Quilt Redemption

The emotional impact of seeing something I made damaged became a reality a couple weeks ago. My sister's dog, Lily, is a 10 month old Lab Australian shepherd mix. She lives exuberantly, with all the grace of a bull in a china shop, and with a tail that wags ferociously. She likes to lounge full sprawl on my parents couch. The same couch on which I left a quilt that I made as a wedding gift for my friend Kim. She wasn't able to pick it up the day that it was finished and I should have moved it to a safer place. But I didn't. A few days later, I walked in the door of Mom's house and Sarah was in the living room looking at it. "Who's this quilt for?" she asked. Kim's wedding present I told her. "Lily kind of chewed a hole in it, do you think you can fix it?" When I went over to look at it I was filled with despair, I couldn't help but cry. Lily had chewed through the quilt top, the batting, and the back fabric. The hole was probably only 3" x 4" but it looked like a gigantic gaping wound. When I looked at Lily she had batting (Batting is the stuff in the middle of the quilt) hanging out of the side of her mouth. We had to wait until Mom got home to figure out if it could be fixed. Mom is amazing. She ripped out my quilting and the 6"x 6" block with the hole in it. I made a new block and fitted a piece of batting into the hole. She was able to piece the new block in through the back of the quilt. We sewed the new batting into place and put a patch on the backing. We covered the patch with a label saying who the quilt was given to and who made it. I was able to re-quilt it and the quilt was saved...
I guess it's like Jesus blood patches the sin in my life. God made me and how he must sorrow that sin has eaten holes in my life. But Jesus redeems me, kinda like how mom was able to redeem the wedding quilt. Very cool.

Some Sites to See

September is usually a busy month for me, and the one is no exception. I've started to get caught up on work though, which makes life easier, and I'm not nearly as burned out as I was last year. Just one more six day week ahead, and it's back to normal for the next eleven months!

Lately, I've gotten really excited about some websites. I stumbled upon this radio program called Way of the Master Radio. This took me to the Way of the Master website. Of course, the radio program has it's own website too. I've put the links on my side bar.
(Yes, this is Kirk Cameron witnessing to gang members!)

These sites lead me to several others: Adventures in Christianity is a blogging site for people to share their witnessing encounters. Even audio clips of these adventures are posted, so you can hear the conversations yourself! It's incredible. And encouraging.



Another one is called Pyromaniacs. They're on blogger too. They have taken a stand for truth in a rather radical way (and when I say 'radical', think back to the context of the '80's ;). While we at Good Shepherd get to see many positive aspects of the emerging church, there are many others out there being poisoned by the postmodern version of the emergant movement. The Pyromaniacs counter this with boldness and humor. Check them out!!




Lastly, sermanjams.com. Listen to John Piper, Allasteir Bagg and others preach with music running in the background. My explanation doesn't do it justice. It's really really well done and tasteful. Just try it. I think you'll like what these guys have put together.

Check these out!!

The Growth of Tomatoes (or The Birth of a WOTM Head)

So I (Andrea) wanted Nate to write about our beautiful and delicious tomatoes that are ripening on our deck. The best part of late summer really - vine ripened tomates - YUM! They are doing really well considering they live in small pots. But Nate is not as crazy about tomatoes as I am and wants every one to know about the cool podcast he's been listening to - "Way of the Master" (WOTM). He has been listening to it for about a month, one because he enjoys it, and two because then he doesn't listen to AM radio all day at work. His favorite part of WOTM is when they go up to people on the street and witness to them. He's played some clips for me and it is pretty amazing. Especially when the guy that does this (I don't know his name) nails down what they say they believe and it's as if you can hear them squirm across the radio. (Technically it's a ipod mini, but it sounds better if I say radio.) Below is the picture of one of the people as he was presented with the Gospel.
I've decided that blogging is a lot of work. There are way too many punctuation and spelling choices, but Nate is in the busy rental season at work and hasn't had time to post. So I am helping ! :) That is usually what I tell him right before I break some project we are working on together.

September 7, 2007
Please pray that God would save Mike the Gardner.