2nd Chances

So lately I've been thinking about this concept....."2nd Chances".  What I am seeing is that there are some things in life that we just don't get 2nd chances at.
*Attending important events in our children's lives:  These "events" may be small to us, but to our children they are major!  As parents we should be there for our children, encourage and support them in each life event they cross.
*Training up our children in the Lord while they are young:  God has blessed us with 3 amazing boys and He is trusting that we bring them up with the knowledge and love of God. Once they are grown, they are making their own choices and we cannot get those youth years back....
*Giving our best on any given task:  Once we complete a task, it is over.  And we cannot get back that original chance to do our very best.  God gave us His best and we should strive to always do our best.
*Each day's circumstances:  Do we honor God in ALL we do?  Are we letting God's love shine through us to others?  Once the day is gone, we can't get it back
So in thinking about this, I am seeing how important it is that our priorities are in line with what God has for us.  If we aren't looking to Him, we are missing all He is doing around us.
There are many things that we do get 2nd chances at as God forgives us continually and keeps us going.  I am so very thankful for this forgiveness and love.

"Peru" By Dylan

Dylan was given the assignment of writing an essay on a personal event in his life and this is what he was able to share with his entire college English class!!!!

"Peru"

Thick, humid air rushed toward me as I stepped outside for the first time. With the tremendously long flight now behind me, I felt relieved to begin exploring my surroundings. Yellow lights lined the streets and ramshackle buildings in all directions, revealing a maze of shadows where the light dared not enter.

"Whoa look at those mountains!" exclaimed my companion.

"It seems so peaceful here," said another.

"I agree. Living here doesn't seem too terrible!" I added in a joking manner.

This was Peru and I was there on a mission.

That was my first missions trip to ever participate in. I had no idea what to expect from it so I went with an open mind. A large part of this trip was performing in a wordless drama around the cities of Lima and Pichinaki. This entailed performing anywhere from rocky sidewalks and porches to town squares and school courtyards. We had rehearsed the drama time and time again before embarking on our trip to Peru and yet we could find no comfort in that fact. Nervous and anxious emotions were our only notice. How any crowd would react to us remained a mystery until our first performance at a well-known public school.

Our destination was a great distance from our hotel, so we had to hail taxis to take us there. It was not hard at all to find them. We were the talk of the town; a bunch of "gringos" had come all the way from the United States and everyone wanted to see for themselves. Taxis in Peru are not the normal cars in the U.S. They were literally just a dirt bike with a little cart attached to the back tire. Three "gringos" piling into the back of one dirt bike was quite the sight to the natives apparently. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy our discomfort.

Upon our arrival at the school, we paid the taxi driver one sol (about thirty cents) and he went on his way. When all the people in our group had arrived as well, we were led inside to a wide open courtyard with a concrete floor and surrounding hallways held up by evenly spaced pillars. The hallways went up several floors and were capped with a thinly layered tin roof. The school had a very poor and gloomy appearance at first notice, but when the children came out of their classes all dressed in their uniforms and sat organized around us, a sudden air of comfort spread throughout the establishment. A few moments later, we had our music and sound equipment set up. We were ready.

The music started and we acted out Creation and Jesus' life, death and resurrection to the greatest extent of our ability, coordinating our motions with the surrounding music. As we performed, our missionary, Brent, spoke in Spanish what we were depicting so the children could make sense of it. Watching some of their faces, I could easily tell that most of those kids had never heard of Jesus or His story before. We concluded our drama and accepted the cheers and applause that followed. Brent gave a short lesson to them and then asked them some questions that they could dwell on for awhile.

After the children had eaten lunch, we were allowed to talk with them and try out what little Spanish we knew with them as they tried out their English. This gave way to some very interesting conversations as neither could understand the other. We eventually had to call Brent's daughter over to us to help translate. Next we played a few games in the courtyard (mostly soccer and basketball) and handed out out emails before saying goodbye.

Even after performing at the first school, we had no idea what laid in store for us at the next school. We arrived on time at the school, only to find the gates locked and no one to let us in. We waited for half an hour outside the gate until, finally, someone came out to us. He was a rather tall man with a sharp outfit consisting of suit and tie. Brent informed us that this was the headmaster and began talking with him. They chatted for what seemed like an hour, but nothing was resolved. The man told us that it was a big misunderstanding and that we were not supposed to be there.

Since we were already in the area, we decided to go ahead and perform outside the school on the sidewalk, which was no ordinary sidewalk. It consisted of jagged, oddly shaped rocks piled up on the side of the road so that the kids did not have to walk through the mud in order to get to school. This made for a very interesting setting. We tried laying down cardboard boxes on top of the rocks, but that did little to no good. We started by handing out balloon animals to the children running around so as to attract attention. As the crowd began to come, we began. Somehow, we miraculously performed the drama without any injuries to ourselves. We still got our point across to the observing crowd with the help of Brent's translated narration.

Never before in my life have I seen a people so lost. Most, if not all, of them had never heard of God and the Salvation He has to offer them. My eyes were opened completely to this fact and I have never experienced anything quite like that moment since. One day I will be in Brent's shoes and be able to help change people's lives in a way that matters the most and let others experience what I did on my first missions trip to Peru.

Dylan West

Peru 2011

Anniversary!

I've been thinking about our upcoming 18th anniversary alot lately............in this world and at this time it really is a rare thing to find a couple that has stayed married to their first love for 18 years. It is a sad thing to think about all the many broken marriages of today.........it wasn't God's plan for a marriage to be broken. Coming from a broken marriage as a child, I know firsthand how difficult this is growing up. Not knowing where you "fit" in a blended family is a hard thing to face as a child.

When people ask how long I've been married and I say "18 yrs", they are surprisingly shocked. To me, there isn't any reason for shock.........but then I realized that I have been married for exactly half my life now! How amazing these years have been and how fast they have gone.......

I am so very thankful for my husband! He is my rock! God knew exactly the man I needed to help me through this amazing life......... I pray for him daily as he leads our family and I think this helps me to stay focused on how I can help him each day. God has blessed our marriage and I pray we have many many more years together........

I am also very thankful for his parents and the love they have for each other! They demonstrate the unending love that a marriage should have. The unconditional love that a strong marriage is built on. They have been such an awesome example for me as I have strived for that kind of love and marriage.

I'm not saying our marriage is always rosy.........we have our differences, but in the end we love each other sooo much! He knows when and how to always get a smile out of me.......he knows right away if I've had a bad day, he always takes care of me, he loves me..........

I know, I know.....quit all the mushy stuff, right!!?? Well, I guess to those of you that know us well, you know that Jeremy and I were made for each other!! LOL!! We are goofy kids at heart........and I hope we always will be!!!!!!!!!

School's Out!!!

YES, I am still alive and breathing!!! LOL!! I haven't blogged since I started school........never ever imagined myself as a full-time wife, mother, teacher AND full-time college student all at the same time!! But I did survive the first semester and did rather well if I may say so myself. :) I ended with three A's and a C (teacher did not allow me to turn in an assignment after due date while I was in Tx for a funeral) OH WELL!!! I am not one to take grades lightly so this really bummed me out for awhile but I am now at the point where I can say "oh well......I did my best". I now have one month to "rest" before I start my next semester in June. And wouldn't you know, it starts right in the middle of our vacation to Tx!! Too funny!!

How is the C25K going? Well, it is going very slowly.......with school and a trip to TX, I have really gotten behind. I am on w4d1........and going tonight!! I have also had some trouble with my hip hurting after I run.........so hopefully I can take it slow and avoid any further pain there.

Our house hunt was put on "hold" for now.........need to pay off van before going forward. Yes, it is a BIG bummer for us but I am trying to put it in God's hands. We are currently renting a very small house that we hardly fit in at all. I'm not saying that I need a huge house just one that we can fit in comfortably. One that we can all sit in the same room together would be nice. One that we can sit around the dinner table together each night. These simple things are things that I miss since moving into a small house. You would think a smaller house would bring a family closer together but since we don't all fit in the same room we can't really have open family conversations anymore. Two boys are off in one room and one is always outside and then, well, you get the point : never all together!! This is a daily thing for me......owning our own house has been a HUGE dream for us for a very long time and it is sooooo hard to wait! I just want to be able to have those memories with the boys before they are gone off on their own. I know it's pretty selfish but it is a dream of mine.......

Summer Plans........we are taking a vacation to Texas (sounds funny to say that, after living there for so long!!) then the boys are staying in Tx an additional two weeks with Memaw and Papa! They are sooo excited - to say the least! J and I will have two weeks with no boys.......we will have a very strangely quiet home!!! Then we have church camp to New Mexico......Memaw and Papa are coming to stay the week with Damon......he is one excited grandboy to have them all to himself for a week!!!!!!

Well, that's all for now! Hopefully It won't be so long in between blog posts again!!! LOL!!!!

C25K

YES!! A dear friend has encouraged me and challenged me to get back on track!! Her blog and facebook are amazing and I am so very proud of her for taking the first steps toward a healthy lifestyle!!!! Soooooo......... C25K here I come!!! (maybe I can even get J to join me??) :)

I haven't been feeling great lately and working out at the gym always makes me feel really good, sooooo...........I need to just make up my mind that I am worth taking a little time out just for me and DO IT!!!! :) I know, most people wouldn't be so excited about heading to a gym but, I absolutely LOVE it!! I always have, ever since I can remember working out in volleyball class in Middle School! It gives me such a great feeling of accomplishment for myself. It also gives me a time to put all of my life's activities and busyness in focus. I always feel rejuvenated and ready to face life's battles after a good, long workout at the gym!!

My first step is to go to the nearest (and cheapest $10/mnth!!) gym that we like and sign up!!

Then I am going to follow my nifty c25k app that I have already downloaded! I like it when I have something that will tell me exactly what to do!! LOL!! AND it lets me play my music w it at the same time!! Bonus!!!! :)

So here goes!! I'll keep u posted on how the next 9 wks go :)

2012 Family Theme

Our family theme for 2011 was "Faith"! This was very evident as our faith was being grown and proven through the many events of last year!! We continually relied solely on God for soo much throughout the year - from jobs to relationships to moving to housing to ministry to schooling and even down to our very basic needs!!!! God's provision and faithfulness is so very evident in our 2011 year!! God is soooo good!!!! I can't seem to get that saying of thankfulness off my mind!!!

So recently, I was asked by my boys what our family "theme" would be for this year?? That in itself floored me that they thought so highly of our "Faith" theme of 2011!! We really did try to express to them at every turn how God was leading and we were His followers..........and that He would provide even when we didn't have all the answers! And boy did He ever provide!!!!! Our faith has grown in immeasurable ways that I am sooo very thankful for!!!!! So after much discussion about a family "theme" for 2012............we came up with "Believe"!!!! We believe God has great things planned for this year! Things that ONLY can be said it is from God!!!!!! Unexplainable, unbelievable and wonderful things are going to happen this year!!!! We can see God working ALL around us and it is soooo exciting!!!!!!