Hello all!

I am back in the grand state of Tennessee where the trees are green and the tea is sweet.

But I still have a few tastes of New Mexico to share with you.

The last event I covered for the Baptist New Mexican was an annual event they host called the Legislative Breakfast.

All the state legislators are invited to attend a breakfast that includes a speaker and time of prayer and encouragement before the legislators start another day of their job at the state capitol.

This is former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley. He heads the Traditional Values Action Committee.  

"I have not found anywhere in the Good Book where it says that Christians should not be involved in politics," Bradley said during a dinner held for church leaders the night before the Legislative Breakfast.

"You have to be passionate about politics and you have to be passionate to change  them. We need to reignite the passion."

"If a law passes that is an ungodly law then we have the right to oppose it."

"We are fighting from a position of victory because Christ is already victorious," Bradley said.

The breakfast the next morning started bright and early. Prayer requests cards were placed at each seat for the legislators to fill out. The leaders of the breakfast told the legislators that it was our duty as Christians to pray for them as stewards of the nation. 

"God does command us in his Book to pray for you," said one speaker during the event. "And that is our commitment to you."

This is the new Lt. Gov. He offered a brief greeting to the audience and brought a message from the newly elected governor of New Mexico, Susanna Martinez. He said that the new administration has a "bold and strong vision for New Mexico" — something the people of the state seem to be begging for. 

And this my dear friends is Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Washington D.C. He was the keynote speaker. 

He said during his address that President Obama is wrong — America IS a Christian nation and needs to "honor our heritage and God who gave us such great guidelines."

He attributed the Tea Party Movement as part of America's next "great awakening." He also referenced a time when he was applauded for being a man of Christ while at a Tea Party rally.

"The Tea Party movement is anything but racist — more of a civic awakening," Jackson said.

"Church groups are starting to stand up and say they have a dog in the (political) fight."

Jackson concluded by encouraging the legislators present to stick to their morals and faith.

"We are on the wake of the next great awakening; it will be politically safe to vote according to it."

Grace

Immersed - A Bus Ministry

I got the opportunity to travel to the town of Gallup over the weekend to interview a pastor/ elementary school principal.

Meet Mark Chandler.

He is a principal (a full-time in and of itself) and pastor of First Indian Baptist Church of Gallup. 

He had a bright idea of turning a school bus into a tool to minister through.

       The bus is hollowed out and obviously never used to transport people... It is now complete with a tile floor, flat screen TV (in that back cabinet), wall to wall lighting and a generator.

He and his family use the bus to drive it into Native American communities. It provides them a place to minister to people in communities that often only have one-room buildings

The bus is an old bus used by a rafting company. Mark Chandler attributes the idea of converting it to no one but God. He attributes the fact that, even after over a year of sitting idle, it still cranked up to no one but God. 

He never once complained about holding two full-time jobs. His only concern was that there weren't enough hours in the day to complete everything he wanted to do with the people he is hoping to lead to Christ. 

The bus is named "immersed". John 7:38 was its inspiration. 

He was one of those people who oozed humbleness — something uncommon in today's society. 

It was a pleasure to meet him and hear his story and it is because of people like him that I want to go into journalism. 

It's stories like his that I have always loved hearing and passing on.

Grace

P.S. I leave for Tennessee on Friday... my time is dwindling so fast!!!

A Rude Awakening and Mexican Food

I was dreaming for Mexican food when a highly annoying ringing intruded into my fantasy.

I woke up an realized the highly annoying ringing noise was not a dream... it was a part of real life.

So what did I do? Well, naturally, I crawled out of bed and began examining the ancient-looking alarm clock sitting on the desk of my temporary bedroom.

Then I realized the noise was not, in fact, coming from the alarm clock. 

It was coming from a carbon monoxide alarm in the hallway outside my bedroom.

My first reaction was just to take the batteries out of the alarm and go back to sleep

Margie called 911 who in return sent a fire truck.

This is a awful picture, I know. But if you squint and turn your head to the right you can tell that these are the lights of a fire truck pulling up to our house at 5 in the morning. 

An equally awful picture of the fireman walking all around the house with little detectors trying to determine what had set off the alarm. 

Margie speaking with a fireman about the alarm that is still making a awful noise. 

See the hand in the hair in the background? It is a fireman holding up his detector-thingy near where the heat and air comes out.... he was trying to be very sure that there was, indeed, no carbon monoxide leaking into the house.

The firemen are determining that the alarm is just faulty and scared the devil out of myself and Margie for nothing. 

I was not able to return to sleep. 

However, I did google facts on carbon monoxide poisoning once I got to work today. 

Here is a link I found in case you want to get up to speed on your carbon monoxide facts.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/466.html

The firemen kept asking how we felt.... all I have to ask: is that really a fair question considering I had to wake up and get dressed and wait for them to show up and say nothing was wrong? 

I told them I felt fine.... it was the proper and polite southern belle thing to do.

Grace- tired intern for the Baptist New Mexican

The office of my life... I mean my life's office... I mean the office I'm spending my life in

This is my wall/office.
See my laptop sitting there? If you look closely at the screen you will notice that the document that I was working on when this photo was taken is blank. I was having a little writer's block.
It happens quite often. 

This is my phone.

I have no idea what any of the buttons mean. I had a message on it yesterday... I ignored it until the annoying red light grew really really SUPER annoying. Then I messed around with it until I figured it out on my own.
It's what big girls do after all.
The message wasn't for me.
Wrong number.
What a let down.                                      

This is my orange highlighter that I use about every five minutes. 

You know why they gave me a orange highlighter?

Because I am from Tennessee.

Tennessee automatically equals orange in New Mexico.

No offense to Tennessee fans, but orange is in the red family and the red family HATES my skin tone. Therefore, I hate orange.

This is my tape dispenser. It appears to have lived a long, hard life. I would love to know my tape dispenser's story. What all has its gluey substance latched together in its years of existence?

That is all the pictures I have from my day at the office. I was very very busy girl, you see. The great people at the Baptist New Mexican put me right to work writing articles and editing other articles.

Maybe I'll take pictures during tomorrow lunch break. Lunch equals all the women in the building coming together in the lunch room and gossiping/talking about everything under the sun. NO BOYS ALLOWED. Today's topics included football, blackbirds dropping from the sky, the Biggest Loser, homemade pizza crust and the newsletter of a tiny electric co-op in Southern New Mexico (thats a story for another post though).

Hoping everyone is having a blessed week!

Grace, intern/slave/writer/photographer/southern gal stuck in the west