Holiday Prayer

A Special Prayer for his Daughters and others around the world who are hurting.
Heavenly Father, As I listen to the radio I hear so many songs about how this is the 'Most Wonderful Time of the Year' and I am so thankful and full of Joy when I gather together with Your people and  we celebrate  Your birth, and we are pointed to Your Death and Your Resurrection.  Lord I love You and I praise You!

But Father, my heart is heavy. With songs, commercials and movies all displaying happy families sitting around their trees, with full bellies and lots of presents, I am reminded that not every person will have these things this year. And not every one knows why we celebrate this Season.

There a thousands of refugees searching for life and a new start but end up finding nothing but despair and persecution.
There are children who have lost parents.
There are parents who have lost children.
There are young women who are slaves only because they accepted the wrong ad for a job over seas.
There are men and women in recovery programs who are not allowed to visit family.
There a families struggling through a difficult divorce.
There are couples unable to have children.
There are homeless and hungry people in every city.
There are people so overwhelmed with depression that this time of the year only reminds them of their inability to simply 'over come it'.

Whatever it may be Lord I pray that You would make Yourself known to them, this very night. We know that Your heart breaks for the broken, the hurt, the prostitute, the refugee, the forgotten and so Lord we pray that Your Spirit would move across cities and countries and that redemption and restoration would come into the brokenness. And Father, if it be Your Will would You extend Your Grace to those around us who are hurting by giving us Your Eyes, Your Words, Your Resources, Your Joy and Your Bold Love.

Lord make us prayer warriors for the lost and the hurting.
Lord make us generous givers.
Lord make us compassionate for strangers.
Lord give us forgiveness for our family and friends for whom we never seem to be able to forgive.
Lord give us Joy that is unexplainable and irresistible to those around us.

Lord we love You, we love Your Heart and we thank you for coming into our brokenness and for always coming after us. For never giving up on us.
We Love you and we trust You in all circumstances and may You be praised during this Christmas Season.
For Holy, Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who Was and Is and Is to Come.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

What We Are Forgetting, Church

For those of you who know me well you know that I have the nickname of being the 'Party Girl'. I love people, I love parties, I love dancing and laughter...and yet...it is never satisfying. In the midst of parties I feel the most lonely. At weddings I want to leave and cry of loneliness. I don't want to cry out of loneliness of not being married, but the loneliness of 'Already, but not yet.' We are engaged but not married to our Future Husband. We get tastes and kisses from Him but we are not with him yet. Oh how I ache for the day when loneliness is no more. Suffering is no more. A day when we are free to dance in perfect joy that we are forever with our Souls One Desire. 

My 'bosom friend' Jeb Ralston wrote this Essay after the SCOTUS ruling and I thought it was so beautiful and provocative. I am thankful to say that I have been a member of churches and a member of a team now that I believe actually do a wonderful job at loving on singles, but I know this to not always be the case. I hope that this vulnerable essay on singleness is encouraging and uplifting and maybe even eye opening to the broader needs of the Church in general. 

http://jebralston.com/2015/07/05/falling-through-the-cracks-of-traditional-progressive-marriage/

Business Apprenticeship

We have recently started a business apprenticeship program with one of our Daughters. Here are a few things that have happened during the first two weeks. Please continue to pray for us as we walk along side her and her 'New Life Jewelry' business. 

Intro to Business and Budgeting 

'Dress for Success' taught by our MTW interns. 

Going to business and creating price lists.

A Typical Schedule

10:00 - 10:20 Psalms Bible Study

10:20 -11:20 Intro to Business Course

11:20 - 11:30 Break

11:30- 12:30 English Lesson

12:30 -13:30 Lunch Break

13:30 -14:30 Typing Lesson

14:30 -14:40 Break

14:40 - 15:40 Creating Price Lists of materials and stock

15:40 - 16:45 Working on jewelry 

Doors of Santorini

Donkeys and Sunsets

SANTORINI!

Up really early for our ferry ride!

Boys feeling sick on the 5 hour ferry. 

View from our hotel. 

Gorgeous. 

Resting on the beach. 

The sunsets. 

Walker and I being ridiculous. 

When in Athens.

Our second stop, ATHENS!

Our flight from Sofia to Athens! We talked to Hayden before hand. 

Acropolis

'I'll just be over here...puttin out the vibe.'

Mars Hill

Zeus' Temple. 

Amazing Wine and Food in Athens. 

Land of Gelato, Gladiators and Selfie Sticks

My brother in law brought Morgan to see me in Bulgaria! But first we took a few pit stops. 

First pit stop?

ROME!

Staring at the beauty of St. Peter

Our corny but wonderful tour guide. Felt so bad for him because not everyone thought he was as funny as he did. 

The fountain near our place. The weather was perfect!

St. Peters Basilica is beautiful. 

Inside the Pantheon. Morgan was in heaven, she had studied most of the art inside. 

Morgan and I not paying any attention to where we are and poor Thomas navigating us. 

The Colosseum! It was gorgeous and so incredible. 

Love Languages

I have learned a lot about myself by taking 'personality tests'. Anyone who knows me knows I love the Myers Briggs and Enneagram Tests. My mother says, 'There she goes speaking in numbers and letters.' :)

It really is a joy for me to study these things, I love studying peoples brains and learning how they are wired. It really does help me learn how to love them better. Not to box them into some

thing but to learn what their tendencies are so that I can work with someone better. For example. If I know that my friend is a 'J' (Myers Briggs Judging), I will know that they like punctuality and so I will make an extra effort to be on time to our meetings, whereas other friends will probably be 10 minutes later than me so I can be late. I love my friend by being on time because it means that I care...to them. This is a very simple and not perfect example. 

ANYWAY

I have recently taken the Love Language Test on line and I learned even more things about me. I thought that hands down my love language would be touch, by a mile...but after really thinking through things it is not. It is quality time. I love nothing more than sitting with someone...talking or in silence...touching or not...on Skype or at my house. I just love quality time. Which explains why I always end my day on FaceTime or Skype with friends and family members. It helps me feel like I am there with them even though we are thousands of miles apart. 

So I encourage you to do this for yourself and for your community. It can really help you learn about yourself and about those around you. 

Myers Briggs

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Enneagram

(not easy to find on line free but that app is wonderful and 99 cents)

Love Language

http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/ 

Istanbul, the land of apple tea, rugs and catcalling

Turkish Coffee 'aka mud'

This past weekend I was able to get away for a few days and have some days in the sun with my girlfriends. After a hard few weeks it was just what the Doctor ordered. :)

Istanbul is famous for many things. The food is amazing. The coffee is good but muddy. The mosques and museums are beautiful and insanely old. The textiles are cheaper. Etc, etc...but what Istanbul means to me are these three things. 

1. Apple Tea

2. Rugs

3. Catcalling

I would go to Istanbul just to see these lamps.

Apple Tea, Istanbul's gift to the world. It is so good! It is like hot apple cider without the weird cider taste. :) 

The Rugs and textiles are amazing right now. It makes my infatuation with aztec print very expensive. I bought five pillows and two rugs. Whoops. :/

Catcalling. This is the worst thing about Istanbul. Walking around Istanbul, it does not matter how you are dressed, all women get yelled at, touched, stared at etc etc. It can be really uncomfortable for women who already feel uncomfortable with forward men. But my friends and I realized that most of the men were actually just being friendly! If we ignored them then they started yelling more, if we answered them with 'No thank you's or 'We have already eaten but thank you!' they would always back off and say 'Ok well, next time! Enjoy your time in Istanbul!

Have I mentioned the humus and apple tea yet?

Spice Market Shopping! Expensive but Amazing. 

The Eye of Sofia (the history of this is amazing, a must see)

Molly smelling a lemon and mint tea. 

My friends and I began playing a game, we began making a list of things the men say to us. Most of the things in the list are hilarious and not inappropriate in the least, but they were still yelled out loud, across stores or roads.  Some of these things are inappropriate and were added to help show what life is like as a woman living or visiting in Turkey. Hope this doesn't keep you from visiting this beautiful place...it really is one of my favorite places in the world, you just need to go with a good attitude, a good 'Back Off' face and always travel in packs. :) 

TOP 13 THINGS MEN YELLED AT US 

(REMEMBER THAT MANY WERE DUPLICATES)

1. 'Hello Girls! HERE I AM!'
2. 'Let me guess...Chinese?'
3. 'Hola señoras bonitas.'
4. 'Beautiful Ladies please check out my big menu!' (NASTINESS)
5. Mmmm...(yummy noises) 
6. 'I have the best rugs in Istanbul! Best prices! And touching is free!'
7. A man literally walked up to one of us, handed her a ten lira (ten dollars), and said "Please feel free to shop in my store!"
8. 'It's my birthday ladies! Help a fellow out!'

Smiling through the catcalling

9. 'It's pay day today, not for me but for the sellers, so please help me out!'
10. 'Hello beautiful ladies! You are from Germany, no? ' (As he touches my friends hair. Thankfully she did not see it because I know she would have punched him right in the face if she did.)
11. 'Let me guess...SISTERS!'
12. 'Please take me home! '
13. (My least favorite) Looking us up and down and literally making a catcall, a kissing noise. 

Confession

Going through a 12 Step program is one of the most beautiful yet difficult things a human can go through. Currently Daughters of Bulgaria's outreach team is going through Servants Anonymous' 12 step program called Formation of Servants. Like I said, it is extremely difficult but beautiful. I am learning so much about myself and my insane capability of trying to fix myself over and over again expecting different results instead of running to the Lord.
The serenity bible is a companion for the 12 step recovery. It gives you verses from the bible to go through for each step. Currently I am on Step 5, this step is about Confession and I really enjoyed what the Serenity Bible says about why should confess our sins to one another, the benefits of honesty.

Four positive things happen in Step 5 sharing:

1. Our shame is reduced through confession. We know that confession is an ancient tradition in Christianity and that it is an indispensable ingredient in the healing and renewal process. 
2. Step 5 sharing allows us to express our grief-to expel the resentments, the anger, the fears that eat away at us and keep us from living life to the fullest. 
3. We take a major step toward honesty. Perhaps the single greatest barrier to recovery is the inability to be honest. In Step 5 sharing, maybe for the first time in our lives, we open our deepest, darkest secrets and most private hurts to another human being. 
4. Addictions, by their nature, isolate us from other people and from God. Step 5 sharing breaks down the barriers we have erected through our addictions. 

Sharing is the beginning of the end of our isolation. 

AMEN!!!