< 24 hrs homecoming!

Steve has been away for a full week. They will all be back in less than 24 hrs. It is always a bitter/sweet time when He is gone. I miss him sooooooo much and yet I am so happy that He can serve the Lord during this mission trip.. rebuilding houses and sharing the gospel with our youth! While we are apart, I find myself writing a lot during that time, usually reflecting on our relationship. God has been so kind to me! My husband is such a sweet, strong, steady and sacrificing man. I praise God for the man He has given to me and the man He is conforming him to be.

How unbelievably awesome it is that God would plan Marriage to be a sweet picture of the Gospel! What a delight it is to know that my submission, delight and respect for my husband is a tiny picture of how my relationship is with my Lord Jesus. The longing I feel for Steve to return... just so that I can hear him, see him, hold him and be near him... points me to worship, pray and long for my Lord to return... with greater passion.

Rev 22:20-21
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

Girl Movie Marathon

This week is spring break for many of the students in our youth group. Steve is currently with most of the high schoolers down in Gulfport. Today was there first day of work. I haven't heard any news about how things are going.. but usually no new is good news. At least that was our saying last year when our church sent a 55 person team to Cameroon, Africa.
Tonight I had a gathering for the junior high girls... Girl Movie Monday... we called it. About 12 girls of the 16 girls were able to attend. We watched "Wives and Daughters"... actually only half of it because it is a 5 hour movie. We are going to finish the movie tomorrow afternoon. I must say it is very good. It is a Jane Austen type movie. A Must See. (Take into account I don't know how it ends just yet.) The girls' commentary on this film was fun and lively. The writers had quite a way of revealing the characters and the plot. I think the girls thought it was a hit, we originally were going to end at 9:30 but extended it to 11:00.
Anyone have any suggestions on other good 'Jane Austen type' movies or books that are a MUST SEE or READ? I would be very interested.

Not quiet belated... birthday!

As I was running around the track today (first time outdoors, yippie!), I was chatting between gasps of air with my friend. Our conversation bounced around from running, to kids, to my weekend alone with out my husband (He is leading a mission team of 59 people for 8 days down to Gulfport, Mississippi to do Katrina relief work.), and then finally to our evenings. She just got out the words "Joel decked out the house this morning" when I started jumping up and down. I had totally forgotten that it was her birthday! I am such an absent minded girl.
This is for Lisa!!

Happy Birthday My Dear Friend!

Thanks for being a better friend to me than I am to you.
You are a sweet, caring and great friend!
You remind me of 1 Cor 13... patient, kind, and full of love!
With Love,
your Sister in our Lord!

Feel free to leave her your thoughts...

Easter Weekend Reflections - 3

HAPPY EASTER!!!

After church we had dinner at the home of a family from church. There was 13 of us (not including baby Juju). Dinner was excellent. Fellowship was fun and lively. It was a lovely time. Gabi loved dressing up in her new dress. Thanks to Grandma Bette for making one!!! (I've been corrected.) Much of the Thanks goes to Great Grandma Arline!!! We Love You! She loves it. She has asked to wear it several times since then (and it has only been 2 days). The family that hosted us had an easter egg hunt planned for the kids. That was especially sweet. The kids loved finding them. I don't think I need to mention that they loved eating what was inside. CANDY!!

Now that Easter is over we can finish preparing Steve for the trip down to Gulfport, Mississippi. Steve has been organizing this Mission Trip for 57 people (Youth/Adult). We are praying for their time... that it would be fruitful not only in the physical labor and reconstruction of homes but also that through the evening messages that many of the youth would embrace our Lord and long to serve Him with all their lives.

Easter Weekend Reflections - 2

A New Easter Tradition.
I got this idea from Noel Piper's book: "Treasuring God in our Traditions". Early in the week, I made some homemade playdough (recipe in the book). The next morning rolled the dough out and made a little mountain with a cave on the side. This was a little Mt. Calvary and the cave was the tomb of Jesus. I took the kids outside to find little stones to line the pathway to the place of the cross.. and also a large one to cover the tomb. They had ball doing this.. Playing with rocks, Sammy's favorite. We cooked it so that it would be hard. Then we decided to paint it to make it look more like a mountain. This was fun.. a little messy which of course is ALWAYS MORE FUN! We made a little cross out of sticks. I made a little stick figure out of pipe cleaner to resemble Jesus. I thought that we would walk through the scriptures according to what happened each day.. but instead ended up just overviewing all of it each day..
It is such a delight so see the kids learning truths and memorizing verses. My hope and prayer is that they would see and hear that (Steve and I) our lives are centered on the Gospel. And they would come to repent, follow, love and center their own life on Christ.

Easter Weekend Reflections - 1

Does the world really know that we follow Christ... by our love for the brethren... the family of God?
This question has spun through my head on occasion. The Lord is so kind to prove His Word true to us. The day before Easter sunday we took the kids to Burger King to eat lunch and play in the indoor jungle gym. We were with 2 other families from church. After a little while one of the families needed to leave in order to get their little girl to a birthday party. So we offered to take their son home so that he could continue to play. This worked out quiet nicely for his parents to get some other errands done. So between us 4 adults, we had 5 kids and 2 babies. It was very fun. As you can expect there were little squabbles and cries especially among the 3 boys which our husbands handled. (What a blessing!) Well in the meantime, there was a little girl that befriended our girls. She had a father who must have noticed how we were interacting with each other and also the children (... I should mention how the men were handling each other's children). He asked us if we were one big family. We said... "Well, not exactly. We all go to the same church." This response sent us into a long discussion about churches in the area and religion in general. We invited him to church for Easter.
To our amazement and delight, He came! Praise God! We are praying for him to continue attending. Praying that he would come to know Christ through the Gospel. The verse below struck me as I thought about all our interactions that day...

John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

God is True. His Word is True. He can be Trusted.

Lingerings of Humility and Pride talk.

The Lord has been revealing an area of sin in my life revolving around the sin of pride. So as you can guess, Steve and I were discussing humility and pride the other night. As we were rounding out the discussion he read this page from Dr. Ware's book that he is reading for his Systematic Theology class. I found it especially helpful.. it resonated with my heart.



Quote from Dr. Bruce A. Ware's book: God's Lesser Glory
The Diminished God of Open Theism
page 228

And our good is found in humble submission, joyful obedience, wholehearted surrender - and in no place else. We find our greatest joy when we realize our wholesale need to depend on God.

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY!!!
To: Uncle Rod
I can’t tell you how sweet a spot you have and will have in my heart. If I only was given one word to describe you that word would be FAITHFUL. You have been faithful to what the Lord has given you. You have been faithful to love your family. You have been faithful to your word. You have been faithful to loving others…especially my family. I can only imagine the hours that you have been faithful to pray for us.Thank You. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I pray that your example of faithfulness through the easy things and hard things of life would cause the world to take notice and ask ‘how can this be?’. And I can praise and point to only a God who has been faithful His own Word and to His own Righteousness that he would be so kind to bring us sinners into His family for eternity. We are praising God for your love for Him and your love to us.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Linda