Here is something that Mom gave me to post before I left home this weekend. Mom, just so y'all know, is back home in Mississippi now, after three weeks in Maryland. Dad and the girls are ecstatic to have her back. I'm sure they'll be celebrating Mom Appreciation Week for the next few days. Please continue to keep Mom in your prayers. She really needs to rest after what has been an exhausting few weeks. With that, here is what she wrote to y'all:

Dearest and loved family and friends:
Please know that we have all been richly nourished by your many prayers on our behalf. I hope soon to be able to write some words here in keeping with such lovely things as have already been put down.
For now, I wanted to share a song by Mo Leverett which holds more meaning for me at the moment than my own thoughts are capable of.
A debtor to all in Christ,
Debbie.

Things Disguised
by Mo Leverett

"Brokeness makes pure my heart, as slowly it refines the rotten views that plague me so and rest within my mind.
Sadness is a treasure found, for then it is my chore to leave my old and weary way and search for something more.
Weakness, it defines the Strength in Whom I hope and trust. For Christ has breathed new breath in me and changed to gold my dust.
Poverty crowns my head and seeks to change my mind. It teaches me of priceless truths and riches God designed.
All these things are things disguised, for few have seen their worth. But I will hold them dear to me until I leave this earth."

Editorial note from Haley: For those of y'all who don't know, Mo Leverett is an ordained PCA pastor who is the founder of Desire Street Ministries, a work devoted to reclaiming and revitalizing the Desire neighborhood in the heart of New Orleans. In 1990, when Mo and his family moved to begin this work, the centerpiece of the neighborhood was the very large Desire Street housing project, which, at the time, was ranked as the worst in the country, a place of extreme violence and poverty. The project buildings themselves have since been condemmed by the government and torn down in order for new buildings to be raised, but the surrounding neighborhood is still one of great need. Over 14 years, the focus of Mo and DSM has been to raise up Christian leaders from within this community who are committed to seeing the neighborhood become a place of hope and peace through the spreading of the gospel of Christ. The physical ministry has grown to include a church, a ministry center, a school, and, I believe, a medical clinic.
In addition to this life's work, Mo is also a very talented musician who has produced multiple albums of songs that deal with everything from the reigning superiority of New Orleans to all other towns in the South to issues of poverty, and violence and the hope of God's redemption in the midst of so much darkness.
I was privileged to be an intern at Desire in the summer of 2000 and I have never seen life in quite the same way since. For more information about DSM or Mo's music, both of which are well worth your money and your time, visit www.desirestreet.org.