Fun Friday!

Things have been a little heavy lately. So I offer this as compensation.

During the summer, we try to liven things up on Fridays. A few weeks ago, our Fun Friday included a game of fake!Jenga. Foster really got into it.

Last week, we made s'mores with a blow torch. It was awesome. (That's James on the left - you haven't been introduced to him yet. Ben is on the right. They were being commissioned that afternoon, hence the ties. Maybe not the brightest idea on a windy day. Just sayin'.)

Do you see why I love working here now?

The Last Two Weeks

We're close to the ultimate book post I've been promising for a while now. We just have to get through these few. (And I need to actually download the photos from my camera. Yikes.)

This is actually a good representation of what I've been doing lately.

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Self portrait of a patriot?

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These flowers look like wadded up tissues.

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My dad and I went for a walk along the Forks of the Wabash trail. Very pretty and not too strenuous.

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I should have utilized this creek for my book shoot. You'll understand why.

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Dad and daughter.

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Game pieces offer quite interesting perspectives.

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Those clouds should have given us a clue. Made it through half an inning before it started pouring rain. For two hours. Turns out all you need to beat a drought is to schedule an office event at an outdoor venue. But we still had fun!

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I have no idea what was behind us. And I still don't want to know. (The monster from Cloverfield?)

Halfway there!

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I love the colors here. So vibrant!

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The variety of flowers in the universe is amazing.

ONEEIGHTYTHREE!!!!!

Every time I see this, I hear a voice in my head singing, "WAAAAA, I feel good! Nanananana!"

Coincidentally, halfway through the year landed on July 1. So yes, we're officially behind. I'm working on it.

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Random statue dude in PA.

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Yes, I bought an umbrella with hearts on it. But they are black!

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Turns out hinges look really cool up close!

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Someday, my wedding will be red and white.

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Dragon tongue, anyone?

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Fun Friday!

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Light show at the airport.

I shouldn't write things at midnight.

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone can look at the world we live in and think people by themselves can make things better.

We live in a fallen world.

I can measure my life in tragedies. Public ones. World-changing, horrible events that stole breath from my body and stuttered my heart.

Except recently. I was awakened  sometime early Friday morning with a news notification on my phone that a shooting had taken place in Colorado. I worried briefly about my sister and her family, but when no call came, I went back to bed. After my alarm woke me up, I checked the news, saw the reports of the deaths and injuries - and I went about my day. I felt a momentary grief, said a prayer for the families and went back to my printing projects. Why?

Because this kind of thing doesn't really surprise me, not anymore.

I can still remember the first time my innocence was stolen. 1995 - a truck exploded outside of the federal building in Oklahoma City. It was incomprehensible to me, a nine-year-old child. I'm certain my parents did their best to shield me, but even back then, the images were everywhere. As more was revealed, the perpetrator caught, I found myself asking a question. If one human being could do that, what else were they capable of? What was I capable of?

I felt no small amount of satisfaction when Timothy McVeigh was executed for his crimes. I'm ashamed that I'm not more ashamed of that fact.

Just a few months later, I saw firsthand what can happen when one group of people hates another group of people because of ideals, religion, politics, wealth, history... Take your pick. I already knew the world was a crappy place to live, but as I sat in tenth grade history watching towers fall, I understood for the first time just how doomed it was.

And yet people forget. They compartmentalize. They lay blame in all the wrong places. And sometimes they just don't care.

I don't watch the news now. I can't. I read headlines on my phone, and even that makes me want to hide in my apartment, away from the world. I feel sick to my stomach, and yet I wonder why it bothers me. It's nothing new, after all.

But at the same time, it makes me want to start screaming at everyone.

Don't you understand? The world isn't a good place. Things aren't getting better all the time. Living a 'green' life isn't going to fix things. Politics isn't going to fix things. Tolerance isn't going to fix things. Humanity cannot fix things.

I want my innocence back. I want to be able to breathe again, to feel my heart beat in a steady rhythm. I want to be able to allow myself more than a moment of righteous indignation at senseless acts of violence. I want to know that if I start crying at what I see around me, I'll be able to stop one day.

Why do I do what I do? Because there is Someone who can fix things. Someone who can take screwed up, broken people and put them back together. Only One who stood against Death and won. The only One who can make this brief life worth living.

Why can't everyone else understand that?




Saturday Addendum: It occurred to me that this world would have ended a long time ago if some people didn't know there was hope. It doesn't take too long to realize that the hole in our souls can't be filled by sex, drugs, money, power, fame or anything else this world has to offer. It is only through belief in and obedience to Jesus Christ that we have any hope at all. We as Christians just need to do a better job of letting other people know that.

Question

I have a question.

What is it about this particular post that garnered so many page views?

I didn't say anything profound.

I didn't really say anything at all.

So why have people viewed it more than 350 times?

(I am fully aware that by linking to it now, it will receive even more views. Except for the fact that no one reads the blog now.)





I haven't done a paranoid post in a while. Maybe I should start looking over my shoulder again.

Shouldn't Be Surprising

I talk to myself sometimes.

Okay, that's a lie.

I talk to myself a lot.

I also talk to inanimate objects.

They haven't talked back. Yet. I'm told this is a good thing.

Anyway.

I don't usually hold super long conversations with myself. (Because I do answer when I talk to myself.) But sometimes it is necessary to talk something out, and if no one else is around, my crazy self is it.

Many of these conversations actually take place between the characters I've stored in my head. I think I've mentioned once or twice that I'm working on several books (not making much progress), and when I have an idea for a new character, I have to find their voice, so he or she usually ends up having conversations with all of the other characters in my head. Not all of them are from the same book, but that's almost better, because it raises interesting questions. (For example, would the owner of the space station in 2430 know how to get along with the Union spy from 1864? They actually have a lot more in common than they thought.)

I do have a point to all of this. Granted, I forgot what it was around line 7, but I've found the plot again, so here we go.

One of the questions I find my characters asking each other is this: what do we do now?
It is a legitimate question when writing because you constantly have to be thinking about how to move the plot forward. All too often, I find that I've written myself into a corner - according to the rules of the world I've created, there is no way out of their current predicament. (I say according to the rules because having a deus ex machina every time is lousy writing. You might be allowed one or two small ones per series, but anything larger and your readers start crying foul.)

Often this situation requires you to start over or to abandon the really cool idea you had for one that is even better. Sometimes, though, you can surprise yourself with a really creative solution that is both credible and clever. These are the books I like to read - I want to be taken somewhere I didn't expect, and I don't want it to be obvious how I arrived there. I want there to be clues that I pick up on a second reading, and I don't want the ending to come out of left field. (I will never forgive the writers of Dear John for their ending. Never.)

I think I lost the plot again.

That happens a lot, too.

Oh well.

No, wait. Here we go.

That question up there - what do we do now? I ask myself that a lot.

I like new things. I like experimenting and trying new stuff and visiting new places.

This fact about me is not very well known, mostly because I spend 75% of my time trying to be a hermit. Sometimes I succeed a little too well.

But I do like new things. I like breaking up the routine every so often (but I like the routine, too, because it's nice to come back to), and if I don't have anything new coming up, I become frustrated. Apathetic. Just pathetic.

I'm going to compare myself to Anthony DiNozzo Jr. again. His time limit for jobs (until he found Gibbs - or Gibbs found him) was two years. Mine has been just shy of that (though, granted, I haven't had many (I'm only 26!)).

And now that I'm breaking that unofficially self-imposed rule by staying on with OMS - I feel stagnant. Stuck. Without a life.

Okay, it's not that bad.

Because I love my job.

Really.

I just feel...

Lonely.





This is not news to anyone.

Are we French now?

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I tried to get photos of real fireworks, but that didn't go well. This photo is tentatively titled, "Reasons My Mother Should Worry."

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I need to figure out how to make the background of this photo transparent. I think that would be really cool.

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This actually looked cooler on my camera. But I think glass would have some very interesting photo possibilities.

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The sky does really fun things around here. I got a new camera with some differences in color and zoom factors, so I'm very excited about that!

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Real? Fake? Who knows?! (I do. And it's fake. But still pretty.)

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Daisies!

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If you want a very pretty venue for photos or an event, check out the Sunken Gardens in Huntington, Indiana. It is a fabulous place, and they do really neat things at Christmas, too!

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Table decs in Florida. I guess we weren't quite done with that.

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Awesome fire truck!

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Yeah, it looks pretty now, but travel around in it for a while and then suddenly land, and you'll freak out as much as I did.

What has Jessica been up to lately?

I realize that there are people who read my blog and people who read my prayer letters, but there might also be people who don't actually read both. So I'm posting part of my prayer letter here. If you want the whole thing, let me know.

Trust and Obey

For there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus

But to Trust and Obey

I sang this little hymn hundreds of times when I was younger, and again when I grew up and realized
there were actual verses to go with the chorus. I sang it like I meant it - there is no other way to
be happy (or joyful) as a Christian but to trust God and obey His commands. It is a simple concept
when you’re a child - if you obey your parents, life is easier.

But obedience becomes more of a challenge as you grow older. You start to realize that there is

more to being a Christian than just singing your la-las in church and reading a quick devotion
before going to bed. The world outside the Christian bubble starts to intrude, and that simple joy
you had as a child when you learned about Jesus begins to fade. You’re dissatisfied with what
you’ve been given, and you start looking for anything to fill the void you can feel in your soul.
You find yourself at a crossroad, and your choices are clear - follow God’s will or follow your own.
There are no half measures, no sitting on the fence. If you aren’t actively pursuing God’s call on
your life, you are in disobedience to His will.

At One Mission Society, we’ve been focusing a great deal of attention on the idea of discipleship -

what it means, how we do it, where it leads. Our mission statement is clear: By God's grace, One Mission Society unites, inspires and equips Christians to make disciples of Jesus Christ, multiplying dynamic communities of believers around the world.

We have a lot of ministries at OMS, but our primary goal is making disciples - making obedient followers of Christ. When I joined OMS and Global Ministries, I was obeying God’s call on my life. Sometimes, it is difficult to understand why God called me here, but I do believe that I have an important role in this ministry. Every article I write, every prayer letter I edit and mail, every prayer card, receipt, Facebook post - everything is for the glory of God and expansion of His kingdom. If I can motivate just one person to begin pursuing God’s call on his or her own life, then I feel I’ve fulfilled my own calling.

I would like to invite you to join me in being an obedient follower of Christ. You might be called to a

faraway land, or you might be right where you’re supposed to be. Maybe you’re called to be faithful

in financial support of your church or missionary; I know you are called to be faithful in prayer.

Whatever your call may be, it is my prayer that you not ignore it. There really is no other way to be

happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Claim to Fame for June

I'm thinking about making this a thing. I'd call it 'What made me awesome in the month of ...?' But we'll see. Obviously I'm always awesome. But it's not always limited to a specific month.

But last month it was! What made me awesome in the month of June? I was the Cruise Director for the Resounding Hope contest! (I don't particularly know the rules of this contest. But I still won.)

I was the top donator of funds for Resounding Hope in May, so I became the Cruise Director for June. What did that entail?

I got to wear an awesome hat.

I got a parking space!

(Which was somewhat anticlimactic as I walk to work. But I put a lawn chair out there a couple of days and soaked up the sun.)

My pic and bio was displayed for the OMS world to see.

We're the ones on the far left.

What did my bio read?

I think Resounding Hope is a great project, so I decided to take it on as my personal mission project for the year. In my enthusiasm for this project, I wanted to get more people involved, so I’ve been encouraging my family and friends to donate spare change. I also discovered a great trick – if you carry cash, try separating the $5 bills from the rest. This can act as your ‘savings,’ and it adds up quickly! One other idea I’ve had is converting many of my books to digital form on my portable reading device – then I sell the physical copies to a place like Half-Price Books and use the money I receive for missions. (I have more ideas, but I’m saving them for my department. Sorry!)

What other ideas did I refer to?

We did a bake sale! It was actually more of a random thought that came out of my mouth, and Lori ran with it.

So that was my claim to fame for June! Woohoo! Support Resounding Hope!

(If you do happen to donate to Resounding Hope - which you should! - tell them I told you to. I really liked the hat.)