Author: lindsay

thank you 2013

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It wasn’t until I was in college that I truly started practicing thankfulness. It happened one Sunday night after being challenged to write down five things I was thankful for each day, no repeats. 

I decided to give it a shot, and seven years later I’m still doing it. I’ve talked about thankfulness before here, but it’s one of those topics that I don’t believe you can ever really talk about enough. The more I actively practice thankfulness, the more joy I experience on a daily basis regardless of my current circumstances. When I stop and recognize all the gifts I’m given each day, I become overwhelmed with how rich I am. 

Since the end of a year seems to be the natural time for reflection, I could think of no better way to celebrate than by sharing the 2013 highlights of my lists.

2013 has been one heck of a year. Here’s to the past 12 months: 

– Marrying the man God created just for me. The amount of love and generosity we experienced from family and friends throughout the entire wedding season. Getting to spend the year living together and watching God begin to mold our hearts together. The incredible fun and joy that marriage brings alongside the hard work. 

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– Having the privilege of traveling to places I’ve never been with people I care about deeply. Costa Rica with Taylor, St. Louis to visit dear friends from Puerto Rico and Wilderness Ranch backpacking camp. 

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– Going to Colorado this summer with Taylor: getting to be together in the mountains that mean so much to us, seeing dear friends, and getting to care for and love on our Wilderness Ranch friends while they were evacuated due to wildfires. 

– Skyping with Shauna Niequist, and how God used that to give me the last push I needed to start a blog. 

– His faithfulness in small steps I’ve taken toward pursuing writing: new connections made, hearing stories of people I don’t know being impacted by the words here. 

– The incredible opportunity to go to India with Light The World, and use my writing to help support JOYN, an organization who is doing incredible things to bring restoration to the people in Northern India. 

the JOYN family

– What God did in my heart while in India: reminding me that his kingdom spans the globe, that friendships and love can cross cultural, physical and language boundaries. That all people are valued and deserve to be treated with love, care and dignity. That joy doesn’t come from becoming worldly rich with material things. It comes from realizing how rich we already are, how valued we already are. Joy comes from restoration that happens in Jesus. 

– Taylor and I’s community of friends and family in Austin. How it has grown, changed and evolved over the last 3 years, yet has been sustained. 

 

– The Coulter’s, Francois’, and Coleman’s to walk through newly married life with. 

– A sweet puppy named Rio, who makes us laugh every day. 

– My dear grandpa: getting to see him more than usual this year, hear stories of his life, and have beautiful hand-made keepsakes in my home to always remember him. 

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– This truth: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

And so so so much more. 

I’m excited to walk into 2014 with expectant hope that I will experience more of God there. Let’s get this party started. 

Happy New Year! 

today is the day: JOYN india

lindsay2 Comments

I’ve been alternating between tears and giddiness all morning as I think about today.

Today is the day our Light The World team has been working towards for the past month.

As you know, in November I traveled to India with a group of photographers to partner with JOYN India to tell their story.

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Turns out their stories are incredible, and keeping them to myself for the past month hasn’t been the easiest task. Have you ever tried keeping pure joy contained? If so, you get what I’m saying.

These stories are not flickering candles in a dark room, struggling to stay lit. No, they are bursting, blinding rays of sunlight pouring in through the cracks in the walls. So strong, powerful and bright that the darkness can no longer sustain and the light overcomes, consuming everything in its path. 

That is the joy I’ve been experiencing while having the privilege of writing these stories the past month. And now… today… it’s time. It’s time for you to know, not as in head knowledge but in heart knowledge, that joy is real. That restoration and healing and redemption does happen, is happening, all over the world. It’s time for you to meet the faces behind the wonderful products that JOYN India produces. It’s time for you to join in. 

Founded in 2010 by Dave and Melody Murray, JOYN and their sister company Dehradun Guitar Co., collectively work with over 120 artisans from India, Nepal and Tibet. The artisans are fathers and mothers who long to provide their children with education that leads to a promising future. They are teenagers who have chosen to learn a skill and work for a living instead of begging on the streets. Every single artisan has a story of perseverance through incredibly difficult hardship, and without the investment of JOYN and DGC in their lives they would have little to no opportunity to earn a decent living.

What these two organizations are doing is so holistic, so multi-faceted. It is more than just job creation. JOYN and DGC care for their artisans on every level of the human existence– from providing jobs so they can eat well and support their families, to creating a micro-loan program that gives their artisans even more opportunity, to teaching values of excellence, integrity and humility.

the JOYN family
the JOYN family

I had the privilege of seeing first-hand the transformation taking place in people’s lives because of the work of JOYN and DGC. It would mean the world to me if you would spend some time reading their stories over at our website. They truly are incredible. Make sure to check back regularly- we’ll be updating with more stories over the next few weeks!

In addition, it would mean so much if you would consider giving financially. JOYN is growing quickly, and the only thing slowing them down is lack of space. They are desperately in need of new (and more) buildings so they can house their workshop, education and training facilities and transitional housing all in one place. Last monsoon season, JOYN lost 40% of its inventory due to rain damage. With new buildings, they can not only secure inventory, but can provide more jobs and restore more lives. 

JOYN needs your help to raise $100,000, so they can complete the new buildings before the next monsoon season in June. 

If JOYN India’s mission resonates with you, would you consider joining me in supporting them? You can give directly from our website. 

AND here’s a bonus: The first 200 people who give at least $50 will receive an exclusive Light The World tote bag, hand-woven, block-printed and stitched by those joyful faces you’ll see on our website. Isn’t it beautiful? The leather handle just does it for me.

photo by esther havens
photo by esther havens

I’m so excited to finally get to share these artisans’ stories with you. I hope they touch your heart as they’ve touched mine.

P.S. If you’re still searching for Christmas gifts, JOYN has some great options for the women in your life. You can find their products online here and here.

the history of redemption

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Last week, my church lost a brother. On Thursday, Ronnie Smith, a former pastor at Austin Stone Community Church, was shot and killed while jogging in Benghazi, Libya.

I never knew Ronnie personally, but as a member of the church he helped to lead, and as his sister in Christ, my heart is heavy.

Confident that he is WITH God right now, I am joyful. When I think about his wife, Anita and son, Hosea, how they are waking up this morning without a husband or father, my heart deeply aches.

If you follow Jesus and don’t expect it to cost you anything, you are a desperately mistaken. For Ronnie, it cost him his very breath. Yet in losing his life, he gained everything in Jesus. The reward- relationship with Jesus Himself- far outweighs the cost.

When he moved his family to Libya, Ronnie knew the risk. To him, the decision to move to a place where churches barely exist was a no-brainer. To him, the gospel was worth it.

This Sunday, our church honored Ronnie, and The One for whom he died, by showing a video of the sermon he was best known for titled, The History of Redemption. The sermon is unique, as every word that comes out of Ronnie’s mouth is straight from the Bible. Every single word, memorized. All God-breathed, nothing thought up by man.

It was incredible… weighty… convicting… soul-filling… hopeful… to listen to this man preach on the story of the Bible, the story of God and of his plan for redeeming all people back to himself… knowing that he had given his life for this very gospel only days prior. 

This gospel that has nothing to do with how good we are, and has everything to do with the perfection and glory of Jesus. This gospel that, if we let it, will consume every detail and corner of our lives, every fiber of our being, and take it for itself… giving us true life in return. This gospel that takes our evil hearts, hearts with no desire and ability to know God, and declares them righteous and forgiven and justified and redeemed under the name of Jesus Christ.

I want to believe the gospel like Ronnie did. I want to believe that it’s not just something worth dying for… it’s something worth living every minute of every day for.

If you have 30 minutes today, watch The History of Redemption. You can find it here, or below.

And if you would like to support Anita and Hosea during this time, here are a few ways you can help:

– Make a donation directly to the Smith family here.

– Purchase a copy of the book, ‘The History of Redemption.’ All proceeds go to the Smith family.

– Pay what you want, and get a downloadable version of the movie JOB. All proceeds go to the Smith family.