God's Love Part 2 - PRAISES

In Mid-January I posted a list of prayer requests . . . I want to post the updates and give God all the glory for what He has done! Here were the request:

1. Wisdom - God's words for His purposes
2. Safety as we travel & speak
3. Good weather - NO snow, ice, rain storms, etc.
4. Isabelle - boldness & courage to speak God's truth; protection from nightmares
5. Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of all who will hear her message
6. God will move the hearts of those who hear into ACTION!!!
7. John Michael challenged & encouraged in his faith; to have dry nights
8. Kevin & I to focus on God's purposes & to be protected from distractions
9. House - completed on time; good communication with our contractors; NO RAIN!
10. Work - for burdensome paper work, details, & organization stuff to come together smoothly & quickly

Here are the answers:

1. Wisdom - God has abundantly poured out His words in every situation He has allowed us to
speak up for orphans! We are thankful!!

2 & 3. We have had both safety & good weather on all our different excursions to speak up for orphans! Praise God!!

4. Isabelle has shown more boldness and courage in speaking up as well as sharing her faith with others than I could have imagined. It has been a blessing to watch. She has not had any more nightmares!

5 & 6 Holy Spirit prepared hearts clearly sums up what we have seen. The responses to our story have been miraculous. There is no other way to describe it! Hearts have been moved, lives have been changed - THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!!!

7. JM has been challenged in his faith for sure. Two weeks ago, he prayed to have Jesus come and live in his heart. He was very excited about this. He has been asking a lot of questions about being baptized so we are prayerfully waiting on the Lord for His timing in this. (I have to say Isabelle was not as impressed or excited about this as she said, "mom, when he was 2 1/2 -3 yrs. old I asked him if he wanted Jesus to live in his heart and he said yes and prayed with me! He already did it once." Truth be told - she led him to the Lord at least 3 times that Kevin and I know about as we overheard & watched the whole thing - PRECIOUS! SO, his precious heart is definitely saved!) DRY NIGHTS - we are seeing improvement with a new alarm, but still not fully dry - continued prayers are appreciated!

8. Kevin & I have been deeply moved & God has been protecting us from distractions - for that we are grateful. The previous post and the next one I write will include more details of what God has been teaching us!

9. House - we hope to be moving in by March 28th - HALLELUJAH!!! Communication with the builder has been better, and the Lord has heard our prayers for better weather. A Feb. 24 winter storm (likened to Christmas eve storm here) never materialized - we were SO thankful!

10. Work - Kevin has been blessed to see the burdensome load at work diminish and he has been able to catch up and complete many things . . . so he is able to rest better! We are praying for continued warmer days & work to begin kicking in. It has been slow to get started with cold temps. around!!

Thank you so much for praying . . . We see God's continual love as we write out our requests & see them answered. He is for us! He is always working in our lives! It is amazing to witness!

God loves you . . . take time to thank Him for His great faithfulness to you today!

Here are some new house pics . . . we will be painting this weekend, so new ones to come by 1st of next week!

Here's our fireplace in process in the family room/kitchen area.

Master bedroom

Kids deck area . . . they are so pumped about this fun, screened in porch.

TV room in basement . . . the TV will be in the corner.

Stairs up from basement. . . .
Isabelle's bedroom & she is standing in the doorway to go out to the deck.

Attic area . . . LOTS of storage! We are so excited about this area!

Gods Love Part 1

For the last month, I have been deeply entrenched in some of the hardest emotions I have ever experienced. I have wanted to post so many different things, but when I sit down to write on the blog, weariness overcomes me and I cannot put words to my thoughts. That weariness has begun to break and God has been gently taking care of me. God has been showering me with His love. His love is something I've always known in my head, but a love that I have never experienced in my heart as I have in recent days.

So, these posts will be titled God's Love because I hope that after reading you will know God's love so much more deeply. I have so much I want to share so this post will have to have several parts. I pray that these words will not be mine, but God's heart for you. That you will be blessed.

I want to first share what God has impressed on my heart from our trip to World Mandate. I believe what we heard is a message that God wants you to know as well. . .

1. What do you do with pain or hard times in your life? Most of us RUN - we want to hide the pain, numb the pain, mask the pain by staying busy, eating, drinking, shopping, pretending, stuffing, (fill in your favorite way to run from pain). As a result, we are broken, burdened, and beat down - but we don't know why. We don't realize that to be honest about our hurts and pain will bring the greatest freedom we have ever known.
THE TRUTH:
God is at work in the pain! We MUST allow it, run to it, connect in it, and work with God for His resurrection is coming! We are hastening the coming of the Lord by jumping in with God where ever there is pain in our own life, someone else's life, or in this world. We don’t know why the pain may be there, but it doesn’t matter. We have to jump in with God and do His work! Go into the pain, a resurrection is on the other side! When the pain is on, the urgency is real! Where there is pain – God is on the move!
Ps 34:18 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
a. God hangs out with people in pain! It’s not about us, it’s always about others! We have to join Him where He is at and GO!
b. God wants to start a movement in your failures.
c. In the hardest places, breakthroughs happen.
d. Churches/people who get involved in Haiti (and other areas of pain) are going to see revival – God is on the move in Haiti. Revival is happening in the hardest, darkest places.
e. You will know God's love in a fresh way as you enter into the pain and allow Him to work, to heal, and to restore. GO FOR IT!!! Allow Him to LOVE YOU!!!!

2. Life is FULL OF CHAOS – we need to embrace it and roll with it. We cannot and should not try to make life neat & tidy – when we do we aren’t dependent on God. When we try to make life “neat”, we are in control and God has no room to move in us or among us. Everyday God wants to surprise us. Will you LET GO and LET GOD DO HIS THING???

THE TRUTH: GOD IS IN CONTROL
Ps 86 – this whole chapter shows us this truth – in the midst of all things good, chaotic, or painful - He is in control! (Read Ps 86 and then read the notes I have written below)

a. Call upon Him and He will answer . . . don’t call your best friend, your spouse, your therapist, your pastor, etc. CALL ON GOD!!!
b. Cry out to Him all day with DESPERATION. Do we know what it is to be desperate? Do we realize that without God showing up everyday we can’t make it. Are you desperate for God? Do you live with the realization that you NEED Him to be able to get through the day? Are you desperate for Him to show up in your family, your finances, your marriage, your children, your work, the salvation of those He has given you to influence, etc.? God wants to show up BIG. He wants to do miracles in you and through you. Will you allow Him to show up? We have to allow ourselves and others (including our children!!!) to go through hard times so they will learn how to be desperate for God. If we try to “fix” it or make it better, we are stealing away valuable training experiences that God wants them to be in.
c. God IS in control so, STOP seeing the giants and recognize who God is! Remember, there are no hopeless situations, just hopeless people. From scripture and your own story, remember all that God has done before and KNOW that He WILL do it again for you! God intervenes and gives us mercy in the hard, dark, places of our lives & in the world

3. OBEDIENCE BASED DISCIPLESHIP – very simply . . . READ THE BIBLE and DO what it SAYS!!! IMMEDIATELY – 48hr rule: if you don’t obey in 2 days, you’ll forget about it! This shows God how much you love Him and He in turn will bless your obedience.

As I began to apply these principles upon our return from World Mandate, God began to awaken my heart to His love. As I allowed myself to enter into my own hurt and the hurt of others around me, His love became more real. As I have LET GO, God has shown up in ways that I cannot even begin to write about - surprising us, overwhelming us, providing for us. I has been miraculous. As I have been obedient, I have seen His tender love in His amazing faithfulness to us.

Go deep with God. It is time. Don't stay stuck where you are. If you aren't growing, you are going backwards. He LOVES you. He longs to shower you with His love. Will you let Him?

So much to say . . .

Treasured friends are great blessings from the Lord. Rare finds.

In the last few weeks, we have been privileged to visit with great friends both old and new. I want to share all about this, but I wanted to update prayer requests that I listed in my last post. We had answers to all of the first 7 requests - great wisdom, safety, good weather, Isabelle had boldness and protection, as well as protection from nightmares, those who heard were certainly prepared and stirred to action - it was awesome!, JM was so challenged in his faith and grew so much. We'd still ask for prayers for dry nights for JM; for Kevin & I to focus on God's purposes & to be protected from distractions; for our House - completed on time; good communication with our contractors; NO SNOW; for Kevin's Work - for burdensome paper work, details, & organization stuff to come together smoothly & quickly

Thank you for praying with us. . . Thank you for you support!

As I wrote in my last post, we had 2 opportunities to speak up for Orphans and widows in the last few weeks. There are so many details and so many amazing stories, I don't know exactly what to write . . . Here are some highlights (these are really just a few of the many things God is doing!):

1. $2000 offering taken at our church after Isabelle shared, this finished funding a home and began another one. A small church giving all they had in a special offering to help those without!

2. A phone call from a 25 yr old friend who has legal guardenship for 19 African children in her orphanage in Zambia. She lives in KC area, but we have never met. She saw Isabelle's story on the national news last summer and called then to tell Isabelle to "keep it up". The phone call 10 days ago was to tell me that her children in Africa have been raising funds to help build a home in Haiti because "they know what it's like to be without a home." Orphans helping Orphans - OF COURSE!!!!

3. Children helping children . . . emails & phone calls from 2 precious 8 yr olds and their amazing moms, who we met because of the national news story. We have stayed in contact with them over the last 7 months, but after the earthquakes both of these girls felt convicted and challenged to commit to build a home in Isabelle's village.

4. World Mandate conference in TX - so many things to write about. I hope to blog about things I learned at a later date, but Isabelle shared in the Sunday closing session of the conference. As her mom, I was so proud of her humility, her honest heart, and her sweet prayer. The pastor asked all the children in the room (of about 4,000) to stand so Isabelle could pray for them to use the gifts God had given them for His purposes. It was precious! I can't explain in words what the weekend was like and how God was so clearly moving - I wish you could have all been there with us!

As time allows, I will share more details about many of these things . . . but I hope this gives you a glimpse of all the amazing things God is doing!

As we moved about in the last 2 weeks, we've been so blessed to connect with so many wonderful friends both old and new! In the top picture of this post, Isabelle and John Michael are with our friends Atlee and Beckett. I have known their dad, Jeff, since high school and Kevin went to college with both he & his wife Nikki. They have 3 beautiful children - Atlee and Beckett are the exact same age as Isabelle and John Michael. We stayed with them for a night on our way to the missions conference and it was a wonderful. We both homeschool our children - so there is much to talk about for the moms! :) Our kids are so well suited together and have a great time playing together. Jeff and Nikki are 2 of the most encouraging, spirit filled people that I know. I love that we can't connect with them after so much time has passed and can pick up where we left off . . . TREASURED FRIENDS!!!

The second picture is a treasured one for me. These 4 girls were in my first BSF group in which I was a leader. We studied the book of Romans - a deep one for sure! But through the depths of the study, we grew together, we cried together, and God created a wonderful connection between us all. The gal in the middle, Melissa, is moving next week to South Carolina so we all got together one last time to share dinner and say our goodbyes . . . we hope to have a girls weekend to visit her someday!!! Melissa thank you for being a wonderful friend to us all! I love your sweet, soft spirit! You are a treasure that I will always be grateful for! TREASURED FRIENDS!!!

Here's the snow in my parents back yard, they are skiing so I thought they might like to see what they are missing while they are away!

**************************************************

HOUSE UPDATES: As of now . . . we are praying to move into our home, at least begin moving things there the first weekend of March. That is all contingent on the weather. We have to get the septic system in, but we cannot do that when it continues to snow and we have no sun to dry out the swamp in our back yard! SO PLEASE PRAY FOR NO MORE SNOW & for dry days to get our septic system in!!!
I am standing in the doorway out to the back yard looking in to our covered deck. WE LOVE IT!

Standing at the deck door looking to the kitchen and front door.
Standing at Front Door looking to "family" room, sliding door is out to the deck.

Here's my shower . . . not quite ready, but getting closer!

The house now has siding, windows, and doors. The bottom half on the front will have stone. We want to get that done this week, but the snow (pray for NO SNOW) may keep us from that!

Here's the view from the west.

The view from the back. Getting closer!

The Global Orphan Project

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, . . .

defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Proverbs 31:8-9

For the next 2 weekends, God is giving us the opportunity to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and we are humbly asking for your prayers. Sunday the 24th we'll be speaking at our church and Sunday the 31st Isabelle will be speaking to 4,000+ people at a Missions Conference in Texas. Both of these opportunities were scheduled before the quake - but we KNOW that God was fully aware of all that was coming and that He wanted us to be ready to share for Him & His children!

Here was a portion of Isabelle's prayer tonight as we prayed for her courage, boldness, & peace about speaking. "God, I only want to do the things you ask me to do. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak to people about orphans. Give me your words and help me to be more like you." Will you pray this with her?

We have a lot going on in our lives right now with our work, our home, Haiti, orphans, homeschooling, etc. We are experiencing some great exhaustion mentally and physically. (I hate writing that knowing our friends are working tirelessly in Haiti with little to no sleep & extreme conditions.) None the less, we are asking God to give us strenght to endure right now. Below I have listed some things we are focusing on in prayer. If you feel led, would you pray for 1 or more of the following with us? We say thank you!

We are praying specifically for:

1. Wisdom - God's words for His purposes

2. Safety as we travel & speak

3. Good weather - NO snow, ice, rain storms, etc.

4. Isabelle - boldness & courage to speak God's truth; protection from nightmares

5. Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of all who will hear her message

6. God will move the hearts of those who hear into ACTION!!!

7. John Michael challenged & encouraged in his faith; to have dry nights

8. Kevin & I to focus on God's purposes & to be protected from distractions

9. House - completed on time; good communication with our contractors; NO RAIN!

10. Work - for burdensome paper work, details, & organization stuff to come together smoothly & quickly

We'll keep you updated on God's work in the coming weeks. Thanks for partnering with us and being willing to lift us up in these days & weeks ahead.

There is still need for donations for the Relief Fund. You can make those donations at www.theglobalorphanproject.org Keep updated on Isabelle's blog for future projects. Isabelle has made the decision to put house 4,5,6, & 7 in Haiti - there will be more details to come on this - we will be looking to raise more funds with your help & support for more homes, schools, etc. She is hoping to have an "Isabelle Village" in Haiti in the future as the needs have become even greater than they were before. This is still very raw & very fresh as the EMPHASIS is on relief right now. She is very excited about this as are we - so we'll keep you updated!

House Updates

It's been a long week & we want to continue to emphasize the need for funds for the Global Orphan Project Relief Fund. 100% of your donations will go straight to the needs in Haiti . . .

http://theglobalorphanproject.org/donate/relief For information & updates, please visit http://www.theglobalorphanproject.org/ and click on BLOG.

It's been a very frozen, wet winter for us here & the progress on our house stopped for a few weeks, but this week the thaw began and they were able to do a few things. With warmer temps & sunny days the next few weeks, they are planning to make great progress. We are SO excited!!

See Kevin in our "front muddy" door. I love the gabel. It will be cute!

Kitchen area & front door

In Master Bedroom, door to the right is closet, door to the left is bathroom

The kids "patio". JM bedroom window. Kevin wants to put up a 6' basketball goal on the wall fo the kids to play with out here! Cool huh??

More patio - "Isabelle's side". Her window is on the left.

mechanical/storage room

John Michael's room & closet

Isabelle's room & closet

Looking to the East off our screened in porch.

Looking to the west on our screened in porch

West side of house

East side of the house

7.3 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti

Our hearts are heavy with the news of the earthquake hitting Haiti. Please check http://artsfororphans.blogspot.com/ and http://www.theglobalorphanproject.org for updates and information. Please join us in prayer and in help however that is asked of us.

Who says I can't try to snowboard?

There are NO pictures of me snowboarding, but YES I tried! The kids spent 5 hours yesterday playing in the snow. It was 32 degrees, feeling balmy compared to today's high of 8! They loved every minute of it. This is Kevin's old snow board . . . the kids mastered it pretty well, but I didn't have the same luck. I fell every time & the kids just laughed. They couldn't understand why I had such trouble. . . I heard "mom, it's not that hard. Keep trying. I can do it." I tried to explain that I have to fall a lot farther than they do! So much love!
Only one small wreck . . . sled headed straight for the tree . . . no injuries, just laughs!
Snowboarding Experts!
Check out the looks on these faces . . . the sled turned and headed straight toward my legs as I was taking the picture. They thought they were going run right into me!

Sweet little snow angels!