if you are interested in seeing pictures from the trip to eastern europe, hearing stories from the team... this night is for you! you're welcome to bring anyone with you that might be interested as well.
tuesday night, november 27th
7pm in the fellowship hall
all seven team members (amber berlin, chris & aubri casey, david & alicia dewelt, and mike & kathryn tucker) will be there! and i've heard rumors that there will be coffee and dessert served... :)
i've posted a few pictures in my 07 survey trip album, if you want a sneak peek...
even when you're intentionally moving towards a big change, when it finally starts to come it can be a bit scary.
we returned from our second survey trip to the former yugoslavia a couple weeks ago. this trip was very different than the one we took last summer. God had different things to show us...
this time the trip was more focused on a specific country and people group. this time it was with potential teammates and a larger number of leadership people. this time we had a more definite goal in mind. it was more real, more intense, more joyful, more sobering.
i think each of our teammates asked God to show them specific things while we were there. i can't vouch for all of them, but i'm pretty sure that He gave each of us what we'd asked for...
i know He did for me. for me, it was a reality check.
it was cold. it was lots of walking in snow and slush. it was going into grocery stores and trying to interpret labels by the pictures and the few words i'd learned. it was hearing the call to prayer blasted regularly from minnerets. it was walking into cafes and restaurants and barely being able to breathe because of all the cigarette smoke. it was wearing multiple layers, even inside, because central heat is rare. it was grey skies for days. it was a spiritual darkness that you could feel that makes you tired... and a palpable hopelessness in the air. it was frequently seeing headcoverings. it was hearing workers say "run away" and "this is hard soil", it was trying not to make eye contact with people on the streets, it was wondering "can i really do this?"...
and for me it was encouragement.
it was visiting with our mentor couple and getting hugs. it was hearing workers say that even though it was hard they wouldn't be anywhere else. it was getting excited as a team. it was incredible times of worshipping together. it was talking to nationals that are now brothers and sisters. it was listening to God whisper that He wants these people, whisper that He wants this country. it was a reassurance that He will be with us no matter where we are, and that His spirit is greater than the spirt that is in that place. it was Him whispering that He wants to do some amazing things, and that He wants us to be available to be used...
our team has been given until christmas to decide if we'll go. this will not be an easy journey.
would you please be praying that we will make the choice that best brings God glory among the nations?
ok, so after all the flooding last month (yes our entire basement apartment flooded and we had to move everything out) we're finally starting to see progress in the rehab. although we still have dehumidifiers running non-stop...
all that carpet has been pulled up. the bottom foot of sheetrock has been cut out. the studs treated with a bleach solution and sealed. walls re sheet-rocked, mudded, taped, sanded, textured and painted. concrete floor scraped. and the tile purchased. we got started laying tile last night. after working so many hours tiling the floors at the missions house, i thought i'd be glad to never have to do that again... ha! ha! i'm glad we have so many wonderful friends that are volunteering to help get the job done.
hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can start moving back downstairs and get out of the guest room! i'm sure that will be a relief for all involved...
it was a great week, all in all.
we had a great time being "mom and dad" to 11 wonderful kids. we spent a lot of time praying for them... both privately and over them. it was great to have some of them just come up and ask us to pray with them. we had a mixed group of kids, all our boys were associated with chcc and none of our girls were. none of them were particularly with "their group" of friends, so it was nice to see them interacting and getting to know each other better.
we had a good time sharing with kids about missions... both in general and specifically about what our plans are for the future. we got to share for about 30 minutes each morning to the whole group, and we had several conversations one-on-one with kids wanting to know more about what it means to be a missionary. there were several kids commit to doing full-time missions "when they grow up"... and one of our family group girls decided to be baptized.
woooo hooo!
(see pictures here in my hs camp photo album)
my brother and his wife had their baby last friday evening.
they had a boy, whom they named aesah malachi smith.
he weighted 8 lbs 9 ozs and was 21" long.
woo hooo!
he's really cute... which is saying something because i generally think babies are fairly ugly for the first month.
(i'm putting a couple of pics in my family album if you want to see him here)
there has been much rejoicing in our family. this is going to be a great weekend.
david is, after many years of going to occ on an "on-again-off-again" basis, is finally graduating with his bachelors degree! not only that, though is the cause of celebration... his sister abby is also getting her bachelors degree this weekend... and his mom, carol, has been taking night and early classes to finish her associates degree, and will be joining them on stage at graduation.
we're going to be partying, that's for sure. all afternoon on saturday, you'd be welcome to stop by the house and say hello...
most of you probably know this by now, but we will be taking another survey trip in october. last summer we visited 6 different countries in the former yugoslav republic...and it was a whirlwind trip. this time we will be concentrating most of our time in our target country.
but even better than that, we'll be going with potential teammates! three family units have agreed to doing this survey trip with us and we're so excited about them being our potential teammates. we will be traveling with amber berlin, chris and aubri casey and mike and kat tucker...along with a couple leadership people, to [capitol city]!
while there we will be visiting again with jim and jacque. we will also be checking out options for housing and language school, along with a lot of other things! it is also possible we will be journeying to a neighboring country for a couple of days to visit amongst the same unreached people group.
please continue to pray with us as our journey continues...
last week was a great week of training in louisville! it was a week full of so much information, i'm still processing it all. plus, we met a lot of very neat people last week. we are grateful for the new friends and connections. we were very excited about getting the opportunity to go to a couple bookstores with one of the staff guys... we found half a dozen good books on our target city, country, and language, that i can't wait to start reading. (thanks dan!)
our country has been classified "secure" so i won't be mentioning the name of the country. and our sending organization set up an encrypted email account for us. several of our friends are also in "secure" locations, so the routine is fairly familiar. but it's different when it's your own place. for those of you that know our country, please be cautious. we were instructed to say "eastern europe" from now on...
i'm looking forward to sharing more one on one... if you'd like to know more about it, or commit to being on our prayer support team, just let me know.
yesterday was a special day of fasting. we were joined in fasting, and in prayer by at least 100 people. it was so encouraging to have person after person telling us that they were joining us in this. if you were one of the people that did fast or pray with and for us yesterday, i just want to say thanks!
why were we doing this? well, we are seeking the Lord's will in putting together the team from college heights that will be forming in the next set of months, and moving to [capitol city], [balkan country] next year. the focus of this team is to plant churches among one of europe's least reached peoples---[people group].
we'd love to have you join us in praying that God would raise up a team that would join us in this adventure. it means the world...
ok, so david, abby and i were taking the myers-briggs personality inventory a couple days ago, just for fun... i ended up in the same category that i've landed in fairly consistently over the last 8 years or so. david on the other hand, scored differently. last time he tested as an "enfp" but this time he landed in the "infj" category.
abby and i ended up scoring the same type. we're both "intj" personalities. which i find odd that two of us would live in the same house... since most estimate that only around 1% of the population score in this category. so i guess that means we really are kindred spirits! ;o)
if you want to find out more about what all that means you can google "myers-briggs, intj" and find several places that you can read explainations.
if you want to take an inventory test (72 yes/no questions) to see where you land, visit here.
we normally do two marriage retreats each year. this year, however, we had so many couple wanting to go, we decided to add a third one.
the first two have been great weekends... many of the couples have never been to one of our retreats before, so it's great to have some "new blood" coming in.
we've been looking at the story of esther this year, and what she can teach us about making the most of a bad situation for the honor of God. it's really great stuff. and it applies to anyone, regardless of the situation that they're in. kevin does a great job of making it practical.
i'm looking forward to the third retreat may 11-12. who knows, it might be the last one i do here...
finally, after seven long months, the missions house is finished enough to have occupants. woo hooo! so many people put in a lot of hours to pull this project off! it's great to be in the very final stages of the decorating and miscellaneous details.
rob and jody moved into the downstairs unit this week, and the schedule is starting to fill in with our missionaries' requested dates.
i think rob and david are putting together a video "before and after" to show soon to the church family! it really is amazing... the house looks wonderful. what a blessing we'll be able to offer such a place to our missionaries when they are home on furloughs!
there are a couple before/after photos in my pictures... if you want to check it out.
"It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal."
--Helen Keller
this quote really struck me today. as david and i are preparing to move to eastern europe, i am realizing more and more just how much needs to be done in preparation.
we're going to be heading to "launch" in louisville, ky for a week of training with team expansion next month and there is so much we have to get ready before we go.
some of you know that i will occasionally default into spanish (and ok, sometimes i use a little italian, russian or whatever other language i've learned phrases in). i can't help it. i love learning new words, and i love foreign languages.
this could probably explain the reason, then, that i found the page entitled "global wording: if you can't say it in english, just borrow le mot juste" by adam jacot de boinod from the march 2006 issue of smithsonian magazine so facinating.
in it he tells how albanians have at least 27 words for 'mustache' depending on whether it is bushy or drooping at both ends. he says that we, as americans, have borrowed a lot of words from other languages and made them our own (ad hoc, feng shui, kindergarten, croissant...) but that there are so many good words that we have totally missed. he then goes on to talk about some that he thinks we should consider using.
did you know that in hawaiian "awawa" is the word for the gap between your fingers or toes? or that "waal" in afrikaans is the area behind the knee? in ulwa (nicaragua) "alang" is the fold of skin under the chin.
in tok pisin (spoken in papua new guinea) their word for beard (gras bilong fes) means "grass belonging to the face" and the germans have a word (kummerspeck) for the excess weight one gains from emotional over-eating that literally translates as “grief bacon“.
the czech have a word for "someone who finds it difficult to take a hint" (nedovtipa), and malaysians have a word for "the swishing of long earrings" (kontal-kontil).
the russians don't speak of crying over spilt milk; they say "kusat sebe lokti", which means "to bite one's elbows." which, he says, is better than breaking your heart in japanese (hanawata o tatsu), which translates literally as "to sever one's intestines."
i might just have to check out his book "the meaning of tingo" that comes out next month...
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“the only real revolutions are those that change the mind and the heart, and the only real revolutionaries are the sage and the saint.” --will & ariel durant
i want to be able to affect change on minds and hearts of people all over the world. i want to show them Christ...and i want to do it through their home and mine. i believe strongly in family and marriage ministry. i think it is the home where the greatest, most visible and lasting effects can take place.
“home. it's the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out...where we come to terms with circumstances...and where life makes up its mind.” --charles swindoll
dennis rainey has written a book called one home at a time. this is an amazing book that encourages you to make your home an epicenter of reformation--a family reformation. it talks about four pillars of God's plan for the family; how transformation occurs when life and truth collide, and when you courageously choose truth. in the foreward, howard hendricks says that this book is a salvage vessel. “it escorts the reader through a no-nonsense tour of the slums of discordant and disjointed families. it touches the taproot of decay in our country... ringing with authenitcity it calls divorce a national disaster, a killer of culture; then it leads the way to higher ground. ...God's long-range promises are still redeemable. Every bride and groom past, present, and future needs to digest the nourishment of this timely message of marital retrieval.”
rainey states that a spiritual housekeeping begins with introspection and he isn't afraid to ask some really tough questions. “why is the divorce rate inside the church nearly identical to that outside the church?” “why do so many christian men perform aggressively at work and remain disengaged and passive at home?” “why are we nonchalant about the legacy we will leave our children?” he addresses the issues of gender roles and feminism; courage and compromise.
this book is a call to you. it calls you to take a stand and fight for families--starting with your own. general george patton said, “never fight a battle if you do not gain anything by winning it.” this is a battle worth fighting. there is much to be gained in the victory.
(this resource can be found through family life's website...be sure to check out the other website “links“ posted in the left-hand column of this page.)
