Advent Conspiracy

Six Degrees of Separation

First of all, let me start off by saying that I totally pulled this idea off of Amanda Moore's blog, but I thought it was too fun to pass up on. So here are some fun questions for you!

Do we know each other? If so, how?

Ex: We shared scissors with each other when we were in kindergarten.
Ex: We worked at Pine Cove together and still don't know each other's real names.

Maybe we don't know each other, but have we ever met?

Ex: Yes, we actually met in the bathroom of the MSC when we were students at A&M.
Ex: We met that one time running around White Rock Lake, but you were actually walking and looking a lot like death.

Do we have a mutual friend or acquaintance?

Ex: My sister dated your brother when they were in high school...and only during church camp that one summer.
Ex: I'm your old roommate's cousin.

If the answer is no to all three, do we have something in common?

Ex: We both wear a similar piece of jewelry on our right ring fingers. Whoop!
Ex: We both wish we were still in Junior High and therefore live vicariously through Junior High students at Watermark.
Ex: We were both in ASC at A&M and both dropped out a year into it.


In reality, this is just a way to get people to comment on my blog, but fun just the same!

The Birds and The Bees

Wait, no bees. Just birds. And the glorious little feathery friends are in my chimney driving Kristie and I crazy. Not to mention that I have a little bit of a fear of birds as well. In the past month that they have been nesting in my chimney, starting as one quiet little bird and then multiplying, we have been coming up with solutions to our birdie issue.

1. Light a fire and smoke the little suckers out. We decided that's not a good idea since the birds could either fly into our house or the house could get nice and smokey from the fire.

2. We could climb up onto the roof and throw those little popper things down the chimney that we all used to play with as kids. The bad thing about that idea is that Kristie and I would be the ones to fall off the roof and the birds would still be around.

3. Our final option...which we have taken a liking to...is to let Kristie's dog climb in the fireplace and bark. Nothing happens and the birds actually get louder, but it's still funny stuff.

So where does that leave us? Needing a BB gun to shoot the birds I guess. Or I could just call a chimney sweep. Do they even have those in Dallas?

Get Me Out!

It's sad to say, but I think I've hit a blogging funk. It's either that or I've been too busy with other stuff going on to actually sit down and write. So please allow me to catch you up!



June: Went to Brazil. All good stuff. You'll have to ask me about it though because there is far too much to write about, and here I am in July and still trying to process the trip.



Monday after I get back from Brazil, I quit my job...or at least tried to. Don't worry, it was planned months before leaving and not a result of the trip. Notice I did say "tried to quit." Apparently AXA loves me and can't live without me, and won't exactly let me go. This in and of itself has consumed much of my life up until now. We're still working on that issue, but what can I say...I'm irreplaceable.



End of June/Beginning of July: Road trip to San Antonio with some girls from Watermark. So fun! We went to see Wicked (officially can check that off my life list) and went floating down the Guadalupe (another thing to check off). I must say that floating down the river felt a lot like a floating frat party.



July continues on with my one year "house-iversary." I've officially lived in my house for one year, and haven't managed to burn it down as of yet. Lord knows I've come close!



And this past week I joined three of my girls in serving at the Jr. High Connection at Upendo Church. Connection is probably one of the highlights of the jr. high events done throughout the year. I'm pretty sure I love it so much because I'm seeing my girls serve others, and that just brings joy to my heart. Here's a picture of one of the sweet kids the students were serving this past week. In case you're wondering, that's not a puddle of water.



And that's all I've got for now!

In the Jungle

Are these not two of the most precious little girls you have ever seen? If they had fit in my carry on, I would've brought them both home with me from Brazil. They were so cute!

So I realize I've been a little bit behind in writing about my trip to the Amazon...so sorry! It's definitely not because I was at a loss for things to write about. It's quite the opposite actually! I'm pretty sure I could tell stories for days and days about what the Lord did during our time in Brazil...stories of people who now know Jesus...stories of life on a boat...and then ridiculous farkle stories of course (because it wouldn't be a Watermark mission trip without those). While I've been home for three weeks now, I'm still trying to process everything that happened while we were there. This time around it's been a little bit more difficult to process my trip, but I don't want to leave you hanging until I do.

So my story for today is this...it's the answer to the question that everyone asks and I love the most to share. Question: What is your favorite memory from the trip? Answer: Playing & dancing in the rain with a little boy who fell in the mud. On our second day of going to villages, the rain decided to follow the North Americans and the JJ Mesquita (our boat) into the village and stay for a while. Blowing bubbles, playing soccer and sharing life with the Brazilians continued on as usual, and the monsoon didn't stop a thing. After we had finished Vacation Bible School for the morning, we were all playing outside throwing footballs and beach balls around in the rain and this sweet little boy fell in the mud. While I'm pretty confident he normally wouldn't have cared that he was all muddy, the tears still started to flow and a distraction from Laura was needed asap. When it comes to tears, I'm more than happy to bring in the humor and play and dance in the mud to make an unhappy little boy laugh again. For the rest of the time until we were told to go back to the boat for lunch, we spun around in the rain and the mud with other little kids joining in. It was great! I LOVED every minute of it. Hands down one of my favorite moments on the trip.

I promise, more stories to come!

Brazil Bound!

That's right! That glorious day is almost here! Come Saturday a team of young adults from Watermark are headed into the Amazon to swim with piranhas, wrestle alligators and share Jesus with the locals. Okay the first two things aren't really on our list of things to do, but the third one is. It's hard to believe that we've been preparing for this for so many months and now it's finally here. There will be lots of updates to come once we get back, but in the meantime please feel free to check in on what we're up to on www.watermarkinbrazil.blogspot.com. As we head into the upcoming week, I do have a few prayer requests.

*The biggest one I can think of is that I'm fully there and not just present. I would hate for distractions at home to consume my mind while I'm there for purpose of sharing Christ and building relationships.

*Sweet community. I'm going with such a great group of people, and a week on a boat can be a great time to deepen those relationships.

*And last but certainly not least, that the Gospel would spread. That each man, woman and child we meet would see the love of Christ and what it looks like to have a relationship with our Savior.

I can't wait to get home to share pictures and stories! I'm excited!

Amazing Love

This morning I was reminded of the depth of the love that Christ has for us through a simple picture. One of the guys that I work with, Kyle, and his wife Julie just got back from San Francisco after picking up the little girl they adopted from Korea. One of the pictures is of Kyle and Julie standing at the terminal waiting for little Blake to be brought off the plane. The look on their faces is priceless and the love you can see just from the picture is indescribable. I’ve never actually had a picture bring tears to my eyes, but this one did it and I think it’s because it’s just a small glimpse of the love that Christ has for me. Whenever Kyle and Julie first got a picture of their baby, he was trying to describe what it feels like to instantly love someone you’ve never even met. All I could think of was that it was the perfect picture of unconditional love. The baby hadn’t done anything to earn their love. There were no strings attached and from the moment they saw her sweet face, they were in love. Holy cow! What a great picture of Christ’s love for me! He loved me from the moment I was formed in my mother’s womb. He knows everything about me…what brings me joy…what makes me cry…everything. No matter how much I screw up, I know that I’m still loved and cherished.

To see the pictures, go to www.tiffanyfongphotography.com and click on the link to her blog. The name of the post is "Oh Happy Day."