family missions together

we love missions, near us or abroad. My husband gets to travel all over, loving on orphans and encouraging those called to serve in hard places - he loves it. I have opportunities to travel abroad speak to women, teens and teach children God's truths - I love it. Nothing tops getting to do this as a family. We know this is a tremendous blessing!

Taking our children with us is huge for us. We have been asked, "But what can you REALLY do when you have your children with you?" My answer: be a family.
Many that we have the opportunity to serve are not surrounded by healthy families. The children we get to love on do not see many outside dad's and mom's just getting to be dad and mom. The women I share with are often wives and moms - in need of encouragement.

Our children get to serve by playing - tough job, but somebody's got to do it!
When in India our son played cricket, soccer, and just got to be himself. He couldn't communicate because he doesn't speak Tamil and the children didn't speak English. In Costa Rica the boys speak Spanish. Thankfully for boys grunts are universal and sports are an automatic connection.

Man Time with boys - playing soccer, devo time & ice cream!

Our daughter loves to hold the little one's. In India, most of the time there was a child on her hip. In Haiti, she smiled, held them and played. In Costa Rica she smiled, held them and played.

playing & loving on the little ones

If you have been thinking of going on a family mission trip - stop thinking and start planning. It's not as easy as going solo...but the worthwhile things in life are rarely the easy ones!

my heart restored

Sharing with teen moms in Costa Rica ~ some who come from broken homes, live with abusive boyfriends, taking care of their babies at age fifteen and sixteen. Being a teenager is hard, being a mom is hard, living in poverty makes it ALL the more difficult. Most of them have their identity tied to what has happened to them (they didn't all become moms by their own will), what they have done, who shows them "love," and the lies others have spoken to them again and again.
My Heart Restored was prayed over and planned to hold up a new mirror, show them a new identity, restore bruised and broken hearts - but how?
The Gospel. In the new mirror given there is a reflection of a Savior.
My favorite storybook This is No Fairy Tale, ended session one as Hazel (pictured next to me on the right) told the story orally in the girls native tongue. They heard the gospel. A Savior who loves, died, rose again so that we could be complete, forgiven, made whole.
A Savior who loves completely and never leaves us.
The young girls didn't need to be reminded of their sin. It is what they see in the mirror every day, reminded of when others shun them, by the way they seek to feel loved...
Small Group time with their mentors gave them time to address these. The girls were asked tough questions and given big TRUTHS.

As we gathered again, I shared "This is how God showed his love for us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:9&10

A Savior who loves you - He calls you by name, he has engraved your name on the palm of his hand. You are not just one in a million or a face in the crowd. You are unique, loved and accepted fully because of what Jesus has already done. When we believe this for ourselves and trust Him, he gives us the right to be called children of God. This is no fairy tale, Jesus' love is real.

Trust him, begin to believe His truth. Then I prayed for them new eyes and courage to see themselves as they really are in Christ (or really can be) and faith to believe that He is restoring their hearts.

Small group time, a chance to go deeper....and they did!

God is at work in the hearts of these young ladies, pray for them and pray for their mentors!

church on the road

This summer we have hit the road! Lots of traveling, so we decided to have church in while in Florida, just the family. Maybe we could watch a good church service. So with a click of the remote we join the local televised church service. The choir was bellowing, by hymn number three I could feel eyeballs staring at me. Then the pastor began his welcome with the rising and falling and extending the endING of everYYYY worDDDD. Then a soft, “ummm” came from the mouths of the heads that had the eyeballs staring at me!

Ok, television off. Get the ipod out we will worship through song with some Josh Ridings Band, que up a podcast from Mars Hill and have church!

My sons sermon notes from Pastor Mark Driscoll’s sermon on

Jesus and Zacchaeus.

Then we headed for the pool, where we reviewed the sermon. I would ask the children a question as they gave their highest jump into the pool. Mid air into the pool came an answer that usually was finished under water!

A wee little man = __________________ (Zaccheus)

Legal but _______________ (sinful)

The “b” word _______________ (booger)

Repentance + Restitution = ______________ (rejoice)

Only gospel that shares about Zaccheus = ____________ (Luke)

You could say that this summer Sunday sermon ended in a splash!