Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! We are set to close on Tuesday at 10:00am. Woohoo! We'll pack the truck up on Sunday, take our time and drive up Monday and then on that glorious Tuesday morning we will be closing on our new home. Praise God! We are so unbelievably blessed. That's all I can think about right now..... for so many reason outside of closing on our home. Take a moment and lets count our blessings =)
http://thematthewsstory.com/
Please lift this family and little baby boy up in your prayers.
Sooooo I had not had a chance to blog about the fact that our closing date was pushed back due to a small oversight on the bank end. (I know big shocker) Apparently they had thought the seller had closed back in February but he actually had closed on July 15. Obviously banks have rules and requirements that you must meet as a home owner and one our lender has is that you aren't to "flip" a house within a 90 day period. We were to close on October 15. Right on the 90 day marker. But the funny thing is for us to move forward the bank requested we get a 2nd appraisal to ensure the houses value was not less than what we were buying it for. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me considering those seem like 2 separate issues but not a whole lot you can do about it and the bank was paying for the appraisal so that's what we have been waiting for. And not to our surprise at all the house again appraised 30k over what we are buying it for. So we are hoping that we close by the end of the week.
It hasn't been fun or easy STILL being here when we should be in our new home putting away dishes and setting up furniture. In fact, it's become extremely difficult within the last 3 weeks. I also have neglected to blog about the joys of being one big happy family in one tiny bedroom. My parents house is sort of...... well...... falling apart and particularly in the room we were sleeping in. Water managed to soak up through the slab warping the hard wood floors and creating a really great musty aroma. Jason had to rip up some of the flooring in there and they are still in the process of resolving the issue. So here we are, all cramped up in Micaila and Ryann's bedroom. Whelp, this certainly has been a great method of birth control! I mean seriously, not only are Jason and I around my parents all the time but we can't even hide out in our bedroom alone. lol. I'm not complaining I'm "just saying" =) I can't wait to have our privacy again. I think God just wanted me to move into this new home with an even greater sense of appreciation. What an awesome lesson! Definitely learned too. I can't wait!
As a result of not closing and not moving this past weekend God did do something really awesome. He orchestrated my being able to attend the Women of Faith Conference. Which I highly recommend. It was incredibly enjoyable, insightful, and worshipful. Full Full Full of good God stuff. I got to go with my mom and spend the whole weekend with her and Jesus. I will admit I was a little disctracted by my disappointment with not moving but it was still amazing and I feel like it's been even better for me to reflect on. I loved spending the time with my mom, I loved listening to and learning from the speakers. And of course I loved singing praises to my Heavenly Father or just listening and worshipping in silent adoration. I feel really blessed to have gotten to go and experience such a wonderful event.
And thats the update!
I just finished up my quiet time and it was just one of those meetings with the Lord where I could really sense His presence. I'll be honest with you, it's not always like that. Sometimes I do my quiet time and it just feels very habitual. But then there are those other times where I feel like Jesus is making it very apparent that He is here with me. It's like His way of encouraging me. And this morning He made Himself very obviously here with me by a few things.
One when I was praying I could totally feel that whole Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Most of the time I journal my prayers so obviously I wasn't groaning but what happened was I didn't have to sit and think "Hmm how should I pray for this person? Or what should I pray for?" My pen just wrote without me really thinking. It was really cool.
Sometimes I listen to music during my quiet time. I find Christian to music to be so uplifting and God really speaks to me through the words these artists sing. Pandora is the best! I put it on the Hillsong United station and it plays the best worship music. I heard the song Came to My Rescue by Hillsong today and it is just a really great message and so true to who God is and how he is always here for us. Especially when we're experiencing troubles.
Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours
I called You answered
And You came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where You are
It's a really simple song, not many lyrics. But I like it. A lot of times I really like the "simple songs". I feel like I can really meditate on what the song is about when their are fewer lyrics. Like the Shane and Shane song There is none like You.
There is none like You
No one else can touch my heart like You do
I could search for all eternity long
And find
There is none like You
Your mercy flows like a river wide
And healing comes in Your Name
Helpless children are safe in Your arms
And there is none like You
No truer words have been sung. Lord there really is none like You.
And then the last thing God showed me today in his word.
Psalm 34:1-3 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.
I thought that was a beautiful Psalm. I praise God for his Word because it truly is living. There is no denying that.
There is a sweet little girl from my church that is fighting for her life and trying to heal from a brain tumor. I don't know every detail yet accept that she has been in surgery twice to have it removed and I know they had to stop in the middle of a surgery because she was bleeding too much. She was healing well after the second surgery even with parts of the tumor remaining but she started having seizures and vomitting so they had to admit her back into the hospital. She's there now and in the Pediatric ICU. She is only 7. Please lift Faith and her family up in prayer. Please pray for God's healing. That His glory would be revealed through Him being the Almighty Physician. That the doctors would witness a miracle through this girl and her familys testimony of Faith. Please pray that her family would experience overwhelming comfort and peace through this stressful situation. Please just pray =)
We lift Faith up in Jesus name, Amen.
Normally when I have my quiet time, it's not very quiet. I used to be able to do it consistently at nap time but then Micaila quit consistently taking a nap. I would love to say I get up every morning before the girls to spend time with Jesus alone. But since our move to my parents, the transition hasn't been easy on Micaila and she hasn't been sleeping well at night. In fact, she started having these "night tremors" I guess is what they call them. Anyway, her not sleeping, means me not sleeping, which makes for one worn out mommy in the morning. Which I know my Gracious Father understands =)
Today though, they both are taking nice long naps. And me and Jesus got to sit down and catch up. I found myself thanking Him a lot today. "God why are you so good to me?" I certainly haven't done anything to deserve it. Thank you Jesus.... one thank you after another. I was reminded of a song, that my sister in law actually sang at church. It's by Casting Crowns called Blessed Redeemer. This song just broke me.
"Father, forgive them," my Savior prayed
Even while His lifeblood flowed fast away
Praying for sinners while in such woe
No one but Jesus ever loved so
I was weeping, tears just streaming down my face. Because the reality once again is that we don't deserve His salvation. And I continually wonder "Why did you do this for us?" And I know it's because of His LOVE for us. I thanked Him today for being Faithful, always, even when I am not. He is always there for me, waiting. And I am so grateful for that. When I don't "feel" like meeting with Him, He waits. Good news is He will even work in me so that I will feel like it. Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. His good purpose being that I spend time with Him, getting to know Him, loving Him, so I can be equipped to love others to Him as well.
Thank you Jesus for being my Blessed Redeemer and for loving me the way You do.
It's been a little while since I've been able to sit down and blog. A lot has been going on. A lot that I want to share at some point in the near future. But the biggest news is that this past weekend Jason and I bought a house. But let me give you a bit more back story to this miraculous decision.
I had previously shared with you that we were considering moving to GA. Since that blog we have visited a total of 3 times. We've looked at a TON of houses. Our first and second trips we came close to, but left with out having a contract on one. I was extremely sad and frustrated to say the least. But I kept being reminded that God is in control and His timing is perfect.
I feel like I often will say that "God is in control" and still not really believe it. It's something that I definitely have learned I have to tell myself over and over and than the more I remind myself of it the more I recognize He really IS in control. Of EVERYTHING. He was in control of what houses came on the market and which one's went off the market before we could even look at them. He is in control of my husband who ultimately has the final say so on whatever house we like. Every time I started to feel like we weren't doing something right, or didn't get back up to GA fast enough, I remembered, "No, God is in control and that was His way of showing us that that particular house is not where He wants us."
So I've learned through this whole process that I CAN trust Him, He IS in control, He DOES love me and He absolutely has my (and my families) best interest.
So this past weekend Jason and I headed back up to Dallas, Ga. Jason kept saying he was really "feeling it!" and this time we were gonna buy a house. And though I have learned to trust God more, I still operate from a glass half empty stand point, (I think it's a way of protecting myself or something) so I was already mentally and emotionally preparing myself to NOT find a house. You see the whole week prior Jason and I committed to pray together every night for God to reveal the house to us. But I started to think to myself, "You know, just because I'm praying it and Jason's praying it, that doesn't mean that God is going to answer with 'okay here's your house'. But that might be because it's still not His timing." And I wanted to be okay with that. I definitely did not want to find myself upset with God because He didn't answer my prayer the way I hoped and expected Him too. I trusted that even if we didn't find a house this time around, I was still going to praise God for being the wonderful, merciful, loving Father that He is.
The odds were against us this trip. We only had four houses lined up to see. Two of which we had already seen and one of which Jason absolutely did not like AT ALL. We looked at the first one and it was a cute house. Really great back yard with a view of the mountains. I liked the house and could totally have lived in it. Plus, I was trying to get over the materialism that I know I definitely struggle with. It wasn't as big or as nice as some of the homes we had seen before, but the price was definitely right and it met our needs. Then we looked at the second house. (I felt like I was on an episode of House Hunters) This house I had always loved from the beginning but it was totally out of our price range. Until we got there and it dropped by 20 thousand dollars! This house was in our cousins neighborhood which I found to be perfect. It didn't have a basement which Jason really was looking forward to having, but the house is undeniably gorgeous. We looked at two more homes that were farely inexpensive but one was on a horrible lot with a really steap driveway. Ryann would not survive that one.
I was nervous, Jason had always been so addiment about his price range. The house we loved the most was at the top of our budget. We went to take a 2nd look at the Crimson Drive home. The one in our cousins neighborhood. And then Jason said those magic words. "This is the one. This is definitely THE ONE." Of course I was trying to contain my excitement. After all this time we were getting the very house I dreamt about but didn't think was possible for us to get. Not only did God answer our prayer how we were hoping He would but, He gave me the "desires of my heart." (Psalm 37:4)
To top it all off, they accepted our offer and we had an answer back within an HOUR! We left this past trip with contracts signed and are now in the stages of closing.
This is truly a gift from God. I feel like this whole time He knew that it was important to me to be close to our family in GA. He knew more than both Jason and I how vital that is for us to have the support of our relatives close to us. And I think that's why He made this home in their neighborhood available to us. The waiting leading up to it was all about trusting Him. And He definitely proved to be Faithful. I hope that as we make this move into this house we will be able to glorify Him with the blessings He has given us. I pray that Jason and I will find ways in GA to be available for His work in advancing His kingdom. We still aren't completely sure why He is taking us there, but I am confident that He will reveal all of that in due time. I know this move isn't going to be a cake walk, but I also know that GOD IS IN CONTROL and I TRUST HIM =)
The New Graham House. On Crimson (Tide) Dr. ;) God has a sense of humor too! Roll Tide Roll! And Praise His name!
I'm doing the Beth Moore Study "Living Beyond Yourself". It's a study of the Fruit of the Spirit. And it is amazing. I highly highly recommend anyone to take on this study. I have learned so much from what God reveals through Beth and the words she has written. One thing I have loved about the study is how much you read straight from the word. When I was younger and did Bible studies I recall a lot of what I learned was written by the person, with a verse here and there. And I love how much Beth refers you to God's word. Because ultimately that's where we need to be getting all our info from anyway.
I am on Week 3 and today did day 4. We've been studying Agape.
First of all one thing I was reminded is how distorted our society's view of love is. It's really quite sad. It's no wonder that our divorce rate is as high as it is, people don't have a clear concept of what love really is. At least not what Agape love is.
I can not tell you how many times I have read through 1 Corinthians 13. Every time I read those verses I am struck by how often I fail to love. I fail to love FAMILY, people who most of the time are easy to love. Not to mention we are called to love those who are hard to love. And then I was reminded by how hard I must be to love at times. It's funny, we can so easily look at others and think "Boy is SHE hard to love!" But HELLO we are too! If we have true agape for others than we will find that 1 Timothy 4:8 Love covers a multitude of sins.
The section of this study that really hit me was the part "love is slow to anger". Lately I have been VERY quick to anger. And Psalm 145:8 says God is "slow to anger and RICH in love". Beth points out that we can not be rich in love and quick to anger. That was very convicting for me because I thought "Yeah, I definitely have not had much love for anyone lately...." How could I? I was too busy getting angry at them. But to think about not being "rich in love" for my children, or my husband, or my parents, or close friends of mine. That kind of hurts to think about it that way ya know. I mean I want to have a rich love for those family members and friends. But I can't, if I'm easily angered. And I was glad that she gave this passage to look up because I think it will be one I memorize. Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. (NLT)
I could use some "deflecting" of anger! You know like when I'm outside taking Jake out and he heads straight for the canal and comes out smelling like a rotten egg. So I hose him down with the nice chlorinated water to clean him up a bit. Then Micaila comes walking out of the house leaving the door open so that Jake can tear through it sopping wet, plowing over Ryann in the process. A gentle word would have probably been better than me getting on (out of pure frustration) to Micaila for leaving the door open.
The other portion that I loved about today was "love keeps no record of wrongs". I am so guilty of this! And most of the time I don't even realize it. Beth said "We humans revel in recording the failures of others". I think this couldn't be more true. How sick is it that it makes us feel better about ourselves when someone else messes up. Not the kind of person I want to be but I certainly have been that way at points. Psalm 119:29 Keep me from my deceitful ways... I believe I need to read that verse every day just to remind myself how deceitful "my ways" apart from Him can really be. It's so easy to view yourself as a good person and look at your "ways" and think you aren't all that bad. But we're all sinners that need the mighty power of God to do anything good.
This is how Beth puts it:
"Beloved, we are incapable of agape! No matter how hard we try we cannot exercise this kind of love. We cannot love the unlovely. We cannot love those who do not love us. We cannot love those who have hurt us.
Agape is divine love. It's only origin is the heart of God. Agape is the love of God expressed through us to others. Actually it is a response more than a feeling."
Beth puts it something like this: With the power of God we can experience the short or long term JOY of OBEDIENCE (in loving others) and the guaranteed effects of His choosing. This causes a chain reaction of feelings far greater than any fleshly love we could muster. And she's right. My best friend and I have a relationship that I believe is built on a foundation of agape. We didn't always "love" each other. Anyone who knows our history can't even understand how our relationship works. But it does and it's beautiful because it was orchestrated by God and with His love. Our relationship is a testimony of the power of God's love through those who act in obedience to Him. And it's pretty amazing. Not to mention, I know that I definitely want that supernatural kind of love that's way better than anything I could ever try to "muster" up on my own! God can provide that and praise Him for it!
Beth's last paragraph says "Agape begins as a response and ends with a feeling". I love that. You can not love someone and operate entirely off feelings. Love is a choice. And when you choose to love someone with God's love and His power that feels pretty stinking good. =)
Our church had their summer worship performance and this song REALLY hit me hard. I love how God uses music artists to sing things that you feel like you could never express in words on your own, and then you hear it and you're like "Wow, yes Jesus, that is what I'm feeling." Praise God I can finally put it in words. It's an incredible relief for me to sing things I'm feeling ya know?? Anyway, you can listen to the song and read the lyrics. Casting Crowns rocks it for His glory ;)
Here at Your feet, I lay my past down
My wanderings, all my mistakes down
And I am free
Here at Your feet, I lay this day down
Not in my strength, but in Yours I’ve found
All I need, You’re all I need
Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
Oh, to dwell and never leave
Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
There is nowhere else for me
There is nowhere else for me
Here at Your feet, I lay my future down
All of my dreams, I give to You now
And I find peace, I find peace
Here at Your feet, I lay my life down
For You my King, You’re all I want now
And my soul sings…
‘Cause I am free (here at Your feet)
All I need (is at Your feet)
I find peace
We’re at Your feet
We’re at Your feet
And I am free (here at Your feet)
All I need (is at Your feet)
I find peace
We’re at Your feet
We’re at Your feet
We’re at Your feet
We’re at Your feet
Here at Your feet
I lay my life down
This morning I was able to spontaneously meet with my mentor. It was obviously an orchestration by God because I wasn't supposed to meet with her. In fact, my mother was, but when she saw the stress I was crumbling under this morning she suggested I go instead. Stress created by my dumb dog Jake. UGH! Any takers????
I've been under Susie's discipleship since right before we moved out of our home in Brooksville. She is an amazing woman to say the least. A godly woman that I look up to very much. I have learned so much from her personal experiences and am very grateful that God is using her in my life.
We talk about everything. EVERYTHING. And we often get a few topics in in one sitting. I usually walk away though with one "Ah ha!" that I'm excited about and can't wait to start implementing in my daily life.
Today's nugget was this: I do not have (nor do I want) a cookie cutter marriage.
This may be simple to a lot of you. You might be thinking "Duh Katie..." but seriously. In our society we are all up in every ones business. Between publicity, social networking, BLOGGING, we are constantly subject to how other people live their lives. And I know I am not the only one who has looked at someone else and thought "Wow, maybe I should be doing that??" Often I have found myself looking at other people, leaders in our church, couples I look up to, and thinking "Oh no, Jason and I don't do that... there must be something wrong with us..." But I can recognize now, that God has wired us ALL different. And all our marriages are going to look different. Even when we are fully submitted to God, our marriages in the body of Christ are still not going to LOOK the same. They should reflect God, but in different ways. So what might work in one couples marriage, may not work or be important for me and my husband. And THAT'S OKAY. There isn't anywhere in the bible that says "This is exactly what a Christian marriage will look like" Yes we as Christians will love (1 Corinthians 13), and possess the fruit of the spirit (Galations 5:22). And yes we as wives need to be submissive to our husbands (Colossians 3:18). Which ALSO will look different in each marriage. My being submissive to Jason a phlegmatic is gonna look different then another woman submitting to her super choleric husband. Different temperaments need different things. So we wives are going to submit differently. And I find GREAT relief in knowing this. Don't get trapped (like I did) in thinking that something is wrong with your husband if he doesn't want to get up and preach or speak in front of 10, 20, 50 people. Or if he doesn't want to be in the choir singing. Or if he isn't initiating prayer with you on a regular basis. As long as you are confident he is actively pursuing his relationship with God, then God is going to reveal what will be important for the two of you to do as a couple to advance His kingdom. And that's what matters. Bringing God glory and honor. I would often get all down that Jason and I weren't praying together. But it was more about ME than God. It was more about my feeling like we were really intimate together spiritually, then it was about God. And that's not right. So now I know that it's ok to be different, as a couple, in our walk with God. Praise God! Maybe you find it funny that all this just clicked with me but I'm just happy it did.
And also, since I have referred to temperaments a lot I really encourage anyone and everyone to find out what theirs and maybe their spouses is. You will really benefit from it. I read "The Spirit Controlled Woman" by Beverly Lahaye and I plan on reading her husband Tim Lahaye's version for men. And also, I haven't read it YET but I hear "Two Sides of Love" by Gary Smalley and John Trent is great too. Just a few book readings to throw out there =)
My new favorite song. How simple, true and POWERFUL these lyrics are. Go Chris Tomlin for allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you and your music, to God be the glory!
Ahhh, it's so crazy to think the last time I had anything to do with VBS was when I was IN it. 5th grade people!!! I'm 23 years old. Where did all that time go???? Apparently I went boy/Jason crazy, got married, had babies, and now here I am finally getting a chance to be a part of this blessed ministry.
I was asked by one of the sweet ladies of our church who is a VBS leader. When I first committed, (you'll learn I rarely say NO to anything) I thought "Oh yeah that's perfect! Right when I get back from Honduras. Works out GREAT!" When I commit to something I never think about the fact that I am the most easily over whelmed person on the face of the earth. Nope, I just think "Oh sure, nothing on that calendar day..." So needless to say when I got back from my amazing trip to Honduras I wasn't the least bit excited about working with our overly spoiled (even mine) American children. haha. BUT once AGAIN God showed me that just being in service for and with Him is a blessing.
I have had SO MUCH FUN. I ended up being a guide for the 3rd graders. Even though not all the kids attending VBS are all that excited, "I'm bored." "I don't want to sing." "I'm hungry." "I don't have anything to pray about." stinking pulling teeth with them!) It has been really great in other areas. Side note: please please be in prayer for these kids. I don't think people realize how instrumental VBS can be in children's lives. And I really desire for each child to learn something new, something that impacts them, from this week. Something they can take home and really apply to their daily lives. Maybe even someone have a chance to actually enter into a relationship with Christ. Ugh, that would be so amazing! (Anyway, sorry longest side note ever!)
What we do is go from one site to another doing things like crafts, water recreations, a bible story room, and at snack time we really incorporate prayer. We also open and end with worship which has been my absolute favorite part. Our youth praise band has been leading and we just are blessed with some talented teens. I've been so impressed by how much the youth have been participating and how much fun they genuinely are having. I think I may have helped out 1 year with VBS when I was in like 6th grade and I don't remember being interested much in the whole giving up my summer time (I know one week, so selfish I was!) to do Vacation Bible School. But these teens just seem to be really happy to interact with the young kids and encourage them to pursue relationship with God and fellowship with the body of Christ. So COOL!
All that to say that it couldn't be more true, that when you are serving God in ministry He will bless you for it. It may be as simple as just enjoying the ministry itself. (which to me is HUGE because who wants to hate being somewhere for a whole week, not me!) But truly, being in constant fellowship with God and pursuing His will truly does reap blessings and benefits spiritually in your life.
I don't want to be anywhere else. =)
I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the ONLY person who initially dreads going on a mission trip they signed up for. Let’s just be honest people.
On the heels of going to Honduras I was full of anxiety and stress. I didn’t want to leave my husband and kids. I didn’t want to venture into unknown territory with absolutely no body I knew by name. I didn’t want to fly, what if the plane crashed! Basically there was a whole list of (silly) reasons for why I didn’t think I should go. But the only way I was getting out of this commitment was if some illness were to come over me. Could I get food poisoning maybe??? Ugh but who wants to intentionally do that to themselves?? There wasn’t anything I could do, I had to go.
Saturday morning Jason and the girls dropped me off at the airport. It was heart wrenching leaving my two young daughters, who didn’t understand where mommy was going and why. It’s a bit difficult explaining to a 2 and 3 year old you are going out of the country to “Honduras”. “Can I come mommy?” was Micaila’s response. Ugh I wish! I thought. Anyway, I drug my unwilling body into the airport and threw a smile on my face, trying to act like I really wanted to do this. CWE requires us to all travel in the same BRIGHT yellow CWE shirt, so I spotted my team members immediately. We all went through our introductions. It just so happened that I would be traveling with two men who attended grade school with my dad. And one of those men had his 19 year old daughter with him. Being the two youngest ladies on the trip we hit it off pretty quickly. I was so glad to have a buddy!
My fear of flying had never been tested so much. We had to take 3 different planes to finally arrive in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Upon arriving we were met by the head Pastor Oscar and his faithful members who would be our “chauffer’s” for the week. We would be traveling in the sweetest school bus I’ve ever seen.
I thought flying was what I should be concerned over but that fear rapidly shifted to a fear of driving. Not only is the traffic horrendous
but my anxiety escalated when we got up into the mountains and I thought for sure this bus was going to roll off of them. Crossing rivers, driving through sludge, MASSIVE ditches and tub sized holes in the path, all the while having a headlight out in the dark and RAIN. I kept praying and assuring myself that God did not fly me all this way to have me killed in a bus accident! And then 2 hours later we were way up in the mountains and came to the village we’d be residing in for the week. It was about 9:00pm, 11:00pm Florida time. So we all had been up and traveling since about 7:00am. It was nice to be out of an automobile.
Our accommodations were that of a local church. Made out of concrete block and cement floors with a nice block wall and iron gate with those swirly pokey things on top (the kind you see on prison gates!) to keep people out (I guess...).
My thought was “Oh this is nice. We must me in a safe neighborhood with all those precautions…..” We enter in to find our rooms. We were blessed to have electricity for light however we did not have A/C. Fortunately it was cool at night so we weren’t sweating in our sleep. We were given about 3 inch thick foam mattresses to sleep on. Nice and close to all the bugs we encountered. To say the least I didn’t sleep well that first night.
The next morning we were woken by the early morning light 5:00am, cockadoodledo’s, mooing, and the barking of all the stray dogs. A far cry from what I normally wake up to. It was our job, the ladies, to take care of the men. So to the kitchen we went.
All the food was brought into Honduras by CWE. We couldn’t eat their food or drink their water. Everything was pretty much contaminated so we did a lot of sanitizing. We had to boil water and add bleach tablets with Dawn so we could clean with it. When cooking we used all bottled water. We had to make our milk with that delicious powdered stuff….. uugghh. Breakfast usually consisted of oatmeal, cereal, and biscuits. In fact most of our meals were basically carbs. Pasta, rice, bread, bread, bread. Lunch was the best because we actually had turkey meat I was used to. The meat that was used for dinner always came out of a can. The men didn’t mind but since we women had to pull it all apart and separate the gristle we weren’t inclined to eat it at dinner time. One of the challenges we had was getting drinks cold. We had two pretty crummy appliances that just did not want to keep things cold. We had a freezer that froze some things in certain areas of the freezer. And a fridge that basically acted as a cooler with no ice. So we spent a lot of time getting things frozen and transferring them back and forth between appliances. We tried utilizing anything we could as ice to keep other things cold. We needed to be sure that the men had cold water and lots of it to prevent heat stroke and dehydration.
So to summarize our day it looked something like this:
5:00am wake up cook breakfast, pack coolers, and restock fridge and freezer.
7:00am clean bathrooms (ie: the portables the men used and the commodes the women were blessed with.)
We had to fill up a bucket with water to pour down the toilet so it would flush. Toilet paper went in the garbage.
This was where we took our cold showers =)
8:00am this was when we had some down time. We would get to rest and spend time in prayer and reading our bibles. These moments were such a blessing to me.
Then we would start prepping for lunch.
Lunch would be anywhere from 11:30 to 12:30.
When the guys would return we had to make sure they had clean water to rinse and wash up with. Re pack their coolers and cater to whatever they might need.
After lunch we’d clean up and have some more down time. Again, reading our bibles, praying, visiting the job site, and interacting (as much as we could) with the locals. Remember, they ALL spoke Spanish. I got a D in Spanish, haha. Most of the time Nikki and I would play with the kids when they would get out of school. There was a group of young boys and two little girls that we really bonded with. We played “futbal” with them and spoiled them with candy. We couldn’t understand much of what each other was saying but we had a blast.
Then around 4 we would start getting ready for dinner. After dinner we would have our devotions. And then by the time we got done with all that it was 9:00pm and we were all pretty tired.
Being able to spend so much time with the Lord this past week was one of the greatest blessings. Having two small children my quiet times are usually pretty quick and not very quiet. To be able to spend an in depth intimate time with God was just the most amazing gift. I miss it already.
A few things that just really hit me were that the people there are more content with nothing then we are with endless resources and abundant living. The Christians there don’t need beautiful air conditioned sanctuaries with a big talented choir or a great band. They come to church and worship more passionately than we do, with their voices alone and sweat dripping down their forehead. Sitting in their church service I wondered how many Americans would even come to church if those were the conditions they’d have to sit in. I know for certain that when the A/C kicks off or heaven forbid isn’t cut down low enough, people start fanning themselves incessantly with grim looks on their faces as if they can’t believe they’d be expected to tolerate a little heat. The people in Honduras don’t care. They only care about worshipping their heavenly Father. Here in America if we aren’t comfortable we won’t participate. How sad is that? Are God is deserving of our full devotion and attention no matter where we are or what circumstance we are in. He deserves much more than most of us in America give Him. He deserves our everything, and I want to give Him that.
The last night of devotions the local pastors came and had dinner with us. By the way when I say local that means pastors who traveled a few hours to be there. One of our people asked them to sing a song for us. And with great joy they decided to sing “How Great Thou Art”. In Spanish of course. They belted that out with passion, emotion, some with tears, because they were not singing it for us, they were singing it TO HIM. They were just ecstatic to be given the opportunity to worship Him with fellow believers. For us, if we don’t have a good enough voice or an instrument to make up for our bad voice or a choir behind us, we won’t sing. We aren’t bold enough I guess. But to them, it didn’t matter. They wanted to make a joyful noise and didn’t care what anyone thought except for Him.
And of course, I was reminded of how unappreciative we can be of the things we have here back home. These people live in mud houses, with no a/c, sleeping in hammocks or on the floor, bathing out of cisterns and all the while cleaning with pride. Sweeping the dirt off their dirt floors, scrubbing there cement sinks and cisterns to keep them clean because they are grateful to have them, washing their clothes and hanging them to dry, using machetes to trim back foliage in their “yards”. These people built fences and walls around their homes, from rocks and tree limbs. They have no tv, no phones, no internet. They don’t have cars. The kids don’t have toys. And they are genuinely content. I felt more content being their then I do here back home. God didn’t create us so we could live life distracted by the things of this world. He created us for relationship with Him and with others. They have that their in Honduras and are happier than the vast majority of Americans. Happier than the richest of Americans.
This is a house and a broke down truck.
This is a relatively "nice" house in the village.
Being there the thing I noticed most with myself is the freedom I felt. I was cut off from all worldly things and felt no pressure to engage in what is normal. Things like email, text, facebook, myspace, shopping, tv, didn’t distract me from pursuing my relationship with God and relationship with others. Because I wasn’t distracted I never felt guilt. I didn’t feel guilt because I was confident that the activities I was engaging in were glorifying to Him. I knew that reading my bible and praying in my free time was glorifying to Him. I knew that interacting with the children there, sweating in the heat with them playing soccer and running around with them was glorifying to Him. I knew that serving others that were serving Him was honoring to Him. I spent my days seeking what God wanted from me for that day. And now back home, I am committing to continue with that mentality. To start my day with this, “Father God, how do YOU want to use me today? What can I do today that glorifies you?” Because seeking His will is where we find freedom. And with freedom, comes joy and peace. And with joy and peace comes love, patience, kindness, and the rest of the fruits of the spirit.
This is the Bible Training Center. Week 1 got it started. Our Week the men put the roof on, spread the concrete floor, spread the concrete on the outside, and put the windows in. A LOT of the local men would come and help in ANY way they could. The people of the village have been waiting 22 years for a building like this to be built. They said if CWE had not come it would have taken them 50+ years to build it with the resources available to them.
This is our whole team after we finished the project.
My favorite boys =)
This is a local market place, their "7 Eleven".
While we were shopping we ran into a man that had 3 puppies he was trying to sell. Jason's lucky I couldn't get this cute little thing through customs. There were a TON of stray dogs and puppies everywhere. Not to mention horses and cows wandering around.
Death by Chocolate!!!! SOOOOO GOOOOOD! I miss having desert every night.
We went on a hike to visit a cave in the mountains. Didn't really think about changing out of my flip flops! Had to take them off to make it through the river crossing.
At the top!
This baby horse was 3 hours old when we came across it on our hike. So SWEET!
You would always see the siblings taking care of each other. So cool.
Making water balloons. They LOVED IT! (Not gonna lie I did too!)
They would sit on this wall for hours and just laugh, watch us, and speak to us in spanish. So content to do nothing but hang with their buddies. No video games here! You don't find that in America!
We walked by these young ladies every day. They would always be sweeping in the morning. They were ecstatic to get candy from us.
Totally normal for the kids to have either no shirt and shorts or vice versa. Shoes were a luxury.
I wish I could have brought this beautiful girl home. However, she was perfectly happy in her little hut with all her brothers and friends.
That is a picture of mountains in Honduras that I found through google images.
That's where I want to be. As I've already stated, my family and I are residing at my parents home for the time being. We've been looking for houses for 3 months solid and just haven't found the right one. This past weekend we went to a very good friend of ours wedding. And just because I got one of the best photo's to date with me and my 2 daughters I must share =)
No I don't love Micaila more.... I just couldn't get Ryann any closer. And believe me, you take what you CAN get with little ones when it comes to photos.
The wedding was in beautiful South Carolina. My mothers sister Laura lives there and we stayed in her charming home. You know the kind,.... big porch with a swing and a few rocking chairs, over looking the mountains. Oh how I'd love to sit there every morning, sip on my cafe con leche, and talk to God about how He made those beautiful mountains, among other things.
My Aunt and ALL her children live in the same neighborhood. How cool to have your entire family; Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, and all your cousins within walking distance. My cousins daughter, Emily, hopped on her four wheeler one evening and road it down to her "Mimi's" house to bring her some dinner. I would LOVE it. I did love it! I'm absolutely in love (okay honestly I'm in some seriouse "like") with South Carolina. SO in "like" that I would pick my family up and move there in a heart beat if I knew it were God's will, and of course if my husband would go for it.
So once again I'm wondering, what is God's will for my family? Where does God want us? How does He want to use us? Because I could put together a very compelling case of why I think I should move to South Carolina. I could give you all sorts of reasons for how it would be smart financially, how it would be a better environment for my children, and I'm sure there are plenty of people that we could minister to! Maybe God DOES want us there. I mean He sold our previous home within a WEEK, He obviously didn't want us there any longer. (We had done enough damage, lol) And now here we stay in my parents home, searching tirelessly for a place to live in Florida with no luck. So maybe, just maybe, God doesn't want us in Florida at all. And then maybe He doesn't want us in South Carolina either....
I don't know where He wants us, but I do know that after our little road trip, I will be more open to see if He wants us somewhere other than Lutz. I now will be praying for Him to reveal where we can be the most useful in furthering His kingdom. Whether it IS here, or South Carolina, or Africa! Wherever He leads, I will follow. *Isaiah 6:8 Here I am, Send me!*
In the last couple of weeks I’ve wrestled with a question: To be or not to be “Organic”….. For some of us we roll our eyes to this topic. I know I have in the past. I was greatly annoyed by anyone who fell for this trend. I didn’t see the point, nor did I want to spend the exorbitant amounts of money buying that kind of food. I’ve explained how I’ve come to a point in my life where I’m (finally) growing up and becoming my own person; figuring out what works for my new family. Obviously I want to do what is BEST. Being that I’m the mother, I have a great impact on our diet and the kinds of things we ingest. Not very long ago I went the route of convenience. It’s hard being a young mother of two children 18 months apart, so microwave meals here I come! And I possibly was even a little lazy in my approach to cooking. But now I feel it’s time that I step up and ensure that my children, my husband, and I are eating healthy BALANCED meals.
Do you have to eat organic to be healthy? I have often felt like some of those in the organic world look down on those of us who don’t buy that type of product. I’m hyper sensitive to what other people think of me. I have a really hard time not caring. Not to mention I ultimately want to do what truly is best for my family. (part of my melancholic temperament) So I did some research. My first conclusion was “yep, it’s got to be organic.” Of course that was after reading from those that have a somewhat biased opinion towards the “Organic, Gluten-Free, Paleo” type of diets. So I guess they would be telling me to go all out organically. Hmmm… so I tried again. More research. It’s funny how you can hear just about whatever it is you WANT to hear if you go to the right websites. One thing you must be sure to look for when you are researching this stuff is a reputable source and preferably someone who is unbiased with no agenda. (Professors are pretty reliable.) That is if you want the truth or want to be able to come up with your own decision and not someone else’s. My biggest concerns were that of milk and meats. I know all about the pesticides on produce and I think that’s a generally easy fix. But milk in particular is insanely expensive when you go organic. Especially if you have two little ones drinking is out the wazoo! When I bought my first gallon of Publix Green Wise milk that cost 6 dollars my husband about had a conniption. So it was back to research mode. Was this entirely necessary??? After all, I don't want to have it out with my husband once a week over milk! Sheesh. I found this article to be interesting:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14458802/
The things like BGH and antibiotics that I was specifically worried about, according to this article, seem to not really be an issue. The woman who wrote the article is not just putting an opinion out there either, she backs it up with names and studies done. Not to mention she has a MS, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian, speaker, and writer who serves as nutrition advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research. I bet she knows what she’s talking about. =) So I have come to the conclusion on this topic of milk that I don’t need to give my hubby another heart attack over a 6 dollar jug of it. Regular milk will do just fine for us.
However, there are a few other things I have learned. I get it that are chicken and cows are stilled pumped with a lot of crud and also treated poorly to say the least. And yes, it does concern me when I go to buy some boneless chicken breasts that look like they’ve come off a Pterodactyl (yes I DID look that up, the p is silent, who knew!) possibly with implants. So my plan is to shop more cautiously when it comes to things that are so obviously unnatural.
I’m not writing this to sway anyone to either side. I don’t mind if you eat organic or if you don’t. I have some very good friends in fact that are pro-organic. But me, as a mother, trying to do what’s best for my girls, and wife to a very frugal husband, who wants cold hard facts, can’t validate buying ALL organic food, when I haven’t found any evidence to show true detriment to anyone’s health by eating the normal stuff. Prime example, my dad is 56 years old and is in tip top shape, as healthy as can be. He’s always been conscious of his diet and exercise, done lots of research on different things, NEVER gone organic, pretty much sticks to moderation is key, balanced meals. Another example, a woman I know, who is completely holistic with her diet and life style, wound up in the hospital because she refused to take prescribed medicine for her seasonal allergies. She almost died. A lot of people who are organic claim that you'll have more health benefits and get sick less, but ending up in the hospital doesn't scream healthy to me. If I was to have the two of them in a room trying to convince me to go organic or not I’d probably be following my dad. Just saying.
BUT my main conclusion through this whole learning process, (which by the way, I’m still learning) is that I trust in God’s sovereignty. I trust in the things I know for certain. Like, I KNOW God requires me to respect and submit to my husband, if he says “no” to organic than I must respect that. I KNOW that I’m going to do the best I can with my children and that God watches over them.
Psalm 56:3 “When I’m afraid, I will trust in you.” And that means even when I’m afraid I just might digest something harmful unknowingly, I will trust in Him. Psalm 56:11 “In God I trust; I will NOT be afraid. What can man do to me??” That includes the men at Hillshire farms, Publix, Pillsbury, Kraft, Whoever! They can’t do anything to me! In Him I trust. Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” OR the understanding of anyone who doesn’t really have your BEST interest, God has your best interest. Trust in Him. Not to mention God has not given me a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT) So, why should I (me personally) be so afraid of a little hormone induced chicken or a few preservatives? I feel great. I’m healthy. I don’t need to alter my diet and eliminate certain foods; I don’t have allergies to anything. I’m blessed to be as healthy as I am. And that goes for my entire family. That doesn’t mean we’re going to indulge in McDonalds and BK every day. I will however eat my weekly Chick-Fil-A! What that means is I will do my best to take care of my family and myself by eating a balanced, moderate, healthy diet. Exercising regularly, playing outside and running around with my kids. Making decisions wisely and not obsess over this subject of food. Because I know Satan would just love to use this distraction as something to keep me from spending time with Christ. (which has been the case the last week or so!) My god will not be “my stomach” (Philippians 3:19) I will trust in Him and live my life for His glory. Besides, I can’t wait to go to Heaven anyway! ;0)
