Aftermath

Joplin, MO

f4 Tornado

Death toll at 125

Many injured, over 200 missing

It's sometimes hard to grasp tragedies when they don't actually touch our lives, but that doesn't make them any less horrible or real.

I found this video on Louie Giglio's twitter. It's a group of people in the walk in cooler at a gas station when the tornado hit. It helps make the events real to those of us who aren't affected.

Some friends of ours who live in Joplin were hit, they are ok, just their house and cars were badly damaged.

We have some other friends there in Joplin whose house was hit, the house lost it's roof and some of the walls and windows.

In fact there was only a small portion of the house still intact...

The part where they were hiding.

The small part of the house where our friends were

My parents know a family who the mother survived but her husband and two children were at Home Depot and were killed.

So while you're praying, please remember these families.

Also, there have been tornadoes in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama and many other places, wreaking havoc and leaving devastated people behind.

Earthquakes in Pakistan, tsunamis in Japan, hurricanes in Haiti, floods, tornadoes, severe storms.

I don't think the world is ending. I think that we live in a fallen world and because of that fallenness, disasters happen.

But it's not ok for us to be wowed by a few pictures and after the excitement has worn off to forget about the people who are still just trying to get through the day.

So as Christians, let's remember those who are hurting and who are trying to rebuild their homes and their lives.

To Move On Is To Grow

Last week Grandma Stobart passed away so we went back to Missouri for the funeral.

She was diagnosed with cancer in February but just in the last few weeks she started getting worse.

We hated that we didn't get to see her at all while she was sick, the last time we saw her was at Christmas when she was perfectly healthy. Of course, it is nice to just have those happy memories.

Grandma Stobart with Josh as an ugly adorable baby

At our wedding. I think this is the only one with Josh's dad smiling.

Josh's brother, Matt, and Grandma Stobart at Matt's graduation

She was a very sweet lady with lots of love for everyone.

The first time I went to Stobart Christmas with Josh she just hugged me and acted like I was already part of the family. I never felt out of place at her house.

The forecast for last week was calling for rain every day. However the day of the funeral was sunny and 75 degrees so we were thankful for that. The funeral was hard for the whole family, but it was really nice to see everyone and we enjoyed our trip nonetheless.

We went to the Awards Banquet at Troy Holiness School.

Nick and Jillian with their awards.

I don't know what Josh was doing...

We went bowling with Matt, Nick and Cheska

Josh dances better than he bowls.

Matt is in a bowling league and bowls scores of 299, so he sits alone.

Jake Cannon.

Has the coolest tattoos.

And doesn't even think Nick is funny.

Nick(left) and Josh(right) have always been rock stars

Josh's mom graciously let us crash at her place, and crash we did...I think she was afraid her house would never get back in order. Josh's sister, Courtney, was back from college so we got to see her as well.

We also got to hang out with Jon Splean, Danny Kunza and David Woods.

We watched the best video clips from the Batman TV show in the 60's.

For a good laugh go to Youtube and type in "Batman rope 3" and "The Greatest Batusi Ever".

It's awesome.

On Sunday we made grandparent rounds. We visited both sets of my grandparents and Josh's other grandma. It was fun to get to visit with them.

Of course, Josh and my Grandpa Wegener get together and talk about theology, politics, genealogy, and church history...but that's fun.

We talked about the unbiblical book Love Wins by Rob Bell and how, according to certain groups, Jesus is supposedly returning on May 21 2011. Interesting.

And now we're safely back in Tennessee.

Rest by Joshua Stobart

My husband writes, plays and records music.

I think he's awesome.

Dear Mom

My mom on Easter.

She looks so pretty.

I love you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day.

Easter Sunday

That is what we looked like.

Although at the beginning of the day my hair looked curlier and less stringy.

150 Gallons of Wine

His big debut was not raising a corpse or the healing of a disease, it wasn't the exorcism of demons or even feeding a hungry crowd, the miracle that Jesus chose to kick off His three years of ministry was turning six, 20-30 gallon barrels of water into the most delicious wine ever tasted.

The first miracle that Christ ever performed was not restoring a deformed limb but restoring a family's reputation. It was not a life-threatening situation, it was an inconvenience. This is the only time on record that the Remedy remedied a mere embarrassing circumstance. Shouldn't He have been performing a miracle for someone who really needed it?

Well, He was and He did. I needed this miracle, the world needed this miracle. It is a simple message for the human race, "I care about every aspect of your life. Big or small." He weeps for the diseases that wreak havoc on our lives, He wraps His arms around us when we lose someone close to us, He holds our heart when it is breaking, but the most ridiculous thing is that He also sees and cares about the minute details of our everyday life. He doesn't just show up in a crisis. He cares about disasters and death, but He also cares about pimples and botched parties. Rumors, lost keys, stage fright, flat tires and high electric bills are neither beneath His attention nor His reach.

No matter what Jesus' first miracle had been His outrageous love would be the same, but I love the beautiful way in which He chose to show it.

By the way, it was wine, not grape juice.