From the North American Mission Board:

The “Buckets of Hope” ministry is just one means by which Baptists can fulfill the mandate of Jesus Christ to feed the hungry in the name of Jesus.

A “Bucket of Hope” consists of a plastic five-gallon bucket packed with selected foodstuffs. For approximately $30 anyone can purchase the materials and assemble a "Bucket of Hope." The food contained in a single bucket will feed a Haitian family for a week. You are also requested to include a $10 cash contribution, placed in an envelope and attached to the lid of the bucket, to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti.

Every bucket must be exactly alike with a specific list of items inside. Please follow the detailed instructions carefully. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people.

Contact your Baptist State Convention office for delivery dates and instructions. Then put a bucket together and you can be a part in touching the lives of tens of thousands of Haitians.

It is February and the month of all lovey-dovey things....and I always find stuff on the (In)Courage site that encourages (ha!) me. Because someone else wrote what I feel in a MUCH better way than I could, I'm re-posting this love story:

"He was always around, a family friend.
When I was only seven, I knew he was the one for me.
Strong and gentle, good and true.
Later I questioned. Weren’t there more appealing options in the world?

I became distant. Broke his heart. But still he stayed.
One day I realized, there’s no better love.
I came back for good.

When I think of us now, it’s a jumble of memories, moments,good times and hard.
Sometimes I wonder how he puts up with me.
But he loves me, CRAZY loves me, in a way I can hardly understand.

When I think of all that’s best in me, I see him.
He’s chased my heart every step of my life.
This is my love story--

messy, glorious…
simply Divine."

2009 has been QUITE a year!! I blogged last year about looking forward to all the "new things" that the Lord had planned...but I don't really think I was prepared for all that would mean! It has most certainly been a wonderful adventure.

I survived turning 30 (it wasn't so bad!), flew twice as many times this year as in my whole life combined (over the ocean, TWICE), developed a love of travel and of NYC, made new friends in a new city, learned to navigate a big city and many airports and made a home for myself away from "home." It has been a crazy busy year and a year of great adjustment, a year of learning some new things about myself and new things about the Lord and His great, patient and overwhelming love. And I'm quite excited to see what 2010 has in store for all of us!!!


Of course, I can't help but share something I read online lately. I have found it easy in the last year to become homesick for Oklahoma. Not because I don't love where I am, but because I crave all the comfort that is found in a town where you are known and loved and where friendships run deep and plentiful. And inevitably, in my most homesick moment, I happen across words that are challenging and true and remind me of all the things that tug at my heart (click here for the entire article):

"...I’m realizing that I was really born into homesickness for the heart of God.

So I go there, as best I can in this people skin, to what is at His heart—to the God whose throne sits on my own heart, and I ask what keeps me from craving the comfort He offers. Why do I not call my heart His home and run to Him who is within me, right where I am?

And I know the answer immediately. Sometimes I don’t believe I can be “sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10). What the Spirit calls comfort is not what I call it, my giving my all, my whole complete self,

and I don’t give my all because those who are at His heart are the poor, the ones standing outside our gates: the ones two doors down who can't pay their bills; the ones fly-faced on commercials; the ones rocking alone in a nursing home or on the street with a paper-bagged bottle; the ones begging for milk in my own kitchen.

Where I am serving the God of the Universe in His Greatness, where I am giving Him my all, neck-deep in the incomprehensibly dirty, it is there I am overwhelmed with the tastes and sounds of home. And there, at His heart, is my only fit. In my realizing my own lowly position within my Royal heart-home, I realize contentment..."

I know it's been FORRRR-EVVV-ERRRR since I've blogged. And I have some great NYC pictures to share...BUT, the following reminder is so very important.

While stuck in traffic today trying to get home to Oklahoma for Christmas, I was doing a little Facebook "creeping" (as the kids call it!). This status update really caught my eye:

"Be thankful that you can enjoy the holidays with your families, for there are those who can't. Be thankful that you are in a place where you can praise and worship without fear, for there are places where they want to kill you for doing the same...Be thankful, people, be thankful..."

I have stumbled across another good site, She Seeks. This site is filled with some great and inspirational blogs and other resources. I really loved this post about doubt and especially this excerpt...

"I sobbed into the carpet in the privacy of my bedroom. I beat my fist against tables demanding answers. In a way, I did whatever I could to provoke a response from the silent God. I was convinced I was the only one left in the relationship He and I used to have.

One day God’s voice burst through with a violence that left me in awe. He spoke through the sermon of my pastor who reminded me that God’s glory is of the utmost importance to Him and He is willing to withhold things I want if He sees a greater glory for Him and a better good for me coming in a different way....And, in the meantime, I’m going to choose not to be offended when God doesn’t give me what I want."

I've been struggling lately. Not bad. Just the kind of internal wrestling that comes with change when you are used to everything being the same. The new is wearing off my "new" life; not that I love it any less...but, well, it isn't shiny and bright anymore. :)

I've recently discovered the lovely little (In)Courage site that daily has provided me with encouragement and a little "lift" when I need it most. And today's blog was worth sharing, because sometimes (read: every single day) I need to be reminded of this...

Am I thankful? Sure I am. As long as it’s convenient.
As long as the gift-giver is within ear’s reach of my thank you. And as long as what I’m thankful for is good, comfortable, pleasant and smells great.

I never thank anyone for rolling over my toe with their cart in the grocery store or thank someone for an unkind word. And I never thank God for struggles.

I mean, how stupid would I sound:
Thank you, God, for NO MONEY to pay the mortgage.
Thank you that my seven-year-old has emotional outbursts every morning before school that reduce her to a pile of unbrushed auburn waves and tears on the bathroom floor. Thanks for spilled apple juice, dried and sticky on the floor.
Thank you, God, for the rejection of friends and that crazy mean email last week. Thank you for the tears it cost.
Thank you for the argument I had with my husband last night. Thank you, God, that he doesn’t understand me.

No.

We are usually thankful for blessings.

Gifts. Encouragement. Provision.

We send thank-you notes to mothers and cousins for baby gifts and Christmas packages. We call our pastors and thank them for the sermon. We are grateful for warm beds and fireplaces that glow in our family rooms.

We are thankful because it’s easy and expected.

But the sweet times, the easy-flowing happy times are not what shape me. I am comfortable and will stay the same if everything always goes my way.

Discomfort is the only way I grow. And I am never grateful for sitting in the valley of hurt and pain. I’m never thankful when things don’t work out like I planned.

I stamp my feet instead and no-fair God. I tell Him He doesn’t know what its like to be me.

I’m not changed in the lots-of-money, kids-are-well, husband-adores-me days.

But I am changed in the I’m-fat, second-argument-this-week-with-my-mom, worried-about-my-kids days.

This is when I’m moved to trust. I have to because nothing else works.

These are the days when God comes in and under-girds my heart with His own, turns my head to refocus my attention and then asks me to trust.

And I should be grateful that He thinks enough of me to carefully craft difficulty to edge me toward beauty, kindness, and grace with pressure.

I don’t want to just be thankful for the easy. I want to be grateful for the hard. And that involves a choice...one I'm making today.

Will you join me?
by Sarah Markley