Brown bag again.

Hey guys!  Man, I am sorry I haven’t written in so long.  I wish I had a really good excuse, like - “We lost power every Tuesday for the last three months!” or “I let a local friend borrow my computer and I just now got it back!”  I don’t have an excuse like that, but in all fairness, my computer was stolen and we did go on a three-week road trip across South Africa.  So life has been kind of crazy.

But to be honest, the main reason I haven’t written is that I’ve had a real problem with knowing what to write.  I think back on my Wednesdays in Lubbock and I remember loving them - brownbags were, to me, really cool and encouraging.  I loved hearing the awesome stories from far away, and knowing that there were people just like me out there who thought that this was all worth it...that was (and is) priceless to me.  

So when it came MY turn to write YOU letters, I wanted them to be a lot of things.  Fun.  Encouraging.  Wise.  But more than anything, I wanted them to be real.  I wanted you to see that there is a real world out there, and there is real work to be done, and that you really can do it.  I wanted to be real and truthful with you, and never cover anything up.  I wanted to be honest, and share with you what was going on in my life in South Africa.

You’d think it’d be easy to be honest, you know?  But I sat down at the computer on a lot of Tuesdays, just tapping my fingers and waiting for the words to come.  When those guys broke into my flat and took everything I had that was worth anything, I didn’t know what to say to you.  How could I tell you that it was all worth it, when I wasn’t sure then that it was?  How could I tell you that I knew God was really providing for me and protecting me, when I was scared to be anywhere alone?  It was a hard time.  I feel like I’m just now getting my feet back under me.

But looking back, I have seen God provide in bigger ways than I thought possible.  I knew from the start of AIM that God blessed me with great supporters, but they have really gone above and beyond in these last few months.  My home congregation, in Duncan, OK (woot woot!), agreed to help me replace everything that was stolen back in the end of July.  Since then, I’ve been able to get a new cell phone and help pay for my part of our car (a 1995 white Opel Astra.  We like to call him “Little Brucey.”)  And I was able to get a new laptop.  God is so very good to me - but shame on me for taking so long to see it.

Now, all of that to say this: I would really like to start writing you guys more.  I feel almost like I’m asking permission, which I know I don’t have to do, but I am very sorry that I’ve neglected to do for you what was so important to me.  Thank you for your Reply Sheet Thingies - they really are very encouraging.  Some of the things you wrote really made me laugh...you’re crazy!  Keep them coming, okay?

I just wanted to share with you something that I learned from Ken (one half of the Kendall-Ball Coordinating Team!) a couple of weeks ago, when he was teaching a class at church.  He was talking about the first chapter of 1 Peter.  There’s some really great stuff in there, but what he said about verse 22 has really helped me these last few days.  I’m going to put the verse right here (HCSB, anyone?) so we don’t waste any time.

“By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart...”

There are a whole lot of things we could talk about in this verse, but let’s think about the ways this verse says we are supposed to love.  Sincerely.  Earnestly.  From a pure heart.  Ken did his homework on this one and gave us some really great cultural references.  The word “sincere” comes from the time when artists would make statues out of marble.  If they slipped and took a chunk out of what they were working on, they would fill it with wax.  It would LOOK whole and complete, but it wasn’t purely marble anymore.  It wasn’t whole.  It would melt under the sun, and expose its true self.  “Sincere” means “without wax.”  Love each other without wax. Be honest, be true with each other.  If you make a mistake, be real about it - and start over.  This is our job as brothers and sisters.  This is how we obey the truth.  Another word that Ken described is “earnestly” (or “deeply,” in some translations).  This word comes from the Greek word for “catharsis” - purged.  Pure, but cleansed in the most painful way possible.  What keeps you from loving somebody like Jesus loves them?  What keeps you from seeing someone like God sees them?  Whatever it is, get rid of it.  No matter how much you like it, no matter how much it means to you, no matter how much it’ll hurt to let it go.  Get rid of it and start loving people in a real way.

This is my advice to you - not that I am great at it, but that I know how important it is.  You can do it because God made you to do it!  I’ll be praying for you, and I hope you’ll be praying for me too.  Thanks for everything.

-Tara.

Shout-outs.

To Kris, Pat, and Barb - Thank you for everything.

To the AIM Assistants - I miss you all.

To Sarah Beth Hall - I miss you like Bert misses Ernie.  Do you have Skype?

To Matt Hoadley - Have you ever been to Thai Thai?  It's my favorite place to go in the LBK.  Go there for me sometime soon, hey?

To Cassey Clayton - You take beautiful pictures, sister.  I've been praying for you lately.

To Ivankita Chalco - I loved talking to you on the phone the other day.  One day, I'm going to take you to get some ice cream and I'll tell you all about how your sister and I drove along Beach Road singing, "Vamos a la Playa, oh oh oh oh oh!"

To Everybody Else - Have a really wonderful break and consciously enjoy being with the people you are around.  Take too many pictures and laugh too loud and eat just a little too much.  And I will talk to you soon!  Love you guys, and I'm praying for you.