Cycling around town and Sharon's newsletter

I love bicycles. I love the way they speed your progress down the street without isolating you from the smell of trees and the smiles of other pedestrians and bicycle-riders, and I love the clicking of the chains when you change gears and feel a sudden tension on the pedals.

Today Allison let me borrow her bike to do all the errands that I'd been putting off until exams were safely behind me. I went to the local library to get a library card since the college library will be closed for the break (and what vacation is complete without lots of books??), but the cute young lady behind the counter wouldn't let me get one without proof of my address. Thing is, I don't get mail too terribly often, so I guess i have to wait until someone sends me a letter before I can get my library card? I'll have to figure something out.

After that, I rode to Hastings and bought a DVD that my government prof showed us in class, entitled Lions for Lambs. Its cast includes Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise, and it is one of those movies that you want to watch second or third times just so you can adequately absorb the heady dialog. I love movies that make me think, and this one made me think a lot, even if presents a pretty liberal spin on our country's War on Terror. It makes you examine the ways that the media, the politicians, and the average person have contributed to the current situation, even if it doesn't present any answers. Anywhoo, good movie, and you should see it!

I went grocery shopping too, and while I was in the store, I ran into a girl I've met through a group of my roommate's friends. I called her Bethany, and I think that's right, but I was so afraid that I'd gotten her name wrong and that she'd just ignored my mistake to be polite! I wish I had Bill Clinton's reputed ability for names...it would be so helpful here in College Station where you meet dozens of people every week and everyone is so friendly.

When I got home, I actually did have mail! It was from Sharon (my wonderful sister), who is going to Laos for six months this coming year. The letter was beautifully written, describing the desire God has put in her heart to serve him overseas, and detailing her plans to leave and her need for support. I am so super excited for her! She'll be going under the same organization with which I served after high school, but I am sure that her experience in Eastern Asia will be very different from the one I had in Eastern Europe.

There are some common factors no matter where you go for missions. God streaches and increases your faith, your patience, and your compassion for people, you feel lonely and isolated without family (and sometimes without a common language to talk with those around you), you come to the end of your own strength and you learn to rely on God's. You get changed in huge ways.

Hey, you should all check out her blog! it's : sharonbeekmanlaos.blogspot.com and I'm a follower of it, so you could find it under the list of blogs I follow if you don't feel like typing it in. :) Please pray for her heart as she prepares to go, and for the things she'll be doing while she's over there, that God will move powerfully!