My Utmost

Oswald Chambers is one of my heroes. Have I ever mentioned that? Because I know I've blogged about him before...

He is SO blog worthy though, and this is why.

I've been wrestling with myself a lot since I moved back to South Dakota. Mostly about how I can live a "normal" life, around "normal" people, but not become "normal" in my relationship with the Lord. I'm humbled to admit that becoming stagnate or mundane - "normal" if you will - in my every day relationship with the Lord is a great fear of mine, and one of the number one reasons I didn't want to move back here. However, I cannot live here under a lie to myself that I must prove otherwise, because I believe the Lord has me here for another reason. Something other than living here for a period of time to come out on the other end victoriously proving myself. I want to live my life here in such a way that other people are affected for good. And turn around to affect the Kingdom of God. That doesn't sound so hard reading it as a write it, but I know that people(being the main thing I hope to affect) can really test and try a person's flesh. So, back to Oswald. Yesterday was an exceptionally tough day within the mind of Elise, and this is what I read:

A Spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand- "Believe this and that;" but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One Whom the Bible reveals. (John 5:39-40) We are called to present liberty of conscience, not liberty of view. If we are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty- the liberty of realizing the dominance of Jesus Christ.
Always keep your life measured by the standards of Jesus. Bow your neck to His yoke alone, and to no other yoke whatever; and be careful to see that you never bind a yoke on others that is not placed by Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us out of the way of thinking that unless everyone sees as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God's view. There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don't get impatient, remember how God dealt with you- with patience and with gentleness; but never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples", not "make converts to your opinions".

Good, right? It was SO good for me. Thank you Oswald, I'll take it!

:::inspired:::

Today was gloomy. Chilly.. and rainy. All day I felt like I should be doing something... and everything I wanted to do was, I believe, brought out by the weather we were experiencing. I decided instead of trying to rightfully capture all I wanted to do with words, I would use these...


On this day...


I want to read my Bible,


while I drink loads of piping hot coffee.


I'm on my best creativity behavior.


And I want to catch an old movie on TV.


I want to have a dance party all by myself,


and I want to pick up something like this...


at a place like this :)


I want to eat good meals,


while I get lost in a good book.


And always, always, I want to pull the cutest, most colorful outfit together with a great pair of shoes!


Happy rainy day!

Watch out! He knows Kung Fu!

I'm so late, I debated whether or not to even write this blog. But it only seems right that I give my dad, Superman as he likes to call himself, a birthday blog.

My dad turned 49 on April 14th. It seems strange to think of him at this age... so many of my memories have him pinned at a permanent 35 ish. Joseph Allen Moslander is a man full of memories, stories, laughter and lessons. He grew up remembering everything is seems like, which makes "story time" always a delight! I definitely did not inherit a good memory from him. My dad, who is a preacher- and was at heart even for the seven years he was a police officer- is always thinking up a "great idea" for a sermon series. And quite honestly, they're always pretty creative... I can't give away too much, but just tonight he talked to me about doing one on the seven deadly sins using a famous TV Land favorite that involves a ship wreck with seven unlikely co-passengers... If you know what I'm getting at :) If not, I guess you'll just have to come to church in a few weeks or go online and listen in to hear more!

Anyway... My dad is a very gently man who is almost never loud, but a man who loves his family and most importantly the Lord with all his heart! He has passed down a lot of life lessons, stories, and Bible info... But I will always carry with me his example of loving God and His Word. And loving people for who they are. He's really good at that.

Thank you dad for everything you are. I admire you, I believe in you, and I want to be like you when I grow up! You truly are my Superman. I love you.


On the water... A place we both love with all our hearts!


Our most recent picture together. Crazy-eyed El and Ghetto-pout Jo

Post it!

I have a fascination with post-it notes. Since September I have used them in every shape and color for all kind of purposes. They are great for taking notes, giving notes... or keeping your place in a book. I mean really...








Best invention ever! Recently I was running low on post-its so I went out and bought new ones. Super bright colors... I was so excited! When I opened the package of them, to my delight a little mini package fell out. Inside contained samples of other great sticky things that Post-It makes. I was over joyed! I haven't used them yet... I'm waiting for just the right thing to stick them to...

There's a mouse in the house. And I'm callin' him the Common Cold.

Sometimes I just want to get excited and jump around while shouting about new awesome things or events taking place in my life! Other times I want to yell and scream about the weird and crazy and stupid things that a special La Prima has just told me on the phone!

The thing is... right now, when I do either of those things, I squeak.

It's all in her name...

I have one sister. A sister who is more beautiful from the inside out than any other person I know. A sister who really looks up to me, even when I'm not much to look up to. She attracts people with her smile, her voice, her love, and her eyes. She is a one-of-a-kind sister. My sister... and I love her :)

Urbandictionary.com describes "a Christiana" as: A beautiful girl that is very cheery and always lightens up the room. She is very pretty. She is known to be hyper and never shuts up. It can also be an adjective of being someone who is always putting a smile on some one's face with her hilarious statements.

I took the good parts that I thought were the truth. Sometimes urbandictionary.com can be weird... haha

Anyway... Christiana Spring turned 19 on March 5th. I'm bummed I couldn't be there... but can't wait to go home and watch her walk the Grand March for her Senior Prom.

Christiana: Get ready for tons of hair and makeup practice! We're gonna make it look awesome!!! And Happy Birthday! I love you, am proud of you, and would be a better person to be more like you!

(I am embarrassed for myself, but Christiana looks SO cute in this picture!)


This is us being silly at Chili's. Girls Day in Sioux Falls a couple years ago.

This is our most recent picture together. I had just taken her to get her nose pierced :)

I've made it. I am actually sitting down. Breathing normally. At Starbucks instead of a meeting... The sun in shining, and I feel like a load is off my shoulders.

You see, two and a half weeks ago, my best friend, Julia, came to visit! This is just where all the craziness starts; she had nothing to do with any of it other than the fact that she was my stress and comic relief at the end of every day. Let me just give you a run down of what I've been doing since that day... not so long ago. ...

Tuesday, February 16th:
8:30am- Staff Meeting
10:30am- Lecture
12:30pm- Lunch/One-on-one with Lukas
2pm- Pick up Julia!!
4:30pm- Meeting

Hang out with Julia.

Wednesday we hung out and joined the DTS for worship that night.

Thursday, Febraury 18th:
7:30am- Staff meeting
8:30am- Base Intercession
10:30am- Haircut with Cary (she's a YWAMer on the base, and gives great deals! It's awesome!!)
12:30pm- Lunch/One-on-one with Chelsea
4:30pm- Meeting
6pm- Mexican for dinner!!

Night Off.

Friday and Saturday we had the chance to go to Kauai and visit the team of people that have just moved over there to pioneer a new YWAM Base. It was an amazing couple days... and I only did work that could be done over the phone, which meant I had a half vacation. It was SO nice!!

Sunday we hung out with another friend visiting from Oregon and then said goodbye to her.

Monday, Febraury 22nd- Sunday, February 28th is litterally blank in my planner. I was SO busy, I didn't even have time to write stuff down. Haha. But stuff was definitely happening.
Tuesday marked the first day of outreach teams from the September DTS returning. The Nepal and Thailand teams came back. We took the outreach leaders out to coffee and someone else brought the students and their luggage back to the base. After two months in another country, leading students who ask questions none stop, complain about not always knowing stuff, and always thinking their leaders are keeping secrets from them, are among the many reasons we give the leaders an escape from being with their students. It may seem mean... but you come and staff a DTS and then you'll understand.
The two other teams from the September DTS were scheduled to arrive, flying from Fiji, on Friday morning bright and early. Thursday night, around 8pm, I get a phone call from a frantic leader from the Fiji team. Buna informs me that the re-entry letters we (YWAM Honolulu) have written for all the Canadians and Europeans have the wrong entry date on them, and they will not be able to leave without getting that changed. Well, let me just tell you... that is a lot easier said than done! So, from 8pm until a little after midnight I, along with a couple helpers, worked on rewriting each letter with the correct date, trying to fax them to the airport in Fiji, and after many failed attempts, having to email them there instead. What makes this even worse, is ten minutes before the teams are supposed to be boarding, I get another call from them. One of the students from Norway does not have proof that she will be leaving Honolulu to go back to Norway after so many days. Which is a big no, no. Even though there are some questions as to how and why they did this, because of that, the airline would not allow the student to even check in. Therefore, she missed her flight and had to watch as her whole team, and the other team, left for Honolulu... without her. She was able to catch the Sunday flight out, but still... I felt SO bad for her!
We had debriefing for the returning school on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
And yes, we still had jobs to do and things to get done amidst the craziness of a Tsunami warning! Staffing DTS really is a 24/7 job.

Sunday, February 28th:
10am- Church
5:30pm- September 2009 DTS Graduation!!! (WOO HOO!)

Monday, March 1st- Wednesday, March 3rd (the day Julia left ) all the students left one by one.

Yesterday I debriefed the returning outreach staff. It was really great to see them and spend time hearing about all the things they learned from leading the teams. How the Lord used them, and worked in them. Those parts of my job are what I love the most.

So, here I am. Still at Starbucks. I kind of feel like a normal person, who lives a normal life. But, then again, we're not called to live a "normal" life, are we?

Lord, thank you for everything you do in my life. Even the crazy parts of my job... May your name be glorified at the end of all my days. No matter what!

Here's me... being normal... in Starbucks. :)