Victory Day

Today is a "Victory Day" for my mother who has been fighting for her life since her diagnosis of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia on September 17, 2008.

Today was a "Victory Day" because my mom had her Hickman line/Port surgically removed from her body. Since September 18th, 2008 she has been living with the tangible and uncomfortable reality of her illness through her port. Now she is free from the discomfort of foreign objects hanging out of her body, free from flushing her lines daily and free from weekly re dressings.

Today is a reminder of God's faithfulness.

It is a reminder that God has prolonged my mom's life and used modern medicine to do so.

Today is a reminder that God is in control.

After spending a total of 70 days at this Hospital since September my mom is feeling tremendous thankfulness, relief and high emotions about what this season has been for her.
As you can see in the picture, my mom is looking and feeling good. And her hair is growing in curly, the opposite of her previously straight hair!

I personally continue to be thankful for your heartfelt concern, encouragement and prayers.

If you have not been invited to follow my mom's blog and would like to do so please e-mail me at angelakintner@hotmail.com to request an invitation.

And if you feel led, please lift up a word of praise for the miracle that has occurred in my mom's life.

Afghanistan Up-date

Today I received two e-mails with up-dates on the team in Kabul.

And this morning I was blessed to receive a quick phone call from Jeff. It was wonderful to hear his voice and the kids were very happy to talk to their Daddy.

This is the message from Jeff: 

"We went to church this morning (Friday is like Sunday) and had a wonderful time of worship and meeting
people. We made plans to follow up with several.  Pray that we
would make the right connections and hear what God might be
saying in these conversations. Brenda still has no bag and it's
 looking like it may never make it. Were recovering fine from
 jet lag and so far no one has gotten sick so praise God for that.
Hope everything is going well there."

Love,
Jeff
______________________________________

This is the message from Debbie, one of the team members in Kabul.

"Thank you for your prayers.  As we landed, the announcement said "Please return your tray tables and seats to the upright position.  We wish you a safe landing."  This didn't exactly give us great confidence in the airline'sconfidence in accomplishing this!  We are safe and well, although we were somewhat unprepared for the level of devastation here.  Rubble everywhere, raw sewage in the streets along with garbage.  A majority of standing buildings have walls sprayed with bullet holes and many missing walls.

Please join us in praying for the local group here that is losing its 99-year lease on property granted many years ago to Dr. J. Christy Wilson for this purpose.  The contract mysteriously disappeared.  The trial is tomorrow and there is not yet someone brave enough even to interpret for the proceedings.  Please pray that the all-important contract would re-appear so that there is a fair trial.

We met with others for worship and felt privileged to be among those here and the stories of those who have given their lives, some recently. The service began with instructions of how to evacuate in case of earthquake or attack. They
have a monthly drill for this purpose!

Thanks so much for remembering us here as we keep our ears and eyes open. Much to be thankful for.

Gotta give up the computer...more later."

Love,
Deb

Thankful Thursday

"HOORAY HOORAY for CINNAMON ROLLS!" That's exactly what my kidlets were saying over and over this morning. It was their own way of showing thankfulness for the ooey gooey sweet rolls that Papa bought at the altitude sweets bakery for breakfast.

As I mentioned in this post I have been trying to help my children be aware of things to be grateful for. So today in their excitement I urged them to recognize that they were indeed thankful. Thankful for the cinnamon rolls, and Papa.

So, Papa, THANK YOU.
Thank you for being an amazing dad, father-in-law and grandfather.
You are the best!

Ah, the simple pleasures of being a kid.

My Little Princess

Pure Joy, the face of a little girl who just got her first Tu Tu. A few months ago I was talking to my cousin Michelle about wanting to get a Tu Tu for Carissa. In our discussion she mentioned that she splurged on Gracie's TuTu (albeit adorable) and then shared this tutorial with me.

Michelle and I have many things in common, and one is our lack of sewing skills. Sew...when I read that the directions for making the TuTu did not involve a flippin' sewing machine, I was 'in'.

Complete with Cinderella slippers from Nana,

Carissa LOVES her TuTu.

Apparently, she already imitates the ballet 'fifth position'
And unpretentious modestyThat's my little princess

Our Globetrotter

Jeff: Hubby, Daddy, Pastor, Child of God...........GLOBETROTTER!

Today Jeff departed for three weeks of ministering across the globe.

First off he is leading a team of nine people from our church to Kabul, Afghanistan. For about the past fifteen years our church has been committed to missions work in Central Asia. This commitment has included "adopting" the Turkmen people with the hope of helping to establish an indigenous church in Turkmenistan. Recently, however, all of the missionaries our church supports who were working in the region have returned to Colorado Springs indefinitely for various reasons.

After much conversation with the returned missionaries a vision trip emerged. The main focus of the team will be to build relationships and through those to look and to listen in order to evaluate if the church should continue to be involved in Central Asia and if so, how to do it most effectively.

Post Kabul Jeff will be heading to Russia to meet another team of 15 people from our church. The team will be visiting an orphanage in Pokrov, a town about an hour from Moscow. Covenant has been partnering with Children's Hope Chest for many years to help orphans in Russia.

Individual families in our church sponsor kids and the church as a whole commits to work with an orphanage. The team in essence act as surrogate grandparents to the children. The team will spend every waking minute with the kids. During their time they will lead a vacation bible school type program with crafts, games, bible stories and other fun activities. In addition, they will hold a program for older orphans to help them with practical skills that they will need when they 'graduate' from the orphanage.

Jeff is looking forward to seeing our sponsored child Lena (pictured right) as well as other children that he has built bridges with in the previous 3 trips.

Last night we talked to the kids again about daddy leaving and we prayed together as a family. To h the kidlets visualize the days until daddy returns we made paper chains. Tonight before the twins went to bed they each tore off one piece of the chain and we talked about how special daddy is to us.
Please pray for both teams - safe travel, good heath, team unity and for us back home...for many graces, peace and sanity.

Thankful Thursday

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;

make known among the nations what he has done.

1 Chronicles 16:8

Today I am thankful for:

• Sunshine, Spring flowers and the hint of Summer
• Hanging out with my friend Amy and making bread together while our kids played outside
• The anticipation of our Mexican dinner party tonight
• What God did in and through the Soul Care class, and its closure at year end

Thankful Thursday

Lately I've been thinking about what it means to raise children to have thankful little hearts. Many of today's children have little or no sense of what it means to be thankful. They are blessed with good health, a bed to sleep in, and too many 'things' which often fosters a sense of entitlement.

Our own actions are often mirrored by our children and it isn’t until we see ourselves in them, do we realize just how much we take for granted on a daily basis.

I desire for my practice of thankful living to be modeled to my little ones. But, modeling a grateful heart can look many different ways.

One way is to regularly practice voicing thanks around the dinner table or during bedtime prayers. "Today I am thankful for..."

Another way is to be thankful or appreciative of one's efforts. This can be as simple as saying "thank you" to your spouse for doing the dishes or voicing affirmation when your child uses good manners, or giving them a hug for doing something without being asked.

Modeling a thankful spirit is only one aspect of developing the virtue of gratefulness in children. For additional thoughts read this practical article: Raising Thankful Kids on christianitytoday.com.

I would also love to hear your thoughts on how to raise grateful children. To do so click on 'comments' at the bottom of this post and you can add your two cents.