HEY, LADY!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Saturday, April 5th, Troy is hosting its first Ladies' Day on the Square from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The event will showcase businesses owned and operated by women in the Troy community. A few of the activities planned for the day include a fashion show, a fitness demo, refreshments, and sales booths. Door prizes will be given away every half hour. Come out and join us for a fun day on the square!

(For more information and a detailed schedule of the day's activities, click HERE.)

IT'S HERE!!!

"Nature's first green is..."

Green!

Is there any sight more lovely to winter-weary eyes than early wheat sprouting in the fields? When everything else is still dull brown, last year's faded gray, the winter wheat comes along and paints this field and that impossibly, eye-popping emerald.

Then, as if inspired by the boldness of the wheat - such shocking green! - the jewel weed fairies sneak out at night and paint the yet unplanted fields purple. Purple?! Outrageous.

It rained again last night. The rain looked clear, splashing in my hand, but it must in reality have been some kind of magical, multicolored paint. This morning, the maples are swelling pink. The forsythia, terrestrial sunbursts tethered here and there against the humble grass's shyer green.

The Greening - makes me feel like a kid on Christmas Eve!

OUTSIDE-IN

After almost ten years back in Obion County, I am finally getting out and exploring the neighborhood. With only one student at home, I find I occasionally have free time, and I seem to have a bit more energy these days, too. All that said, I am discovering amazing people and places right here in the hills of Northwest Tennessee.

Beginning today, I am going to write a post every now and then to tell you a little about my hometown. If you're from Obion County, go check out these people and places. If you're not from Obion County, I hope you enjoy a snapshot of life in the country!

Today's snapshot:  OutsideIN

LeEllen Smith didn't want to witness ministry from the side-lines - she wanted to find a way that she could jump in herself and meaningfully serve others in her community. OutsideIN, located on the north side of the town square in Troy, Tennessee, was born from that desire.

LeEllen explains, "The mission of OutsideIN is to repurpose materials which were thought to be useless in an effort to reinvent lives that were thought to be hopeless." OutsideIN employs women who, because of past addictions, incarceration, or lack of education, have found it difficult to get or keep a job. Through job training, education, and mentoring, LeEllen and the other volunteers at OutsideIN encourage these women to use their God-given talents to do productive, meaningful work and to develop the confidence to move forward to better jobs and more stable lives.

The shop at OutsideIN takes donated T-shirts and refashions them into a variety of products, including fun and funky maxi-skirts, hi-lo skirts, and sundresses. These are sold at the shop and are also marketed through other outlets.

LeEllen's daughter Micah helps sort donated T-shirts.

Bryleigh and Susan modeling maxi T-skirts.

Micah modeling a reverse-dye hi-lo skirt.

These garments are so fun - and comfortable! - that I've purchased one to wear to my next book signing. Looks like just the kind of funky skirt a writer would wear, don't you think?

Helen wearing an OutsideIN BlessDress.

LeEllen also wants to share the privilege of ministry with the ladies who work at OutsideIN. For every garment that is sold to a paying customer, a second garment - a BlessDress - is donated to an orphanage in Zambia, Africa, with which OutsideIN has partnered. Through the "Wear One, Share One" program, the ladies at OutsideIN are able to experience the blessing of ministering to others through their work and service.


Now that I've introduced you to OutsideIN, maybe you're wondering how you can learn more about OutsideIN or how you can be part of this ministry. You can check out their website HERE. Or their FaceBook page HERE. Or you can email LeEllen at leellen@wearoneshareone.org or call her at 731-446-8326.

How can you help the wonderful ladies at OutsideIN? If you're spring cleaning, OutsideIN can use good-condition T-shirts, and they are also in great need of more sewing machines. Do you have a friend or relative who owns a boutique? LeEllen is always looking for more outlets for OutsideIN products. You can also help by simply spreading the word - share this blog post or OutsideIN's FaceBook page or website with your friends.

Next time you're in Troy, stop by and pick out a fun new skirt or dress to add to your spring wardrobe!

(Photos used by permission, from OutsideIN's Facebook page.)

GUILT - WASH IT AWAY

NEED...MORE...BLOOD
Repost from February 19, 2010

You already know I'm prone to overspiritualizing things. Today's confession: I also have an out-of-whack guilt mechanism. (Could it be those two are related? Hmmmmm.....)

When I was in the hospital after delivering Baby #3, the young nurse on duty instructed me to watch a series of short programs about infant care on the in-house TV. I was about half-way through the "How to Change a Diaper" film when my OB stopped in. He sat on the foot of the bed, looked up at the TV, and asked, "Do you really need to watch this?"

"The nurse told me I had to. She said they would mark my chart 'noncompliant' if I didn't."

Dr. Pierce rolled his eyes. He stood up and turned off the TV, then checked the box on my paperwork that indicated I had conformed to hospital requirements. Fortunately, the nurse never came back and questioned me on the matter - I know I would've cracked and given a full confession. Yes, I admit it - I'm noncompliant! Slap the handcuffs on me! Never mind that I had been changing diapers and nursing babies for years. I'm guilty!

One day last week was one of those especially guilt-laden days. I forgot to bring the piano teacher's check to lessons on the day it was due. I'm late again...Guilty! I passed up an opportunity to give a ride to someone who needed it on the principle that, to avoid "even the appearance of evil," I try never to ride in cars alone with a man who is not my husband or a member of my immediate family. When I told Steve about this later, he said, "Of course you should've given him a ride!" Aaaaah! I neglected to serve a brother in Christ, out of regard for some inviolable 'principle'. Guilty! School, piano lessons, errands in town - I never got around to exercising that day, PLUS I ate a whole bag of Riesen candies. What, are you just throwing your weight loss goals out the window? Guilty! I could go on, but you get the picture. It was not a very good day.

Sometimes my guilt is very real and undeniable. I DID eat all those chocolates. I really did, and I should not have. Sometimes my guilt is totally irrational. Like the time I felt so bad about the mothers in an Afghanistan refugee camp whose babies were wasting away, displayed on the TV screen during the evening news. I had a surplus of milk...just no way to ship my boobs overseas. I probably washed a pint of milk down the drain every morning when I took my daily shower, while their babies were literally starving to death. Wasting milk...Guilty! But real or not, what's to be done with all this guilt?

According to Scripture, guilt can only be washed away with blood. Hymn-writer William Cowper, like me, struggled with a sometimes overwhelming sense of his own guilt. He also penned the words to the familiar song "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood". I looked up the word fountain in the dictionary - it means a spring, a reservoir that can be drawn upon as needed. It connotes a supply that is constantly being replenished, that is gushing over in abundance.

Christ's blood has washed me clean, but some days guilt overshadows my consciousness of this truth. And so, I run back to the Fountain. Not to re-do what has already been done, but to bathe again in the truth of the sufficiency of Christ's work on my behalf. And I find there is always more blood, an abundance, enough to cover all my guilt.

There is a fountain filled with blood,

drawn from Immanuel's veins,

and sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

lose ALL their guilty stains.

- William Cowper

HUG A WRITER TODAY!

One of my favorite things about writing is - readers. Writers write to connect with others. When a reader is entertained by or can relate to or is challenged by something I've written, and then takes the time to tell me - Wow! - that makes my day!

Sometimes, writing feels like ghost work. A writer pours hours of hard work into a project, only to wonder if anyone reads it or appreciates all the sleepless nights, gallons of coffee, and multiple rewrites. Sitting at the keyboard, a writer can feel pretty isolated sometimes.

Yesterday in town, a lady came up to me with a huge smile plastered across her face. "I absolutely LOVED your book!" she exclaimed. She went on to tell me, "When I finished your book, I told my husband how much I enjoyed it. He said that I should write you a note telling you so, but I told him, 'No! I'm going to find Camille and tell her myself!'"

All those late nights and the tedious editing? Totally worth it!

So, I'm challenging you today to take a few minutes to hug a writer. Maybe you won't run into your favorite writer walking down the sidewalk in town this afternoon, but you can still give him or her a hug.

How?

Write a review.

Click on over to Amazon, Barnes&Noble or Goodreads and write a few sentences stating what you liked about a particular book, or what you wish had been handled differently. (Even "bad" reviews are good, because they help writers refine their craft.) Write a review on Facebook or on a personal blog. Submit a review to your local newspaper.

When you write a review, writing becomes a dialogue. You connect with the person tucked between the pages of that book or hidden behind the screen of your Kindle.

By writing a review, YOU become part of the writing process.

Welcome to the world of writing!

OATMEAL AND PEANUT BUTTER

One of the things I love about teenage daughters is that when they offer to cook dinner, they usually pull out a cookbook and try something new and exciting. Last night, Helen made this awesome French dish of chicken baked in a mustard-sauce "crust," served with a mustard-&-cream sauce over rice and roasted peppers. Not very good for the diet, but amazing on the tongue!

I'm a pretty boring cook myself. I have my handful of trusted recipes that I go back to week after week. Spaghetti, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, any kind of soup...I've fixed them so often that I no longer have to think about them, no planning ahead or special ingredients involved.

Poulet a la Moutarde? That took some research. And a detailed shopping list. And a lot of work at prep time. It. Was. Awesome. Thank you, Helen!

When the twins were babies, Steve and I had six children ages 7 years and under. A house FULL of little bitties. Steve was working as an intern at his first architectural job, which translates:  our family of eight was living on less than $20,000 a year. Money was like a Size 4 Spanx bodysuit on a Size 24 grandma.

My mother-in-law would buy these ginormous bags of oatmeal and 10-pound cans of peanut butter and bring them to our house when she visited. I think she single-handedly kept our family from starving during that lean season. Oatmeal for breakfast and peanut-butter sandwiches for lunch. And lots of soups for supper. Month after month after month. Not a particularly varied or appealing diet, but it sustained us!

Nineteen years after the birth of the twins, some of my kids still cringe at the mention of peanut butter sandwiches. And nobody asks for oatmeal for breakfast, ever, although I'll occasionally make a bowl for myself.

Come to think of it, I believe I'll go fix a bowl right now...

DO YOU NEED TO FIND ANOTHER FRIEND?

(Today's post is from an article shared by a friend. All I can say is - BAM.)

Rod Rosenbladt, published in the March/April 2001 edition of Modern Reformation
We incline to moralism by nature. In other words, not all theologies equally draw us. The theologies which draw us, as iron filings to a magnet, are the ones that have to do with self-improvement, with the righteousness of the Law. As children of Adam, we are drawn to those that say:  "I stuck in my thumb and pulled out  a plum, and what a good boy am I." We are not neutral toward the various theologies.

The one that is true - that Christ's death alone saves - we are hostile to, because we are children of Adam. Somebody will ask you, "Gee, don't you believe that we contributed anything to our salvation?" The Reformation answers, "Sure:  sin, hostility, alienation, death, guilt." It's not the answer they are looking for, but sure we contribute all of those things and more. But we don't like that answer; we are resistant to this theology.

The reformers said that faith is of its very nature, assurance, the opposite of doubt. It rests upon the validity of the divine promise of the Gospel. Faith doubts not, though the Christian doubts often. This doubt must be reproved and combated.

But how is doubt combated? It is combated by hearing the doctrine done well. Somebody should answer back to you in terms of what the doctrine is in the promises of the Word. This is how the Spirit produces reliance and assurance. If you say, "Gee, I wonder if I'm really a Christian," and your friend asks you, "Why?" "Well, my life's just a total mess, maybe I'm not really a believer." If your friend tells you to pray harder, cry more, read the Scriptures longer, fast, and so forth - go find another friend.

Find a friend who will talk to you about Christ, what he did at the cross, the sufficiency of his death, the truth of the imputation of his righteousness to you; those are the things we need to hear. If the reformers were correct, you can relax about whether you're going to heaven, even if a lot of times you hate God. Christ died to save God-haters. And the death of Christ is greater than your hatred of God. The death of Christ is greater than your and my flabby Christian life. It is greater than that. The doctrine of justification is greater than our sin.

This doctrine is what makes Christianity Christianity. You've got to get across that the righteousness that saves isn't a change in the human heart, it's a declared sentence, "I declare you innocent." And we say, "But I'm not innocent, I'm guilty as sin!" But the judge says, "I know, but I didn't say that, I said I declared you innocent." That's what Christianity is. It's a declaration of innocence based on another's righteousness, and reckoned to you as if it were yours.