jill of all arts

why are we always so surprised when God answers prayer?

last sunday, 6-8 of us gathered in the little prayer room at endeavor church at 9:15, and prayed that God's love would shine in our little community, and that people who needed to know Him would be drawn close. not by rock star worship, delicious lattes, or any magnetic up-front personality, but through simple love. why would we be surprised when God answered that prayer?

it seems that every week, more people from the homeless community in rockwood are woven into the fabric of endeavor. last week, a girl who had recently been in a difficult situation was at safeway when she knew that God was calling her to a nearby church. she had no idea that we were right behind the safeway! she came on sunday morning, and after church we carpooled to the sandy river to baptize our new sister!

what a perfectly lovely day for a new blog. :)

hello. welcome to the new blog. isn't new exciting?! i'm ready for some new this fall, and i'm going to make sure that all that awesome new is written right here.

i can't think of a better way to start than with entering into a new year of marriage! 6 years under our belts, and we're doing every day for the 7th time!
wow.

we spent a 3 day weekend in bend to unwind from the summer and hang out. the place we stayed was absolutely adorable, and even had a frisbee golf course!

i took a nap with this view ... of course, the photo can't capture the sound of birds, wind in the trees, and bubbling creek.
i've never slept with cows watching over my dreams before. quite a singular experience.
also singular was spending approximately 6 hours of our trip repairing and purchasing bike racks. we made up for that with biking, hiking, frisbee golfing, minigolfing, haunting bookstores, listening to sermons and npr, and watching old episodes of bewitched on hulu. and joel had a bit of homework to do ... but that's typical.

we walked to the newberry obsidian lava flow on our anniversary (august 28) - it was probably in the mid 40s with a nice windchill. i carried some lovely little bits of obsidian back to our car, intending to make a pretty display of them, only to read that removing rocks was a felony. irritated and saddened, i piled all but one of the rocks around the stupid sign, and buried the last one while joel laughed.
so if you're ever in the newberry national park area and decide to check out the obsidian lava flow, make sure to look for the pile of rocks next to the sign and pay homage to this monument of enduring love and passive aggression. :P