So it has been a while.  No reason in particular - just doing life. 

We are so excited about:

• our new home
• our growing family
• our new grandson
• the mighty work God is doing

Hopefully the slab will be poured this week.  The tentative move in is mid-July.  David will round up a bunch of his friends and get the job done.  We will be replacing our furniture so will have the new stuff delivered there. 

A couple of weeks ago Jake, David's best friend, moved in with us.  He is a delightful young man who works hard and loves Jesus.  They are absolutely crazy sometimes - it is good.

Forrest will be born in about seven weeks.  It will be a fun season.  We actually purchased a pac-n-play to keep at our home for our grandbabies to use.  It will be odd to be called Gramma and Guapo.

God is doing great things.  David is amazing in his internship  - it brings us great joy to watch him interact with the children.  We had the privilege to facilitate a pre-marriage conference - what fun.

God is about to do great and mighty things - we are praying with anticipation knowing He will bless us beyond anything we can imagine.

God is so good.

Home

Looks like we will be moving again.  The gentleman we are renting from who led us to believe he wanted to sell - doesn't.  Since we want to be good stewards of our money and qualify for a loan, here we go.

It is easier to build a new home rather than take a chance on buying a preowned one and figure out the timing. 

So, God in His infinite wisdom, led us to a Beazer home in Waddell.  It is further out, right at the base of the White Tanks.  It is about 2,000 square feet, one level, on an oversized lot.  And it has a three car split garage!!

David is quite excited because the master and the other bedrooms are on opposite sides of the home.  So he will have his bedroom and his man cave.  Brian will have a large office area to work in rather than the kitchen table.

The home will be done mid-July.  David will gather his friends and do the actual moving. 

Then we will be settled for a LONG time.  God is good to us.

A Lesson in Gratitude

We had an amazing trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico last weekend. On Friday we left and headed to 1Mission.  We set up our camp and headed into town with our new friends Pat and Donna and our other new friend Frank.  We ended up meeting others from our group in town.

Our adventure started with getting caught in a Mardi Gras parade.  What a hoot.  We finally reached our destination - a wonderful restaurant called Mary's.  The food was wonderful, the view breath taking and the companionship a taste of Heaven.

Saturday morning we were up early and headed to our site.  There were 25 adults and about 15 children.  We built an 11'x22' home.  In reality it is a concrete slab with framed walls and a roof.  No water, no plumbing, no electricity....

The first day part of us poured the slab, the others framed the house and put on the sides.  We hand mixed the concrete.

The second day we raised the walls, put on the roof, tar papered, chicken wired and put on the first coat of stucco.  Yes, we made our own stucco down to screening the gravel to get sand!

That evening the family joined us for dinner at 1Mission for a fiesta - what yummy food we enjoyed.  Then we sat around the camp fire singing and visiting with our new friends.

The final day the last coat of stucco was put on, we shared the gifts we brought and had a dedication.  Lots of smiles and tears.

Honestly, I wasn't sure it could be done.  There were lots of aches and pains for those of us unaccustomed to physical labor.  But the gratitude of Francisco and Maria and their children made it all worthwhile.  They have so little compared to what we are blessed with.

It was almost surreal, a simple line between countries means the difference between cleanliness and trash; the hopelessness versus the opportunity.  Our new friends love Jesus.  In many ways their faith is so much greater than ours. 

We came home feeling blessed.  Our God is so good.

Meetings

Over the past few weeks I have sat through more meetings that took way too long.  I wonder if it is just human nature that some folks have to say something about every topic.... 

There was a challenge - we were tasked with figuring out a solution.  Sounds so simple.  But we had to listen through - what caused the failure, then the "no one is to blame" we need to figure out what to do speech.  Great - then let's do that rather than hash and rehash what went wrong.  We are all human - mistakes are made.  Let's fix what went wrong and figure out what needs to change so it won't happen again.

Then you have the new person who doesn't understand the process, the players or the problem who keeps asking questions.  Why was she even there?? 

So what could have been resolved in a 20 minute meeting with the right players has become two very LONG meetings and we still have a ways to go.

I know God is using this situation for a reason, only He knows what!!  So I speak when I have new information or information that is critical and sit back and listen.   There are times my mind wanders to what these folks believe....  will they be with me in Heaven?  

And I pray - sometimes that the time will hurry up or that folks will hush up.  At other times I pray for God to be glorified somehow - I know He will.

God is so good.

Attack

God is about to do some amazing things in and through our lives. 

We know this because the evil one is attacking us with gusto.  Not only is he attacking us directly, he is attacking those we love with people who profess to love us but are walking in darkness.

So we are upping our prayers - becoming bolder, more courageous.  We are asking to be a light in the darkness.  We are asking for Abba Father to use us to His glory. 

Prayers are seldom answered in the time frame we want them to be.  They are always answered when God will get the most glory.  He specializes in the seemingly impossible - the prayers we see no possible way for Him to answer.

We are on the seventh day of Jericho.  We have circled and circled.  We will NOT give up until the walls come tumbling down and our Lord gets all the praise, honor and glory due Him.

God is so good.

Grandson

It is official - we will be having a grandson. 

We pray for a healthy baby who will grow to love Jesus.

God is good.

Prayer

I (Vicki) just finished reading Mark Batterson's book "The Circle Maker".  I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to grow in their relationship with God.

There are so many ways I have been challenged:

• Why do I limit God? He created the earth and the universe and everything else - who am I to question how He is answering my prayers?
• Why am I not bolder in my prayers?  I mean, really, Jesus died on the cross for me, then defeated death to rise again.  After all of that He can handle whatever I throw His way.
• Why do I give up on some prayers?  Do I ever give up one prayer before He is going to answer?
• Why don't I pray more?  In reality, I waste tons of time doing things that have no eternal ramifications.  Yes, I have to work, but on the way to work I daydream - now I am making a conscious effort to pray.
• I am keeping a prayer journal.  It has been a LONG time since I did this because someone accused me of keeping tabs on God.  Even if that was my purpose - so what?  God can handle it!!

So 2012 will see an increase in my prayers.  I can't wait to see how God answers those I am circling in prayer.  God is so good.