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PollyH
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Name: Polly
Gender: Female
Interests: Foreign missions--the unengaged; everything else takes second place. Viola and violin performance (solo and chamber); singing; acting; ALL classical music; natural health; nutrition; sustainable agriculture; natural childbirth; cross-stitch; sewing; children; being alone outside; discovering more of the presence of God and the power of prayer.
Expertise: Violin and viola performance and teaching. Singing, drama. Milking goats. :) Working with my fingers.
Occupation: "Relief and development"
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
8/8/2007
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| Fall always seems to make more than usually pensive and contemplative (which is saying a lot for me). I recall last year at this time how desperate I was to discover God's will on my desire to go "on the mission field"--and how clearly He answered my prayers with the confirmation to GO. That filled my life for the next seven months until I actually went.
However, the problem with going is that then you're there. In the same body with the same problems and confusion as you have anywhere else. Then make that about ten times worse because everything looks, feels, tastes, sounds and smells (yes really) different and you're off your game, so to speak.
I said about this time last year that I wanted to lose my life for Christ. You might say I lost it in India. He showed me how worthless I am in my flesh (which can be said easily and earnestly enough, but it is a different thing to FEEL and KNOW that worthlessness in the very depths of your soul). And we all know what happens when something dies--yes, unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, there will be no fruit. So I don't mind having "died" (though I would not exactly want it repeated...but it probably will be, since He loves me so much) because of the total release it brought for Christ to live His life in me. One hundred percent joy and freedom! Oh YEAH--that's the power of Christ! :)
Hmm, the power of Christ... So since the Lord has put at least a check on overseas work for me right now, my focus is more than ever on my community. Perhaps I am more scared of my own backwoods southern aristocratic totally unFATHOMABLE community than any other--more than the machine-gun-toting Kashmiri soldiers and stern-faced G-people of the Himalayas. I mean, I feel like as much a foreigner in the one place as the other sometimes. (Will I ever feel like I "fit in"?) :)
See, I went to see a neighbor lady (who has a reputation of being a shrew, but I like kind of like her), and offered to pray for her allergies. The next time I saw her she brought me over to her granddaughter's house (who is in a rather bad situation) where she had just moved in. After showing me around a bit she said, "Aa been wontin somebady to bliss this hohse, but nobady weell..." and then she stopped and looked at me... I was thrilled to offer to ask Jesus to bless the new home, and we joined hands and did so. I reckon she figured I was religious enough to handle it, since I prayed for her earlier. I don't mind being thought religious if only Christ can shine through and they can know that they can know Him personally too!
They invited me back to the little great-granddaughter's birthday party today. That's where it really hit me what a different culture I was raised in in my own family. It's almost like watching a movie, they're so different. But I like them. I can just imagine Jesus delighting in the way He has made them each unique (and so different from me!) and yearning for them to turn their hearts to Him so He can fully live in them. I saw so much brokenness, from estranged children to unwed mothers and dads and kids switching around homes, from divorce to public school woes (oh those tiny little ones being shipped out on the buses every day to sit in their chairs all day long learning from evolutionists)...What can you do?
But still there's the one lady I started with, and her reclusive (nearly unintelligible) husband. She wants to come to our house church (!!! for Turbeville!) and he keeps finding excuses to come over and talk to my dad. He even brought some potted plants the other weeks from his wife, commenting shyly, "This one's kind of pretty". (Awww!) I tell you, there are diamonds in the rough EVERYWHERE! Dear Lord, "Give me you eyes for just one minute, Give me your eyes so I can see Everything that I've been missing...Give me your love for humanity"...
My sister has been gone the last three weeks, so I'm alone again. Fiddler on the Roof rehearsals are another whole world (how many worlds will I discover before I'm done?) and keep me so busy. Playing Hodel has me discovering some interesting things, most of which I won't go into, but one is this; I think I don't like to be "cute". I have to be "cute" in this play, and it's decidedly uncomfortable, but I'm getting over it. :) My pride likes me to be thought proper, dignified and "mature" (that's not saying I actually AM that). :/
However, the father-daughter scene is definitely.,.uh...well, pretty close to home. I hope I will be able to sing all right. Yikes! :? So sad. (In case you don't know it, Hodel leaves her home to marry in a very far away place, where her intended is in captivity. This is the leave-taking scene.) I hate to think of doing that to my own dad, leaving home for a far away place again someday. When Christ talked about leaving father, mother, brothers, sisters, lands and so forth, He wasn't talking about a walk in the park. I didn't realize what that actually cost till I found myself crying in a little tent on the mountainside wanting to just GO HOME--and I couldn't. Now I'm home again, with the people I love most...and what do I do with it? What do you do with it? I don't know how to answer that, except "Be thankful". I suppose if we really LIVED in thanksgiving, then the sacrifices would not be so painful. I just know it's easier to think of leaving and giving as grand and noble, but once you've made the break and things get quiet again, oh that's when it really gets you.
So instead of obsessing on sacrifice (sorry, that's just me), receive HIS sacrifice and proclaim Him to the world! I'm so challenged by the command to enter His rest (Hebrews 6)--that can be really hard, the more you see of suffering and injustice in the world! But I drive to the theater every night in the indescribably beautiful scenery listening to the praises of God's people on the radio, dressed the way I like (that is, anything with a scarf), with dinner in my tummy and knowing my heavenly Father's unfailing presence even when earthly fathers may come or go..."And I think to myself, what a wonderful world". I just can't tell you (why do I have it all and so many Muslim background believers are shot because they changed their religion). God. Shine through me in the Kirby theater. Nothing else matters but You. If only everyone knew!
Well, here are a couple recent pictures; first, what I've been doing with my grandparents--whatever work I can find that they can help with (look at 98-year-old Pop-pop! Isn't he amazing?)
And here's rehearsing Matchmaker (on a rather dark stage...). Fun!!
Have an exciting weekend! Rejoice in the Lord, for He is good!
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"To think of many things;
Of ships and shoes and sealing wax". . .
. . . and far too many other things this fall to handle a blog, unfortunately. It has been a great two years, everybody, and I've made some good friends. If I don't have your email and you'd like to keep in touch, send me a message, but I won't be on here any more.
Which is basically the way it has been the last couple months anyway, only now I won't feel guilty about it. :D
So pir mi lenge! Khuda hafiz! (See you later, God protect you!)
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Ever wondered, ladies, what you can do with those old stockings that are past repair?
Here's our year's harvest of onions! (Minus the ones that we had to freeze--a very doleful task.) Waste not, want not!
Just smile. :D
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| When you're feeling down (or like you're going schizophrenic from culture shock, or whatever your problem may be), find a goat and scratch its chin. Seriously. It really helps.
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| Well, quick update, folks. Most of you are getting my newsletter anyway (by the way if you're not and you'd like to, just send me a message). I have been in AZ for training with some of these wonderful people...that was last week. This week I have been helping out in the office with some of their other training events coming up, while waiting for my flight tomorrow morning. Here's a few pics. The beautiful hotel where I stayed last week. I can't believe I'm really "out west"! :) 
There's even lime and lemon trees growing in the back! How cool is that! 
Kim, our coordinator. Yay Kim! We love you! 
Jonathan (going right close to where I'll be) and Elizabeth. I knew I clicked with Elizabeth, but I really knew when we both turned out the same personality types! ISFP's--the Artists. :) 
The whole bunch of us on the last day. What a precious group of people! Me, Cassie, Kristen, Elyse, Shannon, Elizabeth; Brandt, Kyle, Jonathan, Jarod; Luke. 
And the leftovers on the next day. We had an interesting conversation with an old man named Bear the night before everybody left, in the hotel hot tub. He was a Viet Nam vet with a beard of awesome proportions, and he poured out his life story, including wagon trains for juvenile delinquents, horseshoeing, and ranching in the midwest....My heart just went out to him as he said he did the best he could and made some mistakes and if God found he'd done more bad than good, He'd just have to send him to hell he guessed. After watching his rather shaky form shamble out of the pool area to his room (he was putting his wife on a plane to her ailing mother) I felt compelled to pray for him to get terribly uncomfortable with not KNOWING his eternity--we all banded together and covered him with prayer. How wonderful to pray at the drop of a hat. :) That's how they function out here. Kim, me, Brandt, Jarod, Luke, Jonathan. 
Thank You Father for a precious week! | | |
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