Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I can't post pictures.....

Does anyone know why blogger won't post my pictures when I do a new post? I keep trying to put them in with the URL and it's not working! HELP all you smart computer people!

Jess

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Pray for Kaleb!

  • I've been reading updates regularly on this little boy....his link is on my page! Please say a prayer for him today!


Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Great "Instead" War!

Today while reading my friend Melissa's blog about her marshmallow war with her husband, a memory came crashing back to me about our war we had in college. We would pass this ugly "instead cup" around as a joke to eachother. I believe she won the war when she emptied out my closet and hung it on a long piece of tape that said surprise! (....although I do remember after college sending it to her in the mail......i don't remember what happened to it after that? hmmmm.) SO this is for you Melis!




Monday, June 11, 2007

A story.......




Hello there......Let me tell you a story....I do have some pictures that will be exciting! Here is my story about my new phone....our vacation to Pennsylvania....my need for change....and what God is currently doing in our lives.

This is my story.....


This is my new phone! :) (as of March)


I have currently waited over a year for my contract to be up to get this beautiful phone! You can ask just about anyone and they will tell you cell phones don't work in our family. We get one....it gets stolen...milk spilled on....lost....dead....run over....slammed in a car door and countless other ways you can ruin a cell phone. I've lived with hand me down cell phones for two years and I was so excited to be able to get this phone. It was a dream...(poor adam does not have one...so he is stuck using a pink razor:) HeeHee!

March '07 Adam and I took a trip to Pennsylvania without the kids. For his Birthday I got him Delirious? tickets. It is the one thing that he wanted real bad so I kept up with where they would be in the U.S. and bought the tickets for Pennsylvania.
Adam at this time also had his resume on line. We were beginning the process of finding another church. We hadn't been getting paid since November so we prayed and felt God's leading to start looking elsewhere. Well to our surprise a church was interested in us in Pennsylvania. The church was only an hour away....so we also set up an interview the same weekend. It was an exciting thing because we thought that maybe God was in this. All the figures seemed to fall into place. We prayed hard that we would know. We were supposed to drive down to Pennsylvania with another couple to go to the concert but since we had the interview the day before Adam and I took a train to Pennsylvania and met the couple at the concert. What fun it was to ride in a train! ALSO VERY EXHAUSTING! It was an experience I will never forget. We also got a nice tour of the whole state of Pennsylvania from a lovely young mennonite couple we rode next to the second half of the trip. It was fun! (Of course I got to sport my fancy new pick cell phone the whole way! How exciting! It was only 6 days old!) After the interview and driving back to Camp Hill where the concert was....we really felt that wasn't the church for us....it was sad and maybe we thought we were missing God on it....so we continued to pray....

Delirious was AWESOME! I LOVED IT!

THe day after we returned from Pennsylvania we received a phone call from the pastor saying that they had chosen someone else.... we already knew in our hearts this wasn't the place...but of course I was a little bummed.....I was so ready for change....
My kids missed me...that was nice to come home to though! :) The next day I was giving the youngest ones a bath! Not unusual, but this day was a little different. After I had given the kids a bath and got them dressed I went to empty the bath water out.....guess what I found.......

My 1 week old Beautiful Pink RAZOR cell phone was sitting in the bottom of the bathtub (which was still full of bathwater mind you!) I cried! The only reason Adam did not get the insurance was because the computers were not working the day we bought it and the man told him we had two weeks to buy insurance so he could do it another time.

Well to make a long cell phone story short....We called Verizon and the lady told me if I could get it to turn on and call to get the insurance...then I might still be able to get it covered. No luck it would not turn on. SO........I baked my cell phone in my oven in a glass baking dish(without the battery) for 12 hours at 190 degrees, got it to turn on, called and got the insurance....got a new phone...and VOILA...I have a beautiful pink phone again! *sigh*

Anyway... back to Pennsylvania....I felt so bummed and empty about the situation...even though I knew that it wasn't God.....I needed change

SO......I decided to rearrange and change everything! It's the only way I could cope! :)

(to be coninued)
















(.contined) Re-arranging.....and God's Will

SO here is my Bathroom's improvements.....


This is what it looks like when your sitting on the camode!! :)


My beautiful daughter saying CHEEEEEEESE :)

I wanted a more conversational room that was seperate....so I decided to try and see what I could come up with....I also knew that the shelves I was waiting for were never going to get built (sorry honey) so I had some shelves down my basement that I thought would work with what I wanted.......heres what it looks like now....

No the shelf is not crooked....my picture taking is....wow huh?


still crooked picture taking!!

Here she is agian posing for the camera!

crooked again (I could never be a professional!)

The dining room....couldn't rearrange that....


My basement......our projector needed sevicing (almost 200 dollars worth) We sold that on Ebay and went back to the original TV. I like it better anyway.....I had to rearrange the basement too!

Anyway...The kids rooms are all rearranged also. I think I went nuts for a week! OH well...it was fun and kept me occupied....

So....that brings me to my next story.......

What is God currently doing in our lives?????....for the past 6 months we honestly have had no direction.....every door has closed with every church we have applied at......It has been hard! We have prayed and have had no sense of direction....not one! When your in a situation like that you look deep into your life wondering if you have sinned....where you went wrong.....but yet we saw God's provision until the last couple months. Every bill has been payed except for our mortgage the last two months....we are working to get that issue solved....I am not telling this for you to feel sorry for me....I am telling you because I know you pray and I know that there may be a reason that we do not yet see......

This is what God has started....let me tell you another story so you can pinpoint God's fingerprints in this....
The End of May '07 God decided to do something....and stir something.....Adam decided to call one of his old pastor friends that he used to meet with on a regular basis. They hadn't talked in over a year and Adam just wanted to go out to lunch with the guy(TOM). It had just been a long time. Lunch went well and Tom and him talked about many things. By the time it was almost over Tom asked Adam..."Would you be willing to move if that's what God told you to do?"
"I'd go anywhere God wanted me!" Adam said Tom looked at him. "Well, our church has planted 3 more churches outside of our church, and one of the pastor's has recently passed away. Have you ever heard of Iron River, MI?" Adam laughed..."Well yeah actually. My wife grew up in the U.P. about an hour and a half West of IronRiver on U.S 2. Pastor Tom sat back in his seat. "REALLY?" he said "Adam this is really odd! I am not saying it's God. It is just really ODD! Tom looked at Adam "Do you know how hard it is to find people with connections to the U.P.?" "Look at my calender Adam." Tom said as he showed him the book. "First I have lunch here with you at 12:00pm....next at 1:00 I am to call Cathy(the wife of the pastor who just passed away) to see how my progress is coming in finding a pastor for the church! This is really Odd!" " Would you be willing to go up and preach?" Tom asked "Sure why not!" Adam exclaimed.

That night Adam took me to dinner that night at TGIFridays. He hadn't mentioned anything about his lunch with Tom.
The First question he asked me was.. "If you could go anywhere...where would you go?" Of course not thinking in spiritual terms I thought 'he's taking me on a second honeymoon! YAY!'
"Hawaii" I said excited. "That's not what I meant" he said laughing. "if you could live anywhere where would want to be?" I thought about it for a moment....where would I want to live??"Well...I am definatley not a city girl. I am a country bumpkin at heart and you know it so probably in the country somewhere...and my mom isn't doing that great right now so I would really like to be closer to my parents" " But that is just me" I said. "Well that answers that!" Adam stated, and then he spilled the whole story. I actually started to cry. 'Maybe God was in this'. I thought.

Needless to say....Memorial day weekend we went up to Iron River, MI! I told God I would never live back in the U.P. unless he called me. After that weekend I know he was calling me! It is so weird how your heart can be in a place and you live someplace else. God has given us a special burden for up there. We knew if this was God he was going to work everything out.

Number 1. We need to sell our house
Number 2. We need to find a house up there.
Number 3. Adam need to find a job because the church plant is still just beginning to plant.

It almost seems like we are taking a step backwards...Adam needing to find a job, us moving but we know that God is in this....this is where it is at. These people are hungry for a move of GOd and they are desperate for the city to change and all I hear in my head is "Who will go for me?!"

A great revelation struck me as we were driving home. Neither one of us wanted to say that we felt this was God yet. It was too soon for me....then I saw a picture. The pastor that passed away left his wife and 3 children...22, 16, and 15. The 15 yr old is a boy. He reminded me of a fellow that was at Bethel A/G when we first got to Toledo. He was more Quiet and shy......Now that young man (Chris)from Bethel is a leader at our church preaching and teaching and is an awesome man of God. God plain as day asked me. "If you could go to change just one life would you?" I pondered it for a minute. "If you could go for another Chris would you?" That thought struck me hard! I know countless lives could be changed...but if we were to go just for one...would we answer the call?"WOW" What is more important? Making money? Having your name be heard? Or changing a life that might well be the next amazing evangelist of all time that will change millions of hearts for Jesus.

We got home...really felt in our heart that this IS God...and we are moving on. Two days after we put the sign in our yard to sell our house by owner....we have a buyer. Now the next two pieces of our puzzle need to fall in place. Please pray for us. We know God is in this! SO without further adew(sp) We are most definatley moving to God's country up North...they need a revival and a move of God that will shake the streets! Please pray for us as we continue to ask His will! Love you all!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Wow it has been such a long time..................

"I wept before the Lord! He was standing right in front of me with His arms outstretched! 'Lay all your burdens upon me, and I will give you rest'. I heard Him say. I started to take the ugly rust colored weights off of my back and hand them to my Lord. 'There are so many! 'I thought to myself as I started taking more and more off my back. 'How can He hold all of these at once?' Worry...fear....finances....pride....health....and countless others were coming off. With each one that came off I felt so much lighter. He was still there holding the ugly pile of weights. It was huge now and stretched up over his head. I could still see His loving eyes looking at me...."More my daughter!' He said as I continued to lay them on my Lord. As I was finishing I looked up! 'My weights, they are crushing Him!' I thought. 'How could I do this! I need to take some back!' 'No' He said gently, 'pick up my yoke for it is light!' Just then I saw it. It was beautiful and sparkled like diamonds! There before me sat a beautiful golden yoke. I picked it up and placed it over my shoulders. It was as light as a feather. The feeling was beautiful! Much more thanI could ever imagine. The joy I felt tingled in every nerve of my body! "Thank you Lord" I said rejoicing. It felt so good to be free! Just then I saw it. My burdens, my sins, ...they were killing him! 'No, No! I said 'My Lord My Savior, give them back!' I tried to grab them, but it was too late....blood was starting to flow from His hands and feet. The blood was for me! I was on my knees weeping now. 'No! I killed Him! I killed my Jesus!' Just then his blood started washing and cleansing every part of my being. 'I'm sorry Lord!' I cried as His blood continued to flow. 'Why do you have to die?' 'It is for you my daughter, my joy.' I heard His voice whisper. 'You are worth it!

The Lord gave me this vision the other night! It was so real....I could hardly speak. All I could do was cry....it was refreshing yet it was horrific at the same time. He washed me that night of many burdens I have had over the last few months. He's cleansed me and made me new like He does so well! Oh how we can forget sometimes what He did just for us! And....how we never have to pick up our burdens again. He already died for them......

It was a refreshing I've needed for a while. It has been a difficult couple of months. Please pray for our family because I know God is in the midst of everything even though it seems He isn't. He will never leave us...........

It has been hard for me to blog.....I haven't had much to talk about.....or much time to think lately and I don't always want to post a sob story. You know how those go. Know that I love everyone and I am thinking of everyone and I do read your blogs even though I haven't been much of a friend lately.

Love everyone!