reading reading reading

So we have decided to go without cable while we are here, which is not really something that 'new' for us since we have had more years without cable then with during our married life. Point being I have been reading alot and here is my list

Her Daughters Dream by Francine Rivers
Her Mothers Hope by Francine Rivers
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson

These all have been great and easy entertaining reads, I just finished the last one late last night and will take suggestions on any fictional books to venture to next.

My nonfiction list is much shorter but has sparked much prayer and verbal processing. I started this summer reading group and they are going through Half the Church


and let me tell you this book has placed some interesting thoughts on my heart. Tonight I will talk about the way I have seen God working in my life the past 10 years to create a purpose or passion for me to serve. When I was in college I applied to go for a summer missions trip with Athletes in Action to India to play volleyball. I was new in my faith and didn't necessarily feel 'called' to go, I just thought it was something that sounded interesting and I loved to play volleyball so why not try. For various reasons it did not work out for me to go on that trip, I have kept in contact with one of the gals the went and that is a side story...but nothing transpired with AIA or India. Years later I am seeing media and hearing more about sex trafficking and young girls and women being sold unwillingly and unknowingly into dangerous and corrupt paths. Then there was a movie called Taken and it dealt with this very issue, I was heart broken and sick to my stomach that those things really go on. But still nothing really motivating me to do anything, just a deep heart felt burden for those women. This past Christmas I had an opportunity to give to Tiny Hand International and hear there story. They are a ministry that is fighting to stop the trafficking of women and girls across the Nepal-India border. ( you can find their website here http://www.tinyhandsinternational.org/ ) I purchased a few Christmas presents from their store and bought a bracelet, that commits me to praying for the cause and a girl who was rescued. This brings us to the present and this book I am reading, calling us to stand up for the injustice going on around the world with the 'other half' of the church, the women/girls. We are committed to praying for God's leading as to how I/ we will serve, but I definitely am burden for the oppressed and trafficked women of the world. I will stop here for tonight and let you ponder what our role should be in relation to the women in distant lands and the women in our own cities that are being oppressed.