Hello everyone at home in Indiana! How is CFC? The Lord is taking care of Phil and I. Here are some updates just to let you know what's going on with us:

**The Lord, in His grace, is teaching and growing us in Him. He is so AMAZING: patient, wise, gracious, loving. What thrills me is the system of eternal joy and life that He designed.

1. God is ultimately holy and beautiful and worthy of all glory.
2. He gives us the desire for HIM, and then we do desire Him, and then we worship Him...
3. ...and find that experience (interaction with the God of Life) to be so much more intense and joyous (because of who God is) than anything in the world that it-- the worship of Him-- is what we want to do more than anything else! But more than that, we enjoy God Himself. And He gets glory from us desiring Him and worshiping Him! It's a cycle-- what a gracious God to have designed it that way!

**We have been so blessed with "family" out here (though it doesn't take the place of family and friends back home, y'all.) We have some wonderful friendships through church, and enjoy fellowshipping and learning at the weekly Bible study we attend. We've just started on Judges. (I mean to put some pictures up soon!)

**We love Whole Foods! (Organic/local foods grocery store.)

**Phil's preparing to go back to school to finish his degree, probably a B.A. in Illustration. He's working diligently on his drawing skills (the Lord has blessed him with a talent there.) We're also working together on our design skills (he's reviewing, I'm learning.)

**Yes, of course, we love the ocean, and the "cool heat", and the environmental awareness... It's not the Midwest, and that area still has a special place in our hearts-- mostly you. (And I still miss my RAIN!)

**We love you and miss you!

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an "extra" that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. It is not simply a way to "enhance" your walk with the Lord. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your "faith" cannot please God. It is not saving faith.

Saving faith is the confidence that if you sell all you have and forsake all sinful pleasures, the hidden treasure of holy joy will satisfy your deepest desires. Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable, but also that He is desirable. It is the confidence that He will come through with His promises and that what He promises is more to be desired than all the world. [Bold font my own.] (Piper, 2003, p. 73.)

Liberty to love

1 Corinthians 13: 1-7--

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

We were listening to Derek Webb's song, "Love Is Not Against the Law." The title reminded Phil and I of Galations 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." There is so much freedom in acting in love. Love is limitless-- move in it as much as you want. Love is endless-- you can deal in it all of this life and for eternity. All the fruits of the Spirit are to be freely exercised! (Thinking in this way can cause giddiness.) Who is the Author and Source of this amazing love? Our Creator. The greatest commandment in living for Him is love:

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt. 22:36-40.)

I like thinking about that; everything we're commanded to do is always first rooted in love for the Lord and then in us acting in His love to others. We don't gossip because it dishonors the Lord (as we're His children), and because it hurts others. We are patient and kind because those traits are fruits of the Spirit; God is patient and kind in love, and we exhibit that fruit as He changes us when we submit to Him and our relationship grows in love to Him. (Obedience falls under love; in John 14:15 Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.") And when we're patient and kind, it shows His love to others. So it's good to evaluate when you're about to speak or act: "Does this fall under love? Can it be categorized as love?"

He was working in my heart, showing me these things, and I had to thank the Lord for His incredible gift of love; His "yoke is easy" and His "burden is light" (Matt. 11:30)! Serving under a rule of love-- He's such a gracious and wonderful God! Go and be crazily generous with love! Our Father is RICH in it, and He's commanded us to do it! Deal it out to everybody (even enemies--look at Matt. 5:44-45)!

Our Church

Hello, I know it's been a while, and now I really have something to write about. Our church, by God's grace, is Bible-believing church who desires to love and glorify the Lord and to live as lights to display Him to the world. The Lord has given our lead minister, David Miller, such a heart for Him, such a deep, deep love for the Lord. For those of you who don't know, our church was an episcopal church-- one that believed the complete Bible to be the Word of God, the standard for Christian living. I say "was". In the middle of December, after having discussed the issue for some time, we voted unanimously as a congregation to leave the Episcopal denomination. The Episcopal church has been having problems for some time, and at the last U.S. national convention, made it clear that the leading heads of the denomination were not interested in reaffirming their belief of Christ as the only way to salvation, as well as other doctrines crucial to being an orthodox Christian. One issue that has recently been in national media is the denomination's stance on homosexuality; that is the issue that our local media chose to fixate on as they "covered" our departure from the denomination. All this to say, PLEASE pray for our minister, as he could use all the prayer and encouragement you could give. This is a tough time, as you can imagine. I'll give more details soon, I will, but please pray for David Miller and our congregation as we stand for Biblical truth and strive to display Christ's love to the community. Love you all!!

Surprise

And now for a story.

Early August, Phil and I were at our apartment watching TV, and while the episode was in the middle of a high-speed car race, our apartment building starts to shake. Back and forth pretty quickly, like fast heavy right-to-left vibrations. Then, after a second of that while Phil and I look at each other, (me thinking somehow this could have something to do with the race on the tv?,) the building starts to move back and forth, up and down pretty heavily. My thought is that some huge truck has just crashed into the apartment below us. We glance towards outside, hearing people talking; we stand up as the building keeps moving, and I follow Phil, who's started to move toward the door. He starts to run, so do I, and he says, "Hurry, get outside, it's an earthquake." We barefoot down the cement steps to the ground, where other tenants are coming outside. By now the earthquake's over. We watch people across the complex start talking to other neighbors they don't know about what just happened. Phil says we should stay outside just in case there's more. After about a minute of no moving, we go back inside. It was really strange; it was exciting in the way that huge thunderstorms are exciting when nobody gets hurt. In fact, it was like thunder on the ground, if you can imagine that. You know how you it starts out somewhat quiet, then is suddenly loud, and you can feel it the whole time? It was more feeling than sound, though. Now that I think about it, I guess there was a sound that accompanied the moving. That must have added to my dumptruck-in-the-building theory.

Alright, Bethie (and everybody who asked.)




My sweetie and me.












At the Sonoma County Fair-- almost as big as Indiana's State Fair.










Crazy Phil... and me.

Have you ever tried running after something? I mean to run after something, run for it, run to it. Phil and I were on our path this morning, and had decided that I would walk and he would run. We started by walking together and talking; then he took off. As I watched him go, I realized I didn't really want to be left without him. After a minute of trying to rationalize to myself that there was nothing wrong with him going on ahead as he had many times before, I started to run. Phil takes a good clip when he moves, and as he was an eighth of a mile ahead of me, I had to push hard. For those who don't know, I'm not built to run distances, unlike my sister Cindy. My muscles are bulky, not long; it's hard for me to find energy to move all my body parts at that rate of speed while exerting push. But Phil was still in sight, and like a child who imagines that her doll is sad when she doesn't sleep with it, I ran like something would be wrong if Phil went out of sight. I ran. When he went around a bend out of sight, I strained to find him. If he went around a corner, desperation overwhelmed me. I was too tired, I realistically wasn't going to catch him, was it even worth it? Walking for a while, the desire to at least have a bond through sight resumed. A desire stronger than desperation. I started again. And so it went through the duration.

I never did catch him. He didn't even know I was running behind him. But I did realize that while I was focused on keeping my eyes on him, willing my body to catch him, everything else was a blur. I did not pay attention to the birds, or to the smells, or to the dogs. I was seeking Phil. Everything, mind, will, emotions. I was reminded of the Scriptures-- what Paul describes when he writes of the goal and prize. Philippians 3:13-- "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:8, 9-- "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the supassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." Let's seek hard after the Lord!! He is deeply satisfying. Let's press and strain for the goal to win the prize!! Don't give up, look to Him for strength. His grace is sufficient*, especially when you feel you can't breathe and step at the same time. And you will never be running for Him alone; He promised**.

*2 Cor. 12:9, 10-- "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

**Hebrews 13:5-- "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'~ "

~Deut. 31:6