One month left. It’s hard to believe we’ve lived in Georgia for 2 years, and now that time is coming to an end. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been entrusted with the most precious of gifts - - the means and ability to move overseas to minister to another people group and have the opportunity to share an even more precious gift - - the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Some people think of missionaries as antiquated lone individuals, walking about in long monk robes with a basket of bibles to liberally distribute to the masses along with a loaf of French crusted bread. That’s not exactly the way we do missions. We do want to meet people where they are, help meet their felt needs, establish meaningful friendships, and in effect, earn the right to share what we believe. We are in the business of relationships. Christ Jesus, fully man and fully God, was our perfect human example, and he majored in relationships.
I care about people and I care about where their souls will spend eternity. Some might question the need to leave this country when there are so many hurting, needy people right here. Well, yes, I would agree. There are. And there are already many individuals reaching out to meet those needs. God’s plan for our family is for us to take the message to those who, though their culture is steeped in tradition and religious practices, might not have heard the simple message of the gospel. Modern America has had the privilege of all out access to evangelical Christianity and is therefore, now without excuse for the loose moral standards she brazenly espouses. Christians don’t need to sit in a defensive position, but rather we need to attack Satan’s stronghold of depravity for we have the ultimate victor on our side.
I could go on and on, but I won’t.
In one month we head back to Texas to share sweet time with our families before heading out for 6 months of training, even before we even reach our final destination.
As such, there are several prayer requests I would specifically ask of you to remember and intercede on our behalf:
1.) Our marriage: Satan would love to see our marriage disintegrate so we lose our witness.
2.) Our children: they will easily adjust, but there are many transitions coming for them before we finally arrive in Spain.
3.) Our health: that God would protect our mental, physical, and emotional well-being so we will be effective and able to perform our daily tasks.
4.) Our ability to learn the language quickly: Jeff already has a working knowledge of Spanish, but I only know my food, in Tex-Mex.
5.) Our spiritual lives: that Jeff and I will be able to maintain the healthy disciplines we’ve already been practicing – our prayer lives, our Scripture study and memorization – that we’ll be consumed and motivated by our love for Christ, but that our hearts will stay pure before God, and that the task and busyness will not precede the people for whom we leave to serve.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The "Peenano"
My father is not a distinguished piano player. He’s a good piano player, but we tease him that all of his songs sound the same. Hymns and praise songs alike sound as if they came out of the 60’s rock-n-roll era. If a song requires my father to sit still and play, he just can’t. He’s got to be be-boppin’ and foot stampin’ to enjoy playing.
So, it should come as no surprise, then, that our Gideon has taken quite a fancy to his child size “peenano.” We can hear him banging away with glee, singing his ABC’s, the B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Wheels on the Bus. He and Scarlett take turns playing. She daintily pecks away key by key, while he merrily pounds his little hands to the bone.
I’ve been sick for the past few days. I think I’ve had the flu, now turned into a terrible head cold (and no, it’s not the swine flu or H1N1 as they’re now referring to it as). I have not been actively involved with the children as I normally am…take today for example.
I was sitting on a pallet of blankets in the playroom holding Lexi, while Gideon and Scarlett entertained themselves. I tried reading them a few books, but my voice is going somewhat hoarse, my throat and ears hurt when I swallow, my nose is clogged up all the way to my brain, and therefore, reading books didn’t last too long. I shooed them over to more enticing toys.
As I was sitting there with Lexi wishing I were in bed, not really paying attention to the children, I come to my senses and hear Gideon banging away on the piano. He finishes his song, expects me to clap, and I do. We continue in that vein for a few minutes. Apparently, his music is not elegant enough for Lexi, for she begins to squall as if in pain. Meanwhile, Scarlett is happily dancing about as if there were some type of real rhythm to his keystroke mechanics.
I turn my attention back to Gideon. He’s really going at it. His face is beat red, and there’s a vein popping out of his neck. I’m half afraid he’s going to burst a blood vessel with all that straining, but I let him have his fun. As I’m thinking these thoughts, he stops mid “song”, lifts up his leg, and grabs his rear end.
“Uh oh,” he says, looking at me. “My poo poo.”
Apparently, all that straining did burst something. But, it wasn’t a blood vessel.
So, it should come as no surprise, then, that our Gideon has taken quite a fancy to his child size “peenano.” We can hear him banging away with glee, singing his ABC’s, the B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Wheels on the Bus. He and Scarlett take turns playing. She daintily pecks away key by key, while he merrily pounds his little hands to the bone.
I’ve been sick for the past few days. I think I’ve had the flu, now turned into a terrible head cold (and no, it’s not the swine flu or H1N1 as they’re now referring to it as). I have not been actively involved with the children as I normally am…take today for example.
I was sitting on a pallet of blankets in the playroom holding Lexi, while Gideon and Scarlett entertained themselves. I tried reading them a few books, but my voice is going somewhat hoarse, my throat and ears hurt when I swallow, my nose is clogged up all the way to my brain, and therefore, reading books didn’t last too long. I shooed them over to more enticing toys.
As I was sitting there with Lexi wishing I were in bed, not really paying attention to the children, I come to my senses and hear Gideon banging away on the piano. He finishes his song, expects me to clap, and I do. We continue in that vein for a few minutes. Apparently, his music is not elegant enough for Lexi, for she begins to squall as if in pain. Meanwhile, Scarlett is happily dancing about as if there were some type of real rhythm to his keystroke mechanics.
I turn my attention back to Gideon. He’s really going at it. His face is beat red, and there’s a vein popping out of his neck. I’m half afraid he’s going to burst a blood vessel with all that straining, but I let him have his fun. As I’m thinking these thoughts, he stops mid “song”, lifts up his leg, and grabs his rear end.
“Uh oh,” he says, looking at me. “My poo poo.”
Apparently, all that straining did burst something. But, it wasn’t a blood vessel.
Monday, May 11, 2009
What's Going On
It seems my life of blogging has had to take a hiatus for an undisclosed amount of time. The children and their needs are keeping me so busy, I rarely have time to write. But, this blog shall not die because when we get to Spain, I know there will be stories upon stories I want to share. So bear with me until I can get Lexi a little older.
This montage is from April and May. Jeff's sister and her "special fella" came to visit. And the last series of pictures is from yesterday. Our church had a special baby dedication during the service, and naturally, we were a part of this. Besides Lexi deciding to make a dirty diaper as soon as we got into the sanctuary, Gideon trying to get away and climb the stairs, while Scarlett following his lead, it was a sweet time. Though I must admit I have no idea what the pastor prayed for because I was too busy gentling yanking Gideon from down the stairs where he was creeping up, soon to be right next to the podium and the pastor!
Enjoy the footage!
Gideon on the piano with a little help from his sister:
This montage is from April and May. Jeff's sister and her "special fella" came to visit. And the last series of pictures is from yesterday. Our church had a special baby dedication during the service, and naturally, we were a part of this. Besides Lexi deciding to make a dirty diaper as soon as we got into the sanctuary, Gideon trying to get away and climb the stairs, while Scarlett following his lead, it was a sweet time. Though I must admit I have no idea what the pastor prayed for because I was too busy gentling yanking Gideon from down the stairs where he was creeping up, soon to be right next to the podium and the pastor!
Enjoy the footage!
Gideon on the piano with a little help from his sister:
Friday, May 01, 2009
For the Birthday Boy
( I know, I would pick a picture where he looks like he's so worn out he can hardly keep his eyes open.But, he's my Superman, exhausted and all!)
Almost exactly 4 years ago, I met the man who was to become my husband. We worked a Disciple Now together at church, and though I wasn’t too impressed with his flirting tactics (threatening to cream me with peanut butter and then smear it all over my car), somehow, and for some reason beyond my understanding, I allowed him to use these very middle-school “strategeries” to win me. I like to tell him these days that I must have felt sorry for him and wanted to help him win me! He, on the other hand, likes to tell me that his tactics, however juvenile, worked. He’s got a point there.
The reason I remember the date of 4 years ago is that Jeff asked me out to a Texas Rangers game after his birthday (which happens to be today) on Mother’s Day. I turned him down for two reasons 1.) He asked me out in front of all of my co-workers and dreadfully embarrassed me and 2.) It was Mother’s Day and I had plans to cook my mother lunch.
A normal man who has been rejected won’t try again. We have already established in my many previous posts that I did not marry a normal man. He called to apologize for embarrassing me, and because of that move, he rose many levels in my estimation and earned himself a date (and subsequently, a lifetime with me!).
Anyway, this post is not about me.
This post is about my husband, for today he turns 30.
I want to honor him with my words because, as with many of you who have the gift of encouragement and can relate, I’m not always purposeful in using my gift to affirm my husband.
3 years and some loose change isn’t a long time to be married. It’s a drop in the bucket of life, but 3 years is long enough to show tremendous growth and change.
I married a boy who still had many things to figure out (as did I), but 3 years later, I can say that he’s become a man, and not just any normal run-of-the-mill man. He’s an exceptional, godly, endearing, motivated, generous, hard-working, driven, Spirit-filled man.
He gets up at 3:45 a.m. just about every morning to suffuse himself in God’s word. That discipline, more than anything, has matured his relationship with the Lord. I can’t say I have that same kind of practiced discipline, but I can say that it has sweetened our marriage, allows us to have a home where peace reigns, and has allowed me to truly see him as the one who has been placed in authority over our home and to trust the decisions he makes because I know they come from a place of Scriptural consultation first.
Jeff is hard-working. We’ve been in Georgia for almost two years now, and he has worked 6 days a week for almost the entire time. He’s just now, in the last month or so, scaled back to 5 days a week. We love having him home on this extra day. He’s worked so hard so that I could stay home with our children and give them the love and nurture they need to succeed in life, and ultimately, come to know Christ at an early age.
Jeff is loyal. He is loyal to his Lord, loyal to me as his wife, loyal to his family, and loyal to his friends. I have never worried that he was secretly checking out other women. He’s kept his heart pure and his eyes where they need to be (on me, even when I’ve been as large as a walrus). He doesn’t have a secret stash of pornography and I know, without a doubt, he doesn’t “accidentally” stumble onto any websites.
Jeff is a visionary. This is one of his greatest strengths. He’s an idea-generator. It used to make me nervous because I assumed if he was coming up with ideas (especially when they concerned our future) he was going to act on them without thinking them through. He doesn’t. Thankfully. I’m different. I’m a bit more cautious and like to quietly think through all the options and then talk about the best one. Jeff just verbally churns ideas out and then sifts through them. He’s a man of possibilities. He’s a man of faith.
I could go on and on, and perhaps I should. I just really want him to know, publicly, how proud I am of him, how thankful I am, and just how much I love him.
We’re in the final stages of this part of our lives. Transition is coming and coming soon, but with God’s leading and Jeff’s obedient guidance, all of our concerns will be met.
Jeff, honey, there’s not another man I’d rather be teamed with in this marriage or in this life. You are simply exactly who God planned for me, and I’m excited for the days to come with you.
Happy 30th birthday, man of my heart.
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