The Amazing Race Part Two!!!

Part two of the busy week started on Wednesday evening with Tim and I giving a couples testimony for Lamb's Fellowship Celebrate Recovery (no photos of this ...cuz what is said in the rooms of CR, stays in the rooms of CR :)

Then on Friday night we were blessed with an amazing meal prepared by Chef Joe and Lori Mies at Lamb's for about 75 volunteers. Our youth pastor Dave Snow and his wife, Kim, served us and it was just such a sweet night to relax and enjoy conversation with our church family.

See...Jervaun talks, too!

Late Friday night, both kids started in with a low grade fever and body aches. Imagine that! All those injections took a toll on their tired bodies. Sadly (for the kids, anyway) we had to load them in the car with their movie players and trek down to Escondido Light and Life, so I could share at their Women's Brunch. What an awesome group of godly women, just lovin' on each other and me! Not only are they supporting us, but I know we can count on their prayers as we travel and live in Ethiopia. A special thank you to Maureen and Crystle for the invite!

Blessing us with the laying on of hands and prayer

(note that Juliette is still in jammies, poor baby!)

Jervaun shares "the story" at Riverside FM

(I almost have a "hand heart", Jen!)Tim shares "the vision".

Thank you to Pastor Lee and Riverside FM for an incredible welcome, lunch and enthusiasm for Ethiopia Missions.

Next week we will enjoy a Sabbath, of sorts as we take Timmy and jewels to Disneyland for Timmy's 10th birthday!

The Amazing Race Part One!!!

That is what the past week has felt like. It has been a busy and productive time, speaking and preparing to go :

It started last Sunday in Chino with a visit to Latin American Free Methodist Church where we were welcomed by pastor Omar, his family, and his very loving congregation! Tim makes friends very easily, as noted with our little friend and their strings!

New friends!

Tim preaching

With Pastor Omar and his family!

With Pastor Omar and his church family.

Our translator :)

Then we were down to San Diego to get 12 shots! Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Fever, Tetanus, Menengitis...yay! Pictures tell this story (graphic content...lol).

9 out of the 12 shots.

Tim takes it kind of hard.

Juliette...brave and stoic.

That's right...the number I got in my right arm :)

This little face says it all, but he hung in there.

Katie, the very beautiful and sweet needle lady!

I mean who takes a picture with a needle lady, honestly!

The Best Valentine's Day Ever!

Two incredible guys just took me and Juliette on a date.

It was Juliette's first date, as she says..."with a much, much older man". At the suggestion of a very wise pastor, my husband wanted to teach Juliette just how a date was supposed to be. How she should expect to be treated...like someone's precious daughter; like a precious daughter of the King. So he took her out for Valentine's Day.

And likewise,Timmy also needs to learn how to treat a beloved daughter of the Most High. So he took his Mommy out. It started three days ago with the guys sending us invitations, telling us to be ready at 3:00. Then they came to the door: Both Tims wearing cologne and bearing flowers . They took us to dinner at P.F. Changs (thanks for the gift card, Mom), then to see a show. Afterward they took us to Golden Spoon for frozen yogurt...and there they both read us each a poem. They took us home and said goodnight at the door.

When little Timmy came back in, I asked him (as if I had been home all along),

"How was your date?"

His reply, "It was very nice."

"Did you fall in love with her?" I asked.

He replied, "I've always been in love with her." Yeah...he said that.

And the Creator of the Universe loves me more than that? It is just too much. Too much.

We had the best Valentine's Day ever!

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

We had the absolute honor of speaking with Barstow Free Methodist Church this past weekend. Since we visit Barstow (and our friends the Kochs) often, it is like a second home to us. I shared the amazing work that God has done in our lives, and Tim shared from John 15. This tied together in that, in our lives before Christ...we bore very little fruit. All of the titles, jobs, money, cars, boats, accomplishments, etc. were rather vacuous apart from Him. We have, as Christians been exhorted to abide in Him. So that we can bear much fruit. So that He may be glorified.

We are thankful to Chris and Ingrid, and the body of believers at Barstow FM, for welcoming us, encouraging us, sharing hospitatlity, and supporting us as we seek to bear fruit in Ethiopia.

In other exciting news (well it is to those of us from So. Cal), we had some actual "weather" during our overnight stay in Barstow. Coming home over the Cajon Pass, these were the amazing shots we took of SNOW!