becka lippy

Hello all! I know it's been quite a while since I posted here. To be honest, I've had a rough few weeks. Why? you ask. Well, basically through the course of a few events, and a few people, the Lord showed me just how little I trust Him. So we had a bit of a wrestling match over the past few weeks and I bet you can guess who won. But this past week has been much calmer. I still feel like my trust is much more "head" trust than "heart" trust, but it's okay because I have seen the Lord's faithfulness in this time and I know He won't let me go. So tonight is my last night as a 27 year old. I had an asado (bbq) last week for my birthday. Honestly, I don't really like to celebrate my birthday. It has nothing to do with getting older. Actually, in some weird way I like the fact that I am getting older. I don't feel like Im as mature as I should be at this age, but I like to think that with age comes wisdom and I really want that. So bring on the

10. the noise 9. the constant movement 8. awesome access to public transit 7. better shopping opportunites 6. working close to where you live 5. having neighbors from all over the world 4. having the police close by pretty consistently (although, its sucks needing the police to be close by consistently 3. sitting at my windowsill and watching my neighborhood in action 2. you can't avoid the reality of life (the homeless, prostitutes, general breakdown of society) 1. God loves the city!!! One reason I DON'T like the city: having to deal with my completely rational fear of pigeons!!!

An awesome post from Justin Taylor that I just had to repost. Of course, he is quoting Kevin DeYoung... so this is a re-repost! Enjoy!!!! Parent-Child Conversations on the Gospel Kevin DeYoung gives a fairly typical example of what gospel-centered attempts at parenting can look like in action: Me: What’s the matter son? Child: I want that toy and he won’t give it to me! Me: Why do you want the toy? Child: I don’t know. Me: What’s going on in your heart when you desire that toy? Child: I don’t know. Me: Think about it son. Use your brain. Don’t you know something? Child: I guess I just want the toy. Me: Obviously. But why? Child: I don’t know. Me: Fine. [Mental note: abandon "why" questions and skip straight to leading questions.] Do you think he is having fun playing with the toy right now? Child: No. Me: Really?! He’s not having fun? Then why does he want that toy in the first place? Child: Because he’s mean. Me: Have you ever considered that maybe you are being mean by try

This blog is dedicated to Ale and Pao for going against their own culture to serve their families. You are inspirational to me! In light of this week's celebration of mothers, I want to share some thoughts I've been working through while living here. You see, being a mom is a HUGE dream of mine. And when I say huge, I mean gigantic. I have wanted to be a mom since I was 3 and my brother and sister were born. I think tends to be a somewhat natural desire among women across cultures. But how motherhood looks, what is expected of mothers is quite different from one culture to another. One of the benefits of living in another culture is being able to judge more clearly your own. One of the big differences between chilean and gringo culture is the role of the family. Here, families spend a lot of time together. I mean, seriously, even my adult students will spend all day saturday at their parents house. Just hanging out. No particular purpose. I think this is great. I love that fami

Each year, on Mother's Day I post a note about my mom. Often I am far far across the world and can't wish her happy mother's day to her face, so the blog has to suffice. This year, we are even further away. She and my brother are travelling around India for a month. I know, adventurism runs in the family. (Mom, don't fight me on the word "adventurism", I'm an English teacher!) Anyways, here is a photo of my mom in India: Isn't she absolutely beautiful? Happy Mother's Day mom. I love you mucho and I'm so proud of you for all that you have accomplished! A note about my grandma: I can't celebrate Mother's Day without a special shout out to my wonderful grandma. She is truly one of my favorite people in the whole world and I am so blessed to have her in my life. What other grandmas buy and learn how to use computers, video cameras, and skype so they can stay in touch with their grandaughters? My grandma Phyllis is a gem! Love you grandma!!!

Warning: grandma (and all other Jewish mothers), please be forwarned that this post is very honest about my life and you may or may not want to read it. So as I have mentioned before, I live in a building that is generally occupied by prostitutes. Most of the apartments are used as places of "business" for my neighbors. This means that certain awkward situations arise at times. Like when a guy goes through the building knocking on random doors waiting for one to open with a girl ready to go. When these guys knock on my door, usually they knock once, realize I'm not a prostitute and then move on. But last week, this guy kept knocking at my door. Don't worry, I don't EVER open my door for a stranger, but this one took a firm declaration to LEAVE MY DOOR! And he did. Now, usually my awkward moments are more like riding in the tiny elevator that only fits 3 people, with a neighbor and her client. Awkward, but okay. But this morning my building sank to a new all low. T

I have a friend here, I'll all her Mary. She's going through an interesting phase in her life, getting ready for marriage, learning through some interesting trials what God wants to teach her. And as she is sharing with me all that the Lord is teaching her, I feel the Lord preparing me for a change. I started reading "I kissed dating goodbye" by Joshua Harris. And before you go and get all worked up about how you don't like the book, let me just say that I don't agree with everything, but I sure do agree with a lot. It's making me feel even more resolute in a lot of my convictions concerning dating. Here in Chile, it's really common to have a palolo (boyfriend). It's NOT common to be single for a purpose. It's really common to make out in public. Seriously, ask anyone who has lived here and we have plenty of stories of couples rubbing up against us as they make out on the bus. Gross, right? And before you go thinking that this kind of behavior

Life is moving pretty fast these days. I find the days moving pretty quickly and the weeks are just flying. The time between each weekend seems so long when I am facing Monday morning, but come tonight, a Thursday night, I can't believe I'm only one day away from Saturday! Part of the reason the time flies is that there is just so much to do! I have my "real" job, teaching English at the Central Depository of the Stock Exchange (or at least that's how I translate it). And I like my job. I like most of my students, I have a pretty good schedule, and they pay decently. But this isn't my life or at least not all of it. When I think about my life, I think about my church, my sweet community that I have there and all the work there is to do in our tiny church plant. There are these three girls that I have started to teach how to read the Bible. They are all fairly new to their christian walks and its so exciting to get to study the Bible with them!One of them who I

Today is the day! My dear friend Michelle and her beloved Ernest tie the knot. I met Michelle at Westminster, in fact we met on the first day and it didn't take us long to realize we were gonna be lifers. Over the course of our friendship, now almost 4 years, we have seen each other through soooo much. Especially in terms of relationships. Both of us have had our heart broken, have loved foolish men who didn't know how to treat a daughter of the King, and have longed for a man who would love us for who we were. Michelle met Ernest through our friend Julie. Because Ernest lived in D.C and Michelle in Philly, they didn't actually meet face to face until they had already talked quite a bit through email and phone. They spent their first day together in New York (which in my opinion is just a magical place!) and from there decided to pursue the relationship even though the distance would be challenging. Then, last year, Michelle moved to Chicago where Ernest had been relocated

The last few months have been FULL of weddings: Sam and Peggy, JungMi and Will, Stacy and Chris, Liz and Daniel, and of course The Royal Wedding. But this weekend in particular, two of my dearest girl friends are getting hitched. First, let me tell you about my dear friend Sarah. Sarah works at Jews for Jesus, where my dad works and where I worked for a few months in 2007. In those few months, Sarah and I met, started hanging out and quickly developed a deep friendship. She is one of those people who I know I was supposed to be lifetime friends with and it was just a matter of meeting. After those 3 months, I left town, in fact I left the country. But that didnt stop our friendship. Over the last four years we've kept a long distance friendship and I've been so blessed to share life with her. When we met, we were both single. Four years has seen us both through a few relationships and we talked through each one, encouraging, counseling, rejoicing, and when they ended, crying. B