Water Brings Life

At some point, I’ll figure out how to put a picture of myself here. But, I’m not technically savvy enough, yet.

So, who am I and why am I charging at windmills? Ummm. Wow. This is harder than I thought. We’ll start easy. Statistics.

Age:39 Gender: Female Marital Status: Happily hitched to the best man I’ve ever known Current occupation: Wife and mother Kids: 2 seven year olds, 1 girl, 1 boy

We live in Raleigh, NC. I am able to “stay at home” which means I have a crazy number of jobs instead of working mothers’ insanely crazy numbers. We have a place to live, food to eat, air conditioning, medical insurance and an Internet connection. In other words, we’re blessed beyond my capability to fathom.

Before I was a mom, I was a chemist. My lab tested environmental samples for various pollutants. We also tested drinking water samples to insure that they met the standards set by the EPA. Almost always, those samples came out sparkling clean. When we got a positive result, it was usually from too much chlorine or, once in a great, great while, we’d get a hit for bacteria. When that happened, our client’s facility ground to a stop until they could determine the cause and scope of the problem. News flashes were released to let the public know they needed to boil their water for the next 24 hours, or whatever. Our lab was inspected at least annually by the EPA and other regulatory agencies to insure that our analytical standards were up to snuff. In fact, it wasn’t just our facility and our operating procedures that were inspected…the inspectors also watched our chemists perform analyses and quizzed us on our area of expertise. After all, people’s lives depended on our doing our jobs correctly. Water is a passion for me.

I’ve been following Christ for over a decade now. I have been amazed at how God has peeled the armor off of my heart and has taught me to love people I had always detested before I knew Him. That means basically anyone who is a woman (I was a huge misogynist!), anyone who was not as smart as me and anyone who was smarter than me. Oh, and pretty much anyone who disagreed with me…or agreed with me for reasons that I thought were stupid. I realized this year just how totally and completely my view of others has changed. I discovered mercy, love and acceptance had crept into the recesses of my heart. It’s been cool. People are a passion for me.

And then there’s the Church. From almost the very day that I knew I was a Christian (yes, for me there was a moment in time conversion), I have been passionate about waking up the sleepers in the pews. A friend once described himself as a pillow of the church, as opposed to a pillar of the church. That has always stuck with me. If I could find a way to introduce people to the God I am learning to know, to the relationship I have with Him, to the way learning to see through His eyes has changed the way I see everything around me and the world at large…well, Good Lord, they couldn’t remain pillows! It’s too exciting! It’s too big! It’s too amazing for anyone to want to sit on the sidelines and sleep their way through the limited time we have here before we go “There”! The Power of the Church that is missing because people are sleeping staggers my mind and breaks my heart. Ok, and it makes me mad…but I’m working on the anger thing. The Church is a HUGE passion for me.

One night at our small group I had sort of an epiphany. Read about that here if you’re interested. The long and short of it is, I realized that I am passionate about water. I am passionate about people. And, I am passionate about the Church.

And, now, I’ve found a way to use my gifts and my passions at full throttle, a dead out sprint, until God tells me to stop or change directions. Thus, this site.