Ministry

Today this quote was in my devotions:

"Spend your time and energy with heaven's perspective.  Resist the urge to fritter away your valuable time and strength.  Invest it today in the only thing that will last through eternity:  people.  Your children, co-workers, neighbors and husband are worth all the time and energy you have to invest, for now and for eternity."

That is so where I'm at these days.  My neighbor is Egyptian.  She is Muslim and in her 60's.  I have begun walking with her every morning.  She grabs my hand when she sees a dog.  She's afraid of them and Islamic people have a "thing" about dog saliva.  They don't want it near them at all.  We walk so early we see skunks moving about our neighborhood and we are both afraid of being sprayed.  We talk about life and faith.  She loves God.  She prays 5 times a day.  I've heard the call to prayer app on her phone go off.  She ordered us a bidet attachment in thank you for Ben doing all sorts of handyman work over there.  This morning I was walking with her under a full lunar eclipse.  It just can't get any more unusual and wonderful than that!  She tells me stories from the Quran about Jesus talking as a baby.  I tell her stories from the Bible about Jesus.  It is interesting.

Antioch Woods is an apartment complex just 5 minutes from my house.  My house in a cozy neighborhood is butting up against an apartment complex in which people open their doors and they don't have a stick of furniture.  We have committed to going to these apartments once a week (Ben and I) and meeting people and praying with people and hopefully starting a small group Bible study there.  We are meeting and going along with a guy that has been going there for months.  He has the gift of evangelism.  Ben and I are gatherers.  We are relationship people.  It is a good match.  We are using this as a date night.  Meeting/praying with people and then going to dinner together.  We are going there Halloween night as a family.

Following Christ is an adventure... you never know what you are going to encounter.  I'm ready to go a little deeper and trust him more.  I'm ready to not be noticed and go to the people that feel forgotten.

Falling Leaves

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages.  It seems before I can sit down these days a week has gone by.  I am planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Beki.  This picture is of a diaper carriage I've been working on.  I need to add a couple of things, but I'm excited by how it is turning out.  

Gwen had a lap-a-thon at her school where you run to raise money for the school and Luke and Zeke ran too.  I have never seen Gwen try so hard at something.  She ran 12 laps.

Romy has officially begun her toddlerhood.  She screams quite a lot and gets into everything.  She screams when she sees other kids going outside and she can't.  She screams when I have a glass of ice water and won't let her drink from it.  She screams when I try to put her in the carseat and when people leave.  All of her communication is screaming, pointing at her mouth (when she's hungry and thirsty).  I'm trying to teach her to sign a few things... so wish me luck.  Since taking this photo we have managed to lose all her her pacifiers.  I think she opens the trash and throws them in sometimes.  I purposed in my heart not to buy more, so... we are off the paci.  But the screaming...

This is the month that Jake and Melody will have their baby.  We are looking forward to another niece or nephew.  I forgot to post any photos, but we also threw a baby shower for Jake and Melody.  It was "mama bird" themed and I was in charge of the decorations.  I borrowed this bird house from a friend.  I thought it made a nice centerpiece.