the horizon

i love the imagery of life having a horizon. because the horizon is always there. sometimes it's dark, sometimes painted in vibrant colors, sometimes cloudy, other times brilliantly bright. but always it holds mystery, promise, question.

change is on our horizon. yep, the millers are packing again. the home we're in has been sold and in about three weeks we'll be moving to ... ??? cast your vote now!

in the meantime, life is quite full and busy. the last few weeks have presented some really difficult challenges - and some cloudy horizons! but we had a fabulously refreshing weekend up in camarillo that helped put our hearts and heads back in perspective. check out these amazing pics of more time with the girls - we went whale watching but there wasn't a single whale on that horizon! thus the fun photo shoot with baby beautiful ...

umm, seriously, could they be any more beautiful?

like mother like daughter - check out those smiles!

and aunty boo's no fool to compete with that pose -

soph and i are going for delightfully awkward in this shot.

oh yeah, we so get each other ...

hope

hope. that all may experience hope in jesus christ. this is the heart and mission of 'hope of the nations', the non-profit organization we volunteer with that supports the ministry in tanzania that our friends, harold & coni, founded. we spent the last weekend+ with the missionaries and board members up above monterey (beautiful, anyone?). it was so fabulous to have days focused on the hearts and needs that God is calling them to meet there in various ways. opportunities abound to encourage real life change - real HOPE. we spent a lot of time talking about what we believe is an emerging paradigm of missions - the simplicity that we are all called to love God and love our neighbors. their neighbors are tanzanian. our neighbors are americans. the call is the same. the needs and means are different. neither those of us called abroad or called to stay are the answer in and of ourselves, and we are not here to DO for God. but we do have a reason for the Hope that lives within us.

we are excited to continue our service alongside those proclaiming this Hope on another continent. we are excited to remember the faces we love and lived alongside last year in tanzania. we are excited to know that the Body has different members with different purposes. but it is one Body with one Purpose. it is a great personal passion of ours to hope that the american church will recognize and remember these fundamental truths.

jambalaya

this is going to be a random assortment - a jambalaya, if you will - of thoughts that have been collecting in my head but are only now making their way into blog format. i'm not sure if anyone even reads this anymore, but i know i need to start using it again, if for nothing other than the pure discipline of identifying my own thoughts enough from time to time to try to explain them to others. so here goes ...

amazing grace. just watched the movie last night. never knew the slave trade was the origin of the song. totally blown away by wilberforce and his humility - took my mind to the passages our church has been teaching on ... "have mercy on me, a sinner". seems he didn't forget that, even in victory.

schemes. been really convicted lately to not forget there is an enemy who schemes against our hearts and souls. our weapon is prayer and to be honest, i'm pretty lazy in prayer. but lately my heart has been so encouraged by the Spirit to remember i'm not fighting against the flesh and blood and daily in-and-out struggles. the fight is how my heart responds to those flesh and blood struggles. and i'm not really the one fighting. i am the one who needs to turn to the One who will fight. Who am i turning to? myself or my God?

which brings me to my next link in the thought-chain. self. self is a four-letter word. and i really should treat it like that more often. again and again i rely on self. ugh, this is sin. just think of how many things we extol as a culture that are all about self. self-reliance. self-sufficiency. self-esteem. self-assurance. self-inflation. self-promotion. self-regulation. you might be thinking, "hey, this or that isn't a bad thing just because it has the word self in it." my point is not that all things with the word self are inherently evil, but seriously, if you really take the time to think about how MUCH we extol self, it gets rather nauseating. and here's why. we start believing we really are self-reliant, self-sufficient. let me change the pronoun here. I start believing that. I forget to rely wholly on my Maker.

the box. we live in a fast, demanding, expensive corner of the world. we've had some unexpected turns the last few months, and you know the saddest part is that i came home from our trip so determined not to just put it in a box with a pretty bow and look at it every so often with comments like "wasn't that such a lovely trip? ... why yes it was ... and what a lovely bow on that lovely box ... sigh ... ". gross. life was real then and life is real now. it's time for me to start connecting those dots. i plan on taking that box down and unpacking it more. i need to take that box down and unpack it.

the power of three

if you've talked to us this month you know we moved right from Christmas into THREE weddings. and if you haven't talked to us this month ...

well, now you know why.

introducing the triumphant and glowing mr. and mrs. guy e. white the fourth ...

and the stunning mr. and mrs. jeremiah lee ...
and the brave mr. and mrs. timothy wayne isbell

(brave for having an outdoor wedding in january :) ) ...

we got some awesome times with some awesome friends ...

and it's not every weekend you get to dress up so shnazzy ... well, it was every weekend for three weeks, but it will probably be a while until we get to play dress up again ...

... and sorry ladies, but i will always think i got the BEST man ...

each one was as unique as the couple it celebrated. we were of course thrilled and honored to be a part of each one ... but we're also pretty happy about having a wedding-free weekend :)!

It's Time

Time for ... PICTURES. With the New Year upon us and a BUSY season just behind, we're going to rely on the power of photos to share what life has held these past few weeks and months.


In November we got to spend ten days taking care of these fabulous three littles ...

Varney, Emily & Maggie ... too cute, right?

... and somebody turned 30 ...




... and we got lots of opportunities to hang out with the most perfect baby - Sophie ...
... and spend Christmas with family - this was my best Christmas present ...
... and our lil' sis, Cait, returned from Germany in time for Christmas fun with our most fabulous and entertaining niece, Alli Kay - "MAS PRESENTS!" ...
... just yesterday we celebrated our dear Kristen Jones becoming Mrs. Kristen White ... ... and in general just keep lovin' the chance to live life together.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!