Watch Out! Collin has a drivers license now.

Today Collin took his behind the wheel test for his driver's license. He passed. Shannon and I are more thrilled than he is as we are tired of playing taxi. What a perfect week for him to get it. He is on spring break and working full time. Now he can drive himself. The nice thing is, the neighbor also works at the same place during the same hours. The boys are already smart and trying to save gas by taking turns driving and carpooling each day.

Stay off the roads...

Both of us are going...and check this out!

It has been decided that both Shannon and I will be making this trip to Tanzania in May. It is so important for both of us to be there, if possible as there will be so many important decisions being made. I never thought Shannon and I could pull together child care for 5 children for us to do something like this but God pulled it together. In just a few hours, care was arranged for everyone. We still have some finalizing of those plans to make but friends and relatives have stepped up to help us make this happen.

Also, Engineering Ministries International, East Africa branch is who will be working with us to do the engineering and design. Check out their website but make sure you also check out the specific page relating to our project. It is so incredibly exciting for us to see this in print online!

Please pray for us as the details come together. Prayer for our children to have a peace as we prepare and while we are gone, prayer for the entire design team to pull togethter as needed and prayer for finances. This trip is going to be around $5000 total now that we are both going.

Our Superstar

Brag time for momma..if you don't like it you can skip this post.
Collin is in the school play tonight, You Can't Take It With You. He is playing Martin VanDerHoff, the grandfather and owner of the home the family, including grandchildren, live in. He has a bunch of lines and we are hoping he can pull it off. The only other acting he has done is a few lines here and there in church children's plays and once in the Night of Music he had two lines so this has been a pretty big challenge. Here is a photo of him with one of the girls at their final rehearsal yesterday. . West Central Tribune Photo by Gary Miller

They are going!

Shannon, Wayne and Rev Debra will be travelling to Tanzania to meet with the engineering and design team on the ministry property in late May. We need continued prayer for finances to pay for the trip, just the airfare is nearly $1800, and we also need prayer for child care during that time while I am working at least.

We are actually, exploring the possiblity of me travelling along as well, if we can find care for the kids and work it out with my jobs as well.

Prayer needed, especially in the next 24 hours...

Wayne, Rev Debra and Shannon need to make a quick decision in the next 24 hours. The design and engineering team has made an offer to meet them on the Tanzania property in May. We need to decide by tomorrow if that is a possiblity.If they can't go in May, it could be Sept but more likely later before the get together could happen. Please pray for them to make the right decision, for jobs to allow them the vacations they need and for finances to pull together by then.

Disclaimer: This post is not ministry related...at all

I ran across this as I was reading at a favorite site of mine. You will have to choose if you want to watch the video first or read about it here first. I watched it first, then read about it and had to go watch it again.

A complete do over and a meaningful dream

The past couple of months have been a bit tough around here. Nothing incredibly serious but just a lot of little stuff. We've had some financial stretching as Shannon's paychecks have changed from weekly to every other week. That has made us one week's worth of pay behind. Shannon had surgery numbers 4 and 5 for a polinidal cyst he's been struggling with for several years. It is looking like neither was successful...again. I fell on the steps outside our front door and broke my tailbone then less than two weeks later fell on solid ice back by our hen house. I landed flat on the back of my head and sustained a mild concussion which had me rather sick for a couple of days and headachey for weeks. My work car had two breakdowns in less than a week and the list goes on. A couple of weeks ago Shannon said he wanted a do over on the past month or so. I told him there was no way I wanted to do all of that over again.

Last night I had a dream. It was very real. You know those dreams where you wake up and your heart is racing and you need to get up and walk around to be sure it wasn't real? Anyway, it was about a tornado. My aunt(Janelle) and I were taking refuge in a shower stall while the rest of our families were in a bedroom underneath a mattress. Janelle and I hadn't had time to join the rest of our loved ones as the tornado was so close. We were waiting for just a few seconds and could hear the wrath of nature bearing down on us. In those few seconds, we hugged each other and I began praying. I can still remember now what I was praying at the time, and then I woke up from the dream.

Wide awake, I got up and walked around and made a trip to the bathroom then laid back down in bed. As I lay there thinking about my dream I found it comforting that even in a dream, especially in a dream, I had had the sense to turn to my God when in a crisis. I had remained calm and at peace with the future knowing that He was in control of the outcome.

As we go through our current tornado of life I am reminded that I need to remain calm and in prayer, trusting my God for the outcome. Whether the hills and valleys be high and deep or low and shallow, prayer is the ultimate peace keeping and peace making tool.

If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I lie down in the grave, you are there. If I rise with the sun in the east and settle in the west beyond the sea, even there you would guide me. With your right hand you would hold me. Psalm 139:8-10