I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! My birthday is exactly 1 week before Christmas, so we celebrated that, and then had a lovely Christmas last weekend. When the kids were under 2 years old (yes, we had 4 kids under the age of 2 at one point) we took them all to Busch Gardens because they were free, but that was the last time we had been there. So we all went to Busch Gardens on Thursday, and they have a deal where you buy a 1 day ticket and it gets you back into the park for a whole year! Good thing, too, because the place was PACKED! Some rides had 2+ hours wait! With all those people there, I couldn't believe it when I recognized this lady near the Zagora Cafe'. She was the wife of the couple we stayed with when we were in Switzerland last year, can you believe it!!! They are in the USA for a couple of weeks, so we're going to try to hook up with them before they head back. She and their 3 boys were on their way out of the park, but ended up hanging out with us for about 20 minutes catching up with each other. That was SO cool! And then Friday we packed up the ole' camper and headed out of dodge up to Brooksville for the one last hurrah I referenced in my last post before we sell the camper. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and this place we're staying at, called Lakewood Retreat, is such a haven. Nathan and Nicole each brought a friend, so Nathan and his buddy slept in a tent next to our camper, while Nicole and her friend slept in the cab-over. There was SOOO much to do here it literally wore me out! We played tennis and putt-putt and ping pong and this cool roll the pool balls down this alley to knock 5 pool balls in the goal and air hockey and basketball and bike riding and canoeing and hiking and a human foosball game. Whew! I knew it wore me out, but I didn't feel so badly when Nathan also had to rest for a bit before celebrating the New Year. So he and I laid in the back bedroom of the camper and took turns half-sleeping and then playing Boggle on his iTouch while the others played games at the front of the camper. :-) We were too worn out to go through the trouble of a campfire, so we heated up s'mores in the microwave!! Isn't that pathetic?! ahah! But they still tasted delicious! Then around 11pm we had an extended prayer time, and finally we broke out the sparkling apple cider and toasted all around as we turned on the TV and realized we had just missed the ball dropping! :-) Tim's challenge to us all was Jesus' question from Luke 18:8 "...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" So we prayed that 2012 and would be a year of faith. May God richly bless you and your family with faith this coming year!! Happy New Year!
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I don't know about you, but this year has FLOWN by!! This fall has been a little bittersweet as we remember last fall - we've stopped ourselves on various days over the past couple of months and said, "Hey, remember last year at this time we were...." Such great memories!! We've had our camper parked at a lot where this guy rents out class A RVs. We wanted easier access to it, so the Reiblings are graciously letting us park it there for the time being. The plan is to take this month to clean it up, go on one last hurrah with it for New Years, and then sell it in January. When we went to go pick it up from the RV rental place on Saturday to move it to the Reiblings, Tim had told me he had gone into one of the RVs there and suggested I go check it out. As I stepped into it I can't explain the unexpected emotions I felt - only that I walked out of there with tears in my eyes. And then I had an idea - "let's take the money we make when we sell our RV and rent this one I am stepping out of and go finish the trip out west next summer! " So I don't know if that's the Lord's will, but I would like to ask for prayers that if it is, all doors will be opened to us for it to happen! I must say, I'm still so very peaceful we are where we are. The church we are working with is experiencing such amazing healing and just God's spirit. I was journaling about it this morning and I wrote, "I feel so convinced of Your movement that we are literally along for the ride – that anything that is happening (in this church we are working with) is solely because of You and Nothing because of us – I feel so humbled and awed that You would choose to work through us like this – it staggers me. I feel so sure that if it wasn’t us, You would be using someone else to bring about this transformation..." I've said it before and I have to say it again, there is nothing like knowing You're exactly where God wants you. I have absolutely no regrets - though I still sometimes have questions. I'll look back over these past 2 years and say to God, "Really? You had us sell our house and go on the road for a few months and live in our RV for a year and 6 weeks (but who's counting?), and finally rent a house? It still seems a little crazy!" But like I said, no regrets! Well, it's just my ramblings today - no pictures - sorry! I'm grateful to all of you who have encouraged and prayed for us along this journey! Hope everyone is having a great week and not getting too stressed because of Christmas! Blessings to all!
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July 2020
Tim & Jodie
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