Hello to my dear sisters. This past month The YWCA joined together in a powerful movement of prayer and mediation on creating a safe world for women. As you already know Robby and LAM work internationally to help bring an end to sex trafficking and other issues such as domestic violence that threaten the very lives of our dear sisters and mothers abroad. My work at the YMCA has brought about a perfect opportunity to join forces.
The YWCA put together a great booklet that leads us through a week of prayer and meditation for social justice. I invite you to partake in a week of our own of prayer for the work of LAM and the YWCA and YMCA. I have attached the link to the booklet.
Starting on December 13th all who chose to participate will join together for 7 days to reflect daily on the meditations of the booklet. If you have a heart for our enslaved and beaten daughters and mothers please join me. I am planning sufficiently in advance as I know that the holidays are around the corner and our schedules do tend to get a little overwhelming. On the other hand it is during the holidays that those in need suffer the most. Let this be your gift to the many missionaries working oversees and back home.
If you choose to join us please send me an email and I will provide further instructions. But please know it is as simple as a reading, prayer and words of reflection that you can share with other women participating in this event.
Blessings and thank you for joining Robby and I in this journey.
http://www.worldywca.org/content/download/61717/739754/file/Week%20of%20Prayer%20Booklet%20-%20EN%20-%20web.pdf
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Artist Venue
As I spoke with Robby today he shared that this past weekend he was able to attend an artist venue. It was so good to hear that spark in his voice that comes from being around kindred spirits. Robby is a unique being(aren't we all!). He has incredible talent both in logic and reason and in the arts. He is exercising his right brain every day at LAM so the event could not have come at a better time. He sounded excited and ready to tackle another day having connected with the arts and made some new friends.
Robby returned from his brief stint back here in Phoenix to a very busy office with many projects awaiting him. We are comforted right now knowing that in the new year we will be able to spend more time together as I plan to head to Miami with the dogs.
We ask for prayer as the next month brings a lot of travel. I just returned from Chicago and head back there this next week. After that I am only home for a couple of days and then I head out to Miami! Yes, Miami! We are taking a short weekend trip together with Mom and Dad Chaney. This trip is very needed right now. From Miami I will head to D.C. and San Diego and then home for the holidays. We ask for patience and support as we will not be able to connect much with folks througout our travels and during our time in Miami we plan on disapearing! We love you and we know you will understand!
Robby returned from his brief stint back here in Phoenix to a very busy office with many projects awaiting him. We are comforted right now knowing that in the new year we will be able to spend more time together as I plan to head to Miami with the dogs.
We ask for prayer as the next month brings a lot of travel. I just returned from Chicago and head back there this next week. After that I am only home for a couple of days and then I head out to Miami! Yes, Miami! We are taking a short weekend trip together with Mom and Dad Chaney. This trip is very needed right now. From Miami I will head to D.C. and San Diego and then home for the holidays. We ask for patience and support as we will not be able to connect much with folks througout our travels and during our time in Miami we plan on disapearing! We love you and we know you will understand!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Pithy Platitudes
So Rob and I are not big on pithy platitudes. In fact we aviod them at all costs. We both believe it does nothing but invalidate feelings we are meant to experience. But over the past five years and our many struggles we have landed on the following motto's for our own home:
1) There is my way, your way, and then there is God's way.
2) This one is stolen from my very own wise Uncle Gordon- Vices are just overdone virtues.
So where am I going with this...
Today was my last day at Valle del Sol. I have been there for five years. It has been a stabilizing force in our life and home. As I said my goodbyes today I pondered how complex my feelings are related to change. See, as a missionary's daughter I have said goodbye my entire life. In fact, I don't think until I married Rob I really knew much of anything else. See, his upbringing was about as opposite as mine. He spent most of youth and young adulthood in the same state, city and even home. He was surrounded by family and the family business as far back as he can remember. A good analogy to our different ways is constantly displayed in our physical home. Rob holds on to everything (and I mean everything). We have boxes after boxes of belongings. Well, I toss things after I don't find a purpose for them within the very same week I receive them (this goes for even the mail). Rob is constantly looking for things I have tossed. I am constantly trying to remember why I tossed them. Another great example...our furniture arrangment. Every couple of months Rob comes home to find everything in our home rearranged. It alwasy leads to us putting everything back in it's original place. The key has always been to find the balance somewhere in the middle: God's way not our way.
The complexity in my feelings leaving the office today lied in the strange comfort I found in leaving such an important and meaningful part of my life. I have wanted to part ways with Valle so many times and only in the past year have I not thought once of being anywhere else. But here I am leaving. I am sad but strangly comforted by my uneasiness.
This is not to say that the past week has been anything other than overwhelming. But something was different this time. The goodbye was expected, planned and there was closure. I have to give credit where credit is due...Robby showered me with support and acts of service. With only three days in town he spent it fixing a flat tire, moving boxes, walking the dogs for three hours at seven am in the morning and most importantly holding my hand. There is always time to change your relationship to "change".
So once again, you are probobly asking me...Where are you going with this? Well, I am amazed by God's grace as He continues teaching us with every breath we take. Robby's work at LAM requires him and our marriage to welcome change. Not only change but constant change. The past six months of our marriage have been little more than an ongoing series of goodbyes to one another. Ironic, that the man that resists change readily accepts such a position? Well, I guess if you believe in irony-but we don't. Furthermore, a job that is placed in my path that requires me to thoughtfully plan a goodbye. So once again I reminded there is my way, Rob's way and then God's way.
Many folks might think that all this change is just a season...please don't say it...it is just a pithy platitude. Work has never just been work. Both Rob and I throw ourselves into our work. It is our passion, our calling and in many ways part of our soul. See this is where the the whole, "vices are just overdone virtues" comes in. Rob and I would not pretend to say that living on opposite sides of the country is healthy for us or that we wouldn't have it any other way. That would be plain lie. We don't want to live apart and it has taken it's toll. We just couldn't see any other way. We are committed to our passions and felt the calling. We were and in many ways are still perplexed. Confused yet? I hope so because so are we. So instead of finding a simple solution we just take it day by day. Today, I accepted a job to be closer to Rob and we are discussing what is to come after Rob returns to his original position with LAM (part-time).
So we readily accept your support and prayer as we take it day by day and find God's way in our life, purpose, passion and calling.
1) There is my way, your way, and then there is God's way.
2) This one is stolen from my very own wise Uncle Gordon- Vices are just overdone virtues.
So where am I going with this...
Today was my last day at Valle del Sol. I have been there for five years. It has been a stabilizing force in our life and home. As I said my goodbyes today I pondered how complex my feelings are related to change. See, as a missionary's daughter I have said goodbye my entire life. In fact, I don't think until I married Rob I really knew much of anything else. See, his upbringing was about as opposite as mine. He spent most of youth and young adulthood in the same state, city and even home. He was surrounded by family and the family business as far back as he can remember. A good analogy to our different ways is constantly displayed in our physical home. Rob holds on to everything (and I mean everything). We have boxes after boxes of belongings. Well, I toss things after I don't find a purpose for them within the very same week I receive them (this goes for even the mail). Rob is constantly looking for things I have tossed. I am constantly trying to remember why I tossed them. Another great example...our furniture arrangment. Every couple of months Rob comes home to find everything in our home rearranged. It alwasy leads to us putting everything back in it's original place. The key has always been to find the balance somewhere in the middle: God's way not our way.
The complexity in my feelings leaving the office today lied in the strange comfort I found in leaving such an important and meaningful part of my life. I have wanted to part ways with Valle so many times and only in the past year have I not thought once of being anywhere else. But here I am leaving. I am sad but strangly comforted by my uneasiness.
This is not to say that the past week has been anything other than overwhelming. But something was different this time. The goodbye was expected, planned and there was closure. I have to give credit where credit is due...Robby showered me with support and acts of service. With only three days in town he spent it fixing a flat tire, moving boxes, walking the dogs for three hours at seven am in the morning and most importantly holding my hand. There is always time to change your relationship to "change".
So once again, you are probobly asking me...Where are you going with this? Well, I am amazed by God's grace as He continues teaching us with every breath we take. Robby's work at LAM requires him and our marriage to welcome change. Not only change but constant change. The past six months of our marriage have been little more than an ongoing series of goodbyes to one another. Ironic, that the man that resists change readily accepts such a position? Well, I guess if you believe in irony-but we don't. Furthermore, a job that is placed in my path that requires me to thoughtfully plan a goodbye. So once again I reminded there is my way, Rob's way and then God's way.
Many folks might think that all this change is just a season...please don't say it...it is just a pithy platitude. Work has never just been work. Both Rob and I throw ourselves into our work. It is our passion, our calling and in many ways part of our soul. See this is where the the whole, "vices are just overdone virtues" comes in. Rob and I would not pretend to say that living on opposite sides of the country is healthy for us or that we wouldn't have it any other way. That would be plain lie. We don't want to live apart and it has taken it's toll. We just couldn't see any other way. We are committed to our passions and felt the calling. We were and in many ways are still perplexed. Confused yet? I hope so because so are we. So instead of finding a simple solution we just take it day by day. Today, I accepted a job to be closer to Rob and we are discussing what is to come after Rob returns to his original position with LAM (part-time).
So we readily accept your support and prayer as we take it day by day and find God's way in our life, purpose, passion and calling.
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