Keeping up with the Schienbeins...

Last year we decided to send out a "family Christmas photo" so we bought matching t-shirts on a trip to North Dakota and posed as a human Christmas tree. Great fun. It was so well received, especially by family that we figured we needed to do it again. But we also knew we had to top it. For the last few weeks I have been working on my Norman Rockwell style, family Christmas masterpiece. If you would like to be a recipient of said work of art... please do request one, and add your address to the comments sheet. Who knows... it may be worth something someday. After all there will be a limited number of prints made :D
Above is last years... We topped it!
buh bye... and happy holidays!

Confession time.

So, I bought a bar of chocolate yesterday... a delicious fruit and nut bar, one of my favorites... but that's not the confession.

I also bought some cleaner for the bathroom. In the bag, the cleaner spilt and covered everything. I really wanted the chocolate so I decided to wash it off instead of throwing it out. Today when I opened it up it looked a little wet, so I dryed it off and had a few pieces. Now I am worried I poisoned myself. AND for no good reason! Just wanted chocolate and didn't want to go to the store again. True story.

New News!

Well, I have news.... and I know how you like news.

They are filming some scenes for the new A-Team movie in town.

I am more excited than I should be. Honestly, I found out this morning and have already spent hours thinking about what they would be up to and how I could just happen to bump into someone from the cast. BUT, I'm not alone. It seems like everyone on facebook is posting about this... well, everyone on facebook from Cold Lake anyway. Things like, "Jim Carey is at the highschool, Im a gon see him" why he would be at the high school, I don't know. Or ... "My hubby and I just saw Jessica Biel on the security tapes at his work.", also " Bradley Cooper was walking down the hall at my husbands work." and even, "The cast was at the Beehive this afternoon." What's the Beehive? A second hand store on the airbase. So I know I am not alone in this excitement.

Still... I wish I was alone in... a room with them, I have questions and some comments and a few exclamations. :D

Who knows, maybe tomorrow will be THE day. I'll pull out my biggest camera and be the local papparazzi.. Papparazzi always know where to find them!

Kitty Genovese Syndrome?

I was reading this article in "intresting thing of the day" entitled Kitty Genovese Syndrome. Also known as "the guilty bystander" syndrome. You I'm sure are familiar with the shocked reports of someone who was killed or injured or mugged, in plain view of the general public and no one stops to do anything.

Some also relate it to lack of care for the homeless, passing by people in obvious distress because we manage to come up with a logical reason why we shouldn't. Or a practical reason why what appears to be distress, may in fact be merely a misunderstanding.

But, more often than not, it isn't... is it? More often, there really is something quite horrible happening. Someone really is in desperate need of assitance.

The article carries on to talk about 'International Bystanders'. The idea that there are horrific things happening in other areas of the globe that we have become desenstized to...

" When I saw the film Hotel Rwanda, I left the theater very upset. The genocide in the early 1990s that left 800,000 Rwandans dead occurred with very little intervention from either those within Rwanda or the international community—a profound example, as several commentators have pointed out, of Kitty Genovese Syndrome. I simply couldn’t fathom that anyone could know what was going on and do nothing. And yet, paradoxically, I can imagine no other response—with so many other people in the world, surely this must be someone else’s problem. Someone wiser, more powerful, or closer to the situation. What could I have done anyway? I have my own problems. But then, so does everyone else.
There’s no cure for this problem. Even knowing about this effect as I do, chances are, I’ll someday be an unhelpful bystander once again. But just maybe I’ll have the presence of mind to realize that the person best qualified to help is the one willing to take action in the face of confusion and doubt. —"

Yesterday I was watching "Hands at Work" videos with my brother David. He was trying to decide what would be appropriate to play in church. The work this group is doing in some of the most impoverished spots in Africa is amazing! Even more amazing is what God is doing. However, I was so convicted that I am a bit of a guilty bystander... I know what is happening there. People, that are my brothers and sisters because of Jesus, are dying horrific deaths. They are starving to death. They are being ravaged by diseases that we have medicines for. Children are suffering the sting of rejection from family members that are terrified of catching the diseases that killed their parents. I cried. Rightly so. But how can I do more. How can I most effectively reach out to my hurting family?

One video Dave played for me profiled a family that Hands at Work was just starting to help out. They seemed excited about the possibility of building a care centre in the area so that the family, and many others like them in that area could have consistent support. Apparently the group that filmed them wanted to do a follow up 12 months later, but were unable to give a good report. There was so much unrest in Mozambique, and the present government is so closed, that although the money was raised to build the centre they are unable to get it into the country. They can only smuggle (literally) small amounts at a time. I know that some people would be disappointed to hear this, and possibly even wonder what the point is. BUT shouldn't this then elicit a different repsonse? It's not enough for us in the west to throw money at the poverty there.

Obviously, they need our prayers. We should be praying that the country opens up in a way that allows this center to be built. Maybe they need more "smugglers". People that would take the time to help bring in the funds... the hard way.

Okay, so obviously I am a bit removed, and don't know the perfect solution, but I know that I can be doing much more than just sending money. I know I can give more of myself, my time, my gifts and abilities. In fact, I must. It is a biblical mandate.

I must not be a guilty bystander, international or otherwise.

A new day...

Summer's gone. The weather has taken a turn for the colder and the leaves are changing. Work has started again. I hate that it makes me melancholy, but it does. It just seems like I have to gear up for another year of "the same old, same old." It's strange to feel like that because I know that technically the year already holds a lot of changes in store.
I think it probably has more to do with another approaching birthday. I wish I could hold back the years. It seems like there is still so much undone I can't afford another birthday. I want to leave each year brightly... but somehow I managed to wile away my time on silly little things that don't add up to anything great in the grand scheme of things.
I wonder if that disappoints God? I know He loves me no matter what. But... he has given me so much and I feel like I do so little with it sometimes. I know for certain that I spend to much time on myself and not enough on others. I don't want to be like that. I want to give more. Somehow, I end up embracing our culture that says "you need to take more and more time for yourself and what makes you happy." Although, I know from experience that I am happiest when I am thinking of, and doing, less of/for myself and more of/for others. I tell myself I don't have time in the day. That between work and studies I just can't. But the truth is... I have time to paint, and read, and knit and watch tv. So I definitely have time for others I just need to channel it. To choose it.
So... what am I going to do about it?
I need a plan. I need to get involved with people that will keep me accountable. I need to give all my life to God (again) to use as He pleases.

What it's like....

It's like watching the clouds... seeing one in particular that catches your eye, reminding you of something but you can't quite put your finger on it. It's not a dinosaur, a bunny, a bird, or any of the usual things. Then the wind high above turns, almost unfelt by you... Down below it is just an almost imperceptable breeze - but it pushes and the large cloud moves and finally what you were looking for and straining to discern becomes clear.

You see clearly what it is you thought you saw from the beginning; and you can start to put into words what was once just an idea or a hope. A cloudy dream taking shape.

Water, Water for King David

2 Samuel 23 :13-17
And three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time to David in the cave of Adullam, and a troop of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.
David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.
And David said longingly, Oh, that someone would give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate!
And the three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem by the gate and brought it to David. But he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord.
And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, to drink this. Is it not [the same as] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives? So he would not drink it.
This passage about David has bothered me for a long time. I didn't pay VERY much attention to it to be honest; I just thought it was one of those stupid things David did, that showed how very human he could be. "Acting so irrationally and with such carelessness and yet... God still calls him a man after His own heart." (that was my first thought)

Now I can hardly believe how careless I was with this passage.

Of course David wanted water... a little taste of home in the midst of war, and not as a passing whim but with a type of hunger that homesickness can create for the things you once enjoyed . He did recognize the sacrifice and risk his men took in order to get him this drink -- so why did he pour it on the ground without so much as a sip?

He did it because of it's value. He did it because it was the very best. It was water fit for a King! So he gave what he most desired at that moment to God. He didn't even sample what he would offer to his LORD. There no "two for you, one for me!" in his thinking. He loved God. He had something of great value now in his possession that could be laid before his God.

It reminds me very much of Genesis 22 where Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac his beloved son! -- a result of a longstanding promise from God! I can understand the passage as it relates to Jesus and the Father, but it's hard to wrap myu mind around the willing sacrifice of a blessing from God.

My immediate thinking when God sens a blessing is that it is for my enjoyment. I do not immediately think, "Yay! God has provided a way for me to give to him the very best!" And so the blessings, although very much a blessing no mater what is done with it, remains in that moment mine alone. BUT, if I were to offer it back to God as it says in Malachi 3, just wait and see... "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

Instead I often give left overs... left over time, left over talents... I don't mean left overs as in... bits that have sat around and are now useless, I mean giving out of an abundance, but not when it costs something. Is it as bad as offering second best? Probably, earlier in Malachi it gives a warning to Priests who were not offering "the best". It says in verse 7-9 "You place defiled food on my altar."But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.
"Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"-says the LORD Almighty.

The thing is... God does not demand EVERYTHING, just the recognition that because of His position he should be considered first. If we do put Him first the blessings in our lives, through that right relationship with Him will expand to include not only ourselves but those around us.

In this act of pouring out the water, and throughout his time in the cave David offered praises to God. Leading by example, he showed these men that worship, true worship, picks you up out of darkness and into the Light. It pulls your attention from your own distress and/or depression and focuses it on the one who holds LIFE in his hands.

It makes life in a "pit" not only bearable but joyous! It makes heroes out of mere men. To pour out the water didn't, as I had first supposed, reveal David's human-ness by some rash reaction; but rather, revealed the heart of God in him as he humbly offered the best that he had.