1,000 Gifts Week 4

This week I am thankful for...

61. Playing "Epic Musical Chairs" at youth group on Wednesday (NOT just a game for a 4 year old's birthday party!)

63. Dinner with Jenn and Becca on Tuesday evening. Yummy soup, bread, wine and salad.

67. Coffee dates with two great high school freshmen.

70. Getting to see The Blind Side last weekend--a terrific movie!

72. Getting to video chat with my smiling, giggling little Lily yesterday :)

75. A sweet text message from my honey this morning while he was at the beach.

76. Getting to talk to Papa on the phone for about a half hour Monday (I never get to talk to him!)

79. Time spent laying in the grass in a park watching the clouds while on my jog the other day. (Yes I got exercise too, the cloud watching came while doing sit ups in the grass!)

How bout you? What are you giving thanks for this week?

Menu Plan Monday!

I know I haven't done this in awhile, I've been working on the monthly menu plan, but this month for some reason I drifted away from it a bit. I think a couple of the recipes didn't go over as well as I had anticipated so I don't want to make them a second time just for the sake of sticking to a plan. So I used the same ingredients and found different recipes. This is what's for dinner this week:

Monday: Broccoli Cheese Soup, french bread, salad
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Youth group
Thursday: Pesto Chicken Pasta and salad
Friday: Lentil Sausage stew
Saturday: Enchilada Casserole
Sunday: Left overs

7 Quick Takes Friday

Your weekly update from the Kennedy household...
**1**
I finally finished up our 2009 photo album, uploading all our year's worth of digital pictures to shutterfly.com in order to create a photo album to have printed for us. I did it last year as well and for our wedding album and they turn out beautifully, so I'm excited for this to arrive! 100 pages chronicling our first year of marriage...

**2**
If you have seen the news this week you know that southern california has been hit hard by some impressive storms. I haven't seen anything like this since 95 when our whole town seemed to flood! The rain and wind have been so strong we even lost the life of our neighborhood squirrel. He didn't make it through the storm. Our part of town hasn't been dealing with flooding although there are a few trees down in the neighborhood, but other parts of the city are a mess. I still think it's a nice change from the monotonous 70 degree weather though :)

**3**
I think the weather is making me really tired and unmotivated though. That would be the one downside. I've been wanting to do nothing but curl up under a blanket with a book this week (which makes sense since it's down-pouring outside). So it hasn't been the most productive week ever.

**4**
Plane tickets have been purchased! I get to hold Lily again on February 11th! She's being baptized on Valentines Day so I'm heading back to Providence for a long weekend with the family. Charles will be attending Dave and Tera's wedding here in town that weekend--we're both sad we can't be at both events but this was one of those weekends where we had to decide to divide and conquer!

**5**
We watched an unbelievable movie last night at the recommendation of my cousin Jeff. He mentioned it this summer when we were in Seattle and we finally got around to seeing it. The Power of One came out in 1992 and is a story about apartheid in South Africa, and the power of one white college student who was determined to take steps to see it end. It was an incredibly powerful story that both of us loved. When I see movies such as this, about racism, the Civil Rights movement etc, I'm always struck by a strong sense of the injustice that was at work (which is probably appropriate, the way blacks were treated by whites for centuries has been nothing but unjust). However last night I was struck powerfully with a new response. The whole time I was watching I felt a deep sense of shame at the color of my skin. I wished I wasn't white in that moment. I felt so ashamed of the history of oppression that has been brought upon countless countries and societies by white Europeans throughout the centuries and I wanted nothing to do with it. It was an interesting experience that I'm still processing, but one I think we need to have ever now and then in order to keep the cycles of oppression from returning (not that they have ever gone away, but that's another blog post for another time....)

**6**
Tonight we're going to dinner and to see The Blind Side (finally!) to celebrate our 10th monthiversary (which was yesterday). It's been a couple weeks since we've gone on a date and I'm ready! (And I'll be able to cross off two movies off my 28 movies to watch this year list after this weekend!)

**7**
For those who were wondering if I was still a fan of my new Kindle now that I've done some reading on it, the answer is YES! I love it! I have read all of Dan Brown's new book and am almost done with the third Twilight book and I really am enjoying the convenience of it. I think I read faster on it too, I'm not sure how that's possible but I seem to be getting through books faster these days. My Kindle also has a new name. Her name is Rory thanks to Jenn :) Rory is my favorite Gilmore Girls character who loves reading, so it seemed like an appropriate name :)

Happy weekend everyone!

1,000 Gifts week 3

This week I am thanking God for...

41. The rain that is providing LA with much needed water (even if it's a bit of an over-load in places!)

47. A two day Company of New Pastors retreat in Malibu Monday-Wed. (more about that in another post)

49. Celebrating 10 months of marriage this week

50. Making homemade French Onion Soup last night (something I'd always wanted to try) which turned out delicious!

53. Watching The Power of One last night-a beautiful, tragic and inspiring movie about apartheid in South Africa.

60. A fun trivia night at youth group on Wednesday. I ended up on the all boys team which turned out to be a blast :)

Jesus, thank you for these and the many other gifts--great and small--that you provide for us.

1,000 Gifts

I recently came across the blogs of two members of my Seattle church that have been so inspiring and encouraging for me to read. Both Susan and Kimberlee wrote this past month about cultivating and practicing thankfulness in our lives, and I thought I'd share those with you. As I read, I realized they were both talking about a community of people and bloggers out there who are intentional about practicing the spiritual discipline of gratitude. They explained that the practice was simple--it was all about making a list of things you are thankful for and actually thanking God for them. I have done bits and pieces of this in the past, but usually fairly sporadic. What I like about this practice, however, is that it forces us to be aware of and recognize the tiny things in life that are so simple and so beautiful. It forces us to remember to thank God for the laughter of a child wafting through the open window, or the sight of a neighbor's beautifully kept rose garden. Susan wrote that "intentional looking leads to seeing more and more of what would have been unnoticed." I decided a few weeks that one of my disciplines for 2010 was to participate in this Gratitude Community. You can do this in a number of ways--by listing a few items each day, or creating space to make a longer list once a week. Several people who have done this have taken the time to create beautiful gratitude journals that are truly pieces of art, however I simply picked up my gratitude journal a friend gave me years ago and started a new page. Each week I'll share a few of the things I listed that week with all of you. In a season where there is so much chaos, confusion, and pain on the nightly news, I wonder what would happen if we all stopped for a few minutes and attended more deeply to the small delights around us?

My list with the actual numbers on it is at home but here are a few of the small gifts I am thanking God for this month:

Time this week to catch up on so many unfinished projects

My beautiful new baby niece is now 3 months old and perfectly healthy

Savoring a mocha in a Portland coffee shop with my best friend

Getting completely lost in Dan Brown's latest book--a book that was purely fluff and entertainment!

Seeing Christmas card photos of friends and family members who I only get to hear from once a year.

A friend's courage and honesty with me.

My husband ignoring his alarm clock today in order to spend an extra hour snuggled up next to me

The fun and ridiculousness that is the TV show Glee

The opportunity to share my testimony with the youth in a few weeks.

A chance to interview with and hear about the children's ministry program at a church here in this area.

My new 2010 day planner that I am kind of in love with.

Jesus, thank you for these gifts, and the many more we are unaware of in our lives.

Being Haunted

Being Haunted. It’s been quite awhile since I have been “followed” by a book, you know, in that “can’t get it out of your head,” “can’t rest until you know the conclusion,” “look over your shoulder throughout the day to see if the characters are behind you” kind of way. But over Christmas, I was followed, no, I was chased, by Barbara Kingsolver’s fictional, theological, tragic masterpiece, The Poisonwood Bible. This book literally appeared in my dreams on more than one occasion, as I found myself walking the red dirt roads of the African Congo with the Price family.

The Reverend Nathan Price is an arrogant, eccentric, overly-zealous Baptist minister so obsessed with “saving souls” that he risks his own life and the lives of those closest to him when he moves his wife and four daughters to the Congo for a supposed one-year stint as missionaries. This later turns into decades of tragedy for this family as he refuses to leave and return home. He carries nothing but his determination to show the pagan village of Kilanga the errors in their tribal beliefs and practices, proclaiming Tata Jesus as their one true God and demonstrating an unwavering obsession with getting their children baptized. Rev. Price moves his family without the sanction of the Baptist Missionary Society, without training, without any knowledge of the culture or language, and while his terrified wife and four daughters sneak mild comforts from home into the Congo hidden in their underclothes Nathan Price bulldozes his way into a village that would have been happier had he never set foot on their soil.

Nathan may have a very authentic belief in Jesus, and a deep desire to see other’s come to know Jesus as Lord, however it is his arrogance that ends up destroying his family and changes the lives of the villagers he is attempting to serve in a less than positive way. Because he chose not to study the language of the people prior to his trip, and because he does not always trust the interpreters, Nathan chooses to attempt preaching in a language not his own. Sunday after Sunday he boldly proclaims “Tata Jesus is bangala!” In the native language Kigongo, the meaning of words depends upon intonation. So while he is attempting to say “Jesus is precious and dear,” he is actually proclaiming week in and week out that Jesus is poisonwood, a local tree that causes immense pain, itching, and misery. People attempt to correct him and he will hear none of it. He knows Jesus. They don’t. He’s right. They’re wrong. And he can’t figure out why no one is flocking to be baptized into the family of this itchy, miserable Jesus.

Throughout the novel Nathan’s arrogance rears its ugly head time after time, leaving a wake of misunderstanding, pain, and heartache in his path. The amount of hatred I felt for him surprised me, I don’t normally have such a strong reaction to fictional characters. The level of spiritual abuse he rose to with his family and the villagers he was attempting to convert was astounding to me. And it would be really easy for me to sit here in judgment of him. But I found myself having to ask the question as I read, ‘have I ever done this?’ Certainly I haven’t bulldozed my way into an African village proclaiming Jesus is a poisonwood tree, but have I ever looked at non-Christians with a sense of arrogance or lack of humility? In interactions with my non-Christian family members do I assume I have it all figured out and they are simply stumbling in the dark? Do I ever wear my faith like a badge of honor? Do I misunderstand the culture and language of those I am attempting to minister to because I fail to take the time to really listen and learn? I think the answer is yes, I am guilty of these things. I know I’ll continue to make these mistakes, but The Poisonwood Bible is a book I know I’ll be re-reading every so often, partly because it’s a phenomenally written book, and partly as a reminder of the approach and heart we as ministers are to adopt as we look at a broken world desperate for the Good News and compassion that comes with knowing Jesus.

Your kitchen tip of the week

Well I don't exactly give you kitchen tips all that often, but I found one that is AMAZING and totally works! So I don't know about all of you but one of my pet peeves is when the brown sugar turns rock hard and you end up chiseling it out of it's container. I came across something in a magazine awhile ago that said if you kept a marshmallow in the container with the brown sugar it somehow keeps the brown sugar soft. I wanted to test it, so several months ago I tried it and tonight discovered the brown sugar soft and fresh. You gotta try it, it totally works!