She gets it!

A month or so ago we finished reading through my favorite children's Bible with the girls--The Jesus Storybook Bible. (It says in the beginning--"Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle--the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture." Love it!) So, as we finished our first read through this Bible I was stuck by the significance that in Jesus, God came to us. He comes to us. He pursues us as a lover, a rescuer, a redeemer...
This has been my prevailing thought this Christmas season. Beautiful!

Yesterday morning I sat in a crowded room of the 20 or so women I'm getting to know up at the new Sari Bari unit, along with some Bengali and North American staff. I read a small portion of the Christmas story from Luke and we talked about the circumstances of Christ's birth and what God must be like to come close to his people, to come in obscurity rather than with fanfare; to come in poverty. As we finished our short discussion, one of the ladies said "Before, if we wanted to be close to God we had to go to the temple." And with a smile of peaceful assurance on her face she continued, "but now God comes to us." Amazing!

It's beyond-words-beautiful to see Him coming here!

Gloria in Profundis

I found this while reading an online Advent calendar on Christianity Today's website. You can find it by clicking on the title of this post.


Gloria In Profundis

There has fallen on earth for a token
A god too great for the sky.
He has burst out of all things and broken
The bounds of eternity:
Into time and the terminal land
He has strayed like a thief or a lover,
For the wine of the world brims over,
Its splendour is spilt on the sand.

Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed stars topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drowns all—
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who strives with the starry torrent,
When all that is good goes down?

For in dread of such falling and failing
The fallen angels fell
Inverted in insolence, scaling
The hanging mountain of hell:
But unmeasured of plummet and rod
Too deep for their sight to scan,
Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest
The spout of the stars in spate—
Where thunderbolt thinks to be slowest
And the lightning fears to be late:
As men dive for sunken gem
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,
The fallen star has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

This is AMAZING!!

My dear friend Kristi has created this lovely image as a way to support two other friends who will come and support us in January. (did you follow that?!)

Here's a little blurb from Elaine that explains it all including the details you need to purchase your own copy!

Thankful today for such beauty, love, connection....
melinda


About SEVEN weeks from now, Lynn Marie and I will be on our way to Kolkata, India, to work for two weeks alongside dearfriends who are serving with an organization called Word Made Flesh (http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/). After multiple visits to India, they became instrumental in the development of Sari Bari (http://www.saribari.com/). a business initiative that seeks the freedom and restoration of Kolkata’s red-light areas through dignity-giving employment opportunities for women affected by the sex trade.

Our Opportunity to Join In

A long-time friend and teaching partner will join me to support Word Made Flesh and Sari Bari in the following ways: Week 1: Coordinate a children’s retreat in Chennai for the families of staff from Nepal, Thailand and India. Week 2: Back in Kolkata, we will help out in both Sari Bari locations, participating in the production of the blankets, purses and bags, while speaking into the lives of dozens of women who have begun new, promising lives. We will also use our TESL training (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) to train our friends in “best practices” for teaching English to the workers and their supervisors.

Your Opportunity to Join In

You can support our work by BUYING ONE OR MORE DIGITAL PRINTS of this beautiful drawing by Kristi Smith (think lovely,frameable gifts). Email your order to my Inbox or itslainee@gmail.com and we'll send more payment and mailing information.

4 X 6 digital print ~ $12 min.
5 X 7 digital print ~ $15 min.
8 X10 digital print ~ $20 min.

Two 50+ women will need alot of physical, emotional and spiritual strength far beyond ourselves, so we are also asking for your prayer support as we prepare for this exciting journey!


Thankfully,

Elaine Everett Atchison

Things we'll know in heaven

Riding home from school in the auto rickshaw the other day Asha asked me "Who were our moms when we were babies?" (I always imagine that these conversations will happen in some romanticized scenario like while we're looking at childhood pictures or on Mother's day....sometime when I'm more prepared--not while we're riding down the busy road squeezed into the back of the auto with both girls and two backpacks on my lap trying to keep all our parts in the vehicle and barely able to hear the question!)
"What did you ask?", I said, wanting to make sure that she asked what I thought she did.
Asha repeated the question.
"We don't know, honey," I said. And before I could give any more commentary she said, "We'll know in heaven. And Mattias (the boy in their class) will know his ABC's."

We left it at that, paid our 10 rupees and walked home. :)

This one could use some Pepcid

This is a sheep from the pumpkin patch we visited outside of Memphis in northern MS when we were stateside. I guess not all sheep are cute and cuddly.

Last Sunday in church

We had some special music at church from a group of young men (from NE India) attending a local seminary. Their sound was quite surprising. See if you think so too.

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Crows are ubiquitous in the city where we live, and probably one of the most annoying birds on the planet. But, after listening to this we might have to rethink the frequency with which we yell at the ones that regularly land on our balcony. Click on the title to hear a funny and interesting story about our avian friends.