"We have a deal"

...says Kofi Annan. PRAISE GOD!!!

"Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed an agreement on Thursday after talks on power-sharing to end a post-election crisis.
In a televised ceremony, the two political rivals inked an deal hammered out under the mediation of former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who had earlier said the two sides had reached agreement on the terms of a coalition government." (Reuters)

Finally....great news!!! Raila Odinga will now be the Executive Prime Minister of Kenya. Power sharing. There is still obvious work to be done and lots of clean up to tend to. But with the leaders striking a deal, things look much better!

And just in time! When the opposition threatened new protests to begin this week if a deal was not met, I was a little nervous about leaving on Friday. This was a much better solution than more protests and a restart of rioting!

Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the country of Kenya. I also appreciate your prayers for me as I travel to Kenya and begin ministry there. Exciting times!!

FYI...I leave tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and will arrive in Nairobi on Sunday, 8:20am Kenyan time, Saturday 11:20pm CST.

**on a side-note...I'm watching/listening to KTN (Kenyan news station) as I write this. Each of the leaders have spoken, and now the press conference is ending in prayer!! Yes, prayer. Televised! And, yes, a prayer to "Jesus, our Lord."

For REAL this time!

I'm leaving in TWO DAYS!!! Woo hoo!!

The Joys of West Texas

Dust...Wind...Orange skies...Dirt...Dirt...Dirt...West Texas. Oh, the memories! But, I love Midland. It's home.

This is what it looked like on my way to the airport on Monday.

This is what it looked like as the plane took off from the Midland airport. Those are not clouds below. It's dust! (Well, the very top are clouds, but not the haze on the bottom.) From the ground, it was not a cloudy day. Just dusty. I had forgotten what it was like! And they said it wasn't really even an "orange sky" kind of day!

Then, on the Houston news yesterday, they kept talking about the horrible winds and the wind advisories. That was nothing! I was in WIND on Monday! What we had here yesterday was just a breezy day. The Houston stations were saying we had wind gusts up to 30 mph. They were gusting to 80 mph in Midland!

And all of that creates huge fire hazzards. Indeed there were (and still are) grass fires all over West Texas. Here is one we saw on the way to the airport. Not an exciting picture, I know. But I took it, so I've gotta post it!

Pray for protection for my brother's place and his animals. They've already had close scares. And so have some of my mom's friends, Kailynn and Wes. It can't be fun to stay up all night long, standing ready to load horse trailers. But, I guess it's one of the joys of living in dusty, dry, windy West Texas!

11 DAYS!!!

Yep, 11 days til departure! I am leaving on Friday, Feb 29th. My friend Jen is not yet returning, so I decided to go ahead and leave and travel by myself. I am SO ready and very excited! This has been a roller-coaster!

I will be going to Midland one more time before I leave. I think I've had about a hundred "last" times - last trip home, last time to see the family, last day at church, last episode of Lost (but now, I still have two more!!!), last dinner with the girls, last visit to PPCD... Even a going-away party - almost two months ago!!

But, Lord willing, I will leave on Feb 29th!

I am LOVED!

On this Valentine's Day, I am blessed to be loved by the Love of my life! The One I love, loves me back!

Isn't that a great feeling? How wonderful to be loved so unconditionally and sacrificially by the One who gave His life for me. You know that "love you so much my heart could burst" feeling? And to think that my Lord and Savior could love me even more that that. Simply amazing.

I hope you can take a few minutes today to sit and rest and bask in the truly amazing, overwhelming and completely fulfilling love of God; that love that He longs to lavish on you!!

He tells me - ME (and you)..."I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with lovingkindness." (Jeremaiah 31:3)

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

"God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) ...the biggest blessing of all!! The most sacrificial love of all.

So I say to Him...
"How priceless is Your unfailing love." (Psalm 36:7)

"Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You." (Psalm 63:3)

"For great is your love towards me." (Psalm 86:13)

Happy Valentine's Day! May you be blessed by the greatest Love of all today.

Eeew, Gross!

This is Kenan. He's my brother. He's a cowboy. He's tough.

This is Carrot (with Kenan). She's my sister-in-law. She's tough, too, by the way.

Carrot called my mom today and told her Kenan was in the emergency room.

Kenan's finger got ripped off. He got it caught in a rope. His finger stuck in his glove when he pulled his hand out. Had to put it back on to get it back. Gross!! Needless to say, his finger is broken, too. My mom tried to send me pictures of it all, but I didn't get them on my phone.

Please pray for him. His work kind of depends on his ability to ride, rope, work with his hands in a ga-jillion ways. But, he's tough. :-)

Today's Streams in the Desert hit home. Last week, Jen and I set our return date: March 3rd. Lord willing, we will finally return to Kenya!

Things are not perfect there. They are not completely back to normal. Friends and family wonder why I would still go, why I would not wait for a certainty of calmness and for all strife and fighting in Kenya to cease before I leave. I can't. I feel compelled to go. (By the way, I have been talking to friends there. I'm not going blindly into harm's way. I feel comfortable with the safety of my decision, based on the specific place I am going and what I will most likely be doing.) But, it is a step of faith. There are no guarantees. But there are no guarantees here, either.

Anyway...taken from today's Streams in the Desert:

When God was speaking to the Isrealites, He told them to "...set foot in the Jordan, its waters...will be cut off." (Joshua 3:13) They were to "walk by faith" and step into the waters, not stand and wait for the waters to be cut off before moving.

"We must learn to take God at His word and walk straight ahead in obedience, even when we can see no way to go forward. The reason we are so sidetracked by difficulties is that we expect to see barriers removed before we even try to step through them.
If we would only move straight ahead in faith, the path would be opened for us. But we stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed, when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles at all." (February 11, Streams in the Desert)

Precious Picture

Praise God! Isn't this beautiful? This is an Evange-cube. Have you seen them? I've taken them on missions trips; many people have taken them. It's a picture-story way of presenting the Gospel in block form.

An internally displaced child is shown a religious image on a puzzle cube during a singing and praying session at the Nairobi show ground, where some 1,000 people are seeking shelter, in Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008.

With 300,000 Kenyans now displaced, thousands are living in temporary refugee-type camps. With nothing to do, nowhere to go, they are hungry for anything. Their hunger for hope is as real as their hunger for food. I pray that pictures like these are being lived out all over Kenya. May God use this opportunity to show Himself to His children.

A Beautiful Murriage

Congratulations, Steven and Amanda Murray!

One of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. And I have no doubt that it will be a beautiful marriage (or Murriage, as he calls it) as well. What an amazing testament to God's love and faithfulness!

And the reception - awesome! The ever-loving Astros fans had their reception at Minute Maid Park. I'll never walk through Union Station and see it the same again! And, how fun to see people so dressed up at Minute Maid Park!

And keeping with "Murray Christmas" tradition...another cup to add to the collection!

Mark & Rebecca came in for the occasion! So great to see them!

Karen, Rebecca (& baby), Trena, Kim, Kathy

And let me just say that it is HARD to include pictures and make them space correctly! My laptop is wide-screen and it looks different (distorted) on a regular screen. I just can't get it balanced. :-(