Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Tim Be Told - Lament (Studio Version)
My daughter loves this song and asked me to listen to it. It is now one of my favorite! It speaks a powerful truth that to many of us want to ignore.
Monday, August 19, 2013
HELP US HELP THEM
See that little post on the right that says "gofundme"? We are raising money to build a kitchen at our school in Ethiopia. I am asking anyone and everyone who feels lead to make a donation and help us spread the word.
We have a little over 200 children at the school and Adanech the founder and another lady cook the food at Adanech's house and walk in back. It's equivalent to 6 city blocks but it is very rocky.
Our hope is to add a small kitchen with a stove and sink and possibly a little cafeteria. It will make life much easier on these women and the quality of food would be better.
Please help us help them.
We have a little over 200 children at the school and Adanech the founder and another lady cook the food at Adanech's house and walk in back. It's equivalent to 6 city blocks but it is very rocky.
Our hope is to add a small kitchen with a stove and sink and possibly a little cafeteria. It will make life much easier on these women and the quality of food would be better.
Please help us help them.
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| THINK WE HAVE OVERCROWEDED CLASSES IN AMERICA? |
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
And Then There Was Four
Today my husband and I took our oldest daughter, Jordan to her new home...college. She is was so excited and the truth be known she probably didn't sleep much last night. Her daddy packed our van and her car last night so we could just get up and go. Yeah right. We packed a "few" more things she just had to have, looked for this and that and finally we were on the road. Mike, me and Kennedy in the van and Jordan and Cameron following us in her car.
It's rush week and that adds to the excitement! I know without a doubt Jordan will enjoy every single second of college. Well maybe not every second but most of them!
It was hard to say good bye. This is our fourth child but our first girl to leave the nest. True she has her daddy and three older brothers just in case, and we have prepared her well but I hadn't prepared myself to let go.
The strangest thing was to come home and realize there is now only four of us here. This house has always been packed from top to bottom for most of our married life and to have only two kids in the house well, it's like several parts of you are missing. But life goes on and the parts do come back home and some point!
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings. ~Hodding Carter, Jr.
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings. ~Hodding Carter, Jr.
It's rush week and that adds to the excitement! I know without a doubt Jordan will enjoy every single second of college. Well maybe not every second but most of them!
It was hard to say good bye. This is our fourth child but our first girl to leave the nest. True she has her daddy and three older brothers just in case, and we have prepared her well but I hadn't prepared myself to let go.
The strangest thing was to come home and realize there is now only four of us here. This house has always been packed from top to bottom for most of our married life and to have only two kids in the house well, it's like several parts of you are missing. But life goes on and the parts do come back home and some point!
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings. ~Hodding Carter, Jr.
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| We are pretty sure she plans on coming back! |
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| And the wait begins. |
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| He's got it! |
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| Roomies! |
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings. ~Hodding Carter, Jr.
Friday, July 19, 2013
CHICAGO!
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| CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER |
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| FILMING A MOVIE |
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| I THOUGHT THIS WAS SO COOL! THEY FRAMED THE FLOWERS! |
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| THERE WAS ENTERTAINMENT ON THE STREETS EVERYWHERE |
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| LOVED SEEING THESE YOUNG MISSIONARIES |
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| SKYLINE |
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| LUNCH |
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| OUR GIRLS |
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| GOING HOME |
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| SO DO WE! |
Sunday, June 23, 2013
IT WAS ....
In Charles Dickens "The Tale of Two Cities" he quotes "It was the best of times, it was the worse of times...
In the book of James he says " Consider it pure joy my brother and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds."
Seriously? Let's face it, as humans it is either good times or bad times and I don't know many of us who are joyful when bad times come around. But as a Christians, we know...yes we do.
I would say this past year has been "the worse of times" for my family. And I can honestly say if it hadn't been for God I don't know how I would have got up each day. But I did because of Him. At the end of the day I would say "I made it. I'm still here. The world is still going on." But to be totally honest the "pure joy and trials" well... let's just say I wasn't feeling it. As far as I was concerned the trials could go away. I wasn't feeling the joy. Nope! Not this girl.
Thankfully, each day I read a word from God and if it was a bad day(and most of them were) He got me through it. If it was a good day I thanked Him. Hmmm... I was beginning to get it. Bad day...made it. Good day...thankful. Bad day... grateful I made it. Good day...grateful for it. It's not like my emotions are a switch you can turn off and on. I was choosing to find joy, gratefulness and love. I could either waddle in a pool of self pity or get up each day, lean on God and persevere.
Yesterday was a very good day and it was so easy to find the joy and be happy. Today not so much. It would have been much easier to just sit around and be upset. But I choose to be joyful. I choose to love and I also choose to forgive. It's true if you don't forgive you are the prisoner not the other person. They go on with their life not giving a care what they did to you. Forgiveness doesn't mean you condone the actions of the other person or you have to like them and be their best buddy. Forgiveness is releasing you to move on. It is one of the most powerful things you can do.
Like I said, today wasn't a very good day. I am concerned about our foundation and not having enough sponsors, donors and as for me enough time to work on this blessing God has trust me with. My desire is that I can work for our foundation. I never wanted to receive a paycheck doing this but in order to make this everything God desires it to be I need to work at it full time. Often our passions don't pay very well monetary but they do pay our heart abundantly!
I cried out to God and said "please Lord, show me what you want me to do."
Can I be honest here? I don't gamble but I was kind of hoping His answer would be "here is some numbers go down and buy a lottery ticket and your prayers will be answered!" Ahh yes. The easy way. I took some quiet time and waited for that still small voice. Sure enough I hear "reach for your bible." I have a small bible in our office. So I reached for it expecting some amazing scripture to jump out at me. Nope. Out slips a devotion card I had put in there a few years ago. One side had this quote from Washington Irving "There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly love, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." Wow...that spoke to me. On the other side was a scripture Hebrews 10:36 "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." At that moment I found pure joy in my trial. I knew I would find peace because God gave me the answer...PERSEVERE!
You see I may have my trials, we all do but I personally know of a couple of hundred precious children that God has placed in my life that have no food, no clean water, no education, some one parent or no parents. They have trials but whenever I am blessed to go to Ethiopia and visit them they are smiling and hopeful because they know that myself and others who go with me are there because we care about them. They are not forgotten. We are going to make a difference. We tell them God loves them and He sent us to them and we share about the one true King. And the smiles get bigger.
Do I know what is going to happen with the foundation? No. What I do know is that God always finishes what He starts and on that word alone I will trust Him. He will provide a away for me and others to feed, cloth, educate, love and teach these little ones. They will learn that God provides. That God is always faithful and with God ALL things are possible!
Be joyful in all trials. To say that doesn't mean your not going to cry or hurt or be angry it means you will learn from these trails to trust Him. And once you put that trust in Him, that my friends is pure joy!
My Ethiopian Babies!
In the book of James he says " Consider it pure joy my brother and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds."
Seriously? Let's face it, as humans it is either good times or bad times and I don't know many of us who are joyful when bad times come around. But as a Christians, we know...yes we do.
I would say this past year has been "the worse of times" for my family. And I can honestly say if it hadn't been for God I don't know how I would have got up each day. But I did because of Him. At the end of the day I would say "I made it. I'm still here. The world is still going on." But to be totally honest the "pure joy and trials" well... let's just say I wasn't feeling it. As far as I was concerned the trials could go away. I wasn't feeling the joy. Nope! Not this girl.
Thankfully, each day I read a word from God and if it was a bad day(and most of them were) He got me through it. If it was a good day I thanked Him. Hmmm... I was beginning to get it. Bad day...made it. Good day...thankful. Bad day... grateful I made it. Good day...grateful for it. It's not like my emotions are a switch you can turn off and on. I was choosing to find joy, gratefulness and love. I could either waddle in a pool of self pity or get up each day, lean on God and persevere.
Yesterday was a very good day and it was so easy to find the joy and be happy. Today not so much. It would have been much easier to just sit around and be upset. But I choose to be joyful. I choose to love and I also choose to forgive. It's true if you don't forgive you are the prisoner not the other person. They go on with their life not giving a care what they did to you. Forgiveness doesn't mean you condone the actions of the other person or you have to like them and be their best buddy. Forgiveness is releasing you to move on. It is one of the most powerful things you can do.
Like I said, today wasn't a very good day. I am concerned about our foundation and not having enough sponsors, donors and as for me enough time to work on this blessing God has trust me with. My desire is that I can work for our foundation. I never wanted to receive a paycheck doing this but in order to make this everything God desires it to be I need to work at it full time. Often our passions don't pay very well monetary but they do pay our heart abundantly!
I cried out to God and said "please Lord, show me what you want me to do."
Can I be honest here? I don't gamble but I was kind of hoping His answer would be "here is some numbers go down and buy a lottery ticket and your prayers will be answered!" Ahh yes. The easy way. I took some quiet time and waited for that still small voice. Sure enough I hear "reach for your bible." I have a small bible in our office. So I reached for it expecting some amazing scripture to jump out at me. Nope. Out slips a devotion card I had put in there a few years ago. One side had this quote from Washington Irving "There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly love, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." Wow...that spoke to me. On the other side was a scripture Hebrews 10:36 "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." At that moment I found pure joy in my trial. I knew I would find peace because God gave me the answer...PERSEVERE!
You see I may have my trials, we all do but I personally know of a couple of hundred precious children that God has placed in my life that have no food, no clean water, no education, some one parent or no parents. They have trials but whenever I am blessed to go to Ethiopia and visit them they are smiling and hopeful because they know that myself and others who go with me are there because we care about them. They are not forgotten. We are going to make a difference. We tell them God loves them and He sent us to them and we share about the one true King. And the smiles get bigger.
Do I know what is going to happen with the foundation? No. What I do know is that God always finishes what He starts and on that word alone I will trust Him. He will provide a away for me and others to feed, cloth, educate, love and teach these little ones. They will learn that God provides. That God is always faithful and with God ALL things are possible!
Be joyful in all trials. To say that doesn't mean your not going to cry or hurt or be angry it means you will learn from these trails to trust Him. And once you put that trust in Him, that my friends is pure joy!
My Ethiopian Babies!
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| Our daughter Jordan with her new friend |
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| She lost her family to AIDS. |
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| This is Berharu. He was my sponsor son. He died last August. M Heart broke like I never could have imagined. But I know he is in heaven because he was sponsored and learned about Jesus and became quite the little evangelist! |
Monday, June 17, 2013
GOTCHA DAY!
HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!
18 years ago today this beautiful princess came home to her family. She has grown into an amazing young woman and we are so proud of her! Love you to the moon and back princess!
ADOPTION IS A BEAUTIFUL THING!
Sunday, June 9, 2013
THE GOOD LIFE
We are studying Job in our Lifegroup Class. Most people know Jobs story. If you don't may I suggest you read it. It pretty much explains why bad things happen in the world. What I took from it was bad things are going to happen but He never promised us a rose garden. Job was a Godly man. He honored God in everything he did. So why do bad things happen to good people? Read the story.
Job lost everything, was in pain, cursed his birth and asked God what did he do to deserve this. Sounds like his faith in God was gone doesn't it? Not so much. We are humans with human thoughts, human question and we want answers. God never said that was wrong. What times of trouble do is test us. It is during the worst times in our lives we will make one of two choices. We will either walk away from God or we will persevere and draw closer to God. And when you choose the to draw closer that is when you have the Good Life! God blesses those who hang in there with Him. For whatever Job lost in the end God gave him more than he had before.
Now that isn't why we should draw closer to God. We should do that out of our love and obedience for Him. The blessing area perk!
My prayer for you is if your going through a rough time in your life that you will hang in there with God. In the end you'll be glad you did!
Job lost everything, was in pain, cursed his birth and asked God what did he do to deserve this. Sounds like his faith in God was gone doesn't it? Not so much. We are humans with human thoughts, human question and we want answers. God never said that was wrong. What times of trouble do is test us. It is during the worst times in our lives we will make one of two choices. We will either walk away from God or we will persevere and draw closer to God. And when you choose the to draw closer that is when you have the Good Life! God blesses those who hang in there with Him. For whatever Job lost in the end God gave him more than he had before.
Now that isn't why we should draw closer to God. We should do that out of our love and obedience for Him. The blessing area perk!
My prayer for you is if your going through a rough time in your life that you will hang in there with God. In the end you'll be glad you did!
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