Make me a purse which does not wear out...

I am studying Sociology/Social Work right now and I absolutely love it. I get to study and learn about the things I am most passionate about however my increased awareness about the social problems in our society often lead me to a place of being completely overwhelmed. I was reading chapter 2 in my textbook on the cycle of poverty and I was left convicted and overwhelmed. Convicted because although I think I do some things in terms of "justice" I really have to wonder if it just seems like I am doing more when I compare myself to people around me.
-Some people think poverty is a problem.
-Some people do a yearly "Saturday-Service-Project."
-Some people do not even have the poor on their radar.

None of this is meant to sound as though I am judging others, I just don't think my personal standards of addressing these issues should be done in comparison to those around me. This allows me to get by, by doing the bare minimum, while still feeling like "at least I did more than the average person." Rather, I want to remind myself of how God views the poor and oppressed. The Bible contains more than 300 verses on the poor, social justice, and God's deep concern for both. I want my life to reflect who Jesus spent time with during his earthly ministry and allow that to be the litmus test of how I am spending my life.

So I am reading chapter 2 and I begin to cry. I think about how much stuff I have, how much stuff I still want, and how much kingdom work is left to be done during my short life here on earth. Jamey probes and asks me why I am crying and I tell him how I'm sad and feel like I'm not doing enough, and I could be doing so much more.

I tell him about a few of my friends whom I admire so much who are literally giving their lives away to see the Gospel restore and redeem people that are poor and oppressed. Like Cassie, who spends most of her days hanging out with the homeless of Shreveport and seeing them find hope in Christ. http://www.thehubministry.com/
Or Courtney who lives in East Asia ministering to prostitutes in sex shops around her city...
No one can charge them with not giving their lives away... They literally have given their lives away for the sake of others. They are on a path to become the next "Mother Teresas" while I wait for the next big sale at Urban and go on the occasional mission trip.
But Jamey chimes in as my sounding board of biblical truth, just as he always does and reminds my heart of some important things:

1.) None of the problems of poverty and oppression will truly be solved until Jesus comes back to restore all things as they were intended to be
2.) That spending time with college girls, loving them and helping them understands the needs of the poor is giving my life away in a sense
3.) Raising awareness and living my life as an advocate for the poor is just as honorable as living in Calcutta, India (both are needed)
4.) Being a good steward of my job, my school work, my husband and college ministry is glorifying to God
I needed this truth and encouragement desperately today as I was sinking in a black hole of all the world's problems and all that needed to be done. While simultaneously doing the math of realizing I only have 1 life to live and only 24 hours in each day and feeling like most of that time I am wasting away just like the next guy. However, it does not ever excuse me from just doing the bare minimum. I don't think Jesus would leave me here on earth to do "greater things than he" like buying Hillsong albums and John Piper books. I think he took the whole "love thy neighbor" thing pretty seriously, and so should I.

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Verses like this are not hard to understand, they are hard to do.

I tell people all the time I am not "good" at hanging out with refugees or homeless. They are so different than me and we have nothing in common. Sometimes I do it because I don't see it as optional in scripture. Other times I do it, although it is uncomfortable, because I think my awkward interactions with the poor bring glory to God.

I am definitely not perfect and have TONS of sanctification in a million areas of my life, but I'm thankful for the struggle between this world and the next. Hoping when He comes back he finds me as a "purse which does not wear out"

Luke 12:33. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys."

~My present Calcutta...a thanksgiving dinner with international students back in November~

Its been a while..

.....so long in fact that I am not sure anyone will read this. Oh well. This is more like cheap therapy than true entertainment for those around me. Heck! We have Glee now. Who needs to read blogs anymore? j/k

So I am in school and although it has dominated my life I actually really enjoy it. I am reading so many books about my favorite things in life: missions, poverty, Islam, campus ministry, etc. Learning truly is a gift. Education is a luxury many go without. I always dream of some sort of non-profit I create where I get the opportunity to provide education to those who have not been given this chance. I always think about some of my kids who have spent most of their lives living in refugee camps, waiting on food drops from the UN, avoiding cholera. Now they are dropped into our American country with our English-school-system that gives them 0.2 seconds to catch up or they fall behind. Many refugee high school students do not graduate because they are stuck. Do you put a 15 year old in class with the 2nd graders because that's his reading level? Or do you spare him some dignity and put in a freshmen class where there's no chance of him ever catching up to the rest of his peers?
And what about the kids who go home to broken families, or single-parent households with a mom who can't help with homework because she's working job number 2 just to pay the bills. Or what about the kids who can't wake up their mom for a ride to school because she's passed out from the night before?
Education comes at different costs for different people and not all kids can be expected to learn the same when the environments they come vary so drastically.

This is just one of my soap boxes and a problem I think of often. I want to do my best to fix these things even on the smallest scale. Even if I only make a tiny dent. I care only because I have been cared for first. My deepest need has been met. Now it is my turn to care and meet the needs of others and never tire of doing so.

"And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right." Thessalonians

The truth comes out...

Okay so here's my blog confession. I have some typical excuses for not keeping up with this thing like business, full time job, ministry, being a wife etc, but here's my honest one.
I DON'T KNOW HOW TO WORK THIS STUPID THING!!
Its so annoying wanting to blog but not having a 5 hour chunk in any day to figure the dang thing out!
In case you haven't noticed I dont even know how to add friends to the side of my page to click on, I have to go to Summer's page and click on everyone from there.
Also putting pictures on here is drama. I click on the image thing and it adds all of the pics to the top and I have to drag them each down to their appropriate place in the story of my blog. And it takes FOREVER to do that. I dont know how to add a link either which is annoying because it cuts out some of witty banter points when I can't say, "too see for yourself click here..haha!"
So without friends on the side, and without pics, and without links to enhance my witty banter I think my heart has just given up. Not to mention the few times I've written a freakin novel and somehow the whole thing has gotten erased!!ugh!
anyway, so I'll update soon. I just need some blogspot 101!

Mel

1031...This is for you!

Jamey's been asking me to post this bad-boy for some time now so I thought I would!! I couldn't decide what to title this blog. In honor of my old roomies I chose the title for 1031...but a close second was "Now this is TRUE LOVE!"
Haha! I just wanted to give a shout-out to the joy of marriage! To have a best friend that loves you so unconditionally the way Jamey loves me, is ridiculous!
And although I was advised to throw out my teddy-pj's by my friends....I didn't. Jamey even says I look "cute" in this. He was the one who actually got out the camera to take the pic!
Don't worry, all you girls who spent good money on my lingerie shower, I still wear those sexy numbers too. But every now and then you just wanna put on a good-ole-fashion night gown....... (from elementary school)....and black-ankle-high-socks....(for warmth)
haha...kinda sad, huh??

The New family Pet!

L.A. trip!! and a little more...

Here are some pics from my trip to L.A. in early April that I promised I would post!!
There are random pics of Jamey and I at a yummy mexican restaurant in Hollywood, in our rented convertible (SO FUN), at his show at the Troubadour, and with some of my favorite people in the world (aka Cassie, Sarah, and Sean)!! Such a fun trip!!







































As far as what's going on now.....
I'm a little tired and in a weird mood so I'll do some bullets and see where they take me!

- Love my job!! Its so fun and so right up my alley. Praise God that I get up in the mornings loving what I do. (I don't love having tons of meetings...) but I LOVE getting to hang out with college students and international students!!

-Jamey just started recording his first major debut album! He sends me texts from the studio saying things like...and I quote...."I'm in guitar heaven!"....not too sure what that means, but it makes me happy that he's so happy!!

-LB moved to Fort Worth!! Praise his holy name on high! Its such a blessing having a good friend here, because although I love my job, and know my purpose here, I dont feel like I've made a ton of connections with people. Maybe I'm just spoiled from my old homegroup, or the days of 1031.... I meet people, and when I do..... I can enjoy them as a person, but in my 7 months here I haven't really felt a deep connnection with anyone except my sweet friend Tessa! But there's still time, and probably somewhere deep down inside I'm looking for a "new Dawn," or a "new summy/chavon" who loves Jesus, but is just slightly inappropriate, or a "brooke" who I can have worship sessions/dream about saving the world with or someone who gets my humor....you get the idea...geez the more I write, the more selfish I sound. So I'll end on the note that I'm just thankful Lauren is here!

- Lastly, I was reading in Luke 18 about the persistent widow and something about that parable grabbed me! I decided in my heart,...."I WANT TO BE THE PERSISTENT WIDOW".... Jesus tells the disciples in this parable, "ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Lately, I've had some weirdness between me and God concerning prayer. Part of my heart was walking in some serious unbelief and it was (and still is some) affecting my prayer life.
For some reason I've been feeling like my happiness and God's desire for his glory are mutually exclusive.
Example: Sometimes when Jamey drives home late at night from an out-of-town-gig I pray that God would protect him and keep him safe. (But I do so with the thought in the back of my mind being, "Well, I can pray for God to keep Jamey safe...BUT...he's not as concerned with me (somewhat good but mostly not good christian) having a long lasting marriage....AS MUCH AS HE'S concerned with his glory being made known. And maybe His will is for me to have a 4-month-long-marriage that ends tragically and I go around sharing my testimony and God gets the glory. (Now I know what you're thinking...unhealthy train of thoughts....dont worry....I'm fully aware of this) I'm sure I need some major "katherine-esque-theophostic-sessions" to get to the root of all this, but nonetheless....God used the persistent widow in Luke 18 to encourage me some. And all I know is that she begged and pleaded to an unrighteous judge and he granted her justice. So how silly is it to not ask God for something, on the off chance he doesn't answer the prayer...pretty silly, right??
.....at least I'm trying to convince myself of that truth
How sweet of God to show me a passage about His true character as opposed to the skewed one I tend to see through the lenses of at times...

Luke 18

1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" 6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell will you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

MUCH LOVE....

Mel

Much Needed Update!!

Hey friends and family...

Well first my apologies for being so dang M.I.A. as far as my blogging. Its been a CRAZY couple of months and to be honest a hard couple of months!!
But nonetheless I'm still alive and kickin' with a few stories to catch folks up on where I've been!!

Back in March I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala with our college group! It was an amazing experience but a trying one for me personally. First of all I was horribly sick the first 4 days of being there and I was barely able to participate in the activities.
Also I had some trouble getting my luggage.
If anyone knows me you know that I'm a horrible-last-minute-packer when it comes to overseas trips. Each time I usually deem it a "good idea" to start packing around midnight the night before an early morning international flight!! This trip however I decided to start packing a week in advance. And I was sure to pack just enough outfits, the right amount of hair product, underwear you name it! Well God, in his funny sense of humor, knew that my luggage wouldn't arrive until the day before I left to come back home!! AKA I had no clothes, no hair product, no clean underwear the entire trip.
Also some background on why I was sick was that I HAD to get my wisdom teeth out 5 days before I left b/c the oral surgeon said if I didn't get them out it would have been bad news bears! (well...he didn't say those exact words...but thats a paraphrase of what he said)
So what's the moral of the story???
I should go back to last-minute packing!!
j/k

This is me trying to recover from my chipmunk cheeks!
p.s. Did I mention I was the only one who didn't get their luggage out of 50 people?? (this was God's way of ensuring that I knew it wasn't a demonic attack on our team, but rather his divine hand in teaching ME an appointed lesson)
The trip was awesome despite being sick and my bag situation. God did miraculous things while we there and made the trip well worth the my little circumstantial set backs.
Here are some pics from the trip!!


Public transportation in Guatemala usually looked something like this!
This is me about to throw up on our ferry ride!! yuck!
No matter how dirty you are, you can always look cute eating ice cream! right??

So I come home from Guat and just a few days later my husband leaves for his national tour with a popular rock band from the 90's called Collective Soul.(remember that one song they did-..."Ohhh, Heaven let your light shine down...") Jamey is getting to play different parts California, and also Reno, Vegas, Seattle, Nashville, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana...just all over! As much as I wanted to be happy for him and his travels I was quite the opposite. Pretty much miserable. As of now we've been married 3 months but we've already been apart 29 total days. It may not seem like a lot to some, but it was really hard for me. However, I knew going into this that it wouldn't be easy at first.
We are and probably will remain at the mercy of Capitol Records for at least another year. It really is an exciting time for us, and will be more of a fruitful time the more I depend on Christ for strength. And if I were honest I was way more prone to "cry fests" and pity parties than I was at using my free time and empty house for more undistracted devotion to Jesus.
But God truly blessed us and we found a cheap plane ticket midway through the tour so I could go see him!!
I was able to go out and visit my hubby in L.A. and see him play at a place called Troubadour and that was a blast. He was amazing of course!!
I'll post some of our pics from LA on my next blog.

Finally, my husband came home from tour and I was so excited to have him back. I made him his favorite dessert that I had never made before. Flourless Chocolate Cake. (and I don't think it was near as good as the one his Grandma Lee makes cause he nonchalantly suggested I call her for help next time!! haha) He also had a sold out show at House of Blues in Dallas the day after he got home and it was so fun to be back in "wife mode" supporting him and the talent God has given him from the front row of the audience. Here are a few pics from that show!!

Isn't he the cutest thing ever???

This is the lead singer Josh.




Me and LB backstage enjoying free food & drink. Praise God for All Access Passes!! haha



Some of my high school girls came out to the show!! I think its safe to say that they are mildly obsessed with my husband!!

: )


Some of the folk from my college ministry were also there to hang out! This is our "Guat picture" of all the people that went on our Guatemala trip!




That's all I got for now! It took forever for me to upload these pics. Drama!

love you all
Mel