The God Who Won't Stay Away

current sermon series: The God Who Won't Stay Away

I cried giant sobs for half an hour after church Sunday morning,

feeling emotions of Jesus' last week on earth ripping through my body:

His story, The Story, is full of

so much pain, such purity,

broken humanity, eternal forgiveness...

Unbelievable Mercy for my 

desperately unworthy soul.

This God who won't stay away loves, redeems, transforms.

He creates and restores beauty.

He builds and blesses and forgives.

and...

He loves me.

He loves me.

He loves me,

unworthy (so horribly unworthy) and broken me.

All week I've been pulled closer and closer to this God who

won't.stay.away.

Somehow, His deeply satisfying presence seems like an extra special gift during Holy Week.

Link to Sunday's audio message "Despite Everything He Knew" if you'd like to listen too.

Sadly, you missed out on the special choir service following the sermon (no recording online).

Weekend tea special

~drinking cuppas poured from a lovely pot~

Trip Selfies

Texas

We (er, mostly, I) snapped a few selfies during our trip...

Arizona

celebrating Naomi's birthday in Colorado

Unique

A historic birdcage elevator-- which we rode!
At the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado
(we also highly recommend the museum)

Thought I'd share a mini collection of some unique things we saw on our recent spring break trip out west.

A basin sink at one of our many hotels. Though they seem rather impractical, I'm always
enamored by the uniqueness of this type of sink. It was fun for a night :).

This guy is unique-of-unique.
Such a fun piece of artwork we admired in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

I think Grandpa would have had fun examining the horse with us too.

Blizzard Day

$1.36 special!

Sharon and I had a wild Friday night last week...

We went out on the town for anniversary-week Blizzards at the local Dairy Queen.

signs along the way

Libby, Logan, Naomi, and I spent last week in the car road tripping from Michigan to Arizona and back again (I was in 11 states during the 10 day trip). I thought you might enjoy a few of the signs we saw along the way.

I was pretty tickled to see a few iconic sights along Historic Route 66.

who knew??

(at our hotel near the Grand Canyon)

Libby, Naomi and I took a hike in the Canyon and stopped to snap a picture at the popular Ooh Aah Point on the way down.

The sign at the top of our hike. 

Wide variation of temperature at the Canyon.

Happy dance moment: Smoke Free hotels. 

#swellhotelnews

Home again home again after 4,800 miles(!)

roasted sweet potato quinoa salad

We recently enjoyed this yummy salad recipe from Chelsea's Messy Apron 

(pictured above sans avocado)

tea with jam and bread

On Saturday, Sara and I spent the day together celebrating my recent completion of a four hour accounting exam. After enjoying {Malawian} tea with {fresh} bread and {strawberry} jam, we headed out for some shopping.

Life would be dull without good tea and good friends.

Sleepytime

I was amused to find Sleepytime tea in the basket at work last week.

At least it is unopened.