Islands

This past weekend I spent most of my time swimming in Cascade Lake on Orcas Island and just laying around reading and enjoying God's beautiful creation. It was great. A good time of relaxation. Highlights from the weekend: 1. My sister telling my cousin's friend, when she first met him, that he did a good British accent. His reply was "of course I do, I am British!". You probably had to be there, but it was really funny. 2. My dad doing an eskimo roll in the kayak with his glasses on. We spent the next hour diving to the bottom of the weed filled lake searching for them. Way to go Dad. :) 3. Jumping off the bridge into the lake and going on the rope swing. 4. My cousin claiming that a sea cucumber bit him while he was swimming...once we brought up the fact that sea cucumbers live in the sea, he claimed that it must have been a lake cucumber. Man, those lake cucumbers are becoming a problem these days. 5. My little sister and I singing and dancing outside on the front of the ferry boat at midnight on the 4th of July. 6. Being told by the lady selling tickets for the ferry that I wasn't an adult. She wouldn't believe it even when my mom repeated it. How encouraging. Earlier this year I was mistaken for a middle school student when I went to my little sister's awards assembly. They all say I will appreciate it later...

The book I read was really good. It was a biography of an English woman who was a missionary to the Muslims in Algeria from about 1860 to 1920. Her complete dependence on God and faith in Him was amazing. Most of the book is excerpts from her journal. Lilias Trotter was a great artist and found many parables for life in nature.

"The daisies have been talking today. I see the reason why they spread out their leaves flat on the ground. It is to hold back from the flowers the blades of grass that would shut out the sunlight. They speak of the need of deliberately holding back everything that would crowd our souls and stifle God's light and air. In the life of Jesus there were many times of pressure but they only forced him back on God, as on the day when crowds followed him to the desert and he went up to the mountain to drink in, through the long-delayed stillness, such a fresh draught of life as carried him over the rough sea before dawn."

Today I went to Camano Island for a while and set off some fireworks, and then came back to Bellingham and saw Spiderman 2. It was pretty good. Tommy and Pete had to keep reminding me that it was just a comic book made into a movie so of course it was going to be cheezy.

I also have to add to this that Amy is soooooo cool. I can't wait 'till we go to Senegal. Amy, you complete me. :)