Here I am with my pal Cindy after Kristen and Cindy and I went to dinner on my first night in Seattle in July. Except for the jet lag, it was great!! :)
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Googling myself
Have you ever done it? I bet you have.
Sometimes I go to www.google.com and type in my name and hit search. Just to see what's out there about me... Am I dating Brad Pitt? Do I have any children I don't know about? Did I run a marathon?
Well I know the answer to the first two questions is "no", and the third is "yes", but you never know what you'll find out there in the world wide web.
So when I did this for myself the top two results were for the college's website, and then there were a number of them that were various race results - golly, I used to do a lot of racing when I was in Seattle; Ski to Sea ("Lucky If We Finish" did in fact finish, though not due to great help on the part of their canoe team - of which I was one half), Renton River Days 5k Fun Run (where we beat our mile time by about 30 seconds/mile and I received shin splints as a reward...), the Seattle Half-Marathon (my first long run with Shannon nee Herlocker) but NOT sadly the Honolulu Marathon (which was a life-experience).
Life is fine in other regards. I googled myself just to take a minute of rest from work and craziness. The football team checked in yesterday and Monday and there were about 30 minutes in the late morning today of people and noise everywhere. It was great - but also great when they left for their retreat.
I think I will miss being with them, but I think I will like being a fan. We'll see I guess.
Love, Tiff
Sometimes I go to www.google.com and type in my name and hit search. Just to see what's out there about me... Am I dating Brad Pitt? Do I have any children I don't know about? Did I run a marathon?
Well I know the answer to the first two questions is "no", and the third is "yes", but you never know what you'll find out there in the world wide web.
So when I did this for myself the top two results were for the college's website, and then there were a number of them that were various race results - golly, I used to do a lot of racing when I was in Seattle; Ski to Sea ("Lucky If We Finish" did in fact finish, though not due to great help on the part of their canoe team - of which I was one half), Renton River Days 5k Fun Run (where we beat our mile time by about 30 seconds/mile and I received shin splints as a reward...), the Seattle Half-Marathon (my first long run with Shannon nee Herlocker) but NOT sadly the Honolulu Marathon (which was a life-experience).
Life is fine in other regards. I googled myself just to take a minute of rest from work and craziness. The football team checked in yesterday and Monday and there were about 30 minutes in the late morning today of people and noise everywhere. It was great - but also great when they left for their retreat.
I think I will miss being with them, but I think I will like being a fan. We'll see I guess.
Love, Tiff
Friday, August 12, 2005
Many items to discuss
1) A friend of mine just got married - she met her husband while serving the Lord in Peru; he's an american, who was also serving there. She sent a link with photographs and I have never been as impressed with a wedding photographer as with this guy: http://www.jeremyleffel.com/ (if you want to see my friend, select "Recent" and then "Natalie and Bruce"). I was so captivated by their shots, that I ended up looking at ALL the recent weddings and his portfolio. He's a Christian it seems, has a wife and two small children and also teaches high school.
I was talking with the Lord about my wedding (and that I wanted my grandparents to be able to be there - so to strengthen their health as we wait for Mr. Right), just this morning, and so its funny that then I would see this photographer. I have no idea if he's expensive or not relative to others.... but I'm prepared to say that I would want to fly him out, house him here and have him take my wedding pics. That's how much I like them - candid, fun, emotive - great shots. I don't know if I'll get to have him at my wedding, but wheeeew would I like it.
Maybe by then Bethany will be taking wedding shots and she will be on this caliber (she's on her way there right now - I saw the engagement shots she took) and that will be even FUNNER. :)
2) From Gold Cord last night: oops. I left the book at home this morning. Well, trust me it was good. Maybe I'll bring it in later. :)
3) For those of you who are bored at work: http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html click "play" at the bottom right and be entertained for hours. :)
Love, Tiff
I was talking with the Lord about my wedding (and that I wanted my grandparents to be able to be there - so to strengthen their health as we wait for Mr. Right), just this morning, and so its funny that then I would see this photographer. I have no idea if he's expensive or not relative to others.... but I'm prepared to say that I would want to fly him out, house him here and have him take my wedding pics. That's how much I like them - candid, fun, emotive - great shots. I don't know if I'll get to have him at my wedding, but wheeeew would I like it.
Maybe by then Bethany will be taking wedding shots and she will be on this caliber (she's on her way there right now - I saw the engagement shots she took) and that will be even FUNNER. :)
2) From Gold Cord last night: oops. I left the book at home this morning. Well, trust me it was good. Maybe I'll bring it in later. :)
3) For those of you who are bored at work: http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html click "play" at the bottom right and be entertained for hours. :)
Love, Tiff
Monday, August 08, 2005
What's Your Real Age?
I just took a quick online quiz that asks a bunch of questions and then calculates your "real age" (physiological vs. calendar) for you. The best part is that it gives you a 90 day plan to help lower your age as well as some great information for general health.
Check it out:
To take the free quiz, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:http://www.realage.com/ralong/entry.aspx?cbr=NEXS2_P
Is your lifestyle making you older or younger? Take the RealAge test today and find out your RealAge, and get personalized recommendations to make your body younger. What's Your RealAge?
Love, Tiff
Check it out:
To take the free quiz, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:http://www.realage.com/ralong/entry.aspx?cbr=NEXS2_P
Is your lifestyle making you older or younger? Take the RealAge test today and find out your RealAge, and get personalized recommendations to make your body younger. What's Your RealAge?
Love, Tiff
Friday, August 05, 2005
Refiner's Fire (Amy Carmichael again!)
P.86 of "Gold Cord" (in italics)
" And we learned more than we taught. One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal-fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner": the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof-tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brickdust, and embedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible the heat of the fire is increased: "It could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure."
The fact is that in our logical, flawed human minds we think that pain is the equivalent of God's dissatisfaction, we think that pain is bad and that trial cannot possibly help us. But God's purposes are greater than our mental capacities; God plans to use each experience of our lives for the calling of people to him, and for His glory.
With all that in mind, isn't it comforting to know that He (the one who allows us to be purified in the crucible) never leaves his crucible once its been put on the fire?
Friends, let's endure this flame - painful though it is - and trust that his purposes are being made manifest in us.
Love, Tiff
" And we learned more than we taught. One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal-fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner": the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof-tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brickdust, and embedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible the heat of the fire is increased: "It could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure."
The fact is that in our logical, flawed human minds we think that pain is the equivalent of God's dissatisfaction, we think that pain is bad and that trial cannot possibly help us. But God's purposes are greater than our mental capacities; God plans to use each experience of our lives for the calling of people to him, and for His glory.
With all that in mind, isn't it comforting to know that He (the one who allows us to be purified in the crucible) never leaves his crucible once its been put on the fire?
Friends, let's endure this flame - painful though it is - and trust that his purposes are being made manifest in us.
Love, Tiff
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael
I'm reading "Gold Cord" by Amy Carmichael. Its the autobiographical account of the Dohnavur Fellowship in Southern India. Here is something that stuck out from my reading last night.
p.96:
“For all such conditions [a variety of concerns and fears in the night that cause us not to sleep] we found just one sure antidote – the peace of God. Let the will close down the door on the old life with its allures, its pictured memories, let the last thoughts before falling asleep be set on Him, the Eternal Keeper who neither slumbers or sleeps, let some hymn or psalm or calming promise or assurance fill the last conscious moments, and the spell will be broken. An old prayer (Sir Thomas Browne’s) is as sure of an answer in an Indian room tonight as it was in an English home three hundred years ago:
While I do rest, my soul advance,
Make me to sleep a holy trance
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought.
“And now and here, as always everywhere, there is One whom the winds and waves obey, and He draws near to the frightened soul and says, “It is I; be not afraid.” And when He is as near as that, the weakest of His little children sleeps peacefully, and is almost sure to waken into some holy thought.”
p.97:
“Shall I,” said the bear’s cub to his mother, “move my right paw first or my left, or my two front paws together, or the two hind ones, or all four at once, or how?”
“Leave off thinking, and walk,” grunted the old bear.
My word to you today, dear one, is this, “Leave off thinking, “How?” and just live. Rest in His comfort, receive His grace. Leave off thinking and you’ll be able to do it.
Love, Tiff
p.96:
“For all such conditions [a variety of concerns and fears in the night that cause us not to sleep] we found just one sure antidote – the peace of God. Let the will close down the door on the old life with its allures, its pictured memories, let the last thoughts before falling asleep be set on Him, the Eternal Keeper who neither slumbers or sleeps, let some hymn or psalm or calming promise or assurance fill the last conscious moments, and the spell will be broken. An old prayer (Sir Thomas Browne’s) is as sure of an answer in an Indian room tonight as it was in an English home three hundred years ago:
While I do rest, my soul advance,
Make me to sleep a holy trance
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought.
“And now and here, as always everywhere, there is One whom the winds and waves obey, and He draws near to the frightened soul and says, “It is I; be not afraid.” And when He is as near as that, the weakest of His little children sleeps peacefully, and is almost sure to waken into some holy thought.”
p.97:
“Shall I,” said the bear’s cub to his mother, “move my right paw first or my left, or my two front paws together, or the two hind ones, or all four at once, or how?”
“Leave off thinking, and walk,” grunted the old bear.
My word to you today, dear one, is this, “Leave off thinking, “How?” and just live. Rest in His comfort, receive His grace. Leave off thinking and you’ll be able to do it.
Love, Tiff
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
The City of God and the City of Man
http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2005/072005.html
Check out this link for an article from John Piper's ministry: Desiring God. This article was written by a colleague of his (I think) and has references for all sorts of books on current issues within Christendom.
Some good recommendations for us to check out.
Its important for us to be informed about issues in culture, to know where we stand and what the bible says. We are called to be IN the world (though not of it), which I think means to be aware of what is going on, to participate in conversation and discussion but not to participate in those actions which set themselves up against Christ.
Enjoy!
Love, Tiff
Check out this link for an article from John Piper's ministry: Desiring God. This article was written by a colleague of his (I think) and has references for all sorts of books on current issues within Christendom.
Some good recommendations for us to check out.
Its important for us to be informed about issues in culture, to know where we stand and what the bible says. We are called to be IN the world (though not of it), which I think means to be aware of what is going on, to participate in conversation and discussion but not to participate in those actions which set themselves up against Christ.
Enjoy!
Love, Tiff
Monday, August 01, 2005
Updates (timely... or rather.... late)
Hi everyone!
Started my new job 3 weeks ago! (see pics below) I've been enjoying getting to know people and getting the hang of it all. Its actually kind of nice to get to work at 6am and get off at 2:30! Its like having 2 full days of time every day!! But I will admit that being back in the "cloud" (my bed) makes it hard to get up in the AM!
This weekend I went to the wedding of one of our football players. Doug and Ashlee Smith. Very fun time. I rode up and back with Jenn and enjoyed the time in the car together. On the way up I read aloud to us from "Gold Cord" by Amy Carmichael. I'm fascinated by her life and writing and it was nice to read it with someone.
Recently I picked up a book, "Then Sings my Soul" and am using it in the morning during my reading time. Its great. Check it out at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785249397/qid=1122907311/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/102-5751600-0928926?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Thats it for now - there are probably more updates, but its hard to keep a stream of consciousness while I'm handing out locker keys and making conversation.
God bless you today!
Love, Tiffani
Started my new job 3 weeks ago! (see pics below) I've been enjoying getting to know people and getting the hang of it all. Its actually kind of nice to get to work at 6am and get off at 2:30! Its like having 2 full days of time every day!! But I will admit that being back in the "cloud" (my bed) makes it hard to get up in the AM!
This weekend I went to the wedding of one of our football players. Doug and Ashlee Smith. Very fun time. I rode up and back with Jenn and enjoyed the time in the car together. On the way up I read aloud to us from "Gold Cord" by Amy Carmichael. I'm fascinated by her life and writing and it was nice to read it with someone.
Recently I picked up a book, "Then Sings my Soul" and am using it in the morning during my reading time. Its great. Check it out at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785249397/qid=1122907311/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/102-5751600-0928926?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Thats it for now - there are probably more updates, but its hard to keep a stream of consciousness while I'm handing out locker keys and making conversation.
God bless you today!
Love, Tiffani
The wedding of the Lamb and his Beloved.
Good morning friends - and please excuse my tardiness for not updating regularly.
So many thoughts today to think about.
Brief Sunday update before anything else!:
Yesterday at church we were blessed to hear from Jerry Coleman, Area Coordinator of Free Methodist Missions in Europe. (http://www.fmwm.org/missionary/index/coleman.php) He spoke on Revelation 21:1-3, about the new heaven and new earth and the wedding of Jesus to his bride, the church. WHAT A MESSAGE! As it began I thought, "oh, this is interesting." but as it ended I was in tears.
Jerry painted a picture of what a bride (me as a believer in Jesus, you also perhaps) does to prepare for a wedding. Think about it - brides (I have known many) are consumed with the groom and the upcoming wedding. Its all they talk about - heck, its all they think about. As a part of that they want to invite everyone "Come, share my special day!"
Well, for the lover of Christ (thats you, beloved) it should be the same. Jesus waits for us at the end of the aisle - and his eyes are glued to us, his love for us is so intense that our beauty is overwhelming to him. And as we walk forward, our eyes on him, we overflow in love for him, our groom, our lover. Not being consumed with the groom would be like (as you walk up the aisle) saying, "Hi Jim - how about we take the boat out and go fishing?" "Hi Dave, You're looking good today - wanna go get some coffee?" - that's the equivalent of our lackluster desire for him now.
Jerry talked about this and I was overwhelmed with two things:
1) Who am I inviting to be a part of my wedding? I was convicted that too many of my friends and family members would not be at the wedding if it occured today. And yet I want them there, to experience it all and I want to be at THEIR wedding, more importantly! :)
If you are reading this and you have not heard of the love that Jesus has for you. I want to tell you about it. Its not about being "good enough" or doing "good things" or not hurting other people - its about love. His love for you. Compelling, Consuming, Satisfying. Ask me.
2) Jesus loves me. As I pictured him standing at the front of the church and walking toward him on that day. As I pictured taking his hand and turning to face the Father, hearing him say, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in my sight to join you together in the wedding of the lamb." I cried.
Sometimes crying is from a pain inside that can only come out through tears. Other times joy and happiness overflow in that same way - unable to be expressed through laughter or smiles, the only way is through our heart via our eyes. For me this was the case. I couldn't talk about it afterward, to try to put words to it was futile.
But imagine, beloved. Every tribe, every tongue, every nation - together at the wedding, each walking up and taking Jesus' hand. United finally with the one who loved us enough to give his life.
wow.
The spirit and the bride say, "Come."
Amen.
So many thoughts today to think about.
Brief Sunday update before anything else!:
Yesterday at church we were blessed to hear from Jerry Coleman, Area Coordinator of Free Methodist Missions in Europe. (http://www.fmwm.org/missionary/index/coleman.php) He spoke on Revelation 21:1-3, about the new heaven and new earth and the wedding of Jesus to his bride, the church. WHAT A MESSAGE! As it began I thought, "oh, this is interesting." but as it ended I was in tears.
Jerry painted a picture of what a bride (me as a believer in Jesus, you also perhaps) does to prepare for a wedding. Think about it - brides (I have known many) are consumed with the groom and the upcoming wedding. Its all they talk about - heck, its all they think about. As a part of that they want to invite everyone "Come, share my special day!"
Well, for the lover of Christ (thats you, beloved) it should be the same. Jesus waits for us at the end of the aisle - and his eyes are glued to us, his love for us is so intense that our beauty is overwhelming to him. And as we walk forward, our eyes on him, we overflow in love for him, our groom, our lover. Not being consumed with the groom would be like (as you walk up the aisle) saying, "Hi Jim - how about we take the boat out and go fishing?" "Hi Dave, You're looking good today - wanna go get some coffee?" - that's the equivalent of our lackluster desire for him now.
Jerry talked about this and I was overwhelmed with two things:
1) Who am I inviting to be a part of my wedding? I was convicted that too many of my friends and family members would not be at the wedding if it occured today. And yet I want them there, to experience it all and I want to be at THEIR wedding, more importantly! :)
If you are reading this and you have not heard of the love that Jesus has for you. I want to tell you about it. Its not about being "good enough" or doing "good things" or not hurting other people - its about love. His love for you. Compelling, Consuming, Satisfying. Ask me.
2) Jesus loves me. As I pictured him standing at the front of the church and walking toward him on that day. As I pictured taking his hand and turning to face the Father, hearing him say, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in my sight to join you together in the wedding of the lamb." I cried.
Sometimes crying is from a pain inside that can only come out through tears. Other times joy and happiness overflow in that same way - unable to be expressed through laughter or smiles, the only way is through our heart via our eyes. For me this was the case. I couldn't talk about it afterward, to try to put words to it was futile.
But imagine, beloved. Every tribe, every tongue, every nation - together at the wedding, each walking up and taking Jesus' hand. United finally with the one who loved us enough to give his life.
wow.
The spirit and the bride say, "Come."
Amen.
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