MAF in Haiti

Before the devastating earthquake in Haiti, MAF had 4 pilot families living and serving in Port-Au-Prince. These people went through the earthquake and despite a very scary event and destroyed homes, they all survived. The pilots remained in Haiti and the families were evacuated back to their family in the US and Canada.

It's amazing to see how God is using MAF to meet the needs of the people of Haiti. And it's not like they are strangers or outsiders... they live there and know the people and have relationships with them.

I wanted to post an article of what MAF is doing there now, but it isn't letting me for some reason. So, here is the link if you're interested.

There is also a really interesting blog I found of one of the MAF families serving in Haiti. It is a very real glimpse into their lives and what is really going on in Haiti. You can click here to see it.

Daniel and I are so excited to be a part of this organization that is truly the hands and feet of Jesus!! Not only do they tell of His love, but they show it in a real, tangible way.

MAF Update

It's only been a few weeks since our last newsletter went out, but a lot has changed! Our outgoing needs are now up to 91% fulfilled and our monthly needs are up to 55%! It has been neat to see God provide so much in just a few weeks! The month of December has been pretty slow for us as far as individual meetings go, but God is still working in the hearts of people and enabling them to give to our ministry. Those people that are giving are making an investment in the Kingdom of God so that people will know His love and truth!

The last few weeks we (well, mainly just me) have had some moments of freaking out as we think about all we have to purchase and take to Indonesia. My amazing husband so humbly and gently reminded me today, "Have we forgotten what He has done?" Not only has God already provided abundantly for our ministry needs so far, but even before we started raising support, God generously and graciously provided all the funds and details we needed to even be able to apply with Mission Aviation Fellowship!

So, with much to be accomplished and figured out, we are reminded that this is God's plan and HE is in control!! He knows the end, He has provided thus far and he will not leave us now!! We are excited and energized by God's faithfulness and promises to never leave us or forsake us.

Christmas Pics, better late than never!

So, I know I said I would post some pictures of our Christmas fun, and since they are so stinkin' cute, I thought I'd go ahead and post them even though it's a little late.
Here are our Christmas morning buddies. (Notice Joe's bed-head.)

Okay, so the story here is that Daniel let Reece pick out a Christmas present for me, and he let her pick out whatever she wanted to get me. She thought I would like some jewelry (which she knows I love) so he took her to the wal-mart jewelry aisle. She picked this lovely purple necklace, which happened to match the shirt I was wearing! Okay, so the necklace doesn't even look that bad in this picture, but believe me, it's bad!! And, it even has a matching bracelet and earrings!! I love her for her thoughtfulness and her princess taste in jewelry! :)
Reece and Aunt Elizabeth. They were cooking and crafting buddies during Elizabeth's visit.
Cute hat from Aunt Elizabeth! Poor Joe has a big head, though, so it's a little snug!

Rowan and Reece. Eatin' pickles and playing with there new goodies.
Joe opening his present with Grandmama.
Hanging out with Grandpa!

There is a lot of tooth-brushing going on it our house. Joe got a toothbrush and toothpaste in his stocking and he has taken to becoming obsessed with brushing. He screams when I take the toothbrush away, so now we have to have a whole "bye-bye toothbrush" ceremony every evening before bed. He's even learned how to climb the stool and get it off the counter when I'm not watching! So, of course, since Joe now loves his toothbrush, Reece does, too. Oh well, hopefully it will last and they'll both have nice teeth! :)

Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas! We had a fun and busy time, as usual! :) Christmas Eve we went to church as a family and then went to Daniel's parents' house for a nice Christmas Eve dinner. Then we went home and Christmas morning our kids slept in until 8:15!! Can you believe that?? They never do that:) So, we did the opening presents thing at our house and then went straight over to Daniel's parents' house again for Christmas waffles and more presents. Then, around 1pm, we went to my parents house joined by my brother and sister and all their children and opened more presents, ate more food and had more family fun! :) Reece had a hard time getting to sleep last night because she just wanted to play, play, play!! :)

Then, this morning, we bravely loaded up the kids in the van and hit the after-Christmas sales! We found some really good deals today. This was our first major "shopping for Indonesia" trip. I know we still have a few months, but we took advantage of the sales and bought some things we needed to take with us when we move. Daniel's favorite thing was buying kitchen knives. My favorite thing was buying SIX pairs of Crocs!! I've never even bought crocs before in my life, but today they had buy one get one FREE at the croc store in the outlet mall, so I decided to buy each child one pair for the next THREE years! I figure they would be good jungle shoes! I had to guess on the sizes, but I figure they will fit eventually. I'm SO not one who stocks up on things, so this is all very weird for me. But, we feel accomplished for beginning the process. Any advice from those who are good at stocking up?? It's really hard to stock up on childrens' clothes because even if they are on sale, the price adds up really quickly. I'll have to hit up some major garage sale/re-sale shops!

Well, Christmas wasn't all about presents and buying things for us this year. It was neat to see Reece absorb more of the true meaning of Christmas and Jesus coming to us as a baby, but then growing up to save us. I have been really overwhelmed the past few weeks of the thought of that precious baby Jesus. If you've had a baby, you know what an AMAZING, sweet, precious blessing it is to hold, nurture and love that little one. Can you even IMAGINE getting to be the mother of the precious baby Savior!?!?! To get to train, love, play with and feed that amazing child??? WOW! Such a neat thing to think about. Makes me want to have another baby! :) Just kidding, Daniel....not quite yet :)

I will be putting up Christmas pics later...for now, I must go recover from our shopping day!

Good night!

Fun in Rainy Weather

It has been raining all week here!! We miss playing outside and seeing the sun. The other day, we were playing outside during a brief break from the rain and Joseph couldn't resist splashing in the puddles. Reece quickly joined in on the fun. You can see how Joe was forcefully hitting the ground with both hands trying to get a big splash in the face. I think he was disappointed with this puddle. The one we were playing in before I took this was a lot deeper.



Today was the best tumbling class we've had so far. There was no preschool at the church were the class is, so today about half the kids weren't there. They started off will an all-time favorite...the parachute! Reece is in the pink shirt on the right.



This was Reece's turn to sit in the middle as the others walked around. Then, the kids on the outside would quickly pull on the parachute making the kids in the middle slide around.
This is the kids under the "snow." All the kids were laughing and wiggling around. It was so cute!



Joe at tumbling. He was SO ready for his nap, but thankfully he was able to walk around and play on some of the extra equipment to keep him distracted. He also loved watching the parachute.
Joe on the balance beam.
So tired!



The best part: the HUGE slide that Coach Frank and the other coaches created.... you have to watch the video to get the whole effect.
Thumbs up and ready to go!




And a bonus silly picture of Joe! Daniel is blowing on him making his hair stick up!

I don't really have much to say, but I did want to update everyone on how support raising is going. Our December newsletter should be mailed out this week or next, but the cool thing is that the "support raising" section is already old news! We are currently at 54% for monthly support and 61% for outgoing!! Isn't God amazing!! We have had some very generous gifts this month and it just keeps coming.

It's really un-real for us to thing that we are half way there!!! Soon after that amazing feeling, we get a reality check and realize that we have to repeat everything we just did to get 50 MORE percent! :)

No, but really this is all in God's timing. We know for sure that He has called our family to serve in this role and all we can do is do the prayer and the work and HE is the one that brings in the funds. It is SO great to see our God at work everyday in this way!

We have a lot of key verses that we think about during this time in our lives, and one of those is Ephesians 1:11-12 which is on our desk. It says, "In Him you were also chosen in order that you...might be for the praise of His glory," (that is paraphrased slightly). This whole process is just to reflect His glory to not only people in Indonesia, but people at home, too!

On another note, we have had a really "fruity" week here. Reece is downing the Cutie Clementines-about 3 a day! Why in the world Joe doesn't like them is beyond me...

But, he does love strawberries!! He was picking them up and taking bites of them all by himself and he didn't even eat the leaves...amazing!
Oh, and here is a picture of our Christmas tree. I don't think we've had a full-sized one in a few years because I just hate to spend the money and we've always had little people around that like to steal the ornaments off the bottom! But, this year, they were all a great price so we decided to go for it. We just put the wooden ones on the bottom so the kids can look and touch if they want.

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season so far!

Merry Christmas from Houston, Texas!

Reece and her Daddy built a snowman and then I helped her clothe him. We have been reading a book called "The Snowman" so it was exciting for her to get to make one today!

Proud Snowman builder

We bought our Christmas tree of few days ago. Decorating with a three year old is not as easy as getting it done during her nap time like I did last year! She, of course, must help do everything. Which is fun, until a nice ornament breaks... oh well :) We had fun decorating together. Then, Joe woke up and discovered he had lots of new "balls" hanging from a tree in his living room. He could almost reach, but we had to hang them all on the top two-thirds of the tree. It's so cute to see him toddle around pointing to the tree saying his version of "ball" which sounds more like "bah"

This is Joe's cow lovie that has been in his crib since he was a few months old, but I had never noticed him interested in it until just a few weeks ago. He has been carrying it around the house lately. I think it's cute that he has a new lovie friend, but the bad part is that I bought it from someplace like Stienmart for really cheap and when I got it home, I realized that it had a little pink trim on it! Oh, well! Oh yea, and he likes to suck on the nose :)