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Whew! This life is exhausting! These are a few pictures of what's been happening this spring. A few highlights:

• Jordans and Viki came for a couple of days and I kept them busy! Putting up pictures, moving chairs, sightseeing at the Arch and visiting my favorite park with the bison and elk. We drove right through a herd of elk but I forgot my camera! Ask the girls. And then they were gone - too quickly.
• Maria left the next day in the middle of a horrible rain storm but she got to Canada safely and is having a good time there, I'm sure. It's quiet here and I'm not so good at making healthy meals just for me.
• We had terrible flooding in St. Louis over Easter and the Army was on duty. That work is part of my responsibility - not to do it but to support the disaster service director. I am learning a lot about floods. And just this week, a little earthquake. No damage, but made us think about our preparations.
• I have been out visiting several corps in the division. I'm still enjoying getting to know the officers a little better and seeing them in action. And now, I'm feeling like I know a lot more of the soldiers and can put them in context of their home corps. I like it here!
• We had officers visiting from Ghana, Majors Baah. They went around the area sharing their amazing story of God's grace and protection while they served in Liberia during the civil war. If you have a chance to hear or read their story, do it. You will be inspired and humbled by their testimony.
• My good, good friends, Mark and Carolee Israel came for our Sr. Rally. What a blessing to have them in my home and get in some precious time for catching up. We all had lots to talk about.
• I've been to two seminars and my head is still swimming with too much information and inspiration and ideas of how to implement what I learned. The first was the Ethnic Ministries Summit, which was a real spiritual blessing and a great resource for our strategic planning. It was also fun, as there were a number of Army people from our division and around the country. As I said before, I'm having a good time getting better acquainted with officers and employees in this division and this seminar was another chance for that. Also, I heard lots of powerful preaching which often made me want to jump out of my seat and yell, AMEN!
• The next seminar was in Chicago, an Urban theological symposium. Not quite as inspirational, much more intellectual. Since it followed the other immediately, I'm afraid I didn't get as much out of it as I should have. But still, came away with some new concepts to challenge my thinking and more good fellowship with Army friends.

These have been good days and some more difficult. I guess I'm still in transition and wondering about our crazy American way of life. Just when I think I'm over the edge, God comes near and reminds me that He knows it all and I'm right where He wants me. All of the things I've mentioned here are part of God's work - a conversation here, a time of worship there, a laugh with corps officers and a prayer with others. All of it, evidence of God at work not just in my little world but in His great big world. And all of it, drawing me closer to Him - just where I need to be.

UK joys

Wow! I really planned to continue to be a good blogger but obviously I'm a failure at that. Anyway, moving on...

Here are some photos from my trip to the UK, following the Holy Land. It was a wonderfully relaxing and refreshing week with good friends and even some 'me' time. Best of all, I spent lots of time playing with Sian and Abigail Evie (my goddaughter, in case you'd forgotten.)

About life here, so much I could say. It's full, never boring, challenging spiritually and emotionally. I believe we are in a spiritual battle, which is hard to identify specifically. I don't want to be overly dramatic, but ask that you pray for us. Enough said...enjoy the pictures!

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Holy days

Today we flew out of Israel just hours after the shooter went into a rabbinical school in Jerusalem. Please pray for Israel - there are looking at very difficult days ahead. In spite of several 'incidents' while we were there, these last 10 days have been holy and wonderful days. Each day seemed to be better than the last until I was so full, I could only sit and soak it in. I couldn't even take notes, my brain and heart were so full. I'll try to put together some more specific thoughts but wanted to check in and say how thankful I am to have had this amazing privilege.

Now I'm in London for the next week, looking forward to spending time with several good friends and enjoying some quiet time, too.

A backwards life

Today - drove 2 hours to Jacksonville where the Polsleys and I did the meeting. Drove through snow, but it was worth it. Being with the Shiels family was fun. Getting an hour to talk about Latvia during Sunday School was excellent!
This week - ACCR (Annual command consultation and review) with a great team from THQ. As most of the details are part of my responsibility, there was potential for lots of stress but people were praying and I was stress-free! I was a little concerned when my Bible reading before the review started included Sheba getting his head cut off in 2 Samuel and ended with Matthew's account of the crucifixion of Jesus. I'll leave that for you to discern for me. The stress-free and flexible tone continued even when we had an ice storm, closed the office for all but us and a few hardy people and the restaurant we were using for dinner closed. My goal for the review was that we (DHQ team) would get a clearer picture of our division's health and in what direction we need to head. I believe that happened. Plus, some good friends were part of the THQ team and I enjoyed spending time with them, too. It's a huge project to prepare for and I can't say I'm sorry it's over for this year.
Last weekend - took Maria and Megan to the territorial young adult conference, REGeneration in Chicago. I went to a couple of the meetings, mostly to see people (!) but also because Commissioner Christine MacMillan was a speaker. She is exceptional and I would love to get involved in her work (Social Justice). I spent the rest of the time with good friends - Harfoots and Jordans. A nice weekend and some strong, challenging words at REGen. Maybe I'll write about that later.
Weekend before that - the Diaz/Polsley team went to the Joplin corps (see pictures below) which included a weekend with Maria in Branson. That is a cross-cultural experience! Very country and very commercial. A family Las Vegas. Everyone should go there once! And if you come to visit me, I'll send you down (and maybe I'll go too!)
THE FUTURE - tomorrow Maria leaves for California where she'll be for about 3 weeks. Tuesday I leave for the Holy Land, followed by 10 days in the UK. Honestly, my brain and emotions have been so focused on ACCR and other work that I haven't really prepared myself. I do know that there are some amazing spiritual experiences waiting for me, plus a great time with friends. I probably won't post while I'm away, so expect a long one in about a month!

Zoo and Branson photos

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Words coming later. For now, enjoy the pictures!

Since my last post so much has happened. I'm beginning to remember how tiring being an American officer can be. I need to learn how to live without being overwhelmed. I think I'm doing better than I did pre-Latvia. Not overreacting (much), trying to keep priorities in order, being flexible when crises (real or imagined) happen. What I haven't managed to do is to find time for myself; for prayer and meditation, reading and fellowship. All that to say, here's what's been happening:

• We started a new leadership training plan called "Vital Signs Development Days." The first one went really well. We focused on evangelism and outreach. We had several corps participate, all of them with a team of some sort. We have only 2 more planned for the year, but based on the first we may add a few.
• Officers' Councils were great. Commissioners Baillie preached like I remember them when we were together at the training school - passionately, purposefully and soundly biblical. I could have listened for days. These few days did allow for some good fellowship, too. The Lord is providing a few key friends to keep me sane.
• Maria and I went to the zoo. It was one of the beautiful almost-spring days. I like the St. Louis zoo - they appear to be very concerned about their animals and they have my favorites - giraffes!
• Last weekend we started divisional music school. I have just a small part, teaching a leadership class. It was the first time I've been around a lot of youth in the division. It will be fun to get to know them better.
• After that the Polsley girls joined Maria and I in an attempt to do some sightseeing. We weren't very successful at finding places to go, but in spite of that we had a fun day. I wonder why they want to be around someone old like me, but they didn't seem to mind.
• Sunday we went to Euclid and stayed for their Super Bowl tailgate lunch. MMMMMMM - bbq prepared by the Men's Club. But I'm ahead of myself. This was the first Sunday I felt free to participate in the Sunday School discussion. This is a unique adult class. I can't really describe it, but it is fun. And I joined in at last and seemed to be accepted. The worship service was inspiring - especially Janice's sermon. She loves preaching to this congregation and it shows. So, then we ate and sat around for a while talking. Again, this was the first time I really felt like a member of the 'family'. They even put some extra ribs and chicken aside for us to take home. I thank the Lord for directing me to the Euclid corps.

I've been reading a book for months called "More than Equals - Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel." Finally, I finished. It took a while because I could only absorb a few pages at a time. I highly recommend it if you are involved in any kind of cross-cultural relationship, no matter your race/color/ethnicity. It is specifically about blacks and whites. But, several of the themes made me think about the Latvian/Russian issues. It ends with this statement "the real story is not about us, or even about race, but about God and His grace." This is an important theme in my life right now. Grace and humility - how many times have you heard me say or write "It's not about me." That's a lesson I continually need to learn and God continues to provide ways to teach me. I'd be happy to loan the book to you, but suggest you get your own copy so you can make some notes and highlights.

Much more to write but you've probably had enough. Tomorrow Maria and I are off to Branson! There should be lots of stories on Monday.

A few pictures to enjoy from my holiday with family and a few other things.

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dec07january08

Prayer and Reconciliation

This is a potentially important week in the spiritual life of our division. We will be spending the week in prayer as part of our territory's 24/7 prayer initiative. I'm so excited about how the corps have taken off with the idea and made all kinds of plans to get their people praying. There will be several united prayer meetings around the division, as well as every hour of the week being covered in prayer by at least one person and often by several. I am sure God has something amazing in store for us. I can't wait to hear the reports and to see the results.
The week ends with Reconciliation Sunday. I'll be with the O'Fallon corps in the morning and then the corps around St. Louis will join together for a United Celebration meeting. I believe this is all in God's timing - how important to start the week with prayer 'reconciliation with God' and end with thinking and praying about reconciliation with each other.
Please pray with us that we will be open and responsive to what God wants to say to us this week.

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me (or threatened - Henrik) to keep writing. And thanks for the suggestions about how to continue. When I have some creative energy I'll change the format and heading, too. Each year I start with a Bible verse or phrase that guides me for at least the first few months. This year, I seem to be headed toward something about Kingdom living and thinking. We'll see how that develops. Here are a few things I've been considering, especially as I've experienced Christmas from a new perspective this year.

• I loved the Advent theme - "Jesus Changed My Life". Thinking and preaching about how Jesus completely turned around the lives of His parents and the other characters in His birth story was fun. And it caused me to think about how Jesus has completely changed my life and He continues to do that. In fact, I just preached about that this Sunday. I continued the theme with "Jesus Changes Everything" and used Colossians 1 as my text. I could have turned it into 3 sermons, but focused just on 2 main points. Because of Jesus we are reconciled to God and we live in a new Kingdom.
• I loved being part of the social service aspect of Christmas. I did very little in Latvia and missed it while I was there. Helping with Toy Town was a joy, interacting with the recipients, even getting to pray with one lovely woman. I loved working with the staff, too.
• The intense emphasis on fund raising was overwhelming for me. I know - as a divisional office I didn't have much to do with it. But, it was the main topic of conversation nearly everywhere I went and the main focus of almost every committee/board meeting. I understand how important it is, just forgot how all-consuming it is, too. If you'd like to have a private conversation, I have many more thoughts which I won't get into here. Here's the positive - I talked to a lot of corps officers and was blessed by their positive and energetic approach to this huge responsibility. Some of them even like it!
• I've been reading two Advent themed books this season and am just finishing them. I was challenged and blessed by both and would recommend them for individuals or families. Advent and Christmas, Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton (Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends) and Immanuel Praying the Names of God (Anne Spangler) I really enjoy the Chesterton book. He has some great quotes, like this:

"To be told to rejoice on the 25th of December is like being told to rejoice at quarter past eleven on Thursday week. You cannot suddenly be frivolous unless you believe there is a serious reason for being frivolous."

or this

"Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking ones's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity."

I had a cross-cultural experience this weekend. I went to the Kirksville, Missouri corps. It's about 3 hours northwest of here and really is a different world. I stopped at a nearby Walmart where there were lots of pick-up trucks, tight jeans and cowboy hats. Nothing wrong with that, just outside my comfort zone. Lesa promises to show me some more places like that to expand my cultural experience. The corps and officers were very warm and welcoming. I look forward to visiting them again. Tomorrow Maria, Henrik and Lisbeth's daughter, comes from the UK for several weeks. I'm excited about her visit and getting to see St. Louis with her. She will give me a good excuse to escape from the office once in a while and enjoy this city. We might even venture out into some of the above-mentioned regions of the Midland division. She needs to get the full picture of life in the USA!

What I did on my Christmas Vacation or Family, Friends and Food

I'm finishing up a week of vacation, sitting at the airport. There are so many wonderful blessings to share and I've been trying to think how to get it down in an organized way. The celebration actually started the week before I left St. Louis, while I was still supposed to be working but managed to get in some fun, too.

• Friends and Food - the DHQ women officers (minus 1) went out for a night on the town. We started at The Chocolate Bar. It's hard to describe but included gourmet cheeses and lots of chocolate choices. If you come to visit, we are going there! We then went to see Wicked! It's a fun musical, but probably not my favorite. The fun was being with my friends and we somehow avoided work talk the whole evening.


• Friends - I was on line searching for a Handel's Messiah concert in town and didn't find one. That's a sad part of being away from Riga and Chicago. But, I did find a Rutter 'Magnificat' concert. Carla Voeller and I went. It was beautiful and in a magnificent concert hall. Besides Magnificat, the chorus also sang a lot of traditional carols. I love them and haven't had much opportunity to sing them this year. We were both in heaven! I had an amazing moment of worship when we all joined in singing "O come let us adore Him". I'd never felt the spiritual impact of these words like I did that evening. I don't know if it was the beautiful sound in the concert hall or what moved me specifically. I found myself praying as I was singing "Lord, let this be true worship for all in this room." I believe there were some who experience the true adoration of Christ during those moments. This will become one of my St. Louis traditions.


• Food - well, sort of! The Friday before Christmas I went with an ensemble to play on a radio show (6-9 AM!!!!) I also was the spokeswoman for the Army that morning. We had such fun and while we were in the studio, a local restaurant brought in the most delicious food. Not breakfast food, but still - we all ate it! Another place to try some day.


• Family and Food - Then I was off to Livonia to be with my family. I decided to fly, rather than drive 9 hours on my own. That was nearly a disaster because of fog and snow, but I made it. However, my luggage didn't. Eventually, Chris and I went to the airport to look for it (24 hours later) and there it was, sitting with dozens of other abandoned suitcases. Oh well, it got there before Christmas with all presents safely packed. It really was nice to be with my family for the first time in 3 years during Christmas. They had finished most of their corps activities, so we actually relaxed and were stress free. I got to see Abbie and Matt in the Christmas musical. Sunday afternoon we had a Diaz family (extended) party. About 30 of us, who never all get together at once. That was so great and where the food came in - lots of it. I'll post a couple of pictures later. Christmas Day we opened presents together and it was fun and very exciting for the kids. Much different from my Christmas in Latvia, where I usually opened gifts on my own. I was a little afraid that the kids might have outgrown the fun and joy of gift-giving since I'd left. Not a chance! They were up early, excited about the Santa gifts and grateful for all they received. Since in Latvia I always spent the day with the Smiths, I missed them. They called and made my day complete! Later we went to the corps to join in with one of the corps family gatherings for a really good meal and fellowship. Again, a nice and relatively relaxing day. I was simply enjoying being with my family during those days.
• Friends and more food - I spent the last few days with the Jordans in the Chicago area. We had a big party with loads of food and lots of friends over one evening. We did a bit of shopping and a lot of eating. I also got to spend time with Gortons while there, which made my weekend even more special. My vacation ended with Sunday morning worship at Oakbrook Terrace. As always, I love being there and am so grateful for the corps family who still make me feel like I belong.

Now it's New Year's Eve and I'm lounging at home enjoying my last bit of vacation with some quiet, peaceful time on my own. If you have made it this far - how about your opinion on my continuation of this blog? I really did it to journal my Latvian adventure. As I'm 6 months past that, is anyone interested in my St. Louis life?

Praying you will experience joy and peace as we enter a new year.

Winter Wonderland or something like that

Whew! So much has happened since the little TV episode. (if you go to www.myfoxstl.com and click on Tree of Lights Campaign, then go to their videos link, you'll see me and a number of Army highlights. The best one happened this morning, click on their morning show then to the video of the bed jumping - yes, it is Army related. That's my friend Will with the painted face - our communications director.)

That same weekend on Sunday, I started at the Euclid corps for morning worship. I preached and was blessed by the people, as I always am. I look forward to actually getting involved in the corps and being a real part of their family. I ran home from there to dress warmer because I had to meet a Missouri Senator who was going to do a little bell ringing for us (yes, on Sunday - against my better judgment. "all opinions given here are mine and do not represent TSA.") I was the token Army person to ring with him. It only lasted 20 minutes and was really a photo op for him. Then I changed clothes (in the car!) and drove to St. Alphonsus Church on the Rock to hear my cousins gospel choir concert. That made my whole day. The music was amazing, the Spirit was powerful, one of the singers reminded me of Aldona! It was a new thing for me to be able to worship with my extended family. We went out for a long dinner afterward. I'm so grateful to be living near them. So, that was a wonderful day, bell ringing and all.

Last Friday I had one of those 'God' moments. I had a message from a woman named Lynn, who didn't even know where she had gotten my number from. "Maybe I had called her or maybe a common acquaintance had given it to her" She didn't know why she was calling me either! "Maybe to work on Dred Scott?" She is his great, great granddaughter - very cool! http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp. Well, I knew why she had called, even if it wasn't the original intent. I called her back and told her that I was hoping to be involved in the planning committee for Global Day of Prayer in St. Louis and I knew she was on the committee. http://www.praystl.org/ That got her very excited and we talked for several minutes. I attended their planning meeting on Monday evening. The plans are great. But, even more moving was the prayer time at the end. I felt like I was back in Latvia during a prayer conference. The Spirit was definitely working and speaking to people in that room. I don't know exactly where this will lead, but I feel like it is one of the connections from what I experienced and learned in Latvia to what I'm doing here in St. Louis.

Lots more happening, especially in my spiritual journey, but that's for another time. I finish with a little nature trip. We had a 'snowstorm' this weekend. I understand that is a relative term, based on where you live, but I've been making fun of St. Louis for a few days and will refrain here. Anyway, on my way home from church on Sunday I drove through the World Bird Sanctuary. Yes, you can laugh. It sounds crazy, but the snow was beautiful and I thought it might offer some nice pictures. Wow! It was beautiful and while I didn't see any birds, I did come across elk and bison (big ones!) Check out my pictures for the rest of the story.

During these busy days of Christmas, take some time to consider what it is all about - Who it is all about. Immanuel - God with us - even if you are counting wet kettle money or packing up from toy distribution. God is with us!
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st louis winter 07

So, my role puts me kind of 3rd string when there is something to be decided or done around divisional headquarters. Today is our big media day for the Tree of Lights Campaign. Generally, the 2 above me handle all PR stuff but today neither were available when an urgent call from the TV station came in. They wanted to do on site interviews at a few of our Army locations - could we provide an interviewee? I got handed that an hour before the filming began and with our regional social services director headed out. Since I was to be the voice of the Army, all along the way the RSSD was filling me in on what services we provide (remember, I've been in this position 3 months today!) But, back up. First, I didn't have my proper uniform - skirt and tunic. I had trousers (for my UK friends!) and an epaulet blouse. We all decided that would be fine, but in the rushing to get ready I lost a button in a very prominent spot! No one had sewing kit or pin - AUGH!!!! I ran out the door saying "I'll figure it out!" My quick solution - grab my tunic and wear it with my slacks. Not my favorite look and not especially attractive for a TV shot, but better than the alternative! I was afraid that was a sign of things to come, but fortunately the rest of the afternoon went fine. I didn't sound completely clueless and besides, they are editing most of it out anyway! And I got to visit our Booth Manor, seniors' residence, which I hadn't seen before. And I got to have a good talk with the RSSD, which I hadn't done before. And now, I'm leaving the office to study for my sermon on Sunday. A pretty good day, I think!

I just bought the new Jars of Clay Christmas CD - LOVE IT!

Catching up

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Here are the photos from Thanksgiving and my weekend in Chicago. I had a great time at the Staff Band reunion. The pictures will show there were only 3 women in the alumni band, all horn players and good friends. It was fun to be with Sherry and Jenny and my other 'old' friends. You'll also see that I got to put the angel on the top of Jordans' tree. Rachel picked me to do it this year, since I've been away so long!

The next week was extremely busy with Christmas activities. Monday - Wednesday I spent the evenings helping with Toy Lift. For those who don't know, it's a gift program for prisoners and their children. The toys are wrapped, packaged and shipped all over the country for children of inmates. It's a huge program and uses hundreds of volunteers. Fortunately, it was also very organized and I just helped out where I could. I also went to the St. Charles county Tree of Lights kick-off. Again, we have a great team who put these events together. I like to support their work. Thursday evening the divisional staff went out for dinner and the theater, "A Christmas Carol." We had a nice evening together and the women loved the theater so much, we are going again next week! To see 'Wicked' - can't wait! It's part of my Christmas present to me. I also got some of Aivis's photos framed - my other Christmas gift to myself!

After that busy week, I flew to Chicago for a day to meet my brother, Steve. He's in town for a week and I only had a day to be with him. We went shopping and ate with friends. It was a nice day. I flew back on Saturday morning and went straight to a movie theater, where canned goods were being collected for the Army. The theater management does this at all of their locations and it's huge - about 1/4 million cans. The theater I was at collected over 12,000. It was a great deal - 5 cans=free movie, 10 more=movie pass for later. Again, the volunteers were so great - we are fortunate to have such good community support. And then, Sunday I was at the Quincy corps. The morning worship was a blessing and especially because I was with some good friends. Even though I was preaching for the 1st Sunday of Advent, I managed to get some Latvia stories in and they seemed to appreciate that. I can't help talking about Latvia! After lunch, I helped them out with their Christmas visits to the Veterans Hospital. I haven't done that for a few years. It was fun to be with the corps people and as always, I was blessed as I talked with the patients. So, you can imagine I'm a little tired today. The only event was our DHQ Christmas party, which was a lot of fun. The rest of the week I'm in the office and very glad for that. Hope you are finding opportunities to celebrate this season and especially to see God at work, even in your busyness.

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These are a few photos from my numerous trips to Southwestern Missouri this month. I'm the coach for the corps down in that area and have had a great time visiting them and getting to know about their work. But, it is a 4+ hour drive each way and I'm glad it's done for a while. And as you can tell by the photos, I was getting a little bored with the trip.

Christmas started for The Salvation Army in our division early in November. We had our Tree of Lights kickoff, which was excellent. We have a good team here. I've been helping out playing my horn for a few events. It's been a few years since I did that and I can tell! I've aged a bit, including my eyesight. It's much harder to read the music these days, especially if I'm supposed to be moving at the same time I'm playing. I tried to play in the Thanksgiving Day parade while trying to stay on a moving float, but am afraid I just blurted out some horrible sounds. I'm sure it was funny to watch but maybe not the best PR for us. I'll post some pictures later. I've decided to let the younger ones do that next year, I can walk along beside and hand out candy!

After that I traveled to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with the Jordan/Arnold family. The dinner was excellent. I do love this holiday and since it is uniquely American, have definitely missed it. The rest of the weekend has been casual, hanging out with the Jordans - until this afternoon. The Chicago Staff Band 100th anniversary concert event starts. I've decided to play in the Alumni band (after the parade I'm seriously considering I've made a mistake!), so have a rehearsal then the CSB concert tonight. And tomorrow more of the same. It's nice to be home for this, as I'm sure I'll get to see lots of old friends. I'll post some pictures later. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who it applies to. To the rest - I am thankful for you and your interest and frindship.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LATVIA

my first day in Riga (August 04)

and Happy Birthday Sian!

this was when Sian and I first became friends - 3 years ago!

and on one of our last days together in Latvia.

Pray for Latvia, please. Read Sarah's blog to give you some clear direction: http://ilsters.blogspot.com/

Corps I visited since last post: Maplewood, Marion, Carthage and Mattoon
Corps I'll visit in the next few weeks (that I'm aware of now): Springfield, Branson, Joplin, Carthage, O'Fallon, Euclid
Topics that came across my desk today: Disaster work, Development and Advisory Boards, Social services, service extension, Mission Planning Council, homosexuality, complaining people, Come Join Our Army, Christmas cards, Camp, pastoral care and encouraging the field, Christmas events, Vital Signs (corps reviews), job descriptions, Officers' councils, and more but I can't remember now what it was
Blessings today: Benny who visits every day with a big smile, Mary who takes care of me, Carla who listens and makes me feel good, Vicki who is patient with me, the fall colors, lots of smiling children 'trick or treating' at my house, getting to know my coffee shop girls, talking with my sister and more but I can't remember now what they were

Here are some pictures from a few different events and especially showing you my daily drive to and from DHQ. And for my non-American friends, a few Halloween pics. Commentary included and comments welcome.

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fall 07

Sighs, Cries and Joy

Last week my good friends (the Stuarts) lost their mom and grandma. The funeral was beautiful, a real testimony to God's faithfulness and Jean's faithfulness to Him throughout her life. But, still my friends are sad and my heart hurts for them. I know something about losing a parent and that pain isn't easily removed. In fact, some of sadness and loss remains even 10+ years later. I pray that they will also find joy and peace, knowing that Jean is at rest and her body is healed forever. There is hope even in grief.

Officers' Councils was amazing, if I say so myself, since I was responsible for it. God's faithfulness came through in so many ways. Everyone pitched in and made the week go smoothly. The Holy Spirit was evident from the first meeting and His work continued all 3 days. We had time to pray, worship, learn and laugh. All of it was needed. I especially appreciated the retired officers. They are a wonderful group, who offered support, encouragement and friendship. I am so glad they were with us and look forward to good times with them in the future. I also loved working with the DHQ staff - what a great group of friends. God has put us together for a purpose and I'm excited to see how that works out. And the officers in the division were great - positive, friendly and responsive. It will be a blessing to visit them and support them.

Latvian friends (you know who you are!) I really have missed you these days. We sang songs that we also sang in Latvia, I've been telling stories about you and well, I miss you! I'm not very good at communicating but it doesn't mean I've forgotten you. I pray for you often and think of you daily!

Once again, I am so thankful for God's faithful and loving work in me and around me. In spite of challenges in 'transitioning', I know God's presence and guidance. He's in it all!

Looking for a new name

Any suggestions for a more up to date and relevant title for my blog? Although most days I still feel like I'm somewhere in between Latvia and the US.

Let's see...what's been happening since I last updated? Do you have a few hours? Here are some of the highlights:

• Men's camp was fun to be part of - I loved hearing the men sing. Have to admit I didn't stay 'til the end, though. I was beginning to feel like I was in the way. Reports are that the Spirit moved wonderfully among them.
• I've visited 5 of the corps for their Sunday meetings, so far. They are as varied as can be, kind of like the 7 corps in Latvia! I'm hoping to choose a corps to soldier at by the end of the month. Pray that I make the right decision.
• We had a great United Meeting here in St. Louis at the Temple Corps. Their worship team is amazing and it was a good opportunity to meet lots of the people from the division.
• Our DHQ staff retreat was exactly what we needed - a spiritual retreat and lots of fun. It was a wonderful start to our team working together. I'm so glad that our DCs see this as a priority. We have some big challenges ahead and unity will be extremely important. The Lord was faithful in meeting with us. We laughed a lot, too!
• Last weekend we had a city fund-raiser at Grant's Farm. It was super - fun working with other DHQ employees/officers; great music (70s & 80s), including a chance for a couple of our young adults to play with the band - they were amazing and impressed the pros too and a good PR moment for the Army.
• Sunday morning I went to the Gateway corps, where I was corralled into playing in the band and then stayed for the best pot-luck lunch I have had in a long time. This corps has lots of retired officers, many who are important in my life. It was good to be with them.
• And the best thing I've done so far is attend the Multi-cultural Conference this past weekend. I can't begin to explain how powerful and inspiring it was. 2 of the best speakers I've ever heard challenging us about building multiethnic congregations - all Army leaders need to hear them. Great worship led by the St. Charles worship band, including Brian R., a phenomenal musician who I haven't heard in years. And lots of fun catching up with old friends and even meeting some new. Maybe I'll write more later.
• Had my debriefing interview at THQ on Friday. I blabbed on and on, although I didn't intend to - are you surprised?! It was a good meeting.
• This week is a little overloaded with Officers' Councils preparation and starting tomorrow evening I'm attending a Christian Community Development Seminar for the rest of the week. It should be very good, but maybe not the best timing.
• I'm adjusting to life in the suburbs. That includes living in a large house, commuting up to 1 hour, 1 way every day (that means getting up in the dark and often coming home in the dark), figuring out how to maintain a lawn when I'm never home, trying to get rid of a skunk who seems to be living under my house (we've called an expert in for that!) And trying to avoid eating fast food for most meals. To handle that, I've joined Curves and am excited about feeling healthier and having more energy.
• Want to pray? Pray for our officers, especially our meetings together next week. We need unity of vision, they need to know they are cared for and supported and we all need to worship and pray together. I'm expecting the Lord to do something great among us - pray toward that end, would you?
• Finally, I've been reading Nehemiah - what a great book! I'm finding great inspiration from his life and from the rebuilding of Jerusalem. That historical story seems applicable to much that is happening today. Need a good read? Try it!

The Cost of Declaring His Glory

Today we learned that Colonel Bo Brekke was shot and killed in Pakistan. (www1.salvationarmy.org) All of the other things I had thought about writing seem petty and insignificant, compared to this...in other words, all about me. Then I read this article on the Urbana website. (click on title for link) It's long but worth the read.

So many lessons God wants us to learn. But, first pray for the Brekke family and friends. I cannot imagine their pain and sorrow at this time.

Remember Rich Mullins - the "Awesome God" guy

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