Meet Maddie

My brother and sister-in-law have a dog named Maddie. Not really sure what kind of dog she is, besides being a mutt.  They acquired her from a gentleman that makes bamboo furniture here in Arica and I had never met her before my arrival last week.

As most of you know, I had to put my sweet Jasmine to sleep in February and ever since then I have seriously missed the companionship of a furry four-legged friend.  When I arrived in Chile last Thursday night Maddie greeted me just like she had known me her whole life, happy pee and everything!  Maddie has quickly became my canine pal here in Arica, let me show you what we've been up to...

This is Maddie as she normally greets me when I walk through the gate...happy and tail wagging.

She always comes to hang out with me when I'm working on school work...

But she usually always ends up expressing her distaste for higher education...

She is always quick to find me when I'm eating a snack

And we both enjoy our evening walks at the beach.  

Maddie goes for the birds, I go for the sunsets.

I look forward to many more evening walks, carrot snacks, tennis ball fetches and bird watching with Ms. Maddie.  :-)

Whaaaat???

Today I was informed that if I had a medical emergency in Arica that it would be best not to call an ambulance because it would take them 45 minutes to get me and the ambulance drivers aren't medically trained.  

Not really sure how I feel about this.

The things I've learned so far...

I've been in Chile now for about 4 days and I wanted to take a moment to share some of the things I have learned.

The greeting from men to women is a kiss on the cheek...I'm glad I witnessed this during my 10 hour layover in the Santiago airport so that I knew the man at the grocery store I met while there with my brother wasn't just being forward.  Crisis averted.

Even though your total at the grocery store may seem absurd, don't have a heart attack, it's not as bad as it seems.

I live 2 blocks from the beach and Chile is the most earthquake prone country so naturally it's a Tsunami danger zone...but at least I know my way out.

Take two steps out of the city and this is what you see...

But if you turn around toward the coast you'll see this...

Grilling is mostly left to the men...much like in the United States.

And Arica produces some of the best sunsets...

Stay tuned for more insights...

There's not an adequate title for the power in the words below...

A friend shared this with me today and I can't seem to read this enough, so much comfort in these words.

The cross of Christ is the warrant for confidence in God's promises of ultimate good, despite great heartache.  Jesus' agony did not indicate that God failed, or that the faith of the one who died was weak.  The suffering caused and inflicted by evil (Psalm 22:16) still was within God's will (Acts 2:23) and served a purpose so loving, so powerful, and so good that our eternity changed as a result.  (Isaiah 53:4, 10, Matthew 26:31, Revelation 13:8)

Through Jesus' resurrection, we learn that our God has power over evil, but through the cross he gains power over our hearts.  Though the human mind will reach its frayed end trying to reconcile earth's tragedies with God's goodness, the heart remains bound to God, knowing that the provider of the cross can mean no ill.  Making much of the blood is neither maudlin nor manipulative; rather, the sacrifice of Christ is the heart's ultimate solace in times of greatest pain.

When we remember the cross, our faith in God's sovereign purposes strengthens and comforts our hearts, though the tragedy comes and human answers fail.  No less a faith stalwart than John Stott acknowledges the import: "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross"  Pastors embrace these truths, acknowledging often the mysteries of the sovereignty of God in the face of tragedy, but affirming with greater frequency the necessity of confidence that his eye does not blink and his hand does not fail.

If our God has lost control or never possessed it, then we are at the mercy of the cosmic dice of fate.  The Bible tells us a different story, insisting that the Lord rides on the storms to deliver his people from the present evil world and to secure us for the next (Psalm 68:4, 33) We trust him not because we can explain our circumstance, but because our God has revealed his character at the cross.  The one who shed his blood for us can be trusted to love us; the One who gave his life for us can be trusted to provide what is best for us; and the One who proposed all this before the foundations of the earth were laid can be trusted to direct our paths to glory.  

Sheep trust the shepherd who they have learned is good, and we trust our Good Shepherd because he has laid down his life for us.  This helps to learn how to trust the Good Shepherd when the darkness is too great to see our way or discern his.

Rain

Today when I woke up, I was happy to find that it was raining because that meant that God was taking care of watering my garden so I didn't have to so I got to sleep a little late!

But then going to class, I almost fell walking across the street because of the rain.

Moral of the story...God has a sense of humor and he must like vegetables :-)

I am intrigued by...

People who wear socks with flip flops...

Rabbits...

Stuff White People Like dot com...

How and Why the birds hiding out near my apartment always succeed in waking me up at 4:30am...every single morning...

The fact that the dot above an "i" is called a tittle...

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave...

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

2011 +1 = 2012

If I was a resolution maker, I would resolve to blog more.

But I'm not much of a resolution maker so I wouldn't count on it.