Dating

I am not a huge Valentine's Day person. I love love...a lot. But I am just not into the 'day' becoming so commercialized & becoming the ONE DAY you show love. I am all about living love every day, especially to those I truly love, singly to the one God has given me to love on earth. But, Valentine's Day is a special day for Jim & I...this year it marked 11 years since our first date...ELEVEN YEARS!!! And I am more in love & like with him now more than on February 14, 2000. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. I have grown to respect & love Jim more & more as God uses him in my life to love me, teach me, challenge me, bring me joy, set me towards Christ, make me laugh, & ultimately to make me into the kind of wife that he deserves & pleases the Lord. We just did a Young Adults Retreat this last weekend & we had the blessing of taking 40 from our OverFlo group...& our speaker talked about being marriagable--what better to talk about when 130 20-somethings are in the room with that very thing on their mind?! It was very good, very challenging, & a fresh perspective...all straight from God's Word. Marriage is a big deal...an amazing blessing...but not for the faint-hearted & definitely not for those that don't want to work & pray hard. But as for me, I have loved dating my husband for the last 11 years...love gets better every day. Thank you, Jim Taber, for changing my life...which ultimately, I have Christ to thank every day for love, for Jim (that God saw me being marriagable for him), & making my life something I never expected, but wouldn't have any other way.

Proud of My Heritage

So, this is part of my family heritage that most people don't know about...I am very proud of it, so thought I would share it! The above is the article from 1978, the Butte paper. I love the smell of old newspapers, by the way! Well, the type is small but basically, the community voted on the best "street machine" from 22 contestants. The winner, as you can read, was one Danette Beuthien, 17 years old. Beuthien is my maiden name...this is my sister! I have showed this to a few people this week & they ask if it is me! This makes me very proud. The older I get, the more I look like her. Also, the older I get, the more I miss her, even though I was never that close to her to begin with. (We did not grow up together & she passed away when I was in the 6th grade.) But nonetheless, I am proud of this part of my heritage!

Hastening the face-to-Face

*disclaimer--the following is not a result of finding myself in horrible estate, just simply some things the Lord has put on my heart through faithful teaching & reading of Truth*

I want the Lord to come & come faster. I pray for that more than I ever have before. More mindful of it than previous years. I know much work has to be done until that time & I am excited the Lord has called me to do His work. I am praying for myself & others that this year would be a year of boldness for more people to hear about Christ & come to know Him. No more timidity. He is my greatest treasure. Biggest passion. And in the end, I get to see Him. No gift more glorious. I want others to have the same.

"...but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away (the things we only know in part)...but then, face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, & love abide, these 3; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:10, 12-13

Some of these lyrics hit me like none other from one of my favorite hymns:

"But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,The sky, not the grave, is our goal...
...and Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend...even so, it is well with my soul."

Hope. When our faith appears before us face to face. Because of His love for me. A lowly, undeserving sinner, yet grateful recipient of His grace. In that, it is my prayer that I reflect His love for me in the love I show Him & others this year. Love bigger. Deeper. More selfslessly. Passionately. More pleasing to Him. More focused.

Whatever He does, I am simply asking Him tochange me, inside out...& not leave me the same.

"...Who is & Who was & Who is to come...to Him who loves us & HAS freed us from our sins by His blood & made us a kingdom of priests to His God & Father....behold, He is coming."

He loved me then. He loves me now. He loves me for what I will become. There is not a moment I breathe without Jesus in it. He is presently happening...& He is HUGE. Even if I cannot 'see' Him now--I will see him face to face one day. Lord, show me what I can do to have that day come more quickly.

Celebrating KJOY!

Today I get to celebrate my dear friend & sister, Kristy JOY Osmun! I so wish I could give her a real hug on her birthday & tell her in person how important she is to me, which I would hope she knows by now :), but I am glad she gets some much needed time in NJ with her family. For those who know Kristy, we all know she is a very special young woman. I have had the blessing of knowing Kristy for over 5 years & she is now one of my closest friends & sisters. She is an amazing girl--so talented, funny, sweet, giving, BEAUTIFUL, wise, sensitive & tender-hearted, & such an encouragement. I can't tell you how many times the encouragement I need has come in perfect timing from this girl! She loves the Lord with all of her heart-she loves His Word-she leans on Him in good times & bad. She wants everyone around her to know the love & peace of Christ--He radiates from her. She is a wonderful leader to her senior girls, well, all the students actually & our young 20-somethings gain admiration for her as well. Ministry is so much fun with her because she just wants to be used & make an eternal impact...and she is! My life became so much richer when God brought Kristy into it--she has been a constant, faithful, selfless friend to me. She always asks how I am really doing & wants to know what the Lord is up to in my life. I can be "me" with Kristy & she knows when I am putting up a front & she graciously calls me on it because of her heart--and I need that! The Lord definitely had something special in mind when He caused our lives to cross--and I could not be more thankful for her! Kristy--have a wonderful birthday--I know my life is so much more blessed because you are in it! Love you!

Celebrating 6-5

We had the blessing of celebrating my mom today! I felt compelled to celebrate too by blogging about it because my mom is just that awesome. She is such a wonderful lady--I really could not have asked for a better mom...from when I can remember as she raised me or to this day as she is my friend...she is such a treasure to me. She is strong in adversity, always has a positive attitude, would do anything for anyone, so giving & generous, funny, understanding, patient, sweet, hard-working, & so loving. My mom loves the Lord & trusts Him with her life--His joy exudes from her as it is easy to tell she walks with Him. I love my mom & have so much respect for her. It is a gift for me to celebrate another year with her!

10 Years Later...100 Lessons Learned

It has been 10 years since I have returned from my 2-month mission trip to Kenya & while I can’t believe it’s been that long ago, time goes by so fast, but the memories & mental pictures are still fresh in my mind. At times, I feel as if that wasn’t even me that did all the things while in Kenya! Many of you reading this didn’t even know me then—which is part of the reason why I think of myself from such a distance…like, “Wow God, You did all that 10 years ago…& look where You have brought me today, 10 years later!” I feel like a different person.

When I went to Kenya, I was basically a new believer…very young in my faith. I was 20, going to be a junior at the U of M, engaged to an awesome guy, family was great…& I was now serving a very living & active God that was taking me across the world to Africa. It was, to say the least, a crazy experience! I will never forget it. I went with a great team & made life-long friends…but to be quite honest, the mission experience was hard, frustrating, & not at all what I expected. In fact, toward the end of the trip & when I got home I was pretty certain missions was NOT for me. I was rather bitter & confused to why God would take me to Kenya for 2 months & have a not-so-good experience. Mind you, there were a few times where it was enjoyable & I felt what I was doing was fulfilling. It took a few years for me to process why God had me there & why I went through what I did.

I recently got an email from the leaders from my Kenya trip…they are still leading that trip to this day (13 times now), taking college students to Kenya…they are amazing people. But in that email, it confirmed that God had a plan for my challenges in Kenya 10 years ago: to be a testimony to the future students that would go on this trip. This is what they wrote:

“It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since you came on the GP, Brandi! I have such vivid memories of the stories you and Grace told after getting back from your ministry assignment in Meru. Brian still uses your experience to teach students about perseverance, about how to maturely deal with fear and disappointment, and about God's control over all things---how he perfectly orchestrates the lessons He wants for us (even if the lessons come much later on.) Brian always speaks highly of you. I hope that our Kenya updates keep the memories fresh for you and that the lessons God taught you continue. That is our prayer---that much fruit will be born from those who have come with us.”

There has been much fruit from that trip. I am glad my hard experience can be used as a teaching & training point for other young college students that may face the same challenges I did. God has obviously softened my heart toward missions, to say the least! I have since been to Uganda, Guatemala, & Brazil on mission excursions, as well as several local destinations. Jim & I are now in charge of short-term missions at our church & even just put the dates together for taking a team to Brazil in 2011! Oh the crazy things our God does! And I am so glad His plan is SO much bigger & better than mine!

When I think back to Kenya, I no longer dwell on the difficulty. I dwell on how big God is. The mental images are sharp in my mind. My team. The Pastor & family I served for 3 weeks. God’s protection. Walking through the oldest & worst slum in all of Africa, Mathare Valley—the poverty, the faces, the spark of hope from a church in the middle of it. Feeding street teens. Staying on a college campus. Grace, my Kenyan teammate who is beautiful, loves Jesus, & who I had the blessing of spending most of my time with. Worship.

So when it comes down to it…I am a different person because of Kenya. I am glad God redeemed my outlook on missions, because now my life is ever changed because of them! Even if some of the fruit comes 10 years later…bring it on!

Senior Night

We recently had Senior Night at The Link...where our graduating seniors have a chance to encourage the rest of the youth group in what they've learned, something to spur them on, words of wisdom, Scripture, etc. They represented the faithful as they sat on stage & shared...it was a very bittersweet night for me to say the least. Adam & I, as the senior small group leaders, had a chance to challenge/encourage our students as well...here is what I told them:

*Hebrews 12:1-2 "...let us also lay aside every weight, & sin which clings so closely & let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder & perfecter of our faith..." I wanted them to understand that this is a long-distance race, not a sprint. And that evil always lies close at hand...they need to actively "throw aside" those weights & sins that are so easy to get attached to...& have the Lord insist on the their best. That God would not let up on them until they have gone the distance...being molded & used by Him along the way.

*2 things I proposed to them as they move on in their future:

-Be a blessing. Live out your love (Live Love)...for God first, then others. Let love compel all that you do. Life is not about you...so go, be a blessing.

-Decide what you want most in life. Hopefully, that would be to please the Lord above all else...to fulfill His purpose for you. Sometimes we get mixed up in our priorities of what we really want in life...job, status, relationships, friendships, money, success, etc....while some of those things aren't all bad...they can so quickly & easily disappoint. They can fail. But God will NEVER disappoint, He will NEVER fail. So all you are needs to go all to Him first & pleasing Him first be THE priority.

I talked about funny & more serious things I have gone through with the 8 that were there: holding their hand through surgeries, boy/girl problems, family stuff, bad hair-dye jobs, getting in trouble for taking them "out of town" & not telling their parents...lots of laughter & tears but moslty awesome memories. And my girls...wow. Their faithfulness, their love of the Lord & for people, they are so fun, they let me be me, encourage & challenge me to be a better me, teach me, they support me, spur me on. They are incredible. They are God's gift & blessing to me! They are what makes me passionate about doing what God has called me to do.