Funness...

As you can guess this is Tracey, not the 5th Grade English teacher typing.

Funness… grammatically and red squiggly disapproved but still proper for this occasion of fun activities and events that have occurred this week.

Finished creating the shipping crate...just waiting on the animals (in pairs obviously) to show up. I started to think about how devastated Noah would've felt if his ark "titanic-ed"... Just pray that when we arrive to the Chilean warehouse it's still a rectangular box or maybe even a square but no other shapes please.

Learned about the fascinating world of "Space Bags". If you haven't tried these yet, it's a must. (Thank you Jonathan and Lydia for that GREAT idea!)

We had our going away/give everything away party which was a treasure that Christine and I will remember for a long time. Being as hospitable as we could, we thought baking was necessary. Any excuse that calls for baking cookies/chocolate/ice cream is an acceptable one in my book.

I'm pride myself on my superb ability to taste test.

By the way, watching Gabrielle (sister) and Charles (my brother in law) throw down in the kitchen baking some cookies as well was priceless.

Finally, without a bed and much else up stairs we decided to rearrange our humble abode a bit.

The Keitt Combo Room: Living room, dining room, master bedroom.

The Boydstuns

Ok so I should really be going to bed right now instead of beginning a blog, but thinking about the amazing time Christine and I just had at the Boydstun's place...well it's worth sharing right now & feeling a little bit tired in the morning.

So Christ has really put amazing people around us in Charlotte and we will miss our community so much more than I can probably understand at this point. So the Boydstuns...

Dennis and Lisa (and their 4 adorable children) are long time friends of mine who moved to Arizona a few years back and have just moved back in the past 6 months. They subletted their house (due to the wonderful housing market) and were able to move right back into their old house & neighborhood.

For some odd and illogical reason they thought it would be a good idea to start a youth group in their neighborhood which equals bunches of youth 8-16 years of age running through their front door, sharing dinner and hanging out with them and their kids on Monday nights.

One of the most beautiful pictures of community, love and service I've seen in a long time. They are such a Holy Spirit lead family that continually inspires Christine and I.

So they had us over to speak to the kids about what we'd be doing in Chile & what being a Christian looks like for them in their day to day lives... amazing evening. We had great dialogue with the kids about their pursuit of loving others, following Christ & everything in between. I think this is one of the only times I felt like I was in a "house church" sort of situation.

The mere location of all these youth was the common denominator. Dennis and Lisa, through the power of the Holy Spirit, were able to create a youth group of blacks, whites, latinos, elementary, middle & high school kids who are learning about the realness of Christ, growing in the Spirit and having a taste of a rare form of community that we don't see much anymore.

I love watching the Spirit move.

Great News!

Because of my lack of skill within the world of Excel spreadsheets, our latest support update (53%) was miscalculated. Thanks to my tech-savvy husband, we were able to fix whatever was wrong with the columns, only to find that we are actually at 60% of our financial support met!!!

Thank you, Lord, for using my ineptitude for blessing :)

Keitt Update - May 2011

Answering prayers

One of our prayer requests that we have asked many people to lift up in the past month has been the opportunity to share our story. God has answered that one specifically in an incredible way, and I’m looking forward to what other ways he is going to provide.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to share our store at all three services of our church. A bit overwhelming at first, but still such an amazing feeling to be able to connect to a community of people who are excited to hear about us and what God is doing in our lives. We’ll tell you more about how the sharing went later on.

On Monday afternoon we sat down and chatted with the Mission’s Pastor at Myers Park Methodist, Kevin Wright. His genuine interest and excitement for what we were doing was a real boost to our spirits. It wasn’t even that we were feeling down or low in spirits. Not only did the church give us an incredible blessing financially, but I could see that this relationship with Kevin and Myers Park Methodist will be a lasting one.

Hey…I almost forgot, one of our other prayer requests had been to build up a solid group of churches to send us out. God is so faithful.

I’ve been reading through 1 Corinthians, the part were Paul kept telling the church body to stop bickering and creating divisions. Although I know denominations have great significance, it was a breath of fresh air to simply talk with a brother in Christ. Seeing both our and Kevin’s passion for the bringing of the Kingdom of God triumph over the typical divisions and walls of denominations was beautiful.

I think Paul had something right with that thought of unity. Think of how much the Church could do if we just stop cutting each other down, but instead focused on unity under Christ.

Last night we met and spoke with two combined small groups from our Church; Keith and Jennifer’s as well as Dusty’s groups. We had a mouth watering potluck and really got to meet and know some more wonderful people of our congregation. They gave us the floor to share our story and prayed over us, strengthening the thought that we will be leaving with a strong community of prayer warriors at home.

Thank you all for your prayers. As you can see God is still in the business of answering them in mighty ways!

Just thought I'd share a bit

I (Tracey) absolutely love to read. I don't know how or why I despised it as much as I did as a youngin but I did. Call me a nerd, but I'd almost always rather read a book than go to the movies. Very rarely do I feel as disappointed after I complete a book as I do when I take in other forms of media.

"What is the What" (co written by Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng) was finally completed this Sunday afternoon and I can easily say that it is one of my favorite books. You step into the life of Valentino, a lost boy from Sudan, who bears all through the telling of his life in a profound and heart gripping manner. Although it's not the focus of the novel, the perspective that he has on God and his relationship with Christ was very refreshing. I highly recommend it.

Some other books that I've taken in this year...

Divine Comodity - Skye Jethani

Wow. An interesting look into how our “commodity focused” culture has influenced the way in which we are "churched" and our expectations of God.

La Isla Bajo el Mar - Isabel Allende (for all those Spanish readers)

Amazing book from the perspective of a female slave from Haiti and the story of her life.

Treasure Island - Robert Stevenson

Who doesn't want to be a pirate? Plus, it’s one of the free classics that you can get on your eReader.

Love Wins - Rob Bell

Although I didn't agree with his basic premise, I found his urgency for focusing on the Kingdom of God here and now much needed in the Christian circle. I always feel like I learn the most about my relationship with Christ through people who have very differing opinions than myself.

The Prince – Machiavelli

Just in case you’re thinking about becoming a ruler/dictator of some far off land, you’ve got to know your options. Another classic that is free on the eReader in which Machiavelli goes through the different ways to rule a kingdom. Once again I’m a geek with a background in International Studies. It’s good.

Romans & Hebrews

So for the past few weeks I have been going through Hebrews and Romans. Before that I was cruising along in the Old Testament doing a “read through the bible in a year,” but took a bit of a New Testament detour that took me right back to Abraham, David and Solomon.

Side Note: Is it just me or does anyone start going a bit nutty after spending too much time in the Old Testament? I got to 2nd Kings and just had to take a breather.

Ok back to Hebrews and Romans. The books, with their strong focus on the faith of those in early Christianity, have been incredibly insightful and encouraging, especially in light of our big move coming up. Hebrews 11, which leads up to the popular “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance…” is a must read. It reminded me that none of the bigwig faith guys and gals ever received what was promised and yet they still continued to follow fervently.

God was right beside them during all of the wild adventures of shutting the mouths of lions, receiving back their dead by resurrection, going from weaknesses to strength, and being tortured, mocked and imprisoned. Then moving along to Romans 4 where Paul brings us back to Abraham and how “in hope against hope he believed…being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able to also to perform.”

These reminders just do something good to my soul. At times I can become too confident in my own abilities and at other times I’m wondering how in the world is God going to pull this off. A bit of doubt. But hoping against hope and being fully assured that God is not going to leave us high and dry, that is such a beautiful hope to have.