monumental day

today, july 25, 2008, christopher signed his name close to one million times to officially make us HOMEOWNERS. and it was actually FUN. as i was sitting there in the tiny room with all the papers flying, i stepped back (metaphorically) and marvelled at God's blessings. josh (one of the sellers) and chris are friends and play music together, rebecca (the wife of josh) and i work together (for a few more days until they move away), our mortgage guy is chris' cousin, and the title lady (see how i know all the technical terms for all these people?) goes to church with josh and rebecca. (she actually said she had been encouraged to thwart the closing somehow to get j&r to stay in town!) the atmosphere in the room was peaceful and calm. kim the title lady was SOOOOO nice and helpful and informative without making us feel like dummies. it was AMAZING. and THEN j&r, chris and myself went out to lunch together. that's how it should happen, you know? you sign a contract, make a deal, and then break bread together (it was rice this time though - thank you hiroshis!!). when we were parting ways, rebecca actually said "wow, thanks for letting us squat in your house for a few days!!" it made me cry...good tears!! i have pictures, just no way of uploading them right now.

in other, slightly related news, jency franklin is my hero. i asked her off-hand "you guys don't happen to have any boxes lying around, do you?" oh my friend. she LOADED her pathfinder with boxes - not one more would have fit - and brought them to me. some of them were HUMONGOUS which is precisely what we need, and some even had bubble wrap and packing paper stuffed inside!! what a blessing she is!! speaking of blessings, josh and rebecca are AMAZING in that they cleared out the crawl space of the basement and are letting us fill it with as many boxes as we want!! we've already moved two loads over there. speaking of blessings AGAIN, our small group leader, totally voluntarily, said last week "...and i'm taking off work on the 31st to help you guys move..." are you KIDDING ME??? amazing. we are SO loved.

i just got an email saying that IJM is being featured on dateline tonight. here's the email:

Dear Lyndsay,

Dateline NBC this evening will feature a special update on
IJM undercover work in Svay Pak, Cambodia that resulted in the rescue of 37
girls. The Dateline NBC story, entitled “Children for Sale,” originally aired in
January 2004 and has received significant airtime as well as two Emmy awards.

Tonight’s update will include a new interview with Gary Haugen as well as
interviews with several of the young girls rescued by IJM in the original
raids.

9pm EDT/PDTDateline NBC

Please watch and spread the word to friends who may be new to
IJM!

Gratefully– International Justice Mission

P.S. Feel free to visit https://netcommunity.ijm.org/NETCOMMUNITY/page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ijm.org%2fpresscenter&srcid=29592&srctid=1&erid=2957281 for previous Dateline NBC footage along with recent IJM media coverage. For more information surrounding the Svay Pak operation, please read Terrify No More by Gary Haugen.

you should read "terrify no more", but if you don't do that, you should DEFINITELY watch this program tonight, friday, july 25. their organization is stinking amazing.

have you prayed against the abortion clinic being opened in chattanooga today? i've been being led to pray through psalm 139 - we have ALL been fearfully and wonderfully made!! pray that God will intervene and this clinic will NOT be opened!!! (see the post below this one for more details...)