A special week

In one of my dad's emails, he reminded me that it's Palm Sunday tomorrow, the beginning of Holy Week.

So, this is my favor to you, a reminder of the same. I have no fancy devotional for you. I'm going to do my best to remember this week and pay closer attention to what Jesus did for us and the hugeness of what that means.

Don't you want some?

Aren't these so cool? These are handmade cards and paper. Empowering Lives International works alongside nationals in Kenya, the Congo, and Sudan to help the people living there rise up out of the grasp of poverty.

Through the Paper Project, people living in poverty learn how to make and design paper with the things that are already around them in their villages. All of the money goes right back into this program.

I have a big box full of cards, paper, envelopes,and little purse things. Comment or email me and I'll bring some to you. (leahvis@gmail.com)

Oh, the coolest thing is that on every piece is a number. You can go on ELI's website, look that number up, and read about the very person who made your paper.

Life

When I hit my head on something, it makes me mad. Isn't that funny? Anytime I hurt something else, it just hurts - no emotion. But, if I bump my head it signals some part of my brain that really really frustrates me. I'm pretty sure it's not just me though. I've seen other people bump their head. It's the same thing. They usually don't want to talk afterwards. They're a little irritable when other people say, "ooo, are you ok?" They really want to yell out but are too polite so they hide it behind a stiff face.

I bumped my head yesterday and I got very grumpy for about two minutes. It went away, and then I was normal. But, I just think that's such a funny phenomenon.

Fun fact: Wahoo's Fish Tacos has the most amazing iced tea. Iced tea puts me in a strangely good mood. Some of it's the caffine. But, I think most of it is that it is so stinkin' enjoyable that it really makes me love life.

Vacation

This past weekend Rob and I escaped to San Diego. This was our first ever relaxing vacation. We've been on adventures together, but never ones where we could relax and recoup.

We spent all day on Saturday trying to capture life and be creative with our photography. We have this new goal to make our output really be good art whether it's a paid photoshoot, taking random shots at a park, our music, our writing, our paintings...everything! Now when I say "good art," I mean it has to portray truth in some way. In one of my classes at APU, my prof taught us that good art is true and bad art is what is untrue. That can be tricky. It's not truth in the surface sense of the word. For example, a fairy tale can be fiction and yet still be true. Yeah, I don't get it yet either, but I think there's something there.

Our other goal is for our art to give people hunger for life. Life more abundant...not just breathing. We have a big task ahead of us. We have only begun to learn.

Here's some of our fun from the day. All I want to know is, who's that cutie with the camera!

Mrs. G

I've talked about Mrs. Grams before. But, for those of you who haven't heard about her, she is my friend who is about 86ish with Alzheimer's Disease. She is, by far, one of my favorite people in the world. Lately she's been a lot weaker, skinnier, and just going downhill. Whenever I pray for her, I just ask that God would make himself so real to her in the midst of her confusion. I want him to wrap his arms around her and keep whispering to her that it's ok.

This last Monday, I had the priveledge of hanging out with her. We went for a drive in the mountains because that's her favorite thing to do. The whole time I was thinking/praying/hoping that the Jesus in me would shine on her so she could feel comfortable and maybe think she's hanging out with him.

As we drove and as she repeated the same five phrases over and over, I started to feel really good...I mean really really alive. The fog that's sometimes in my heart cleared and I was seeing life more clearly. Man, I was on some kind of high. Then it hit me-that sneaky Mrs. Grams was shining her Jesus light on me. I was experiencing Jesus being with her.

I think it's so cool that someone who has served the Lord can have Jesus working through them even when they don't know what's going on around them. Sneaky, sneaky!

Bingo!

Trust is the word for today. For all of you people who don't go to Sandals, go here and listen to Pastor Matt's sermon about trust. Actually, the one for today 3/11/07 will probably take a couple days to get up there.

I have a hard time trusting God. I trust him with some things really easily, of course. But, there are a lot of things that aren't as easy. I was thinking during the sermon that it's not that hard for me to trust Rob, so you would think that I'd be good at this trust thing. Then again, I know Rob. When we were first engaged and married, I didn't know him like I do now so it was more of a challenge to trust him. So, maybe I need to get to know God more?

I think that's some of it. But, the part that gets me doubting is the "his ways are higher than our ways" thing. With Rob, our ways are pretty much on the same plane, so I can understand what he does. With God, he sometimes does things that I don't understand or that are scary to me. It's a new kind of trust. Not - trusting him to not do bad things...But - trusting him that even when those things happen he loves me and accepts me. Trusting that there's a plan in action that's bigger than just my life and it will eventually benefit all of us.

The Hugbug

If you haven't seen my nephew lately, today is your lucky day. As you can see, he's very serious about his workspace. He doesn't mess around.