Killing time

What to do when faced with at least 3 hours of enforced stillness? Tell you about our last few days I suppose.
The water pump went out on my truck this am as we were leaving Amelia Island. God provided well for us though, we pulled into a gas station just as it started to make a funny noise and were blessed by a true service station who called a free tow service and very nice mechanic shop. They hopped right on it and had parts ordered in the first 15 minutes we were there.  They estimated 3 hours! Praise God! We were debating about trading the old clunker for a different old car together home, but their estimate was reasonable.
Next blessing? We were walking distance to a wing place with pool tables and wi-if, so can kill time well.
Next one? We were planning to have a short visit this afternoon with Dr. Dorminy on our way back to Athens, but now they have opened their home to us to spend the night and finish the drive tomorrow!
Why were we in Fernandina you ask?
After we enjoyed some great fellowship in Albany and saw college friends in Albany and Tifton, we canoed overnight in Okefenokee swamp (pics to follow, camera is in the truck on the lift). Sunburned and filthy we realized we were less than an hour from the beach, so we headed over! Caleb always wants to go to the beach, though usually just for a day, so this was a nice spontaneous surprise before moving to a landlocked country!
Pray for the rest of our week as we have many miles left to cover, places to share our ministry and a family reunion yet to go! Trying to raise the last bit of support/partners we need to be landlocked!

From the land of Gators, fireants, and gnats!

Ahh, the sights of home!  We are swinging through SOWEGA this week and showing Caleb what my childhood was like.  As we go along, I realize that it maybe isn't so different from what his will be in Bolivia. It is hot and humid, there are things that will eat you in the river, and the ants are vicious. God knew what He was doing when he put me here as a child.
Besides the physical preparation for our  move, it is great to visit with some of the people and places that were important in my spiritual preparation for missions.  We are visiting a couple of churches today and have already seen a few old friends, with more to visit in the next few days.
I'll post again soon, with pictures from canoeing overnight in Okefenokee and update you as to our progress in partnership building.  Remember, we only need about 50 more people committed to $20/month!

Smile and Wave

Yesterday I snuck away from work for a few minutes and surprised Caleb at his swimming lesson.  As soon as he saw me he began to run-walk (no running on deck!!) and gave me a big hug.  Occasionally as he swam he'd look over to smile and wave.  Now, I'd expect that much excitement from a kid whose parents aren't at lots of functions, but as a homeschool kid who is with me pretty much all day, every day?
I thought more about this as I watched the snow fall outside the natatorium (yes, it has been snowing nearly 3 days now-on Spring Break). The joy I felt at seeing that little beaming face must be the joy that God feels when we look at Him.  I hope that I am in as constant communion with God as Caleb is with David and me. Even more so, I hope I remember to look up and see God in every moment of my life.
I challenge us today to look up and see God smiling back at us.  Bask in knowing that He is always with us and finds great joy in our relationship.  He is the loving Father who is at every practice, every game, every moment of our life if only we remember to look for Him.
This moment of realization was a great corollary to our Sunday School lesson last week in which Billy talked about how kids always looked for their parents as they went on the field during a game-those with good relationships could look up and know and then concentrate on the game versus those without just kept searching for affirmation from other sources.  As we seek affirmation from God, we rely less on the affirmation of culture and are able to confidently share God's love with those we meet.

Refreshing, but tiring!

Today was a fabulous day to remember how much fun it is to work with students!  I helped with spaying and neutering 60-some dogs and cats today at Lincoln Memorial University.  Our assembly line of animals coming to the two of us surgeons was something to behold.  It was fun to watch the students get into their groove practicing their technical skills and helping each other learn. 

Perhaps the most enjoyable for me though was the time I got to spend with various students in the surgery suite.  Enforced time with me means you have to chat!  I learned about one graduate's passion for anesthesia and education, another student's brother serving with IMB in Europe, and yet another's whose sister has a new album being released (which my dad apparently played some tracks on).  

The student with a missionary brother was surprised to hear about Christian Veterinary Mission, so it was great to share with her how her vet tech skills can be used to further God's kingdom!

Overall, it was a great reminder of how eager I am to be living life with my students in Bolivia! Looking forward to the surgery table and cattle working discussions we will have!

Oh, the tiring part--30+ surgeries for me in approximately 6 hours, thank goodness Dr. Burchette was there too to share the load.  We were also so blessed to have our wonderful friend Dr. Jennifer Johnson there too to manage all the animals in recovery!

A departure from the usual blog, but we had a really cool 9th birthday yesterday and I'd like to share a bit about it! We are huge Tolkein fans, so a Hobbit party was just
the ticket for Caleb.


"In a hole in the barn there lived a hobbit.  Not a dirty,wet hole, but a snug barn loft..."

Our downstairs neighbor!

 Caleb was Burglar Baggins and his friends were outfitted with dwarf beards.  After a brief description of the the story for those who didn't, the kids were given a map across the Misty Mountains to the Lonely Mountain and Smaug. 

 With the soundtrack playing in the background we blunted the knives and chipped the plates--the kids thought it was hilarious to throw paper plates and bowls around the loft and at each other!

Flying plates!

Troll tag--one was appointed the troll and tried to tag the dwarves.
Bilbo could free them, and game was over when
 the sun came up--flashlight on the troll.
All were rewarded with glowstick swords, "Sting" from the troll's trove

Caleb and his "precious" won from Gollum's game
of riddles in a  cave of black plastic in the eaves.

We then entered Mirkwood forest and ate some chocolate
pretzel spiders.

Burglars had to free the "dwarves" from the spiderwebs
(individual  bags of candy in lieu of a regular pinata).

Last stop: Lonely Mountain. Pin the arrow on Smaug's missing scale to reclaim the treasure (gold and gem candies).  

Bag End cake.  Sadly the house was warm and out chocolate tree on top melted!

Gandalf and the dwarves arrive!

Gifts!  Creative wrapping in Elvish from
awesome Uncle Rick!  Fantastic presents from all-thanks for all the fun things!

Lembas for the journey ahead

 Thanks to our friends and family that crowded 18 people into our tiny apartment and hay loft to make a memorable event for us all.  Blessings to Caleb in his ninth year of life and the beginning of the adventure that lies ahead.  Thanks to "The Given Life" blog for inspiration http://welivethegivenlife.blogspot.com.

 

January Prayer Letter

Check out our January Prayer letter

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R.A.I.N.  Revive, Affirm, Intercede, Nourish January 2013 Resolution Keeping A new year, a new semester, new everything in the works!  Same God though!  How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions, now that we are a week or so in? A teacher friend was just talking about her excitement every new semester because you truly get a fresh start—new students, new course material, new schedule.  That is such an exciting thing to have multiple times a year compared to other jobs that seem to drag on the same way for days to years. Guess what, though?!  God makes us new and refreshes us every day to try new and exciting things for His sake.  Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  We don’t have to be professors to enjoy that fresh start! Whether our job changes or stays the same, our attitude toward it and who we are serving through it can be refreshed every day. With this, I challenge you to add another resolution!  To accept God’s mercy every morning and proclaim it boldly to others. We are getting more and more excited about our theoretical “change” in job description.  Is our job really changing though?  All of God’s children are called to “go and make disciples” wherever we are, so only our location is changing.  Yes, our daily lives will be different, but our calling remains. See these happy smiles? These are some of the girls at a girls’ home (orphanage) in Santa Cruz with their chickens.  This will be one of the small differences in our lives—this project was begun by my predecessor and involves veterinary students in the care of chickens.  This enables these kids to have extra protein and learn how to raise their own chickens so they can eat now and in the future. We are so looking forward to getting there ASAP, especially since Lauren Spears, another CVM vet, has returned to the US to serve in a different role with CVM.  There is a huge gap to fill where she was at the university and in communities, so we really feel the pressure to be there serving.  Just a few dozen more people committed to monthly financial support and we can look at one-way tickets!  Will you help us? Bathed in His new mercies,   Kim & David Carney kimcarneydvm@gmail.com http://www.carneycvm.blogspot.com

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R.A.I.N.  Revive, Affirm, Intercede, Nourish January 2013 Resolution Keeping A new year, a new semester, new everything in the works!  Same God though!  How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions, now that we are a week or so in? A teacher friend was just talking about her excitement every new semester because you truly get a fresh start—new students, new course material, new schedule.  That is such an exciting thing to have multiple times a year compared to other jobs that seem to drag on the same way for days to years. Guess what, though?!  God makes us new and refreshes us every day to try new and exciting things for His sake.  Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  We don’t have to be professors to enjoy that fresh start! Whether our job changes or stays the same, our attitude toward it and who we are serving through it can be refreshed every day. With this, I challenge you to add another resolution!  To accept God’s mercy every morning and proclaim it boldly to others. We are getting more and more excited about our theoretical “change” in job description.  Is our job really changing though?  All of God’s children are called to “go and make disciples” wherever we are, so only our location is changing.  Yes, our daily lives will be different, but our calling remains. See these happy smiles? These are some of the girls at a girls’ home (orphanage) in Santa Cruz with their chickens.  This will be one of the small differences in our lives—this project was begun by my predecessor and involves veterinary students in the care of chickens.  This enables these kids to have extra protein and learn how to raise their own chickens so they can eat now and in the future. We are so looking forward to getting there ASAP, especially since Lauren Spears, another CVM vet, has returned to the US to serve in a different role with CVM.  There is a huge gap to fill where she was at the university and in communities, so we really feel the pressure to be there serving.  Just a few dozen more people committed to monthly financial support and we can look at one-way tickets!  Will you help us? Bathed in His new mercies,   Kim & David Carney kimcarneydvm@gmail.com http://www.carneycvm.blogspot.com

Check Out Our Website Check Out Our Blog Donate Now

R.A.I.N.  Revive, Affirm, Intercede, Nourish January 2013 Resolution Keeping A new year, a new semester, new everything in the works!  Same God though!  How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions, now that we are a week or so in? A teacher friend was just talking about her excitement every new semester because you truly get a fresh start—new students, new course material, new schedule.  That is such an exciting thing to have multiple times a year compared to other jobs that seem to drag on the same way for days to years. Guess what, though?!  God makes us new and refreshes us every day to try new and exciting things for His sake.  Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  We don’t have to be professors to enjoy that fresh start! Whether our job changes or stays the same, our attitude toward it and who we are serving through it can be refreshed every day. With this, I challenge you to add another resolution!  To accept God’s mercy every morning and proclaim it boldly to others. We are getting more and more excited about our theoretical “change” in job description.  Is our job really changing though?  All of God’s children are called to “go and make disciples” wherever we are, so only our location is changing.  Yes, our daily lives will be different, but our calling remains. See these happy smiles? These are some of the girls at a girls’ home (orphanage) in Santa Cruz with their chickens.  This will be one of the small differences in our lives—this project was begun by my predecessor and involves veterinary students in the care of chickens.  This enables these kids to have extra protein and learn how to raise their own chickens so they can eat now and in the future. We are so looking forward to getting there ASAP, especially since Lauren Spears, another CVM vet, has returned to the US to serve in a different role with CVM.  There is a huge gap to fill where she was at the university and in communities, so we really feel the pressure to be there serving.  Just a few dozen more people committed to monthly financial support and we can look at one-way tickets!  Will you help us? Bathed in His new mercies,   Kim & David Carney kimcarneydvm@gmail.com http://www.carneycvm.blogspot.com

January Prayer Letter

STEERing financial support with cows!

I promised some folks more information on STEER.  This is a great organization that helps fund missionaries through livestock.
http://www.steerinc.com/
Steer will buy a cow, doe, ewe, etc for you to keep in your herd.  They pay for the animal, the vet bills, and you provide labor and feed.  When she calves/kids/lambs and the offspring is sold, the sales price goes to STEER (so you declare no income for taxes) and 85% goes to our ministry!
So, anyone out there who raises livestock (it also works on shares of milk or wheat) and would like to help us in this way, contact me for more info!  It is a 3 year commitment through Steer.

A Four-fold Blessing

As we begin a new year, here is our blessing for you, our friends and co-laborers.

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide,
be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN

God--Ultimate Puzzle Doctor

Puzzled? The body of Christ is an amazing collection of unique characters--it is a bit puzzling!   Each piece is fitted together with care to make a glorious scene.  What happens if one is missing or turned backwards?
 Like a puzzle, we each have our own role to play in sharing the picture of God's story. We aren't all sky or eyes or grass or whatever--each piece is unique.  Even better, though is that we start our as blank cardboard of a shape and God creates a masterpiece as we allow Him to paint our lives in His masterpiece and be placed where He can best use us.
If we resist or ruin the piece that we are, God's purpose can still be fulfilled.  He can work in a few ways when that happens--repaint us and use us in the same place, or if we aren't willing to fulfill His purpose at that time, a new piece can fill the space we left.
 I recently ran across a puzzle piece replacement service on the web (puzzle doctor).  You send them the pieces around the missing one and they recreate the shape of the piece and custom paint the remainder to match the puzzle.  This is a metaphor of the second way God can work around our disobedience.  God's will shall be accomplished, but it takes a bit longer having to rework another piece to fit where one already was.  How much better if we, the bruised and disobedient piece allow ourselves to be found, cleaned and returned to the place God created for us?
Shine your part of the picture brightly and with joy that you are right where God wants you.  If you aren't, allow Him to clean you and restore you to His great plan!

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Picture Joy Christmas

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