Disappointment and Divine Appointments

I had a great time in Chapel today. Dr. Walker Moore came and spoke about global missions. His message included "willing wanderers", and "divine appointments." And I was blessed to be reminded of all the times in my life when I had been disappointed in the short term, but that it turned out to be a divine appointment, instead. From my college choice (I was accepted to Wash. U. and wanted to go there, but couldn't afford it - but ended up at WWU where I met lifelong friends and NAU where I met my sisters), to God's amazing plans for me with singleness and marriage opportunities.

Friends, there is just a lot going on in my life right now - I'm really busy and I don't know exactly why - perhaps because I'm not doing a great job at keeping myself firm to my time boundaries....

Anyway, updates.

The Kenya team is almost formed. Just a couple more interviews (which I could schedule for tomorrow, except I can't get my baylor email to work!) and then the team is complete! Most of you who read this blog are likely to get a letter in the mail soon telling about the trip and what we are planning, as well as providing you an opportunity to partner with us.

Bible reading and prayer has been going well. The one nice thing about not having early classes is that I can make lots of time for reading in the AM!

Additionally, I'm committing myself to actually reading novels (mostly classics) this semester, on the weekends. I started "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier (click title to read about it) over Christmas break, but it was a huge hardback book and I didn't want to bring it back with me (it was from my parents classic collection). I've read it before and its thrilling and great. So I just bought it. I also purchased "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens to read after I finish Rebecca.

Some other of my favorite classic novels are: Pride and Predjudice (by Jane Austen), The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins), Gone with the Wind (by Margaret Mitchell) and The Brothers Karamazov (by Fyodor Dostoyevsky). Oh, and the Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis (I don't know if that's considered "classic" or "modern"...)

Some of my favorite modern novels are: Break In (by Dick Francis), Bolt (by Dick Francis - I just read this one last weekend), almost anything by Agatha Christie, and two series by Nora Roberts: The "Dream" series: Daring to Dream, Holding the Dream, Finding the Dream and the "Born in" series: Born in Fire, Born in Ice, Born in Shame. My mom also likes the "Chesapeake Bay" series. I just really like the strong female characters in the two series I mentioned, I have to skip over the occasional sex scene, but its worth it to become a part of the lives of some amazing women as they learn about themselves - and as I gain hope for who I am as a woman.

Check out some of those classics... and if you really like mysteries, check out Break In and Bolt - I bet you can get them for cheap online or at a thrift store.

The pictures above are of my newest favorite game: Settlers of Catan - and its variations: Seafarers, and Cities and Knights. I was introduced to it last semester and then over the break I introduced my parents to it.... they now play a game almost every night. I would play every day, too, if I didn't have to study... and do other things. :) As it is, we play a LOT - in most cases we play at least once per week here in Waco. :)

Blessings, friends. That's it for tonight. God be with you till we meet again.

TR

I should be in bed...

I should be in bed right now. If I were in bed, I'd be almost asleep and then I wouldn't be sleepy when I woke up in the morning. And yet... I'm here, writing on my blog (and reading my friend's blogs). My room is kind of crazy - its messy, but with clean clothes that I just haven't had time to put away since our day off on Wednesday, and my desk is cluttered with books, a sketch pad, pens and lipstick, and these really cute mirrors that the Fergason kids painted for me (I am trying to figure out how to hang them).

So yes, I should be in bed right now.

Sometimes I feel like I'm 20 again. I look around me at people who are 30 and 40 and I feel like they are these wise and adult people and I realize that inside I feel like I'm 20 and without experience, wisdom or authority. What's ri-dic (as Sarah would say) is that I KNOW its not true - and in fact, I believe truth about myself when push comes to shove. For example, I had a conversation last weekend with a parent who tried to bully me for something that I did not do wrong, and I stood up to this parent, graciously (at least Sarah confirmed that I was not rude), and felt confident about my position even as I tried to find a way to make the parent feel better about the situation - misguided and miscommunicated situation. Incidentally, praying friends... you can pray about that situation. :)

And when I'm in the position to encourage or disciple I feel confident, wise. I know I know God's word (and yet, I know I can learn more). I know the Lord has given me favor, in general, at Baylor. And yet, sometimes I feel intimidated or afraid. Like I'm a 5-yr old who skipped a grade and now has to try to keep up with the big kids.

So the one situation where this is most relevant in my life is: Kenya. Frankly, friends... I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel OK about leading the team, I'm excited about it. But I don't even know where to start. Slowly, I'm amassing a team of 6-7 men and women to come with me (and the 4 other teams) to Nairobi......... but I don't know how to connect with people there to make a plan of action for our 2 weeks there, I don't know how to help these students fundraise when there will be 100+ other students fundraising at the same time, I don't know which ideas are cheesy at Baylor and which are good. ARGH! OK, I can tell by reading my thoughts that I'm having a small crisis of confidence.

Truth moment? I am meeting with Becky, the director of missions, to discuss those questions tomorrow and get on the road to answers. So I'm sure I'll feel better.

For now, and as I prepare to actually go to bed, I'll just remember my reading from this morning and Psalm 18:

verse 2: The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

v.19: He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. (emphasis mine)

vv.28-29: You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

vv 32-36: It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.

Thanks be to God who always comes to us in our distress!

Quick Note

Hi Friends!

Its Thursday. We just survived our first TX ice storm. They don't have salt trucks here, which seems weird - it also seems "right" because they wouldn't need them, but in my brain I think, "really?" - even though in Seattle we didn't have that many! So yesterday we got a day off of work and school. I don't know that in my 5 year collegiate history (8 if you count my years at Greenville) that I've ever had a day off school.

It was great.

I'm off to the ADPi chapter, but quickly, this morning as I was walking to work, and campus was thawing out - trees were dripping - in some places it seemed like rain! and animals were back out foraging for food, I was thinking of how God is present in every season and in places where we don't see winter or hibernation, we miss a small part of His nature.

This is how Nichole Nordemon describes God in the seasons. Enjoy for now and I love you!

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours

And I notice You In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been
and what's to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death,
You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green

So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

Christmas at the Rigger's House

Here is our favorite decoration! A banner one of my dad's sisters made for each family a number of years ago. It goes above the fireplace every year. Also, you can see the new paint and tile fancy work behind the mantle. Harder to see are the new stocking holders - and I didn't get a picture of the mantle (I don't think) once we put up the pine bows and finished decorating it, but try to imagine... it was really pretty!
For the second year in a row we couldn't locate the family's stocking - well, we had mine - because I bring it with me, and we had my mom's (because it has been lost for a number of years when all we could find were the others.... ironically) and so we made new stockings for the family this year. Here are Ben's and mine. We got these inexpensive felt stockings at Michael's and used fabric paint to make them special. It was my mom's genius idea to thread ribbon through the stitching at the top to make them just that much better!
my mom's and dad's. I had the idea for bells, so I got to do them and I think they turned out pretty fun.
my grandma's and grandpa's - harder to see, but theirs are christmas trees.
the decorated tree - i did most of the decorating after mom finished with the lights. I thought all the decorations looked really pretty this year because of the new tile flooring and the painted walls.

New Semester, New Updates, New Year - Spring 2007

Hello faithful friends!

It has been a long time (weeks?) since my last Wednesday update. I don't know yet what day of the week, this semester, I will be updating my blog, but I do still plan to do it weekly. I have one morning class (mondays) and two evening classes so I have a lot of morning/daytime time, but I also have to work, advise ADPi and have fun - or even simply eat meals!

Last week, upon returning from Phoenix, was a crazy one! I got back into town, celebrated the New Year's Eve holiday with friends and immediately went into recruitment world back at Baylor. The life of recruitment (which for me was pretty much show up about 6:30am and leave around 2:30am or so) was exhausting and reminded me of football camp. I remember my first football season and how by the end of the first week I just wanted to lay on my floor and cry on Sunday.... which I did frequently that first footbal season. I didn't lay on my floor and cry during recruitment, but that may have been because I got home so late that I simply lay in my bed and slept for however many 2-3-4 hours I was home, got back up and went back - yikes! There were some emotional times at the chapter room, some hard times as an advisor and as an ADPi sister. I was mostly proud of the women I encountered, proud to call them sisters and know that we share something special and that they represent what an Alpha Delta Pi is. Sometimes I was not proud. But overall, it was a great week. I feel like I made a couple lifelong friends, and I would never have met these women if it weren't for my membership in Alpha Delta Pi sorority so that's neat. And I'm so thrilled with the women who are now a part of our Alpha class here at Zeta Chi chapter (baylor). I'm very blessed to be a part of the advisory team of this chapter!!!!

In other news, I think my classes are going to be fun. I'm really excited to "get into them" and begin to learn again. I started reading last night for my human development class and there is a LOT of text in that book, so hopefully I'll find a method to make it manageable. I still haven't received any of my books for one class yet and the only bright spot in that is that we don't have that class next week because its Monday... and we have the MLK, jr holiday off school.
I promised some pictures from my parents remodeled house, and so I'll try to do that here. We didn't get any pictures of the Christmas lights outside, though I think it was the prettiest year by far - griswold-ian, but pretty. :) And I didn't get enough pictures of the inside, probably, but we were having such a good time playing Settlers of Cattan and Super Scrabble and Deal or No Deal! (Both on TV and board game) and Identity (TV) that I kept forgetting. I got to spend a good amount of time with my brother, and my parents. And my favorite night may have been the night when my mom and dad and I got dressed up and went out for a drink at a local hotel and then went to a nice dinner. I've posted a few pics of that night for you.

I hope your new year is starting out right and that you are enjoying what 2007 is bringing you.
Thanks for your friendship and support! Love, Tiffani

my mom and dad at the Kierland Westin, dressed up for our night on the town.
me and my dad. :)
the three of us. unfortunately we didn't get one like this of just me and my mom. :(
my dad with his frou-frou pina colada - which was delicious when I had a sip!

my mom and I.