Patience

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

James 5:7-8

For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

1 Peter 2:20

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galations 6:9

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

Hebrews 10:23

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Matthew 24:13

And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:11-12

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Hebrew 10:35-36

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James 1-2-4

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Romans 5:3-4

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Agape Love

char⋅i⋅ty /ˈtʃærɪti/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [char-i-tee] –noun, plural -ties; Christian love; agape.

a⋅ga⋅pe  [ah-gah-pey] /ɑˈgɑpeɪ, ˈɑgəˌpeɪ, ˈægə-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation –noun, plural -pae; Translated charity meaning benevolent love. Its benevolence, however, is not shown by doing what the person loved desires but what the one who loves deems as needed by the one loved; (e.g., For God so loved [egapesen] the world that He gave . . . John 3:16). He gave not what man wanted, but what man needed as God perceived his need, namely His Son who brought forgiveness to man. God's love for man is His doing what He thinks best for man and not what man desires. It is God's willful direction toward man. But for man to show love to God, he must first appropriate God's agape, for only God has such an unselfish love.

-An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

W. E. Vine, 1940

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

-1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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Joshua 1

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Be strong and of a good courage:...

Only be thou strong and very courageous,

that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. ...Have not I commanded thee?

Be strong and of a good courage;

be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land. ...Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death:

only be strong and of a good courage.

And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us

we will do,
and whithersoever thou sendest us,
we will go.


Is our battle bigger than the conquering of the promised land?


Keep your fears to yourself. Speak your courage to others.

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20 Weeks

...have found my little nephew to be growing rapidly!!

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:11-16

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A Birthday Gift

For those of you who don't know, this whole trip was made possible by Hannah Hanson! A couple weeks before my birthday, she absolutely floored me with such a creative and generous gift- 2 round tickets (standby) to anywhere continental US that Southwest flies!! That was the beginning of weeks of, "Where do I go?" "For how long?" "Who do I take?" Many of you know I have a terrible weakness for indecisiveness in some areas, and this was definitely one of them. But alas, after juggling options, it was decided visiting family in Tennessee was the best, and Aimee Marsceau accompanied me.
All that to say a great big THANK YOU to you,
Hannah, for giving me such a wonderful time for my birthday!!

And thank you, Aimee, for joining me!!

Well, I've finally got them up! In fact, maybe overdid it a little... this is probably the longest post in the history of this blog... and that was after turning down hundreds (literally) of other pictures to share, some of which I haven't barely looked at :)!

Why do computer screens do this? Heh?

Chicago: a *bit* crowded. :) This was after God gave me a wonderful divine appointment in the plane-- there weren't two seats together, so Aimee and I sat across from each other. That put me next to a lady with whom I was able to witness to the entire flight! Praise the Lord!

And yet another sign the Lord was controlling our trip-- within 5 minutes of arriving in Chicago, we passed these two Christians on their way from California to Pennsylvania to attend school there. After we passed them a second time there in the Chicago airport, they turned around and said, "Looking for a place to eat?" We spent our 2 hour layover (ended up being less than that, due to boarding early) getting to know them a little bit and sharing fun stories. :)

Getting a glimpse of life at the Beams-- door to door witnessing included (a beautiful day in our South Dakotan opinion! [much in contrast to the feelings of the 60 or so other teens]).

Phone calls home...

Guitar lessons...

John 3:16 in the Burmese language.
But I suppose you knew that, right? ;)

We collated thousands of these Burmese Bibles while we were there. Believe it or not, this is a posed picture-- pretty good actors, wouldn't you agree?

Getting ready to play "Marsceau Yard" at an unearthly hour.

The Beams own around 200 acres of beautiful country, most of which is woods; beautiful even without all the luscious green that is there during warmer months.

Their woods were absolutely packed with treasures... horse apples, Muscadine grapes, black walnuts, Indian money, wild chives, herbs...

rickity tree houses...

...that are even more rickity when you're in them. :)

What do you get when you put 5 girls together for 10 days?

Mmhmm.

Bus routes, early Sunday morning.

Enthusiastic bus occupants!

Ah, yes, packing... late... very late... I won't show the attempts to STUFF everything back in the suitcases for the ride home :)!

On the way to the airport being waved goodbye by-- yes, you guessed it-- snow in Tennessee! I suppose it was only to be expected that we'd leave behind a bit of South Dakota.

Don't be deceived, we weren't this happy to leave! Thank you, Uncle Randy, Aunt Shirley and the rest, for opening your home and putting your time and hearts into making our visit so very enjoyable and profitable!

On board once again.

Keeping busy. Enjoying my 6th bag of peanuts (I didn't ask for any, honest! I wasn't really the glutton I sound like, they just kept handing them out and I cordially obliged!).

Ah, yes, and about you Southwest persons: how do we say this any plainer than to say, thank you! You were all too fun, kept the trip casual and comfortable!

Leaving Chicago, headed for Omaha.

Home.
Pardon the fuzzy picture- it was the coldest day in a decade for SD, about a 80 degree difference for us coming back from TN... I didn't bother resetting the ISO, my hands were too stubborn. :) I know the rest don't have very good quality either, I couldn't take my camera along, but did the best I could with the one I had! Oh, and a disclaimer: obviously, I didn't take all these pictures, the ones where I'm in them were usually by Aimee or a nearby willing someone. :)

Well, that's going to have to be all, lest blogger gets impatient with me! Now, you who've been begging for these pictures- better make it worth it and leave your comments! :) There's just no way I could show you guys all that we did or I learned while gone for those short 10 days, but this will have to do! Blessings!

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