IBC Blog

Formed

The Hunter & The Beast

Our safari was a dream-come-true-ending to our time in South Sudan. I was directing a short documentary for Water is Basic about a twelve-year-old girl, Jina, who walked six miles a day to collect enough water to keep her family alive. After two intense weeks of shooting footage with my small team in a remote Sudanese village, we were ready for an adventure. Every day we took in nature’s masterpiece. Breakfast on the plains in the cool of the morning as migrating herds passed without a care or sitting silently in stopped vehicles during the dead of night observing two dozen elephants crossing in front of us with nary a peep was magnificent. My favorite experience was the lion hunt.

Sitting in the dusty truck on the Maasai Mara in Kenya, I watched a mother lion stalk and capture a baby warthog with surprising stealth and speed. Picking up the flailing, screeching piglet in her jaws, she violently shook it until it lay limp. I thought she had shaken it dead.

Formed

Journey to Recovery

God brought me to Recovery at IBC on April 22, 2010 with the hope that this would be the place that would help my family to heal our brokenness and fix the broken thinking of my husband. I was honestly not ready to really look at myself, but Jesus knew this ministry would shed light on my own issues, even if I did not think I was the issue. I came to Recovery with him to make sure he came and participated in this program, yet I stayed for me.

Formed

Kingdom Minded

In times such as these, you don’t have to work very hard to find negativity. Just log on to Twitter or look at your not-so-friendly neighborhood Facebook page. Among all of the “what kind of snake is this” posts, and the “what should we pick up for dinner” posts, there are many comments from people complaining about community members, stating their political opinions, and flat out roasting other people for their opinions, thoughts, or behavior. Seriously, if I see one more “how dare you do that in this time” or “COVID is a hoax and this is dumb” post, I may very well lose my mind. How are we as Christians supposed to respond in hard times? Or more specifically, how do we remain focused on the kingdom of God in hard times?

Hope & Healing

My Journey of Grief

On the evening of December 7, 2006, I embarked on a long and hard journey that I never wanted. The journey of widowhood. Little did I know that while attending an event at IBC, my beloved husband Joe, my soul mate and best friend of 35 years, was entering the gates of Heaven and into the arms of His Savior.

During this season of grief, God whispered to my heart several times: “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

Formed

Prayer is a Portal

What if in order to be happy you had to embrace suffering? What do you think of when Jesus says you must die to yourself and pick up your cross?

God wants us to know Him more than anything else we do, but we have a big hurdle in the way that we allow to keep us from going to Him, when that hurdle is something that should drive us straight to Him: Suffering.

Suffering is one of the main things we run away from and avoid at all costs, yet no one has ever been able to escape it. So why do we run and how do we deal with suffering? How do we pick up our cross and die to ourselves?

As far back as I remember, I have known a type of suffering. I was always scared of people, scared of speaking, and scared of trying.

Formed

Are We There Yet?

Buc-ee’s is a Texas Chain of travel centers known for its clean bathrooms, many gas pumps, and an adorable red-hat wearing beaver mascot. In our house, we make sure that Buc-ee’s is a regular stop on any road trip. No matter what time of day we stop there, our routine is the same. We go in, go to the bathroom, grab my son’s favorite beef jerky, my daughter’s favorite jalapeño kolache, my husband’s brisket sandwich and I make sure to grab one of their Crispy Treats. There’s something so comforting about stopping at Buc-ee’s, because we know we can count on the same service, the same food, the same atmosphere, and the same clean bathroom. In essence, we feel safe at Buc-ee’s.

On any road trip, or any car trip in general, we will inevitably have one child pipe up from the back seat and say, “Are we there yet?”