jamie's wanderings

I found this on a friend's Facebook quote section. I feel this way as we rapidly approach 2010. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others" ~Marianne Williamson

7 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open:[c] 8 “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me." Revelation 3:7-8 Last night at prayer meeting Miguel read these 2 verses.He said he'd been writing an article for the denom magazine, and felt like these words are for the church in Spain. He talked about He Who opens doors, and how we have to walk through them. Doors in Spain are fascinating objects. Some are ugly beyond all recognition, and others are made of beautiful pine wood, stained to perfection. I love walking through the old streets of Granada, and wondering what goes on behind all the doors I walk past. But this verse struck me even more as Andrew and I have and impor...

When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of "no answer." It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent gaze. As though he shook his head, like, "Peace, child, you don't understand." - CS Lewis

Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary. Today was one of those days. Today, Andrew and I and the pastor and his wife, a couple of the deacons and two other men from our church attended a funeral. Today, we preached the gospel, using words when needed. Santa Fe, is the original Santa Fe for which all other cities called thusly are named for. It is a small village about 4 miles outside of Granada. It was the original encampment of the Catholic Kings, Isabel and Fernindad, when they took Granada from the Moslems. There is no evangelical church there. Many have tried and all except for the gypsies (who are considered an ethnic group outside of Spanish culture) have failed. But God still wants Santa Fe. So, once upon a time, oh, let’s say a couple of decades ago, a Christian who lived in Santa Fe began to witness. He witnessed as much as he could, to one man in particular, Antonio. Antonio resisted for years. The Christian died, and Antonio kept living. Until, one day this summer, Ant...

African Angels I've been convinced for a lot of my life that my angel is African. I have a couple of stories that have happened to me this last month that has convinced me even more. Andrew left Spain on May 1st to head back to the US. I stayed back to finish out one more week of work, pay the bills, wrap up the the last minute details. The wednesday before I was supposed to leave, I went to the gym to try and work out some last minute stress. My gym is a rather Rocky Balboa type gym, and we tend to have Africans that come to work out, but they usually keep to themselves, or talk to the guys and not usually me. I felt like doing weights and I walked over to the lat pull down machine. I was making the weights lighter, when this ginormous African, leaned over and said, "Don't do that, you are a strong woman." I blinked, and obeyed, and he was right. I could do it. He talked with me briefly, and then went away. Strangely enough, he had two small boys with him. Most of th...