Denver pictures

Hello Family! Sorry I haven't been on here in awhile....I hope you still love me. Here's some pictures from my Denver trip. Look forward to seeing you this weekend!

homecoming

Looking forward to three of our children coming home this weekend!! yahoo!!

Encouragement

Last Week I was frustrated because half of my Spanish students were arriving late, so I decided to reward the half of the class that was there. I looked in my purse and saw that I had enough of Stephen's CD's to give to them, so I passed them out.
The next class, Mrs Allison came to me and said that they had been playing the CD all the time and their young son had been singing Free man's Song around the house. SHe was encouraged and wanted a copy for her sister Robyn Lovelady who had asked for one.
Also, Carter asked his mom to play the song, and she caught him at the table with his little Bible open singing as much as he could with Stephen .
May the Lord use this to encourage many people including the composer.
Rejoice!!

Humor

Hey guys,
Just wanted to share a little bit. Had a great time visiting the Records. So nice to spend time in that home. I praise God for them. The wedding I played at was great. Really God-honoring and fun. Here is the song I played:

http://free.napster.com/player/?play_id=23975869&type=track

Something cool happened to me this evening which was small but encouraging. I was feeling a little down, depressed and joyless (about who knows what) on the way back to Rolla form Jennifer's. I had prayed about it earlier but anyway my friend David from Sedalia texted me to see how I am doing so I told him my struggles. He then replied with a line from my song "Saviour". The line is: "...feeling high or low won't move His solid ground." in addition some other encouraging thoughts. Anyway it hit me as really funny and ironic that God would use something I had written and have someone preach it to me. I laughed out loud for a little while and realized that God must indeed have sense of humor :)

Needless to say I was encouraged since then. It's also kinda weird that John Dees emailed me those same lines this past week with an "Amen",.

I am beginning a book study with some of the bros here including Nick, Grant, Zach J, Chris Teel and maybe some others. Were are going to study Pastor Charles' book J&R. I'm excited. It's also going to double as an accountability time and encouragement in the area of purity. Everyone seems eager and hungry. Pray for us. Love you all.




Here is my current favorite song :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UgRK0Bs6CE

Burned Fingers and New Couch

Hello all,

Thought I would show you a little of what's been happening around here. Last night I made Nacho Chicken for my roommates and Devin and while I was putting the glass pan on the table, I grabbed the handle of the pan without the pot holder and burned four of my fingers on my LEFT hand. AHHHHHH!!!! It hurt SO bad. I held ice on it for a while then thought ok, they're probably fine by now but as soon as I took the ice off it felt like my fingers were on fire and would explode if I didn't get ice on them again. Finally around midnight I realized I wouldn't be able to sleep this way since the ice from my ziplocs melted so fast, so Casey took me to Walgreens and I bought some burn ointment. It didn't really help though and I couldn't sleep from the pain. So finally I grabbed some pork from the freezer and put it in a dish towel and held it so tight. Eventually I went to sleep, but kept waking up feeling the burning. This morning they're much better, but still hurting a little. Here's a picture of them this morning.

The next exciting news around here is that Casey bought a couch last night for our apartment! She found it on craigslist almost brand new and a really good deal. The lady even offered to deliver it! While she was delivering it she found out the girls and Devin worked for CRU and she said her and her family were converted through CRU! Her sister was witnessed to at Mizzou and came home and told the family and they thought she was crazy, but she kept sharing the gospel with them and I think she said now her and her parents are all Christians. Needless to say this was really encouraging for us, but especially for Kara, Casey, and Devin since these are the kinds of things they pray for everyday. She also had a Wheaton sticker on her van and turns out both her kids went to Wheaton. Small world! Here is a picture of the four of us enjoying our couch, and then a nice shot of how nice it looks in our living room. We ordered a giant map that will be going on the wall above the couch. It should be here soon.
Paz y amor!

Labor Day Weekend

We had fun having the little girls over this weekend. They played dress up and had a ball with all the fancy dresses they found. Sorry I could not take pictures for a while.

On Sunday, after church, we went to the Chang's house where Grace and Hannah live. They had baby bunnies and the girls got to hold and stroke them. These were very small. The picture shows Abriana holding two. Once in a while they would twitch and jump, even though their eyes were still closed.

Afterwards, we took the four girls home and they played together. In the evening we went to Thousand Hills and took a trail. Erica was a trooper. She walked the whole thing and never asked to be picked up. Abriana and Natalie were fascinated by their Grandpa's knowledge of trees and had fun picking up acorns and looking for buckeyes.

Later we celebrated Abriana's coming 11th birthday.
Other highlights:
-Natalie started to learn to crochet,made a couple of friendship bracelets (good job, Natalie!!) fed the squirrels acorns and took Milton on walks with Pappa Jim.
-Abriana worked some more on her knitting and began another project (secret), with very even stiches. Good job!!
-Erica was a very sweet girl all weekend, and worked very hard on her k sounds, her aunt Elizabeth would be proud.
They all picked grapes and Nanna promised to make jelly.
It was a very wonderful weekend, and very fun for us all.

Labor Day

Saludos familia.I thought I would give everyone a little update from St. Louis because it is hard to tell everyone everything. Using bullets when I write is easiest for me, so here I go...

• I have a pending interview with the St. Louis Special School District. Pending meaning that they have sent me two separate e-mails letting me know I will be contacted this week (not Labor day) to set up an interview. I think they have two positions open but I don't know which schools or where. I will be certainly interviewing them as well. I will let everyone know when the interview is scheduled so you can be praying because it seems like a great opportunity. We will see what the Lord wants though. I am very ready to be working again.
• The church search continues! I was very encouraged last Wednesday when I went to Old Orchard Church (OOC)with Paul and Allison. They have a meal once a month and meeting in this old house that is across the street from the church. I got to meet a few of the people there and talk to the pastor a little bit. Everyone seemed really genuine in their love for the Lord. The songs were familiar too, so that was nice. :] The service that night was a time for a man in the church to share about his recent trip to Mozambique and a man named Todd from New City Fellowship South (where Casey and Devin go to church) shared about the ministry they have with the international refugees that make up a huge part of the population in South City here in St. Louis. They said there are about 80 different languages being spoken in that area now!! Santa vaca! Anyway, he brought 4 Nepalese refugees with him, 2 guys in their twenties and a man and his wife in their forties-ish who were all Christians. The 40-ish year-old man gave his testimony while the 25 year-old guy translated. It was really precious to hear about how he used to be Hindu and believe in many many many gods and then to see that there was only one true God. They were such sweet people. Afterwards Todd asked if anyone would be interested in helping teach English to some of the refugee women who were too intimidated to go to the International Institute of St. Louis. His idea is to get a few of them together in a home. This seems like a really unique opportunity to get to interact with people from obscure places of the world and help them learn English and show them what the Lord has done for me and can do for them. Allison and I told him we were interested in helping with that, so I'll be praying about if that's something the Lord wants me to do. I went back to OOC yesterday for church and the meeting was good, but I was a little disappointed that the pastor didn't preach. Instead, they had a woman share about work and how the Lord had directed her in her work since it's Labor Day. It was ok, but not my favorite. I'm going to go back though when the pastor is speaking.
• Our apartment is a nice little haven. It's so comfy and homey now that we've gotten things in order and it's so great to have my roommates around. There are some really neat things happening on their different campuses and they are having more people than there have been in a long long time interested in Bible studies and one-on-one meetings to discuss the gospel. It's amazing. They call me their "axis to the outside of CRU world". Hehe, I'm happy to be that to them and thankful to get to see what's going on in the CRU world. They are really a blessing to me.
• Yesterday I got to have lunch with Aunt Joanie, Uncle Bob, Taylor, Tara, Erin, and two of Erin's friends who were visiting from Chicago. It was delicious, and a fun time to see everyone. Taylor's been working in Joplin, putting in 12-18 hours a day and being on call 24 hours a day. Tara just got back from Ireland where she worked on a produce farm and lived with an Irish family. She had some pretty interesting stories. Aunt Joanie is happy to be working only part time this year, teaching just 3 classes and having more time to be with Bob on the weekends and take care of the house. Erin is busy with her Chemistry and Algebra courses as well as working at an eye practice to get some experience.
• I recently started Mack Tomlinson's Bible reading plan and have been very blessed to be back in Genesis, and the Psalms and the gospels. I feel like the Lord is blessing His Word to my heart in a new way and I'm seeing more of the character of God in His Words.
• Jennifer and I are looking forward to having Rebs and company (still don't know how many are coming) this weekend! We might go to this hispanic festival I heard about, and who knows what else.
• Well, I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all so much. The Lord is faithful and good to His children! I love you all so much.