Sometimes

Ever feel like God is asking you to do a crazy thing but you just know it's Him, so you do it?

A couple of months ago I took a group of high school girls on an overnight trip...twenty minutes away! We felt we should prayer walk the area, stay in a certain girls' hostel, and pray over the facility. That's really all we knew, but we felt sure it was from the Lord.

Proceeding with excitement and a little apprehension, we asked the Lord to give us an opportunity to share Jesus with someone.

We settled in our hostel...prayer walked...ate dinner...had coffee...explored...returned to hostel... we talked to a few people, but nothing "big" so to speak. We ended the day playing a game of cards. It wasn't until 11:30 that night that the Lord brought a lady our way. She needed a listening ear and she needed to hear the Gospel. We were given such a sweet opportunity to pray for her and to love her in Jesus name. Here are some things I think we learned:

1. Sometimes you have to share at odd times (we stayed up until 2:30 am talking with her).
2. Sometimes you have to share in weird circumstances (not really the place to share, but trust me, it was a weird situation)
3. Sometimes you have more boldness when you work as a team. All of us spoke to her about Jesus, each of us in our own way.
4. Sometimes God orchestrates divine appointments (this lady decided at the last minute not to return to the hotel she had checked into, but to come check into our hotel instead just for one night...the very night we were there)
5. Sometimes people are ready to hear. We need to be ready to share.
6. Sometimes people say, "Yes! Please pray for me!" We shouldn't be afraid to ask.
7. Sometimes people don't believe. That's not our part. We share. The Holy Spirit convicts.
8. Sometimes you stand back and say, "Did God really just do that?"
9. Sometimes unbelievers see it too. They may not realize it's God. They may say, "Did that really just happen?" And then you smile and say, "Yes it did!" Because you know it's God who did it. He's just that awesome.
10. Sometimes we just have to be willing to do something a little crazy.

Legally Frustrated

Here's more to the immigration saga that began with Good News and Bad News:

So I wanna live here, you know. It's nice here. There are three pretty awesome boys I'd like to hang out with and a pretty awesome man who I married a few years back who I'd like to live with. But I gotta have permission to live here. I can't just move in and expect this quirky little island to welcome me all willy nilly. I gotta do things right.

That's why I was at immigration a couple of weeks ago. Trying to be legal. I was trying to renew my kids' visas and mine as well. We have two different sorts of visas and in the order of all things visa, I have to get the kids' approved first and then apply for mine.

Here's how it goes:

1. Get a letter from the school saying my kids do actually attend.
2. Print out all forms. Guess which ones are still being used. Fill them out. Make copies of every official document of each member of the family that you can possibly think of. Get pictures made of the kids. Not the school pictures that you have on hand. Those have blue background. Must have red background.
3. Take all the forms to immigration. Take a number. Sit (if you can find an empty seat). Turn in paperwork about 2 hours later. Go home.
4. While waiting for a week, go open a bank account (since you don't have one here b/c you just use ATM machines). Banker will ask you to go home and make a bunch of copies of documents that they will later never ask you for. So that makes 2 trips to the bank.
5. Go home and print out bank statement showing all the money you just stuck into the bank account you didn't want.
6. A week later go to immigration to pick up kids' visas. Yay!

That's the good news. The bad news is that on the day my kids' visas came out, my own visa expired. So I had to spend time at immigration applying for a one month visa in order to buy time to renew my year visa. And the other bad news was that Mr. Grumpy was working at immigration.

I hate to write about everything that happened during that SEVEN HOUR visit to immigration but it did involve the following:
1. 200 people jammed into one room
2. a bored, hungry, thirsty, about-to-pass-out anonymous lady
3. a cold bottle of water for sale downstairs that the anonymous lady could not leave to go buy (in case her number was called while she was gone)
4. a squatty potty that the anonymous lady could not visit because of same reason above.
5. Food that anonymous lady did NOT bring with her because who thinks they are gonna spend SEVEN HOURS at immigration?
5. same lady contemplated crawling across the desks and hunting for her paperwork on her own
6. a nice Indian lady who offered anonymous lady a piece of candy about 6 hours into the ordeal. (anonymous lady forgot all polite protocol, though she did smile and say thank you as she snatched the candy and stuck it in her mouth. I do not remember if she even took the wrapper off, I think she was pretty hungry)
7. And Mr. Grumpy, who I already mentioned.

Add it all together and, as they say back home, the anonymous lady was "fit to be tied" (you have to say that in a Texas accent. "Fit" has two syllables and "tied" is pronounced "tad" as in "add a tad more bacon grease to that thar gravy Hunny")

Wait. You may say. What did going to the bank have to do with anything? Well, yes, that is a good question. The bank document was needed for the next trip when I applied for the longer visa, but could not apply for on the same day as the kids' visas because I had to then go back to the school to show the new visas and get a second letter that I could not get that day because immigration was an hour away. See, that was an easy answer.

And when the anonymous lady drove home, feeling defeated and completely frustrated at a wasted day, she remembered to be thankful. In spite of it all, she went home with visas for the kids and a temporary extension for hers. And it's all just part of the package right? We all have things we just hate to do. But sometimes we just gotta put on our big girl panties and do it.

 I have one more trip to make to immigration to finally have legal status in the country for another year. And in the end, I get to live here. Legally. Peacefully. And when it's all said and done, thankful too.

10 Blog Posts I'll Never Write

There are some blog posts that I'll never write. I may think them in my head, or jot them in a journal, but I'll never post them on the internet.

You see, there is a trend of posting "10 Things to Never Say to..." Insert whatever category you can think of and I can almost guarantee that you'll find a blog post that states 10 things to never say to that sort of person.

It's not that I couldn't write a post like that. Heck, I could come up with a lot of posts about things never to say:

10 Things to Never Say to an MK...
10 Things to Never Say to someone who struggled with an eating disorder...
10 Things to Never Say to a cross-cultural worker...
10 Things to Never Say to someone who has lost a loved one...
10 Things to Never Say to a mother of three boys...
10 Things to Never Say to the wife of a minister...
10 Things to Never Say to the wife of a leader...
10 Things to Never Say to a skinny person...
10 Things to Never Say to the mother of a child in boarding school...
10 Things to Never Say to a home-school mom...

I could write those blogs and many more. The reader would learn a lot about people who deal with one of those situations. They would learn what is best NOT to say and might even feel a twinge of guilt upon realizing that they, in fact, have made one or more of those comments without realizing it was offensive.

If I write the blogs with the titles above, I will have given you 100 things NOT to say to me. If I were you, I'd be nervous to talk to me!

Instead of asking other people to adjust so that my feelings aren't hurt, how about I give a little grace instead?

Honestly, I've read many "10 Things Never To Say" blogs and by the end, I'm afraid to say anything to anyone with any sort of life-experience! But it's a lose-lose because I also know (probably from reading one of those blogs), that not saying ANYTHING is a bad thing too.

Well good grief, what's a person to do?

I suggest that there is a better way to inform readers in a way that empowers instead of embarrasses. How about:

10 Things the Mom of an MK feels
10 Ways to encourage a Mom who is sending her child to college
10 Fears of a Pinterest Addict (Just kidding. I think that might be a funny post though)

Instead of insisting that others change to make us feel more comfortable, I think it's a great idea to aim for informing through grace instead of shame.

What do you think?

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

I am not a romance writer, but just for fun, I do have a Valentine Freebie for you: the world's shortest romance story!

It's called PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES.

I'll send it to anyone who does one of the following and emails me to let me know (JanaRKelley@gmail.com):

1. LIKES my author Facebook page (JanaKelleyAuthor)

2. FOLLOWS this blog (Click "Join this site" button in the right margin)

3. SUBSCRIBES to my author newsletter (for updates on freebies, books or articles I'm writing etc.) You can do that by typing your email into the box in the right margin that says "Subscribe to Jana's Mailing List")

Already did all of those? Then get a friend to do one of them and I'll send the story to both of you! (Don't forget to email me and let me know.)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Y'ALL!

Read a Free Excerpt of Side By Side!

The countdown is on for the April release of Side By Side! You can pre-order it now. But you can also read the first three chapters NOW for FREE!

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SIDE BY SIDE

Parenthood is Convicting!

This never happens to me of course, but I have this friend...

Let's make up a name for her...uh...him...err...I mean...the person...who is not me...we'll call this person "Kana Jelley".

Well, see, sometimes when her kids don't do what she tells them to (mine always do, I'm just saying that Kana Jelley's don't always do that), they look at her and say, "I love you Mom!"

Do yours ever do that? I know. Mine don't either. But Kana Jelley's do.

(Have you ever seen actual steam come from someone's ears?)

Isn't that the most irritating thing ever? Wouldn't you just want to scream "If you LOVED me you would DO WHAT I SAID TO DO."

I mean...if you were the kind of mom that screamed at your kids.

And when I am tempted to do that, I am reminded of my Heavenly Father. Didn't He say just that? He was much nicer, but Jesus said to His disciples, "If you love me, keep my commands" John 14:15.

Ouch.

Sometimes I just stand there and say, "I love You God!"

You know: stand in church and sing a praise song to the Lord while feeling bitterness take root in my heart, or think a judgmental thought about what so-and-so is wearing to church (the nerve). Isn't that the same thing? Isn't that standing there and saying "I love You" but not obeying His commands?

Parenthood is convicting y'all.

Well, I mean, for people like Kana Jelley.

Response to News Reports

A couple of weeks ago the New York Times ran a story called “The Jihadist in Our Family.” A family in Asia was interviewed. The father went to Syria to be a martyr. Every day we read news about terrorists, about threats, about foiled plots, and on it goes. World leaders are trying to decide what to do, local authorities struggle to know how best to deal with threats and fears, and the rest of us wonder what to make of it all.

I observe two reactions to terrorism and extremism. First, there is anger. “We should make them as fearful as they make us.” “We should attack them like they attack us.” “We should get them before they get us.” “We should rid the world of them.”

The second reaction that I see is fear. “They are going to get us!” “Where can we be safe?” “All people of that religion are just like them.” “We should not be traveling to or living in places that have terrorists…it’s just too dangerous.”

The next time you see a report about on the news or read it on the internet or in the paper, stop and think for a minute. Which reaction does it evoke in you?

As followers of Jesus, I suggest that there is a third response: a better one. Love. Not gushy, feely love. Who feels gushy love after a news report about a terrorist attack? No one! That’s not what I am suggesting. I am talking about Gospel love. I am talking about the love that compels us to share with the lost. Lost people are just that…they are lost…even if they don’t know it. My unbelieving neighbor is lost. The jihadist in my city is lost. Neither one of them have experienced the freedom of forgiveness through Jesus.

So how do we respond in love? Well, that’s for you to figure out. But instead of a “Rain fire from heaven and get ‘em” prayer, or a “Please protect me from ‘em” prayer, may I suggest a “How can I be a conduit for the Gospel?” prayer. Try it, and open your ears and eyes to the creative work of God. Resolve to obey what you hear Him telling you to do. What will your response be?