In the middle of our last support trip we got an amazing opportunity to spend some time with some of our current supporters. Where you ask?
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Where in the world have we been?
Traveling hasn't slowed down for us! We are in a season of support raising which requires a lot of traveling and flexible scheduling. It can be difficult with a baby, but we have amazing parents who just love for us to go out of town so that they can spoil Eden with merry-go-rounds and ice cream!
In the middle of our last support trip we got an amazing opportunity to spend some time with some of our current supporters. Where you ask?
The Lord gave us a big gift in the midst of some crazy travel! We were so thankful to see the Colts hand it to the Jets (as Dolphin fans we have a bit of hostility toward them). This officially makes us Colts fans. So if you need us on February 7th...we will be cheering so loud that they can hear us in Miami! GO COLTS!!
In the middle of our last support trip we got an amazing opportunity to spend some time with some of our current supporters. Where you ask?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hope for Haiti
I have a dear friend and sister in the Lord that has been a faithful missionary to orphans in Haiti for many years now. Last night Clint and I saw the first few glimpses of the news and my heart sank. "The worst earthquake in 200 years" was all I heard and began to cry. Port au Prince is the city that the workers of the orphanage go into frequently. I expected the worst, and we prayed.
News came this morning that the orphanage was spared, and its inhabitants were shaken up, but safe. My heart was torn with much joy for their lives and home, and great grief as the estimate of lives lost hit 100,000.
Please continue to pray as the relief efforts push forward. Many are still missing and communication is very difficult within the country.
Please pray for those who are searching for loved ones! Pray that the Lord would send relief from outside sources to restore Haiti to health, and ultimately to Himself.
Pray for wisdom and grace as the workers at Hope for Haiti reach out into the devastation as many children have lost parents as a result of the earthquake.
If you feel led to give please see this website. http://www.danitaschildren.org/
News came this morning that the orphanage was spared, and its inhabitants were shaken up, but safe. My heart was torn with much joy for their lives and home, and great grief as the estimate of lives lost hit 100,000.
Please continue to pray as the relief efforts push forward. Many are still missing and communication is very difficult within the country.
Please pray for those who are searching for loved ones! Pray that the Lord would send relief from outside sources to restore Haiti to health, and ultimately to Himself.
Pray for wisdom and grace as the workers at Hope for Haiti reach out into the devastation as many children have lost parents as a result of the earthquake.
If you feel led to give please see this website. http://www.danitaschildren.org/
Monday, January 11, 2010
W
My mom recently bought me a subscription to Cookie magazine. It's a sort-of rich mommy magazine. I enjoyed it most of the time, though 90% of the clothes in it were wildly overpriced. It gave me some good ideas to go look for in TJ Maxx. And I like to think it was keeping me trendy (something I have struggled to be since becoming a mom...or college student!).
But recently, I received a notification that Cookie would no longer be in publication. Though a little disappointed, it was nothing like getting the notice that Wondertime would be done! So the nice people at Cookie decided to send me W magazine instead. The note attached to my last issue said that they knew I would love W. It is a magazine for the affluent, cultural fashionistas of the world. Clearly, they know me well.
A few days ago I received my first issue of W. Jennifer Garner posing on the front in a beautiful orange dress. So I opened and began investigating this W. On one of the first few pages there was a blurb about what Miss Garner was wearing. Cartier necklace...450,000 dollars! Why is that even listed? Does anyone see that and say "Oh! Thats EXACTLY what I want for my birthday!" What in the world? And that's where I stopped. Oh well....it was fun while it lasted.
As for that necklace...If anyone is interested in buying it for me: be warned, I will take it to a pawn shop...and buy a few houses with it.
But recently, I received a notification that Cookie would no longer be in publication. Though a little disappointed, it was nothing like getting the notice that Wondertime would be done! So the nice people at Cookie decided to send me W magazine instead. The note attached to my last issue said that they knew I would love W. It is a magazine for the affluent, cultural fashionistas of the world. Clearly, they know me well.
A few days ago I received my first issue of W. Jennifer Garner posing on the front in a beautiful orange dress. So I opened and began investigating this W. On one of the first few pages there was a blurb about what Miss Garner was wearing. Cartier necklace...450,000 dollars! Why is that even listed? Does anyone see that and say "Oh! Thats EXACTLY what I want for my birthday!" What in the world? And that's where I stopped. Oh well....it was fun while it lasted.
As for that necklace...If anyone is interested in buying it for me: be warned, I will take it to a pawn shop...and buy a few houses with it.
A Workout Partner
If you have made the New Years resolution (as millions have) to exercise more, listen up. I have ground breaking news that will help you be successful! It is no secret that having a partner, someone who is motivated and not too nice to make you do something you don't want to do, will help you stick to your goals.
But heres the advice you've probably never heard... Just two steps to success!
1. Buy a Wii Fit
2. Let your 14 month old watch you use it ONCE
She will, and I mean WILL, hold you accountable to use it at least once a day...if not multiple times.
Happy exercising!
But heres the advice you've probably never heard... Just two steps to success!
1. Buy a Wii Fit
2. Let your 14 month old watch you use it ONCE
She will, and I mean WILL, hold you accountable to use it at least once a day...if not multiple times.
Happy exercising!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
I hate carrots...
Not cooked ones, I have grown to like those. But raw carrots taste like dirt to me. I was never one of those girls who snacked on raw carrots and celery (which I also hate) before practice. No matter how mind-over-matter I can get, I just can't eat them.
However, my sweet husband bought me a juicer for Christmas. I have been wanting one for a little over a year, but because of mixed reviews on any under the $200 mark, I refused to buy one. He researched, bought the Jack Lalane Power Juicer Pro, and proudly presented it to me on Christmas morning. Because of our crazy December, this morning was our first attempt at making a little concoction.
We threw some fruits and veggies in and viola! Beautiful, tasty juice! We are hoping that this juicer helps us get up to the 5-9 fruits and veggies a day mark! Call it a New Years resolution, heres to better health!
Our fave (and only) recipe?
2 carrots and one navel orange per person.
Give it to the carrot-hater in your life. Their eyes will thank you!
However, my sweet husband bought me a juicer for Christmas. I have been wanting one for a little over a year, but because of mixed reviews on any under the $200 mark, I refused to buy one. He researched, bought the Jack Lalane Power Juicer Pro, and proudly presented it to me on Christmas morning. Because of our crazy December, this morning was our first attempt at making a little concoction.
We threw some fruits and veggies in and viola! Beautiful, tasty juice! We are hoping that this juicer helps us get up to the 5-9 fruits and veggies a day mark! Call it a New Years resolution, heres to better health!
Our fave (and only) recipe?
2 carrots and one navel orange per person.
Give it to the carrot-hater in your life. Their eyes will thank you!
Friday, January 1, 2010
If you have never heard of Barbara Barker...
I am happy to introduce you!
Until this past summer, neither had I. On our annual Summer Beach Project this summer, everyone read the biography of Barbara's husband, Frank. Frank is a PCA pastor from Birmingham AL, the PCA pastor that is responsible for starting Campus Outreach. For us, full-time employees and stateside missionaries for this organization, reading about them was very exciting. Clint and I spent time many nights reading aloud the biography of this wild pilot turned pastor. We were enamored with the stories of amazing faith, huge prayers, and abundant grace the Lord seemed to pour out on this man and wife.
A few days ago, Frank and Barbara joined us in DC to speak to our students. They told the story of how Campus Outreach got its start, and pricked the hearts of hundreds of college students who are now asking “Could the Lord use me to do something like that?” We pray that the answer is yes.
It was this place, the New Years Conference (then held in Atlanta), that Clint and I both had intimate interactions with the Lord over what He could do in our lives. It was this conference (and John Piper) that kept Clint from transferring colleges to play football, which eventually led to our meeting (thank you, Mr. Piper!). It was here that I first got a glimpse of what walking with the Lord in community looked like. A glimpse that eventually led me to transfer schools to be discipled. That move changed my life. The Lord really uses this time. He has uniquely blessed it. And we are thankful.
But, back to Barbara. Yesterday, all of the staff wives had a chance to meet with Mrs. Barker to talk about how she has managed life, ministry, children (3 in 2 1/2 years!), and being a man in ministry’s wife. She proceeded to tell us her story. Most of it, I was on the verge of tears. Partly because I felt understood, partly because I found great hope for my life in her words. When Barbara was 25, she had given up a ballet career to marry the man she loved. She was not a Christian at the time. In that season, he became a Christian, and broke up with her. She tried to commit suicide. In her recovery, her sister led her to Christ. She spent 4 years honeymooning with the Lord only to move back to Birmingham and marry that very same man.
But that man, let her down. She put her hope in her marriage, and he loved his church. She became resentful and hopeless. One day while her 3 babies were sleeping she cried out to the Lord. In her distress this verse came to her “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that could hold no water”. She says that that day, her life changed. She repented of her infidelity to the Lord in her heart, and began a new life of looking to Him to satisfy her needs and loving her husband out of the overflow.
Now, why does this give me great hope? I am 25 years old. Jesus has been my Lord now for 7 years. I am very young in my faith, yet, I am in full-time ministry. I live with a perfectionism that whispers the lie that I must have it all together before I take a step of faith, teach anyone, or give of myself. And this woman, through a book, had become a hero to me. And now, I sit listening to the ways the Lord humbled, loved and poured out His grace to her. At my age she tried to take her life and finally gave it up to the Lord. My flesh and satan keep me from hope. I read stories about people like the Barker’s and I think “I will never be that godly, influential, etc.” Oh, but truth drowns out the lies when I hear a 73 year old (extremely godly) woman say “I have been a Christian for almost 50 years, and the same self I battled then, I battle now. But I am better.”
I have no idea what the Lord has in store for us in the next 5, 10....50 years! But I do know one thing. Barbara Barker is a testimony of the Lord’s grace. He is faithful, and He is committed to us no matter the depths of our sin and struggles. Praise the Lord for you Barbara! Thank you for your perseverance, your hope, your submission to your husband and your Lord. You can not imagine the impact you have had on countless lives. You have indeed been a messenger of the Lord’s grace to this ministry wife!
Until this past summer, neither had I. On our annual Summer Beach Project this summer, everyone read the biography of Barbara's husband, Frank. Frank is a PCA pastor from Birmingham AL, the PCA pastor that is responsible for starting Campus Outreach. For us, full-time employees and stateside missionaries for this organization, reading about them was very exciting. Clint and I spent time many nights reading aloud the biography of this wild pilot turned pastor. We were enamored with the stories of amazing faith, huge prayers, and abundant grace the Lord seemed to pour out on this man and wife.
A few days ago, Frank and Barbara joined us in DC to speak to our students. They told the story of how Campus Outreach got its start, and pricked the hearts of hundreds of college students who are now asking “Could the Lord use me to do something like that?” We pray that the answer is yes.
It was this place, the New Years Conference (then held in Atlanta), that Clint and I both had intimate interactions with the Lord over what He could do in our lives. It was this conference (and John Piper) that kept Clint from transferring colleges to play football, which eventually led to our meeting (thank you, Mr. Piper!). It was here that I first got a glimpse of what walking with the Lord in community looked like. A glimpse that eventually led me to transfer schools to be discipled. That move changed my life. The Lord really uses this time. He has uniquely blessed it. And we are thankful.
But, back to Barbara. Yesterday, all of the staff wives had a chance to meet with Mrs. Barker to talk about how she has managed life, ministry, children (3 in 2 1/2 years!), and being a man in ministry’s wife. She proceeded to tell us her story. Most of it, I was on the verge of tears. Partly because I felt understood, partly because I found great hope for my life in her words. When Barbara was 25, she had given up a ballet career to marry the man she loved. She was not a Christian at the time. In that season, he became a Christian, and broke up with her. She tried to commit suicide. In her recovery, her sister led her to Christ. She spent 4 years honeymooning with the Lord only to move back to Birmingham and marry that very same man.
But that man, let her down. She put her hope in her marriage, and he loved his church. She became resentful and hopeless. One day while her 3 babies were sleeping she cried out to the Lord. In her distress this verse came to her “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that could hold no water”. She says that that day, her life changed. She repented of her infidelity to the Lord in her heart, and began a new life of looking to Him to satisfy her needs and loving her husband out of the overflow.
Now, why does this give me great hope? I am 25 years old. Jesus has been my Lord now for 7 years. I am very young in my faith, yet, I am in full-time ministry. I live with a perfectionism that whispers the lie that I must have it all together before I take a step of faith, teach anyone, or give of myself. And this woman, through a book, had become a hero to me. And now, I sit listening to the ways the Lord humbled, loved and poured out His grace to her. At my age she tried to take her life and finally gave it up to the Lord. My flesh and satan keep me from hope. I read stories about people like the Barker’s and I think “I will never be that godly, influential, etc.” Oh, but truth drowns out the lies when I hear a 73 year old (extremely godly) woman say “I have been a Christian for almost 50 years, and the same self I battled then, I battle now. But I am better.”
I have no idea what the Lord has in store for us in the next 5, 10....50 years! But I do know one thing. Barbara Barker is a testimony of the Lord’s grace. He is faithful, and He is committed to us no matter the depths of our sin and struggles. Praise the Lord for you Barbara! Thank you for your perseverance, your hope, your submission to your husband and your Lord. You can not imagine the impact you have had on countless lives. You have indeed been a messenger of the Lord’s grace to this ministry wife!
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