We Are Here!

Have you ever seen Horton Hears a Who? At the end of the movie the Whos in Whoville have to make their existence known to the animals in Nool. They collectively chant, "We are here!" so that the animals will hear them and believe they exisit. For the past week, I have felt like if I just yelled, "We are here!" loud enough then all of you would know that we made it to Hlinsko safely!

I don't have much time to write, but our first week here is going smoothly. Our bodies are still adjusting to the time change and we are almost finished unpacking our bags in our apartment. There will be a long time of adjustment, but keep us in your prayers as we get our feet wet in ministry and life here.

We do not have internet yet at our apartment, but we will hopefully have that in the next week. We are actively looking for a reliable vehicle, so please pray that we will be able to find an affordable, reliable car. We have an amount set aside that we can spend on a car, but if there is anyone who might be interested in giving us a gift towards a car, that would give us more flexibility in purchasing a reliable car. If that is something you would like to help, with you could send us an e-mail and we can talk about the details.

Thank you all for your prayers so far! We will keep you updated as we get internet access at home.

Quiet Love

We are down to 5 days until we leave! At this point it feels as though my stomach has turned into a Butterfly Observatory. I think that nerves are a normal part of a journey like this, however it doesn't make the feeling any more pleasant knowing that. It seems that stress is present whether or not we are aware of our feeling it.

This past Sunday we were able to join Jody's brother's family at Wilmot Centre Missionary Church. After the service, one of the pastors prayed over us the words of Zephaniah 3:17,

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

This brings to my mind a picture that I love. Whenever Jody picks up his guitar and begins to play, Hannah and Grace usually come running from wherever they are playing. He has changed the words of the song "Brown Eyed Girl" to be personalized for his three "brown eyed girls." They dance, they sing, they clap, they laugh with him. They feel secure because their daddy is singing words of love over them. They love for their daddy to sing over them.

To be quieted with His love, the love of the one who is LOVE, is a gift. I am giving my butterflies and stress to Him and I am receiving quiet in it's place. I will turn my ear to the song that he sings over me and allow it to quiet my soul. I pray that as you endure stress and mountains in your life that you will remember the words of Zephaniah 3:17 and listen for your song...for He surely sings over you.

We have five more days until we leave. Much to do!

The Ultimate Move

I have been reading the story of Noah lately, really trying to get some deeper bits and pieces. Last night I began to look at Noah's wife a little more closely. The past couple weeks it has been taking me more time than I imagined to sort through the last of our things and figure out what I am doing with them. Every item I am looking at with the question, "Store, take, or throw/give away?" As it is more difficult than I ever imagined it would be, I have begun to get a bit whiny about it all.

And that is where Noah and his wife come in. I am not sure where Noah, his ark and all his animals became a cute, cuddly picture for the nursery wall, but I believe there is something there that I can learn from...maybe you can too!

Just to give a little background in case you aren't aware, the story of Noah took place approximately 750 years after Adam died. For interest sake, Adam actually lived to see the birth of Noah's father, Lamech, but died when he was about 30. The inhabitants of the earth had gotten increasingly wicked to the point that God wanted to just kill them all. Sounds harsh right? You can read that part for yourself...Genesis 6. Anyways, a guy named Noah caught the attention of the Almighty and He came up with an alternative to killing them all: it was killing most of them. He would spare Noah and his family by having him build a massive boat, gather a bunch of animals and button down the hatches for 40 days while it rained and poured, and while "water sprang from the deep", which would have been quite a sight! Now, sometimes I think we tell the story with a little yawn and fail to grasp the enormity of the situation. Just to give you a scale here is a photo of a replica ark that a man in Holland built.

You can read the how and why behind the picture here, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-451746/Noahs-Ark-ready-floods-Holland.html. It is pretty interesting.

So, back to Noah and his family. Maybe you already knew this, but I always thought that it started raining and once it started to get a bit extreme they all decided to get on the boat for safety. However, God had them board a full seven days before a drop of rain even fell. Imagine the faith to build the thing in the first place, but then to have to actually sit there surrounded by monkeys and lizards for seven days while your neighbours are still outside gardening, would require immense faith. Or maybe that was the easy part, I don't know. But God had them do it for a reason I am sure.

This is the part that gets me. For the sake of typing I am going to name Noah's wife Norah. In the midst of all my whining, I thought of Norah. Wow, talk about the ultimate move! Imagine her last walk through her house. What did she pack? What did she leave behind? What was going through her mind? Having no idea what a flood even looked like, and having no understanding of the size of the earth, would she have known that she would never see it all ever again? Did she sweep the dirt floor before she left? Were her neighbours so wicked that they looted her home while Norah sat on the ark and listened? Did she cry? Or did she hold her daughters -in-law while they cried?

I obviously don't have answers to these questions. I won't have answers to them until I sit beside Norah in Glory and have the opportunity to ask her. Maybe it won't matter then though. But right now, the questions themselves help me to have faith.

The end of the story is interesting also. After the 40 days of rain, it didn't end there. They didn't just walk off the boat and set up their new home. All in all, they were on the ark for over a year, waiting for the waters to recede.

I am inspired by the lives of Noah and his family. Inspired to have more faith and to stop whining. Obviously, the journey we are embarking on does not in any way have the enormous implecations that Noah's does. But I believe in all things, we are to have faith. Faith in God is to have an anchor, a sure anchor.

So in the difficult moments of life, I know my anchor holds.

January 2009 Newsletter

Please click on each page to view a larger image of the newsletter. Thank you!

Happy New Year...Kleenex alert!

Wow, the last week is a bit blurry for me, but I think we have passed Christmas and at some point we have entered 2009. It has been awhile since we have posted anything so I just wanted to give an update on how we are doing. We have survived our move!!! Right now, any belongings that we are not taking to Czech are in a storage unit and the ones we are taking are currently overflowing Jody's parent's basement.

I cannot tell you that our spirits are high and that we are full of energy. The past three days have been some of the most difficult of our lives. Saying goodbye to things, was an emotional ride. Not because of materialism, but because of memories. Especially as a home maker, our things were props in the stage of my life. For the past six and a half years I have cooked, cleaned, cried, sang, danced, and loved around these possessions. (Right now Jody is upstairs singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane", how appropriate!) And I am reminded of my purpose...at this moment they are two little girls and one big kid of a man sitting upstairs eating French Toast. No matter where we are, the props in my life will look different, but the purpose remains the same...Mother, Wife and Servant of the King.

In 25 days we will be getting on an airplane and moving to the Czech Republic; if the Lord wills. I am sure the next three weeks will be full of joy and sadness. But as Jody reminded me last night, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus." Hebrews 12:2 Pray for us that we will not lose sight of Christ.

Happy New Year!