The other day when going to take my shower I noticed a cut on my shoulder. I took out the peroxide to pour over it and clean it. Since the shoulder is round, as you can imagine, it dripped all over. I wiped up the floor and as I turned I noticed streaks down my shoulder, that looked as though they had bleached a part of my arm. After my initial freakout I realized my skin would be back to 'normal' after I washed it. It reminded me of being in the Caribbean, and the stories from the young ladies, even as young as 10, talking about how they soak in bleach because they want their skin to be 'lighter'. And the irony of many American young ladies who tan regularly to look 'darker'. No matter how God has made us , our sinful nature wants to be restless and complain, comparing ourselves to someone else. Yet we are all made so beautiful. I can't imagine creating a painting, sculpture etc and feeling I finally made a masterpiece, only to have the painting try to destroy itself, or the sculpture try to mold itself into a bowl. Why? Because it was made lovingly by me and perfected in my eyes. And that's how God must view us: every part of us perfected lovingly by Him. That's not to say we shouldn't strive to be healthy etc but to accept how we are loved by God will change our perception of ourselves, and what our motivations are towards our bodies. Praying for the young ladies struggling to meet an unobtainable goal, that they would feel the unconditional love of God and find it to be freedom to live and laugh in the way, shape, color, and method they were intended to. ~
Blessed to make it to Chiang Mai in time to attend YWAM Asia Pacific conference. We got to meet with others who are serving in Asia, brainstorm, encourage each other with stories and hear about what's new. We also listened to YWAM founder Loren Cunningham talk about looking back at what God has done, and looking towards what to expect by 2020. Inspiring!
Whenever I fly over a new land I'm always overwhelmed with how big this world is. To think that I am viewing a small portion of a country from the air, and that there are many countries connected to make continents....reminds me of how God is so outside my capacity to understand. To put stars in the sky, to make waves move across the ocean, to create a water system that keeps our earth healthy and living etc... amazing.
was trying to find new items in a familiar place and noticed an option of rice with spicy chicken on the menu. Another fun item was 'bubble tea' drink on the McCafe list. I took a picture of part of the menu, complete with 'pie' options. We have the apple pie in America , but here you can also get the same pastry crust with tuna, corn or pineapple filling. There are quite a few 'duck' options along with pork and chicken. Manasa likes the spicy items but I prefer to stay mild. We have quite a few food stands down the street from where we are staying, at half the price of the hotel menu (which is still reasonable and tasty). One item I tasted that I did not enjoy, was the Lays chips : Seaweed flavor. I don't dislike seaweed- I like sushi wraps and sometimes even seaweed soup...but this just didn't seem hmmm "right". So I'll pass on that one next time. Thankful that I enjoy eating rice as I see a lot of that in my future :)
The last few weeks have been full of fundraisers, fellowship and visiting family. With less than a week left in Iowa we feel fortunate for our time and are surprised at how many things we 'wanted' to do , we haven't been able to! Here's a few photos from the Mystery Supper which was a success, and so much fun! Manasa was able to show some people how to use chopsticks :)
