I’m amazed sometimes by how the right song will play just when I need to hear it – you know? Like at the end of a really tough day, when I’m having a really hard time believing that God is in control of every aspect of my life, and that he really does have a plan for me, to ‘prosper me and not to harm me’ – and then I get in the car and Alison Krauss is singing this song, and it’s like what my heart would be singing, if my heart sounded like Alison’s beautiful voice. Even if the song is talking about all the hard times, and maybe by comparison, I’ve had a pretty easy life – there are still things that make me doubt God in the very secret places of my soul, and sometimes crying out to God to ‘help my unbelief’ is about all I can do.
I’ve seen hard times and I’ve been told
There isn’t any wonder that I fall
Why do we suffer, crossing off the years
There must be a reason for it all
I’ve trusted in You, Jesus, to save me from my sin
Heaven is the place I call my home
But I keep on getting caught up in this world I’m living in
And Your voice it sometimes fades before I know
Hurtin’ brings my heart to You, crying with my need
Depending on Your love to carry me
The love that shed His blood for all the world to see
This must be the reason for it all
Hurtin’ brings my heart to You, a fortress in the storm
When what I wrap my heart around is gone
I give my heart so easily to the ruler of this world
When the one who loves me most will give me all
In all the things that cause me pain You give me eyes to see
I do believe but help my unbelief
I’ve seen hard times and I’ve been told
There is a reason for it all
I’m on call this weekend for the sexual assault crisis line run by Family Services here in Winston – I haven’t really talked about this on here, so I figured I’d let y’all know what’s going on. I’ve been trained as a volunteer to deal with crisis calls/situations, mostly those involving domestic violence or sexual assault/abuse – I did something similar for a hotline in college, but it’s been a while since then, so now that a good friend is actually heading up the program here in town, I figured it was a good time to get back into it. These crisis situations always pull on my heartstrings so much, and this at least makes it seem that I’m helping out in some way. Especially as a women, and one who has had several friends affected by sexual/domestic violence in some way, the apathy towards victims of these kinds of crimes is infuriating, so this at least feels like a step in the right direction.
So I’ve been ‘on call’ a couple weekends now, and been a back-up person a couple times – normally, since I’m working the sexual assualt line, it’s the hospital alerting us that we need to come in to be with a victim through an exam. However, the line does sometimes get calls from people who have suffered some kind of sexual/domestic assault/abuse at some point in their lives, as it did tonight, when I had to handle my first call. It went fairly well, and I think I was able to answer most of her concerns and give her some resources to help her deal with her situation. But it’s got me all on-edge now, especially since I have the phone the rest of the weekend…
So if think of it, please say a prayer for me this weekend, that I’ll have the right words at the right time, that I’ll know when to stay silent, that I’ll be able to communicate compassion and support for any victims that I encounter if I have to go to the hospital, that I’ll have peace about the whole thing. Thanks!
In honor of Father’s Day, I’d like to attempt to summarize why I love my dad.
I love that he has a real heart for missions, to bring the world closer to Christ, not only by speaking the words of evangelism, but also by working alongside people trying the make the world a better place for orphaned kids in Kenya for example; this is his living testimony, and evidence of the fact that he believes that his actions can show Christ’s love to people in need.
I love that he cares about mercy ministry, that he sees need in people’s lives and responds to that need; that, again, he sees this caring for people as a powerful witness of Christ’s love.
I love that he was willing to base our decision for our dinner plans celebrating Father’s Day to accomodate my new food choices.
I love that I can go to him with any kind of problem and know that I’ll get good advice and a sympathetic ear.
I love that he’s confident enough in his masculinity to show emotions at really sad points in life, when crying is definitely warranted.
I love that he worked hard to allow us to have Mom stay at home to homeschool us.
I love that he’s a better cook than I’ll probably ever be 
I love that he considers macaroni and cheese to be a vegetable, as do all the good down-home southern cooking family restaurants around us.
I love so many more things, some of which I can’t even put into words – but for everything, I am thankful, not for a perfect Dad, but for the love of a Dad who can point me towards knowing that the love of the Perfect Father must be even better than the great Dad I get here on earth.
I don’t have time for a real post, but here are some pictures from the shower a couple weeks ago – complete with several of baby Aria
I’m heading home tonight to celebrate Mother’s/Father’s Day this weekend (cause Dad was in Africa for Mother’s Day) – should be a good time with the family, and a nice break after a very long, stressful week at work!
So it’s time to tell you about the weekend – which was a ton of fun, depite the busy-ness of it all
~ Both cookouts were a lot of fun (the food was a hit too, which makes me feel so much better), good times to hang out with people I like spending time with (mostly ), and I finally got to see/hold my classmate Jerry’s baby girl – his wife is looking great after just 3 weeks, and they’re both really happy, if extremely tired! It’s always a little wierd to sit around with people who are essentially superiors and watch them drink beer and hang out with friends like they’re, gasp, normal people! Wierd, but fun.
~ The wedding shower on Sunday went really well, bride and groom seemed very happy and it was again nice to see old friends again (plus some serious face time with baby Aria, who loves balloons and all animals, both of which were in abundance at the shower!). We had plenty of food, the house was beautiful, and most of the games were pretty fun – everybody kinda knew most everybody else, so we didn’t really need many ‘get to know people’ games, which was great – got to focus more on the bride and groom, and those games were more fun! Once I retrieve my camera from the bride’s mom (it got passed around between guests who took pics, I don’t think I took more than two or three pictures), I’ll try to post a couple.
~ Back to Winston Sunday evening so I could work most of the day Monday – got to play cards and hang out with friends Sunday night when I got back though, which was nice and relaxing after a hectic weekend – plus Becky and I are UNSTOPPABLE at spades!!!! (well, until we play Rich and Charles in the future…)
~ Concert time! I met Mike and Kari in Archdale (check that off my list of places I’ve now been in NC) and we drove down to Charlotte to meet up with Sarah and Brandon, Sarah’s friend Rachel, Geof and Daniel at The Penguin, a little hole-in-the-wall kinda place that served fried pickles (FRIED PICKLES, Kari!) along with other culinary delights – good times were had by all, despite some mishaps involving the men’s bathroom and yours truly… anyway, moving on… the concert was great, really awesome seeing Over the Rhine live (Karin’s voice is WAY more powerful/emotional live than recorded) – they didn’t sing my absolute favorite songs from their existing albums, but my 3 or 4 favorites from the show are all new and going to be on their upcoming album – score! The band that played after OtR (HEM) was good, but way too mellow to listen to for long at that time of night (about 11/11:15pm), so we left a little early and headed back up to Winston – thanks to Mike for driving us (Kari slept a little on the way back) – they’re now one of my favorite couples
So I’m now mostly caught up – various other things have been going on – I met with the guy who leads my Bible study and we got to talk about some stuff that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, specifically stuff about women in the church… I’m in the middle of reading a book compiled by John Piper and Wayne Grudem about it, so maybe I’ll post more once I sort out what I think about it all…
). But it was nice to see a bunch of the ‘radio people’ on the big screen (Sue Scott and Tim Russell, plus the Guys AllStar Shoe Band and the Sound Effects Guy) mixed in with all the Hollywood celebs.