I think whenever our children hit milestones there’s always mixed feelings involved for me. Happy for their healthy growth, but sad saying good-bye to another year of their childlikeness. But it was a great day, today. A time for reminiscing about my own childhood, while experiencing our kids’ entry into the teenage years. I would like to rewind and talk about our week so far here. We arrived on Saturday here in Southern Illinois at the local Walmart, and my best friend from Junior High (that was before it was called ‘Middle School’) came out to meet us at our camper. She and I had such a great time catching up on each others’ lives, and she filled me in on so many people I knew when I lived here. I just had a blast with her!
The next morning we had Little Church right there in the parking lot of Walmart (we’re calling it Camp Wally these days). :-) Well, about 2 years ago, Tim cast a vision for our family from Isaiah 58, verse 12:
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
He had written that verse on our white board in our kitchen/dining room, inserting the kids’ names where it says Your people and You. Anyone who has been to our house within the past 2 years can testify it was there, because it stayed up there for at least a year before we finally erased it so we could actually use the white board. :-) Well, as I was praying about what passage to bring to Little Church, I was also praying about our finances and for direction. I sensed He was telling me to go back to that passage, so I did, and the verse right before it says:
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
I just smiled at God at how personal He is. When it came time for me to share my verses with the others in Little Church, Tim was a little freaked because those were the same passages he had been led to bring. We’ve been doing Little Church on Sundays for about a year and a half now, and we’ve maybe brought similar verses to Little Church because of something we all read in our Life Journals that week. But this seemed completely out of the blue. And then the same thing happened with Nicole and Nicholas. They both brought the exact same passage – not anything we had read that week in our Life Journals. In the movie The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya is trying to get away from The Man in Black, and they are both using sailboats, but The Man in Black was gaining on him, at which point Inigo muses, “I wonder if he’s using the same wind I’m using?” I LOVE that line. I couldn’t resist saying to our family, “I wonder if you’re using the same God I’m using”? We all busted out laughing at that one!
Well, it seemed pretty obvious to all of us God had some things to say to us that morning. One of them was about keeping the day holy. Verses 14-16 of Isaiah 58 are all about that. We had been planning on doing a bunch of laundry and going grocery shopping – but Tim suggested we go ahead and honor those verses, and I’m so glad he did. We left Camp Wally after lunch and went to a real campground. Then that night, my friend and her husband graciously treated our family to dinner at a lodge in the state park near where we are camping. He (my friend’s husband) asked us some great questions about the direction we’re being led in ministry, and he really confirmed and encouraged us in the area of reaching out to provide care to pastors and church leadership. We still just don’t know how that’s going to happen! Anyway, here’s a picture from our time together:
The next morning we had Little Church right there in the parking lot of Walmart (we’re calling it Camp Wally these days). :-) Well, about 2 years ago, Tim cast a vision for our family from Isaiah 58, verse 12:
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
He had written that verse on our white board in our kitchen/dining room, inserting the kids’ names where it says Your people and You. Anyone who has been to our house within the past 2 years can testify it was there, because it stayed up there for at least a year before we finally erased it so we could actually use the white board. :-) Well, as I was praying about what passage to bring to Little Church, I was also praying about our finances and for direction. I sensed He was telling me to go back to that passage, so I did, and the verse right before it says:
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
I just smiled at God at how personal He is. When it came time for me to share my verses with the others in Little Church, Tim was a little freaked because those were the same passages he had been led to bring. We’ve been doing Little Church on Sundays for about a year and a half now, and we’ve maybe brought similar verses to Little Church because of something we all read in our Life Journals that week. But this seemed completely out of the blue. And then the same thing happened with Nicole and Nicholas. They both brought the exact same passage – not anything we had read that week in our Life Journals. In the movie The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya is trying to get away from The Man in Black, and they are both using sailboats, but The Man in Black was gaining on him, at which point Inigo muses, “I wonder if he’s using the same wind I’m using?” I LOVE that line. I couldn’t resist saying to our family, “I wonder if you’re using the same God I’m using”? We all busted out laughing at that one!
Well, it seemed pretty obvious to all of us God had some things to say to us that morning. One of them was about keeping the day holy. Verses 14-16 of Isaiah 58 are all about that. We had been planning on doing a bunch of laundry and going grocery shopping – but Tim suggested we go ahead and honor those verses, and I’m so glad he did. We left Camp Wally after lunch and went to a real campground. Then that night, my friend and her husband graciously treated our family to dinner at a lodge in the state park near where we are camping. He (my friend’s husband) asked us some great questions about the direction we’re being led in ministry, and he really confirmed and encouraged us in the area of reaching out to provide care to pastors and church leadership. We still just don’t know how that’s going to happen! Anyway, here’s a picture from our time together:
Monday we did school in the morning and then the laundry and grocery shopping (which I originally felt HAD to be done the day before) in the afternoon. Turns out, we didn’t really HAVE to do it the day before (Sunday) after all. Which brings us to today, and the triplets’ birthday. For details on today check out Nicole's blog. One thing I will say is that when we gave them their cake we didn't have any candles so we put 3 matches on the cake and tried that. Only Nathan got to blow one out because the others burned out by the time we finished the Happy Birthday song. So we lit a separate match for Nicole and then for Noah for them to blow out. When all else fails, improvise! :-) So far, a great week here in Southern IL. Looking forward to the next few days here, and then we’ll head east to Tim’s old stomping grounds for Thanksgiving week. Blessings to all!
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