Home Is Where The _____ Is (Part One)

One of my very first memories was when I was 3 years old sitting in the back of the car, holding on to my blue and white checkered pillow, saying bye to our old house in Oklahoma. I spent a very happy childhood in Atlanta, adventuring about in the pines and by the creek, making up songs and trying various sports throughout the years. Then when I was 11, it happened.

"How would you like to move to Oklahoma?"

Oklahoma? The only thing I remember of that place is dry, flat plains when visiting my grandparents during a few summers. But, I did learn in school that Oklahoma was known for horses, teepees and tornadoes. So I said, "Sure!", thinking it would be another adventure.. and maybe, just maybe, I'd get a horse!

Immediately I was made fun of my first week at my Oklahoma school. I had a Southern accent, bright red hair, awkward social skills and very good posture. I didn't want to stick out in a bad way, so I decided I wouldn't have an accent and that was that. I also noticed how everyone had poor posture so I tried slumping in my seat as well and though it was uncomfortable (and my hair got caught on the back of the seat more times than I could count), I managed to reverse all the hard work my mother put into my straight shoulders and pleasantly alert presence.

I tried to make friends with one girl but on the 3rd day of our friendship she got off the see-saw and said, "I'm bored. I'm going to be friends with Caroline instead." So she skipped off leaving me more alone than ever. I eventually found a shy girl who was just as crazy as me when we got to know each other. We were known as the "Kat Luvers", both discovered we needed wire-rimmed glasses at the same time, both grew out our hair to our waist, and both were unashamedly Lord of the Rings fanatics. We're still friends today.

I didn't get a horse. I saw a teepee once in a museum but quickly learned Native Americans do not live in teepees anymore. I saw the devastating monster EF4 tornado that trekked 24 miles through Moore and Choctaw in 2011 and have taken shelter as a tornado landed, rose up over our heads, and then touched back down a mile away. I've heard enough stories to have nightmares for the rest of my life (but now I am able to lucid dream a shelter just in time).

Since the awkward events of being a normal kid, Oklahoma has treated me well with providing excellent education, a warm welcoming community and a church family that accepts me every time I come and go to the field. One could be under the impression that "Home is where I live" or "Home is where I move to". But this is not my home. And it's not in Atlanta, either.

Two crazy friends who have become friends for life (6th grade, 10 years later).

How To Make South Indian Chai Tea

    

For 2-4 people:
2 black tea bags (or 1/2 cup loose leaf tea)
4 small cinnamon sticks (or 1-2 tbsp ground cinnamon)
1 tbsp clove
1 tbsp cardamom, gnashed
Milk, more than water
Sugar, to taste

Boil water (South Indians boil just milk).
Steep tea and spices for 5 minutes on low heat.
Pour in milk and stir in sugar (will turn from dark brown to light tan color).
Ladle chai or strain spices first, keeping warm on low heat while serving.

I purchased my spices at a local Indian mart. Here are links to something similar:

Cinnamon sticks
Clove
Cardamom
Darjeeling black tea
Decaf English Breakfast black tea

Gettysburg

A forecast day set the mood as we walked into the museum, raindrops sliding down the windows and squeaky boots crossing the laminated floor.  We entered the theater, climbing down the steep steps to find a seat before the show started.  As the lights dimmed, solemn music filled the room and the deep voice of Morgan Freeman took precedence as he started a string of quotes leading into the history of our nation.

"A nation divided against itself cannot stand." 1

As many before us have shared we felt that same somber air as we spent our day in Gettysburg.



The museum was truly the best I've seen.  Large wall to wall images. Short videos to briefly learn about various facts, like war tactics or what slavery was like, in every other room. Articles and objects from the battlefield and era behind clear glass. The museum as a whole acting as a timeline from the beginning of the Civil War to the end.  I highly recommend taking a day to go not only to Gettysburg, but to this museum.

"I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.. 

It will become all one thing or all the other." 2

We drove to stop 1, inserting our audio tour guide and gathering our surroundings.  As the narrator and dramatic noises of warfare filled our ears, our eyes and imagination soaked in the wheat fields, the barn with a cannonball sized hole, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, the peach orchard, Devil's Den, and finally the cemetery.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, 

a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 

that all men are created equal."

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

 

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

"It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 3

 

I walked away from the well preserved battlefield, eyes opened by the horror and cost of freedom for this nation, the United States of America, to truly become the land of the free and home of the brave.


The Gettysburg Museum

1 Mark 3:25, Lincoln quoted in his House Divided Speech in June 1858.
2 Lincoln, House Divided Speech
3 Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 1863

Autumn

The Importance of Storying: My Story

My story starts off immediately with God’s faithfulness as my birthgrandmother ran away from home to have my birthmother instead of aborting like her family wanted. She gave my birthmother up for adoption a few days later and my birthmother gave me up for adoption when I was two years old. My loving parents raised me in a Christian home, actively a part of the local church. So you can see that God’s gentle hand has already been with me thus far.

A missionary came to my private school and though I heard the Gospel many times by the age of 7, I didn’t really know what that meant for me until he spoke. I remember him holding up a box of cheerios emphasizing that many kids in other countries do not have a choice of what to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner; many do not have the luxury to eat more than once a day. My heart stirred and I knew this is what God wanted me to do. So in that moment I knew God was real, I knew He had sent His Son to die for my sins, I knew that Christ was alive and His Spirit in me, and I knew there was a world that needed to know Him too. I knew He wanted to use me to tell those who haven’t heard the name of Jesus. It was a command, after all! Being a part of Girls In Action and reading through books on missionaries only confirmed that that’s what I wanted and needed to do. I was blessed to be adopted into a loving family and wanted others to be adopted into the Kingdom of God.

My faith was tested throughout the years and only grew through moving across the country, voluntarily switching to public school, my devotion to the fine arts, challenging mission trips in the community and overseas, choosing a career path, attending college, relationships with non-believers, finding God can use my artistic talents for His glory through summers in Haiti, spending time in Morocco and living in India, and most recently in marriage and support raising.

There have been so many times the Lord has made His Presence known and His calling clear. The more I commune with Him every day, the more I walk in the freedom of Christ. I’ve struggled with guilt, easily seeing the negative, and being my harshest critic, but the Lord has been good to me to see that His Grace is sufficient and His mercies are new every morning. We're heading to South Asia where many commit suicide due to their belief in reincarnation and worship gods without any hope in this life or the one after. God’s called us to reach a people group who were slaves and are oppressed, who are still slaves to sin and who have not yet heard the Hope found in Christ. Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom!