That No-Good Lyin' Cheatin' Stealin' Son of A...

You read that title and thought that I was mad at Hubby or Daddy again, didn't you? Sorry, but no. I have not affixed those labels to either one of them in at least a few weeks (joke - it has been much longer). However, I have been thinking about where those labels come from. They are not God-given names, for sure. They are cheap imitations. How did I get to a point of letting these types of labels seep into my consciousness? 

My Heavenly Father has names for me. He calls me Beloved, Pretty Girl, and sometimes He calls me Rosebud. My loving husband answers all of my phone calls to him with, "Hey, Beautiful!". Daddy still calls me his Brown-Eyed Whippersnapper. Mama called me Sweetie Pie. These are all names born out of love. They are names that I value and appreciate. But most often, they are not how I think of myself.

Desde el Monte... Prayer (and a poem)

Previous installations of Desde el Monte...

Preface

The Beginning

Joy Bus

The Streets

The Beauty

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What do you do when you are supposed to be helping a church in a country where you do not know the language? I have two answers for that: 1) anything they ask you to do and 2) pray. Sticking to my first answer is how I ended up walking down the street further and further away from the church building with a man who spoke NO English. Sticking to my second answer is how I got through it without being brought down by my fear.

I know that I was given a decent amount of background on Nestor before we left the building, but I only remember a little. Nestor, a native of Uruguay, was a widower with a daughter in elementary school. I do not remember how long he had been a Christian, but I do know that he was training to take over some of the preaching and teaching duties at the church. He really seemed to have a gentle spirit, which is why I somehow let somebody (can't remember who) convince me that I should spend part of my second day out on the streets with him. Nestor and I were going to hand out flyers just like I had with Ronnie and Karen. Just the day before, God had told me that He was sweet on me, so I was ready to do what He needed me to do for this small church congregation. 

Grace To Be Had

Source

There is grace to be had today. Grace to be had. He is just waiting for you to accept it. 

And it is raining in Central Texas. Tiny drops of God's love falling all around us. I'm almost ready to make a boat out of scrap wood and send it sailing down the gutter. Wish the grandkids were here so I would not look so odd doing it. 

Praise Him for all His mighty works!

PS. I wanted to remind you that you still have time to enter the Second Official Ragamuffin Giveaway! I am giving away a copy of Brennan Manning's All is Grace. You can find all of the details here. This is Brennan's last book, so you don't want to miss it!

After These Messages...

Yes, we are actually having a commercial break here. Five-minute Friday is taking the holiday weekend off, so I have a little free space. 

First of all, I wanted to remind you that you still have time to enter the Second Official Ragamuffin Giveaway! I am giving away a copy of Brennan Manning's All is Grace. You can find all of the details here. This is Brennan's last book, so you don't want to miss it!

Also, I want to advertise the news that my husband is awesome. We have an ongoing (friendly) battle about whether or not the house should be "company clean" when guests come over. He doesn't think we should have to put out all that effort. My Mama (who was his best friend) taught me that we clean for guests to make them feel special (and so they don't see some of our craziness). It's a Southern hospitality thing. I had pretty much given up on the house being that clean when Melanie came for Thanksgiving dinner. But yesterday morning, before I even got up, my husband wiped, washed, tidied, and vacuumed. Our house (the public parts) looked awesome when Mellie got here. Charles wanted my first Thanksgiving without Mama to be an occasion that would honor her. So I just wanted to take this time to shout far and wide that this sometimes-frustrating man is also an AWESOME husband.

This concludes our commercial interruption of your (hopefully) Friday off. Thank you for your support.

There and Back Again - Father

When I was a child, I was very shy. I do not recall there being a reason - I was just a little nervous and withdrawn. When I was out in public, I stuck fairly close to my Mom, or some other family member if she was not available. I remember hearing the words "clingy" and "scaredy cat" connected to my name. I hated the labels, but that was not enough to cure me of being bashful.

One Sunday after church, I got separated from Mom and my brother. I could not remember where the car was parked, so I decided that I had better hang on to Dad's hand while we were in the large crowd that had meandered out into the foyer. We stood in one place for a few minutes while Dad talked to some other men. I was not much taller than knee-level on most adults at that point, so the scenery was not great. I was getting tired of counting the buttons on suit coats and I looked up at Dad to ask if we could go. That was when the fear really hit me. This man who held my hand in his was not my Dad. Where was Dad? Why was this man wearing the same suit as Dad? How did I get switched up like that? How was I going to find anyone I recognized?

Second Chance Wednesdays - Part 13

Make sure you read all the way to the end of the post.

Welcome back to Second Chance Wednesdays! It is once again time to turn to the People of the Second Chance's poster series, Never Beyond. If you are new to this campaign, you can read more about it and find links to all of my Never Beyond posts here.

***

Look at this face:

Could you really be mad at that face? Does Animal really need a second chance? At first, I just want to say no because I love Animal and I love drummers. But then I think, what about all those times he has obnoxiously interrupted a special moment? What about all those times he has acted like, well... an animal?

A New Giveaway!

I've been meaning to get around to this for awhile. It seems it just needed to wait until today. This is the Second Official Ragamuffin Giveaway! Sounds like a big deal, doesn't it? 

It turns out that I ordered a copy of All is Grace by Brennan Manning and John Blase on the day it was released. Then a few weeks later, I actually won a copy of the book in John's giveaway; and of course, that copy is better because John signed it for me. The upshot for one member of our little community here is that I am going to give away the copy of All is Grace that I ordered. Yea!

So of course we need a way for you to enter your name in this little giveaway. To enter to win the book, please leave a comment on this post. If you are one of our "lurkers", we would be pleased to have you introduce yourself. And if any of you would like to add a short joke to your comment (not necessarily a joke about being short), that would inject some fun into the process. Oh, and no matter how many comments you leave, it will just be one entry per person.

The deadline for entry comments will be midnight CST on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. On Thursday, December 1, I will count the number of entries and then using the True Random Number Generator from Random.org, a winner will be chosen.

I think you will really enjoy this book, so comment away!

Captain Kirk to the Rescue!

I always find it fascinating to know which movie lines stick with my friends over time. Many of the people in my age group can quote lines from most of John Hughes' movies. My husband, who is fifteen years older than me, quotes movies that came out before I was born. I have friends who love all of the Muppet movies, some who are into the whole Star Wars saga, and others who really enjoy any old classics they can get to see. 

One of the lines that has always stuck with me comes from a movie genre that I don't usually care for. The quote comes from a Star Trek movie - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, to be specific. I remember not really wanting to see the movie, but a huge group of my friends was going and they convinced me to go with them. Since I had not seen the previous film, I did not even know why Spock was being searched for. I had to just take the film for what entertainment value it had outside of a continuing story line.

Desde el Monte... The Beauty

Previous installations of Desde el Monte...

Preface

The Beginning

Joy Bus

The Streets

***

There are times... times when you are supposed to be at home writing. BUT instead you might be at a function with the likes of Hollywood Henderson and Earl Campbell. AND when you come home you get busy watching Dr. Who reruns with your spouse. This is sort of how - okay, EXACTLY how - I have come to time to write another installment of Desde el Monte with nothing even thought out, much less documented. This means you get to see lots of photos today. I'm not the best photographer, but I got one or two shots that will tell you something of the beauty of Montevideo. I think if you click on each photo, it will enlarge so you can actually see some details.

***

First up is a photo of the facade of the church building. The congregation had bought an old building that used to be a coffee factory. The building was named El Chana, after the founder of the coffee company, and the congregation decided to use that name as well.

The yellow banner on the front of the building is advertising the gospel meeting that we were handing out flyers for when we were out on the streets.

Niceties

As I dig through boxes and bags - things I just can't let go of - I often find journals or scraps I have written on to remind me of lovely things that people have done for me or said to me. At some point it would be nice if I could get them all in one place, but getting that organized in the Counterman household is not something I can even imagine happening. I try to console myself that many great thinkers are/were not very organized, but if you ask me for a name, I could not produce one. If I remember correctly, Einstein had a hard time tying his shoes and could get lost walking around the block, but I don't know that his actual organizational skills were lacking. {do any of you know?} I realize that this might make you wonder if we qualify for that show Hoarders, but I can assure you that we are nowhere close to being that bad. We can see all of our floors and although the house is not "company clean" right now, I would not be embarrassed by it if you showed up to visit today.