Bible Study Fellowship

I have been so blessed by these women (and others not pictured) in my BSF group this year. There really is nothing like studying God's Word in a group on a regular basis to knit your hearts together. God has used these women to encourage and challenge me to more fully trust him. He just knew I needed them this year. So thankful.

Isaac Talking "Shop"

The following is a short video that we put together as an introduction for BFA students interested in an AP history for 2013-2014 school year. A good part of it is details about how the class will operate, but there are a few hidden gem moments as well. The filming & editing was done entirely on our school-purchased iPad minis. Enjoy!
AP Histories Intro from Suzanne Micheals on Vimeo.

Names

Name  

noun\ˈnām\

1  a : a word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing

b : a word or symbol used in logic to designate an entity

2 : a descriptive often disparaging epithet <called him names>

3 a : REPUTATION <gave the town a bad name>

b : an illustrious record : fame <made a name for himself in golf>

c : a person or thing with a reputation

"The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe."

~Proverbs 18:10

We have learned so many names this year. I have gotten to know new Wycliffe friends, ladies from Bible Study Fellowship and our church, and women in a local book club and German club. Isaac has learned the names of professors, classmates and key figures in the field of Reformation history. We have grown to know our church family members, popular locales in Denton and the talk show hosts on NPR. 

Catching up with Downton Abbey has presented name-learning opportunities [Isaac: "Who is that again?" / Me: *eye roll*]. Dear friends and family have had and named babies (my sister's is still on the way!), and we have continued dreaming our list of potential names for our future children [Isaac: "What about Hieronymus?" / Me: *blank stare* / Isaac: "Polycarp?"]. 

In the midst of this name-learning, I have also been a student of some other names...

Jehovah-shalom ~ the God of Peace

Jehovah-mekkadishkem ~ the Lord who Sanctifies Me

Elohim ~ the Creator God

El Shaddai ~ the All-Sufficient One

Jehovah ~ the Self-Existent One & our Covenant God

Adonai ~ the Lord and Master

Jehovah-rapha ~ the Lord Who Heals

El Roi ~ the God Who Sees

At first I set out to study them for the sake of knowledge. Surely a missionary should be able to rattle off the names of God, right? In the process, however, each of these names has become so sweet and so precious to me this year as he has shown me who he is. 

He is not as I think he is. He is as he is. I so easily forget that. 

It is through these names that he is restoring me and making me whole. Through these names he is a breeze to my dankness and a candle to my darkness that longs for light. As the author of Proverbs had so well learned, his name is most certainly safe and strong. 

I am so thankful to El Elyon, the Sovereign Most High, for Camden, Abigail, Lainey, Lydia, Angie, Sarah, Leslee, Heidemarie, Renate, Britta, Christiane, Janet, Sandra, Beverley, Laura and so many more whose names I have learned for the first time this year. Over the course of the next few months we will be privileged to learn even more names. In July we will return to Germany to learn new names of staff and students whose names have been learned while we were away. How good to know that there is one name that will always remain the same. Praise to that name!

"Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; 

your name and renown are the desire of our hearts."

~Isaiah 26:8

No snow...but everything else

Growing up in both Michigan and Papua New Guinea provided two different visions of what the Christmas season should look like. In the former, the holidays included the fairly typical mixture of trees, presents, carols, church programs, family gatherings and if my memory serves me correctly, snow. Exactly how often we actually had a white Christmas and how often I imagine having one are two different things. I could play the historian and look up the records, but that is beside the point. What I remember is the comfort, joy and warmth of the season. Christmas in PNG was somewhat different. As the only two seasons there are wet and dry, the temperature stayed about the same year round, and so Christmas did not "feel" different than any other time. There was also a noticeable lack of economic buildup to the event, with the Christmas sale at the store my dad managed the only mild exception. There was a Christmas concert at school, and other events of that nature, but the general pathos of the place was not the same. Not that I minded playing tennis outside with Fred DeYoung one Christmas day, or being able to walk around outside in a tee shirt during that time of year. There were many positives, it was just not the same.

Having spent the past several years enjoying Christmas in Germany, with its Christmas markets, festive decorations, and yes, even snow, Suzanne and I were in for a different experience this year. This year, were were able to spend time with our whole families, and though we lacked snow at both places, we had everything else. The two weeks leading up to, and including Christmas, were spent in Orlando, where my family was all together for the first time since our wedding. Actually, since a few new little ones joined the crowd, it was the first time that the family, as it now stands, was under one roof. Much fun ensued, and I don't have the space to fill in all the details, but if you know my family, you can imagine what 17 people, including 7 children in a three bedroom house was like. Good times. While enjoying the balmy Florida weather, we found out that the Mortons were actually experiencing a white Christmas in Denison, Tx, but when we returned on the 27th, most of the snow was already gone. We spent the next week with Suzanne's family where we were able to travel to Wichita, Ks to spend time with her extended family, and return to Texas for the college bowl season, and even some cold weather golf. (Carts with plastic coverings and heaters provided a new golfing experience-thanks Papa Morton)

This Christmas was again different than the ones Suzanne and I have spent together. It was full of family, fun, and rest. We hope and pray that your holiday season was equally blessed. School began for me on Monday, and I will try to post again when the semester is underway.  

       

A Grateful Chorus, well, Medley

This world is not my home / I'm just a passing through  

Grandpa M with his Sinatra hat. Ain't he cute?

In the past three weeks, Isaac's studies have intensified. So has my social calendar. I have visited my 82-year-old grandmother in Wichita, stayed with my 94-year-old grandfather and his sweet wife in Albuquerque, had coffee with my best friend from elementary school, gone to the memorial service of a family friend who loved Jesus and been at the hospital for the birth of a dear friend's firstborn. My heart is full. 

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

My mom & her mother watching the wonders of donut-making. Love. It.

This past summer we found boxes of my old pictures and journals at my grandmother's house. Most of them are still sitting in those boxes, despite the fact that multiple visitors have commented about the empty frames hung on our apartment walls. "We just needed something on the wall." A stack of weathered journals beside our bed calls nightly.

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door

 I "ran into" a former BFA student on facebook today, and we swapped small-world posts and comments. Barbie on her timeline brought back memories of one of my favorite single-girl blog entries: The Jewish Nation and Me: Seder Barbie. Five years ago, in my second year of overseas assignment, I was addressing issues similar to those I find myself wrestling with in this season, while He remains the same.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

Judi, my childhood best friend. We once pretended she was deaf
just so we could pull one over on our waiter. When he asked what we
were having, she signed to me, & I acted like I knew what she wanted.
She'd told me earlier. It was awesome.

Home. Isaac and I have been talking this week about the definition of home. Our conversation becomes a list of ingredients for a favorite stew: each location or house in which we have lived savored and, any of which left out, would alter the recipe.

We agreed that both the home in which our parents live and our current location as a couple come closest to being called home. It's a bittersweet admission. 

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ~ Hebrews 11:8-10

Happy Thanksgiving. May we live obediently, lovingly in this land while we gratefully look forward to the next city. 

Thankful Today for...

Clockwise from top left: Feeding finches at Omaha Zoo, Musing at a Missouri Civil War battlefield,
Silly time at Sonic with Caden & Hannah, Goodies at Gatorland in Orlando

Taking Risks

Our friend Kristi in Thailand is pioneering a program called Embark, training young leaders to impact their world cross-culturally. In following her work with Youth For Christ, my thinking has been challenged in the areas of risk-taking and cultural perseverance.

Living and working together for a couple months in Chiang Mai, she and her trainees go through a serious time of being known, and thus, have serious potential for personal and communal growth. Renting motorbikes and trying new language skills are built into the schedule in order for the participants to be faced with doing hard things and to learn endurance in the face of fear. It puts me in mind of one of my worst fears...

Kristi & I in Germany (she's NOT my worst fear)

In Wichita, I was a volunteer youth leader with Young Life for several years. YL assigned me to an area high school, and my role was to show up and get to know students. Lunch periods, volleyball games ~ I just showed up and started talking to kids. It still amazes me that some of them actually talked back. They let me in, but it usually took a few awkward attempts at conversation over a few weeks. It took perseverance, and I was willing to endure because I wanted them to know Jesus.

Then at one of our weekly leader meetings, our area director asked a game-changing question: "Are you loving students so that they will come to Jesus? If so, then you're in the wrong place."

"Wait a minute ~ isn't that what I signed up for?" I wondered, my jaw beginning to set.

"Or are you loving them because Jesus loves them? If you love people with an agenda, then there will come a time when you will give up on them. If you love them because Jesus loves them, then it is by his power that you will love them."

And I melted. Why do I love my neighbor? Is it because of what he or she could do for me? Is it because they make me feel good or in control? Is it because I want to be the one to change their life? Do my motivations keep me from making risks in personal relationships for the purpose of honoring my friend and neighbor, or do I seek to honor myself in relationships?

I have many fears that keep me from loving well: fear of being known, fear of rejection, fear of being hurt. One of my worst fears, however, is that I will rely on my own power, seek the best seat for myself and will fail to endure.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  ~Colossians 1:10-14

Thanks be to the one whose glorious might it is that gives us all power to endure as we get to know people better and for the first time.

For more on Kristi's work in Thailand, check out the Embark website yourself and send a young person you know to it as well. She's praying for eight young leaders from four different countries for the training session that begins in February 2013. The blog post that inspired this one is below.

My Cup of Tea: Keep On Keeping On: Perseverance Cultural Intelligence is defined as our level of interest, drive and motivation to adapt cross-culturally (fro...