This Is Kristin

Today, Brody is talking about the great organization, Unicef. 

and 

Lori, is speaking personally about her own families struggles, and finding the time and energy to help others in another country.  

The first blogger for the 40 day fast is, Jonathan, talking about an organization called Give Grace.   (they even have a blog, go read her post and visit their website, and you’ll see it there, complete with beautiful pictures)  

The second blogger is Jeanine, speaking about the International Justice Mission, and a specific story of a girl named Panida, who was rescued by this organization.  

Truevyne has a great post talking about the importance of prayer, and a specific organization which has a “prayer watch,” where there is always someone praying continuosly.  

  Valarie is speaking out against abuses among asian migrant workers in Hong Kong, where the cases of incidences are high.  

Pete is talking about the great organization, International Justice Mission.

Brent is talking about the great work that Crisis Pregnancy centers do.   

We are half way through the 40 day fast, it’s going great! 

Overall, our overnight camping trip was a lot of fun.  We winded down, and had a good break.  We laughed a lot, over unexpected occurrences… and had fun anyways.  

The highlight for me was hiking through the woods to the waterfalls, with Blue leading the way, and giving us our indian names.  He was “King Big Leaf,” Aiden was “sits like a buffalo,”  but he asked to just be called, “indian,” and I was indian princess “small leaf,” Brody was Chief, and Cooper was the papoose.  

The trees had these cool flowers on them, there were caves, and tunnels to walk through, which was so fun.  There were lots of bugs, and spiders, but apparently “grand daddy long leg spiders don’t bite, because they’re Grandpas.”  (according to Blue.)  

Sleeping in the tee pee went surprisingly well, once we finished our stories, and told Cooper “night night,” and left the flashlight on because someone had painted glow in the dark faces on the inside, and the boys thought they were ghosts, so total darkness wasn’t happening.  We woke up bright and early to Aiden yelling, “It’s morning!”  

After hiking, swimming, and cleaning up, we headed home, picked up a few souvenirs, ate at Olive Garden.. (one of my favorite restaurants…) and nearly fell asleep on the drive back.  

Spending concentrated time as a family, relaxing together, was wonderful…. but we’ll probably never go back to that specific campground again…This was by far the weirdest and most hilarious camping place I’ve ever been to… for the reason why read my husband’s take on our trip… 

“Give us Oh Lord, Steadfast hearts, which no unworthy thoughts can drag down; unconquered hearts, which no tribulation can wear out; upright hearts, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside.” ~Amen.  (written by A Philip Darham) 

I had written that down in a journal years ago.  My son pulled it out today, and showed me the journal, asking if he could write in it.  I usually let him write through my appointment books, or where I write random things down, so I said, “let me see what is in it…”  

As I opened the journal, and read that prayer, the words just sank into me, and I felt myself not just reading the prayer, but actually praying it and meaning it. Tears came to my eyes, and it surprised me.

 I’ve spent these last few months, wondering “how exactly, does God, ‘give me strength’ when I’m sooo worn out?”  ”How does He help me when I feel like there’s burdens on me, and problems that I can’t solve…How?”  

When I was handed that journal today, and read those words, I saw How God gives me strength.  He offers hope.  He offers inspiration.  He found a way to bring me back to Himself.  He found a way to speak for me, to articulate what I was trying to explain to myself.  Instead of praying for situations and things to change, I should be praying for a steadfast, unconquered and upright heart.  

He says keep going, be strong, courageous.  He doesn’t tell me to sit and analyze “how” and “why.”  He asks me to trust and go, and do.  He tells us to learn, and live, and love.  For me to sit back and wonder “why,” and “how,” and basically feel sorry for myself, really doesn’t accomplish anything, but a stagnant mind and an uncomfortable distance from the one I should be leaning into, and walking with.  

This may not make sense to anyone, because I think that God speaks to everyone differently.  I get inspired easily, I like to have hope..

It was just nice to hear something today.  It was nice to open that door of communication, again.

We are heading out tomorrow to go camping! Hooray! I love to camp.  This time, is special, because we are going to sleep in a tee pee.  I think it’s going to be very cool.  The biggest challenge is going to be fitting all our stuff, plus us- into our car, but we can do it, we don’t have to pack a tent, right?

I’m looking forward to being out in nature, sitting around a camp fire, (yes I got stuff for s’mores), exploring, hopefully getting in a lake, and just spending some good time with my family.  We’ve kind of been going in different directions, busy, stressful, and chaotic time for us now, so I’m looking forward to slowing down, and taking a break.  Besides, I love to camp.  

 What’s the best place you’ve camped?  

For me, I think my favorite is at Donner Lake in CA.  

Camping… Hooray! 

I know that I have that handy dandy calander over there with the links to all the 40 day fast peoples, and I do hope that you are all clicking on those from somewhere, and reading them daily.  Really, you don’t need me to say, “this person wrote this on this day…” it’s probably redundant, if you’ve already read them.  BUT the reason I do it, is as a reminder to you to keep reading these posts.  Everyone participating has something important to say, and no one should get skipped over, or forgotten.  40 days is a long time, and it’s a busy time of the year, so it serves as a reminder.  Okay?  

That being said, I need to catch up on my reading, and let you all know what’s been going on with the 40 day fast.  

Mark talked about a place in Egypt and an interesting story of a woman named Toma.  

Kat talked about serving the elderly who live in convalescent homes.  

Crystal is talking about the Dalit, and the Caste system, and has an interesting video to share. 

Davida is talking about a man who runs a volunteer farm, and is striving to help with the global food crisis.  

(this picture is a year old, but I love it… and it’s so amazing to see how much they’ve grown!)  

~My husband was going to Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago, and when he told my oldest where he was going, my son paused and then asked, “are there lots of pencils there?”

~My 3 year old is entering that phase where he’s starting to get scared of things at night.  Except he messes up the words a bit.  When he comes to tell us that he’s afraid of the dark, he tells us instead, “I’m afraid of the light.”  It took awhile for me to get that the first time he said it, I kept turning off the lights, which made him cry harder, and he’s the “hold your breath” type of crier so, he couldn’t tell me that I was making things worse for him!  Poor guy!  

~He also has a fear of worms being on his ceiling, not spiders… worms…?  He’s so cute.  

*Tiny Talk Tuesday

Today Prairie is talking about the great organization called Compassion, and has some sweet children to sponsor directly from her site.  

Charlie is talking about an organization helping out people in Mexico, with first hand experiences and stories.  

… My husband, for being the best parent and spouse this past week.  I have been sick more this week, than I have this entire year.  It started out with that bee sting allergy, and then I’ve been having bad stomach issues the rest of the time off and on.  I’ve been laid up in bed, more than I want to be, so everything has fallen on him lately.

He has been taking care of the kids, the house, and me full time, and not complaining.  I appreciate that greatly, and having someone like him to rely on.   

Thank you Brody for being a great husband and dad, and helping me, letting me sleep, and taking care of everything.  

*Positive Post Tuesday.