updates coming, i promise!

I've got lots of pics & stories from the cruise, from my last 5k, from taking a new friend to get her nose pierced -- so much!

...but, I've been a little distracted. :)

Meet: Joe Yoon.

the sun, the sand, the sea

...the beauty of a cruise.

I spent last week aboard Royal Carribbean's Sovereign of the Seas. And...well...I could get used to the cruisin' life. The trip was A LOT of fun with friends from work and was a nice way to vacate, although I really didn't get much rest.

Favorite part of the week? Definitely this:

Yep, that's me in the Bahamas. I quickly got over my initial hesitations and really had a blast exploring the island. More pics to come!

Why Do I Run?

Why do I run
It ain’t no mystery
I wanna have a good medical history

Dr. told me runnin’ is great
Helps them blood cells circulate

Great for the lungs
Great for the ticker
Nothin’ can getcha in better shape quicker

Feels so healthy
Feels so sweet
Pumpin’ my arms
And flappin’ my feet

Keeps me youthful
Keeps me loose
Tightens my tummy
And shrinks my caboose

Beats being sluggish
Beats being lazy
Why do I run
Maybe I’m crazy.

--author unknown

Who can slay the mighty Zeus?

Yesterday was a sad day at the Beracah house.

Our beloved fish, Zeus, has died. He was sick. And to be honest, I'm not quite sure how he died. But in his last days he turned completely red, except for a white, bloated face and big black eyes. Oh, it was dreadful!

We gave him a proper funeral (complete with a reading of the poem below) and have now entered a indeterminable time of mourning.


Ode to Zeus DeChildensen

Zeus, we knew that you were sick
When Kevin said you had "the ick"
It happened only yesterday
And we tried to make it go away

You were once Beracah's token male
But now to the heavenly fishly seas you'll sail
Your blueish-green iridescence we'll certainly miss
About your striking beauty we'll ever reminisce

Belly up is how we thought we'd find you
Instead your face was buried in the depths of blue

You always welcomed us home at the end of the day
And listened to everything we had to say
As sensitive a man we'll never find
Zeus DeChildensen, you were one of a kind!

(original post can be found here: http://thebeckster.blogspot.com/2006/09/my-new-roommate.html)

I'm a Rock Star!

So pumped about this. LOVED IT.

You're looking at runner no. 1336 who finished her first- ever-5k in 38 minutes 52 seconds WITHOUT EVEN STOPPING!!! I'm more excited about not having to stop and walk than my time...which was an average of 12 and a half minutes per mile.

Wow. Seriously, I exceeding my goals by.. a lot. I'm really pumped and can't wait for my next one on Feb. 17th. Wanna run with me?!?!

Okay, some other people wanted details. So I rolled in from my weekend rendevous in Jacksonville at 11pm on Saturday night, got everything ready for the next morning, had a bowl of cereal (last minute carbs), and was in bed at 11:30. Starting at 2am, I awoke every hour until the alarm went off because I was afraid of oversleeping. Argh. I was a little nervous when I awoke at 6:30, I'm not gonna lie. So I kept telling myself,"I'm just going for a run, no big deal." But when I got close to the site at Mead Gardens, the parking was horrendous. I parked about 1/2 a mile away, so I ran from my car to the Gardens just to warm up.

Next thing you know, I hear a gun shot and we're off! Apparently, I was too close to the front, because I was getting pushed and passed by for the first several minutes. It was a funny scene - 1300 women in a literal stampede. And it's motivating with all those women running around you..I wanted to go faster and not let them pass me by! But I just settled into my own pace.

Surprisingly, when I hit mile marker 1, I was feeling pretty good. So I kept on pumping. We were running through some gorgeous neighborhoods with the trees overhanging the streets (classic, beautiful Winter Park. I love where I live). As we were rounding one corner, I heard some music getting louder as I gained ground. ?? Turned the corner and found a house with all the windows and doors open blasting some kind of high energy music, with the owner of the house standing in the driveway cheering and waving us by. It is about 7:45 in the morning at this point; the neighbors were loving him, I am sure. I smiled a few minutes later as we passed another house with a young 10-year-oldish looking boy out in the front yard with his dad and Ipod speakers blasting the theme song to Chariots of Fire. :)

At the halfway mark, they were passing out cups of water. Watching the people in front of me, I followed suit and slowed down to grab the water, drink a few sips, and chuck the cup as I kept on running.

At mile marker 2, I decided no one could stop me now. I was gonna finish this thing without stopping. By halfway through mile 3, I was fighting myself to keep going. I was banking on hitting that "runners high" at some point, but it never came. Once I saw my mom and uncle cheering me on, and then my coach, Scott, though, I was smokin'. At mile marker 3, I picked up speed, passed a few slow pokes, and finished on a strong note. :) I'm telling you, it was exhilarating!

well...here we go....

It's official. I just signed up. I've paid. I'm getting a T-shirt. And I'm running a 5-k this weekend.

Eeek! Will I make it? My training schedule has been...lets say...a bit random.

But, by golly, I'm going for it.

(I know you don't believe me.)

reflection

Whenever I have my earphones on at work, my co-workers know that I’ve effectually “closed my door.” I don’t want to be bothered.

Well, I’ve got those earphones on right now. My soul (not to mention my body) feels weary today….no particular reason…just weary and aching for something more.

It’s an interesting feeling, really. Somewhat perplexing, I must admit. How does it work? Where does this gnawing originate? I usually refer to these feelings in reference to my soul, because I can’t pinpoint the soul either. Where is it? Why does it feel this way? Gnawing is just one of the regular symptoms of having a soul that has been awakened. What about the aching? the hardness? the softness? the pruning? the stretching? the bliss? the thrill? the chase? the simple, satisfying stillness? So varied, my soul is! I’m telling you…perplexing. I’m perplexing.

Yes, my friend, this awakened soul of mine is also an amazing, sacrificial gift.

Remember the LORD’s promises to the people of Israel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

It was a rich promise to Israel – one they fought for and wept over and craved with everything in them – but it’s a reality for me. Without question. The Father promised, then sacrificed His Son. Jesus left riches to humble himself in more ways than I can count, and endured the pain of death. And now the Spirit seals my soul as belonging to Him…and gnaws, aches, hardens, softens, prunes, stretches, multiplies joy, pursues, and satisfies my soul to a depth of intimacy that is perplexing!! (I’m still not over that.)

Seriously…one of the first things Lauri said to me this morning (beyond telling me how big of a fish she caught yesterday) was in the form of a shriek of wonder that we have the Spirit living in us. It’s a wonderfully perplexing thing, when you really get to thinking about it.

So, my soul outlook today: weary and aching for something more. But Praise Jesus for an awakened soul. Because of Him, I have something bigger and better to long for, namely, His glory and His Kingdom in all its fullness. I haven’t been lost. I haven’t been forgotten. My soul matters to the King of Kings. He’s calling me deeper and deeper into Himself.

From my headphones today, you would have heard this song on repeat…

Searching for truth, longing for peace
Nothing satisfies – the ache will not cease
Come fill me up, as only You can
All of my times, Lord, you hold in the palm of your hand

Worship the King, all heaven and earth!
Gratefully sing of his power and love
You are the Lord, the Ancient of Days
We will bow down and live for your praise

You are the first, You are the last
You’re our hope to come as ages pass
You are the one – faithful and true
All that I need, Lord, is found only in you

Worship the King, all heaven and earth!
Gratefully sing of his power and love
You are the Lord, the Ancient of Days
We will rejoice…rejoice!

Worship the King, all heaven and earth!
Gratefully sing of his power and love
You are the Lord, the Ancient of Days
We will rejoice and live for your praise

We will rejoice and live for your praise….may that be the theme song of my soul, no matter what the outlook.

Pics from Urbana

I'm so behind on posting...sorry...more coming soon!

Our awesome booth! Check out the globe..it was revolving.

Our team (most of them)


Working hard or hardly working?

Now...where should I go??

urbana 07

I'm here!

I'm so excited.

31 PIONEERS friends from around the world are joining me at this 5 day conference in St. Louis, MO, to represent PI and hopefully encourage and love students to the mission field. We want to hear their stories, answer questions, pray with them. It'll be fun.

I'm most excited about hanging out with my team, though. These people are awesome. Heros of the faith. Lovers of God and lovers of those who don't yet know him. Passionate for the Kingdom. It's energizing to be with them - that's what it is!

Pray for me -all of us, really- to represent well Christ's heart for the nations. May the events, conversations, and worship this week ripple from this place to all the farthest corners and crevices of the earth! Soli deo gloria!

a christmas present - from me to zjuu.

Courtesy of Dave Barnes.

Turkey Shoot

This is a really late post...but who doesn't want to see me with a gun?! Come on, now.

These pics are from the annual "PI Turkey Shoot", wherein the winner of a one-shot-one-chance target shoot takes home a huge frozen turkey from Publix.

Much to your surprise, I did NOT, in fact, take home the frozen turkey. But I had a grand time!


Seriously...don't mess with me.

Practice.

(The real deal was a longer distance.)

And now for the shot.

Well, yes, that IS a lever-action shotgun that makes you feel like you're in a cowboy movie.

A Beracah Christmas Tree

We're pretty excited about our tree and Christmas decorations!

ever met an ice sculpter?

While in Austin, Lauri and I had dinner with one of her supporters and then he showed us his...studio? I'm going to call it a studio. Pretty darn cool.

Here are the freezers where he makes his own ice blocks. Looking in, it appears to be all water, but wen I stuck my hand down into the water, it stopped about 4 inches deep! The rest was already frozen. I could have never told you that; the water was so clear.

Frozen ice blocks ready for the chainsaw.

Doug also has a laser machine that cuts the ice perfectly. This is best used when making monograms or logos. You just shimmy the ice block up into place, configure your settings on the computer, and vwa-la, it's done in about 20 minutes. And this dude ain't playing; the work is amazing! I don't have a picture of his finished work, but you can find it at www.amazingicedesigns.com.
Brrrr....it's cold in this freezer!

backing up a bit

So, I have to tell you about Freebirds! YUM. It's the best burrito I've ever had, for sure.

Can't you tell? I love me some bird.
This picture was part of our "Eating my way through Texas" collage

Quick Update

I know, I know. I'm terribly tardy on my blog entries. But my excuse is....drumroll please....I have lots of pictures to share and my USB hookup is currently being held hostage in a sickroom. So there.

quick update?
--trip was incredible. loved it. learned a lot.
--happy t-giving! mine was so restful that i managed to squeeze in six movies over the long weekend. i love you, mr. darcy.
--my nieces have been in town ALL WEEK. It might be a bit of heaven!

I'm sitting here writing this entry as I listen to Sonrise practice. Do you not know who Sonrise is? My goodness, where have you been? They're only the BEST bluegrass band in Orlando, maybe even in all of Central Florida! Wake up.

Really, it's my dad's band. And there's absolutely nothing like pick'n and sing'n with them. We're going on 5 hours of this now. I've sung a few with them and even picked up the guitar on a few. But mostly I've been listening and soaking up every minute.

Hey, hey....I just scored a gig with them! woo hoo! You'll have to come hear me sing "All American Bluegrass Girl" in January with them.

This is a GREAT ending to a shaky day and a real tough week. I've felt the faith-refining process a lot recently. Thank you, Jesus, for walking with me through it all. And thanks for moments like these when my soul truly rests.

back to the bluegrass......

Fun people!

So...if you don't yet know....I am a people person. That has really been the best part of this trip: my fun friends!! Here are a few snapshots..

This was at The Oasis - a really cool place on multiple deck levels overlooking Lake Travis in Austin. Lauri and I took Jennings to dinner and enjoyed the sunset. Jennings used to work with us in the PI office but is now in his final months of prep to move to Central Asia. The best word to describe Jennings during our time in ATX is 'grace.' We might have gotten a little cocky about our sense of direction and map reading skills...
Jon & Sally & Baby Jude, who's a real cutie. They're on their way overseas with Christar.

Joe show'n off his grill. Oddly enough, a little rap music always calms me down when things get hairy. So due to my crazy work schedule this summer, I eventually learned all the words to Nelly's Grillz, and, in the process, got a few other work cronies hooked on it too (including Joe). I fortunately brought the CD with me to TX, so we've all been enjoying it while cruisin' College Station.

Lauri chatting with Lindsey about her Edge trip last summer and further long-term options with us. Love this girl! She helped us recruit at the GO! Missions Conference here at Texas A&M last Tuesday night. GO! is put on by Breakaway Ministries, a college ministry that attracts over 4,000 students to its weekly Bible Study. Yeah, I said 4,000. Huge. Did you know that A&M sends out the most missionaries of any school in the US? It's because of ministries like Breakaway (visited on Tues. night), RUF (visited on Wed. night), Navigators (visited on Thurs. night), and many more. This place is a hot bed for students who love God and love the nations. (i find it ridiculously exciting, can you tell?) BACK to Lindsey...she learned about us at the GO! Conference last year and then served with us in East Asia for 8 weeks last summer. We're glad to send her back!

So, I didn't get to mention stories of seeing Kenny, Katie, John, Stephanie, Sarah, Rodney, Katy, Robbie, Ryan, Jim, Bill, Matt, Emily, Jamie, Jennifer, Monica, and Lauren -- my dear family in the Faith.

Pray for God to use these friends for the sake of His Gospel among the least-reached!

The Great State Of....

Yes, that's right. I'm on a recruiting trip in Texas for the next 10 days or so. I flew in yesterday and have visited Dallas Theological Seminary and Texas Christian University, plus had several appointments. There are lots of great churches here that, honestly, I think are ripe for the missionary harvest! I met with a gal last night in prep for speaking at her church next weekend. That church already sent some of their members through us to Southeast Asia, but there are tons more who are interested, especially in the college ministry. Then a co-worker and I met with a young church plant in Grapevine this morning who is just beginning to clarify their missions program. There are at least 4 couples and some singles in that church who are ready to go overseas! It's incredible! This area seems to have lots of missions interest and it's so exciting to get in on that action. I love it. I'm in a Dallas Panera right now awaiting an appointment with a gal who should be here any minute.

Lauri and I had some yummy Tex-Mex with the "Mission Coaches" of Rightnow.org today. These gals rock. Their role is simply to connect people to organizations in the world of missions, so they spend most of the day on the phone listening to peoples stories and helping to connect their vision to an matching organization, that ultimately they might be actively engaged with the Gospel around the world. How cool is that? (Check them out at www.rightnow.org.) They're super fun gals!

(Lauri, Felicity, Melanie, Michelle, Me)

Nori-chan

Somewhere around 3-4 years ago, while I was still a young whippersnapper student at UCF, I drove out to a Windermere Perkins to have breakfast with my friend Noriko. Since I was just beginning to study Japanese culture, my friendship with Noriko was an invaluable relationship as we shared our lives, worldviews, backgrounds, hopes, and dreams together. But even more so, she was also my sister in our great Faith. She had much to teach me about evangelism and discipleship in the context of Japanese culture. I eagerly sought to develop this friendship and soak up any time I could spend with her.

As we chatted over eggs and bacon that morning, Noriko was dreaming out loud about her future. She was finishing up at Valencia Community College at that time, where she first studied English and then received her AA degree. After a short break, she was enrolling in Rollins College to study English Literature (can you imagine Shakespeare in a second language?).

"I'm think I would really like to study at RTS," she said. "But I don't know how I could ever afford that." We discussed this some more, and I concluded, "Noriko, if God really wants you to go, He'll provide." That's a simple answer; but I was firmly convinced.

"You know, I'm thinking of going to RTS, too!" I added. "Wouldn't it be so fun to be in class together? You and me - in seminary!"

Here we are! Systematics 1, Fall 06.

How Great is our God!
Last Sunday, we celebrated the completion of our 101 question mid-term at Hanamizuki. Yes, that's us enjoying green tea ice cream. Mmm...yum!

Systematic Theology w/ John Frame

First of all, Dr. Frame is brilliant. And he really loves Jesus.

Second of all, I have to blog this entry. Bear with me. Blogging these thoughts will help me process what I've studied.

The Doctrine of Preservation: ever considered it?

--Metaphysical preservation. God preserves the world in "being." Col. 1:7 "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." The world requires God's permission to remain in existence each moment.

--Covenant preservation. God saves the lives of believers and the church as part of his covenant blessing. Duet. 6:1-2, Joshua 24:17, Psalm 66:9, Matt. 6:18.

--Eternal perservation. John 10:27-30, otherwise known as the doctrine of perserverance. God keeps His own in His hand.

My favorite part of this study, to be sure, was the material on Redemptive-Historical preservation, God's temporary perservation of the world from final judgment, so as to bring his people to salvation.

What amazing grace! Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil - why? Because they would surely die. And yet, God preserved them. Despite the evil in Cain's heart, a mark was put on his forehead so that no one would kill him. God preserved the human race until the flood, the flood marked an image of de-creation, and, though sin continued, God also continued to preserve His people.

Upon their exit from the ark, Noah built an alter to the Lord and sacrificed. "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.'" Gen. 8:21-22. This is a promise of preservation.

Matthew 24:37 says that "as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." see 2 Peter 3:5-7. Final judgment will be as in the days of Noah, another de-creation.

MEANWHILE....here's the good news....God preserves the world for the sake of the elect. 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." God is patient with sinners! Acts 14:17, 17:25-28. He longs for all men to know Him, and he is patient for his timing.

Folks, the missionary mandate is holding the earth together. In a very real sense, God is preserving this earth and preserving people for the sake of His name going forth among them. I mean, really. Think about that for just a second. We are given the awesome commission of being a part of this amazing grace! As we share truth and see men come to repentance, we are gaining one step closer to Heaven. How does little, weak, faithless me get to join the King's army for such a worthy cause? I've been given great purpose!

One more thing. I've never heard this before this class, but --wow, what a thought. The passing of seasons remind us of the needs of the lost. As in Genesis 8 mentioned above, God promises that through the seasons He will preserve His people and never flood the earth again. But the seasons will not pass forever! One day, the earth will end and final judgment will come. No more seasons. No more opportunity for repentance. That compels me! Time is short!

Meditation on this doctrine of preservation completely overwhelms me with floods of grace. We -I- firmly do not deserve His favor. And to think he takes PLEASURE in pouring out His grace upon us! He takes pleasure in preserving His church and the world to demonstrate His faithfulness to us.

Oh, Lord, help me walk in the truth that I know!

Just in case you were wondering...

It takes exactly 19 minutes from my office to the nearest Steak 'n Ale restaurant. The reason I know this, you ask? Because I lost a bet today. I bought my lunch AND another's because I lost the bet that we could get there in 17 minutes. I'd like you to know, I put up quite a fight. I drove like a champ and my passengers put their lives on the line for my sake.

However, the truth is...

It takes more than 17 minutes to get there.