What comes to mind when you hear the word shingles? Something that goes on your roof perhaps? A weird disease that old people get? These are the two things that typically come to mind whenever I hear the word (which isn't really very often)...until now...
Ever have one of those days that you think is going so great, and then bam something completely crazy and out of the blue happens? That's how I would sum up my Saturday last week. Things were going so great. I was enjoying the incredible blessing of great friends visiting from out of town. Amber had come from Fort Worth with her two precious boys and Allison had made a surprise visit from Baton Rouge. We were having the best time catching up, hanging out, talking, laughing, talking and laughing some more. It was so refreshing and just what I needed. I was trying really hard the whole day to ignore a rather annoying itchy bite that was on my back and seemed to be getting worse. I decided to have Amber look at it to see what she thought it might be. Like me, she agreed that it was perhaps a spider bite, but that the readness appeared to be moving in an upward pattern. In which case, if it were a spider bite could be really bad news. So off to urgent care I went. Where I discovered that at the ripe old age of 29, I had shingles. A stress induced post chicken pox virus that leaves one itching like crazy and with hyper sensitive nerves that can leave one in pain for months, sometimes even years. Great!! The even more wonderful news was that I needed to avoid small children and pregnant women so as to not pass along the chicken pox virus. Great again!! I immediately thought of Titus (4) and Justus (5mo) who had been at my house the past 24 hours and who I had definitely been holding and loving on quite a bit. After a few phone calls to the pediatrician Amber decided to pack up and head home...bummer..but definitely for the best. Allison decided to stay and mother me, which I gladly let her do. And boy was I sad to see her go on Sunday. But my roommate Jules lovingly jumped in to pick up right where she left off. I have great friends!!
So, on with the lesson. First a shingles lesson for you...
Shingles is derived from the chicken pox virus. Anyone who has had chicken pox can get shingles if under a lot of stress or with a weakened immune system (from cancer treatments or HIV). The chicken pox virus actually lays dorment in your system for the rest of our life. Huh, interesting..didn't know that one! No one can catch shingles. It is a reoccuring virus. You catch shingles from your very own pre-existing chicken pox condition. However, a person who has never had chicken pox can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles...but only through direct contact, not through the air. Shingles make their lovely appearance in the form of red bumps that itch and hurt a lot. They follow the pattern of your nerves if derived from stress. They also cause nerve pain which makes you ache and can even leave your skin hypersensitive to touch, even the touch of your very own clothes. Ok, so that's probably more than some of you wanted to know about shingles. And for those of you who want to know even more check out the Mayo Clinic website. It's very informative with pictures and all!
Now, the shingles lesson for me...
I haven't left the house since Saturday, well except to take out the trash and to see if I was missing great weather...and I was. But other than that it's been like leper central around our house. Ok, being a bit dramatic. My mind is in an intersting state after being cooped up and on pain meds all week. I've gotten plenty of rest, had plenty of time to think, read, nap, think, change my facebook status, and repeat. And in the midst of all that there's been plenty of time for the Lord to try and get a hold of me in regard to why all this happened in the first place. Today (Thursday) I finally decided to let him. Sheesh...took me long enough! Why do we...why do I...so often try to run from the very thing I need most? That lesson for another blog post. Stress-induced shingles. For a few days the itching and pain were so bad all I could think about was the shingles part. Now that I'm on the mend I'm sitting alone in my house, forced to look the "stress-induced" part dead in the face. For some reason my mind keeps going to the plagues in Exodus. God was trying to send a clear message...one that the Egyptians obviously weren't getting. And He stopped at nothing to get their attention. It's an ironic kind of love that I find myself so grateful for...he won't let me get away and he won't let me live my life foolishly. Sometimes I'm so busy that I end up there without even realizing it. And all for a good cause named ministry. When I first started in full time ministry I begged God to not let what I do for him to ever take the place of Him. He is so faithful to remember the prayers that we pray and then tend to forget. So, the cold hard truth is this...I think too much and pray to little, I carry the burdens of others, as well as myself, when I should be putting them on Jesus, the one who can acutally make a difference in these situations. I'm constantly emptying without being filled and I'm completely surrounded by people, yet without community. And the root of all this is me trying to live life on my own, void of an utter dependence on God. It feels so good to have my eyes opened to these things. The Lord has been so sweet through His Word and His presence today. This is one lesson I only want to learn once so I'm asking Him to keep me here until it sticks. And if this speaks to you at all, take my word for it...humble yourself before the Lord is forced to humble you.
George Muller is one of my favorite missionary heroes of the faith. He faced many challenges and many hardships throughout his ministry. One of his favorite verses was Psalm 84:11, "No good thing does He withould from those who walk uprightly." George was a man of incredible faith. If you haven't read his bio you should. He buried two of his own children as well as his wife during his lifetime. Each time he claimed this verse and saw his hardship as "the good thing". I sit here today to say that shingles is indeed the good thing that God has sent my way to demonstrate his amazing love and grace towards me and to bring me back to the incredible realization that daily life without Him is no life at all. He is indeed good!
Well folks, on this fabulous fall Friday in November the citizens of Houston, Texas are singing the praises of a man named Howard E. Butts...or at least I am! Mr. Butts is the original owner of the HEB grocery store which first opened in 1905. Today an HEB opened right down the street from me, and let me tell ya this is not your average grocery store. This my friends is a shopping experience. I went with my dear friend Courtney. We circled the entire store taking it all in...the scenery AND the samples. I was way too distracted to shop. On round two we decided we should probably get some groceries. It was my first grocery store grand opening experience. And the samples supplied my dinner for the night...literally. They had everything from fresh fruits, to various types of bread, to sushi rolls, to bavarian cream donuts and more! Here's a few pics I took with my phone. If you live in Houston you'll definitely want to stop by Bunker Hill and experience it for yourself!
Lobster...$5.99 a lb
There's a specialty section for just about everything.
This is the cheese shop.
This is where you can see cooking demonstrations
Amazing supply of fresh fish
Numberous breads for the taking...and the tasting
Hooray for COFFEE in bulk
Yes ladies and gentleman...presentation
really is everything
Fresh King Crab legs...they were HUGE and only $9.99 a lb.
Mikail Elise Kuntz was born on Feb. 2, 2008. She just celebrated her nine month birthday and she is a precious gift from heaven. She was a teny tiny thing, weighing only five pounds when she was born...at full term. And even now at 9mo, weighing just 15. I love it because every time I visit she acts older in the things that she is able to do...and the number of teeth in her mouth, but she always seems the same size. This is a great thing for the aunt that lives 1000 miles away and just HATES missing out on so much of her life. I am indeed her very proud aunt aims!!
Mikail was dedicated two weeks ago at North Church, the church that my bro and sis are helping to plant in St. Louis. This dedication was a simple, yet powerful commitment, both for the family as well as the the friends that David and Danielle currently live life with in their community. A commitment to teach Mikail about Jesus and to raise her in a godly home where she will have great opportunity to hear and see the gospel lived out on a daily basis. We pray that one day Mikail will come to understand and embrace the love of Jesus as her very own.
I thought I would share a few pics of this incredibly special day with you...
This past Saturday was Under the Texas Sky, the annual singles hoe down for my church, Houston's First Baptist. It was at an awesome German dance hall in Sealy, Texas called the Liedertafel Hall. It was a gorgeous fall night for eating BBQ under the stars and dancing to country music played live by a great band called Snake Bit. There were tons of fun things to do like a cookie bake off, pie eating contest, horse shoes, calf roping, and more. It was a blast! There are lots of fun pics from the night that you can check out on Stan's photo website.
I've recently discovered that I don't do serious pictures very well. The look I think I'm making and the look I'm actually making turn out different nine times out of ten. Go figure! Smiling is usually the better way to go for me. During the hoe down I was being coached on my serious face while posing in the "wanted" poster. My friend Courtney was a champ, enduring right along with me and making me laugh most of the time.
Since it's election day, I thought I'd run for aw-face to see which serious pose gets the most votes. Cast your vote now. And don't worry there's no electoral college here.
I'm Amy Kuntz......................and I approve this message!
3: pursed lips
4: one eyed squint
When I moved to Texas four years ago I fully expected having to acclimate myself to things that I wasn't quite accustomed to in Missouri. Pre-move I thought this might mean warmer winters, no seasons, no snow, lots of humidity, etc. Change in climate I could handle, no biggie. Change in insects however, I hadn't considered. I have a HUGE roach problem. Now I don't mean a problem with huge roaches. I mean a huge problem with ALL roaches. Until moving here I had never encountered roaches that cast there own shadows. It's stinking ridiculous. I'm getting the heebie geebies just thinking about it. uuuuck! And it doesn't matter how they come...big, small, wings, no wings, alive, dead...I don't want anything to do with them. This poses a big problem in the place I now call home. My incredible former roommate Sarah, a native Houstonian, was a blessing from God above because she grew up slaying roaches. I'll never forget the first time I encountered an enormous roach in our condo. It scurried across the kitchen floor. I saw it, screamed and did what I might now call the roach dance...which is a little bit like a hop, scurry and squeal in panic. Sarah thought for sure I had discovered some dead animal in the kitchen, like a cat or something. She laughed pretty hard when she discovered it was just a roach. And that was the beginning of her being my roach protector and slayer. I think the only time I killed a roach on my own was when I woke up to find one on my bathroom floor at 3 in the morning and I didn't have the heart to wake her up, or even to scream. I was tempted to just leave it be until I started thinking about where it could end up while I was asleep. With that thought I was able to muster up the killing courage...no problem.
Sara and I spent two awesome years together as roomies, with lots of roach killing and other great memories. She then went to Brazil where she has been the past four months. One of the last conversations we had before she left was in regard to Julie, my roomie to be. Sarah said, "watch her hate roaches more than you do...". I remember thinking "hate roaches more than me?...as if that's even possible" and then quickly praying "please God let her not hate roaches". So.... on one of the first few days after Julie moved in I was standing in the kitchen when I heard this blood curdling scream from the other room. I mean seriously, I thought something really awful had happened. I flew down the hall, asking Julie if she's ok, only to discover what I had most been dreading....a roach in the bathroom and Jules in a panic. I then did the only thing that could really be done. I bucked up, acted like the gross little thing didn't bother me a bit and I squashed the sucka! I even cleaned it up, which is actually worse to me cause then you gotta get close to it...ew. But after it was all over I said aloud, "I feel like I just became an adult." And it was in that moment that I was so thankful for Sarah, who was sort of like my roach mentor. Who by her courage and squashing ability taught me to stand up with courage on behalf of others in fear of roaches. Ha. It really was a big moment for me.
So the other day in an email I get the following pictures from Sarah in Brazil. How nice of her to take these and think of me. So thoughtful! Apparently the roaches here aren't anything compared to the ones they have in Brazil. Oh and she also mentioned a spider as big as her hand that she didn't get pictures of because she was too busy getting the heck out of there. No worries..I can do without pics of that. So, the hats and the boots and the hair might be bigger here, but thank God the "bigger" roaches are someplace else.
View at your own risk...
Here's Sara at 6 months and looking great!
Baby Blues
Such a poser for the camera these days.
A hug waiting to happen indeed!
Then there was the youth group reunion. I drove out to the country where my friend Rachel lives with her husband and three kids. I helped Rach shop, get the house ready and prepare food for 50 people. We spent the evening visiting with old friends...literally, some I have known since I was five...playing football, going on a hayride, building a bonfire, and looking at slides from youth group days--boy was that a trip. Nothing like photos of your most awkward stages to remind your how good it is that life really does move forward. Can I get an amen!
Bonfire building with my bro.
My dear friends Lizzy and Cherie who I've known for 20+ years.
Next was Kuntfest 2008...at least that's what I've decided to call it. On Sunday, we all skipped church (don't worry we went Sunday night) and headed out to Grafton, Illinois to a place that has been a special family spot for as long as I can remember...Eckert's Orchard. The drive there was so beautiful...along the Mississippi River, called the Great River Road. With the river on one side and bluffs covered with bursts of fall color on the other side....it was the perfect fall scene. We road a wagon out to the orchard to pick apples. The end of the season appeared to be drawing near and we found ourselves in a dilemma when all the apples were found either on the ground or up so high you could hardly reach them. But I should have known that wouldn't stop the men in my family. My brother, David, hoisted his wife, Danielle, on his shoulders and then proceeded to climb a tree with her on his back. My dad even climbed a tree. We left there with some of the best looking apples we had ever seen. Some had bruises, but we didn't care. There delivery to us was produced by a lot of love and determination. With pounds of apples in toe we began the scenic journey home. But not without a stop at the corner store where they sell the best pumpkin pie fudge I've ever had in my life. Over-dramatic? Not so much. I've searched high and low and have yet to find any that rivals it. I don't even know the name of the place. I just know its a white and blue building that sits on the corner and has a sign out front that says "Fudge". That's good enough for me.
Ok, I saved the best for last. I know, hard to believe when everything prior has been so great. Sunday night was my last night with the fam. We had the best celebration of all. My sweet niece was dedicated during the serve at her church on Sunday night. David and Danielle are part of North Church which they have been helping to plant for the last year and a half. The entire service was centered around being godly parents and then ended with a parent commitment, as well as a community commitment to live gospel transformed lives before Mikail in hope and prayer that her life would in turn be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was similar to a wedding where the parents recite vows and make "I do" statements. And then they asked the family and church members to do the same. I committed to living a "gospel transformed life" in front of Mikail. Wow, that's quite a commitment. I was challenged to think about if I do that consistantly now with the rest of my family and was led to the realizaton that I do not. Sometimes the safety and comfort of family can cause us to be more careless with our attitudes and words causing us to look more like us and less like Christ. Is it just me??? The dedication challenged me to refocus my commitment to walk in my true identity...as a person who has been completely transformed by the gospel. And not just for me to know, but for you to find out!
Yahoo! I'm finally back in the internet saddle, and oh so glad to be. I figure now that I'm "from" Texas I can get away with using such talk. He he! Now that I am back online, I have lots of catching up to do. I'll start with a report on the women's retreat from this weekend, The Power of a Word. God showed up and definitely gave me a word...or two...or tons, really. It was exactly what I needed. There's nothing quite like that end of a retreat feel of being run over and refreshed all at the same time. An interesting paradox, I know. But true none the less. We had an incredible speaker and worship leaders. The presence and power of God were strongly evident. I could write about several great things but think I'll stick to two very specific things that I hope I never forget...
1. Kelly Matte, our Pastors wife, gave a word for early risers on Saturday morning. Anyone that wanted to join Kelly at 6:30 was invited to do so. One of the first things she said was,"I need you to know that Kelly Matte is not worth getting up this early in the morning for...but Jesus is. I think they both were and I'm SO glad I went. Kelly taught from Matthew 11:28-30 on 'Coming to Jesus for the REST of our lives'. This portion of scripture is addressed directly to the weary and burdened and a divine invitation to come to Jesus for rest. The definition for rest here is "the cessation of our toils." There are many things in life to toil over...things that can easily consume our lives. But this toiling is contrary to the abundant life that Jesus offers and the very place we often find ourselves when we choose to live life in our own strength. This toiling leads us to be worrysome, fearful, insecure, stressed out people. Kelly then asked a question that really shook me to my core...who would you be without all of your toiling? Remove all of the stress and strife, fear, insecurity, people-pleasing, etc....who would you be? She then asked us to call out our responses from around the room. I was going to list some of them for you here, but even as I type I cannot recall a single answer except for the one that I gave...perhaps because it was pounding so loudly in my ears at the time. The answer that I could hardly keep to myself was....COURAGEOUS. That's who I would be without all of my toiling! I would be a person who goes when/where God says go and who speaks when God says speak...without thought or hesitation. My eyes were open to how often I hold myself back in situations for all the wrong reasons. I want to be fearless for Him and I'm ask Him even now to change me.
So...who would you be without all of your toiling?
2. Many of you know from my previous post that I have been preparing a breakout talk on 'waiting' for the last several weeks...months...29 years really! The Lord has been speaking and orchestrating the details of this talk every step of the way. And Saturday, the very day of the talk, was no different. I was unexpectedly and a little irritatingly wide awake at 5am on saturay morning, thinking perhaps this was the Lord's final lesson in making me wait the long five hours to 10am, when I was scheduled to give the talk. However, this wasn't the end of the preparation. During the morning session I was asking the Lord to bring to mind a story that would allow me to put a personal touch on my talk as well as be a good illustration of waiting in my life. I knew there were several, but for whatever reason was having a hard time recalling just the right one. As always the Lord knew just what He was doing and brought to mind a very powerful reminder during our worship time. The words of a favorite and familiar hymn took me suddenly back to the pew of my home church where at just 17 years old the Lord transformed my thinking in regard to waiting on Him. I have no idea why I hadn't thought of this before and even had to chuckle over the Lord's waiting until just the last moment to recall it to my mind.
As a 17 year old, having just graduated from high school, I was seeking the Lord for direction in regard to my future. College wasn't of much interest to me at the time. Degree's didn't really seem necessary for things like marriage and children. There wasn't a whole lots else I was interested in then. I figured what better career could there be than family and I made the decision to stay home, knowing instantly that this was my own way and not the Lord's. So off to college I went... It was at this same time that I stood in sanctuary of the small Bible church where I grew up in St. Louis singing these words for about the 100th time...
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand has provided
Great is Thy Faithfulness Lord unto me
Only that day it was like hearing the words for the very first time and they may have looked, or felt, a little more like this...
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
ALL I HAVE NEEDED THY HAND HAS PROVIDED
Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me
Is was as if that particular line jumped off the screen and straight into my heart, as I heard the Lord whisper with such gentleness and grace...if you don't have it, its because you don't NEED it.
I'm so thankful that at 17 the Lord allowed me to grasp the idea of his mercy being demonstrated in witholding things from his children. There are so many things...God glorifying things that I want sometimes. Things that I think are good, but that God from His sovereign, all knowing, big picture perspective knows are not.
As I shared this story in my breakout session I was able to give glory to God for His all sufficent, all satisfying provision over our wants and our waits. He makes no mistakes. And my life...your life...doesn't just happen to be the one exception. There are NO exceptions. Whatever you are waiting for...give thanks to God that he's sparing you from something you think you need, but that he knows for whatever reason, at this exact moment...you don't. He is lavishing his infinite love on me...and on you as he withholds. What a great God!! I pray He gives our hearts and our minds a deeper understand of this as His ultimate goodness.
