Writing season

Wow... I should rename my blogs "the highly neglected blogs" or something. It has been an extremely busy summer. Hot and busy. It was a great year for the gardener side of my brain, though it seems I don't take too well to weeding in triple-digit temps. But I did have a grand haul from the garden. It seems to be slowing down now that cooler temps are here, so maybe I will have more time to play writer. I've sorta been stuck on this project, but lately I've received some encouragement that may get me jump-started. I hope. I have a fictional bug I have to work out first, though... Oh, and I'm looking into publishing options because working towards a goal is a huge motivator for me. w00t! It's been a long break, but I'm getting excited to get back into my writing :D

Bible Memorization

Announcing a new blog!  Yes, just what I need: another blog. As if I do such a great job with keeping up with the ones I have :P A thousand apologies! I hope to rectify that malady. Anyway, hopefully this one will be interesting and educational ;)  Check it out! Follow! Learn! http://dailybiblewalk.blogspot.com/

The chance to make a difference

Check it out! I just added two new banners to my blog. I want to explain what they are about.

Well, if you click the first one, it actually tells you what it's all about. Basically, I've been working on putting together a weekend project where people can come out and help build the cabins for Teen Harvest's family reconciliation retreat ministry as well as do a few other projects around the Teen Harvest property. This event is planned to take place in the Spring and we are already seeing people eager to help out. It's definitely a God thing!

So the second banner is actually a paypal button to make it super easy for people to get involved, no matter where you are in the world. You just click it and fill in all the info. Simple way to make a huge difference. For those who prefer to mail checks or money orders, the Teen Harvest mailing address is available at teenharvest.com Just click on the "Contact/Partnering" page.

And whether or not you are able to physically participate in the building or financially participate by donating, I know that every one of you can pray for this event. If you click the top banner, it will take you to the official blog post which includes a list of things to pray for as well as a PDF file including the plans and the materials needed. Please use these as guidelines to pray that the event goes well and pray about any part you may have in it. Thanks muchly and God bless!

~L.E. Neighbour

Ya Learn Something Everyday

I once heard it said that when you stop learning, you might's well lie down and die. Honestly, I think I've learned more since I graduated from college than I ever learned in college. In fact, lately I have been so busy learning I haven't even thought about writing. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be satisfied and stop rewriting my book and just leave it how it is. But I keep learning. And re-learning, sometimes.
In addition to reading a lot of the Bible, I've taken a fancy to reading theological books whenever I can get my paws on one. Lately I've been reading A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God" and eating it up. It's so good! As many books as I read on similar subjects, I'm always eager to hear another perspective on it. God is so vast and incomprehensible that countless numbers of people can write a book on the same subject and still come up with a different perspective. Kinda makes me think about how the Bible is so complete like that--no matter how many times you read it, you can always get something new out of it. And somebody else always comes up with another tidbit out of it! It's so awesome!
So lately, I've been so much enjoying studying and learning that I've completely put writing on hold (again). That is to say, I'm not re-writing anything right now. Just taking down more notes and thoughts. I think I've written about five books now :P

Oh brain, where art thou?

Yeah, funny thing about writing... it kinda takes brain power. Unfortunately I seem to have inherited this problem where my brain tries to think of so many things at once I can't process any one thing. So it takes extra concerted effort to focus on one task till it's finished. Fortunately I realize the problem so I am often able to cope with it, but sometimes my brain just gets too buzzy and it's hard to focus at all.
Like right now. I've got.... 5 projects I have in the front of my mind right now (including writing) and I am trying to concentrate on one: writing. But guess what? The superinformationhighway of my brain is clogged. As in, major traffic jam. Nothing's getting through anywhere. All I can think of is going outside and getting more oxygen then I come back inside and try to think of ways to write while sewing and studying and cooking and planning all at the same time. Needless to say, it's not working and it's not very productive. I actually got some writing done earlier but it's seriously hard to get anything through all that brain traffic.
So I'm working on different ways to diffuse this mental blockage. Generally when this happens I try to engage in a low-mental-capacity activity that is at least somewhat productive. Like transcribing music lyrics or trying new techniques on my guitar or making something that doesn't tax my brain too much. At least that way I feel somewhat productive. Just not productive in the ways that I want to be productive. Ahhh life is rough sometimes.
But you know what the good thing is? Sometimes blogging gets my brain jump-started and helps me focus my brain in the right direction (writing). I guess that's why I have over a dozen blogs. Whoops, did I just admit that in public? 0:-)
Alright... writing attempt 253 going down right... about... now!

And the Band Just Marches On...

Yikes! Time moves too quickly sometimes. Things have been so crazy lately I haven't gotten much writing done. It's frustrating sometimes when I get too busy to write, but I just have to trust that God's working things out.
No matter what else I'm occupied with, my book seems to always be stewing in the back of my mind. I'm always thinking of issues that need to be addressed and sometimes it's a bit overwhelming to think of how messed up the world is. Sometimes I wish I could write a book that would fix everything, but I realize how futile an attempt that would be. That's why I want to write a book that strikes as close to the heart of the problem as possible... even that is a daunting task.
Yesterday I found a spare moment to write down some more thoughts and I was able to streamline my outline a little better. I'm also going to try to take it from a slightly different angle. That means more re-writing. I hope I'm not being too much of a perfectionist. But I figure as long as I'm still looking for publishers anyway, I might as well "perfect" things as much as possible, right? ;)  I'm starting to get pretty excited about finishing, even though it's quite a ways away yet, I'm afraid :-/  The more I work at it, the closer it gets, though!
Off to write some more... I have a moment and I'm feeling inspired ;)

Dragging along...

Well I haven't gotten much of anything done book-wise lately because I've been working on planning my trip to OH and getting things worked out. I'm still unsure about some of it, so this should be fun :P  Anyway I was hoping to at least have finished my chapter summaries by now... but there's still a lot to do to get ready to leave so there's not much time for anything else. So I guess this means yet another pause on writing for a couple weeks. Ack! No wonder I'm not done yet, with all these distractions! :P
On a good note, I have been getting some potentially good connections and getting more requests for my book, so it's good! :D

Cozy writing and untangling a ball of string

My Stash Box* is crammed full of cheeze its, my instrumental CD is in the player, and my notes and paper and such are spread around me just so. And I've been writing. Slowly, but any progress is good right now. The chapter summaries are coming along pretty well, I think. They just take a lot of time and thinking and scribbling/rewriting. In case I didn't mention it previously (though I think I did?) the point of this is to help me get my material organized (and as a side benefit will help me figure out how many chapters I'll have so I have a real answer whenever people ask me that. Why do people always ask that anyway?).
I love to organize, so this part should be fun, right? Ha! Ok maybe I should specify: I love organizing THINGS. Not necessarily information. What's the difference, you ask? Well, when organizing things, you can organize alphabetically, by color, by size, by shape, etc... endless possibilities of physical attributes which make it easy to decide how to organize things in order to make them aesthetically pleasing or easy-to-find.
So why should it be any different for organizing information? Don't I just want to make it easy to find? Well maybe... but there's this little thing called logical order that keeps getting in my way. You see, sometimes when writing you have to build stuff "precept upon precept", kind of like building a building. Or if you were describing something in a room you would use spatial order (i.e. describe what's closest to you first). But my content is so intertwined sometimes it's hard to decide what should go where. Sometimes I just need to briefly mention something then explain it later.
I think I may have complained about explained this before, using a slightly different word picture. But this time I'm likening it to untying knots. BTW, untying physical knots happens to be a bit of a specialty of mine and I often like to untie logical knots. But this seems to be in a class of its own. Or maybe I am just making this harder for myself than it really is. I have a bad habit of doing this, too. Hmmmm. I think maybe I just need more cheese-its :D

(*my "stash box" is a special little box [location: classified] in which I keep little muchies/goodies [like chocolate!] that I want need to keep hidden from the vulturous male population of the household. Not to mention from mum who is also a muncher. Now you know where I get it!)

Re-buried in books

Yikes it's been forever since I've blogged. It's also been a long time since I've been able to write. Things have been so busy around the house between produce coming in, more students in our boarding school, everyday farm life, finishing/moving into my new bedroom, and just those everyday unexpected things that just happen. Yes, life has been crazy, but it has also been good. I'm hoping that things will settle down now for a little while and enable me to pay more attention to my writing.
Right now I am working on writing chapter summaries in order to help me get my content organized. HOPEFULLY that will be quite helpful in getting things FINISHED. Oy! So much to do! ^_^  Hope you all have had a great summer! It's not quite over yet, even if school has started around here ;)

Speak up, I can't hear you!

Also posted at http://lenscarabocchi.blogspot.com/
“Preach the Gospel to every nation and if necessary, use words.”  This has become a very commonly-heard quote in the Christian world today. It was a wise thing for St Francis of Assisi to say, but I wonder if he ever realized how detrimental it would become to Christianity. Rather than being a call to live out what you believe, it has become a sort of scapegoat for complacency. People take it as a reason to be silent about their faith. They say “oh, I’ll just preach by the way I live and people will come to know God.” But is that true? Where is that found in the Bible? I highly doubt you would ever see Jesus take on that sort of attitude. Or could you imagine Peter saying that?  Oh how quickly the fire of the gospel would have gone out, had the early church leaders taken on that sort of attitude.

As I posted earlier, words are extremely important in communication. It would be very true to say that actions and body language are extremely important in communication as well¾the saying “actions speak louder than words” is very true. HOWEVER, that does not negate the power and importance of words. There are some people in the world who, from the outside, may appear to be very happy, wise, generous, loving, or a thousand other virtues… What’s to distinguish them from those who live such lives genuinely through Christ? Their words do! Those who are living a virtuous life because they are allowing CHRIST to live through them are going to be telling people the real reason for their joy etc.  Human eyes are all-too-easily deceived. How are they to see the real Christ in you if they don’t know what the real Christ looks like? It is up to you to tell them!

How could anyone be silent after receiving so great a gift as salvation? As Jesus said, that’s like lightning a candle and putting it under a basket. Or nowadays he might say that’s like turning on your lamp and then putting it into a box where nobody can see it. What good is it to anybody? If we have a light fixture, we’re going to put it out where it sheds light for everybody so they can see where they’re going! In practical application that means you go out and teach people the truth¾you show them that on their own they are going to hell. You don’t be rude or condemning about it, you merely shine the light of truth on the facts that are present. 

You know why more people don’t do that? It is out of fear. Nobody likes to be disliked and when you present truth, it hurts like a bright light being turned on after pitch darkness and unfortunately a lot of times that makes people dislike you. But why should fear of being disliked keep you from saving lives? Why should that fear steal the joy that a life in Christ gives you? Unfortunately it is true that some people will hate you. In fact, no matter what you do some people will hate you. Hello, Jesus promised people would hate you! So why should that stop you from doing what He told you to do? Let us not forget it is also true that some people will love you for taking the time to love them and show them the error of their ways and help them to be healed and turned toward the Son.

Don’t let complacency or fear get in the way of the furtherance of the Kingdom. Yes, do go and preach the gospel to every nation and use words when necessary. But never forget, words ARE necessary. Always.