Frustrated

Well we finally got confirmation that we would not be leaving this winter which we have really been struggling with. At first MDS invited us to come for November and December but they were asking me (Jacquie) to work in the office - I didn't think I could do the work considering my rather active children so we declined thinking that we would just go after Christmas... well we were told about 2 weeks ago that was not going to happen because they didn't really have room for us. We were disappointed for many reasons and one being the fact that next winter Samuel will be in school and heading off to missions wouldn't really be 'responsible' (unless of course I lost my mind and home schooled him! Let's just say I know our personalities wouldn't mesh that well!)
So here we are wondering what it is that God wants for us. It seemed as though He put missions in our hearts for a reason but now we don't know why it's not working out for us to go. We also don't 'preach or teach' and those are the easiest missions to get into.. (or so it seems)
But lately my heart has been so broken for the orphan. I don't know why this is coming into my head now but I can't understand why we're always so distracted and think life is about us and our little family... there is so much more we should be doing for the Kingdom... time to get down on my knees and really spend time with the Maker of this crazy life I live...
I will start putting pictures up for my lovely southern friends... soon!
Love you all and covet your prayers once again.

Hard to Believe

As depressing as it may seem it's exciting in some ways... Summer might be officially over. This week we had super great weather and dreary rainy weather as well... but alas it's coming - Winter. And with winter comes decision time as well. We are unsure as to when and where we'll be going for some of the winter months. Harvest has just started so I guess we have a little bit of time to decide and see what MDS has for us.
Samuel and Olivia both started Jazz on Friday - it was a Blast! I'll post pictures soon.
If you're reading this and you have a little time we would covet your prayers for our future. It's so unknown to us and we know that God knows but in all our 'humanness' we would like to have a clue too!

Change of life :-)

Not really... this week has had sunshine, snow, hail, rain and wind... I'm dreaming of warmer days! The kids are getting a little impatient with the weather (as is their mother) and wish we could spend more time out in the backyard... soon hopefully.

We did our Missions Report this previous Sunday in church. There weren't very many people in attendance but we pray that is not because they don't have hearts for missions... anyway it was a little stressful for Willie because I'm so not a public speaker (I say "It's not my gift" but I'm not sure if I don't have enough faith or if it really isn't my thing) in whatever case, I didn't have a lot to say so Willie had to do it - I did the slideshow. A picture is worth a thousand words so technically I did say a lot! It was so good to go through all the pictures of the 5 months that we spent on the road. It brought back so many memories and so many things that we as a family will cherish forever. All the faces we'll always remember and the time that people spent with the kids... and of course our wonderful time with the Raifords and the Glenn's.

God has a way of putting experiences in our lives to forever change us if we took time to plants seeds... Willie 'planted' some wheat in a cup for Samuel to watch grow. We have it on our window sill by the kitchen sink and it's amazing what a short time it needs to grow if it gets the 3 simply things... dirt, sun and water! If only we would grow in the same simple environment. If we would rely on God to give us everything that we need than we would grow in Him. Not sure if that makes any sense but ...

To all of you in God's service - be encouraged!! God is enough! He's more than enough... He's everything!

Adjusting slowly...

I'm not sure why it feels like we're on the outside looking in after only 5 months but we're adjusting slowly... it would help if some of this snow would melt. I have some serious issues with whoever started this whole Global Warming thing....

The kids are enjoying their rooms and all their 'new' toys. I haven't noticed much of them at all. We've seen all the fantastic people that have been praying for us so faithfully and it's great to be in the comforts of home. I was reminded again of how the material possessions are exactly that - and we missed none of it... but these wonderful people at home have been missed. Samuel has been enjoying his playdates with Tori, Jobe, Kobe and Tanner! And Olivia finally got to see Baby Brooke and hold her and play mom for a bit!

We're sad that we won't see our other friends for some time... missing the people we met while we were in Texas and Mississippi and of course our favorite place... Hammond Louisiana! :-) Miss you Tisha!

Kathy and Carl we're praying for you folks out in Bolivia - we love reading about your lives and watching your kids grow!

We're Back!

Well we came home last night to about 20 feet of snow and streets that haven't been cleared and we had to put the truck into 4x4 to get into our garage. We are excited to see everyone but the kids are both sick and Willie and I are feeling it to.
Willie is really missing work down there but he's excited to get going on the farming and of course he's analyzing our house ready to redo everything in the basement but we'll see how ambitious we get.
God has been so incredibly good to us and we're so amazed at how he has kept us under His protection through all this and we just give all the glory to Him for an amazing time of being servants in a different environment. We're excited to see what He has for us here in La Crete. We're also waiting for our friends from the south to come up and see us in the near future :-)
We got to see Gramma and Grampa last night so that was super - then on to our home to reacquaint the kids with their rooms. They loved it! Olivia loves her pink room and Samuel will be busy for the next week just discovering his toys again. We have an invitation for supper today which we're very excited for - Samuel is looking forward to seeing his little friends again!
Thank you for your prayers and we want to thank each of you individually but it might take a few weeks to get around. Thank you Jesus for prayer and for people who care! There are people on the Gulf Coast that are so less fortunate than we are and yet they live lives for Christ and have showed us what glorifying God looks like. To live real lives in Him! Beautiful memories.

Canadian eh?!

Hello world... we're held up in Magrath Alberta and enjoying time with the Neudorf family on the ranch. It's been great to just stop for a while and sleep in clean beds and have kids for the kids to play with and an Auntie and Uncle to love on the kids. Samuel got sick the moment he saw the snow in Colrado Springs but he's on the up swing and hopefully he's back to 100% in a day or so.
Hope that your worlds are pleasant and that your worries are few... we'll see friends in Pincher Creek, Calgary and Edmonton soon and then our friends and family in La Crete will see us soon (Willie's already farming in his mind so we might as well be home...)
Thanks again for your prayers for safe travels... we're almost home!

Garden of the Gods

Homeowner in Texas

Jump A Roo with Callie & Carson

The Glenn family in Texas - our last visit

Time with Duplessis in Diamond, LA

Chilly & Chapped in Colorado

We had a fabulous time in Colorado Springs with our friends that we met in Mississippi. The altitude is 6200 feet above sea level so we had some getting used to... Willie snoring, Olivia’s lips bleeding and I couldn’t stop yawning (apparently my brain was lacking!) Going from sea level in Louisiana to over a mile high in a few days is a bit of a shock to the system. We got to see the Focus on the Family ‘head quarters’ and we went to an amazing display of God’s creativity in a place called the Garden of the Gods. I’ll post pictures soon (seriously... I will do it soon). Jim and Cyndi Curran put us up for the night so the kids got to sleep in a bunk bed which was pretty exciting (oh to be a kid again!) We got to meet some of their family and their two grandbabies who were 4 and 2 years of age... God’s lovin’ the details!!

We are thankful for safety - we almost blew away in the strong winds today but alas we remained grounded; for now... we set up camp in Cheyenne, Wyoming and we’re doing well. Thanks for the prayers... it’s only a few more days and we’ll be able to put our feet up and get out of the truck for a few days in Magrath.

No word like goodbye

I have added a word to the kids 'no-no list' "Goodbye" is no longer a word in our vocab. We trust that God will be gracious enough for us to see all the wonderful people we've just said goodbye to again.
On Tuesday we left friends in Diamond, LA after a fun sleepover at their home (pictures to follow soon). Off to the fun Raiford home where something is always going on! We had too much fun and it was really hard to leave. But alas, all good things come to an end and we were thankful that we had the time we did... thanks to Nik ;-) and her honeymoon delivery pick up. We had to move on Wednesday night; saying farewell for now to Kent, Tisha and the kids we love so much!
We arrived in Beaumont Texas shortly after our friends The Glenn's had their fifth baby so we got to see a fresh little one! We stayed the night and then we met up with the Samuel family in Newton Texas, she was a homeowner who we got to know in Nov/Dec while we were here with MDS. We spent some good time in her new home and Samuel got a hair cut and we went to the "Last Chance Cafe" for some good food and some good fun. We said farewell to the Glenn family today and hit the road one more time. We're now close to Dallas Texas and are heading off to Amarillo tomorrow. Our next stop to run and play will be with some long termers that we met during our time in the Pass who live in Colorado Springs.

This blog post is boring but I'm doing it so that I don't forget about where we were when - and some of you want to actually know where we are :-)

Willie says ... 797 km behind us and only 4409 km to go :-) Sounds like fun!! Let's just say I know pretty much every word that Lightening McQueen says in Cars!!! Well... "got ourselves a nodder..." time for bed.

Love you all. The pictures will start rolling in soon. Sorry for the delay.

The beginning of reflection...

We left the MDS site today with a few different emotions. We only drove about 30 minutes to a hotel in Slidell but we felt that we needed to start moving forward. The kids were excited to get to a hotel and experience the full size bath tub!
I asked Willie what he was feeling or if he had a verse for me to post on the blog that would speak what he was feeling... I got a long sigh and then nothing... so I searched my heart and this is what I found: On the way out of MIssissippi there was a church sign that read "Aspire to Inspire before you Expire"
We will rest tonight and I'll continue our thoughts tomorrow. Thank you again and again!
Tisha we'll see you so soon!!

Praise God from whom ALL blessings come...

We are thankful that God is already working on another adventure for us and we're excited to meet Him there. Until then we pack and pack and repack... trying to get our lives to fit on the box of the truck! Should be fun to see if it works one last time.
So we'll be coming to a community near you.... we'll contact you on our way through and see if we can stop in for a chat... -except you Kathy and Carl... not planning on swinging by that way =)
See you all soon; thank you for your prayers! God is so good! We are in his hand as we travel west and then North and North and then North some more!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

And that is what we're feeling now but as the time is nearing when we need to start packing up(how in the world will we fit back in that truck??), we are so thankful to God who has allowed us to walk through this amazing time of refreshing and stretching. We've all had a lot of challenges and yet we are all different because of how God has blessed our socks off (we are rather attached to our flip flops and crocs!) He is faithful and we have seen it in other people's lives and in ours.

We will start the trek home on Saturday, Feb 28th. We won't go too far ... just to Louisiana to say goodbye to some dear friends and then to Texas to say goodbye to some more amazing people that we just met in November.

This past week we were all feeling lost without the friends we had with us for two weeks, the kids were actually bothered by them leaving which is odd - they were totally into knowing that the people were all just here for a short while. One morning when Olivia realized that people were leaving again (just to go to the job site) she ran away from me (we were in the dining hall) and she headed off for one of the vans on the yard. I finally caught up to her and asked her where she was going. She said "Going home, Ms. Amanda home" I realize that I've been telling her that our friends went home but that we would see them again... so she's thinking that would be a good place to be! I think she understands more about what's going on then I thought. But she keeps saying "see them tomorrow, went home, see them tomorrow".

We were so thankful to receive a package from home this last week which made our entire year! It was so thoughtful and so appreciated because again, it came right on time!! We needed to know that there were people at home that cared and God showed us that even though it's sad to leave, there are a lot of exciting things about going home, seeing faces that we have loved for a long time and that we care for and that we have missed! We're excited to see the family of God back home; just to connect again and jump back into life in La Crete.

Time to head out for the morning, it'll be a busy weekend! Thank you for your prayers - Jesus is too good!

Fun day with Callie & Carson

On the 'home' stretch...

I’ve been struggling with the blog, wondering what it is that I should be communicating to the people that are wanting to walk this journey with us. It’s hard to explain what it is that we do ... it’s one of those “you need to be there” times in our lives.

We have appreciated Harold and Sandra Friesen as project directors. We respect and enjoy their leadership. They have been great in regards to the kids being here on the site. God has given us good gifts!

There are about seven sites on the go right now, we had a home dedication last week and are starting two more rebuilds this week (I think). Busy! We were told by a local that the city of Pass Christian is now back up to about 4000 pop. Pre-Katrina the population was 6500 so that gives you an indication of how the locals really love this place. It’s so beautiful and so neat. It’s really quiet and the people are so friendly. The businesses are still not really back but the neighboring communities are real close by.

We had an amazing church service this last Sunday. A University Gospel Choir visiting - WOW!!!! I’m amazed that God has given so many people the awesome gift of music! I have a bunch of video so I’ll have to let you all see that whenever I figure out how to post video :-) Dad you would have LOVED it too! I took a picture of the ‘piano man’ for you - we’ve enjoyed this congregation so much and will miss them. Samuel loves the Sunday School and we’re starting to feel like we really belong there. It feels like home! So much positive energy and enthusiasm - I would love to bring a little of that into our church at home... allow the passion and the appreciation of Christ out - we feel so reserved in our worship of our King... why?

Well we have to get down to the post office to mail Tori’s birthday gift. Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

Thanks for the prayers -

Amanda & Alex, Aaron, Karl and Kelby - if you’re reading this know that we miss you LOTS! Samuel is a little stressed out about you being gone and Olivia just keeps calling Aaron on her toy cell phone... “I love you Aaron!” is what I get to hear about 50 times a day! Good memory makers!

Long Distance Relationships

The last two weeks have been interesting, exciting, awesome and of course a little sad. We have had some amazing people here from Ohio and PA. They have won the hearts of our kids and we have grown to love them and will miss them a lot. It’s hard for me to understand how there are so many wonderful people and God plans when you get to meet them. These 5 individuals came when we needed them the most!

Willie and the rest of the long term staff went out to the MDS All Units Meeting in Mobile, Alabama today and it’s been raining so I had a lot of time to think about stuff (in between changing my kids wet clothing)... I was thinking of this whole ‘experience’ and had time to reflect on all the people we’ve met from different worlds who all love the same God. I hesitate to call it an experience because really this is what life should be like. Waking up in the morning thinking about how we can make someone else’s day better... where can we serve and what can we do. Who needs to talk to someone and will I take time for them... How many blessings does God really have in store for one lifetime? It’s amazing what you all see when you open your spiritual eyes. It’s so fun to see Him working - I see it so often in the kids as they interact with ‘strangers on Monday’ and hug and kiss their ‘friends on Friday’. It’s hard to realize that a lot of these ‘angels’ you won’t see again on this side of Heaven. But taking what we can from each meeting and allowing it to make us a better person so that we can bless someone else.

I don’t know if any of this makes sense... I’m getting a little distracted... Willie is talking to our neighbor Merlyn through our bedroom window... we’re such Mississippi rednecks!

Medical Adventure in the South

Wednesday was an interesting day (the word ‘interesting’ was not what I thinking last night but we’ve all had a good nights sleep)...

Willie came back to camp at 3:30 and we left Olivia behind with the cook, thinking forsure we would be bake in time for supper. Crazy us.

We went out to the clinic in Waveland which is only about 15 min. away. “There are no doctors in today”. Okay that’s strange but alright... off we went to another clinic that had just moved locations - big sign saying OPENING Feb 2/09... the door was locked. A lady saw us at the door and said that the clinic in Long Beach was open. Okay... so we got in the truck and drove about 1/2 hour to Long Beach. We found the clinic (our GPS decided it didn’t want to help us out so we had to search for it.) We walked in and a nurse greeted us at the door saying the doctor wasn’t taking any more patients. Awesome! By now mom was tired and frustrated and so my question was... “Is there a doctor anywhere in the south? My son needs to see one!” By now he was having a lot of trouble walking because his feet were swelling and the joy of carrying 53lbs was fading. The friendly nurse said we would have to go to the hospital.

So we went off to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport and we arrived there at 4:50pm. We got ‘registered’ and then we sat down... We were getting a little hungry but Willie didn’t want to leave and miss the doctor so we sat. I think it was about 6:00 when we got to go do his vitals and the nurse looked at him. About 10 minutes later another nurse came and put us in a different waiting room - a VERY cold one! We were the only ones there and Samuel was super hyper by this time and hopping around on one foot and driving us crazy. He was hungry and so where we! At 6:28 Willie finally went out to the cafeteria to see if he could get something to eat... apparently they closed at 6:30pm and so he got nothing! Well Samuel was expecting Chicken and Fries and was a little disappointed when Willie came back empty-handed. At 7:00 we were called by the nurse again and we got into a room. She looked at him, another nurse came to look at him and then we sat again.... At 7:30 I was starving so I went on a vending machine hunt. The hospital is SUPER secure and so I had to be escorted out and then back in. Well on the way back in I had to wait for someone to escort me into the ER’s locked doors and she forgot about me so I stood there for 10 or 15 min. Finally the security guard could see my frustration and took me in. So ya, I missed the doctor! Willie said she had said it must have just been a really bad reaction to something and was giving him a steroid to make it go away.... so he’s on a few different things. We were back at the camp by 8:45pm. He got worse before he got better and this morning (Thursday morning) he’s walking again and he’s back to his skinny self; swelling is down and no welts or rash! In two days it should disappear completely and we’ll be back at it! We missed our play date with Callie and Carson this week because of this and we were all sad about that but look forward to next week!

Thanks for all your prayers - they were needed and they were heard. Thank you Jesus for your mercy on us!

Dependance on God for Everything and in all Situations

We were shown once again how important it is to realize that it’s all in God’s control. Samuel woke up Monday morning saying his tummy hurt and he had a weird welt right beside his eye. He doesn’t usually say anything hurts so I was a little concerned. I gave him a children’s Pepto Bismol tablet and went off to clean the dorms. When I got back he had bumps on his stomach and he was itching them. I put some anti itch cream on them and off we went for lunch. I was busy doing stuff and all of a sudden he walks up to me itching his stomach and I saw the bumps had multiplied. I got him to take off his shirt and we put more cream on.

It only got worse and then it spread up to his neck, down his arms, his back and his face. I put him in the bath thinking maybe it was something on his clothes. Well when he took off his clothes I saw it was on his privates too and then this mom freaked out. Thankfully it was close to supper and Willie was on the site here and I called him to come see. We prayed like crazy and Willie went to go buy some more drugs and we gave him some allergy medication.

By bedtime the welts had all kind of run together and he had it all over his body. We prayed lots and then before he feel asleep I noticed that it had gotten better on his tummy; there was a little less red and a little more brown skin. So I made the comment that Jesus was already starting to make him better. His response made me smile and yet a little sad.

“But mom I’m not all better yet, just some. Maybe Jesus is too busy right now.”

I assured him that Jesus was never too busy and that He was always right by him. “Well mom, maybe He’s doing computer work in my heart.” This made me sad because this is a direct reflection of his mom. When mommy is too busy it’s usually because I’m behind a computer. Made me see how kids really need to see Jesus through their parents because that is what we are to them. We need to reflect the relationship of God to man in our parental roll.

So anyway, it’s Tuesday now and he’s doing a little better. His eyes are swollen, lips are twice the normal size, he's got hives (or what I think are hives) on his neck, shoulders and scalp and the privates look pretty scary. But his body is looking a lot better. So thank you for those prayers mom and dad, Tisha and Jules! Love you.

Another week gone by

Wow where did this week go? It started with an awesome weekend with my dad. The kids were SUPER excited to see him and spend some good quality time with him. Samuel got to have sleepovers with Grampa in the men's dorm and that was neat. He found it really amazing when Grampa brushed his "real teeth" (dentures); at breakfast he informed mommy and daddy of exactly how Grampa brushed them. We spent Friday night and Saturday morning in New Orleans and it was great to get off the camp and into the city for a little 'down time'. Samuel loves going to New Orleans since he knows that's where he was born and Olivia just loves eating so we can find that out there too.

Harold and Sandra had to go home to Calgary for a funeral so it was a different week here at Pass. Busy like always but different. Willie is loving his drywall, mudding and taping job. Sounds strange because not very many people do. This week he got to work with experienced 'mudders' so he was really pumped about that (as pumped as my relaxed husband gets).

The kids were lovin' the group this last week, but like every weekend they had to say goodbye again. It's hard to believe we're on our last month already. It's going to be really hard in so many ways to get back to things at home because we enjoy this reality and are trying to take as much from this to apply to our lives at home. Working and living for others is so much more rewarding than the selfish life we live at home. But we miss the relationships we have at home and hope that we can just jump right back into them when we arrive. It's only about 6 months from home but the kids are already forgetting some faces and names so we'll have to do some photo study before we get home.

God has shown us again this week that He loves to make us smile. We love how He's in control. A contractor that came to MDS said that if he had a new crew every week there is no way he could get a house complete - but here we have that situation and homes are being built and in good time as well - that shows you that God is building the house... not man! Thank you Jesus!!

Our Beach Play Date

Hello all, it's been a long time since we sent an update. This previous week was a busy one and full activity. Willie is much more busy at this site than the previous one so the kids see little of him. I'm working in the main trailer usually from 10 am until 4pm so that means the kids have to entertain themselves and work around me for a big part of the day. Samuel is acting up a little and we're praying to change some things so that he can come out of that and be the easy going kid that he usually is. Olivia is her busy self and finds her way into people's hearts and laps in no time.
Some of Willie's projects this week were building steps, siding a home and prep for mudding/taping. Homeowner lost everything here in Mississippi after Katrina and then moved out to Atlanta where they lost everything again in a fire; now they're back and starting over one more time.
My dad comes on Friday and I'm counting the days!!! The kids are really excited so I'm hoping the time he's here won't be too short.
Andrew there is still room for you to come down... just let us know when you wanna come - we'll make it happen.
Have a great Sunday... we're off to worship with an amazing church that is excited to praise God! Pray that Olivia can sit for a little more than 16 seconds at one time!!
Blessings!

Boots, Bulls and Buckles... we saw it all in Biloxi!

We went out to the CBR Tuff Hedeman Shootout - Samuel loved it. I was wondering if this would confirm that he was country boy at heart! It was a lot of fun to get out and our kids were entertained for 2 hours!! We put the kids in pj’s for the ride home because we knew they would fall asleep as soon as we hit the road - in the morning our son woke up with a big smile and wanted to see the video and pictures I took the night before. And Olivia has changed her “Yee Haw Cowboy” to “Buckin’ Bulls!”

Sounds crazy but I was in tears before the whole thing started. The announcer said before they started he wanted to participate in the greatest freedom in the US... the freedom to worship God. He lead us in a wonderful prayer, the cowboys all knelt on the arena floor. It was so encouraging after all the news about God being attacked by law makers.... and coming from a country where this is so not the norm! There were quite a few bull riders that knelt after their ride (not sure if that would have been a “Thank you Jesus that my brave but somewhat crazy heart was saved once again” or “Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to do what I love to do - all for you Jesus”. So yes we saw God even at the CBR! It’s really amazing how God is in EVERYTHING and still so evident!

Talking about having God in everything, He has kept us safe on a lot of miles! We’ve had a few travels in the weeks that Willie’s schedule has been more relaxed and I knew we had traveled far enough when Samuel says from the back seat “Daddy, stop the truck! I need to deal with Olivia!”

As we begin another year we anticipate seeing God work in families and individuals who come out to work with MDS and the people here in Pass Christian. The best part is that we don’t just have to see it happen... we can help make it happen. Thank you Jesus for your provision and your guidance.