To My Mom

My mom is amazing.

I know I share the same sentiment with many other people around the world, but it's definitely true for my mom. She is amazing. 

She's always been there. Some of my earliest memories of her are when she'd come in the room to wake us up in the mornings. She'd always call us, "Angel faces," and I thought that was funny when I was little.

She was the one who led me to the Lord when I was 7.

She home schooled me all the way through until graduation. That was an enormous feat in and of itself...

She brought me up to know and love God.

She was and is a beautiful example of Christ-like love and service to others.

She was a steady rock when circumstances in life were crazy difficult.

She knows the meaning of sacrifice.

She gives from the heart, all the time, no matter how little she has.

She's an understanding and sympathetic person. One you know you can share things with.

She is definitely a Proverbs 31 woman.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for being such a blessing to me and so many others. You could have had a prestigious career in the world's eyes, but you didn't. You sacrificed to be our mom, and I am so, so grateful for that.

I love you!

P.S. Sorry this is a few days late. :-)

Life Right Now

It's a weird stage of life right now. We're not working an 8 hour job. We're not in classes. We're not learning a new language. We will be. But we're not right now.

Right now, we're focusing on people. On building relationships and friendships. On spending lots of time with family and friends, since we won't see them for a few years. It's kind of weird. I don't think I've ever been at a place where I wasn't working consistently, wasn't studying, wasn't constantly busy. And I like it. I like it a lot.

But it's also insanely challenging in a way I never imagined possible. It's humbling to tell people that we're not working all the time. I'm not sure exactly why. I guess it's just the way our culture focuses so much on work. It's become our identity.

I don't want to be defined by how much I worked or even what kind of work I did, but instead by how much I loved people.

So yeah, I guess we're not working consistently right now. We will in the future. But right now, it's been an awesome time. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Family

There's always something so comforting and familiar about being with family, whether it's immediate or extended. It's been wonderful getting to spend time with family here in Georgia, especially since we won't get to see them for several years after we move to Papua New Guinea.

This past week, we spent time with some extended family in North Carolina. We had a blast with them and their six kids! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly kids grow. This may be the last time I see them for four or five years, and most of them will be teenagers by that time.

I have to admit, saying good-bye to them this morning was really hard. I guess it just made it all the more real that some day very soon, we'll be saying good-bye to all familiar faces for the next few years. It kind of feels overwhelming.

But it also makes me so grateful for the time we have with family now. I want to treasure every second!

Easter According to Paiye

As many of us celebrated Easter this past weekend, I'm sure we were thinking a lot about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Many of us have grown up celebrating Easter our whole lives. Most likely, we've always known about Jesus, even though we may not have believed right away in what He did for us.

So I know most of you have heard the Easter Story dozens, if not hundreds, of times before. But here's a different re-telling of the Easter Story. It's a re-telling from a man named Paiye. Paiye lives in Indonesia on the island of Papua. Just 20 years ago, these people were living in complete spiritual darkness. They had no hope, no peace, no Jesus, and no Easter.

Missionaries from New Tribes Mission have been working among Paiye's people, the Moi, for several years now. After they learned the Moi language and culture, they taught the Moi people through the main stories of the Bible, working from Creation to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and many of them believed in what Jesus did for them. For the first time in centuries, we finally had Moi brothers and sisters.

Paiye shares the Easter Story in his own words. Listen and be blessed by his simple, powerful faith.

Our Garden

Over Thursday evening and Friday morning, Clint and I planted a garden beside our house. We had tons of fun! We can only plant certain things that will grow fast enough for us to harvest them before we leave in July, so that made it challenging, but it was fun to try to find things that we could plant. We ended up planting turnips, radishes, carrots, lettuce, peas, green beans, tomatoes (which may take longer), cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. They may not all grow, but at least we were able to enjoy the process!

Since we didn't have a hoe, we ended up breaking up the ground using a shovel and an ax. :D Ha! So classic! I wish I had gotten some pictures. And guess who used the ax? ;-)

When I mentioned to Clint that I was going to write a blog post about our garden, he was like, "Cool. You should write about how our garden is like the tribe we're going to go to."

I was like, "Huh?"

And he explained. Just like our garden, the people in that tribe will need to be prepared. They will need to have the soil of their hearts tilled by the Holy Spirit. There's lots of roots. Lots of rocks. Lots of dirt clods. We can't break those up. Only God can. We'll be planting the seeds of the Gospel in the soil that God has prepared. We'll care for those seeds, nurture them, water them. We may have to wait a long time to see any fruit from our labor. But in the end, those seeds will grow only by the grace of God. Not by our works, but by His.

Wow. I love how God's creation can teach us so many lessons. And I know we'll discover so many more through this garden. I can't wait to post updates as the little seeds begin to grow! At least, I hope they do. :)

Look at the Lilies

I've been thinking a lot lately about the passage in Matthew 6 where Jesus tells His followers that they shouldn't worry about their physical needs. God knows each one of them, and He takes care of us.

Verses 28-30 say, "And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?"

With the spring flowers popping up all over the place, I was reminded today of how amazing God is to take care of each of those flowers and clothe them individually in the most stunning displays of colors. I love that! He is so caring, even about the tiny details of life.

That's been such an encouragement to me as we've started preparing for moving overseas to Papua New Guinea next January. God cares about us. He isn't just distant, looking down from above and hoping that we do a good job with what He's called us to do. Instead, He is concerned with every detail of our life, even down to what we eat and where we sleep. What an incredible God we serve!

A New Season

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since I last wrote. Things have changed so much since then. I'm a married woman now!

The past few weeks have been challenging, wonderful, and exciting all at the same time. The weeks leading up to the wedding were difficult and stressful, but the weeks afterwards have been amazing as Clint and I start our married life together and get to relax after all the wedding preparations.

God is so, so good! I guess that's an understatement, but it's still true, nonetheless. :)

I was so blessed to see many of you either at our wedding or at our reception in Oregon this past weekend! It was so awesome! I can't wait to re-connect with many of you over the next year!

Hope you enjoy the pictures! They were taken by my new sister-in-law, Fawne. 

I'm Getting Married!!! (In 9 Days)

I can hardly believe that I'm getting married in just 9 days! It seems like yesterday that it was 100 days, even though really, that was 91 days ago (in case you didn't already do the math).

I'm scared. Really scared. Mostly just about silly kinds of things like standing up in front of a bunch of people and trying to wear a beautiful dress without spilling anything on it. All those other accident prone people out there, I'm sure you can sympathize.

But I'm also really, really, really excited! I am marrying an incredible man! When I used to daydream about the man I wanted to marry when I grew up (which I guess is now... who would've thought...), I always would picture a tall, dark, handsome, silent, strong cowboy. And Clint is exactly that, but so, so, so much more. He has such a deep love for God and His Word. He works so well with people and with kids. He loves to laugh and have fun, but he is also able to have deep conversations about life. I love his humility and his honesty. And there are a million other things that I could share.

I know that the years ahead will be hard in many ways, but I am so thrilled to be sharing them with Clint! What an awesome gift from God!

I am so excited to see many of you in 9 days and getting to celebrate this special day with you! Thank you so much to all of you for your prayers during this time of preparation, and I'm excited to get married and begin this new phase of life!

P.S. In case you are just receiving this blog post via email, I did change my blog address to http://teeletribe.blogspot.com, so just be aware when you visit next. Thanks! :) 

Details

It's snowing again! I think we've gotten about 2-3 inches so far. Just thought I'd say that, and I would like to also say that after this snowstorm, I am definitely ready for warm weather again. I'm so glad God didn't make the world always cold... at least not in most places. It's so incredible to see how He pays attention to even the smallest details... even down to the intricate shapes of a snowflake. Wow.

On another note, the wedding countdown feels like it's beginning in earnest now. It's only 17 days away! Crazy! Just over two weeks from now, I'll be Mrs. Teele. I can't wait!

So what's been going on this past week? Mostly finishing a bunch of random details for the wedding. I also had a wonderful bridal shower thrown by my 2 awesome bridesmaids! And we've had fun hanging out with friends and family. It's been good, but I'm getting ready for all the wedding planning to be done. Too many details!

A verse that's been encouraging to me lately as I've been working through all the details, feeling inadequate to adequately handle the details, and then feeling stressed because of the details is 2 Corinthians 12:9. I know you all know it. I know you've probably read it many times. But here it is again. "'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.'" So true. I want to be living that out in my daily life as I continue to handle these details each day.

Our Soon-to-Be Home

There have been two projects on my mind lately:

1. The Wedding

2. The House

Usually the first one takes more priority over the second one in my head, and I suppose there's good reason for that. It's crazy to think the wedding is in just over 3 weeks! 

Since wedding details are almost all complete, I took one day this week to sneak away and drive up to the cabin to work on some projects up there, including painting a few walls. Clint has already moved in, so I guess technically it's his house right now. But I still am having fun being a new little homemaker, and I like to think of it as "our" house. I guess that will be true in a few weeks.

I want to take a second to brag on my very-soon-to-be husband. He decided that he wanted to make some new furniture for our home, and so, after a trip to Lowe's and several happy hours sawing and screwing and sanding, he created a beautiful bed frame and a table for our microwave and toaster. They look AMAZING! And he put them together so effortlessly. As I was watching him work, I kept thinking, "Good gravy, it would take me eons to do what he's doing." And that's not an exaggeration. Actually, I don't think I could even screw two boards together without destroying something in the process. 

So, yes, I did take a few pictures, and here they are. I honestly don't think they do justice to his craftsmanship.

We may take some time to stain them at some point... when we have some time... whenever that happens.

But as you can see, our home is coming together nicely! It's starting to feel like ours.