mark + ange guinn

To answer your question, or my post title, I’ve been here.  Just in my own little world, here.  Sorry to be so out of touch.  I’ve got to get better at this…

Life is so full.  The tragedy of Mark’s boss’ death, the uncertainty of where our money is going to come from, the celebration of Thanksgiving, turning 30 and the romance of marriage have filled the last weeks.  God is with us and he is so Good.  He gives us stuff – provides for us – which is no small thing.  But he’s WITH us, too.  That’s been so amazing to me lately.  I don’t really enjoy it (the “it” to be explained in a moment) much, but somehow the feeling of desperation for God has felt painfully good to me.  I’m starting to feel what I know is true – that I’m totally dependent on God’s provision and that I know he’s up for the “challenge” of coming up with everything I need.  I can’t get my head around it and it makes me a bit sick to my stomach sometimes, but I like it nonetheless.

We had some friends over last night to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was kind of funny that I made what is to me the most normal of all meals and they thought some of it was just weird!  I think my favorite response was to the jello salad I made – “It tastes good, but I just can’t do it on the same plate as my dinner”!  Apparently, they have a dessert that’s a lot like jello (which they call jelly) salad called Trifle.  The whole night they kept saying that I must be putting them on.  But I wasn’t.  Who wants a good traditional meal without some jello salad?  Anyone?  I didn’t think so.

their jello doesn't start out as powder...

apple pie & peach cobbler

the setup

the common enjoyment

leaving it for morning...or afternoon

We had a great celebration.  So great, in fact, that I’ve spent a good bit of today feeing like I’m recovering from being sick.  Mom, did this happen to you when you were learning to make enormous meals?  You always made it look so magically easy.  Everything getting done at the same time…

I’ve really been enjoying my class lately, too.  I’m constantly getting to know people better, which is fun.  I’m less of a novelty than I was the first month, but now I feel like I’m making friends.  A good trade, I’d say.  I’m currently working on a quilt for my niece, Avery.  She turned 2 in October, so I’m making something she can hopefully use in her next bed and beyond.  I don’t have any pictures from the last couple of days, when all the patchwork has been put together, but here are some of the colors and a bit of a block.  Am I silly for wanting to clap and giggle when I see it coming together?

the lovely fabrics

a block ready t be cut into a square

Our car has been in the shop for the last couple of days.  Minor electrical issues that we wanted to get fixed while it was still under warranty.  We got it back today and are reminded how wonderful it is to be so mobile.  The walk to class this morning was a lovely one.  But going any further than town, or going anywhere after dark without a car is tough.  It is always amazing to me how much warmth the sun gives off.  When we were out this evening, it was -1°c.  The frost has started to rest on the car windows.  I guess we need to get a scraper.  (I’m still discovering practical things we need and just don’t have.  Will that end?)

Oh, this has been a rambling post.  But you did ask where I’ve been.  Or, at least, I was hoping you’d asked.  And this is where – the jumbled Land of Ange.  I hope you come back to visit soon.  Bye, now.

Sorry we’ve been pretty MIA on the blog recently.  It’s certainly not because nothing has been happening.  This has probably been one of the most intense few weeks in a long time.  Make that most intense few months, I guess.

As many of you know, last week we found out that my boss, Tom Russell, died very unexpectedly.  It was such a huge shock because Tom was a friend and had a great family, and because it puts my job in no small degree of uncertainty.  So since then, we’ve been trying to cope with running the technical side of a two-man business by myself and also contemplating the possible loss of half our income.  It’s been very stressful and, honestly, we’ve struggled a lot but we also fully believe that God will take care of us.  This is what it means to say that we trust God: sometimes we have to be unsure of the next step or the next paycheck and be willing to keep moving forward.  There’s no way around that.

At the very same time, I feel more and more excited about God and the reasons He called us here.  The last two Friday nights I’ve gone out with a group here called Night Light, which serves free coffee and tea to people coming out of one of the major dance clubs in Newcastle.  It totally wrecks your weekend (we got to bed at 3:30am), but I love it.  Those kids (mostly 15-25 with emphasis on the 17-19 year olds – and yes, the drinking age is supposed to be 18…) are a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed just hanging out, talking with, and laughing at them.  More than that, I feel a stirring in my heart for them.  Everyone looks at those kids and sees a public nuisance, but God sees a congregation.  Please begin to pray with us that God would raise up a church among the kids at Donard Park – maybe even meeting in the club itself.

The Donard Park Congregation

We’ve also been having deepening relationships and some great times of worship and prayer with our different pockets of new friends.  There is so much value in seeking Him, His thoughts, His presence, His Kingdom.  It’s like when you do that (along with engaging in His mission), everything else just gets added to you or something…  No really, we’ve been blown away.  On Thursday, we even got to see God heal three people!  We and a few of our friends were sitting around singing and we decided to pray about physical conditions.  One guy had a pulled muscle in his arm that had been hurting for weeks and preventing him from lifting things and when we prayed the pain just went away.  His wife had pain in both elbows and it also went way.  Another guy had pain in both wrists – maybe Carpal Tunnel – and as we prayed it improved to the point he could support his body weight on his hands but didn’t go away entirely.  That’s not at all a common occurrence for us, but it is something we’ve been asking for more of.  We were actually surprised, but also just really thankful.  God is really good to us and we feel more fulfilled and happy than maybe ever in our lives.

So that’s where we’re at.  Life is good and bad, without much in the middle.  As Dickens said “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”  And we’re pretty ok with that.  Peace.

Mark

At long last, our shipment has arrived.  We shipped 18 boxes (roughly 100 cubic feet) from our house in Indy here.  It’s taken well over two months, but it arrived.  I must admit there were numerous times I suspected someone had simply absconded with our valuables.  What are we most excited about?  Warm clothes for a starters.  We had only packed autumn clothes, but we’ve been getting some winter weather so we were sweating it a little (and our sweat was freezing into icy droplets).  For another, our good computer was in one of those boxes – which is a huge relief for work.  Our little laptop could just hardly keep up.  There were also some musical instruments, a sewing machine, and LOTS of books.

Here are some happy, happy pictures: