Verse of the Day

"For your waste and desolate places,

And the land of your destruction,

Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;

And those who swallowed you up will be far away,

The children you will have,

After you have lost the others,

Will say again in your ears, 'The place is too small for me;

Give me a place where I may dwell.'

Then you will say in your heart,

"Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have lost my children and am desolate,

A captive, and wandering to and fro?

And who has brought these up?

There I was, left alone;

But these, where were they?'"

Isaiah 49:19-21

This passage spoke to me tonight as I read through Isaiah. It breathes hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. It speaks of life when only death and loss were expected. God truly does make all things new.

I am sitting on my back porch, enjoying the sounds and smells of an evening rain and the fact that I can blog via wireless out here. I figure that it's about time for an update.

Seven weeks into school and I have had seven new children in my class. I'm up to a population of 24. Rumor has it that my class is the largest in the building. Great. :)

I'm learning that to get the respect of these kids, I have to be hard on them. I hate being hard on them. I just want to love on them and teach them good things. The biggest lesson in my classroom for the past two weeks is...respect your teacher and respect the people around you. Ughh...once we get past this stage I hope they will be able to handle some academic work. To those of you who are in the teaching world..you're probably guessing that I'm a bit behind schedule.

I see a few of them really trying though. The toughest kids are some of the smartest...big surprise. And the ones working the hardest are the ones that I least expected to be doing so. I see so much potential, but I admit to being overwhelmed at where to start.

In other news, my 26th year is at the door. I didn't feel old until I read one of my student's papers in class today. Her mother is 26. I heard myself saying, "Oh, your mom and I are the same age!" Is it me, or does that sound a bit odd?

I especially liked the add for Coca-Cola. This is the town of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. The streets of shops continue on both sides for about a mile and turn down side streets as well. 

The railroad. My sister. A beautiful day. 

Standing at Front and Centre. 

Finally, a beach without tourists and hotels. 

Mom's Birthday. On our way to the white sand.

Fernandina Beach. The edge of town just before the water. 

Amelia Island

I found an incredible oasis here in Florida. The past two weekends I have stepped into another world. A world that breathes peace and simplicity. A world that allows me to breathe and to feel creative and alive and quite like myself without the cares of the world.

Amelia Island is located less than an hour north of Jax. Yesterday, a friend and I ate lunch at Lulu's Bra & Grill (no mispelling intended here...we found it b/c every single other cafe closes in town between 2 and 5pm), walked down streets lined with shops pretty enough to fit into a small town movie set, sat on the beach like children sifting through thousands of shells, drudged up because of the hurricane, looking for shark's teeth (we found two), and shared tears with a Christian artist in her studio as she told us about her experiences with Christ.

I am about ready to pack up and move to the island. Although, I feel as if it wouldn't be quite right, at least not yet. I have a job to do. I have some stretching left.

I am pressing on in the school arena. It will be quite a year I am sure, one that I cannot make it through without the strength of God. I'm not quite sure what God is doing or rather what I thought He was doing when I decided to move here.

But I will look back on this day and see it clearly. My prayer is that God will open my eyes in this place. That He will show me why He has led me here. That I will walk with the trust and faith of child, sure of His goodness, sure of His presence, sure of His promises.

Before we left the studio, the artist we met said, "I want to share one more thing with you." She shared the story of her husband's illness and death from cancer, and how God moved in the situation. She shared about the last moments and experiencing the transfer of death to life. She said to us, "No matter what happens in your life, ALL of God's promises are TRUE." That thought is engrained upon my heart tonight. I know a lot about God, have been His child for all of my life, but I wonder how much I believe His promises. I wonder how many of His promises I have hidden in my heart.

It is time to look for the promises of God and to hold out hope for His return.

I smell fall in the air. The season must be engrained upon my senses, because it is still summer as far as Florida is concerned.

Lookout point for soldiers of the past...taken from the lookout tower of an old fort in St. Augustine. 

Does this sign seem odd to anyone else? 

Fernandina Beach...gotta love a sunset. 

This is part of downtown Jax...kinda looks like an oil painting the way it turned out.