My mom, 4th of July and meat

For everyone that asked, it was great having my mom over here and it broke my heart to let her go. She did great on the plane over and was quite a trooper with all the walking we did here. She loved fish & chips, the Birmingham rag market ( an indoor textile market) and taking pictures of the countryside. She was less enthused about the London tube - the subway - which was packed when we were on it. We did the tourist thing and took one of those tours on a double decker bus with a live commentator around London. Everyone in Betel loved her and gave her lots of hugs and those double cheek kisses where you blow kisses in the air while pressing your cheek against the other person's cheek. She thought that was funny. She is supposed to come back next year with my brother and sister-in-law again.

4th of July. They don't do it here. Some of them are downright snotty about it. We have to work. However, that will not stop all of us Americans working in Betel in Birmingham from congregating on the 5th. We will grill hot dogs and burgers and sing patriotic songs very loudly.
In lieu of fireworks, which are not on sale here at this time of year, we will drop mentos into bottles of diet cola and watch them spew, hopefully we can synchronize them with the song "I'm proud to be an American"! Please pray that our neighbors will not call the police.

Meat, glorious meat!!!! We have had very little meat for the last couple of weeks in donations. So we have been going mostly vegetarian, which is good for us. Oh, but tonight, Scott brought home chicken, bacon and chicken tenders. Praise God! There is also lots of lovely strawberries and a melon that is so good that you will go home and slap yo mama!!

Honey

I am feeling very emotional tonight as I have just gotten home from London where I left my mom, brother and sister-in-law. They fly back to Alabama tomorrow.

I feel bereaved to leave them. I have just ended a three week course of home, family and friends, starting with us spending two weeks in Alabama and then having my mom, brother and sister-in-law over for ten days. So I ask, why am I here, across the ocean, in this cold rainy land?

Have you ever had time to watch honey as it poured slowly from the squeezy honey-bear bottle?
Have you stopped, like a child, and been mesmerized by the thick, rich golden liquid as it lands, folding over each layer? That is what God's rich mercy and love feels like to me. Despite my unloveliness, He keeps pouring his love over me, layer after layer, covering me with blessing and affection. I am unloving, but I know Who love is...........................

So today, as my mom and I arrived at the Betel Center in North London, we were just going to pop in for a moment to use the toilet before we left the car and headed off for the tube station.
I walked in the dining room and saw a new guy sweeping the floor. Really, just a bag of bones in a wool sweater. I asked him his name - Lee. He said that he had been in Betel before a couple of years ago, stayed for eight months - that he got strong and put on weight back then. I asked how he was doing. He said that he was really having a hard time at it, he hadn't slept in 10 days. Heroin addict. Very skinny when they come in and they don't sleep for weeks. I told him that he was doing one of the hardest things that he will ever try to do. And that it is worth it, so worth it. I looked at him and my heart opened up and I wanted to take out my spirit, my soul and turn it inside out to show him the changes, the work God has patiently done in my life. I wanted him to see the goodness, the mercy, the grace, the physical blessings that God has poured on my life like golden honey. I wanted to grab him and hug his painfully thin frame and transfer love into his brain and heart, but I knew that if I did anything like that I would scare the daylights out of him and he would probably run screaming out the door and straight into the arms of the drug dealers waiting in the park across the street.

But that is why I am here, to share the honey. I didn't make it, buy it, earn it. But it's really great stuff.

..One more day at home

As I wind up another day here, surrounded by friends and family, full of good food, enjoying brilliant sunshine by the pool, I don't want to go back. Why would I want to leave this place that has been my home 46 years out of 50? Why would I pull and stretch the fabric of my support systems that keep me feeling so accepted?
But in the past four years God has exploded my ideas of what my relationship to Him and to others should be, would be. He has thrown open wide new doors in new places. The fabric of my life is richer, more diverse and deeper than before. Now I know people who live and move all over the world. I live and battle with a different culture - not better, not worse (most days) and it fulfills my spirit like I never could imagine. I love those guys - Betel men and women; it is where my passion and compassion lock arms and come alive. Relationship there both hurts and fills me with unspeakable joy. It is a huge huge privilege to see lives changed and saved, reconciled and filled.

Thank you church, thank you friends, thank you family for the support that keeps us there. And thank you for the support that brought me home for this wonderful visit.

Now in the spirit of making lists, here is my list of yummy things I have so enjoyed eating while here -

• BBQ sandwiches
• Turnip greens
• Fried okra and fried green tomatoes
• fresh black eye peas
• fresh corn
• ice cold seedless watermelon
• cornbread
• southern caviar
• fudge pie
• grilled chicken, grilled kielbasa, grilled steak
• fried chicken tender salad
• Jimmy Dean sausage and biscuits
• American bacon
• slushies
• a sonic cheeseburger with tater tots
• buckets of sweet tea with lots of lemon

Poolhouse and placentas

Here I am, by God's generosity and grace, in the Clayton's pool house, enjoying family, friends and sitting in the Alabama sun. The first morning after we arrived I woke early and went outside to have a good cry. Alabama is my home, it is in my blood and being out of it has been hard. Birmingham, England is a very different culture and climate, both much cooler than I am used to. Working our way into a well established team, and finding some support systems in Betel was harder work than I bargained for. We were initially met with suspicion as two other families before us did not work out. We were told to come as learners, to be willing to humble ourselves in the work. We did not come in as glorious life giving super missionaries - as I saw myself in my missionary fantasies. But God is good, we have survived the first couple of years and have made many friends. Our directors trust us and show their love to us in many ways - we are very very blessed to work and learn from them. I have the start of a support system - thanks to Beth, Brenda, Lisa, Angela, Fleur and Roz. We are working on staying accountable to each other in all things - emotional and spiritual.

The thing that strikes me most, being home, is not how much choice I have at Walmart or how many fast food places there are around here. It is not the heat, humidity or the intensity of the sun. It is the depth, richness and availability of loving, giving women in my church. I once saw a doctor hold up a placenta after the birth of one of my sons. He showed it to us with awe as it had been the lifeline for my child as he grew - full of rich blood, oxygen, and nutrients. That is what the women of Community Presbyterian remind me of - life-giving, loving nourishment for the spirit. Thank you all, I love each of you!!! You have now idea how good you look to me.