Month: July 2008

Categories Faith, Missions

The stretching begins

1 Comment by

I’m going to Mexico in two weeks. I don’t have my plane tickets yet. I tried calling the family I’m staying with to check on what times it would work best for me to arrive (since they’ll be at a conference that week–and I don’t want to make them miss too much). The first time I called, someone answered “Bueno”. I asked to speak to Jim or Caroline. I heard the audible click of the phone hanging up. I call right back. Maybe they thought I was a salesperson or something. “Bueno.” “Hi, this is Rebekah Menter. May I speak to Jim or Caroline?” A torrent of Spanish that I can’t understand. Then they hang up.

I know it’s the right number. It’s the same one I called weeks ago and got ahold of them with. It’s the same one listed in their e-mail. It’s a Nebraska number that rings in Mexico–for Pete’s sake, it’s the right number. But I can’t do anything about it. I take a nap.

Wake up from my nap. Maybe I’ll try again. This time I’ll try out my Spanish skills. “Bueno.” “Hola, me llamo Rebekah Menter. Puedo hablar a Jim o Caroline?” I don’t understand the Spanish they respond with. I’m trying to think on my feet and I completely bungle my next question. Another Spanish answer–it sounds like someone else speaking this time. I try again. I speak in English this time. I’m frustrated that I can’t figure out how to ask them to give Jim and Caroline a message to call me. I’m frustrated because I can’t understand what they’re saying. Finally I apologize, “Perdon. Lo siento. Adios.” “Okay, bye” they say. I hear the click again.

I’m going to Mexico for a month. I leave in two weeks. And I don’t have my plane ticket yet. I’m not even sure the James’ are aware that I’m going to be flying rather than driving as we originally discussed. I don’t know if they’ve gotten my e-mail. I can’t get ahold of them by phone.

This is way out of my comfort zone. I created a three ring binder with descriptions of all the attractions in Yellowstone, a list of animals and birds to identify, and the most likely hikes to take for our family vacation to Yellowstone last year. I thrive on detailed itineraries and advance planning. I like to have something ready for every eventuality–but I like to know the way things “should” go too. I don’t have any of that here.

I know that God told me to go. I know that Jim and Caroline are expecting me. I know that I’m going to be tutoring their daughter. I don’t know when I’m leaving or coming back. I don’t know what I’m going to tutor their daughter in when I get there. I’m not even sure what level exactly she’s at. I know her age, but I’m not sure her grade level–and I’m even less sure about her ability level. Is she mathematically bright and an English dunce? Or maybe she’s an arts and literature person but not at all interested in science? I don’t know. I don’t know what curriculum or resources they currently use. I don’t know what subject matter she’s currently studying. I don’t know what books she’s read. I’m completely in the dark.

It’s incredibly uncomfortable.

I tell God that I’m having a hard time with it. He responds, as usual, with “Be still. I’m God.” But it’s awfully hard to continue to be still when the deadline is racing up and NOTHING IS CERTAIN! But, I guess, I have to learn to be like Abraham, to pick up my tents and leave when God says “Go”, even if I have no idea where He’s taking me.

Categories Everyday Life

Hi, my name is Amanda

Leave a comment by

My roommate has been babysitting for my pastor’s kids while he and his wife were running their fireworks tent. I dropped by this morning and discovered that I had been renamed.

I thought it strange that A., who has known me her entire life, would suddenly be forgetting my name and calling me Amanda. I had almost convinced myself that I was hearing things–but just to be sure, I asked Casandra “Did she just call me Amanda?” Casandra confirmed that yes indeed she did, and she has been calling me Amanda all week.

I’ve been planning to drop by sometime this week–and A. knew it. Yesterday, she asked Casandra seriously “When is Amanda coming over?” Casandra was confused, “Amanda?” she asked. “The big Rebekah!” (to distinguish me from a highschooler in our church also named Rebekah-or Rebecca maybe) Then A. clarified a bit more. “Amanda is my friend’s name.” (that is, her friend from down the street.)

I can’t say that it makes any sense, but A. referred to me as “Amanda” at least five times today. So, hello, my name is Amanda. Or anything else you care to call me, I suppose.

Categories Rants

Patriotic Peeves and Patriotic Prayers

Leave a comment by

I tend to have rather strong opinions about things–and patriotic music just happens to be something about which I have a very strong opinion. Patriotic music moves me to tears–and makes me seethe. I love most of it–and hate some of it.

My peeves about patriotic music? First, the tendency of people to classify certain songs that are not patriotic music as patriotic music. Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic is a prime example. It’s not patriotic, guys. It doesn’t mention America anywhere in it–it doesn’t have anything to do with a specific nation. It has to do with God’s righteousness and wrath. It’s about God accomplishing His purposes–and about men being obedient to the calling. Yes, it was a battle hymn of the civil war–but it isn’t a patriotic song.

Second, it annoys me that the patriotic songs most often heard are sappy and sentimental and NEW. It’s not that I’m against new songs in general–it’s just that so few of our contemporary songs actually have meaning. They’re so simplistic, so blah. They are meant to inspire tears but not to inspire thought.

Third, some patriotic songs annoy me by adding certain phrases in that just don’t fit. Take America, the Beautiful. It’s a gorgeous song, but what are you talking about “Thine alabaster cities gleam/undimmed by human tears”? I know, Katherine Lee Bates was referring to the White City of the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in Chicago in 1892–but the “undimmed by human tears”? That’s Biblical imagery–and it refers to the New Jerusalem. America’s great and all, but it’s not heaven on earth. I’m still waiting for that new heaven and new earth–that and only that will be a city “undimmed by human tears”.

But don’t get me wrong–I love patriotic songs. Certain parts of the classic songs perfectly express my heart and my prayers.

Today, I think of our nation. I remember the revolutionary idea that sparked the American Revolution–and that still sparks revolutions around the world. The idea that men can be free. Liberty. It’s quite a heady idea. I think of it and I pray:

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To Thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might
Great God, our King

Today, I think of the many men (and women) who have given their lives, their blood, their anguish, years of their lives to make our nation what it is. I think of the wives and children at home–giving up husbands and fathers. I think of the thousands of heroes who have served throughout the years and continue to serve now in our military. I think of them and I pray:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who more than self
Their country loved
And mercy more than life
America, America
May God thy gold refine
Til all success be nobleness
And every gain divine

Finally, I think now of a nation at war–of our men and women currently fighting on the front lines. They fight for freedom, for liberty, that same thing I celebrate today. I think of the many of us enjoying our picnics and barbecues today, enjoying victory and peace. I think of how quickly we have forgotten who makes this nation great–how quickly we have turned to rely upon ourselves. And I pray for my countrymen and women, both those here and those abroad:

O thus be it ever
When free men shall stand
Between their loved homes
And the war’s desolation
Bless’d with vict’ry and peace
May the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made
And preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must
When our cause it is just
And this be our motto:
“In God is our Trust”
And the Star Spangled Banner
In triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Categories Homemaking

I’ve taken up bootlegging

1 Comment by

picture of boot with wine bottle in it

I’ve taken up bootlegging, thanks to a suggestion from RealSimple. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to give it a try. My boots are now standing up in my closet instead of lying on their sides–and my enjoyment of James Arthur Vineyards San Realto has been hidden from sight instead of being proclaimed from a bookshelf.

It’s my first day of a four day weekend and I have enjoyed being lazy and indulging my DIY impulses. I started with making some homemade laundry soap. I’ve been toying with the idea for a couple of days now and figured I’d jump in. My first batch cost $.64 and 30 minutes of labor (including cooking, mixing, and cleaning up). For 64 loads that’s a pretty good deal. The cheapest commercial detergent I could find cost around $.05 per load. Of course, I haven’t tried the soap out yet on any laundry. But I definitely had fun making it–even to cutting down an old water bottle to create a makeshift funnel for pouring the solution into an old laundry detergent dispenser.

picture of homemade oil lamp

After the laundry soap, I spent some time online and found an interesting how-to for making an oil lamp out of a glass bottle. I test burned snippets of three different mismatched socks outside before deciding on one as “mostly likely to contain only cotton fibers”. Then I put the lamp together. I used canola oil instead of olive oil (canola is much cheaper and I read somewhere that it’s still a good, non-smoking, relatively odorless burning oil). The lamp burns just fine–until the wick burns down too low. I’m not sure if the oil is wicking upward quickly enough to keep the wick from being consumed. Meh–it’s not like it cost me anything.

Despite the few projects of the day, most of my time was spent reading DIY:Happy. This blog is stinkin’ sweet. I should know, I spent the last five or so hours reading it from last to first and following its numerous links. The blog is a compendium of bizzare, high-tech, low-tech, computerized, knitted, origami-ed, ridiculously sophisticated projects. I highly recommend it.

Categories Homemaking

Like, totally random

2 Comments by

A few years ago the word random came into popular usage. It was one of those interchangeable words that could be used to describe anything you didn’t have the vocabulary to say in a meaningful way. And, in hundreds of “get to know you” activities in which people were asked to share something about themselves that no one else in the group knows, girls were sharing “I’m, like, totally random.”

I am working on a quilt that’s, like, totally random. Okay, so it’s not totally random. I chose the fabrics I would use before I started. But then–the randomness began. I cut strips of fabric and stuck them all in a plastic bag. Then I went around to my friends and family and asked them to pull a couple of strips from the bag without looking. I sewed those two strips together, and then asked another person to pick two strips–and so on. Then I cut the strips into parallelograms, stuck those into a bag and picked two at a time without looking. I sewed the two parallelograms together. Once all the parallelograms had been paired, I stuck them in a bag…

I think you get the picture. A random quilt. A truly random quilt. Not “designed” at all. Today I finished all my strips and started piecing the strips together. For the first time, I’m getting a glimpse of what my final product may look like. And, in this case, random is pretty good.

Wouldn’t you say?

picture of quilt