Our Busy Weekend

Our lives are so busy.  A different type of busy than it was in the states.

Saturday started with an usher's meeting at our house.  We are so thankful for the faithful ushers we have, as they are sometimes the first impression people have of LifeNet.  They are all so loving and friendly and that is what we want people to feel when they walk through the doors.

Then we were treated to a very special Pastor's Appreciation lunch by the first family that connected with us about LifeNet.  The daughter had lovingly set the table very beautifully and had helped her mother prepare a very delicious meal.  We enjoyed staying for hours just fellowshiping with this precious family who has been such a blessing and support to us as Pastors.

Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful day and knew it would be full.  Our room was overflowingly full as usual.  We prayed over a four year old and baby of parents who wanted to dedicate their sweet daughters to the Lord.  It was a blessing to pray over each of these families.

Then, Lee and I were blessed with so many sweet affirming words of love from our congregation.  We are so blessed to pastor this loving body.  I got teared up as a couple of our young people shared how much they love us.  We love them so much too.  The children had prepared sweet cards for Lee last week and we were given two beautiful plaques.

We came home, unloaded all the equipment and changed into cooler clothes.  We waited for Lee to finish taking everyone home and then went to Maya Mopan and enjoyed a delicious meal of stewed chicken, rice and beans, at the home where the baby who was dedicated lives.  She was much happier to be out of the fancy dress and in regular clothes.  I agree...

Delores is grandmother of the baby and this is her daughter...a beautiful young woman, so faithful to growing in the Lord as she raises this sweet baby.

Christina in the outdoor kitchen that prepared the feast.  There were probably fifty people that they fed!

Then we went home to relax...just for a moment, because at 4:30, we headed out again for the baptism.  We were tired, but kind of got a second wind.  We actually needed to plan it earlier because it got dark while we were baptizing.

A family in our congregation built this pool this summer while we were in the states, facebooking us and telling us now we would always have a place to do the baptisms.  What a blessing and what a beautiful evening it was.  So many gathered as ten people were baptized.   

Baptisms are so emotional because each person has a story.  It is not just numbers.  It is lives that are surrendering to Jesus.  And so many people who come to LifeNet have never even seen a baptism before.  So it is always a very special event for our church family.

We met Andrea one year ago at a Thanksgiving dinner.  She moved back to Belize from the states with her teenage daughter and now has a baby.  We have seen Andrea blossom for the Lord.  It is a privilege to be her Pastor.  She is why we are here.

And this is Marco.  He gave his life to the Lord when Life Church was here (from Katy) this summer.  It is a blessing to watch him grow in the Lord.  He was so excited to get baptised.

This picture truly communicates our vision in play.  Lee is standing back as another leader, Terry, has poured into this young man's life.  And so he is the one baptising him.  He baptised three boys last night, who lovingly call him, Papa Terry.  Terry and Samantha have no biological children, yet the Lord has filled their home with so many children who need spiritual parents.  It is a blessing to watch them serve.

Andrea and her sweet baby Kya.  She has Jesus all over her face.

This young man did not plan to get baptised, but decided to at the end.  It was emotional as he shared his testimony.  I think we all were crying.

And look at this beauty.  She had a blast and tried with all her might to "accidentally" fall in the pool.

Homeschooling...

I know I write a lot about Homeschooling.  But it is one of the big changes my family made when moving here.  And I have a lot of you who read who also homeschool.

Homeschooling sounds fun and glamorous, I know.  Well, it isn't always.  I have such a wide range of schooling going on in this house.  Erika is a beginner in so many ways.  She is beginning to write, read, add...  Tori is in the middle.  About to start High School next year.  And Josh is about to end High School next year.  They are all such different learners too.  Such different personalities.  And some days, it is just plain exhausting.  That and dealing with all the other things my day may entail.

And one is strongwilled.  This can be one of my biggest challenges.  Erika is extremely smart, but also, extremely strong.  She does not receive correction well, and well, that is part of school.  If she writes a letter or a number incorrectly, I have to make her redo it, but it is not without much pain.  But then, when she does something "right" and "perfect", there is much rejoicing.  I never know what is going to upset her.  Sometimes she wants me to help her cut some things out, sometimes she screams because she wanted to do it "herself" and now I've done it and the world is about to cave in.  So far, this week, she has lost the privilege of playing on my old ITouch for two weeks (because she loves technology so this is torturous).  But today has been a much better day because of it.

But on the other side, it truly is exciting when my kids "get" something.  I was proud of them before, but now I am in the midst of the struggle with them, so it is more exciting.  

We registered Josh for his SAT in December.  He may take it a couple of times.  I just want to see how it goes.  That was a big thing for me.  A scary thing.  We will have to drop him at a college in Belize City for a morning.  Thankfully, we have already done it once with Wini last year, so at least it is not totally unfamiliar.  But this is the beginning of letting him grow up.  It is hard to believe he is almost 17.  But it is harder for me to let him grow up living in a foreign land with high crime.  He recently started going once a week with some guys from our church to the city to watch one of our kids from church do a live show.  He loves going and has even been seen on TV (although we don't have TV).  But it is still hard for me to release him and not worry.  I also know the Lord does not want me to worry.  He is a great kid and I trust him thoroughly.  I just don't trust the criminal activity that is high in the city.  It is much harder to be an American kid growing up here.  All his friends in the states have their driver's licenses.  He cannot even get his permit until he is 17.  His friends have lots of school activities, can go to the movies, out to eat with their friends.  It is just different here.  But the Lord provides other things, other oppurtunities.  But I know he misses so much from the states as well.  Like even McDonalds.  Yeah, I know it is gross food...but still it is convenient and cheap.

Well, I need to wrap this up.  Erika just finished her Pace Work and I need to go work with her on some things.

Hearing from God

I just love it, absolutely love it, when God has a fresh word for me.

It can come in so many different ways.  Tonight it came through my Bible study.  Seriously, it was like it was written just for something very specific that Lee and are going through.  God is so amazing.

He speaks in so many different ways, but the main thing, is that you have to be in relationship with Him.

He cannot speak to you through His Word, if you never read it.

He cannot speak to you through Godly Counsel, if you surround yourself with unbelievers.

He cannot speak to you through your Conscience if you are shutting out His voice.

Just wanted to encourage you.  Maybe you are waiting on something from Him.  Put yourself in a Quiet place, block everything else out and just listen.  You will be surprised.   He is really there...and really relevant and has a fresh Word for you, too.

I told God earlier that we really needed His hand on this situation.

He let me know He has got our back:)

God Knows the Real You

Its so easy to look at someone else's life and think they have it so easy.  But sometimes it is just because they make it look easy.  It is so easy to think things, make judgments about people.  But you don't know the reality of their lives.  You don't know how hard they have worked/do work to maintain their life.  You don't know what they have sacrificed along the way.  You don't know what things they wish they would have done different in their lives.

We live in a world that judges you for your success or lack of success.  You can't win.  No matter what you do, what you say, who you really are...judgments are made.

But God knows us.  He knows our deepest parts.  He knows our hidden desires.  He is proud of us, He weeps over us, He rejoices with us.  He is the only one that truly knows us.

Last Thursday, we had a perfect Net Group...if there is such a thing.

The Icebreaker was fun and everyone joined in.

Yanzi, in the stripes up two pictures, did an amazing job bringing the Word time to the kids.  She was so annointed and the kids were all so attentive.  It was basically about God's love.  Simple, but so powerful.  When she first got there, she had asked for me to play a worship song at the end.  I didn't know what she was speaking on exactly, but this song came immediately to mind.

It is a beautiful song of God knowing us.  Here are the lyrics and a link to youtube if you want to listen.

You have been and you will be 

You have seen and you will see

You know when I rise and when I fall

When I come or go You see it all

You hung the stars and move the sea, and still you know me

Whoa oh oh oh Oh oh oh Oh oh oh You know me (repeat)

Nothing is hidden from your sight

 Wherever I go, you find me

You know every detail of my life 

You are God and you don't miss a thing

You memorize me

You Know Me (youtube video)

We had a powerful time of ministry and the kids were ministered to.  My small group was very small...only two girls, but perfectly what God wanted.  I was able to speak powerfully into their lives of God's plans and purposes for their lives.

So, just as an encouragement, when you feel that people don't understand, or judge things in your life, remember, God knows.  He knows the whole story.  He knows His plans for you.  He knows the things you have been through that no one else may know.  And He loves you without judgment:)

Love Comes Softly DVDs

My children have rolled their eyes, called me "nerdy", you name it.  But I LOVE these movies.  We started collecting them in the states and have added to our collection since coming to Belize.  Originally, they were more for Tori, but I began to fall in love with them too.  I read all the books when I was in Junior High at Life Christian School.  They are very simple love stories, but they are more than that.  They are about people who work hard, and things not always going right, and often include tragedy.  As my kids say, someone dies in every movie.  But there is this element of faith, Christian morals and standards that are in every movie as well.

But what I love about that...is that they teach us that we can go on.  That no matter what may come in this life, God will pull us through.  I love that they are a movie that my kids make fun of that I am putting on, then they end up joining me and watching...  And I love the way they connect and join from one story to the next, and that it is the story of one family...

If you have kids, these are great.  There are too few movies nowadays (even cartoons, even Disney), that I feel safe about what is being presented to my kids in terms of morals.  There is actually violence (shooting) and death sometimes, but it is reality and done in a clean way.

The other thing is I feel sometimes that my life here is more like these movies.  Sure, I have electricity and things are much easier for me.  But I make so many things from scratch now.  Even learned how to make coffee creamer.  That was joyous.  And just being home, being a homeschool mom...just feels more old-fashioned than my life before.

Anyway...just was thinking the other day how much I love these movies.  Could watch them over and over...and you might like them too.

And my friend over at http://www.facebook.com/clumsycrafter shared about being able to get one of these books free for you kindle this morning.  She is what got me thinking about my love for these movies:)

Community of Cultures

Yesterday, there was excitement in the air as the people came into church.  In our congregation (157 yesterday), we had at least 11 different cultures represented...Garifuna, Mestizo, Mayan, Ketchie, Venezualan, and even some African cultures.  The children and adults were dressed in their special clothing.

I grabbed a couple of photos, but Alina did the rest...  We are blessed to have an amazing photographer in our midst.  I feel like her pictures really "captured" the excitement that was in the air yesterday:)

Remember LifeNet's little preemie baby born almost a year ago?  Look how big and healthy she is now...  Her momma was teaching children's church so I got to hold her until she spied her Aunt:)

Dale did such an amazing job leading worship yesterday.  We are blessed to have such a faithful man serving in our worship.

Lee representing Texas:)

panoramic view of the crowded room AFTER the 30 children and teachers had left!!!

Worship had a Carribean flair and you couldn't help but dance.  It was just so MUCH FUN!!!  I looked around and everyone had BIG smiles on their faces as we sang, "Lift Jesus Higher." and did the hand motions.  I was thinking, wow, this is how it should be when we come together on Sunday Morning Celebration...it felt like a Celebration for us as believers, that we have brought together all these different cultures.

Yesterday was an extremely exciting day for LifeNet.  God is doing something really cool here.  Even bringing the cultures together is a huge thing that only God can do.  Please continue praying as there are important meetings going on this week in regards to us getting a bigger place to meet.  We want to continue to walk in His favor and peace through this process.

Its Been a good Day:)

This morning, we made our way through school pretty easily.  Less interruptions than yesterday definitely helped.  I got a chicken going for dinner, made lunch and cleaned up and then we got to watch these cuties while their mom and dad went out for a much deserved kid-free lunch to celebrate their anniversary:)  Erika and Tori are both such great babysitters.  And their mom rewarded us with the yummiest Mocha Brownies...yeah, we like chocolate and coffee!

Tomorrow is the end of the first quarter (9 weeks).  It is a relief.  We are right on task.  The kids are doing great this year in school.  I love watching them learn.  I love watching them “get it” when they have struggled.  I love watching the joy of learning in action.  I gave them each a pack of gum for doing a great job and Erika was thrilled and said, ”This time I won’t eat it all at once…I will make it last.”  We’ll see.

I have this amazing sister and brother in law….They are completely supportive in all ways of our family here in Belize:)  They are some of our biggest cheerleaders.

About a month ago, we began to talk about what Tori wanted to do for her 14th bday.  The ONE thing she really wanted to do was to tie dye with her friends and have a sleepover.  The problem was, we couldn’t find the stuff to do tie dye anywhere.  Of course, I have never done it before, but was not able to find the things that I would google.    So, I sent an email to my sister in law, the crafty one:)  And she rescued me.

Today, we received a HUGE box full of goodies for everyone.  Snacks, sunblock facesticks (because we lost ours when we visited the states), gifts for both girls’ upcoming birthdays and a TIE DYE kit.  And of course, she went over and beyond and got cute little bags and fabric markers for the girls to decorate too.

Lets just say its been a great day at our house:)

We feel so blessed and so grateful.  Many things are not included in pics on here...some because they are gifts!!!  But we are so thankful and now really looking forward to a super fun birthday party for Tori!!