If you participated and/or donated in our Water Drive last Christmas, I want to say thank you, and show you what you did:

Our little community helped a community in northern Ethiopia.

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.  For these precious ones in Ethiopia, thank you.

I tried to tweet this out several times, and from my phone, twitter.com, & tweet deck to no avail.  Apparently Twitter doesn’t want us to celebrate this awesomeness.

**teaser: I’m hoping to do a similar project this Christmas.  I’m working up the courage to ask the, hopefully, appropriate people.**

As I clicked the link in Twitter yesterday, I knew what to expect.  And before I read the first word my eyes were brimming with tears that could not be contained the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Blogger Duane Scott calls these moments the hard hallelujah.  The moments where joy of wholeness and healing drips with the pain of loved ones gone to be with their creator.  We rejoice because soon our beloved friend Gitz will soon be healed, but pain tears our hearts over the loss of such a dear friend

Last year I wrote a post about Gitz.  I wanted to share that with you during this time of hard hallelujah.  Gitz is a fighter, a perseverer.  She made an intentional decision to choose joy, and lived every day breathing it.

From her condo in Iowa, she has impacted and touched the lives over literally hundreds of people across the globe.  She’s gone places her body could never go through the power of social media.  I know I can say for everyone whom she’s touched, we love you Gitz.

When I first checked out Git’z blog, I didn’t stick around.  For some reason even though I was heart broken for this lovely lady, I just didn’t click.  However, that slowly changed.  Something inside did click one day and the next thing I knew I was adding her to my daily reads.

Here was a kind hearted, compassionate woman who was enduring more than most do in their lifetime.  One of the things that stands out to me most about Sara is the amount of grace she has.  While her disease reigns her life she doesn’t allow it to rule it.  What I mean is she doesn’t play the victim.  She’s open with her readers about her daily life and the struggles she endures but she doesn’t point a waggering finger at God and blame Him.

She trusts Him.

I’m not saying she’s never questioned God, because even the best of us would.  But she lives like the Apostle Paul.  She trusts that God can heal her but for His greater purpose has allowed her this “thorn in the side”.  And if that reason is only to show some people across the globe the grace that she can have and the endurance that He gives her than his purpose is being fulfilled.

One day Gitzy will be healed and will be whole.  She will be able to walk, run, and dance free of the pain that has taken up residence in her body; and I guarantee you she will not dance alone.  Her family and friends (readers) that live across the world will dance with her.

Over the months that I’ve daily read her blog I’ve grown to love her.  God has made her dear in my heart.

What Gitz has impressed upon me is to endure in the most difficult of times and to live my live full of grace.  Like her I have a choice to allow my circumstances rule my life or to trust in God.

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(original post)

Our kindred hearts are tied intimately together.  We breath almost as if as one.  These friendships – ties that bind us closer than a brother or sister.

Our hearts beat and we know the exhaustion, pain, and joy of another.  We know deeper meanings and the words between the lines.

Whispers of love and hugs we only hope to one day redeem.  These miles that separate seem little compared to the closeness in which God has knit us together.

Community evolved.  I don’t fully understand it.  Its fingers have held my heart when it’s been unable to even lift a broken gaze from a barren, cold floor.  And I know from words spoken and those not, we all have felt those grips on our hearts and our hands hold us when we needed it the most.

Thank you for being part of my life.  For your words of wisdom and the laughs that rumble in my chest.  For the simple thoughts that when they arrive have a meaning far greater than infinity.  For your encouragements.

In what ways has your life been touched by someone you’ve become friends with via blogging and/or Twitter?

I love the story telling of Amber and Elora.  They spin words in to beautiful webs.  Every one of their posts are filled with multiple layers.  Filled with fancy descriptions of ordinary things.  I love reading their words because they wrap around and through me.

I wish I wrote more like they do.

When I was in college I planned to major in journalism.  I have always had a love to write.  Back then I wanted to be an editorial columnist.  I wanted to state the facts and share my heart in an honest way.  My mind doesn’t naturally come up creative words to describe the ordinary.  I have to work for it, and even then I am occasionally left wondering if the imagery works for the reader or just myself.

My writing here is more like what I wanted to do when I was in college:  the facts, my heart, in an honest way.

Earlier this year Jenny decided to take her blog in a different direction.  Focusing on photography.  Sharing her life through the lens of her Nikon.  The words she captures are beautiful.  Capturing a brief moment in life.  They are different than the words I type to create a new post.  The imagery is different than the ones given us by Amber and Elora.  Each of us is utilizing gifts and talents that God wrote into our DNA.

God has given us each gifts and talents that are different from those we are close to.  He made us unique.  For this I’m glad.  How boring would it be to read the same style of writing from everyone.