Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering September 11th

This morning I came across this prayer by Max Lucado and wanted to share...


Do it Again Lord...

We're still hoping we'll wake up. We're still hoping we'll open a sleepy eye and think, What a horrible dream.

But we won't, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was no dream and, dear Father, we are sad.

There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church has lost her priest, a classroom is minus a teacher. Cora ran a food pantry. Paige was a counselor and Dana, dearest Father, Dana was only three years old. (Who held her in those final moments?)

We are sad, Father. For as the innocent are buried, our innocence is buried as well. We thought we were safe. Perhaps we should have known better. But we didn't.

And so we come to you. We don't ask you for help; we beg you for it. We don't request it; we implore it. We know what you can do. We've read the accounts. We've pondered the stories and now we plead, Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

Remember Joseph? You rescued him from the pit. You can do the same for us. Do it again, Lord.

Remember the Hebrews in Egypt? You protected their children from the angel of death. We have children, too, Lord. Do it again.

And Sarah? Remember her prayers? You heard them. Joshua? Remember his fears? You inspired him. The women at the tomb? You resurrected their hope. The doubts of Thomas? You took them away. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

You changed Daniel from a captive into a king's counselor. You took Peter the fisherman and made him Peter an apostle. Because of you, David went from leading sheep to leading armies. Do it again, Lord, for we need counselors today, Lord. We need apostles. We need leaders. Do it again, dear Lord.

Most of all, do again what you did at Calvary. What we saw here on that Tuesday, you saw there on that Friday. Innocence slaughtered. Goodness murdered. Mothers weeping. Evil dancing. Just as the ash fell on our children, the darkness fell on your Son. Just as our towers were shattered, the very Tower of Eternity was pierced.

And by dusk, heaven's sweetest song was silent, buried behind a rock.

But you did not waver, O Lord. You did not waver. After three days in a dark hole, you rolled the rock and rumbled the earth and turned the darkest Friday into the brightest Sunday. Do it again, Lord. Grant us a September Easter.

We thank you, dear Father, for these hours of unity. Disaster has done what discussion could not. Doctrinal fences have fallen. Republicans are standing with Democrats. Skin colors have been covered by the ash of burning buildings. We thank you for these hours of unity.

And we thank you for these hours of prayer. The Enemy sought to bring us to our knees and succeeded. He had no idea, however, that we would kneel before you. And he has no idea what you can do.

Let your mercy be upon our President, Vice President, and their families. Grant to those who lead us wisdom beyond their years and experience. Have mercy upon the souls who have departed and the wounded who remain. Give us grace that we might forgive and faith that we might believe.

And look kindly upon your church. For two thousand years you've used her to heal a hurting world.

Do it again, Lord. Do it again.


Through Christ, Amen.

Dr. Max Lucado

Monday, September 5, 2011

Back in the swing of things...

We are all three back to school and enjoying being back into the swing of things. Our sweet little students remember us and our teacher friends both American and Chinese were excited for our return. Feels great to be so loved by the people we work with. We are very excited for this new semester. Grace is right back where she left off six weeks ago and absolutely loves her kindergarten teachers Nina, Joyce and Lisa. (two of them are in the pic at the top of the blog) She has the same teachers as she had last year because she is in a special class that has more instruction in English. The parents of the students pay more for that class because they want their child to be exposed to more English.... And with grace in the class it really encourages the children to use their English. With all of that being said the kids and their parents love having grace in the class and I think they feel like its money well spent since their kid is buddies with the American child at the school lol! Grace is understanding more and more mandarin and is learning so much! Her teachers can speak some English but 99 percent of the time they talk to grace in mandarin so that she can learn their language. She comes home and says things that we don't understand, pretty nuts! I never realized what an awesome opportunity this would be for Grace. We are so blessed to not only work at this wonderful school but that she can get a head start on her education at the same time. In other news we are now approved to start volunteering with the Baoan orphanage with their weekend outing program. Most of the children have never been on a trip outside of the orphanage. This program is designed to get them out into the "real world" and let them experience things that they wouldn't get to do otherwise. We will be aloud to take the child to the park, movies, shopping etc. Unfortunately we won't be able to post pictures of the child but we can write about them our blog. One more thing.... I have a bunch of new students this semester that dont have English names yet so I got to name them today LOL!!! So I named them after all of my girlfriends .... They are precious! They will actually keep these names (unless of course they hate their name) ... I will post pictures soon! Peace signs included ;) Not much else to report .... Thanks for all of your prayers. We pray for our family and friends daily and miss you all! Love, Jess