ON THE MOVE

Acts 18:27-28 “When Apollos decided to go on to Achaia province, his Ephesian friends gave their blessing and wrote a letter of recommendation for him, urging the disciples there to welcome him with open arms. The welcome paid off: Apollos turned out to be a great help to those who had become believers through God's immense generosity. He was particularly effective in public debate with the Jews as he brought out proof after convincing proof from the Scriptures that Jesus was in fact God's Messiah.”

Imagine God in a chess game... I'm the little horse thing, Corey is one of the bishops or something, our friends and family are somewhere on the board, the rest of humanity is somewhere on the board, and there's God, playing chess. As he starts to move pieces here and there, countering attacks from the enemy, all I can see is whenever he moves me, or someone close to me. What do I do? I shout. I cry a little, and I wonder why God isn't moving me to the best spot possible for me. Where is my passion? I'm just getting by! Then, suddenly, a fateful move comes to me, and Corey, and lots of our friends for that matter, and that's when it hits me. I couldn't have been moved to this spot unless God had been working on the whole game the entire time. He kept me in the spot I was for the perfect amount of time, and then moved me to where I'm needed now. He kept Elliot (the band) in same spot for what seemed like eternity, and now he's moved them to the perfect place where they can have the most impact on the world. 2,000 years ago he moved Apollos to Achaia, where he was most needed and most necessary. He made Studio 7 be a dream in Eric's heart, and now it's becoming real. He made Africa be like a distant dream to Jenna, and now she's going. Or at least holding a benefit in order to go. :)

God is on the move. Sometimes it takes waiting, but it's so worth it.

I hope anyone who stumbles onto this blog today is encouraged to walk with their head held high.

Love, Whit

Life on Broadway

Nehemiah 12:45 "Judah was so appreciative of the priests and Levites and their service; they, along with the singers and security guards, had done everything so well, conducted the worship of their God and the ritual of ceremonial cleansing in a way that would have made David and his son Solomon proud."

How often do I say that the way I've handled a situation was a beautiful offering to the Lord? How often do I look back on a day, week or month and think "I bet David would be proud of that show of worship to God?" This verse is a beautiful reminder to me that while I try my best to live in a way that leads people to him, my life is a continual offering, a broadway show - not that it's fake, but that it's meant to be beautiful. I really want it to look as beautiful as this ceremony was described to be. I want to look back at every aspect of life and know that I've made God, David, my grandparents, parents, husband, future children and grandchildren, proud. In every single situation, I want someone to be proud of the way I've handled it and the way I've glorified God through it all.

I know this isn't the most funny or exciting post of all time, but get ready, because we leave for vacation TONIGHT! Then come the best posts EVER! (I've apparently become a strictly "vacation blogger").

I love you all, and I hope you find yourself in the most splendid broadway show of your life!
Whitney

HELLO FROM MEXICO!

Hello blogging community!

First, I'm sorry to admit that I tend to forget that there's an active blogging community that involves many of my friends. Oops! I looked at my mom's blog a few days ago because she said I should, and that of course led me to many other blogs and many friends and memories. Second, the house we're staying at in Mexico has free wireless, so whenever I have nothing to do here in Mexico, I blog. Actually, I generally blog on vacation since otherwise I have no time to blog unfortunately. I would probably be a much more "aware" person if I would blog regularly, but I don't, so the world will never know what "aware Whitney" looks like. Probably for the best.

Anyway, we're having a great time in Mexico. I hope when we all get home, you tell me that I look tan, because I'm suffering of sun-blisters right now, and it's not a ton of fun, but worth it if you all tell me that I look tan. Here are some great things about Mexico:
The heat (scorching and 80% humidity, which Mike says he accidentally prayed for so he wouldn't be prideful.)
The OCEAN. Absolutely fabulous.
The time. Everyone does everything really slow and late, so we don't usually get to bed until 2 and get up around 10.
Our house. Easily one of the most wonderful things here in Mexico.
My husband - though I think he'll come home with me...I'm a lucky girl.
Cenotes. They're little pools of fresh-water in fairy land settings with caves, cliffs and lots of fish.

Some of the not-so-great things about Mexico:
The heat. 80% people. 80%.
The major lack of celebration of independence. I guess we'd have to be here on May 5 instead of July 4 in order to see a celebration. Corey & I are definitely missing home a lot more today, as we would be putting blankets on Mom's roof right about now.
The sheer amount of people. CROWDED always.

All in all, Mexico has some awesome things to offer. Seth (that's right, Seth Brown!) took us to a secluded beach, where we snorkled, snacked, cracked open a real-life coconut, and got our 15 passenger van stuck in the sand. We met an adorable british five-year-old kid named Elliot. He was darling, and his comment of the day happened while he was halfway under the van trying to dig out one of the tires when he exclaimed "It's all part of the adventure!" He was also stuck, as they'd been waiting in Playa Del Carmen for two weeks for his mom's new passport to arrive. When Elisa asked him what his parents do, he said they help people's cars get unstuck. Lovely for us! They did get us unstuck!

Speaking of Seth, he just arrived to take Corey, Casey & I to an authentic Mexican meal...and then who knows what we'll do after that - it's just the crack of 9! Hope all is well in the blogging world. Can't wait to be back home, but until then, we're going to soak it up!

Buenos Noches, happy 4th!
Whitney

Hello Again!

Hi Everyone,

Hope the New Year finds you fat & sassy, though I'm sure you all have the same cursed Resolution as I...to stay sassy minus the fat. I wish you all much luck in your endeavors, and will accept your wishes of luck for myself with much gratitude.
Anyway, that's what we've been doing...trying to get more in shape. As for me, I'm still working at the brain surgeons office. We're all sad that Tara has moved away, but we're trying to find a way to make it through without her. Work is going a lot better since the holidays are over. People aren't as mad to be sick in January. I think they find themselves in good company, since it seems like everyone is sick in January, doesn't it?
Still trying to find a good home for our puppy. He's such a good dog, just needs more love and attention than we can give him, because we're never home. If anyone hears of an interested family, let me know. If they want to see photos of him, they're about 3 paragraphs down. :)
On another very exciting note, on Saturday we did "I Heart LaPine" where we took pizzas, shoveled snow, and ministered to the people of LaPine all day long. Then we did an Above the Noise concert at the High School, and had a total of about 650 people, and in percentages that equals about 5% of the city of LaPine, which is pretty dang amazing if you ask me! We had 70 salvation response cards, praise the Lord, and Corey got to righteously rock out...for which we also praise the Lord! In the words of a wise-woman, T.J. Buce, "God is calling him to rock."

Well, that's about all of the update I've got in me right now. I'm going to go say hi to some Emergers. I do hope everyone is doing well. Get in touch with us if we haven't heard from you in awhile!

Adios, muchas love,
Whitney & Corey

Our Puppy, for those who haven't seen...

I thought I'd post some cute little photos of Scooter, our puppy! He tends to look kind of terrified in pictures...don't worry, we're really nice to him, I promise. :)

Anyway, he's really sweet, though totally hyper. He's a Long-haired Dauschund (sp?) mixed with a Papiyan (sp?), and he's 3 years old. We got him at the pound about 2 months ago.

Love you all, talk to you soon!

I'm blogging!!!

I'll tell you the reason I have not blogged since December 7. I forgot our username and password. So I'm sitting here on vacation (shout out to the Spedicks for the use of their beach house), and decided to try to remember our password...low and behold, I did. :)

So what's changed since December 7? Lots and lots! I got a new job. I'm working for a Real Estate office in Bend. The job is hard, but I'm learning a heck of a lot. Real Estate is a hard, hard business, and I understand why. You're dealing with people making life-long decisions...and right now, tons of peoples decisions are stalled out, because nothing is moving on the market. We, as Christians, have somewhere to go when our dreams and hopes are stalled, but these people that don't know the Lord just see it as a roadblock, and something that they could maybe move by pure force, and that's why it's a hard job to be a realtor. I'm not myself a realtor, I just assist one, but trust me...I've had my share of lame phone calls to make and receive.

Anyway, on to some lighter and happier news.....We also got a puppy! He's adorable and very fun. We got him from the pound...Corey says we are practicing setting the captives free and bringing hope to the hopeless by bringing Scooter into our home. He's a mutt...part long-haired Dauschund... ***did you know there is no difference between a Dauschund and Doxson? Why confuse me like this???!!!...and part papiyan. I have no idea what kind of dog that is, but all that to say, Scooter is darling. We love him. He's the most hyper dog ever to live, but we really do love him a lot. It's not fun being away from him all this week, but a totally fun get away nonetheless.

I guess that's the last news we have...we're on vacation!!!!!! We weren't able to join our friends in Shasta because it didn't work out that way, but we are on vacation now, and I'll just say that it's been absolutely glorious! We're all having so much fun, and we're about to make dinner (steaks and potatoes). On Friday we're going over to Eugene because my amazing husband is performing his first wedding! Brittany Keller and Derek Blevins will be married on Saturday, and Corey gets to do the ceremony. I'm so proud! He'll do awesome, and it will be a great end to our vacation.

Alrighty, there's so much more I could say about everything in our lives, such as us buying a house...I guess that's a big one I forgot. Anyway, for anyone who's reading this, I love you and I'm glad we have such amazing friends.

Later!
Whitney

The new world of blogs...

Blogs are for talking about your day, right? Or your life. Or stuff like that. Revealing what you think in the recesses of your mind, what you wish you were doing right now other than whatever you're doing, who your favorite person is...that kind of stuff that you can only type...not say out loud. So I guess I'll tell you about my day.

I woke up at 6:00am to the sound of pounding on my door. This was strange in and of itself. Since Corey & I live in the middle of the city, we could usually hear the sounds of Bend beginning to awake, but this relentless pounding on the door was out of the ordinary for how early it was. I leaned over to shake Corey awake, but all I got from him was a murmed, "yeah, I think it's raining...it's so beautiful" With a resigned sigh, I threw on my terry cloth bath robe and stumbled down the stairs. With each step it got colder; I think that's because of our apartments sad insulation. When I opened the door, there was nobody there. I did notice, however, that instead of looking out to the sidewalk and alley that our front door looks out to, my cold feet were met with salty sand. I pondered this for a moment, rubbing my tired eyes, wondering where on earth this sand could have come from, it being the dead of winter in Bend, Oregon. I raised my head to see a vast beach; where the alley and the next door neighbors homes used to be, there was only a beach running into a huge ocean. Our city apartment was surrounded by the sea! Filled with curiosity, I stepped onto the sand, warm and scratchy, and I began walking toward the ocean. As I got further away from the cozy house, I noticed that I was walking straight toward a huge stranded ship. It looked as though it had battled the rough sea during the night, and had finally given up by crashing on the beach in front of me and Corey's apartment. As I walked closer to the ship, I began to see slight movements on the ships vast deck.......

Okay, no, so that's NOT actually how my morning went. I thought it was a cool version though. Now I'm going to pull a Casey and have you (whoever is reading this) finish this story for me. What's on the ship? How did it get there? What is your imagination saying about how this story should end??

Let the games begin!!!