At our February leadership meeting, as we prepared for upcoming events, and planned how we can impact children worlds away, while also serving our churches and our workplaces and our families, we were inspired by these words from Margaret Becker's book, "Coming Up For Air":
“I am certain of what success is now. I am certain that it looks nothing like metal and fabric, chiseled jaws and thighs that don’t touch at the top. It is God and all things that welcome Him to be who He is in and through each of us. The most wonderful aspect of it all is that it is there for the taking, there for those who will seek it: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
How marvelous that it is God and God alone who defines our success.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Is Your Head Above Water?
Why not Come up for air?
Join us this coming Thursday evening, February 25th, at World Vision, as Margaret Becker shares with us the journey she embarked upon some years ago, to discover and live out her life's mission statement.
Will you Discover Your Vision?
Event & Ticket Details Here.
Excerpt from Maggie B's book:
I've made it to Ghana, Africa, with World Vision. Hot. Hot. Hot.
Morning started early here. I was shocked awake by the sound of a chicken--somebody's prized possession--singing out. It doesn't know it's on borrowed time, but I know better.
The voices in the distance remind me that I know nothing of how the other side of the world lives, and although I wrapped my sweater around my ears, the thump and cock-a-doodle-do still bled through, when curiosity got the better of me. I pulled my cot to the wall, which had a window about six feet off the ground. I stood up on the thin mattress with precarious balance and peered out the opening.
It was a soccer game: grown men playing soccer on a patch of gray dirt. How unlike the U.S., where it's a chore to get up first thing in the morning. Here it was 5:30 a.m., and these guys were playing a game of soccer in ninety degree heat. It's not like they needed to lose weight or even that they would have pent-up energy. They barely got one meal a day. They work in the fields for a living. Why were they playing?
What if we all played just to play, for the love of play? Laugh more, sleep better, have better relationships. In all my life planning, I'd forgotten about "the love of the game."
It was the next day when I--newly freed--was approached by some village girls. In one of their hands was a small stone. With it they traced a grid on the ground that resembled a hopscotch board.
We played until the seam between us disappeared and I became just another playmate to be included, to be beaten, to pass the time with. And in the language of play, we ultimately parted, without fanfare or remorse. The days are endless when spent like that. The games will begin again tomorrow. It is part of life. And I will be there to play.
Join us this coming Thursday evening, February 25th, at World Vision, as Margaret Becker shares with us the journey she embarked upon some years ago, to discover and live out her life's mission statement.
Will you Discover Your Vision?
Event & Ticket Details Here.
I've made it to Ghana, Africa, with World Vision. Hot. Hot. Hot.
Morning started early here. I was shocked awake by the sound of a chicken--somebody's prized possession--singing out. It doesn't know it's on borrowed time, but I know better.
The voices in the distance remind me that I know nothing of how the other side of the world lives, and although I wrapped my sweater around my ears, the thump and cock-a-doodle-do still bled through, when curiosity got the better of me. I pulled my cot to the wall, which had a window about six feet off the ground. I stood up on the thin mattress with precarious balance and peered out the opening.
It was a soccer game: grown men playing soccer on a patch of gray dirt. How unlike the U.S., where it's a chore to get up first thing in the morning. Here it was 5:30 a.m., and these guys were playing a game of soccer in ninety degree heat. It's not like they needed to lose weight or even that they would have pent-up energy. They barely got one meal a day. They work in the fields for a living. Why were they playing?
What if we all played just to play, for the love of play? Laugh more, sleep better, have better relationships. In all my life planning, I'd forgotten about "the love of the game."
It was the next day when I--newly freed--was approached by some village girls. In one of their hands was a small stone. With it they traced a grid on the ground that resembled a hopscotch board.
We played until the seam between us disappeared and I became just another playmate to be included, to be beaten, to pass the time with. And in the language of play, we ultimately parted, without fanfare or remorse. The days are endless when spent like that. The games will begin again tomorrow. It is part of life. And I will be there to play.
Friday, February 19, 2010
January Devotional: Ultimate Retreat, in God's Word
During our mountain-top retreat in late January, leaders and partners in this Women of Vision chapter studied and prayed together. We delighted in pondering the thoughts expressed in Praying God's Word, by Beth Moore.
We asked ourselves these essential questions:
What is a stronghold?
The purpose of our devotional time was to learn how to pray God's Word to become more intimate with God, to demolish strongholds, and anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God to better equip us to stand firm as we fulfill our vision as Women of Vision to work with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.
We asked ourselves these essential questions:
What is a stronghold?
Where is the battlefield?
What are our weapons?
We wrote down our strongholds and released them to God.
The purpose of our devotional time was to learn how to pray God's Word to become more intimate with God, to demolish strongholds, and anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God to better equip us to stand firm as we fulfill our vision as Women of Vision to work with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
YouTube: Margaret Becker sings "All I Ever Wanted"
In addition to being our speaker at Discover Your Vision, on the evening of February 25th, Margaret Becker will delight us with a little music! Will you be there? We hope to have at least 200 Puget Sound area women attend - and we need your help to spread the word!!
Event Details and Ticket Information Here.In 2007, Margaret traveled with World Vision to Malawi. This beautiful video was produced out of that trip, with Margaret singing the background track. Get your tissue out, and Enjoy!!
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