:

aren't they just absolutely beautiful?!

more thoughts from the trip to come...

christmas in ethiopia.

i'm leaving today on a buckner trip to ethiopia with a team of about 20 people. pray for us as we love on the sweet children there. pray for health and safety for the team. pray that we experience god in a new way and gain a freshunderstanding of who he is and how he is at work in this world.

three reasons why i'm really excited about this trip:

1. traveling with my entire family. mom's been dreaming of this for years, so we're pretty pumped that it's finally happening. unfortunately, teri's sta

ying home, but it's because she's PREGNANT! i hate that she can't come, but i love that she's carrying the newest little baby crowson. i couldn't love these people more:

2. 10 days in a row with chris! we've been dating long distance for 10 months, and the longest we've ever been together is about 4-5 days, so i can't even fathom getting to see him 10 days in a row! his mom, sister, and brother-in-law are going on the trip too--how fun is that?--so

hopefully they can survive 10 days with my family and the fbc longview crew.

3. getting to see this sweet face. her name is tigist and she's in the school at bantu where we're working all week. she's the cutest and i can't wait to see her again.

lots more reasons, but those are the top 3...

merry christmas!!! thanks for your prayers!

how was india?

i've been asked this question countless times in the last few weeks, and i've learned that it's absolutely impossible to answer well. i can't believe i've been back in the states for 2 1/2 weeks. part of me feels like these weeks have flown by, but part of me feels like india was 3 months ago. sometimes i even get that--did i really even go to india?--feeling. dr. stroope warned us that we might get that feeling, but i didn't want to believe him. i guess he was right. again.

i've recently been going through my journal from india over and over again trying to make myself remember different things i felt, experienced, and learned while i was there. there are some issues that are much more absolute to me now than they were before the trip, but there are other issues that have developed into even bigger and broader questions. i think i'll make a list (no one's surprised). obviously it won't be exhaustive--just a few things i'm thinking about and would love for you to think about too...

• living a lifestyle of spiritual devotion--not legalism, but discipline.
• seeking spiritual sensitivity.
• grasping the absolute necessity of prayer and scripture.
• living more simply.
• living slowly.
• recognizing jesus as the only way.
• knowing that jesus is enough.
• understanding who i am in light of who he is.
• recognizing his providence and grace.
• living with my hands open--i am entitled to nothing--everything is a gift.
• seeing people as stories.
• knowing my role as a witness.
• asking questions of gospel, conversion, salvation, mission.
• questioning my questions--am i asking arrogantly or humbly?

in mark 5, after jesus healed a demon-possessed man, the man--of course--wanted to follow him. instead of letting the man stay with him, jesus said to him, "go home to your friends and tell them how much the lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

when i get asked the token "how was india?" question, i love to talk about the colors, the smells, the food, the clothes, the people, and the culture of india... but maybe--like the demon-possessed man--my role is to declare god's mercy and faithfulness in my life.

agra and delhi.

before i can write about agra, i have to write about our train experience from varanasi to agra. our train was delayed, so we ended up hanging out on the train platform at the varanasi station for about 3 hours. i can't put into words how hot, sticky, and exhausted we all were. this place was literally the very bottom of the well. we all hit our absolute lowest point of the whole trip. there were fleas literally flying around the beggar children.... rats crawling all over the train tracks.... the most raunchy stench ever coming off of the tracks.... it was definitely the dirtiest and most unsafe i've felt the whole trip.

but good news: we made it. the funny thing is that agra is the most touristy city in india, so we wasted no time crawling up out of that well. we checked into a nice hotel (finally!!) and spent the afternoon touring around the TAJ MAHAL!!!! quite a contrast between the varanasi train station and the taj. there's a reason it's one of the seven wonders of the world....it's absolutely beautiful! the architecture is incredible...so extravagant, but so much attention to intricate detail. so of course we had a photo shoot....but not just with our team--indian men were literally lining up to take pictures with us girls. hilarious.

another highlight from agra was our team meeting yesterday morning. we've taken turns sharing our life stories, and yesterday was finally dr. stroope's turn. that man never fails to challenge and inspire me. after he shared, we took communion together--with naan (indian bread) and limca (an indian sprite-ish soda). it was such a sweet time of serving one another and talking about the suffering and death we'd seen around us in india, the suffering and death christ went through on the cross, and the suffering and death we're called to as his followers.

after a long bus ride yesterday afternoon, we made it to our last stop on the trip--delhi. today we went to a sikh temple, a bahai house of worship, and the place where ghandi was killed. super interesting stuff. tomorrow we're spending time with some of dr. stroope's friends that live here in delhi and do life with hindus. i'm eager to learn from them and excited about the MEXICAN FOOD that they're cooking for us!

late tomorrow night we'll head to the airport and end this journey through india. i can't believe it's almost over. our travel home will be about 24 hours total. crazy! please pray for safety and no delays.

delhi to hong kong to san francisco to dfw.....to birmingham. for those of you going to the hardekopf/hefner wedding this weekend, just know that i can't wait to see you.

varanasi. the holy city.

i can't really explain varanasi to you. this place is so surreal. it's the holiest city of hinduism. the ganges river is the holy water, the lifeblood of the city. hindus come from all over to worship in the ganges. good news: our hotel is literally right on the ganges, so we've gotten an up-close view of all the madness. a couple of times we've taken a boat out on the ganges to see it all from that perspective. the river is where life happens for these people. it's where the sacred and the secular intersect. people are bathing, brushing their teeth, washing their clothes, and performing worship rituals all right there next to each other. so crazy! last night we went to an arti, a worship celebration to the ganges. you can't even begin to fathom the number of people there. it was like a carnival--bells ringing, music playing, people selling things, beggars everywhere, holy men who look like they're dressed up in costumes.... it was sensory overload. so much to take in.

this city is also a big deal for buddhism. today we went out to the tree where buddha received his enlightenment....like where buddhism began. what?! pretty crazy.

on wednesday night, we met with one of stroope's friends, swammi. our time with him was worth the entire trip to india. he's a hindu christ-follower, and his perspective on what it means to follow jesus is absolutely fascinating. i was so challenged and inspired by him. i wish i had more time to go into more detail, but hopefully i can share more thoughts later.

stroope has been saying that this trip is like a journey into a well....and varanasi is the bottom of the well. it overwhelmed me at first, but now that we're about to leave, i think i can say that this has been my favorite city we've visited so far. there's just SO much going on here. so many people, so much devotion, so many stories....it's incredible.

tonight we have another overnight train experience...this time on our way to agra. tomorrow we'll see the taj mahal!!!! what in the world?! this country is amazing. can't wait to post pictures when i get back. i feel like my words fail at describing it.

thanks for your prayers. continue to pray for safety. pray that we'll maximize our last few days here. can't believe it's almost over!

just some thoughts.

quotes i've been thinking on:

"mission is the announcement of a fact. it is not the launching of a program. it is not the promulgation of a new doctrine. it is not a call to moral or religious reformation. it is, strictly speaking, a news-flash. something has happened. there is a new fact to be reckoned with. the kingdom, the reign of god, has come near." --lesslie newbigin.

"for not for this life and its concerns do we exist: this is only a pilgrimage, and its concerns are only for the temporary needs of the pilgrims. heaven is our country, hence our care should be about heavenly things." --john amos comenius.

"we have been created for greater things, to love and to be loved." --mother teresa.

things i will never get used to:

• dr. stroope eating with his hands.
• never ever ever not sweating.
• naked babies begging on the side of the road.
• massive amounts of street children.
• saying no to people asking for money or food.
• trash everywhere....i mean, literally everywhere.
• men peeing on the side of the road all the time.
• being stared at always.
• crazy traffic and psycho driving.
• elephants, camels, horses, donkeys, cows, dogs, cats.....everywhere. just hanging out in the middle of the street like they own the place...maybe because the cows actually do. the animals here are treated better than a lot of the people. terrible. oh but sidenote: i got to ride a camel on my last night in jaipur. yep. i freaked out.
  
• a BILLION people in this one country.
  
• favoring tea over coffee. no no no.
• no tex-mex.
  

questions i can't quit wrestling with:

• what is mission?
• what is the westerner's role in a place like this?
• what is the kingdom of god?
• what would it look like for the gospel to intersect this culture?
• is this way of life somehow ordered chaos or just a chaotic mess?
• do i love well? do i live with purpose?
• am i devoted to what i know is the truth even half as much as these people are devoted to golden calves, elephants, and handmade idols?
  
• do i really believe that god created every single one of these people?
• do i really believe that god loves every single one of these people?
• for someone who literally spends their entire life picking up trash and begging--what is their purpose? why where they created?
• is god going to save some of them?

just some thoughts. thanks for not thinking i'm crazy.

i can't come up with words to describe calcutta. the poverty here is so in-your-face, so intense, so unlike anything i've ever seen. seeing mother teresa's tomb and where she lived was kinda overwhelming for me. working in her house for disabled children is even more overwhelming. we're here until tuesday night when we'll take a train to varanasi. this trip is so unbelievable, but so good. thanks for your prayers.