Gingerbonding

Over fall break I had the four girls of our Good News Club over to make some gingerbread houses! It was fun and messy :) We were able to have more "girl" talks and it was a good way to bond and be silly!

I am blessed to have four little sisters who I can teach about God and lead them in the road less traveled, but the one that lasts forever!

Thank you Lord for giving me the opportunity to serve you by loving and teaching these precious girls!

Second Birthday

Today we only had 3 kids come to our Good News Club, but it was exactly what God wanted. Today, Kayla and Jazmine gave their lives to Christ. We led them in a prayer and then we celebrated their second birthday with cookies and ice cream!

They were so giddy after this...we all were :) We were so happy!

When I took them home, I told them to tell their parents what they had done, and so they said, "we are Christians...we are now children of God." It was so beautiful to hear them say that. Their parents were happy and thankful.

For Halloween we are taking all the kids to our Church's Fall Festival and we are all dressing up like Hillbilies :) We are looking forward to havig fun together.

Please pray for Kayla and Jazmine, that they will grow in their faith and that they will desire to be imitators of Christ.

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" John 1:12

H-E-double-hockey-sticks

I was asking Matt about the word hell the other day as we were driving. Because English is my second language I am still learning new things everyday. I knew that in some settings this word could be a bad word, so I was asking him when and why.

As we were talking he told me that when he was in school, he and his friends used to say H-E- double-hockey-sticks :) I thought it was so funny! He said that this is a colloquialism?? Intersesting :)

Copy-cat

Rebekah is quite the copy-cat these days. She will mimic whatever we are doing :) Yesterday morning I was breastfeeding her so I put her in bed with us. When she was done eating she was aahhing and oohhing and I thought that she would not go back to sleep.

So, I started grunting to "give her the message that mama was still sleepy" :) When I grunted, she would grunt back at me. When I grunted twice, she would grunt twice...this went on and on:) It was hilarious! She is one funny little girl.

I put her back in her crib and she grabbed her monkey really fast and went back to sleep...good baby ;)

Fast moving...into everything...Rebekah

Rebekah is now 8 months as of last Thursday and she is changing lots! She is into EVERYTHING. Intrigued and interested in all that she sees...she loves to explore. She loves to use her voice and likes to be LOUD :) It is cute, although Matty doesn't like it when she uses her "dinosaur voice" :) She crawls everywhere and she pretty much keeps us busy :) For the most part she is very happy and we are grateful for a healthy, active and sweet baby.

You can see the most recent picture of Rebekah at www.mattbrodine.com

Thank you Lord for being our nigh God!

Today is one of those beautiful days where the Lord is so close that I can even feel him next to me...speaking to me through His Word and giving me a desire and a passion for His Word and His purposes.

It is chilly here in Tulsa and rainy :) It is beautiful! I love the transition of the seasons...especially from summer to fall...from the heat to the coolness and cozy mornings. It is wonderful :)

I put Rebekah down for her nap this morning and I made some coffee. I sat on my chair and read from His Word and prayed. It was so refreshing...so amazing! His Word is alive and active! Wow, what a wonderful thing it is when His Word touches our deepest being. My prayer all morning was, Lord, Renew my mind through your Word and may it go deep into my heart that it may bear much fruit! I don't want to just read it, but I desire for His Word to bear fruit in my life. To be a doer of His Word, not just a hearer or reader.

I feel refreshed and ready to take on the wonderful challenge of taking care of our little girl and being the best mom for the glory of God...Being a godly wife, honoring my husband, for the glory of Christ. Honoring God in all that I say and do today and always for His glory.

Epaphras

Epaphras is mentioned in the book of Colossians and he was a man whose life and faith impacted the lives of the young believers in Colosse.

I am doing a study in Colossians and the question came up about who is an Epaphras in my life? Who has impacted my life because they have been examples of Christ to me...Especially as a young believer. Here are some of the people that I can think of and want to thank!

No especific order

1. Matt Brodine
2. John and Nicole Graves
3. Kelley Arevalo
4. Renee Wilkins
5. My accountability girls- past and present
6. Sanja Caffey

I thank God for your lives and how your godly commitment, love and passion for Christ and His kingdom, unending pursuit of Him and you living out His Truth in your lives have been an inspiration, challenge and placed a desire within me to do the same!

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace...For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
Philippians 1:3-11

$705.50

This is how much it cost us to get 3 tickets to Honduras for Christmas! God is so faithful and good!

My ticket was $717.50 but with a $300 voucher it ended up costing $417.50
Rebekah's was $248
Matt's was $40 :) He had AA miles so it was pretty much free!

If we would have had to pay full price for all of our tickets it would have costed us $1,683!!!! Can you believe that! We are amazed how God provides for us as we trust Him and commit our lives and every decision to Him. He could have provided the whole amount, but He wanted us to trust Him to provide exactly what we needed. We are grateful!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

How old is Moses?

This was one of the review questions from our Bible story last night at our Good News Club

Matt: who can tell me how old Moses was?

Casey, age 4, raises her hand and as she is called to answer the questions and realizes that she does not know the exact answer she says: "he was wery old" :)

So much fun! We are loving serving God in our neighborhood! We have a new girl in our group who is 11 years old. Our group is growing!

Renee: Are you guys learning?

Jacob, age 6: Yes, we are learning a lot!

I go walking in my crib

Rebekah is in this cute stage where she loves to pull herself up and stand in her crib. It is funny. She loves to stand and walk around her crib and she thinks that she is hot stuff for doing that :) Our Rebekah is adorable!

She realized that when we put her down for a nap and she is still not ready for her nap she can walk around her crib. We hear her squeal or talk to herself. Sometimes she will go to her little music box that is attached to her crib and turn it on and off :) Other times she will cry hard and when we find her she is standing there wailing away :) There are times when we will just find her in her crib standing and as soon as she sees us will give us a BIG grin and this melts our hearts :) The bad thing is that sometimes she bonks her head hard when she loses her balance. This I don't like. Poor child!

I am not sure what I should do...Whether I should just let her bonk her head or try to do something about it?? Please ideas...anyone? :)

Bonding Time

After Matty and I put Rebekah down for the evening last night we decided that it would be nice to get some blankets and snuggle outside. The evening was so perfect for that. Matty made some hot chocolate and I set up outside with some warm blankets and pillows.

We had such a great time! We talked about when we met and all those memories from college, where the Lord has us now, and where we saw our family 10 years from now! Wow...that was quite a thought :) We enjoyed sharing our hearts, dreams and reminding each other how much we love each other and why.

By the end of our evening both of our love tanks were pretty full! We were also so much more appreciative of each other and grateful for what Christ has done and will continue to do in and through our lives.

I am grateful for a wonderful, loving, gentle and kind husband. I could not have asked God for anyone better. I am blessed!

Moving to Honduras?

I mentioned in the previous post how Matty and I have talked about moving down to Honduras sometime in the future. We are not sure when or how this would happen, but it is something that is in our hearts.

Here are some reasons why we would make that move:

1. Matty wants to be fluent in Spanish and emersion is the best way to learn a language
2. We would like to spend time with my family! I have been in the U.S. almost 10 years and I want to spend time with my parents, aunts/uncles, brothers, nephews/nieces, cousins, grandma, friends, etc, etc :) We especially would like Rebekah to get to spend some time with her abuelos and have good memories of them.
3. Matty will be able to get to know my family better and vice versa
4. Matty will have the opportunity to experience my culture

What needs to happen before we can move:

1. God's timing and provision for us! If we move, it will definitely have to be the Lord calling us to do that. His ways are better and perfect! We would not do this otherwise.
2. Be debt free so that we can joyfully serve Him and be free to do what He puts in our hearts
3. Did I say God's timing and provision already :) This is basically the most important one!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21

Imitators of Christ

Whether we like it or not or whether we take this responsibility or not, we as parents are either imitators of Christ or not. I saw this clearly the other day as one of our kids from our Tuesday night group was having a hard time because we had recieved a notice from the Department of Transportation in regards to a sound wall that was going to be built behind our homes. The note was not clear about what they would do exactly or how that would affect our properties, but it did mention something about relocation.

Our neighbors next door came over to our house that afternoon to ask whether we had recieved the notice and they looked very upset about it. I really had not paid too much attention to it. I just knew that if we were relocated, that the Lord would take care of us. I thought about our Good News Club and how we would be able to continue to do that. I knew that the Lord would work it out. I actually got a little excited too...thinking that we could be free to maybe move to Honduras, since it is something Matt and I have talked about a lot. Later the wife of this couple came and asked me questions in regards to the letter. I did not understand why they were so upset and making such a big deal out of it. I am not sure what they are going through and what their struggles are, but even the kids seemed to be upset about this.

That night we had our Good News Club at our house and as we talked about our verse (Prov 3:5-6), I asked the question about applying this verse in our lives and how we can trust God even when we don't understand. One of the girls mentioned a move, hard situations, etc. The little boy who is six years old was so troubled by what he had heard and perceived from his parent's reaction that he started crying because he said that, "they would take his house and he did not want to lose his friends." We stopped and prayed for him because he seemed to be pretty upset about all this. We reminded him about the verse and told him him that God would take care of him and his family. It was a great verse for the week! God is faithful!

I realized how important our reactions to situations are for our children. They absorb and watch everything and if we are upset or worried, then they will imitate us and do the same. In Ephesians 5:1, Paul says, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children" and then in 1 Corinthians11:1, he repeats, "Be imitators of me, as I imitate Christ."

As parents Matt and I desire to be imitators of Christ as we raise our little girl and future children. We desire to live out His Truth in our lives so that our children will grow up to do the same as they face any kind of circumstances!