Procrastination and Prayer....

So the original intent of this blog was to tell you what I'm learning, and to be honest, if I were to share EVERYTHING I've learned lately, I'd have to post like every other day or at least a couple of times a week. And if you know me at all, you know I SHOULD be studying for my recertification Board exam...the exam that determines whether I get to keep my license to practice as a PA....kind of a big deal and all. Wwwweeeelllllllllllllllllllll...... Let's just say that, after 6 years of being out of school, I STINK at studying. I've lost all motivation when it comes to sitting down, in front of a book, and actually reading facts over and over. My mind COMPLETELY wanders. I get that bored kind of hungry that makes me eat dry cereal just to have some ELSE to do. And I start making lists. Lists of all the stuff that floods my mind when I should be concerned about my future CAREER instead.

Needless to say, I should be studying right NOW actually. But instead, I feel compelled to write because I've read something so wonderful, so beautiful, and so convicting, it needs to be shared. It's on prayer and prayer is something everyone needs to grow in. I don't think anyone could say they've perfected their prayer lives. I do know of one sweet lady who is a PRAYER WARRIOR who has even recently prayed for healing and received it. (Maybe I'll blog on that later...I LOVE Ms. Marcy!!)...

So, here are a few thoughts from a man named Arthur Tappan Pierson (1837-1911). I hope this isn't copyrighted because, well, he's no longer with us, so I don't know who I would even ask permission to post this!?!

Anyway, this excerpt is called Continuing in Prayer and is worth the read:

"As assuredly as that which you ask would be for your real good, and therefore for the honor of the Lord; and as assuredly as you ask it solely on the ground of the worthiness of our Lord Jesus, so assuredly you will at last obtain the blessing. The great point is that we ask only for that which would be for the glory of God to give to us, for that, and that alone, can be for our real good. We must secondly ask it in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and expect it only on the grounds of His merits and worthiness. Thirdly, we should believe that God is able and willing to give us what we ask Him for. Fourthly, we should continue in prayer till the blessing is granted without fixing to God a time when, or the circumstances under which, He should give the answer. Patience should be in exercise in connection with our prayer. At the same time, we should look out for and expect an answer. If we pray in this way, we shall not only have answers...but our own souls will be greatly refreshed and invigorated in connection with these answers."

May it be of me, O Lord. May it be.
Night!

Both/And :)

Dear Friends and Family, 04/14/10

Once again, I have opportunity to return to Iasi, Romania July 9-18th. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since my last visit because it seems like yesterday in many ways. I became very close with four ladies and will have an opportunity to see them and work with one of them again. This year, however, the trip will look very different as it will not be medical. Instead, we will be working with the “forgotten children”…orphans. These children live in what has been named “the phantom block” which is a row of abandoned apartment buildings with no electricity or running water. They have no access to education and I really do not know how they survive. We will be partnering with a church in Iasi (Yah-sh), Romania called Way of Joy that is located in this impoverished area and provides clean running water, and one meal a day for up to 40 children. They teach them basic life skills, (like eating with utensils) and some education, while showing them the love of Christ. We plan on hosting a “Backyard Bible/Vacation Bible School” type of program as of right now. Of course, depending on the needs we encounter, we are prepared to be flexible.

When praying about where to go this summer, another trip caught my attention, as well. I was truly wresting with whether to return to Romania or to join another trip that is scheduled for Delhi, India Sept. 17-26th. This trip will specifically focus on a battered women’s home that has just opened, along with an orphanage. It will focus on grief counseling and vocational training as well as literacy and educational training. This is a strategic partnership with a well-established ministry and is only one of many trips throughout the next few years to carry out these initiatives.

As you can see, this is no easy decision. Ideally and prayerfully, I long to take part in both trips. Please pray with me for the Lord to give me clear guidance and provision as these trips are being planned. Also, pray for the leaders and for the tasks ahead, as well as safe travel and ‘eternal’ success.

Thank you for your constant prayer and support! I’m truly grateful to share this journey with you! I’ll be posting some more about the trips as we get closer to the dates we’ll be leaving.

“For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight… Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory.” Ps. 72:12-14,18-19


Karen Connor
kconnor7@yahoo.com

Impossible

"We, like Thomas, find it hard to believe that God can do the very thing that He is best at; replacing death with life. Our infertile imaginations bear little hope that the improbable will occur. We then, like Thomas, let our dreams fall victim to doubt. We make the same mistake that Thomas made: we forget that "impossible" is one of God's favorite words." ~ Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him Savior

This 'theme' of impossible has come up in my life on multiple occasions. I'm reminded yet again, as, throughout this week, I've seen God move in some pretty amazing ways.

It started with a last minute phone call from my friend Colleen to join her at a Sav-a-Life banquet Tuesday evening, where none other than Pam Tebow was speaking. Both Colleen and I are Florida natives so we jumped at the opportunity. I didn't know much about the ministry of Sav-a-Life, but through the evening, was enlightened to the power of a vision and a hope that has fueled this ministry to live out the Gospel daily. To comfort, provide for, take care of, teach, and disciple young women through the most difficult decision of their lives. To keep or abort their unborn child.

Mrs. Tebow spoke eloquently in what was basically a four part sermon, complete with sub-points and scripture verses she had committed to memory. And as Colleen pointed out, with no notes! She explained how early on in her marriage, she and her husband made up their minds about the "Four M's": Jesus would be their Master, the Bible- their Manual, Eternity- their Mindset, and Serving- their Ministry. So when faced with the pregnancy of their 5th child, living in the Philippines, receiving no prenatal care, contracting an amoeba, and being told "it wasn't really a child, but tissue" so she should abort, they chose to trust the Lord. They had already committed their lives to be faithful. Well, most of us know who baby #5 turned out to be...none other than Tim Tebow, who himself, has a powerful ministry. In fact, all of her family is serving the Lord. She raised a family of faith. Now, at age 60, Mrs. Tebow finds herself with a new ministry, a public speaking ministry. Because of Tim's success, she's been called on to share her story and act as advocate for young women and unborn children throughout the south. She does it well, always pointing to her deep faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and challenging all of her listeners to put their faith in Jesus Christ, to prayer, and to serve SOMEWHERE. Though it may seem impossible to me now, I left encouraged and challenged. I want to be like her someday...Faithful.



More excitement came in the form of an email from my friend Liz in Romania. She sent out a prayer request for a Chinese Malaysian student named William. He was attending church and asking questions about Christianity. Well, he was being discipled through some New Testament passages over the last few weeks and the other night, he said he suddenly went from being 40-50% of the way toward Christianity, to 70%. Well we've prayed for him specifically by name and yesterday I got an email saying; 'The great awesome news is that it seems as if William has accepted Christ!'

To follow this amazing news, was something way more "impossible" ...at least to me. My sweet friends minister tirelessly through Campus Crusade here at UAB. They pour their hearts and lives into these students. However, recently a new campus group has become very prominent on campus, the "free thought society" aka the atheists. They often put anti-God and anti-religion chalkings all over the campus sidewalks. They set up booths to spread their message. It is disheartening to say the least. However, God pursues...and God always wins. As grace would have it, the president of the Free Thought society has been meeting with some wise Christian apologists, reading scripture, and having his eyes opened to the Truth. In his words, he converted! He has stepped down from his position of leadership in that campus group because he is now a Christian!!!!! How incredible!

Finally, today, I had the privilege of serving among 40+ adults and youth to renovate a house in innercity Birmingham. Ms. Helen has lived there for over 40ys and cares for her four grown children who are mentally or physically handicapped. She is helped by her 16y grandson but the house had fallen to utter disrepair. The need was first addressed by one of the widows of our church, Ms. Marcy. This faithful spunky 78y lady and her family wanted to find a needy family to sponsor for Christmas and was led to Ms. Helen. In the 3 months that have followed, Traci Hipps from Mission Birmingham has called on churches to pour their time and resources in to renovating this house. The 8th house Mr. Hipps has facilitated in what he calls GRACE MAKEOVER. It's overwhelming to Ms. Helen to think that she would have complete strangers reroof, replace windows, floors, appliances, repaint, refurnish, and invest not only time and money, but love and prayer. I'm sure if you asked her what were the odds of some strangers showing up at her house last Christmas with Christmas dinner, presents and groceries...she probably would have said, impossible.

This week has been greatly humbling for many reasons, not the least of which is that my own heart is full of doubt, reasoning, and often, just plain unbelief. I settle for the "norm" around me and fail to believe that things...that circumstances...that people...can be different, can change. That the Lord still does the impossible...


"Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

The Old and the New...

It’s been another year of learning and growing through both joyful and painful times. I’ve been blessed to walk through both with some dear friends, as we’ve seen and had to trust the Lord to provide, guide, hold and carry. And of course, He has. I’ve also read and spent time meditating on Scripture and absorbing various other books. And finally, at the prompting of the Lord, my own self, and others, I’ve revisited my “goals” for the year past and the year to come. I’ll gather my thoughts on these a little better and post soon…

I look forward to a little down time over the next few days to reminisce over the enjoyable Christmas vacation trip, the happiness of friends engaged, newly pregnant, and newly or re- connected.

As we ring in the New Year, I hope you are taking time to do the same. Because the Lord is Emmanuel, He is God with us, In us and For us…He has come, Is here, and Is coming again….to make all things new.

Let the new year be a reminder that someday (soon, I pray), the Lord will return, to the sound of celebrating and ringing, to come and claim His own.

Are you One of His?

Happy New Year, be blessed!
K

The Test of Time

It's interesting how God seems to teach me things by "theme." What I mean by that is, a thought or concept will come up repeatedly in my life until I can put two and two together and actually learn from it. My friend Liz, who happens to be a missionary to Romania and I met on my mission trip this summer, sent me an email with a link to a sermon by Josh Harris (pastor and author). He entitled it "Self-Control in a Wired World" and went on to emphasize the draw and drain on our time that such things as television, email, twitter, facebook, online war-games, and yes, even blogging can be. It was a convicting thought in the face of the growing isolation, depression, and spiritual bankruptcy we are experiencing as a society.

He didn't condemn these things in and of themselves. And neither would I, per se. I understand all too well the longing to disengage my brain after a long day or few days at work. It's totally understandable to just need a break occasionally and to venture off into the world of "other." However, if you do this more often than not, and especially if you are a Christian, eventually you find yourself feeling an emptiness you just can't seem to put your finger on.

As we repeatedly peer into the lives of others (whether real--emails, blogs, Facebook, etc--or make believe--tv, internet games, etc), we are left with a subtle void and find ourselves feel provoked to jealousy, envy, sadness, depression, hopelessness, or pain at seeing the party pictures, travels, relationship stories, 'mountiantop' experiences, possesions, accomplishments or promotions of others.

Why, if we are left feeling these strongly negative emotions towards people we hardly (or don't) keep in touch with...things which scripture encourages us and URGES us (in Galations 5, Colossians 3, 2Timothy 2-3 to name a few places...) to set aside, do we really believe this is "relaxation" or escape, or by any means profitable for eternity?????????????

There are so many ways our time could be better spent.

Lately, the Lord has been reminding me over and over again something I learned a few years ago. It started with a Beth Moore bible study that encouraged us to start praying scripture. Novel? Why, actually, yes! To me, it was. But when you stop and think about it even for a second, it seems so logical...so, well, like...'duh.'

I love what she says in her book, Praying God's Word Day by Day, though. What is the best way to know you are praying God's will for your life, your loved ones, and your situations? How do you fight strongholds and gain self-control over struggles? How do you find joy in the midst of loneliness, sadness, death? By praying the very words of scripture. Praying God's words back to Him! And how do we know what to pray? Well, we have to actually READ and UNDERSTAND God's Words. I love her quote, "Beloved, you will never waste time in God's Word."

I've starting applying this in my prayer life over the course of this year through some very high and very low situations. It is so comforting to KNOW that you are praying according to God's will and purpose, and with confidence (Hebrews 10:19-25)! It's been challenging to spend time actually understanding scripture so as to pray it over areas in my life. It takes time.

Time I sometimes waste in front of my computer.

I want to encourage you to walk away from your computer at the end of a long day. Curl up on the couch or in your bed with the #1 Bestseller of all time, The Holy Bible. I pray that you would see for yourself how your life can be "filled up to all the fullness of God" as you are "strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge," because He is able "to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in all the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."!
(Ephesians 3:14-21)

The Next Best Thing...

While I've always joked that I am the gold medalist of one-armed picture-taking, I now think I would also take the gold in having the most unfinished photo albums. I ventured into the wide world of Creative Memories at that tender high school age when the naive and the idealist collide and you feel like you will be 80 years old, looking through years of beautifully crafted pages of happy memories and fun trips.

Wrong.

Until today, I would have turned 80 and the picture record would still be stuck somewhere in 2003. However, as I've learned from years of psychology, you can't go backward, you can only go forward...you eat an elephant one bite at a time...start small...make little goals and mark them off as you go...etc. etc. etc.

Well, I'm not very motivated by all the small talk, it seems. I am, however, powerfully motivated by jealousy. Ha! Thanks to my sweet and very organized friend Ashley, who has beautiful bound photo albums from EVERY TRIP she's been on and also a HUGE hand-prepared scrap book of her first-born son, Nathan's first year, I was moved to get busy!

Ashley told me of a few websites to try such as Snapfish or MyPublisher. I had tried Snapfish in the past but didn't get far at all. I got discouraged and gave up. But MyPublisher is a downloadable program that you can work on at your own pace. One year after the fact, I decided to try my hand at this "online" photo album by memorializing a super fun girls trip to Chicago (to celebrate a birthday, see the city, and go to WICKED!) in October of '08.

So although it only took me a day to complete, this program from MyPublisher was slow, didn't have as many layout options as I was hoping, and was a little tricky to navigate at times. Not only that, but it ended up costing a pretty penny, as they only throw in expensive FedEx shipping options! Urgh.

But, I finished! I made an entire album of a trip in a day! Okay, so now, I have several other trips that need to materialize into albums instead of just a file folder on my computer. And I have the bug...of accomplishment...which is powerful...and so...I sought out another program and decided I'd try my hand at yet another album!

I downloaded Picaboo (Picassa Web Albums version of an online photobook). Clever name, and clever program! This program was quick, had several fun background options, made much more sense, and was good bit cheaper (with coupon codes). I finished my entire Romania Medical Mission trip album in just a few hours, and this album had much more of a journal feel as I had a ton to write about!! They layout options were perfect and the program was so much easier to navigate.

WOW! Two photobooks in two days!!! I'm on a roll....

But wait.

I need to be patient and wait for the finished product before I pour more money into this. Wisdom. I need to be wise! So...I will wait for the books to arrive and see what kind of quality they offer before proceeding with the China trip, the high school girls reunion beach trip, etc etc etc....

Just thought I'd share my fun accomplishments!

Quiet and Complete

So, there has been a theme in the past week that the Lord keeps sending my way as I read the Bible (Colossians), as I lift up my requests in prayer to the Lord, as I talk with my friends and as we encourage each other in our singleness. It is this: Colossians 2:10 and a commentary to follow:

"And you are complete in Christ" - 'It is a wonderful thing to be made whole and full. This means we can stop searching for identity and self-worth in the elemental and base philosophies of the world. Our future is sure in Christ because no longer are we incomplete creatures, helpless in face of an unseen destiny. Jesus Christ is the head over every power and authority, and He is more powerful than sorrow, gloom, fear, insecurity, and the need for approval.' ~Marie Chapian, Women's Devotional Bible, NIV.

We are filled.

We are complete in Him.

There are many instances lately where I do not feel filled. I care about my job and I am very thankful for it. But it does not fill me. I am thankful for my church family, but am not as connected as I have been in the past in others I've been a part of. I have close friends, but I do not have "the friend that sticks closer than a brother" currently. And lastly, often, I do not feel complete, as I am single and I am not currently dating anyone. That last line is code for: I get lonely.

As I meet with my friends to talk, quite a few have the same type of assessment of their own lives. And at times, thankfully different times, we can each get distracted or even discouraged by our longing for...something more. For a change.

But the Lord is teaching me this week, especially, that it's in those times, Scripture speaks loudly to those who are in Christ. We ARE complete. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We have everything we need for life and godliness. We are deeply loved. We are fully known. He walks beside us, dwells within us, carries us, gives us wisdom, lights our path, lightens our load, shoulders our burdens, gives life to our mortal bodies, and takes our place in death. (I have the scripture references for all of these..if you'd like)

What more could we possibly need?

It is a deep comfort, a great joy and pleasant peace to know Him. And to be known by Him.

I have had some sweet and comforting encouragement by my friends these past two days. I have also been exposed to this verse a few different times this week: Zephaniah 3:17. "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

I love it when God repeats a verse to me through random, seemingly unrelated situations. He knows what I need and He always provides.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds...Encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near..." Heb. 10:23-25

Quieted by His love and faithfulness,
K