Ok more details...

Joas and I met at church.  He goes to an all-guys small group (which he now co-leads) and I go to an all girls small group (which I co-lead with my room mate) and over the last few years we've hung out as groups a lot.  So I've known him for a couple years.

Last month, he went hunting in Colorado with some of his friends and came back with an elk.  So, as tradition goes, he usually cooks it up and has all the guys over to eat it.  This time he thought he'd ask me to cook it and we'd have both our groups over. 

So I, thinking this may be my only chance to make a really good impression, took the whole day off of work, made everything from scratch and cooked this elk and an entire meal for about 25 people.  I worked as hard as I could.  :)

Turns out he already had things made up in my mind so I didn't need to convince him more but I'm sure it didn't hurt.  So the day after the "elk feast" he called me up and asked me out. 

Our first date was hiking in this wildlife refuge and then out for dinner.  He's big into outdoors stuff.  Scored big points on that one.

So that, in a nutshell is how it all got started.  I'll keep you posted on any major developments.  :)

Well, I don't have any pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it -- he's very good-looking.  His name is Joas Yoder -- a rugid-mountain-man-type I told everyone I'd find some day.   He's been found. 

So yes, I'm alive.  And doing quite well.  :)

Well, as most of you have heard already, the bridge over 35W collapsed last week.  That was the bridge I used to take home almost every day.  My sister and I were planning to head to Home Depot, just on the other side, at 6 pm and then decided to wait because there seemed to be too much traffic.  At 6:05 pm the bridge collapsed.  We would've been right on the bridge.

Pretty crazy.  And yet, not.  It's less crazy as in it all, I feel more sure that God is sovereign over all things and He was in abosolute control of the entire situation.

It could've been me on the bridge very easily.  And for God's reasons, I was not.  I certainly deserve death and do not deserve to live but God has graciously given me life here still and what's more: eternal life with him.

Things like this have made me think harder about life and theology and how to answer hard questions like: Where is God in hard things like this?  Why does He allow them to happen?  One thing that has been so helpful is this website: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/ please read some of the posts from our pastor.  And if you can, please watch this video the guys I work with made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wG0dhA_RT8 from footage they shot right after the collapse and in the background our pastor is speaking (from a Sept 11, 2005 sermon) about calamities.

Our tendency in America is to not think about death and suffering but we need to and as Christians we need to know how to answer these hard questions according to Scripture.

Can I share the impacting part of this past Maundy Thursday service at my church?

"For what can be known about God is plain" but they "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images..." especially the one in the mirror.

Read it again.

The quotations are from Romans 1 and the line at the end is from our pastor.

Is that not true?  My thought last night was - "oh America, how true this is of you!"

But my thought this afternoon while reading the Bible was -  "oh Kate, this is way too true for you too!"

It may be true for you as well.  But let's not let it be anymore. 

Let's not find ourselves so attractive and so wonderful that we go through great lengths to make others think so as well. 

Let's no longer seek praise or recognition for ourselves. 

Let's no longer be crushed when we are mistreated or rejected.

Let us instead put ourselves out of our thoughts and think on the One who is infinitely worthy and wonderful and let us put our hope in Him. 

He does not disappoint.  We do. 

He is perfect.  We are sinners. 

He is our righteousness.  We are made clean through Him, not through ourselves.

May you see and savor Jesus Christ this Easter as the One who is greater than all things (especially you and me).

I feel as though I should wait a month to post another thing... since that seems to be my habit.  But I thought I'd share this story with you that Tia, my sister, shared with me last night and wrote down so I could post it on my xanga site.  I thought you might enjoy it.  Particularly the singles but married ones too.  It's long but worth it.

On deeply loving the picture of marriage, as a single woman: a Father and His Daughters.

Two hundred years ago, a wealthy Briton and his two daughters lived on a beautiful estate in the English countryside.  The man loved each of his daughters equally and gave them all that their hearts desired.  They spent their childhood galloping horses across the rich green hills and reading beside the clear stream.  They held parties on the lawn and laughed until their sides hurt.  They fell asleep in front of a warm stone fireplace, listening to their father tell stories of his bravery in battle, and they awoke to the sizzling smell of bacon, eggs, and hot toast.  And plenty of tea.

One day, after the girls had grown older, their father made the difficult decision to send them to boarding school.  He assured them it was only for a time, and that they would soon return to be with him at the estate.  The daughters hated to leave, but respected their father's wishes.  They moved into a stern brick building in London and began their studies.  They both missed their father terribly.  Their father missed them also, but he knew how important their education was.  He often sent them reminders of the estate to encourage them.  To his older daughter, he sent a clipping from the blossoming apple tree.  To the younger, he sent a soft daisy petal.  To the older, he sent a sheet on which he had carefully copied the family's favorite hymn.  To his younger, he sent a beautiful photograph of the estate.  The younger daughter quickly pinned the photograph above the desk the two girls shared.  They were both delighted by it, and often gazed longingly at it, wishing for when they might see their father and their home again.

And now the question is, do you suppose the older daughter felt bitter that the photograph of her father's home belonged to her sister?  Did she tear it off the wall or insist that her sister put it somewhere else where she wouldn't need to look at it all the time?

Of course not.  She loved the photograph.  She was fully aware of the reality that the father and the lovely home belonged to both daughters.  The fact that the photograph belonged to one daughter was an irrelevant point to the enjoyment of the photograph by both of the daughters.  The photograph simply represented a greater reality; a reality that was just as true for the daughter who did not own the photograph as for the daughter who did.  Gazing at the photograph didn't make her want to own the picture, it made her long for her home.

I think marriage is, in a way, something like that.  When my Father gives to one of my sisters a beautiful picture that reflects the greater, larger reality that belongs to both of us, it would be absurd to resent her ownership of the photograph.  No, the picture of marriage has been given for both of us to anticipate the reality which is utterly true for both of us, the joining of Christ and His Bride in eternal pleasure.

Written by Tia Martin