The Anticipation

One of my husband's traits is that he plans ahead for the future and I really like that about him. He makes sure that we plan ahead so that we can be at peace and not fret when the unexpected happens. Matty is a great steward of our finances. We have been planning our trip to Honduras (X-mas of 2006) since January of 2006 and therefore have been saving up for it. Oh let me tell you, it is a wonderful thing to see our account growing as we approach our anticipated trip :)

In spite of all the planning there are many things out of our control or things that we did not expect. It is God's way of letting us know that we have to trust Him and let Him be in control. It is our way of leaning on Him. I do believe though that we have to be faithful and do our part (planning and saving up), but ultimately it is His provision and faithfulness that will get us there.

We are so excited to be able to go to Honduras for Christmas. My last Christmas in Honduras was 4 years ago! That's a LONG time :) I look forward to the big family get-togethers, the loud and busy house, the food :), being able to meet susana and see the Arevalos and all of our friends. We also might be able to have our 10 year high-school reunion while we are there. A classmate from school contacted me and we are planning on making it happen! It will be such a blessing to be able to see my classmates and be able to share Christ with them as the opportunities arise. I am looking forward to fireworks and the joyful faces of kids. It's very different there because the poor (or most children) don't expect to get anything for x-mas and so they are filled with joy and gratitude even with the simplest gift or toy--at least this has been my experience. It is so beautiful and humbling to see. I love it!

Comment: That's a picture of our (matty and I) 1st x-mas tree. Now we will have a little stinker to share x-mas with! It will be so much fun :)

Exasperation at Rest!

Well, I did it! I made up my mind and chopped my hair off and I LOVE not having to deal with it anymore. Hopefully this will be a lot less maintenance. I have always wanted to have short hair, but never had the guts to do it :) I also thought that if I didn't like it, it would grow back anyway. Matty likes it...at least that's what he told me ;)

So...here it is! Let me know what you think...only positive comments please :) I think I look more like my mom with my hair short. It is a lot of fun!

In Doing We Learn

I learned this motto while I was living in Costa Rica during my last semester in college. I was there through a Latin American Studies program and finished that semester overseas. I could not have made it at the LeTourneau campus one more semester!!! :) It was great doing something away from the college and in a new place. I enjoyed it throughly and learned a great deal!

This motto has stuck with me. It has truly helped me to not sweat the small stuff. Matt and I both have used it MANY times and it has helped us to let go of any little guilt or beating up of ourselves. It is great! Now with raising Rebekah I can use it and know that it's ok...I am just learning and hopefully next time I will do better.

So, for all of you out there who make mistakes, remember, "in doing we learn!" We are all in a lerning process and we don't need to beat ourselves up. God is faithful! His grace is sufficient in our weaknesses! And truly, that's when He is glorified the most.

note: That picture is all of us LASPers while we were in Guatemala! When we were in Costa Rica we traveled to Nicaragua and Guatemala! Fun times :)

Serving and Teaching

Matty left on Monday to go to Dallas for training and has been gone all week. Because of this I had to prepare the lesson for the children and have all six of them over on Tuesday night. I was planning on canceling it, but I could not do that to them. I knew that they were looking forward to Tuesday :)

My friend, Renee, offered to help me. She came early and stayed the whole evening. God is faithful and provided the help I so needed. Having to take care of a little baby and trying to prepare a lesson, snacks and clean is not that easy :)

Our verse for the week was 1 Peter 5:7, "Casting all your care upon him because he cares for you." The story we talked about was about Moses and His family. We talked about how God took care of this family against the wicked plan/law of pharaoh by protecting Moses! His family had to trust God under a very hard situation and God wonderfully did this for them! He will do the same for those of us who have put our hope and trust in Jesus Christ!

I learned a lot :) I knew this verse, but I think that when you teach, you learn a lot more and better. This was a perfect verse for me this week because when Matt is out of town I tend to worry. I had to apply this verse to my life this week and it helped me teach it better because I understood what it meant to worry.

The children seemed to understand it as well and prayerfully they too will apply it in their lives. These children are precious! I love them so much and we are so honored for the opportunity we have to share His Truth with them.

Through CEF, every time we meet with them we also have the opportunity to share Christ with them and give them an invitation. I loved being reminded of what Christ has done for me and it gives me a passion to share that same love with them.

I realize that teaching and serving others is not only beneficial to them but me as well. His Word is Truth and it changes us!

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12-13

Call me a fanatic

I was first introduced to Shane and Shane when I lived in Costa Rica my last semester in college. From this point forward I became a fan! Their CD, Psalms, truly ministered to me during that hard semester abroad.

Matt has taken me to two of their concerts and have enjoyed each of them so much! Last time we saw them was here in Tulsa and I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant with Rebekah. They were playing with the David Crowder band. Shane and Shane were the first band to come out and then David Crowder.

We wanted to leave early to beat the crowds plus the David Crowder band was so loud! As we were heading out, we saw Shane Everett and all of a sudden the fan in me got so excited and all that I could muttered was, "you guys are AWESOME!" Shane Everett's response was, "Thanks...hey, is the concert over? ":) He is just a plain old guy :)

It was so funny! Matt and I still laugh about this.

Check out their website and their music and do try to go to one of their concerts if they are in your area www.shaneandshane.com

Good News Club

Yesterday was the first day to have the kids in our neighborhood over at our house and it went really well. The doorbell started ringing early in the afternoon:) The wanted to know if they could wear they pj's and wanted to let us know that they would be at our house at 6:59 p.m :) It was so cute and really encouraging. The kids were anxious to come over to learn and have fun.

When they arrived we asked them what they were most excited about? They mostly said that they were just excited to be at our house with us! One of the girls said that she was excited to learn about God.

Matt started off with Genesis 1! The creation of the world. Matt had prepared in the morning and the Lord gave him an idea on how the evening would go. As Matt read, the kids would draw what happened the 1st day and so on. It was a God idea because it kept them really interested and they loved drawing. So I am attaching a picture of what it looked like when it was finished. I was so proud of Matt! He did a beautiful job teaching the kids. He is definitely a teacher!

After we were done some of the kids helped me make chocolate shakes, some drew pictures, and some watched Veggietales. Then they had their treat and played some more. Before they had to leave we all had a time of prayer.

It was a wonderful day and we thank God and praise Him for what He did! Rebekah enjoyed it too! She had fun watching all the kids and being held and loved by them.

This coming Saturday Matt and I are going to a one day seminar where they will teach us more on how to effectively teach children about the Lord. We are excited! Please pray for us.

The organization is called Child Evangelistic Fellowship. You can go to their website at www.cefonline.com

A Legal Alien :)

I have lived in the U.S. for about 10 years now. wow! That's a long time. I came here to go to college, and ended up marrying and staying here.

I miss Honduras! I miss my family, friends, food, and some things about the culture. Even though I have lived in the states for 10 years I still don't feel like I belong here. The weird thing is that when I visit Honduras, I don't feel like I belong there either :) Many things have changed! You see, there are things about both cultures and places that I like and don't like.

I love my family and most of them live in Honduras. Sometimes I feel pretty lonely because I want to share my life with them and it is hard to do that when you live far away...countries away :) I love how Hondurans view family...it is important and it is a central part of people's lives. I remember growing up around family and we would get together every Sunday to have lunch and hang out. Hondurans talk a lot :) Well...at least my family does. They love to sit around and talk about anything and everything. It seems like it is a slower paced culture. People don't seem to be in a hurry all the time. I miss that. I love being around the humble and the poor. They are the BEST! They really are! They are so loving, selfless and loyal. They are hard working people with servant hearts. It is so beautiful to see. I love the simplicity in which people live there. Most people don't have all that we have, but they seem so much happier than most Americans. I might be romanticizing this too much, but it's how I remember it. I love to dance and oh boy do they love to dance :) It is part of who we are...los latinos! We shake it :) I miss having help around the house, especially now with a baby that would be nice.

What I like about living in the States is that there is an order to things. There are rules to follow and they are enforced. I can drive peacefully :) Try driving in Honduras :) Survival of the fittest! There is a peace or a security that this country offers. I love the friendships I have made here! I have met some of the most wonderful people here. I like my house and my husband is AMAZING!!!(Matty added this...that boy :) It's true though. Matty added that too :) I love how you can buy a shake at Sonic or wherever and if you don't like it, you can ask for a different flavor and they will not charge you for it! Now that's customer service :) In Honduras you want another one, you buy another one. I am also amazed at how clean and pretty the Americans keep their cities and roads. I guess I like order, huh?

Oh well...this is getting long and I need to hit the sack!

Accountability Group

Throughout my Christian walk I have been blessed with many godly women that the Lord has placed in my life. I am grateful for each one of those women who loved me, challenged me, modeled Christ to me, and taught me to live my life for Christ and Him alone. God is always faithful to provide women that I can learn from wherever I am.
The first time I was ever involved in an accountability group was when I was in college. I had started my walk with Christ and I was involved in an accountability group with a wonderful group of girls. The Lord knew how much I needed this at that moment in my life. As I look back, I realize how especial each one of them were and in my heart there is a very special place for them. I still look up to them, I admire them and I would do anything for them.
Now some 7 or so years later, a wife and a new mom, I realized how much I needed a group of women to help me grow into the woman Christ desires for me to be. Once again the Lord has surrounded me with some amazing women whom I can look up to and learn from.
I meet with three ladies every Friday morning so that we can pray for each other, learn from each other, model Christ to each other and challenge each other to be the wives and mothers for the glory of God. I love each one of them dearly. I love how we can be honest about anything that we are going through. But, what I love the most is that our one desire is for Christ to be glorified through our lives.
Thank you Lord for the body of Christ!

Neighborhood Outreach!

What an exciting time in our lives! Actually the wonderful years of our lives. Being a parent is such a blessing! But what I want to talk about is something that the Lord placed in our hearts and we are super excited about.
For months we had been praying about reaching out to our neighbors. Many times we have been so convicted about not being purposeful in doing this or "too busy" to reach out to our neighbors who don't know Christ! We had thought about different ideas we could do, but nothing that we both felt really strong about.
We have the most wonderful and sweet kids in our neighborhood and they truly love us. They come to our door all the time asking for "widia" :) or asking to see the baby! They are so sweet. Every time we are outside they come to our house to talk to us or help us out with whatever we are doing. They are great!
Matt and I prayed about it one more time one evening and gave it to the Lord. The next day or two I was talking with my neighbor and she commented that every Tuesday nigth they go bowling and that they leave all their kids, including a two year old, with a 14 year old boy in our neighborhood! My heart sank! I wanted to protect and love those kids. Who knows what can happen with such an arrangement.
I talked to Matt about it as soon as he came home from work. Matt thought about the idea of having the kids over every Tuesday night for Bible stories, fun games and of course, chocolate shakes :) Which they love! I have made it for all of them once and oh boy...that is one way to get brownie points with kids :)
A couple of days later we were talking to one of the boys and he opened up to us about his dad and told us a lot about their situation. From that moment on we knew that it was the Lord who wanted to make this happen.
We asked the kids if they would be interested and the answer was, "When and what time?!!"
Wow! God is so awesome and we are so happy and honored that we get to be a part of His work here on this earth.
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Matthew 9:37-38

Entering the blog world!

This is my first post! I never thougth I would have a blog, but I have been reading some pretty neat blogs and so I decided it was time for me to do it. It is exciting :)
I think I will write about just life here at our house-our baby girl, my hubby, what God is teaching me, what I am learning from others, and just other stuff.
I will be writting some in Spanish (maybe), so that my mom and sister can read them as well.