My Pile of Books

There are probably a few more non-fiction books floating around my house, but for the most part these are the books that I have in my pile of books to read. The top two are the only ones that I've started. Also notable, there are two fiction books in this pile. Normally fiction books don't make it into my pile simply because I read them too quickly. But those two arrived today and they're the last two books in a trilogy. I stayed up really late a couple of nights this past weekend reading the first book. It's been a long time since I've read like that and I realized that I miss it. Those two fiction books will probably get devoured before any of the others.


A Love That Multiplies: An Up-Close View of How They Make it Work by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar
I love the Duggars!

Uncompromising by Hannah Farver
I'm hoping this might end up being a good book to pass onto my high school girls.


Note To Self by Joe Thorn
This might end up being a good devotional type thing.

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan
I read everything that Francis Chan writes (and he's going to be in Phoenix this weekend! Woot!).

Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working by Mike Groeschel
I've heard good things about this book and I'm hoping I'm going to like it more than Radical.

You Lost Me by David Kinnaman 
This is a follow-up to another book that was about what "outsiders" think of the church. It looks at why so many young adults leave the church after being a part of it. Should be interesting.

Catching Fire and Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
These are the fiction books I was talking about. Take a look at The Hunger Games for more info.


Quitter by Jon Acuff
This is the guy who writes Stuff Christians Like (the blog) and he's always enjoyable to read. Plus I like reading books on careers.

Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman
This was an impulse purchase. We'll see what comes of it.


What Is The Mission of the Church? by Kevin DeYoung
Despite some theological differences that I have with Kevin DeYoung, I usually enjoy most of what he writes so I decided to get his latest book.


Anyone read any of these? Any thoughts?

A Door Opening

By the time I post this the news will probably already be old, but for those of you who haven't heard, I'm going on a missions trip to Costa Rica the week of Thanksgiving THIS YEAR. Yes, in 2011! Earlier this year I really started to feel the desire to go on a missions trip but knew the possibility of anything working out anytime soon was pretty slim simply due to not having any extra vacation days at my disposal with Awana eating up half of my paid time off. I started praying that, Lord willing, I'd be able to save up enough PTO to go on a week long trip sometime in 2012 (yay for rolling PTO!). Between only being able to go for a week and not being able to go during the summer (because of not wanting to book a missions trip too close to when camp is), I wasn't sure how it would ever work out, but I figured I'd pray about it.

Well, as it turns out I found a missions trip that would only require me to take three vacation days. Yes, three. It's Saturday to Saturday over Thanksgiving and I have Thanksgiving day and Black Friday off as paid holidays, so I'll only have to take three PTO days. I waffled back and forth about whether I should go or not and finally contacted them about going. The only snag in the plan came when they said the entire team is flying out on Friday night. I have a Journey (high school Awana) event that night and I'd already decided that I didn't want to book a missions trip that would conflict with any of my previous commitments. Long story short, I'm taking a direct flight from Phoenix to San Jose, Costa Rica on Saturday and I'll hopefully only be missing a couple of hours of the actual planned agenda of the trip.

I've never been on a "real" missions trip before, and my only time out of the country was to go on a Caribbean cruise a couple of years back, so this will be a totally new experience for me. I'm hoping it'll stretch me spiritually and force me to get better at evangelism, because evangelism has never been my strong suite.

If you want to check on my progress with raising the funds for this trip, you can do so here:
http://www.e3partners.org/mandymalmgren

And please pray for me as I go through this support raising period. It's the one aspect of the trip that I've really been dreading despite the fact that I know God will provide (or already has provided possibly).