Barnsley Resort

¹⁰ 

Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:
Forget your people and your father’s house.

¹¹ 

Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.

¹² 

The city of Tyre will come with a gift,^[a]
people of wealth will seek your favor.

Psalm 45:10-12

     I Have been back in the States for six months now.  It has been new and interesting.  One of the best parts has been my job at Barnsley Resort.  They do the holidays wonderfully.  They care about their employees as much as their guest.

     This week I was talking to a guest and he was telling me about the book he wrote and how he used Barnsley as the example of hospitality.  It made me feel proud to be part of something special.  We have some changes coming up after the new year.  I think they will be good and will enhance how special the place is.  It is a gym out in the middle of nowhere.

     I find it hilarious when city people come and they tell me how scary it is.  You are in the forest for 15-20 minutes and then you round a bend and there is just this beautiful golf course.  You pull up into and there are lovely large trees on both sides of the drive.  It is such a nice drive to make everyday.  I am truly grateful that I have found a place like that to return home.  It encourages me about what will come in 2018.

White Christmas

"The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.  ² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times." 

Matthew 16:1-3

     It is a rare thing for it to snow in Georgia.  Yet, it has been a white couple of days.  I joke around about Georgia's bipolar weather and this is proof.  Earlier in the week, it was warm.  It got the to upper 60s to the lower 70s, then bam it is almost like a blizzard hit.    I just wish that this happened at Christmas.  I could almost put money on it being a warm Christmas, almost t-shirt weather.  That is how it works here in Georgia. 
     I use to love snow so much, but not so much anymore.  I do love the since of my little so-called neighborhood.  We all been on the phone with each other throughout all of it.  Making sure we all have heat and food.  One of my neighbors made soup for another because they eat out more than cook.  That doesn't happen everywhere.  I have a special little world.  

      I am so very grateful that we didn't loose electricity because our fireplace needs work.  We can't light a fire and the roads were too slick to go anywhere.  I feel bad because I didn't make it to work the last couple of days, but that is what personal days are for.  I don't know how northerners do it.  I do know that we have completely different snow.  Ours is known for turning into very dangerous black ice.  We can have miles of roads that are nothing, but ice.
     Give me your thoughts on this fascinating weather that we are having.  Please, keep those who still do not have electricity in your prayers.  I had to go a whole day without internet.  It made me appreciate things, but it was also nice to take a step away.

Thanksgiving

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalm 100:4

      I got sick a week before Thanksgiving and just now feeling like I am starting to get over it.  When I got so sick in Bolivia, just before I left, I wonder if it damaged my lungs some how or if it is just the funk that goes around this time of year with Georgia's bipolar weather.  Either way, that is why I have not written in so long.

     Thanksgiving was so nice.  It is the first time I have ever worked in the USA on the holiday and was not overly happy about it, but it was actually nice.  I got up early to start cooking.  I did my first feast since returning and it was a great feast.  Only Hudson was not impressed.  He only ate a role and turkey.  I don't take it personally because when I was his age, I barely ate anything.  My grandfather even started making a ham and a turkey because I would not eat turkey.  I was so happy to be with my family.  Hudson even made the dressing.

     I did some clean up and made time to be alone for an hour before going to work.  The atmosphere at work was so cheerful that I found myself so happy to be there.  I have never seen so many dogs at Barnsley at one time in my life.  It felt like a little community.

     The ironic thing is that I was missing my Thanksgiving traditions that I had begun with the Bolivians and all my friends there.  I find it odd that I am homesick for a country that I struggled so much in: health, language, city life, since of belonging.  I reached out for some prayer and I got some wise counsel from a fellow missionary that seems to be helping.  Settling back into the USA has not been as easy as I had hoped.  I am praying for direction and to find purpose to be here.

      We have also had the Women's Christmas Banquet at my church.  It was nice to be involved in that however little it may have been.

Family

¹⁰ In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. ¹¹ Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.^{[a] 12} He says,“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;    in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

Hebrews 2:10-12

     For a while I have given thought to what is family?  Most people would say that is simple.  It is your blood, the people that gave you life, the people that are there through thick and thin.   That is all true.  For me it goes so much deep.  Blood family is who your stick it out because of a since of duty, love, or what is expected.  However, for most, blood family does not meet the definition.  I see some blood families so close.  I see others that can hardly be in the same room with each other.

     For me I love my blood family.  However, my friend family and church family are there for me just as much for the real events in life.  I don't buy the saying that you cant chose your family because I have.  I chose to pursue a relationship with my sister and her family.  I chose to come home to help my parents out.  However, I also chose wonderful friends that are there with me no matter what.  Almost like a marriage. 
     At church it is very diverse, but it is a safe place of healing for me.  A woman told me yesterday that I have insight way beyond my years and that I help her understand things in a way that she was not able to grasp before.  That gave me the motivation to try to start writing again .  I want to motivate and help all the people in my life.  Even those, I may never meet, with Words that God is inspiring me to write.  
     Please, give me your thoughts on family and what it means to you.  Ultimately, they are a blessing that God has given each of us, even if they don't fit in the parameters of traditional thinking.

Mom's Birthday

^{15 "}And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^[a]16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." 

Colossians 2:15-17

      Tueday was Mom's Birthday.  She was so happy to have me home.  Dad gave her his time in the morning and in the afternoon she met me at work.  I introduced her to many of my co-workers.  She felt like a celebrity.  I bought her dinner at the Resort and the restaurant gave her two sliced of different cake to help her celebrate.  It was an overall good day.

Processing

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs."

Hebrews 1:3-4

     I have not written in months because I didn't feel like I had anything to say.  I have been so busy with work and trying to get in a life style here.  I have had a few struggles, but God has been doing an intense work on me.  I am more naked now than ever before.  I am also getting more comfortable with being naked and exposed.  
     He has stripped me down to nothing and that took much longer than I would have like.  I  Think that the process is finally over because I am finally feeling some stabilization after about two years of never feeling like I could get my feel on solid ground.  Now I am in God's hands in every aspect.  I am waiting for Him to show me what is for now and what is next.  
     When I went to Bolivia, I was so confident in my relationship with Christ and who I was in Him.  My time there stripped all of that away.  Now I am starting in a different way.  I am praying that the ministry that He lays on my heart will be my life ministry and not just a for now ministry.  I still have a long ways to go, but as He makes things clear to me, I will share them with you.
     I have a new phone now.  This one should allow me to receive calls.  Contact me via email or facebook if you want my number.