The Purple Lion

Memorial Box Monday Edition

The summer of 2008 before we were married, Bryan and I took our youth on a missions trip to Matamoros, Mexico with Adventures in Missions. It was an amazing missions trip and I will always remember some of the things that happened down there. The heat of the summer in Mexico was brutal, but every afternoon when we would start our worship session - the winds that were absent every other moment would pick up and a sweet breeze would flow through the tent on the gateway. There was the craziness of what happened after a drama our team put on... but the purple lion will always be my favorite story.

One of the things that AIM does is on the last day of a missions week they let your group have a prayer time and you can break out of the standard projects if you feel the Lord leading you to something. Bryan and I were with the same group, along with about 10 youth and we were very excited for this day. After a time of prayer our AIM crew chief asked us to one by one explain what God showed us during the prayer time.

We went around sharing what we saw and when they got to Bryan he nervously said that he saw a purple lion. Well of course we all chuckled at Bryan and probably joked about what an imagination the boy has. He nervously laughed and I am sure he was embarrassed that the rest of us seemed to be hearing from God and he didn't. Well,  we came to a consensus that we wanted to help a particular dog that we had all come across that week.

The dog in question was a chow-mix that seemed to have gangrene or something on its leg. The leg had been swollen and smelled bad enough that we could tell it was pretty bad. We wanted to find the owner and see if we could take the dog to a veterinarian and see what we could do to save the leg.

We had been working the street this dog lived on all week. We had been picking up trash, rebuilding a wall on a house on the street, helping out at the church on the street, doing vbs on that street, serving food to people and walking around the neighborhood talking to people. We hesitated once we found out that the dog owner was a woman who had turned our group away and wouldnt have anything to do with us, but we pushed forward with our plan.

When we told her that we wanted to take her dog to the vet and see what we could do for the leg she said yes and she would go too. So we loaded up the dog (Fify) into the back of our van, and the woman wanted to sit back there with him. Our guide brought us to a local vet and he examined Fify. He quickly told us there was nothing he could do and even if he tried to heal the infection the dog would likely die and suffer much more. So he asked if we wanted him to put her down.

  

After conversing with Fify's mom she agreed it was the best to do. They put Fify down and we loaded him back into our van to bring him home to bury. We also picked up a chihuahua that the woman named Taquito to replace her Fify. All of us were very sad that we were not able to help Fify and there were many tears the whole way back.

Once we returned Bryan and some of the boys dug a grave for Fify and made a cross to mark the spot. While they were digging we chatted with the woman, who for the life of me I can't remember her name right now. Where she had before not wanted to speak a word to us foreigners, she now spoke, cried, and entrusted us with her story. She told us about being married to someone who was wrapped up in a drug cartel and living a scary life. She told us her children had all gotten wrapped into drugs and she had lost them. She told us about ancient aztec relatives who had buried treasure in some mountain and she wanted to go look one day for it. She told us about her faith and we told her about ours. She told us about the things that kept her from believing in Christ and we tried to help her with those issues. In the end we left her with a bible and she said she wanted to read it.

The best part of the day though came after Fify was buried and we were playing with Taquito and chatting with her. Bryan looked down at some point and noticed something that caught his eye. He showed me and we both started laughing. There on the side of an old paint can outside the woman's house was a purple lion. Bryan had been teased for seeing such a funny thing in his prayer time but here it was clear as day, and certainly much more clear than anything the rest of us saw during prayer time. I hurried to take a picture of the purple lion so that Bryan would always remember the day the Lord showed him the lion. And how fitting that the image was the Lion. It is times like this that God reminds us that He is God and we are not - and that as crazy as things might sound when he tells them to us - if we follow His will it will all turn out the way He wanted.

I am putting a picture of the purple lion to remind us of the time God showed us a purple lion. And to remind us that when God leads us it might sound crazy to some but if we follow it will all turn out. Kind of like our adoption story - everyone may think we are crazy to adopt a child when we could more easily biologically birth one - but when God leads - we will follow.

Matthew 8:18-20
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

The Mountain

Memorial Box Monday Edition

I have always struggled with irrational fears. One of my fears has been of heights. When I heard my first mission trip working with our youth ministry would be in the mountains fear started to take root in me. I pushed it down and ignored it and continued planning. Driving up in one of the two vans, with Arlene behind the wheel, I knitted furiously, chugged chamomile, and tried to ignore my surroundings by watching movies on my laptop. At one point Arlene and the other leaders prayed for me at a gas station, asking for the peace that transcends all understanding.

After arriving we got busy and my fear started to subside a little as I got used to my surroundings. The next day after we finished our day's activities we were told we would be taken up to the top of the mountain to go swim in the waterfalls for bathing. I instantly pictured scary narrow roads almost completely vertical. We stopped at a local museum on the way and while we walked around my fear started to build. I remember walking up to a youth (my friend's son, who knew about my fears) and saying "pray for me im so scared" and he said "you dont have to be afraid, we'll protect you" and gave me a hug. This was enough to get me back in the car and head up the mountain.

While it wasn't quite the scary road I had pictured, the roads were indeed narrow, drastically curvy, and when you looked out the outside window it was straight down into rapids. We were also told stories of multiple cars going over the side, as the local missions director (G) raced around the corners. Then when we got there we had to climb down this cliff to get to the waterfalls where we would bathe. I am sure it took me like 10 times as long as anyone else to climb down and I was probably a mess by the time we left that day.

I struggled through the week but spent much time in prayer that kept me going. A couple days later we were driving back with the missions director from somewhere. He said to me "Kim - I don't know why but everytime I see you I picture a short bus." I chuckled thinking it was a joke and then immediately lost my breath and tears instantly came to my eyes. It was as if I had been sucker punched. I covered it well and no one seemed to notice the flood of emotion that came to me.

When G said that to me I got a picture in my head of the short bus I used to ride. Now before you start making jokes at my expense, I went to a private school, and they purchased old buses no longer used by public schools. They had purchased a short bus to pick up those of us kids who lived on the islands and called it the island bus. That was the bus of my nightmares. I asked G what he meant by that, and his response was somewhere around "do you think God is trying to tell you something about it? If so pray and ask Him to show you" I didn't need to ask though, I knew what it was about.

When we got back I went off to a quiet place on the property and prayed. I knew God was trying to tell me something about that time in my life. I was not a Christian on that bus, and I was very unhappy. I had struggles of my own in those years and the kids on that bus seemed to pick up on that and would tease me. This one boy in particular, Jamie, would pick and pick and pick until I started to cry and then they would ignore me. No one protected me. No one stuck up for me. I tried everything. I tried ignoring him. I tried giving it back to him. I tried joking it off. I eventually gave up and would just sit there until I cried. Every day for an hour there and an hour home and many many tears. I don't even remember all that he would make fun of me about. Whether it was my name, my height, or made up things. I remember at one time he started saying I was homosexual, and teased me for that. It was a very very sad time in my life. I started to hate my life, and school, and those around me who didn't stand up for me. 

My poor little sister probably got most of my aggression because I think I blamed her in some ways for not sticking up for me, or because I was jealous of her having friends. I seem to recall going home after that bus ride and picking on her, teasing her for her weight problem or anything I could think of. Like I said - I wasn't a very nice person back then. It makes me cry now to even think that I could do that. It was certainly not her fault that someone picked on me. She was younger, and as her older sister who wasnt very nice to her I can't imagine her putting herself at risk with Jamie to stick up for me. Anyhow... back to the story.

When I prayed on the side of this mountain in Tennessee asking God to show me what it is about this short bus experience that He was trying to share with me. I heard God speaking into my heart very clearly that he was there with me even then and that it broke his heart for me to hurt like I did then. That was perhaps the most alone I had ever felt in my life. The idea that I was possibly not alone hit me like a train. The fact that I didn't acknowledge him as God at that time, but he was there loving me and waiting for me and caring about me when I felt no one cared for me, yep it hit me like a train. That kind of love that I didn't feel like I was getting - in the hardest time in my life, was there and being offered by the king of the universe, even then. This intense feeling of how much the Lord loved me even before I loved him overwhelmed me on a mountaintop in eastern Tennessee.

The love was so overpowering that the fear that had crippled me the first couple of days of this 10 day missions trip to Appalachia was immeasurable. I remember practically flying the rest of the week, and even for months afterwards. I remember running down that cliff to the waterfall the very next day, the same cliff that had paralyzed me before. I remember actually driving one of the vans down those curvy roads laughing and singing along with the radio. I remember jumping off the rocks by the waterfalls and sliding down the natural slides with my friend, Arlene. The love that the Lord showed me that He had for me was so intense it took over every bit of fear.

this is actually a picture of me jumping into the water that week - graceful I am not

I had long heard the scriptures about the love that conquers all fear, and the peace that transcends all understanding, but never experienced it in such an intense way. I had grabbed a couple of the rocks on that mountain in TN and stuck them in my pocket. I have kept them to remember that Christ is my rock, and His love conquers my fear. That Christ will stand up for me, love me, and protect me, even when no one else will. So today I am putting one of these rocks into my memorial box!

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

The Best Day Ever

Memorial Box Monday Edition

So I used to have a ringtone on my phone that was spongebob's rendition of "best day everrrrrrrrrrrrr". And  on January 6 of 2006, Anna and I decided to take the day off and do something fun together. I told her I would plan something fun and not tell her til the day of. We kept calling it "the best day everrrrr". And everytime my phone rang that day wed sing along "best day everrrrrrr". She showed at my house early and I was so excited to tell her that I had planned for us to go to Tampa and the Lowry Park Zoo (which we both LOVE). On the way we dropped my puppy Chrissy at the vet for her annual checkup and shots. Here is a picture of her holding the directions to the zoo in my room on that morning before the BEST DAY EVER!

Well we were giddy with excitement to be playing hooky from work and hanging with the animals all day. We loved the meerkats, the llamas, the monkeys, and were so excited to be there for the initial viewing of the new baby elephant (Tumani -which means hope). We oogled the tapirs, manatees, and were slightly offended by some chimps. It truly was the best day ever. Here is a pic of us at the end of the day getting ready to go home.

Well, so we drove home giggly and excited about the day at the zoo and talking about how we both wanted to be marine scientists for a time but both got distracted from it. On the way back to my house I stopped in to pick up Chrissy at the vet. The next hour or so was a haze for me, but I will retell it the best I could. Instead of the normal "oh we just loved her and she'll be right out" I got a nervous "sit for a minute, the doctor wants to talk to you". At which point of course my heart exploded out of my chest and I got dizzy.

The doctor came out and told me that my Chrissy had heartworms and that without treatment she would die in a matter of months, and with a very very expensive treatment she would have a chance but it was still going to be quite risky. I begged for retests and she told me that they had already done three and were completely positive that she was sick with heartworms. My heart was broken. The best day ever had quickly turned into my worst day ever.

Chrissy, my chow/sheperd mix had been given to me for Christmas by my highschool boyfriend when we were engaged and living at Fort Bragg when I was 19. When he and I broke up, my parents were in the middle of a divorce, and my granny had just passed away. At the most emotion-filled time in my life, where I had days without hope, not a friend in sight, and all around me was loss, Chrissy was there with me licking my tears and cuddling me every step of the way. It was those days that I learned about the devotion of a pet. It was those days that I started to explore my relationship with God. It was those days that completely changed me as a person and pushed me to who I am now. And Chrissy, my sweet pup, was there through it all. To hear that I could lose her crushed me.

  

So I spent that weekend doing two things. The first thing was to figure out how to pay for the treatments Chrissy would need. I certainly didn't have the thousands of dollars it would take to heal her, and I was trying to fix my credit at the time and so had no credit cards. Both momma-mandy (my moms best friend and part of our family) and my mom offered to help me foot the bill and split it three ways with me. They both love Chrissy probably as much as I do. In fact, most people who meet Chrissy have told me - "I would get a dog if I knew it would be like Chrissy". Unfortunately Chrissy is fixed so no more babies for her. Anyhow this was a huge gift and brought even more tears that weekend knowing that not only could I help Chrissy but that they loved me and Chrissy enough to sacrifice for her.

The second thing I did that weekend was pray for Chrissy over Chrissy Under Chrissy and about Chrissy. My friends and I spent the whole weekend praying and holding and kissing Chrissy begging the Lord for healing. I had never seen God heal someone miraculously like that first hand before but I knew the God I served could certainly hack it. I promised God that if He healed my little girl I would know it was Him who did it and proclaim it to others.

I found the most recommended vet with a reasonable price to perform the treatments and brought Chrissy in the following Monday, as they said time was of the essence. Before we walked into the vet, Arlene and I placed our hands on Chrissy and prayed that God would perform a miracle and heal her. When we went into the room with the vet tech we confirmed that before treatments they would perform another test. She said yes but that they also had the tests from the other vet which showed she was positive. Arlene and I told her "Well we are expecting God to perform a miracle - so we just want to make sure you will test before you do anything". We left with tears in our eyes hoping and praying God would see this as a reasonable request.

I remember I was in the bank parking lot when my phone started ringing "best day everrrrrrrrrrrrr". I thought it was ironic and picked up the phone. It was the vet telling me that they were confused, and not very sure how this happened, but Chrissy is now testing negative for heartworms and I could come pick her up at any time. 

My first instinct (I am more than ashamed to say) was to think "the other stupid vet was probably wrong" and in that moment I was reminded of my words "if you heal her Lord I will know it is you" and was immediately convicted of my sin instinct. I started laughing and crying all at the same time. My heart leaped. I started singing "best day everrrrrr" and called Arlene and Anna to tell them the good news.

Below is a picture of Chrissy from last year's camping trip with Bryan and I, and our boxer pup Trigger. 

 

Chrissy is getting older, going blind, and even getting a bit more cuddly in her old age. Though she adores Bryan she will always be my little girl. When Bryan goes to bed at night and I am still working Trigger plods after him while Chrissy does not budge until I am ready. 

We love her so much and the fact that God loves us so much and cares about the "little" things in our life blesses me beyond words. I pray that I never forget what He did for Chrissy and the best day everrrrr!