Another new blog!

I know, I already have so many blogs that I don't even use! But this new one is for my daily bible study that we at The Bridge staff have started. It is an intensive program that uses the SOAP method developed by Wayne Cordeiro of the New Hope Church in Hawaii. SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. We use a scripture journal (or blog) to study a passage every day. My bible blog is http://www.thebookforrachel.blogspot.com The goal is to have a new post every day. Some days, if I can't get to the computer, I journal in a notebook instead of my blog. I am excited to gain more knowledge and insight into God's word and hopefully develop discipline that I can use in other areas of life. Yay!

Latvia in Pictures

WHO?
Me, my uncle Bob, Anna, James, Mitchell and John Carl


Our amazing group! I didn't know any of them, other than Bob, before the trip, but I consider myself blessed to have been included in their merry band!








WHAT?
A Worship Workshop for leaders of the Latvian United Methodist Church. We spent four days teaching the workshop and spent the rest of our time in the Baltic States traveling and sightseeing!

Preparing for Worship. I sang! I was very nervous at first because everyone else in the band is a very talented musician, but during our time there the Lord gave me more confidence. By the end, I may not have been singing better, but I was certainly singing louder!







WHERE?
The workshop was at Wesley Camp -- near Liepaja, Latvia. Only a ten minute walk from the Baltic Sea!


The Alabama group with our new Latvian friends! I would tell you their names, but there's no way I could spell them correctly!













Later, during the sightseeing part of our trip, we spent a few hours at the Hill of Crosses near Siauliai, Lithuania. This monument to Christianity possibly began as early as the 1800s, but it gained more significance during the Soviet occupation, when the Soviets tried to remove the crosses, even bulldozing the hill three times! The Lithuanians and other Christians always came back to replace the crosses, and today there are more than 200,000 crosses on the hill!























Mitchell placed a cross for his church in Tuscaloosa, and we had a mini-prayer service to consecrate it.





















This was the view from our hotel room in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. A beautiful and interesting city with very little nightlife. :-D
One of the most unusual and disconcerting characteristics of the Baltic states is the daylight. In the summer the sun doesn't down until 11 PM or midnight, and then it "bounces" right back up! Our schedules got very mixed up because of this. I think I took this picture at around 10:00 PM!






















One of the most special parts of our trip was meeting Ceara Randall, the newborn daughter of missionaries Dan and Courtney Randall. She was only ten days old when we met her! She is such a precious gift from God. Her parents' blog is linked on the side of this page.




Some more favorite memories from the trip:
Nocturnal Eyepluckers (aka storks)
Kefirs (think liquid sour cream). Delish! :P
Mitchell's "tuberculosis"
Anna thinking John Carl's foot was a pigeon and nearly upsetting the restaurant table
A much-needed fancy steak dinner
Staying up late chatting about past, present and future
Singing at the orphanage in Siauliai
Getting lost in every city we visited, made fun by the boys and their goofy accents (Hello, lady!)
The Angels, "WhiteBread" and the MultiLux
Being street performers for a few hours and making about $2 (if that)
Adventures on Frankfurt, Germany's public transportation system
Getting to know new friends and having new experiences

I've written about the Who, What, and Where. What about the WHY?
WHY ELSE BUT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD?
It didn't hurt that it was super fun, too!


Want to see more pictures? Try here and here.

Latvia!

Hi! Quick note to say that I'm going to Latvia on a mission trip tomorrow! I'm going with my uncle Bob Bentley and a team of young people from Lester Memorial UMC in Oneonta. We're going to be doing a Worship Workshop at Camp Wesley. I'm sooooo excited! It was a spur of the moment decision for me, as I have only known about the trip for about 10 days! My bosses are amazing and worked it out so that I can miss two weeks of work for it! I get back on July 3, and then the next day I head to Camp Sumatanga to be a counselor at Sr. High Week 2! I'm going to be tired but super blessed by the end! Please pray for me and the team as we travel and minister. Hopefully we will share God's love to many people in Latvia!
Thanks!
~Rachel

A plethora of onomatopoeia!

Man alive, I have not updated this blog in forever! I apologize to my dedicated readers (insert un-ladylike snort of disbelief here). Sooo many things have happened since the last time I wrote. I'll give you an update about the good things first, before moving on to family troubles. Ready for the good news?
*Dum da da DAAA!* (That's my attempt at writing a trumpet fanfare phonetically)

I GOT A JOB!!

*And the crowd goes wild!* HHHHHHHHHAAAA!!

(I don't know why I keep attempting the onomatopoeia. It's obviously not working)

More to the point, I got a job that will actually help me with my calling. I'm the new Children's Minister for The Bridge UMC. It's a new church plant in Huntsville. It's a part time job - Sunday morning and Tuesday nights - but it will grow as the church grows. I wish I could put aside my worldly and selfish wants, but since I am not the thriftiest girl, working just a part-time job isn't going to cut it for me. So I'm also working full time at Latham UMC in the daycare and preschool. I started at the daycare this week, and I'm loving it! Tomorrow will be my first Sunday at The Bridge. I met many of the church members at a cookout on Tuesday; they seem like a close, caring group of people. I'm pumped to get started!

I moved back to Hartselle to live with Mom and Dad, and we're all adjusting to being under the same roof again. There's something comforting about being back home! :-)

This post has been sitting as a draft for over a week, so I guess I should finally post it!

Minor Miracles

A few posts ago, I talked about my friend who just lost her dad. I wanted to share a story from that situation and what it meant to me.
I went to church with her only a couple of days after her dad had passed, and we attended the young adult class at her church (that used to be my church in high school). The two of us were the only people who attended the class that day, besides the teacher that neither of us had met before. He left the room to pick out the video for the lesson that day. My friend and I were just talking, and she mentioned that she didn't feel like she was doing a good job of grieving. She felt guilty because it hadn't really sunk in that her dad was gone. The teacher came back in and gave us two videos to choose from. They were lessons from the Nooma series (which are awesome). My friend read the summary on the back of one of the dvds and simply handed it to me without a word. It was a lesson on dealing with grief. The Sunday School teacher had never met my friend or me and didn't know that she was going through a loss. He just happened to pick that video out of 15 others (of course, we know it was God that guided his hand)! We watched the video, and the man in it said so many things that were amazing for Katie to hear. I'm paraphrasing, but he said "you may have lost someone two weeks ago or two days ago (her dad had died on Friday). You may be feeling sad, angry, or nothing at all. I'm here to tell you that whatever you're feeling, it's ok. God is going to be with you, and He's going to heal all of your hurts." We were so amazed at how God had given us that message, and it touched my friend deeply. She took the dvd home for her family to watch.
Before Chrysalis, I never really noticed God actively working in my life, but since I felt him in that weekend, I am seeing Him all over the place. It was incredible to feel the Joy of the Lord in the middle of that sad situation, and I consider it a minor miracle that He could bring comfort to my sweet friend in that time.

Make sure you watch out for God in the little moments of your life!

Sent from my phone! Yay!

I was praying "Lord, I need to get my life back on track." Then I realized, I don't have a track to get back upon! I'm trackless! I know I'm supposed to be serving Him, but I haven't started yet. Really, I have no idea how to start. It's like I'm waiting for something. I don't know what. I like change, but I don't like this transition period I'm in right now.

Sadness...

One of my very best friends called me this morning to tell me that her dad passed away of a heart attack last night. All I could think to say is I'm sorry and I'll be praying. What else can you say that will mean anything? When this same thing happened to another best friend a couple of years ago, I felt like I didn't know how to be a good friend in that situation. I don't know if I'm any better prepared to give comfort now than I was back then. In the face of incredible sadness, what can a friend do besides give as much love as possible?

Another thing that is bothering me about this is that I was awake praying around the time that my friend got the call from her mom. I know there isn't really any way I could have known, but I wish I had had some sort of hunch to pray specifically for the McGlawns. If I was talking to God already, couldn't he have put a thought in my head to pray for them? I don't know if it would have done any good, but it would have made me feel better. At least I can pray now.

During that time of prayer, I read Psalm 130. It seems to fit now.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!