Updates and Friendships

Let me tell you about today.
Mark...still sick but functioning.
Boone...we picked him up...only to have him throw up at the vet. So back to the vet again. He will most likely have to have surgery.
Mark leaves for Lamar, Aspen, Lamar, Kansas City, Lamar for the next week. He will make five trips before coming home.
I made it through my talk today...it wasn't as great as I wanted it to be, but it was ok. I did have our three college deans show up. It was pretty good to have them at the talk, they have funded my position full time starting next year.
I have replaced my student teacher. It wasn't pretty, but it is in the works.
This was not a great day, but I survived. It was crazy, but I survived. My life was a roller coaster today, but I survived. There are challenges, issues, sicknesses, and heartaches. We survive. I am profoundly aware of how this happens.
I ask for prayer. Even when I can't pray myself because I am so taken away, I ask. The amazing thing about friendships in Christ is that these sisters can "stand in your gap." They stand there when you can't possible think of praying. They act as a "human" mediator with our savior.
At the end of a crazy day, I am thankful. We are a little bruised, but we aren't broken. We are a little weary, but we aren't done.
Thank you Lord, for your presence, for your help, for your perseverence. Thank you Lord, for the amazing women that help me pray, that help stand in my gap when I can't pray adequately. Lord, thank you that the minute that I wrote my requests, they responded. They knew. Women with so much on their plate, cared for me, prayed for me.
Thank you for dear friendships. They are more valuable than gold.

Help!

Dear Friends,
I don't have great words of wisdom today - only a few requests. My heart is heavy and my spirit is a little nervous.
Our loveable black lab could not keep ANYTHING down yesterday, so he is in the vet hospital - on IV's.
Mark has had a bad bout with his stomach - (he gets this, although hasn't had it since March) and was curled up on the couch yesterday. It gets very painful and stops everything.
I have to give a presentation to the College of Ag Faculty today on Ag Ed. I am a bit nervous.
Mark leaves for a week tomorrow.
I have to remove a student teacher from their placement today and try to replace them.

This is a day full of challenges. Can you please help? I am never ashamed to ask for prayer. While it may seem selfish, I so believe in the power of prayer cover. So, my praying sisters. I could use a little faith today.
Bless you!
Kellie

Welcome Home

So, this last week I have been absent. I have been gone. I swear I have left my brain somewhere. I think I might have left it here, in Indianapolis, IN. This is our CSU student crew at our booth at the National FFA Convention. We spent three days needing a lot of antibacterial gel because we shook so many hands! We had a great time. I always enjoy being gone. I don't mind the travel (altough that was one bumpy ride going in) and I don't mind the craziness of preparing, planning and doing a trip. I am always so happy to be home, though. I have heard that home is where the heart is. I have heard there is no place like home. I wonder what it is about my crazy, dirty, chaotic home that I crave so much when I am away from it. Even yesterday, faced with another idiot move of mine when I realized I wouldn't be able to get home because my keys were in Indiana, I was problem solving how I could most quickly get home. Mark isn't home (although it is better to come home to him!). So what is it? Well, partly it is this. Cy (the cat) and Boone (the lab) have attached themselves to my heart. I am not a cat person. And Cy is an annoying cat. He doesn't usually want love, only when I am doing my bible study (here he is sitting on my bible) or when I need to work on my computer at home. Boone, on the other hand, is always needing love. How can you resist this face??? He is always happy to see me. Excited more than any 5 year old lab should be. It is just welcome to come home to those things we KNOW. That never change.

I packed my bible and my devotion and my journal for my trip. And I didn't touch it. I feel guilty over this. I didn't make time. I could have, but I didn't. But his morning when I woke up to a quiet and peaceful house, I felt the call to the scriptures again. The Lord whispered to me, Welcome Home, child, Welcome Home.

I want to be that woman that has it all together, that can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, value her husband, take immaculate care of the carpet, provide service to the needy, love unconditionally. But, home is where I can be just who I am, because what is here loves me regardless of how long it takes me to unpack my suitcases. And my heavenly home, my father, well he made me just as I am. He knew that I would disown him this week, not focus on him, not trust him. And yet, he loves me. He welcomes me when I return, hugs me and reminds me that I can do better next time. And then, one day, he will say to me, not through a whispering of the Spirit, but face to face...Welcome Home, Child, Welcome Home.

Lord, I pray that where ever people call home, that they know you and your presence and gain a peace of knowing there is NOTHING, no NOTHING, that we can do that will make you stop loving us. For those that are displaced from their homes today, or are moving homes today, or have no sense of home, will you call them? Won't you give them your peace and understanding? Won't you welcome them? Lord, help me to reach out to them. I love home, help me to provide that to those that need it. Help me to point to the best home today. Lord, make my home strong. Let it be an offering to you. Thank you for all you give me. I am unworthy, but I am so grateful. Amen.

Home....almost.

I have arrived home from Indianapolis...well, actually we were touching down and taxi-ing to the jetway when I realize that my two sets of keys (office, home, car) are in the rental car. In Indianapolis Airport Avis lot....Mark is in Bozeman and I am not sure what to do....
How can someone be such a space cadet...I swear (which I didn't and I wont but I would really like to). I guess my "perfectionist" tendencies are always under scrutiny and He is always reminding me that I am still, always a work in progress. But please, Lord, could you take away my idiotness?

Ahhhh, it's snowing!. I am imagining a snowswept landscape, hot chocolate, and a beautifully decorated home ready for the holidays. I smell chocolate chip cookies in the oven, and I imagine my husband and I snuggled up in front of the fire.
But alas, there is a pile of laundry, a ton of dog hair on the floor, a monstor application to finish so I can do my research and a "dish" to make for the chuch potluck today.
Well, one can dream, can't they?

Love Affair with a Tree

I cant get over this tree. I watch it change daily. I was saddened on Thursday to see that before it had fully changed colors the leaves have started to fall off. It is windy today, and we are to get get the first accumulating snowfall this weekend...I imagine that my pictures of this tree are almost over for the season. It gets battered and beat up in the weather and elements. I imagine after two days of wind and rain last weekend, it takes a big deep breath and says "whew, that was a doozy!" I imagine that this tree that gives me so much joy is also growing roots deeper and deeper, able to withstand the elements much more that when it was a newly planted sapling. This tree stores up nutrients. It goes dormant and then rejuvenates again with the buds of spring leaves. Animals find refuge in this tree. It changes, it evolves.

We are a lot like this tree. We are all changing. Maybe your week was full of travel, maybe it was full of trying to balance a family and a full-time job, maybe it was full of stressing over a "proposal defense" for your PhD. Whatever, your stresses this week, take heart in knowing that you are changing. That people find refuge in you, that with each of life's challenges you change and your roots grow deeper and deeper. You are strong and able to withstand any element that gets tossed your way...not that they aren't doozies! There will be times when you will need to store up nutrients of faith and trust, and just go dormant for a season. That is ok. Soon you will emerge with the buds of new life...thankful for the growth that comes from challenges.

Heavenly father,
I thank you for the challenges that you present, because I know that these times help me to grow and change. I pray that I will have the patience to see your work complete in me. Help others to take heart in this also. Give them the peace of knowing that I am thankful for them and praying for them also. Amen.

"Be patient, then, brother, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You, too be patient and firm, because the Lord is coming near." James 5:7-8.

I hope that his is a blog where people can present anything that they need prayer for, and know that I am praying for them. If you are so inclined, will you please tell me how I can pray for you? If you want to just read, please do that! Blessings to you today!

Pitching My Tent

We weren't raised camping. I think my mom thought it was "too dirty" but I am not sure. Julie (my sister) told me that they tried camping twice - too many inconveniences (mosquitoes) and a few safety issues (Coleman stove flying off of the log when she sat on it)! I love camping. It is a lot of work. Planning ahead to make all of the meals, loading all of the stuff, making sure that we won't get "too cold" at night. It is just so great, once you get where you are camping. The anticipation, laughter, lots of sleep (no TV, cell phones, etc), nature. I love being out there.

I was thinking that it is strange that I love this so much since I wasn't raised around it. I think I might be growing up!

I heard Beth Moore speak the other day at Women of Faith. She said that we were going to "camp" on Deuteronomy 33 that day (the inspiration behind my blog title). We went camping. We stayed there and we studied and we focused. There wasn't the distractions of "other" things. In that moment we just camped on the scriptures.

In the Old Testament, the tents were set up with a lot of "pomp and circumstance." It was a place fitting for only the Holy Spirit to be. Only those worthy could approach the tent with their sacrifices. Special tribes were called to be the "tent bearers."

I want to be called to be a tent bearer. I want to be worthy of the Holy Spirit. I want to approach the word and my prayers with sacrifices - making it my first and last stop of the day. I want to plan ahead (like I would for camping) preparing what I will bring, making sure I have on the appropriate clothing of righteousness. I want to clothe myself with splendor (Ps 45:3), with compassion (Col 3:12); with humility (1Peter 5:5) when I go camping on the word.

Camping takes time, effort, and it is certainly an inconvenience. Ahh, but the beauty and satisfaction when you are there! I have to eek out my camping on the word. I have begun packing my tent daily. My spiritual tent is my Daily Bread devotion in my purse (for when I get stopped at the railroad crossing). I have my bibles and journal and camera, and concordance with me - where ever I may me. Just in case it is at that moment I need to pitch my tent and hear the Lord whispering to me. It the middle of my day, in the middle of my commute, in between the craziness of lifes obligations - I need to just "pitch my tent."

A tent is protection from the elements. May my tent be worthy of what I have been given. I pray that my tent will protect me from whatever will distract me and pull me away from him.

Lord,

I pray that you make me a tent bearer. Help me to "pitch my tent" where ever I can. Help me to plan ahead so that I can "camp" in your word. Prepare me. Clothe me for the journey. And Lord I pray that whoever reads this, will find a new satisfaction in camping.

Amen