More Travel

We leave today for North Carolina to be with Corey and Brittney and AVA! for Christmas. Drew is also meeting us there. It is going to be fun to be with Ava. I can't wait. But there is so much to be done this morning before we leave.

Some memories from Mexico that I will elaborate on later...
3 pesos to use the bathroom
no toilet seats
lonely old ladies
donkeys
pigs
dogs everywhere
cowboy-looking hats with a tassel on the back
sweet smiles and giggles because we don't understand each other
an earthquake
baptism of the prison warden
Juan Monroy
Sam
Josue
Lidia
Teresa
Augustine
Esli
Sonia
Sergio
Bulmar
Edgar
babies
open air windows
mountains
mexican pizza
tacos
iron stomach
Steve
Ray
Joe and Becky....they are amazing
long bus trips
Acapulco
propositions
bottled water

Okay, enough. I will tell more later.

Mexico

Aleluya! Te alabamos, cuan grande es tu amor!
Aleluya! Te adoramos, bendito Senor.

Unidos load a la gran trinidad
Que es la fuente de gracia, virtud y verdad.

I have learned much these past few days about Mexico and myself and God...and there is still so much to learn from this experience that I know will come later.
I just got home last night very late. I slept until 10 o'clock because we stayed up talking for awhile after I got home. I wish that I had pictures to really show you where we were.

I don't really have words yet to describe. I am tired and a little disoriented at this point.

I will tell more later when I am more coherent.

Just know that it was amazing and there are many stories. God is walking beside me and trying desperately to get me to listen and grasp some deeper truths. These stories are connected to to all of that. The well of truth seems bottomless at this point and I have felt recently that God is pulling me in deeper and trying to show me something very specific. Maybe you can help me figure that out.

Leaving Again

Thank you for your kind words of comfort yesterday. I still cannot fully grasp Sarah's death and maybe won't until that moment when I see her family without her or witness her mother's tears as she talks about her. Still, she is so much on my mind and in my heart. This has been a year of losses...both friends leaving behind a legacy of love and faithfulness and yet, leaving little children. I don't understand and maybe don't want to understand at this point...I think I will just live in the grief for awhile. I think that is the healthiest thing to do at this moment.

I leave today to go to Mexico. I will be back on Monday and will tell you all about it. I hope that I get some good pictures also. This is a mission trip. I will helping in a clinic and others will be doing many other things...children's programs, prisons, church dedication. We are going to Arcelia, Mexico.

Have a great weekend!!!

Sarah's Gone but We'll See Her Again

This is from Sarah's husband, Scott. Sarah left this world this afternoon leaving in her wake her faithful husband, four beautiful children, loving parents, a dear sister, and two precious brothers and many, many more friends and family. Just can't believe it.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2006 03:16 PM, CST
I want everyone to take heart.
This afternoon Sarah slipped away through the great divide that separates our world from God’s kingdom in Heaven. Sarah loved the Lord more than anyone I have ever known. And she loved everything about the life that God entrusted her with. A few weeks ago when Sarah was whispering to me she said the following while gesturing about the immediate world around her, “It’s more than about this. It’s not just about this.” When I asked her what she meant she said, “Life was not just about this physical body, and the physical world in which we live.” Sarah and I both believe this with all of our hearts. My children believe it too and know they can one day see her again in Heaven….but - only by putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Please read on:
Romans 10
9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
Hebrews 11
11. With respect to the promise of God, she did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God
Revelation 21
4And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
5And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."
6Then He said to me, "It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
7"She who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be her God and she will be My daughter.
God has definitely been glorified through Sarah’s life and even in her death. I want you to know that she never wavered in her love and devotion for her family, and especially for God!
For those who would like to attend, there will be a “Celebration” Service this Thursday evening, December 14th, 2006 at 7:00p.m. at the Fairfax Church of Christ.
3901 Rugby Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22033
(703) 631-2100
I ask that you please continue to pray for Sarah’s family and especially for our four little children; Hannah, Noah, Jonah and Rachel.
Still your humble friend and brother - Scott
2 Corinthians 4:7
7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

Keep Praying for Sarah

They are meeting this morning with a team to doctors to talk about Sarah. Her family will all be there. She has several masses now and some lymph node involvement. They can't give chemo now because she can't walk or sit. I hate this grim news. Please keep praying.

I am going out for a walk right now. I slept a little too late because I was up late making cookies. I like to make cookies for the neighbors but I feel like this year it has new purpose. Thanks Sally Morgenthaler. Sally is my friend but recently she was interviewed by Wineskins and she talked about how churches shouldn't have new programs. New programs aren't working and keep us from doing what the work of the kingdom really is. She challenged us to spend the next 6 months getting to know our neighbors better. Find out their stories. Know their names. Eat some meals with them. I think that Sally is right. This is the work of the kingdom.
Today as I walk I will pray for Sarah and her family, my own family and my neighbors and that our relationship with our neighbors will grow.
Look around your house and your neighborhood. Who lives beside you? across the street? a few doors down? I am challenging you to get to know your neighbors over the next 6 months and see how different your neighborhood will feel when June rolls around. You may have some new fascinating, life-enriching friends. You may know Jesus in a new way because these are his people.

No News

I have been waiting all day for news about Sarah. No news. I am afraid today and my heart feels heavy. Keep praying for her husband, Scott, and their three children...Hannah, Jonah, Noah, and Rachel. Please pray for Sarah's parents, Allen and Becky, and her siblings, David and Beth and Doug. This has been a hard autumn and a hard holiday season. Pray for peace.

For Sarah

These are words from Sarah's caringbridge site. Please keep praying. She has opened her eyes and squeezed hands but no words right now. What is happening now is very serious. Please pray:


PLEASE PRAY. The pulmonary specialist talked to Scott this morning about the results of the CT scan of Sarah's chest taken yesterday. Sarah is having a reoccurence of her lymphoblastic leukemia, as evidenced by a large mass in her chest. The mass is affecting the blood flow in the area and may cause other problems. Growth of the mass is another obvious concern.
The oncologist on duty will speak with Scott this morning and Dr. Spira (Sarah's regular oncologist) will come to the hospital later this afternoon to evaluate options.
Please pray that the mass will stop growing and that Sarah's ALL will be held at bay. Please pray for Sarah's blood circulation. Please pray for the clots in Sarah's arms to dissolve. Please pray that the clots do not break free or lead to additional problems. Please pray for protection from infection. Please pray for complete healing of Sarah's body.
Please pray for strength, peace and reassurance for Scott, the kids, and the entire Duckworth family.

Crazy Afternoon and Good Words (Again)

I was running around yesterday trying to get all my passport stuff done and nothing seemed to go right...
There was a long line at Office Depot to copy my documents and the girl behind the counter was cheerful but was trying to do too many things at one time. I then took my documents and ran to the post office. I handed the clerk my paperwork and the first thing he said to me was...Alabama and Georgia are very big places....I am thinking...so...and he just stands there and looks at me. I then say that that is where they were born and that that information is correct. He then states that I need a city or county or something because those states are big places and you can't just put that as your parent's birthplaces. Okay, why didn't he say that in the very beginning? Now, he asks for my birth certificate. And guess what? It is still in the copy machine at Office Depot with the cheerful girl. Office Depot is on the other side of town and the post office is crowded and I already had to drive around a few times to find a parking space. I drive back to Office Depot and the cheerful girl is nowhere to found and someone else finally helps me and I am on my way back to the post office and the not so cheerful clerk. I then realize that I am going to have to drive around the post office to find a parking space again and I end up going the wrong way on a one way street. What a day!!! I do finally get all the passport stuff done...I will never let this passport expire. It has been too much trouble.

All that time driving around in the car...even sometimes in the wrong direction...gave me a chance to listen to the Indigo Girls over and over again.

Pendulum Swinger by Emily Salier

I meet you for coffee
We get together periodically
I got a bad case I can't shake off of me
The fevered walking round wondering how it ought to be
You work in the system
You see possibilities and your glistening
Eyes show the hell you're gonna give 'em
When they back off the mic for once and give it to a woman

I dream like a mad one
Brutal fantasies I catch as catch can
I'm a psychic and a laywoman
I see love and like to make it happen
What we get from your war walk
The ticker of the nation breaking down like a bad clock
I want the pendulum to swing again
So that all your mighty mandate was just spitting in the wind

It doesn't come by the bullwhip
It's not persuaded with your hands on your hips
Not the company of gunslingers
The epicenter love is the pendulum swinger
She is, she is, she is

It's fine about the old scroll sanskrit
Gnostic gospels the da vinci code's a smash hit
Aren't we dying just to read it and relate
Too hard just to go by a blind faith
But they left out the sisters
Praying to a father god so long I really missed her
The goddess of benevolence
And you should listen to your mama if you have a lick of sense left

Pushed under by the main press, buried under a code of dress
Relegated by the vatican
But you can't keep a spirit down that wants to get up again

If we're a drop in the bucket
With just enough science to keep from saying &*@# it
Until the last drop of sun burns its sweet light
Plenty revolutions left until we get this thing right



I love this song....sorry about the language....I tried to soften it but you know exactly what the word is...but it does rhyme with the last line.

I Love My Church

It feels so good to love your church....the body of Christ. Tonight was the Christmas Blessing. The neighborhood children put on a Christmas pageant and the church serves dinner to the neighborhood.
I was only there for the pageant and the beginning of dinner but I took in so much just looking around tonight. My friend, Randy, who just took on a new job at Hope Haven as their director, was sitting with a family and talking with the kids. Randy is so perfect for that job and I love watching him interact with people who are struggling and especially with children. Another man who runs Highland's hospitality house sitting with a family and holding children on his lap and talking with them about what is happening. The Whites who show so much love and care to the neighborhood around Highland. Lucy and her friends helping the kids get ready for their performance and then prompting them from the front row with gestures and cue cards. The Highland family greeting those from our neighborhood and making them feel welcome and wanting them to feel the warmth of Christ.
This morning in class we talked about it being the first Sunday of Advent and how we are awaiting the arrival of Jesus. In England some call this Sunday "Stir Up Sunday" and I think it is something we need to use. The prayer said on Stir Up Sunday is this: "Stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, and come." I love it. We then talked about Zechariah 2 and how we can't measure God's kingdom and there is no need to...and that God calls us the apple of his eye. I loved all those images and the words used to describe and the words used in conversation with the angel.
It has been a good day.

Tragedy

I want you all sometime today to go to www.sojo.net and check out the trailer for a movie called The Ground Truth. It is a movie about the veterans of the war in Iraq. We can pretend that we are honoring our troops by talking about them as heroes but we can truly honor them by listening to them...hearing about how they were trained, listening to their stories of war and trying to understand how this experience has changed them forever and not for the good.