Catching My Breath!

I feel like so much has happened in the past couple of weeks and I'm just now getting a chance to stop and catch my breath:). Two trips = 12 states and 4300 miles and our little Saturn held up to the beating! We saw so much in two weeks, ranging from the flat cornfields of Iowa to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Nat and I travel a lot, but many of our trips are ministry-related. This trip out West was no exception, although we did turn it into a mini-vacation too:).

We started out the trip with a stop in Cleveland, Ohio to check out the USS Cod, a submarine that was in use during World War II. The cool thing about the submarine is that it is 75% operable. It hasn't been turned into a "user-friendly" museum like most others are, so we actually climbed down into the sub and saw what it was like when it was in use.

We did spend the weekend with my brother and his family, which included helping with a birthday party for my nephew. 3 hour birthday party + 18 active boys = 4 very tired adults. We were exhausted after the party and Nat, my brother, sister-in-law, and I just crashed when we got to my brother's house. I made lots of mental notes about boys and birthday parties:).

We left Monday morning to head out for the great state of South Dakota and chose the flat plains of Iowa as our choice state to drive through. Every now and then a little hill would pop up, but I'm from a state that has actual mountains, so Iowa was pretty flat to us:).

The second we entered South Dakota, we began seeing signs for Wall Drug which made us laugh! Never mind the fact that Wall Drug is 7+ hours from the southeastern tip of South Dakota. You really need to take a moment and go to the website just to, um, take it all in... :).

We spent three days in South Dakota (for my husband's graduation ~ our whole reason for the trip!) and met up with a friend from our church who was also graduating. Nat and I spent Tuesday morning wandering in and out of an old courthouse-turned-museum and found an interesting group of displays: hot air balloons, the history of under garments, and Vietnam. We were scratching our heads over how those three got grouped together:).

In the afternoon, we had a fun time riding go-karts and playing mini-golf. We really wanted to play laser tag, but apparently our group of 3 was not large enough:). The next two days were filled with graduation things and then we started the long drive back to Indiana. This time we chose to go through Minnesota and Wisconsin, but don't ask me what Minnesota was like since I slept the first three hours of our trip:). Waking up at 4 AM will do that to you! We were very motivated to get past Chicago before rush hour traffic hit and our plan worked, which made waking up that early worthwhile:).

I forget to bring my camera with me on our trip out West, but Nat's iPhone takes really nice pictures, so that's what we used:).

Nat and I at the falls in Sioux Falls, SD

The falls... obviously

We made a second trip down to North Carolina for my uncle's funeral. It was a quick 3-day trip, 9 hours each way, but it was good to see family.

Friday afternoon I knocked on my sister's hotel door to ask her something and when she opened the door, I couldn't believe we were matching. Then I saw my brother-in-law and noticed he chose the same colors my husband was wearing:).

I flew down to Florida in January hoping for this little guy to arrive while I was there, but he waited until I was in Thailand to be born... so I finally met my latest nephew ~ 3.5 months later! He's such a chunky monkey and looks exactly like his older brother:).

It's pretty rare to get all my siblings in one place at the same time and we're still missing one sibling here! My older sister is 9 months pregnant and her doctor wouldn't let her make the trip from Philadelphia to Charlotte. 6 out of 7 is still pretty good!

A Time To Weep.

After fighting a year-long battle with leukemia, my uncle passed away on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, his daughter-in-law gave birth to a healthy baby boy. It's a time to rejoice and a time to weep.

Nat and I were talking last night about how few family members we have lost. My Grammie died while I was in Thailand and that was one of the hardest things I ever experienced. Within the past few weeks my uncle's condition got worse, so I began to pray that he would pass away before Nat and I left for Africa or after we came home from Africa. It is hard being overseas when a loved one dies, and my merciful Heavenly Father kept me from going through that twice.

I don't know if my uncle ever got saved or not. Last I heard, he did not and that just breaks my heart. Please pray for witnessing opportunities with my extended family as we travel down to North Carolina for the funeral at the end of the week. It's going to be sweet seeing a lot of family members, but so sad because it's happening at a funeral.

God makes no mistakes though, and I'm glad I can rest in that.

"God On The Mountain"

Life is easy when you're up on the mountain

And you've got peace of mind like you've never known.

But then things change and you're down in the valley.

Don't lose faith for you're never alone.

For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.

When things go wrong, He'll make it right.

And the God of the good times

is still God in the bad times.

The God of the day is still God in the night.

You talk of faith when you're up on the mountain.

Oh but the talk comes easy when life's at its best.

But it's down in the valley of trials and temptation

That's when faith is really put to the test.

For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.

When things go wrong, He'll make it right.

And the God of the good times

is still God in the bad times.

The God of the day is still God in the night.

Shocked!

I am quite pleased with myself this evening........

I am actually packed for a trip Nat and I are taking and we aren't even leaving until tomorrow!

(*insert round of applause here*)

We are leaving early in the morning, so I decided to pack things tonight and stick 'em by the door so they can be easily grabbed in the morning as we stumble about. (Whose idea was it to leave in the AM again??? :D)

My sweetheart is graduating way out in South Dakota, so we're about to put some miles on our car! Of course we're stopping to visit with some family members in Indiana, just in time to participate in my nephew's 9th birthday. I'm hoping this trip also includes a racquetball rematch against my brother:).

So, I'm going on another trip (no surprise) and I may or may not be blogging during this trip (no surprise).

Ready or not, here we go on a 2800 mile trip!!!

Hurrah For Spring!

Spring has sprung, much to my great joy! The trees are blooming, the smell of freshly cut grass is in the air, a few walks have been taken at a gorgeous park nearby, and the glorious sight of a volleyball in the air has returned (twice this week)!

My darling husband bought two pairs of sandals for me while we were away a few weekends ago, and the timing couldn't have been better! There was enough dew on the grass Sunday morning to make for a wet walk to church, but that's a small price to pay in exchange for this weather:).

We leave in a week for our road trip and will be going all the way to South Dakota.... I just hope the weather is as gorgeous out there as it is here!

Trips, Trips, Trips.

One of the guys at church is mowing the grass right now and it smells so springish! I looked out my kitchen window earlier today and saw buds on the tree branches so I'm hopeful that spring is going to make a permanent move. I did notice that it's supposed to be raining off and on over the next several days, but April showers bring May flowers, right?

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My husband and I were recently talking about how much we have traveled (and will travel!) within our first year of marriage. No less then two international trips, two bus rides with teens from church, one airplane ride to Texas, and several car rides - most of them out to the mid-west. :) We traveled with our teens (by bus) two weeks ago, went to a couples' retreat in Lancaster last weekend and are getting ready to take yet another trip (by car) in two weeks! This trip (out to the mid-west again:D) will be our last trip before our BIG trip this summer!

The trip we're taking in two weeks is for a very, very special occasion: my husband is graduating!!! The graduation is taking place 24 hours away (helloooooo Sioux Falls, SD!!), so we're stopping over at our favorite town in northwest Indiana to visit my brother and his family. It just so happens they are the perfect half-way point, but that has nothing to do with our decision of stopping there.... absolutely nothing. :D

My sister-in-law and I started planning what we could do while we're there for the weekend, so I think we might train in to Chicago and eat popcorn. Oh yeah, there are a few other things we're going to do, but my brother absolutely loves a certain popcorn shop in Chicago and so we'll go eat popcorn. :D

Yep, we live exciting lives. :)

Packing My Bags!

Soon!

I'm never one to be too ahead of the game when it comes to packing bags - mainly because I don't have enough stuff to pack into bags and still use while waiting to take off on a trip with little packed bags:).

For the past three months, I've been helping organize a trip for the teens of my church and Christian school and it has been a lot of fun! I did jokingly tell a friend recently that I spent more time planning for this trip than I did for my wedding, but that was (mostly!) tongue in cheek:).

My husband and I, along with several other chaperons, are taking 24 teens to a competition in the middle of nowhere 18 hours away from PA:

The teens are competing in everything from music to photography to one-act plays, and I think they have done a FANTASTIC job letting their talents shine for the Lord!

I'm waiting on one more student to turn in a sketch (nothing like waiting 'til the last minute!), but for the most part the projects are packed, the paperwork filled in, and the candy ready to go! Nat and I are thrilled to be going along on the trip and are looking forward to a great week of preaching, competition, and spending time with the teens.... as long as my bags get packed:).

*Achoo*

Hubby has written on his blog again, and has even made it official by putting his blog onto a new site: Williams Witness. Not to be outdone by him (who's supposed to be the blogger around here anyway?), I'm scraping together a poor excuse of a post. :)

Ever trying to live up to the vows we made last July 10th, Nat and I have shared a cold. *achoo* NyQuil, tissues, cough syrup, and lots of water have been my faithful friends between yesterday and today. Cough drops made their appearance too, although they have failed in bringing about the soothing relief the package boldly proclaimed they would. Rather than take up my grievances with the cough drop company, I chose to fight this sickness from the coziness of the recliner. My husband came home for lunch and was sweet enough to go to the bakery to pick up some chicken pastina soup for me. I must be sick if I'm willing to eat soup!

I was feeling decent enough to make dinner and even had some energy after dinner to go do the laundry. Now I'm debating between taking NyQuil or not, since it knocked me out for twelve solid hours last night! I have things to do tomorrow, but I'm weighing that out with the option of getting better. :)

Since I did spend most of my day sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and wheezing, I decided to do some research. I figured I needed to be useful in some way! We have a very exciting trip coming up in May that involves my dear husband graduating (yay!) and so we're turning it into a min-vacation since we'll be in the great state of South Dakota. My research included searching hotel prices, but then I was drawn to national park websites - namely the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. I've been to both of these places before, but I am a lover of history and so I spent some time absorbing as much information as I possibly could. :)

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Here's some random news: the weatherman said we were supposed to get snow, but now the weather channel is saying, "no significant snow accumulation" which is a happy thought indeed. I for one would like to think spring is here. :)

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In other random news, have I mentioned my growing affection for a place called Swagbucks? I recently had enough swag bucks to redeem them for (2) five dollar gift cards to Amazon.com. Using the gift cards, I only paid shipping for a book I've been wanting to give as a gift to a friend. I'm just about ready to redeem my swag bucks for (3) five dollar gift cards to Amazon.com and I already have my eye on what I want to get. :)

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By the way, I've decided against the NyQuil. Maybe tomorrow night. :)

Timely messages.

In light of the last post on prayer, I thought I would share the points from a three-week series my pastor just finished preaching (tonight!) on praying for our missionaries. You know that "God bless all the missionaries" prayer? We actually do pray like that, but I've been so encouraged and challenged by these prayer points:

• Pray for contacts
  (Colossians 4:2-3 ~ "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:")
  
  
• Pray for clarity
  (Colossians 4:4 ~ "That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.")
  
  
• Pray for free course
  (2 Thessalonians 3:1 ~ "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course,")
  
  
• Pray for conversion
  (2 Thessalonians 3:1 ~ "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified,")
  
  
• Pray for care
  (2 Thessalonians 3:2 ~ "And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.")
  
  
• Pray for courage
  (Ephesians 6:19 ~ "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make know the mystery of the gospel,")
  
  
• Pray for Christ-like character
  (Philippians 1:20 ~"According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.")

This list was specifically put together to better pray for our missionaries around the world, but the truth is this list can be used in praying for dear brothers and sisters in Christ too!

The Ministry Of...

... Prayer. I believe prayer is the most effective tool I have as a believer to be an encouragement to another believer. Can you imagine if every person who ever said those words, "I'll pray for you" actually did? Convicting thought.

I've uttered those words countless times before, but within the last 1.5 years, Nat and I have earnestly tried to pray for someone or something when we've said we'll pray. We've failed, I'll admit. But it's an encouragement to me at the end of each day when my husband says, "do you have any prayer requests from today?" That reminds me of the people and situations I said I would pray about during the day, and then we do so at night before we go to bed.

I heard a missionary years ago who said one of the biggest encouragements he received on the field was when people would respond to an e-mail he sent saying something like, "praying for you, brother" or "prayed." It takes all of 15-30 seconds to write a quick note back and to hit the send button. What a good habit to get into!

Another tool I have found helpful is to pray as soon as I receive an e-mail asking for prayer. The prayer request is fresh in my mind and again only takes a couple of minutes. Of course then I send a quick reply: "prayed for you!"

Last week I sent an e-mail to my church's e-mail list asking for prayer for my uncle ~ the one who has cancer. What a pleasant surprise it was to open my e-mail the next morning and have ten responses! Most of them were a simple "prayed!" while some told me exactly what they were praying for. All of the responses were a huge blessing to me, because these dear friends expressed (1) they read the e-mail :D (2) they took enough time out of their day to stop and pray.

Just this morning I saw a prayer request on facebook. I don't know the situation (other than what was posted on facebook) but I jotted out a quick note in response and prayed for God's will to be done in the situation, for peace to prevail within the family, and for souls to be brought to Christ as a result of this situation.

Oh believers, we can't afford to drop this weapon of prayer! Let's make it a priority to pray today... and to let people know we're praying for them. Too much is at stake to think we'll have time to pray later. Sometimes later doesn't come.

Update #3.

I'm waiting to hear the ding dong of my doorbell signaling that my nephew and niece are here to play with Auntie Anne, but for now I'm going to take these couple of moments to squeeze in a third update:).

One of the first questions we are usually asked when talking about Thailand is what's the next step? That's a logical question! I think I have a sensible answer:).

The very next step on our agenda is graduation. Nat is going through the same Bible Institute I went through and graduated from in 2007 and he is soooo close to being done! He plans on graduating in June of this year from Lehigh Valley Baptist Bible Institute and also plans on graduating from the same Bible college in South Dakota that I graduate from - and that's supposed to happen in May!

His day pretty much goes like this: 8:30-4:30 (work), 4:30-5:30 (rest and dinner), 5:30-? (Bible Institute). He has been very diligent in getting his courses done and I'm am extremely thrilled (can I say proud in a good way?!?) over how much he is getting accomplished! On top of all of this, he has been experiencing severe neck pain and yet has endured through all the pain. Long story short, a van door was closed on his head while we were in Thailand and it did some hefty damage to his neck, so on top of everything else, he is trying to get his neck adjusted and back to normal. If you think of him, please pray for the pain to be relieved!

So when people ask what's the next step?, we say graduation - rock #1!

There are two more "rocks" that need to be moved into place. Rock #2 is Botswana and rock #3 is being sent as missionaries from our home church - Lehigh Valley Baptist Church.

Let me explain in a little more detail.

Botswana is a country in Africa where my church recently sent our latest missionary family to begin a work there. My good friend Rachel blogs often about her experiences and adventures while living in Botswana:).

Both our current pastor and our missionary to Botswana would like Nat and I to take a trip sometime to Botswana to get some more hands-on experience working with people. We're not sure when the timing of this all is going to work out, but we are "planning" for August or September. As I mentioned above, my husband has been doing a Bible Institute marathon (full-speed!) for the past few months and will continue on that course until he graduates, so I think we're going to need to catch our breath for a little bit before plunging into this new project:). Plus my uncle has severe cancer and we're not sure how long he has, so we really, really want to take some time to visit with him in North Carolina (after Bible Institute is done!). So that's rock #2!

Rock #3 is our church members voting on sending us out as missionaries. From the beginning, we have always wanted to be under our church/pastor's authority and wouldn't even think of putting a baby toe out from under that authority! So we wait for the right timing of that to take place. Our church members and pastor have done a wonderful job communicating to us that that will take place, it's just a matter of when:).

These three rocks will take us through to the end of this year, and that's fine with us:). For now, my husband continues working on staff as an assistant to our pastor and I'm still working at the bakery as well as volunteering at church/school wherever help is needed!

There is plenty keeping us busy!