more than you ever wanted to know...

Eek!! I'm getting behind! A vacation and a nasty cold all in the same weekend will do that to ya, I guess hehe.

For lack of anything better to write, I have collected and answered my favorite questions from those "get to know you" forwarded emails that we all get from time to time. Feel free to post your own answers in the comment section!

**What is your most favorite CD? I like my iTunes mix... I get bored with CDs...I like variety :)

**If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Probably not lol (how sad is that?)

**Do you use sarcasm a lot? Me??? Never.... *raise eyebrow*

**What are your nicknames? Carebear, Kepi (my name spelled out in Ukrainian)

** Would you bun-gee jump? Yeah...right... uh huh... NOT!

**Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? That would be hard to do since my shoes don't have laces

**What is your least favorite thing about yourself? My dress size

**Who do you miss most? my Grandpa King and my dog Princess

**First thing you notice about the opposite sex? his jaw... yes, I know I'm weird

**Favorite Drink? Diet Coke

**Favorite Sport? To watch: college football and whenever Peyton Manning plays

**Hair Color? Brownish, reddish, blondish

**Eye Color? greenish-blue

**Do you wear contacts? absolutely... blind as a bat otherwise

** Last Movie You Watched Firewall

**Scary Movies or Happy Endings? Happy endings... the kind that are RESOLVED... not the kind that leave you with the IMPRESSION of happy endings... *sigh*

**Hugs or Kisses? Do we have to choose? Why not both?

**Summer Or winter? WINTER

**What Books Are You Reading? See the handy-dandy little list to the side there

**Favorite Smells? a baby's hair when he's snuggled up on your chest and my hubby's cologne when I hug him

**Favorite Sounds? dialects from every tribe, language, and nation singing praises to God

**Rolling Stones or Beatles? Who? :P

**What is the furthest you have been from home? Toronto, Canada

**Do you have a special talent? making a mess of crafty-type things

**What is your ring tone? something groovy to appease my inner black woman

**Diamonds or pearls? diamonds all the way... but not the huge ones

**What is your favorite tv show? current shows: My Name is Earl, The Office, Criminal Minds (obviously I couldn't pick just one); shows that should still be around: Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Sue Thomas FB Eye

**What is your favorite cuisine? ooo... cuisine is a big word lol... Japanese hibachi chicken and veggies (yummy yummy)

** Where would you want to retire to? the Smoky Mountains

**Are you a morning person or a night owl? night owl.. HOO HOO

**Favorite meal? toss-up between my mama's meatloaf or my daddy's hamburgers

**Do you have any pets? just my husband lol

**What is your best childhood memory? family nights with my family--every Friday night

**Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Barnes & Noble (Hello, my name is Kepi and I'm a bookaholic)

**Lake, ocean, or river? ocean

**How many tattoos do you have? wouldn't you like to know :P

And there you have it, folks... me in a nutshell. More than you ever wanted to know... whether you cared or not :P

Quote of the Day

My sinuses are revolting on me, making it impossible for me to concentrate long enough to write anything that could remotely be considered worth your time to read. So, I'll take a seat and let C.S. Lewis do the talking today...

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Don't ya just hate it... ?

Don't ya just hate it when you're listening to a sermon and feeling pretty good about yourself and then all of a sudden something hits you right in the heart and you're reminded of that verse "Pride goes before a fall?" LOL

That happened to me this week. I was listening to a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments from the church my brother attends, and I was doing pretty good. A few moments of mild conviction but nothing that would cause me to want to just fall to my knees in repentance. And then sermon #3 hit... and I do mean 'hit'. I was in tears by the time it was over, and not feeling quite as warm and fuzzy as I had before. :P

(By the way... before I start rambling on about this, you can check out the sermons for yourself at Seacoast's Website or if you have iTunes you can get the podcasts. This sermons series is called '10 Simple Rules')

Ok...commercial break over LOL

Anywhoo...the third sermon in the series was on Exodus 20:7, where God commands His people not to take His name in vain. Well, I thought this would be an easy sermon to listen to... one of those where I think of all the people that need to hear it! After all, I don't cuss or use God's name in a profanity. I don't need this sermon, right? In hindsight, I can almost hear God saying, "Not so fast, little Kepi."

The pastor began by saying that in Biblical times a person's name described their character and that there are over 100 names for God given to us in the Bible. But what does it mean to 'take His name in vain'? It's more than just not cursing or using it with a profanity. (At this point, I'm starting to realize that I may not come out of this scot-free lol) The word take in Hebrew means to lift up or carry, and the phrase in vain in Hebrew means empty or (literally) to destroy or ravage. So, literally, this command means that we should not lift up or carry the name of God in an empty fashion, in such a way that it destroys what God is doing or dishonors His character.

By now, I'm starting to ask myself when do I carry God's name in an empty fashion, and that little twinge of discomfort starts to settle in my heart. Yep, all hope of warm and fuzzy was gone now! Since he apparently couldn't leave well enough alone (lol), the pastor then went on to say that being continually filled with anxiety is carrying God's name in an empty manner because it denies the power of His name "Prince of Peace". Did he stop there? Oh no...he keeps going... Repeatedly falling to the same temptation is also carrying God's name in an empty manner because it denies the power of His name "Deliverer"...Taking sin lightly denies His name "Holy One"... Living in fear is misusing His name "Protector", treating it as it has no power.

Whew.

That brought it home. I may not curse or use God's name in profanities but I do struggle with anxiety. I struggle with falling to the same temptation. I struggle with taking sin lightly. I struggle with living in fear. And I could come up with dozens of ways (if not more) that I deny the power of God's name in my life.

Bleah.

I thought sermons were supposed to make you feel good :P (I am just kidding!)

The pastor also turned the verse around to its positive connotations... "Lift up and carry the name of Lord your God in all Its power, all Its fullness, all Its majesty." God is calling us to live as if He is who He says He is, and if I'm not living that way, I am carrying His name in vain. My life should reflect God's power.

Sooooooooo... that will teach me to assume that I don't need to hear a sermon! A good rule of thumb should probably be "when I think I don't need it, that's the one I need to hear".

oy

Okay... so there was a glitch with the Bloglet subscription thing, but I *think* it's working now :P

snazzy updates

Lots of razzle-dazzle updates to my blog... there is now a subscription service so you'll know when I update. Also a "What Am I Reading" list... I may be a book addict, but I highly recommend everything that I'm currently reading. The links should send ya to Amazon if you want to check them out for yourself. Ummmm... did I do anything else? I think that's it! :)

We Are Friends

"We are friends."

The broken English, delivered in the precious husky voice that steals my heart a little bit more every Monday, threatened to break my already shaky composure. His arm around the classmate seated next to him and his grandfatherly grin blurred as tears filled my eyes despite my best intentions not to get emotional. He is Nik, my 83-year-old ESL student from Belarus. He speaks little English, knowing only the occasional word or phrase despite his seven years in the United States, and yet I love him more the longer I know him. Through him I have learned that, in Christ, there really is no language barrier. Somehow, it is enough that we love God and that we love each other. I've seen it in my relationships with my students and with their relationships with each other.

"We are friends."

The woman he sits next to is Olga, the student I have already decided that I'm never giving up, no matter how advanced her English gets! She is seventy-six years young, the little girl in her heart shining through in her delightful hugs and the way her eyes twinkle when we are sharing a funny moment. Olga, as she will proudly tell you, is from Peru. She speaks Spanish. Nik speaks Russian. Neither speaks much English, and yet they sit together every week, talking the best they can with the English they know, and resorting to their native languages when they run out of shared vocabulary. I frequently watch them with tears in my eyes, and yesterday was no exception.

"We are friends."

The lesson was the beginning of my unit on Walmart, the store where everything you need is in one place. The current discussion was about how God meets all our needs. We don't need to go to many different sources for love, peace, joy, comfort, strength, forgiveness, or friendship. I told them that not only is God my friend (a teaching completely new to many of the religions represented in my classroom) but that He had also sent my students to me as my friends. "I love you all," I told them, feeling the emotion choke my throat as I continued to speak. "You are my friends."

"We are friends."

His sweet grin, the way he leaned closer to Olga, his arm loosely draped across her shoulders, all joined with his words as God whispered in my ear, "Look at what I've done." I thought I had come there to teach English. I didn't count on falling in love with all of them, nor did I count on the precious friendships that I see forming between my students. God had other plans.

"We are friends."

We may not speak the same language, but we are friends. We may get frustrated sometimes because we don't understand each other, but we are friends. We may come every week only to teach or learn English, but we are friends. Some of us love and follow the same God; others do not. But we are friends.

How like God to do what I wasn't looking for. How like Him to tenderly remind me who the real Teacher of that classroom is. How like Him to take twelve people from different age groups, different cultures, different languages, different religions... and unite them in His love for them. To take twelve strangers and make them friends.