January travel to (slightly) warmer places...

Sometimes those last minute trips just work out.  This was one of those times!  We got an incredible deal on some air fare and decided to leave snowy, cold Chicago and travel to warm, sunny Florida.  Well, it was certainly warmer - but it was COLD for Florida.   We saw more than a few winter coats walking the streets!  One weatherman actually said that they might break some records with low temperatures in the 30's.    We did escape the first real snowstorm of the season, with more than 6 inches of snow and really cold temperatures.  That brought a smile to Ken's face!

We started our trip with a visit to Ken's sisters.  It was wonderful to see them since we have not seen them for several years.  We had time to visit and also time to explore around Marco Island and see some amazing sunsets.

We moved on to Miami Beach. We took the Tamiami Trail which takes you through the Everglades.  It was worth the small amount of extra time for the drive with a view.   Ken has always wanted to photograph the Art Deco area of Miami Beach.  Little did we know, the weekend we decided to visit was the "Art Deco Festival" weekend!  Even though it was chilly, the beach was amazing.

We ate at lots of outdoor cafes and walked and walked and walked. We had one day of rain but we managed to still enjoy ourselves.  We never made it into the Atlantic Ocean - it was just very cold, but we enjoyed walking the beach.  It was a nice few days, but it was very crowded.  I don't think I would ever go back, however Ken said he would!

Leaving Miami, we drove up to Venice, Florida taking mostly the back roads.  We saw lots of interesting fields of crops - some we never could identify.  It sort of looked like clumps of really tall plants with some grain looking things of the top?  And there were lots of Orange Groves filled with soon to be harvested oranges.  Also lots of cows and horses.  It was a nice change from traveling the interstate.  

The beaches of Venice and Nokomis are Ken's favorite part of Florida.  He spent lots of time here from the time he was really small, when his grandparents retired to Nokomis.  Ken remembers the area when it was much less crowded and much less developed.  Most of Casey Key is covered with houses now.  And the entire area is built up.  From the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, we walked the beaches!

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 We took time to drive by the house that Ken's grandparents owned in Nokomis.  I am sure that the current owners wondered why we were driving by slowly and stopping for pictures.

Vacations are interesting. You can visit brand new locations or revisit areas that hold fond memories.  The one thing that you can not control is the weather.  You can always expect that you will have some bad weather.  For us, it was bitter sweet visiting Marco since Ken's dad has died.  We had many good memories of visiting him each year that he lived there.  While it was fun visiting Miami Beach for the first time, it is also nice to RE-VISIT beaches that have been a part of family pictures for years and years.  We have a picture of Ken on Nokomis beach when he was only a couple years old. While it was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa Bakers house, it was certainly a reminder of the passage of time.  

Reflecting on the last week, I am missing my own siblings.  I am also thinking about visiting some of my childhood favorite places.  I guess that means Ken and I will have to plan a trip to South Dakota and Minnesota sometime in the future!

Being by water is for sure my happy place.  And we have certainly been by water on this trip. Usually I am able to spend time just reading, praying and listening.  This trip has been a bit different and I haven't really had that time.  But the one thing that has been coming to mind, over and over, is that I need to do a better job putting words onto a page in this blog.  It is already the 21st of January and this is my first blog of the year.  I will be making time to share more regularly so hopefully I will   get inspiration for the time ahead.   For now, I am just very thankful for this time away and for the warmer weather.  It has felt like such a blessing to be here.

Some things I have learned on this trip...

*Sometimes the cheapest rental car is not the fastest!  But I am thankful for the car!

*Hotels in Miami don't have heat in their rooms?  At least they provided small heaters!

*Always make sure you get breakfast with your hotel room.. There was  a small bakery close by!

*January is cold in Florida.  But the water is still beautiful!

*Don't take a room facing a pool and bar in Miami! However it was nice to have a covered patio in the rain!

*Earplugs don't drown out the very loud music at 3am!  The hotel comped our room night!

Jesus, I know that you are always with me.  Thank you for reminding me that your love surrounds and protects us.  Holy Spirit, help us all to appreciate times away from our regular routines.  Jesus help us all to step away from our day to day things and to spend time with you even when we are at home. Thank you for memories and reminders of the past and also for those new experiences that become treasured memories.  And thank you for helping me see the bright side of some odd travel experiences.   Amen

A book that is sure to make you cry....

Yesterday Lia handed me a book and said "Grandma, I think that you really should read this book.  It is really good and it made mom cry."  Now when an eleven year old gives you a book recommendation, there is most likely a very good reason.  I am a "reader".  You know, one of those people who reads for pleasure and really enjoys it.  This book was included in Lia's home school curriculum and Lia and Gwen had read it together.  

I started reading the book while the kids were doing their school work and finished just after Gwen got home.  The book is a true story (in part) and fictionalized (in part) that tells a story that everyone should hear.  The "main character" is  Salva Dut, a member of the Dinka tribe and a Sudanese Lost Boy.  This book is his story of being forced out of his home in Sudan during a civil war and the journey of his life.  Side by side the author also tells the story of a young girl from a rival tribe in the Sudan and her struggle to provide water for her family.  The girl represents an amalgam of girls from that tribe.  Although this part of the story is fiction, it is based on truth and facts.  Because I want you all to read this book, I will not share the share the ending.   The author has done such a wonderful job with this book, that both Gwen and I were totally stunned by the ending.  We never saw it coming.   I can assure you, it will make you cry.  

I have not been able to get this book out of my head since I put it down.  I knew a bit about the Lost Boys of Sudan.  Over the years I have read accounts of these boys, who were brought to the United States out of refugee camps in Kenya.  I remember that there were some of these boys brought to a boarding school very near to my home.  The newsworthy part of the story was a fight over whether or not they would be allowed to play basketball (which they excelled at) and the school was accused of "recruiting" them specifically for basketball.  In the end, it was determined that the placement of these boys had nothing to do with sports, but was simply humanitarian.   This book about Salva Dut is special because of who Salva is.  The kinds of adversity that he overcame and his strength and determination to go on are awe inspiring.   I was impressed with him before he ever made it to the United States.  

His journey was all about being reunited with his family.  He was separated from them because he was at school when the battle started and he was forced to flee without ever knowing what became of his family.  On every leg of his twisted path to New York, he was thinking about finding his family.  By the time he arrived in New York, he is certain that his entire family was killed in the war. Yet he persevered and finished his education and got a college degree (with the help of his sponsor family in New York).  I don't know how many miles he walked on his journey of exile, but he never gave up.  He just kept walking.  

I am so thankful that Lia has read this book.  The story of the girl who walked miles for water everyday is important.  The reality that 1.8 BILLION people do not have access to clean water is staggering.  This book brought that reality to life through an 11 year old girl's perspective.  If Lia had just read the part of the book about this girl and the lack of water, it might have seemed like such a hopeless situation.  (Spoiler Alert) Instead, there is an actual, genuine answer to that 11 year old girls situation, because of one strong, determined boy, who kept on walking.  

I am hopeful that Lia will continue to be moved by this book. She has been praying for something that she could support that would really make a difference.  And I believe that helping to bring water to those without access is making a difference that counts!

If you would like to actually listen to Salva telling his story in a Ted Talk just click this link.  There are many other YouTube videos also that tell more about this story. You can just search his name.  Don't miss reading the book.  Even when you know the story, it is so worth reading.  The book is available on Amazon.  More than that, make sure that all of those middle schoool/high school kids you know, read this book.  There are so many lessons for life contained in these pages.  

So I am ending today, so thankful for the clean, clear water that flows freely out of spigots and spouts in my home.  I am seeing so much more in my glass than I did before I read this book.  I am seeing God's plan to use some children to change a small part of the world by bringing life giving water to the people.  What an amazing testimony of God's handiwork and a picture of the flowing water of the Holy Spirit that brings eternal life to all who believe in Jesus!

Jesus, thank you for this book and for Salva Dut.  Continue to bless him as he works to bring clean water to South Sudan.  Holy Spirit, instill in us the courage and boldness to keep walking, especially when it seems impossible. Remind us all to see blessing in clean water.  Thank you for Lia and her desire to make a difference that counts!  Amen  

From the depths to the heights...and a bit in between!

What a busy and wonderful couple of days this has been into a much needed vacation.  I decided to begin this blog at this wonderful spot.  As usual, I have found my flowing water to just refresh and relax me.  This wonderful waterfall that I am standing behind and under was in the butterfly house of the Botanic Gardens in Huntsville, Alabama!  And here is a butterfly that I actually captured OUTSIDE of the butterfly house!

So this is the "in between" I mentioned in my title.  We had a wonderful visit to this garden as a welcome quiet retreat this afternoon.  Yesterday we started out "in the depths" - well sort of!

We visited the National Corvette Museum.  We have seen this place many times on our drives to south, but we have never stopped.  In 2014 they had a major disaster when a sink hole actually happened inside the museum and they lost many, many of the cars on display.  This is what it looks like today when you walk inside the area that was destroyed.... tape lines on the ground.  It reminded me of "crime scene" tape.  It was a LARGE area of the main part of the room.  As you can see, they discovered an under ground cave during the repair.  This is no big surprise since Mammoth Cave is a short distance away.  But it was very odd to walk over that line and think about the ground just opening up and swallowing the cars.

And here is one of the few cars that they were able to pull out of the hole......

As you can see, it is a mess.  There were three cars like this on display.  Quite an interesting place to visit. There was even a place where you could look through a glass window, down into a deep tunnel into the bottom of the sink hole.  It was really looking into the depths!

This morning we visited the US Space and Rocket Center.  And we did a lot of looking into the heights!  Because we are really old, (you know - the age when astronauts and space and the moon landing was a really big deal) this really interests us!  We have visited the Kennedy Space Center more than once, but this was our first visit to this center.  While it was interesting, there was a lot of similar stuff that we have seen in Florida.  It was still a really neat place to visit.  

So we went from looking into a really deep sinkhole, deep inside the earth to peering out into space. With all of that to consider, we wandered the paths and breathed in the warm air in the quiet Botanic garden.  It was good to stop and reflect on all that we had seen in the last two days.  I was so glad to find that rushing waterfall.  I stopped and sat on a stone bench beneath that flowing water.  All I could think about was how amazing this world is and how wonderful our Creator is!  There is no other way to explain the ground just opening up. Or to imagine the wisdom and patience and courage that God has given to man to discover how to blast into space and come back again.  

That amazing butterfly started off as an ugly worm, crawling on a branch.  And now it is a beautiful creature, flying free!  How thankful I am that Jesus has promised us a transformation - a metamorphosis - not unlike that butterfly.  We can look forward to a new, wonderful body and a whole new world opening up for us.  Yes, we have so much to look forward to!  The greatest news is that this Eternal Life starts as soon as Jesus becomes your Savior. We just need to learn how to live!

Jesus, thank you for speaking to me through all of these things.  Thank you for time away from our routines.  Holy Spirit, help us all to remember that our eternal life doesn't start when we die - but rather it is ours now!  Thank you for butterflies that remind us of your working in us all to transform us into your likeness.  And thank you Jesus for rivers of living water!  Amen 

Thankful for water..........

This is my backyard this week.  The little creek behind our house is way beyond flooded.  As are all of the rivers and creeks around here.  And it poured rain this morning......again.  All of the ground is saturated, squishy, and waterlogged.  But, hey, look at how green the grass is!  Which brings me to what has been on my mind all day........water.

Early this morning I saw a post on Facebook from "Humans of New York".  I love this particular page.  They post interesting stories of random people that they meet on the streets of New York.  Here is the post from today.....

“I’m single, unemployed, and late middle-aged. But I don’t really get sad. I just don’t think sadness is in my brain chemistry. When I go home to my apartment, I’ve got a faucet that releases both hot and cold water. You know how many billions of people don’t even have clean drinking water? And I’ve got two types of clean water: hot and cold.”

I just could not get this off of my mind, all day today.  How powerful and thought provoking.  We are so blessed!  We have a solid roof over our heads, we have protection from the elements.  We have safe HOT and COLD water.  We have lights and power for appliances, we have computers and televisions and cellphones.  And so, so much more.  Isn't it amazing that it takes a single paragraph post on Facebook to cause me to stop short and really think about just how blessed I am?   So even though we have had a bit too much rain, and we have a bit of flooding, we are still so blessed.

I was remembering last January.  I was at a conference and Heidi Baker was speaking.  She is a missionary in Mozambique Africa.  Just before the conference there had been disastrous flooding in Mozambique.  I mean really devastating.  Their entire base had been wiped out.

Even before the floods, they didn't have much.  But just like this man in New York, Heidi Baker was just so grateful for what they did have.  And how very blessed they are...because they have Jesus.  

I have not been very much like that man in New York or Heidi Baker.  As a matter of fact, I would have to say honestly that I have not been very thankful for these little things (which are really BIG things).  After reading that post this morning, every time I went to the sink, I thought about that clean water pouring out.  And I remembered all of the people around the world, who don't have a sink or clean water anywhere.  Those that have to walk miles and miles for dirty and contaminated water.  Or those that simply don't have any water.  Would you join me tonight in praying for all of those people?  And would you also pray that those of us with access to clean water, would not take it for granted.  Most of all, would you join me in prayer for them to know Jesus, the living water!   I can't help but think of  John 4:13-14....

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life".

Jesus, thank you for this reminder today of all of the great blessings you have poured out on us. Holy Spirit, help us to see all that you have provided for us.  What a gift water is to us.  Thank you for missionaries who give their life to bring the Good News to other nations.  Jesus, you are the Living Water!  Amen