Again, my competitive spirit rises up!¬† I love online surveys and I love a good contest…especially when writing is involved! So today, i’m entering a contest to “try” and win a new palm pre.¬† Never thought the questions would be so heart wrenching.

Question #3 says “describe one thing you are passionate about.”

I had to look back over my blog tags and my bookmarks to really dig deep to find one specific big huge passion.¬† There are so many variables in my “bookmark club” — music, song lyrics, photography, makeup, celebrity gossip, tech tags, social networking, church ministry, singing, worship, local eateries, entrepreneurship, news, foreign language, travel and so many more…

But I keep going back, to a secret place buried deep inside of my being, that beckons daily with memories like high-resolution photographs of a life-changing experience that dates back nearly ten years. Journeying on a one month missions endeavor to South Africa, working and ministering hope and encouragement to children and infants with AIDS, is a moment that will forever remain my deepest passion.  My heart beats for this cause Рholding hungry, hurting infants, hugging orphans that have no home, no family, no clean water, no opportunity to bathe, unloved and forgotten.

Most days I appease the ache by sending “just a dollar a day” to various organizations – hoping that will somehow make a difference. My heart still longs to loose myself completely though, in love for this hurting world. My arms still long to hold and my eyes still long to see the beautiful, smiling, African faces that are now stained forever in my memories.¬† So passion? Yes, maybe I do posses one singular passion, but it’s buried in the deepest realms of South Africa along with a portion of my heart…

Keith is in Belgium this week on a Missions trip with a Men’s MAPS team from Montgomery, and I’m in D.C. visiting David, Missy and Andrew.¬† This is the first time Keith and I have been away from each other for this long, eight days!¬† I miss him so much.¬† Today we had a ten minute chat on Facebook.¬† He does not have a phone while overseas and he did not take his laptop, so any communication we have is precious.

Even though I miss Keith so much, David and Missy have been taking me out on the town and Andrew has been entertaining me with new words, smiles and sweet kisses.¬† Tonight we went to Sette – a great spot serving the most delicious wood fired pizzas and enjoyed outside dining near Dupont Circle.¬† Then we strolled Andrew through the neighborhood and enjoyed the late afternoon air.¬† I really enjoy seeing this side of the city–versus the tourist face value side.

When I was in Paris, everyone went off to museums and gift shops, I rounded up the Eiffel Tower, breezed by the Louvre and found a nice Cafe’ with dining on the street, followed with Strawberry Truffels from a local Chocolatier then strolled down the streets of Paris, walking through Channel down the Champs Elysees…My favorite way to see the city, really experiencing it…like we did tonight.

Ah, the challenge of a good competition…give me some spoons, a
deck of cards, scrabble, a flag and a football, a tree to climb, a race
to run, a verbal debate to conquer or any friendly game to jump
into…and I am ALL in.  Especially when the challenge involves two
teams pitted against each other.  And yes, it can get brutal!! My
latest craze is a card game called “pit” – introduced to me last year
in Saraland.

The spectator sport is simply NOT for me…i truly DETEST watching
spectator sports, i get board and feel as if I’m wasting time, just
watching.  I’d rather be participating…doing something, producing
something…or maybe I should say “proving” something.

Whatever the case, when I think back over the sheer joy I have felt
beating out the proven competitor who has commited to an easy win over
me, I can remember several, almost embarassing, victory dances, with my
hands in the air, brutally “kicking butt” at some game of Cranium, or
some summer camp sport.   The sheer joy of claiming the title of the
big “V” for victory is how does Visa say, priceless.

One thing I have learned however, is that as great as it is to win
prized and receive trophies – it will never compare to the victory of
conquering spiritual giants!  The reward of lifting my hands in the
air, praising God for helping me conquer my flesh, fight my battles and
defeat my biggest enemies!  Watching the “Goliaths” fall in my
spiritual and personal life are big “V” victories, that have the
sweetest most enjoyable after parties.   These are the greatest
successes we will ever experience in this life.  So, I ask…why pursue
any other goal, why seek any other win or success?  We all get to win
with Jesus, every time.

Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the
sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Today is mom’s birthday, but we have been celebrating the past weekend with the family.¬† Saturday nigh, Jon, Steph & Grandma came over for a steak dinner, hosted by dad!¬† The past Tuesday the ladies in the church surprised her with a cake & party at the women’s fellowship.¬† The ladies really showered her wish lots of cash & gifts.¬† AND, tonight her long-time friend Patty is giving her a dinner party.

But the best gift of all she recieved today came in a phone call from Washington D.C. David and Missy went for Missy’s 2nd trimester checkup & they found out they are having a girl!! Mom shouted over the phone for 5 minutes, David said, shouting “Ahhh, It’s a girl!! It’s a girl!”

Congrats to my David, Missy and the future big brother Andrew, for the news of the 4th edition to the Russell/DC gang.¬† t’m so glad we are adding more pink to our family!¬† It’s going to be so much fun!

Earlier this year I started reading in Deuteronomy 29, “Prosperity after turning to the Lord” and “The Offer of Life and Death” – a very special chapter to me.¬† I frequent verse :14 often, “No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”¬† So many times, we question what does God want us to do, or how can we hear the voice of the Lord, what is he saying, what is the answer?¬† At the end of 2008, November 9th to be exact (a year of spiritual revelation in my life) – the Lord led me to this powerful passage and answered my deepest questions. Yes!¬† He does speak to us, Yes! He moves in our hearts.¬† And often speaks to us through our own words…”his word is in our mouth.”

So many times we will talk about what we “think or feel” in our hearts, and through that talking comes the moments of definement.¬† We just have to settle our hearts and believe with faith enough to speak, or talk it out.¬† God will confirm His plan for us in our conversations.

This year I am on a journey to know his word and his voice more clearly.¬† I felt led to begin this bible study, beginning with “Prosperity after turning to the Lord” in Deut. chapter 29 and reading through the entire bible this year.¬† Kind of strange to start reading a book 175 pages into the story, the end with the beginning – but for some reason, that’s how God wants me to experience this journey.

Today, continuing my reading through the bible in a year, I walked through 1 Samuel chapters 19, 20 and 21 – an interesting story about the love of two best friends, David and Jonathan.¬† David has killed Goliath at this point and is living in Saul’s kingdom, but Saul, the King is very jealous of David’s fame in his city…so the King has set out to kill David. Spears have been thrown,¬† David has been doing some running – but son of a jealous king and his best friend, Jonathan is coming to his rescue.¬† A holy-bond has been created, and sealed with the promise of lifelong covenant friendship.¬† Jonathan comes to his rescue in a creative & secretive way and informs David out in a field one day that death certainly awaits him if he returns Saul’s Kingdom.

David now on the run, comes to a prophets house asking for some bread and for a sword.¬† The only sword the prophet had was (1 Sam 21:9) “Goliath’s old sword, the Philistine whom David killed, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod”

What a revelation, that the enemies we defeat in our past, continue to bring us victory in our future!¬† This sword, from David’s enemy, was made available to him to defeat his next enemy.¬† Catch that?¬† God uses our past ENEMIES weapons, to help us defeat our enemies of the future!! WOW!¬†¬† We must defeat our enemies TODAY!¬† We must not fear as everyone else will in the face of our giants.¬† God will use that victory over and over again in our life to strengthen us for our future journey.

Trust today that this impending victory you face in your battle, will surely continue to bring you success, over and over and over again in your future!  But we must defeat them today!

Dinner date under the Five Guys stars‚Ķa pick me up for my sweet hubbie who has been sick all week.¬† The Jr. Cheeseburger hit the spot.¬† Next, off to Blockbuster to rent the couple flick, “Fireproof” – can’t wait!

Pic:  0306091805.jpg

Originally uploaded by Jenn Hudson

Dad’s wordle today from gradyrussell.org – it’s so cool that God is in the "Center"

Originally uploaded by Jenn Hudson

Keith’s Wordle of his Twitter – so Cool!

Originally uploaded by Jenn Hudson

When scanning on flatbed scanner at a high resolution, one scan can take up to 10 minutes or longer.¬† Here’s a few shortcuts I started doing to save time:

• ROUND 1: Fill up the flatbed with as many pics as possible, around 4 – 6.¬† Then scan all of the images at once, using the “auto number save” feature (on the Epson Scan Software) to store the multi-pic original scan doc.
• ROUND 2:¬† Once all of the pictures are scanned in, then I go to the folder where the images are stored, and preview the first “original” image with my multiple pics in one .jpg file.¬† I have 4 pics on my “001″ file, so I copy “001″ (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v) to the folder THREE additional times, giving me FOUR versions of the original file “001″ – “001 – copy” – “001 – copy1″ & “001 – copy 2″ – or however your systems stores identical file names.
• ROUND 3:¬† Open each pic individually in the edit software (i-photo or Preview).¬† Crop out each individual pic & save.
• ROUND 4:¬† Rename each file as needed.

Even though it creates a few more steps on the back in – it truly speeds up the process!

My favorite picture of Grandma & Grandpa

Originally uploaded by Jenn Hudson