day seven, eight & nine: WINDOW, TASTY & HARVEST

day seven: gifts from my WINDOW

1. Driving down our old street.

2. In the backyard.

3. At 6:45 a.m. on my way to prayer for Young Life. 

day eight: gifts SIPPED, SWEET, SALTY

1. gift SIPPED

"Somehow, Jesus, I like praying with a cup of coffee in my hands.  I guess the warmth of the cup settles me and speaks of the warmth of your love.  I hold the cup against my cheek and listen, hushed and still.  I blow on the coffee and drink. O Spirit of God, blow across my little life and let me drink in Your great life."  --Richard Foster

2. gift(s) SWEET

3. gift SALTY

 (Image borrowed from here.)

I had my first salted caramel mocha tonight with one of my best friends, Crystie.  It was wonderful and worth every one of the 330 calories and 51 grams of carbs.  Every single one.  The time sharing life with my friend whose heart breaks for lost people and is deeply passionate about sharing the Gospel through genuine relationships was even better.  

day nine: gifts HARVEST

1. Apples & sweet potatoes. 

 (Image borrowed from here.)

  (Image borrowed from here.)

I'm about to make homemade applesauce and sweet potato baby food tomorrow so I bought these in bulk at Harris Teeter today.  (Which is starting to rival Costco/BJ's/Sam's Club with all their samples.  Karis is a huge fan.)  The word "ABUNDANT" kept coming to mind as I looked at the mounds of apples and sweet potatoes all over the produce section.

Also, I would have taken my own pictures except I left my phone at home.  Which was the wrong time to do that because I left Brett at home with Haddie napping and instructions to call me when she woke up.  I may or may not have asked a total (but incredibly kind) stranger if I could borrow their phone to call Brett while I was in the check out line.  #fail

2. Answered prayers for soul friends.

In 2007, I started praying for friends my age.  I had a handful of friends who are older than me and a plethora of friends younger but in 2007 I just felt a longing for friends closer to my season of life.  So I started praying for them.    

 

That year, I started going to BSF and met my best friend (aka BSF BFF :)), Ashley, there.  (This was after I got over my trying not to get to know anyone phase.)  We literally went to Panera every Thursday morning before BSF until we had kids.  I'll never forget realizing that the Lord had answered my prayers through Ashley.  I was getting to see the harvest and I was overjoyed.

But because we serve a God who is ABUNDANT, and as Anne Lamott says, likes to show off, He didn't stop there.  Since then, He has added to the harvest and I am beyond blessed to call these women my dear friends.

 3. The harvest in Alamance County Young Life.

I remember the first time I saw Derrica Barbee in 2004.  She was a freshman in high school, a girl with a beautiful smile and a personality big enough to fill the cafeteria we were in.  Everyone loved Derrica.  Seriously, everyone.  It's still true today and probably the reason she was voted Homecoming Queen at Southern Alamance and also in college at Wake Forest.  When I finally said hi to her that day she was so kind, even as a "too cool" teenager.  We talked about her going to camp at Sharp Top Cove that summer and she ended up coming.  She met the Lord there and the girl who was happy and nice changed to become explodingly, purposely JOYFUL and it was contagious. 

 

In the following months, she would write me notes and hand them to me at football games and at lunches at school and when I would pick her up for Young Life club--full of questions about God and new discoveries about life with Christ.  

We were friends and I loved it.  We stayed friends as she walked through the rest of high school and college, figuring out who she was in Christ, how to live for Him, choosing Him over the world, serving Him without needing to please others, and becoming a beautiful picture of Christ to a dying world.  

This summer, Derrica was back in town and we snapped this picture together.  That day she told me she wanted to go into ministry on Young Life staff and I wept.  Thrilled for her.  Overjoyed for the Kingdom.  Excited for the kids whose lives she will impact.  And HUMBLED to be a part of her story.

Jesus said something odd to a few fishermen one day: "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  (Matthew 4:19)  And somehow this made sense to them and they set out to follow Jesus and fish for men.  And OH THE HARVEST THEY SAW, Y'ALL.  

And 2,000 years later I get to see bits of the same harvest in the lives of girls like my dear friend, Derrica.

And God is still at it, y'all.

This is a picture of the 118 high school kids who went to Young Life camp at Carolina Point last weekend.  Their Young Life leaders pursued the crap out of them and we prayed like crazy for them to get there and hear the Gospel.  Lives were changed that weekend for eternity.

Oh what a harvest, indeed.