Waiting

Have you ever had to walk by faith? Have you ever felt the Lord lead you clearly in a direction, but not everything comes together as soon as you think it will?

It is 4 weeks till we leave here and I have been somewhat anxious to know where we will be living when we get back to the U.S. It's sort of a "hanging" feeling to know that you're leaving your home, but you don't know exactly where your next one will be. Too many times in this journey, I've felt like Abraham. As I began thinking about it the other day, a song came to my mind from WAY back in high school that we sang in choir. It was very pretty. "Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? How great is the everlasting Lord!" I sang as much as I could remember then I picked up my Bible to read my devotions for the day. I was astonished when the passage of scripture was Isaiah 40 and I read this:

21Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

The really cool part!


27 ¶ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? [I like the way the NIV says it - which is what I read: "Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God'?" - For me it was being tempted to think that God may not have a place for us to stay.]
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. [part of the song that came to my mind from YEARS ago]
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait [That's what we're doing in this whole process] upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

I read it to Doug and I said, "I think He's trying to tell me He's got everything under control!" It keeps coming back to me to worship the Lord while I'm waiting and do what I know I'm to do (packing and getting ready for the trip) until He brings the answer. It's stretching my faith a little more than I would like, but I know it's for my good and His glory! So as I'm filling suitcases and packing stuff away, I'm going to try to sing and praise Him - for He is worthy - and let Him worry about the details of providing shelter for us.

Learning art

I am continually amazed at how the Lord gives us the desires of our hearts. Regina has an interest in art. We heard of a lady here in the community who is an artist and gives classes at a school about 20 minutes from here. We were interested in the classes, but the time it would take for us to take her to the class, and wait till she was done, was going to cut into a lot of our time.

Unexpectedly, the lady decided to give a class in her house right here in the community for those interested! Not only would we save the time in traveling but also the money in gas getting to the school! We anxiously signed the children up. The children can simply walk to the lady's house when it is time for their class. We were pretty impressed when they came home with these as their first finished paintings. Although the teacher helped them with these, they still watched her and did a lot of the work themselves.

The greatest thing is that the price can't be beat. They're getting great painting lessons for a mere $2.50 a lesson (approximately). That's a deal we couldn't pass up! May the Lord use this to develop their talents for Him and use them for His glory in their lives.

This is Regina's. (We had them framed.)

This is Brandon's.

Rain and company

Today is a BEAUTIFUL rainy day! Beautiful? Yes, beautiful!! Why? Because it keeps the heat down, it makes everything quiet because not many people venture out (you understand that as you look at their roads and drainage system), and it makes we ourselves feel like just "staying in". Yes, I have learned to enjoy a good rainy day in the tropics. I have never enjoyed them more than I do here.

Doug has spent a good part of the day working on deputation schedule, and I spent a good part of the day grading so I can give the children a final grade on their subjects.

Saturday night we had company and yes, I forgot to take pictures. So you'll have to imagine with me. We invited Rosana & Edward, a couple who we've been friends with for a long time. They used to attend church, but don't anymore. They love American pizza, so we made homeade - almost the only kind we eat here. I can't count the homeade pizzas I've made. We have it often as a family and for Dominican company.

This might sound wierd, but a typical pizza topping for Dominicans is corn. So I made 1 pepperoni for us and one of mushrooms, peppers, and corn for them. They loved it! I don't know what it is about corn on pizza, but they think it's the greatest. They were surprised when we told them Americans don't eat corn on their pizza. They couldn't figure out why since we grow so much corn. That is a thought!

As I ate the mushroom, pepper, and corn pizza topped with cheddar cheese since I ran out of mozzarella, it reminded me of a stuffed pepper with the corn mixture. It actually was kind of good. I couldn't believe even my children liked it.

Regina made brownies from scratch all by herself for our company and they were excellent. It is a joy to have people in our home, teach my children to serve, and hope that our guests will leave with more food than just what they take home in their bellies. May they see Christ in us and a hunger for Him.

April birthdays

I can't believe he's 10!!!! This cake was rather easy. Daddy once again helped me do the bat and the little strings on the ball. The bat is supposed to be the "1" and the ball is supposed to look like the "0". What a special boy he is! We pray He will always serve Jesus and use his talents for Him!

All of our children with the birthday boy.
We allowed him to invite some friends over and we served them cake and drinks. Ice cream is not common at birthday parties here as it is very expensive.
My birthday is also in April. I made my own birthday meal - fried chicken, hash brown casserole, and salad. Just what I wanted! It was a nice change of pace from our normal fair.

I also made myself a Philly cheesecake. It was very delicious but it had 2 problems - 1) it got all way too fast and 2) it was VERY expensive to make! It cost me about $15.00 US for all of the ingredients and that was using off brand cream cheese that was even on sale! I'd love to make another one but I'll wait till I get back to the U.S. where I can find the ingredients cheaper!

Homeade rockets and other miscellaneous pictures

Doug's friend, Luke, found a website that shows how to make homeade rockets. It was pretty neat. You need a soda bottle, some pvc pipe, paper and a few other items and you can have a lot of fun! Here Luke is jumping on the soda bottle and Doug is holding the rocket which will take off as soon as Luke jumps on the bottle. Amazingly, the rocket goes several hundred feet into the air! I couldn't get a picture of it in the air, but it was very neat to watch.

After you jump on the soda bottle, you blow back into the tube to put air in it.
This is the homeade rocket made out of paper. These are great toys for kids, because if they break them, you can make another one.
Jimmy teaches his first Sunday school lesson. Doug is training him to teach the youth S.S. class while we are on furlough. Please pray that God will help Jimmy as he learns to teach.

Soaking grapes. In this country, you have to soak all of your fruits and vegetables before eating them if you want to avoid parasites or ameba.

Miscellaneous pictures

One of Brandon's favorite pasttimes is flying kite.

Doug and Euddy went to cut bamboo at Euddy's dad's farm. Doug wants to use it to make a shade roof over the church. His wish is that it will serve to keep out the hot sun as well as make a "pavilion" for church get togethers. He doesn't plan to do this project until we get back from furlough.
Euddy carrying the bamboo.

Transporting the bamboo.

Rat story!

One night a few weeks ago the kids were all in bed and Doug and I were getting ready for bed. I saw a mosquito in our room and went to find the mosquito zapper, which I thought was in the office. [Our office is located upstairs with the bedrooms.] As I turned on the light in the office, I saw something rather large with a long tail buzz under the couch in our office. I let out a blood curling scream and quickly ran into the bedroom to tell Doug. I said, "It's either a very large mouse or a rat!"

The children crawled out of their beds because they wanted to see, too. I got up on the chair in the office. Doug put Ryan up on a chair near the patio door so he could watch to see if the rat would run under the computer desk etc. I was to watch if it ran under the couch. Brandon was on a chair close to the steps with a broom to keep it from running into the bedrooms if it should come his way.

Doug moved the couch out from the wall and we saw it's long tail and we simultaneously said, "It's a RAT!" He tried to shoot it with his blow gun and missed sending the rat running under the computer desk. This occurred several times with the rat running back and forth from the desks to under the couch. I would see it peek his head out from under the couch, scream, and the rat would go back under. :-)

Finally the rat ran toward Ryan's chair and over behind the computer where the children do school. Ryan screamed and was very scared! I guess the rat decided to make a run for it and ran out across the floor and towards me and Brandon. I think Doug stepped on its tail and deterred it for a second, but when he lifted his foot, the rat proceeded toward me and Brandon. It ran right by me and Brandon headed into Regina's bedroom. I was screaming because I did not want that thing in our bedrooms!!! Regina and Jonathan were quietly sitting on Regina's bed watching the whole scenario.

Thankfully, the children had thrown some dirty clothes on the floor in the hallway (we're working on that, but this was one time I was glad they had done it). The rat got slowed down in the clothes, or else he thought he was going to hide in them or something. Brandon took the broom above his head and wacked down and he hit the rat!!!! He hit it hard enough that it just lay there. I couldn't believe it! Doug took the broom and wacked him several more times just to make sure he was dead and he didn't budge. It appeared that Brandon wacked him hard enough to give the death blow! Hurrah!!! I kept saying, "Brandon you're the man! You killed the rat!" I was so proud of him. He was definitely the hero of the night as he kept the rat from invading Regina's bedroom and put an end to our adventure.

After it was all over, I found myself still up on the chair and really scared to come down. I tiptoed across the floor remembering how the rat scampered out and scared to death there might be another.

Little Ryan was so scared to go to bed he started to cry. He didn't want to sleep in his room, he wanted to sleep in ours. Doug had a little talk with him telling him that Brandon was the one who killed the rat and so he would get to sleep with the brave guy who killed the rat! :-) It seemed to work and just a few minutes before 11:00, they finally settled down and fell asleep.

I hope that was the last of the rats and mice. They certainly are not welcome in my home! We do not see many rats in this community but they can get in. He must have gotten in under the back door sometime when we weren't aware of it. Doug put poison behind the stove and in our food pantry to ward off any other intruders that might give our home a try. :-)

I was thankful that I had gone out to get the mosquito zapper. Otherwise, we would not have known the rat was upstairs and it may have gotten into the kids bedrooms and give them a good scare sometime.

Doug bagged the rat up and took it outside for the garbage man to get in the morning. The neighbors were sitting on their porch and Doug told them what happened. They heard me screaming and thought maybe I saw a cockroach! I'm too used to them. I wouldn't scream like that for a cockroach. Or they thought maybe we were playing, but they thought my scream sounded a little too intense for play.

I told Doug the one time after I screamed that the neighbors would think I was having a heart attack or something, but I couldn't help it when I saw that ugly thing. :-)

When I go into the office at night and turn on the light, I still have visions of that thing running and hesitate making sure the way is clear before I enter.

The rat! It has an arrow in it because the children wanted him to shoot it after it was dead just to make sure it was really dead and not sleeping. :-)

The rat killer with his weapon.

Pictures!

It was nice having Euddy's mother, Anna, with us for a month. She lives in New York City and returned last week.

Dedicating Pastor Euddy and Dionelly's baby girl, Raquel.
Doug's youth Sunday school class. What a great looking group of young people! We pray these will be some of our future pastors and workers!

Our kids under a blanket on a chilly day in February - the temp was in the mid 70's. :-)

Best buds. Well........sometimes!

More pictures to post.....as I have time. I'll start with this batch and post more over the next week as I'm able to.

May 1st

It's hard to believe we're already in May! Only 6 days until the National Day of Prayer. As we face this important day, these are some of my thoughts:

What would happen if for one day American Christians would put aside all their extra activities and focus on prayer?

What if we would fill the churches with people who would be willing to "pray through" for God to intervene for our country?

What if the churches would be open for people to come and pray at their convenience? -

Our nation is facing some critical issues. If the Christians have ever needed to pray, it is NOW!

There are still alot of Christians in our nation. There is still hope!! God is on the throne and still answers prayer!

I'm not in the U.S. to really see or hear what is happening. Please feel free to write and tell me what your church is doing or how you will be involved in the National Day of Prayer.

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I realize I have not posted much recently. Blogging hasn't been high on the list as I've been busy getting ready for our furlough that will start at the end of next month!!! Wow! I will try to post some pictures and news over the next several weeks.