Gödöllö Outing - Ibolya Nap (Violet Day)

Today we met the students from the Pécel English Club in Gödöllö for a tour of the palace. We have been looking for ways to get to know them better by meeting them outside of the school grounds. Only two students came but we still had fun. When we got to the castle we realized that today was a celebration called "Violet Day" with special programs, food, booths of items for sale and even pony rides. Here are some pictures of the outing.

Spring Flowers

One of the things I love about where I live now is that I have a garden. When I moved in the owners told me how the last renter let the garden become completely overgrown. I told them that I didn't have much free time, but that I enjoy gardening and I would try to keep it under control.

The front and side yards were completely dirt so last fall I planted a lot of bulbs. This spring it is very nice to see the flowers emerging and there are also a number of bulbs that were already here that are coming in now. I am waiting to see for sure what variety of flower they are.

The back yard is bulbs, grass, wildflowers and ivy. It needs a lot of work, probably more than I have time for. This year I plan to concentrate on the front and side yard and the circle of roses that I planted in the back.

The weather is nice and it is good to be out in the yard. The few random conversations that I have been able to have with my neighbors have happened while I was gardening.

I thought I would share some more flower photos. God's amazing handiwork is uplifting!

Florida Pictures

In March I was away more than I was home and one of the places I got to go was Florida. I enjoyed being at my home church for a Mission Conference. Here are some photos from my time in the Sunshine State. They automatically scroll forward but you can pause to enlarge the photos that say "click me." Enjoy

Glory Revealed

When I was at the missions conference in Florida I heard the song By His Wounds on the radio. The other day I went looking for it in Itunes and I found this amazing album. It is a collection of songs straight from the scripture by popular artists.

What could be more encouraging than listening to the very words of God! You can watch the trailer about the project below.

FLASH and my Flowers

Today I played with some Macromedia tutorials and created my first flash slideshow. I chose the flowers in my yard for this project at my mom's request. Enjoy.

PS - I am trying to learn Flash for a project that I am working on for my team. If any of you know any good, free tutorial sites I'd love to know about them. Thanks

I recently received a challenge from the CSFF Blog to tell ten people about three Christian Fantasy books that I think highly of. So here they are. I went overboard and listed more than three Christian Fantasy Books that I love.

My favorite Christian Fantasy Books –

1. Series: The Legends of the Guardian King by Karen Hancock The Light of Eidon, The Shadow Within, Shadow of Kiriath and Return of the Guardian King

2. Series by Kathy Tyers Firebird, Fusion Fire and Crown of Fire

3. Series by Stephen Lawhead The Search for Fierra and The Siege of the Dome

4. Series by Ted Dekker Black, White and Red

5. Arena by Karen Hancock

6. Gideon’s Dawn by Michael Warden

7. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

If you are into youth fantasy some of my favorites that I would recommend:

8. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (of course)

9. The Dream Voyagers by T.Davis Bunn

And just in case I leave out some much talked about series, these are the series that I am have purchased which I’m looking forward to reading:

The Legend of the Firefish series by George Bryan Polivka
The Restorer series by Sharon Hinck

You can see more of my favorite books on Shelfari

Journey 4-2-08

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke him to anger. 2 Kings 23:25-26

This past weekend I was at a conference where one of the topics was unmet expectations. During one of the sessions someone pointed out how we often have formulas that we expect God to abide by: A + B will surely equal C.

I was thinking of that statement as I read about Josiah. Josiah did all the right things. When the book of the law was found he wholeheartedly set out to follow all of its instructions. He renewed the covenant and cleansed the land. Wouldn’t it be expected then that God would respond in kind sending revival throughout the nation and establishing Judah? But the LORD’s anger was not turned away. God had a plan that included punishment of sin and also future redemption that included the removal of the nation of Judah.

So often we are surprised by God’s unexpected plans. We pour our lives out in obedience, serving as He has called us and often deep inside we expect to see something like Obedience + Sacrifice = A Mighty Movement of God (A church planted, a revival occurring, the ones we are serving turning to the Lord finding salvation of revival, etc). Yet, as C.S. Lewis often illustrated in his Narnia chronicles “He is not a tame lion.” God’s ways are above us. God is wild and free and ruler of all. He does not abide by our formulas, but blazes His own path of love, redemption and restoration in His own way.

Now Josiah had advanced knowledge of this situation through the prophetess Huldah. He knew that all his efforts and the results of his obedience would only last for his lifetime. I stopped and thought of that for a moment. Josiah was faithful even though he, not only had no promise of success, but when he had the assurance that what he was working toward would not last. Can I be as faithful when I don’t see God moving? Can I trust God’s long term plan when He moves outside of my carefully constructed formulas? When the formula doesn’t add up and the people are not yet restored, I want to still follow hard after the Lord Jesus.

Josiah may not have enabled the long term restoration and renewal of Judah, but his life still stands as a testimony of wholehearted obedience. I want my life to reflect the same, a testimony to the faithfulness of God in my lifetime.