Pictures of late

Sorry for the posting freeze, I didn't even try to get on board with the whole Nablopomo (National blog posting month) thing - I don't stand a chance. But here are some pictures of the last couple weeks.


These are flowers Jeff got me that bloomed just in time for our 10 monthiversary!


aren't they lovely?


This is from the Art.Music.Justice tour I wrote about a few posts ago. From right to left that's Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Sara Groves, and Brandon Heath.


This is the lovely Morgan Family at the Baylor 2008 Homecoming Bonfire




Nothing like a big fire to make you feel all warm and toasty inside...and out.

welcome baby Micah!

Micah William Courtney born November 5, 2007 at 9:45 AM



We're ablas again! ... Or am I a Teyze? Or an Ablayze?

pictures and songs

I was looking through my recent pictures thinking about how they all remind me of song titles, so here they are with their respective songs...



song: 'Gotta Gettcha Some' by: Alan Jackson



song: 'Danger, watch yo'self' by: Some Rapper



song: 'I'm Not Afraid' by: Bebo Norman



song: 'You Picked Me' by:A Fine Frenzy
this one's not as obvious... see, Jeff loves his truck - but he also loves me and knows that I love the world and want to drive fuel efficient vehicles and be environmentally responsible. He's hoping Dodge will come out with a hybrid by the time we come back from being overseas. He still picked me, and will sell the truck even though he knows he could keep it. Isn't he wonderful?



song: Against My Better Judgment by: Futher Seems Forever



song: Always Better When We're Together by: Jack Johnson

NEW YORK NEW YORK!

This is us in Times Square - it is CRAZY here... maybe I would have felt like this about Taksim if I could have understood what everyone was saying???


This is all of us at Battery Park where you can see the statue of Liberty


We're in love... it would have been cuter if we climbed in the love so that we could actually be IN 'love' - but, laziness prevailed.


We got the hook up at the Allentown fair and got to meet Taylor Swift - let me just say that she is actually just as hot in person as she appears to be in the media - she sounds just as good live too.

pictures from these days

This was from a PDM trip to Corpus in March


I went to Dallas a couple weeks ago to visit my friend Molly and we went to the arboretum for hippie weekend... it was awesome.


My sister came to Houston for the weekend and so I got to see her and Sarah!


My Roommates and I went out on the town one night... AB didn't go, but she still looks hot.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY JEFFREY!

Tomorrow is Jeff's 24th birthday and I won't be around a computer to post this so I thought I would do it a day early.

I photoshoped this picture of Jeff to make him look really cool ... not that he doesn't look cool without the purple haze.
Some things I love about Jeff...
(in no particular order)
- he laughs really hard at things that aren't that funny
- he cares for people and serves them so well
- he can build anything... blindfolded
- he is moldable when he chooses to be
- he doesn't know every word to ANY song, but sings them all anyway
- he is the only person I can tolerate going to the store with
- he's got that manlyness with the hairy chest thing down
- if he had a loyalty contest with a golden retriever, I'd put my money on Jeff
- he is usually pretty quick to repent and make peace
- he is great at freely loving people and letting them know he cares
- he trusts God in a very childlike way

there are a lot more things, but these are just a few on the top of my head. Happy Birthday Jeff, I hope you have a great day and feel very loved by the Lord!

Michelley

this was taken at this wicked awesome burger place called 'spankeys' or 'hankeys' or 'hgakgka;gys' I can't remember now. And for the record I've never actually spoken the phrase 'wicked awesome' but I do like it in writing


you only get to be this cute if you are Korean... bummer for the rest of us

At Your Feet

It is true cause I am watching it unfold right now.
Trying to save, protect and preserve my life leads only to death.
How did I get here? Who fenced me in?
I did - when I built walls to keep you out I closed myself in too.
This isn't what I wanted! Let me outta here!
There's only one way out and I'm looking at it asking 'how?'
I WANT abundant life, peace, and freedom, but at what price?
Cause the only way I see is to die.
I can't leave any room for self or I'll end up back here again trying to claw my way over these walls.
I can't do it! It's too much!
'Let it go' He says to every objection I make.
Submission - a recognition of Authority and a choice to humbly lay down under it.
That's the only way to keep the walls down -- to lay low, with my very self and will bowed low to the ground in trust and humility before the Master.
Jesus, be my portion, Jesus, be my King. Lover of souls I am giving you all I have, because all that I need I will find at Your feet.

"The disposition to leave the dearest objects of our hearts in the sublime keeping of the general and unspecific belief that God is now answering our prayers in His own time and way and in the best manner, involves a present process of inward crucifixion which is obviously unfavorable to the growth and even the existence of the life of self." T.C. Upham

Jodi's Wedding

I love my married friends



Isn't she beautiful!


Get DOWN!


This is my date... he is sideways, I couldn't fix it?

haha

So, after I wrote that last post work was cancelled again due to lots of ice. So, my roommates and I went to the bridge on the end of our street and slid down it. now this is a rather large bridge - it goes across I - 35, so that is 6 lanes of traffic and access roads. We actually made it on the news because some station saw us sliding down the bridge on frisbees and thought it was funny. Here's how it worked, we got a bunch of guys to huddle around the bottom and then a few people would go to the top of the bridge and you would sit on the frisbee with your knees pulled up and then the other people would push you down the ramp and by the time you picked up lots of speed and were going really fast you would crash into the group of people at the bottom to stop you from flowing onto 35. It was REALLY fun!!! Here are some pics of the event:



This is Megan, me, and Ann



This is Meg and AB racing down the ramp ice skater style - I think AB won



Ryan came fully prepared to injur himself - he even put a frisbee under each foot and skated down!

Recent Pictures

This was on our birthday, we took Walker/Dunbar family pictures with my step- family. These are my step bros and their families.


We spent new year's on a ranch - I love Texas.


This is me and my sister and my mom. I love this picture!



My sister and I got matching tatoos the day after Christmas. It hurt, but it was one of the things on my list of 'things to do in life'.

Michelle's Visit

here are some pics from when my favorite Michelle came to visit.

My Friend

Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine... it is not so much a story as it is quotes from him and dialogue about his life. He is an encouragement to me because God has really changed him and with every letter I get from him I am more convinced of this. Briefly, his story is kind of like this: he was on the streets for a while and had done some time in jail and then got out of jail and was back on the streets and that was when I met him about 7 months ago. He was real tough and had a big chip on his shoulder to just about everyone. Me and my roommates started spending some time with him and getting to know him and his story. He lived with a prostitute for 10 years and had been into drugs and alcohol and was just dissatisfied with life. He was very hungry for God and we talked a lot about it and went to church together whenever we could. Well, one day he decided to turn himself in even though he had found a job and a place to stay he felt like that was what he needed to do to be obedient to God since he had money he owed for probation. So, he went to jail about 5 months ago. I got to go visit him a feew times before I left for the summer and even though he had some encouraging things to say about God sometimes I felt like overall he still wasn't getting it and was getting way too caught up in me and my roommates. The letters I got from him at first were kind of disturbing and inappropriate. We kept writing all summer and he went to the state prison about a month ago. It was maybe the best thing that ever happened to him. Since he has been in prison and unable to have visitors and has had regular chapel services God has really transformed him. I got a letter from him today and we wrote this: "Bless you prison, for having been in my life, for it is here that I have learned that the meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul. Bless you prison, for it is here that I learned to see justice in the way that Amos and Micah and Jeremiah and Isaiah saw it." He also quoted Joseph somebody and wrote this: "I need courage not just because I may fall on my face or worse but others seeing me a sorry spectacle if it should happen will say ' he didn't know what he was doing' or, 'he's foolhardy.' When it comes right down to it Lord, I choose to be your failure before anyone else's success. Keep me from reneging on my choice."
My friend has also been quoting whole chapters from the Bible that he's been reading and what God is speaking to Him. It is just real exciting to see where God has brought him and the ways that God loves and redeems life even when it may seem unredeemable. That is why I want to abolish the death penalty.... but that is another soapbox. =o)

pictures!

this was the rehearsal dinner and some wonderful friends from the other side of the world!



this is from the beautiful Missy's wedding!...obviously, It was SOOOO fun and such a reflection of Jesus, it was wonderful!



These are some of my favorite people from candidate school... it was SO FUN!

can i get a witness?

I've seen some pretty amazing things in the last few days/weeks that I just gotta testify about! I have been really humbled by God's answer to my somewhat prideful asking of "Where is Your power?" About a month ago I started to feel discouraged about the seeming lack of power/ life transformation that happened in the lives of my friends. I was getting lots of opportunities to share the good news and speak truth over the lives of people but just felt like the power was lacking. I wanted to see the Sauls become Pauls and be radically transformed by an encounter with Jesus.
It was then that God began to speak to my heart about the patience of love, the humility of love, the gentleness of love -- it is not demanding or pushy. This is hard for me, I want to see a response and some kind of measurable change in my friends... God doesn't work like that.
So, this week I saw a client and to protect her privacy I will be as discrete as possible -- she has been addicted to crystal meth for 2 years, she has 2 children that are under 13 that 'take care of her'. Her fiance went to jail in January and since then she has been on multiple 9 day drug binges where she can't function without passing out. Meth was the only thing that got her through the day. She turned to another man for comfort while her fiance was in jail and she was pregnant. She was so scared about being pregnant she cried for almost 2 straight hours as we discussed her options. All she wanted was an abortion, she couldn't keep the baby because if she did, her fiance is supposed to get out of jail soon and he would kill her when he found out it was another man's. She knew she had done a lot of drugs and that it was impossible that damage could not be done to the baby. We talked for a long time not only about her options but mostly about a God who loves her and wants to free and redeem her life. She wept over her sin but just wasn't ready to receive grace, she couldn't believe that God could not have a tainted view of her after all she'd done. She let me pray for her and we read some scripture and then she left the center not sure what she would do anymore but promising to return the next day. She came back and through the course of an ultrasound appointment she changed her mind about the abortion, decided that she wants to seek treatment for drugs and she had been clean since we talked the day before. And above all of that she received the good news and Jesus brought such freedom to her life that she was able to face the future confident that this child was a gift and not a curse and that God would care for her and her baby. The nurse described it as 'a revival in the ultrasound room'.
I have a couple friends that have gone to jail in the last month. Me and AB went to see them last night and it is just really cool to see how God is moving and drawing and wooing without me doing anything. I can visit for 20 minutes every week and send a letter once a week, but since this one guy has been in jail it has helped a lot with not confusing me with God. He goes to trial next week and could potentially face up to 4 years and he has more confidence than I have ever seen in him, he has more peace and I would even say joy than I have seen in him since we met a few months ago. It shouldn't surprise me that the power of God comes when I move out of the way, or when He moves me out of the way. But it has just been really encouraging and exciting to see hope flood into the lives of people who were dead and who are facing seemingly terrible circumstances and yet have found God in the midst of them.
The lives of these people have continued to teach me that suffering paves the way to joy and hope more beautifully and solidly than any pleasure or fleeting feeling ever could! I am still learning how to daily embrace this in my own life but I am really thankful for the faithfulness of God to show me He is the one that causes growth and that He CARES for His people like I never could. I think I sometimes let myself feel like I am in this by myself and God sure needs me.... lie, obviously, but sometimes when I make it about me it sure feels true.
Anyway, just wanted to share about the super exciting and refreshing ways I have seen the movement of God around me this week.