The last two Sundays have been sweet Sabbaths for our family! Let me recap for you....
Last Sunday we were honored to attend a baptism for a little guy in our ministry. Seriously....honored!
The week before his parents both talked to Steve individually and Nate and Steve got to talk through some things. Next thing we know our family is invited to his baptism and it was the most God-glorifying baptism I have ever been to.
Setting: behind a little church up in the mountains in a river.
Intimate.
Sacred.
Special.
Something I will remember forever.
It was his family, his grandparents, our family and a friend. Everyone got to share something with Nate and his dad gave a little talk about John 6. Both mom and dad baptized him. I just had tears rolling down my cheeks as all I could pray was that the Lord would one day grant Noah....the same grace and opportunity that He has Nate!
It was such a neat thing to see a little boy who you have witnessed "grow in wisdom and stature and favor" with the Lord over the last four years. It was such a privilege to see little Nate be bold and obedient to be baptized....to be buried with Christ, cleansed by the blood of Christ, and raised to new life with Christ!
It followed with a day of celebration and playing in the mountains. What a sweet Sabbath!
Then today....
For over four years I have served in Children's Ministry every single Sunday. I am not giving myself a pat on the back...I have loved it! The only times I have missed were because i was out of town, sick or had a newborn at home. But today was the first day I didn't serve simply because God has placed me in a season of saying no to some things and we are definitely in transition. I am still serving in children's ministry, but only two times a month.
So, after first service I brought my kids home and we just played!
Then we had lunch at normal time.
And they napped at a normal time, which means they woke up at a normal time.
It may sound silly, but our Sundays through us all off schedule. My day felt so much longer, because I had so much more of the Sabbath in quietness. It was a sweet day for me and i believe my heart and mind needed it. It was a gift.
But to make my Sabbath even sweeter we were invited to spend the evening with some fellow staffers from our church.
Dessert. Games. Fellowship. Adult Conversation. Laughter. And a sweet little baby to hold and admire.
Thank YOU Lord for such sweet moments. I feel like the Lord is giving me such sweet memories and treasures that I am pondering and holding in my heart! I do not take them for granted! I am going to miss these people and this church and this place. So thankful for precious memories and mental snap shots to take with me!
The Lord is so good to us!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
more specifics...
Here is some more specific updates about things related to ROmania. Several people are asking me a lot of questions, so I thought I would write about it on here. Some details I just don't have room to write in our monthly newsletters or forget to share. Here are some things we've been asked about numerous times.
Housing in Romania:
We are living in a house in a Romanian village called Meirleu. It is in the country...beautiful! This house is not owned by Belief in Motion or Project 127. A married couple used to live here until they passed away. Their son lives in this village. He lets the Bruski's use this property, but has not given it or sold it to them yet. As of right now this house has 0 bedrooms. It is small and simple like all the houses there....kitchen and living room and we will be blessed enough to have a bathroom (indoor plumbing....only a couple people have this in the village). We were hoping to build a bedroom onto it, but the Bruski's don't want to invest in building a room if the house isn't there's and if we don't end up wanting to live there the whole time. Understandably....i wouldn't either. SO, the plan is that we move their January and make do with no bedrooms. If we like it there and want to stay in the village, then in April when it warms up we can build a room onto it. The more Steve and I think about it, we only want to invest in an additional room if this is a place we would live longer than the year. However, we could get there and desperately want a bedroom for the remaining year. We are just going to play that one by ear. See what the Lord leads us to do!
The village is rustic living. We will chop our own wood to heat the house. There is a large garden there to feed the missionaries and families in the village. Lots of fruit trees. Chickens are raised here for meat. We will have some land there and hope to maybe get our children a rabbit or two?? :) For pets, not food.
The Lord does just sweet things sometimes ya know. Things that aren't necessary, but just shows how sweet He is...makes you just say, "oh, i love You so much! I loved You before, but I love your sweetness!" Well, He did that with this house. Let me share...
When Steve and I went to Romania in March I fell in love with this property. Look through my pictures and most of them were taken at this house...and not of anything in particular, but just random things....the corn feed, the chicken coop, the well, the stove in the kitchen, the view! I loved it! But there was a missionary already living there and so I didn't say a word to anyone that this is where I would like to live when we moved there. I knew it wasn't a possibility and we would just move to the city. We get back home and I tell Steve that I would love to live in that village....in THAT house and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I just prayed for the Lord to place us in the exact apartment and location that would bring HIM the most glory. In April, out of the blue, Robin (from Romania) emails me and tells me that the missionary living in "my" house had to leave RO due to family sicknesses and she was not coming back. Sad for her having to leave, but deep down feeling that the Lord heard my cry!
"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~Psalm 37:4
I just thought that was so sweet of Him! Grace!
Timeline for Romania:
Others have asked, "why a year?" "When you come home, what then?"
We originally only wanted to go to Romania for 3-6 months (trial run). GOD had a better plan/opportunity for us! We asked the church if we could leave for 3-6 months and Steve have his job when we returned if this was not where we were to go indefinitely. They didn't think this was fair to the person who took his job. Once again, understood! We knew that was a big ask. No hard feelings. Steve had told them regardless of their answer, we would be going. We just knew this was the right direction! So we thought, well, if we go for 3-6 months and don't have a job to come back to, let's stay for a year and see every season of the ministry. It changes a little with the winter months. Total peace about this. We move forward. This is our hope now. We arrive to RO in Jan. Within 6-8 months we hope to have a direction that we are going to move forward in. Though we are staying until Jan. 2012, we want to know what our future plans will be so we can start preparation ahead of time. Summer of 2011 we want to know if we are going to return to Knoxville in 2012 to look for a job or if we are going to return to Knoxville to raise more support and then go back to Romania. Right now, we have NO idea. We are just looking at our life in small sections right now....year to year. You have no idea how hard this is for me...i plan out my entire life! God is teaching me so much about faith, reliance on Him, dependence on HIM and not myself! I need this!
There are a lot of unknowns and we are becoming okay with that. It really makes me excited to see what the LORD does and how HE provides. It is always so much more fun and exciting His way!
"The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." ~ Proverbs 16:9
Housing in Romania:
We are living in a house in a Romanian village called Meirleu. It is in the country...beautiful! This house is not owned by Belief in Motion or Project 127. A married couple used to live here until they passed away. Their son lives in this village. He lets the Bruski's use this property, but has not given it or sold it to them yet. As of right now this house has 0 bedrooms. It is small and simple like all the houses there....kitchen and living room and we will be blessed enough to have a bathroom (indoor plumbing....only a couple people have this in the village). We were hoping to build a bedroom onto it, but the Bruski's don't want to invest in building a room if the house isn't there's and if we don't end up wanting to live there the whole time. Understandably....i wouldn't either. SO, the plan is that we move their January and make do with no bedrooms. If we like it there and want to stay in the village, then in April when it warms up we can build a room onto it. The more Steve and I think about it, we only want to invest in an additional room if this is a place we would live longer than the year. However, we could get there and desperately want a bedroom for the remaining year. We are just going to play that one by ear. See what the Lord leads us to do!
The village is rustic living. We will chop our own wood to heat the house. There is a large garden there to feed the missionaries and families in the village. Lots of fruit trees. Chickens are raised here for meat. We will have some land there and hope to maybe get our children a rabbit or two?? :) For pets, not food.
The Lord does just sweet things sometimes ya know. Things that aren't necessary, but just shows how sweet He is...makes you just say, "oh, i love You so much! I loved You before, but I love your sweetness!" Well, He did that with this house. Let me share...
When Steve and I went to Romania in March I fell in love with this property. Look through my pictures and most of them were taken at this house...and not of anything in particular, but just random things....the corn feed, the chicken coop, the well, the stove in the kitchen, the view! I loved it! But there was a missionary already living there and so I didn't say a word to anyone that this is where I would like to live when we moved there. I knew it wasn't a possibility and we would just move to the city. We get back home and I tell Steve that I would love to live in that village....in THAT house and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I just prayed for the Lord to place us in the exact apartment and location that would bring HIM the most glory. In April, out of the blue, Robin (from Romania) emails me and tells me that the missionary living in "my" house had to leave RO due to family sicknesses and she was not coming back. Sad for her having to leave, but deep down feeling that the Lord heard my cry!
"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~Psalm 37:4
I just thought that was so sweet of Him! Grace!
Timeline for Romania:
Others have asked, "why a year?" "When you come home, what then?"
We originally only wanted to go to Romania for 3-6 months (trial run). GOD had a better plan/opportunity for us! We asked the church if we could leave for 3-6 months and Steve have his job when we returned if this was not where we were to go indefinitely. They didn't think this was fair to the person who took his job. Once again, understood! We knew that was a big ask. No hard feelings. Steve had told them regardless of their answer, we would be going. We just knew this was the right direction! So we thought, well, if we go for 3-6 months and don't have a job to come back to, let's stay for a year and see every season of the ministry. It changes a little with the winter months. Total peace about this. We move forward. This is our hope now. We arrive to RO in Jan. Within 6-8 months we hope to have a direction that we are going to move forward in. Though we are staying until Jan. 2012, we want to know what our future plans will be so we can start preparation ahead of time. Summer of 2011 we want to know if we are going to return to Knoxville in 2012 to look for a job or if we are going to return to Knoxville to raise more support and then go back to Romania. Right now, we have NO idea. We are just looking at our life in small sections right now....year to year. You have no idea how hard this is for me...i plan out my entire life! God is teaching me so much about faith, reliance on Him, dependence on HIM and not myself! I need this!
There are a lot of unknowns and we are becoming okay with that. It really makes me excited to see what the LORD does and how HE provides. It is always so much more fun and exciting His way!
"The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." ~ Proverbs 16:9
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Labor Day weekend
We took our little family away for a couple days this passed weekend. This the first time it's just been the four of us. Every vacation is usually time spent visiting family, which we LOVE. But, it was so fun just spending time with each other....the four of us! We had a blast! Here are some pics of our time.
Noah is quite the golfer...i am not surprised!
This was his first time and he LOVED it!
Golf just wore Paigey out! She fell asleep in the car and slept
through a diaper change, clothes changed, face washed
teeth brushed and the other three of us snuggled up talking in bed beside her.
You have no idea how uncharacteristic this is of her...but she sure is adorable!
Clingman's Dome--the highest point in the Smoky Mtns.
We decided to come here spontaneously as you see our kids
were not dressed appropriately. They had to wear our shirts and
bundle in blankets. Super windy at the top! Super cold! Super steep hill!
Thank you Steve for taking me here and making great memories!
Picnic lunch in the Chimney's at Smoky Mtns.
look at HIS handiwork! Noah asked how God made them.
It was fun explaining that our God simply spoke them into being!
I have so many other good ones, but I'll just share these! Hope you had a great relaxing weekend. My family sure did!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)