Summer 2009

So much has happened this summer I don't know where to start! I cannot believe that the last post was a month ago! This summer has been great in many ways. Last week we had some family time which was WONDERFUL!!!! Ludie and the entire OM team has been going going going really since May but it has been non-stop, something everyday since the beginning of July. That is good! That is what we are here for, well not for being busy but for working hard at what God has called us to do. Above is the picture of the 12 cups of blackberries Griffin and Ludie picked (and the bushes are not even full yet, they are getting there, those were just the first pick of the "crop". They are wild blackberries that grow on the side of the road. The plum tree in our yard is full and Ludie and Griffin just filled up one of those big bowls with plums. I feel like Bubba Gump: "We gonna be havin some plum tart, plum muffins, plum jelly...". (and I love it!)

This summer Griffin got to participate in Art Camp offered at the church we attend. He loved it! He is into hip hop dancing and each day got to do dance, drama, crafts and music. The theme was Joshua and the battle of Jericho. You can see him in the picture of their end of week drama of Joshua. He was one of the guards. It is amazing to come to a place and expect to work with others, but to benefit from the work that is done in your own family is such a blessing.










Griffin and Ruthie also got to participate for the first time with the Big Red Bus. She loved the puppet shows and he loved the games. She even learned the dance moves to a song that we Have to listen to and dance to daily per her request. She has really started talking a lot and as you can see her hair has really started to thicken and grow. I can almost put it in a ponytail.








Ludie walked up to us while we were at the Big Red Bus and I just teared up at the thought of having our whole family here working with and enjoying the bus. You'll see a picture I took from the upstairs of the bus of Ludie sharing the Gospel with a group outside the bus.











During our family time we spent some of it working around the house. I can keep the house running but there is a huge difference when the man of the house is here handling things. Can I get an Amen!? There are just some things a woman can't do-or doesn't want to do. :) He gets the hard stuff.

We also got an opportunity to go to the Dublin Zoo. We took the train there which was fun for us all. It cost less to ride the train than it did to drive there. We also enjoyed just playing with the kids, and the kids enjoyed not being strapped into car seats. We had to walk from the train station, through Phoenix Park (beautiful flowers!), to the zoo. What an adventure for us all. We ended the day with supper that we picked up and ate on the train ride back. Ludie taught me what a Doner Kebab is. I am hooked!

















We also went to the opposite coast to Galway via train (our favorite way to travel now!). We spent the day in Salt Hill at the aquarium where we got to pet sting rays, dog fish, and hold starfish. And like every trip we have made to an aquarium since I have known and been married to Ludie, Ludie made me scream in the middle of it by picking up a dog fish out of the tank. At least I did not splash anyone this time. We walked back to the train station. A storm came up for a couple minutes while we were walking, and it felt like being a on a roller coaster while it was raining. We had to duck behind a stone wall to stay dry from the rain going sideways. After it passed though we saw the biggest and brightest rainbow we've ever seen. I learned that I cannot walk fast anywhere for a length of time as I start to have hard contractions.



































The last day of our family time we went to pick up the newest member of our family. His name is Hunter. He is an English Spaniel mix (we think with Greyhound). We found him via the internet for an offer free to a good home from a man that was moving from the country to the city. He is fully house-trained and lets you know when he needs to go outside and he is great with the kids. He took off today into the neighbors yard. He jumped the stone wall and proceeded for 30 minutes to chase the sparrows while I kept yelling for him to come here! Then finally I said "sit". And he did! Well okay then, now I know how to get him. However when he is chasing the birds there is no way to catch him. I think he's faster than a horse! The neighbors scared him half to death when he scared them, and he won't be running towards their house anytime soon. He had been hanging around the house well when we took him out so I thought I would take the leash off, and off he went! Down the lane and straight into their house. They did not know him yet but can you imagine a dog as big as a greyhound running into your house full speed?









We have only 8 weeks left to go in the pregnancy (after this weekend). We are working on getting ready for the baby to come. I am excited and cannot imagine what it will be like when he or she finally gets here. We have a couple girls names picked out but are still having trouble with boys names. No telling though! You'll just have to wait until it comes to find out. (PS We don't know whether it is a boy or a girl).

Oh...and one bit of exciting news is that fellow OM'ers Dax and Sarah are our next door neighbors! We love it. Pray for them though, they have to put up with us. :)

What a week!

I have always wanted the hang out house and now we have it. It has been a prayer of mine that our kids friends would want to be at our house and that we would have the hang out house. Well, it turns out that God has answered our prayers. In the one mile radius around our house, the only boys that are close to Griffin's age are right within our "village" as they call it. When we moved here there seemed to be no children around so we would go to the playground by the marina and play there. It turns out that our neighbor's grandson visits most days out of the week and our other neighbor's son comes and stays a couple days out of the week. They have a blast together. On a rainy day this week I was overwhelmed with the amount of dust and cobwebs that collect around here. I get tired very easily so I have to watch how much I do (however I regret that my thighs are showing the effects-oh well. I will have to start walking after the baby is born). So anyway, I was praying that God would just send someone to clean my house or give me ideas of how to get it done. The dust on the baseboards look like they could just get up and walk away. Well, Kevin that is over almost everyday loves to hoover (vaccuum), so I asked him if he would hoover the baseboards on half the house, and then Griffin wanted to wipe the baseboards on the other half of the house. I paid them for doing this. It is not a big house but it sure helped my back!!! Ruthie even pitched in by putting the dishes away. She loves to dust and put dishes away. She even puts her dirty diapers (nappies) in the trash can (rubbish bin). I usually do homeschool while she naps so cleaning is done while she is awake, but it is like trying to work harder and faster cleaning and putting stuff away than she can undo what has been done.


. Because of my laziness on matching socks, when they are dry I just stick them in a bag. Well our family ran out of socks so we had a stock matching contest. Both participants got candy but the winner with the most pairs got extra gummies.

Ludie had a couple days off this week. He has been working (as well as the rest of the OM team) day and night for at least the past 3 weeks. It has been so good to have him home. I hugged him so much, he asked "what did you do?". The first day he just chilled and spent special time with the kids. Griffin has been eating it up. They made a pallette and watched Clone Wars and fought with light sabers. He also put up a post for the hammock we gave him for Father's Day. I think Griffin is more excited than anything!


Dax and Sarah Bryant from Las Vegas are joining the OM team on Monday. They are flying out Sunday with a 7 hour lay over in Chicago. She is 7 1/2 months pregnant and they have a 2 year old and 4 year old. I am so excited about them coming. I think just to be able to help someone else and make their transition easier based on the things I have learned or mistakes that I have learned from.

Anyway, there was a car donated to OM for them to use so we went to Kilkenny today to pick it up. We made a family outing out of it and went to Kilkenny Castle. We had a picnic, rolled down hills, played on the playground, climbed trees and toured the castle, oh and had some ice cream of course!!! Mmmm! It was such a great day! I love my family! The last picture is one of my favorite house on the way to Kilkenny. It has a thatch roof. It was not a good place to stop and take a picture so I had to do a drive by shot.





The last thing to mention was what happened in the middle of the week. I don't really know how to put this in a blog without just seeming like something in passing, because it is all but that. This week our friend and Sunday School Class member from FBCW passed away. At the age of 42 he died in his sleep of a massive heart attack. My heart just aches for Teresa and the kids. Please keep them in your prayers. I am so thankful and praise God that there is no doubt that Todd is in the presence of Jesus Christ. He dressed up as Elvis at a Sunday School Class fundraiser to help us raise funds to come to serve with OM in Ireland. My disc that has that picture is in storage back home. If anyone has a picture, please send it to me and I will post it. Todd and Teresa were and are some of our favorite people in our Sunday School class. We always sat right in front of them and joined on the same Sunday. Todd loved racing and had a prized Home Depot racing helmet that he willingly gave up for a abused children's Christian charity. That is just the kind of guy he was. He was always laid back with a smile on his face and you just felt comfortable around him. We are blessed to have known him.

Impact Ireland

Well Impact Ireland 2009 will be over tomorrow. I Cannot believe that! It just seems like yesterday Ludie was leaving for Cork to get on the OM Ship Logos Hope. I know the team is tired as well as the families from the non-stop schedule. It has been so worth it though!

The Ship:
The month started out with the ship coming in to Cork. Ludie and the Ireland team went on the ship to help out on deck 4 where the bookstore is. (You can see more about the ship in earlier posts). They talked with people, gave them info about what was going on in Ireland through OM Ireland and shared the Gospel via tracts, conversations or both. Several people made decisions to follow Christ. One in particular is a cool story about a man Ludie met that was our age. He was homeless and an alcoholic. When Ludie first saw him sitting in the cafe area of the ship, he looked like he did not want anyone to come talk to him. So Ludie went to talk to him. :) Ludie asked him how he liked the ship, etc. Then the man just looked straight at Ludie and said, "I have not had anything to do with the Lord in so long!" and just began to weep. Ludie talked with him and found out he was an alchoholic and was homeless. He had a 2 year old daughter that he was going to see that week. Ludie shared the hope that comes only through Christ with the man. Then asked if the man had a Bible. So Ludie invited to take him to the bookstore to buy him one. He also bought some gift books for the man to take to his daughter. While in the bookstore, Ludie noticed that the man was interested in the Narnia books. He had seen the movie twice. Ludie asked him if he knew what the movie was about. Then Ludie explained the correlation between Aslan and Christ, sin and the Turkish delights, the substitutionary sacrifice of Aslan for Edmond, and how the land changed from winter to springtime when Aslan came back to life and how our lives change when Christ comes into our lives. Then the Gospel that Ludie previously shared started making sense to him. They then sat there and prayed together and the man accepted Christ as His personal Lord and Savior. That is just one of many stories. Over 11,000 tract were given out on the ship!

Evangelism Training:
Ludie did evangelism training on the ship and taught the teams that came in for Impact Ireland, as well as other people how to share the Gospel (based on Way of the Master series).

Impact Ireland:
People from all over the world come to share the Gospel throughout Ireland. The teams came to Cork and received training on the ship and then the teams were went out to work with local churches doing kids clubs, working with the Big Red Bus, community clean up and projects as well as a cross team carrying the cross from Cork to Rahara, Co. Roscommon. There are too many stories to be told but a couple just have to be told.

Cross Team:
The team was stopped by many people on the way to Rahara from Cork. People wanted to know what they were doing and why. They gave out hundreds of tracts, talked with people, prayed with people, stopped in and had tea with people and shared the Gospel with people. One person in particular was Shane in Limerick. While stopping for a meal at Supermac's (like McDonald's), Shane approached Mike Mullins on the team and asked him for money to buy food. Shane was young and homeless. Mike asked him how old he was. He had just turned 20 two days prior. Mike asked him how he celebrated his birthday. Shane responded that honestly he stood on the bridge in Limerick thinking about committing suicide. Shand had had a hard life. His father died when he was seven. He was abused my his mother's boyfriend and at 15 became a heroine addict and had been on his own for quite a while. He felt that no one loved him and no one would even miss him if he was gone. Right then, Mike said to him, you know we have carried this cross all the way from Cork just to tell you that God loves you. Mike shared the Gospel with Shane. Shane prayed to receive Christ in his heart. Mike bought him a meal and then some to celebrate. Then Shane counted his money. What was he doing? He was making sure he had enough money to call his mom and tell her he loved her. A team member saw him the next day and recognized him and said hello. The change in him was evident.

Ludie walked the last 40 miles with the cross team. The cross team covered over 150 miles! (Beautiful are the feet that share the Gospel). Ludie has some cool stories to tell just of the last part of the journey.

Kids Club and the Big Red Bus:
One team in particular did Kids Clubs in one of the housing estates (neighborhoods). The Big Red Bus (double decker red bus used as a mobile VBS) came and parked in front of one of the houses. In God, there are no coincidences. The house the bus parked in front of (unbeknown to the team) was a house where a little boy had been sexually molested by someone in the neighborhood. He stopped talking, and would not come out of his house. When the bus pulled up he told his mom and ran out of the house before she knew it. She was a Muslim, single mom with several children. The team was able to share the Gospel and the love of Christ with this woman and the son. They even went to visit her when they were not doing kids club.

Blessed by being a blessing:
It is amazing how when you serve the Lord, you end up being the one feeling as though you were served. One of the team members that came to help had had a hard life. Not knowing the stress that this person had been under and then to be away in a foreign land proved enough to put this person way past their comfort zone. What was great to see, was how a person that came to serve, and then God took care of them and grew them so much on the trip. As I said before, nothing happens by coincidence when you are working with Sovereign God. This person was on a team where the pastor and wife were from their native country so they could talk plainly in their own language. They had had experience in dealing with the things this person was facing and were able to provide a safe place for this person to learn more about and rest in God's love. What a great and loving God we serve.

To finish the week, Ludie has taken on the position as Ministry Coordinator as well as retaining his current responsibilities as Immersion team leader. This just means he is the point person for the ministry activities for OM Ireland on the Core Leadership Team. It is a natural fit based on the experiences God has given him over the years in management in the secular world, and I am so excited to see God working in and through him.

He would be embarrassed about how I have talked so much about him but God's hand is on us and is really working through him. Someone emailed me today and told me how proud they were of our accomplishments while here in Ireland. Let me be quick to say, that if it were up to us, we would have royally messed things up by now, but it is God that is working! I praise him for it.

There is a hunger here for hope. An openness that I hear is unprecedented. We are blessed to be here at such a time as this.

Thank you to those that have prayed for us while Ludie has been away. This has truly been a blessed time and I know it is because of the prayers that were lifted up for us.

2 most common questions answered

1. No, we don't know whether it is a boy or a girl. Ludie thinks the baby is a boy, Griffin wants a boy (today, tomorrow that might change), and I have a gut feeling it is going to be a girl. When we got the ultrasound they said that they knew and asked if I wanted to. I had planned on finding out and not telling Ludie, but my heart sank when they asked and I knew then and there that I would have to leave that up for one of the surprises God has in store for us. Like Ludie says, that is like unwrapping your Christmas present early. PS The due date is October 26th. My parents are coming around that time and I cannot tell you how excited I am to see them. I think about it everyday.

Some people ask (added bonus question) do we plan on having more). We don't know. We wanted a big family, thought we would not have children without adopting at one point and now God has blessed us with 3. So my answer is, let's get through this one and see what God has in store for us. He's the one with the plan all along. He may have my body answer the question for me, whew!...14 weeks and 4 days left until the due date.

2. How are we doing? I think Ludie is more fulfilled in what He is doing than I have ever seen him (and I have not seen him unhappy in work since I met him. Maybe going nuts but not unhappy). I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is where God called us for this time in our lives (otherwise I would have packed up and headed home a long time ago). The only way to describe our lives is the Scripture :"This world is not our home." There are things we miss about Woodstock, and there are things we love about here. If we were to leave Ireland right now and go back to Woodstock we would not feel at home because that is not where God has called us for this time in our lives. I am a foreigner here, but there is a peace and enjoyment in where we are right now. I do not wake up everday praying to survive the day like I did at one point. We have a peace about where we are and God has blessed us with some great neighbors and friends here (and home).

Blessings

I think about my recent blog updates and all have them in my mind at least have been about adjusting. Well now that we are over the hump of culture shock (WE BETTER BE!) I want to tell you about what I love about Ireland.

I love that you don't sweat much.
I love the chocolate. Especially the Cadbury's.
I love the quiteness and safe haven of our home.
I love the wildlife hopping or running by (wild hares and pheasants, even coo coo birds).
I love the long summer days (sunset 11pm, sunrise-too early 4ish am).
I love that if you don't like the weather, don't worry it will change in 10 minutes.
I love the freedom Griffin has to ride his bike and run around.
I love the friends God has given him.
I love the playground and pond in town with a real castle to boot.
I love that I can drive now without thinking, am I on the correct side of the road.
I love that I now know where to find Miracle whip, which store has cheaper cheese, etc.
I love waking up to pastures of cows and sheep behind us but being close enough to town and neighbors to keep into things too.
I love looking around and seeing how God has provided for us, and what a blessing the people who have worked to make this possible are.
I love seeing how even though we were not expecting a child, God provided in advance (i.e. we had budgeted for dishes and some other things, but then when we got here, someone had extra and passed them along allowing us to use the extra money to prepare for the baby to come).
I love being able to homeschool my kids here and am thankful for the curriculum that was donated to our family.
I love the team of people we work with, as crazy as they may be.
I love the church we go to and serve in and am thankful that we have one to go to.
I love the ladies Bible Study that I go to weekly and the godly women in that group.
I love how I have learned more about the glory of God, the sweetness of God, the desire of Him not to only want to save us eternally but in our everyday situations.
I love that He is teaching me that He is all that matters and that I can rely fully on Him. I am thankful for the family and friends that He has given me as support but the freedom to them and myself in realizing that it is really Him that sustains me and that I need every minute.
I have not liked all these lessons and they have not all been comfortable and some actually painful, but I am thankful for them.

Rebecca, someday I will figure out the Tuesday blessings link.

Sailing!

I cannot believe that it has been almost 2 months since I blogged last! I don't even know where to start. So much has happened! I guess I will start with one of the biggest things: We sailed on the OM ship, The Logos Hope. It is a a ship that is part of the organization we volunteer with called Operation Mobilization. The ship was in Belfast and sailed to Dublin where it stayed for 10 days and then off to the next port. The goal of the ship is to bring the Good News of saving grace of Jesus Christ by bringing knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world. They do this through many ways.

The Logos Hope has the worlds largest floating bookstore which attracts people on board. Imagine living in a country where clean water is scarce and then coming on board a ship that offers almost any type of book you could imagine from gardening, cooking, music, art to Bibles and other Christian related resources. While on board the people can take a tour of the ship, browse through the bookstore, stop at a kids activity center, an art display, cafe with live music at times, and an information booth and people available to speak to you in the cafe to share what OM is doing in their country and also to share the hope that is offered the Christ alone.

The entire crew is made up of volunteers just like us that have to raise their own support, from the captain, to the cooks, to the school teachers for the kids living on the ship, to the people working on deck or hospitality, or mechanics. That alone will get people thinking, "Why would you do this?" which is an open door for sharing why we do what we do.

In addition to the bookstore and tour, there are teams that go into the port before the ship gets there to find out what the needs are of the community where the ship will be porting. Then the teams on board can then prepare whether the needs are medical based, and a medical team can be sent out, social based providing kids clubs as a way to share the Gospel and provide a drug-free, alchohol free place for kids to hang out or many other avenues.

We got to stay a couple of days. Griffin had a blast and knew every part of the ship after the first day). The kids did great sailing. It was okay through most of the night until about 5 am, the ship was rolling very badly front to back and side to side. I thank God Ruthie was in a play pen and both kids were sleeping well. I thought we would all fall out of bed. We were on deck 8 out of 9 so it swayed a lot where we were! Needless to say my stomach did not handle being out at sea. The ship is 145 yards long. The day that we were to come into port in Dublin we had to wait. We were supposed to dock at 10 am and did not do so until ~9pm. Ugh! There was part of a bridge that needed to be pulled into port to add onto what was being built, and the Logos Hope was too big for the bridge to get by so we had to wait for that to go first. At 1 pm we finally put down anchor off the coast and that helped some. When they mentioned they were pulling up anchor I just teared for a short moment. I wanted to kiss the ground when we got there.

A lot of the crew does get sea sick so I had a new appreciation for what they sacrifice in order to fulfill the call God has placed on their lives. People say to us a lot, "How do you do it? How do you pick up and leave all you are familiar with to come to a foreign land?". Now I understand the question more because I am asking, "How do you suffer sea sickness every 2 weeks in order to do what you do?" The only answer is for any of us, obedience to what God has called us to share and do. In all this being said, the Logos Hope is setting sail to the Carribean (a 2 week journey) on July 14th. The crew is very apprehensive about this because it is such a long journey. The ship is a former car carrier that has been transformed into a passenger ship. Therefore it sets higher in the water and rocks more than a normal cruise ship might. The crew is also understaffed and therefore needs prayer for rejuvenation. They need approximately 100 more people. Those are 3 major prayer requests.

I was grateful to catch up with friends I had met through our OM orientation and training. We actually had grits, bacon and eggs and toast with molasses (could not find or make biscuits in time) with a fellow American on the ship. Giving us all a little taste of the south.

While on board in Belfast, the need was voiced for a way to put the Gospel in the hand of everyone that visited the ship. Within 24 hours God used Ludie to put together a tract to hand out. If you only knew how God has changed this man from thinking going to visit people that visited the church was rude to writing a tract in order to share our only Hope, you would be amazed. I know several of you reading this have seen the transformation God has made in his life.

Ludie got to speak to several people on the ship from a man that claimed he was atheist and later in conversation opened up that he was mad at God, and could not imagine how God would let such awful things happen to him. Ludie also shared with a couple that felt they needed to start going to church or get back to God somehow. They were visiting in Dublin and saw the ship. They thought it was a ship museum and came on board. Ludie also got to share with a drug addict and his wife. There is so much more to these stories and even more stories to tell you.

As you can see, lots of exciting things have happened, and more to tell you. I have been long winded so I will stop at that for the night.

I can't wait to grow old with you (Ludie)....

I was catching up on a friend's blog (Rebekah's at www.sixgreggs.blogspot.com. While doing so I came across this:

Well it is not Tuesday but my unwrapped gift is overdue. As you can see in my previous post I was wondering if I had gotten over culture shock. Well, life is good and we go with the flow. However Friday, Griffin came down with a stomach bug. This triggered some things in me that God showed me (control issues and trusting God with my well-being as well as that of my children's) I need to deal with. Really He needs to, and I just need to be willing because I don't know how to fix me. Needless to say, you can imagine if I don't know how to fix me, how my husband may feel at times living with me. All I can say is, pray for him!

My husband was saved (repented of his sins and turned away from them and to God, and believed in Jesus Christ as His personal Savior) seven years ago. I went from seeing my husband change from a good man to a godly man. Let me tell you, there is a big difference. The way God has worked in His life to develop him into the spiritual leader of our household is amazing. The wisdom, knowledge, patience and love have been poured into him from above. When I used to look to a Sunday School teacher or pastor for advice, I now come to him first (the way it should be)... As in the instance of needing wisdom regarding my perspective on God in the situation I mentioned above. So Ludie, my gift for this Tuesday, belated, is you. I am looking forward to growing old with you and love you very much.

Click on this to see me and Ludie in 40 years.