Birthday Eve

On the Eve of the kids third birthday we celebrated as a family of four.
Both kids received Harley Davidson scooters that light up and rev like a motorcycles.
It was fun and thrilling.

Happy Birthday sweet ones.

Kelli-O

Hello Everyone,

Meet Kelli.

Lover of:
life
learning
books

writing
hiking
people

good times
and muffins (little people)

She has come and gone and we miss her already!

Kelli was a part of our family this Summer. She lived with us, ate with us, worked alongside Jeff as an Intern at our church and shared life with our small family on Old Farm Circle.

Kelli and I have a wee history.

Back in the day when I was the Vocal Music Director at a High School in WA, Kelli participated in choir for a year. I also worked closely with her as the vocal coach in the musical productions. And, I knew Kelli through her mom Christy, one of my good friends and colleagues whom took me under her wing as a young teacher. Her mom was one of the people who interviewed me, a fresh graduate ready to take on the world of Choral music. I was pretty gung-ho then but that's another post.

It has been wonderful getting acquainted with who Kelli is now. I have so enjoyed our many adult conversations about life, love, theology and food.

In addition to Kelli doing an internship at our church, hanging out with friends, hiking (go 14ers!)etc... she also spent time regularly with Caleb and Carissa. This was a huge blessing to our family. In addition to scheduled outings on my own, Jeff and I savored weekly date nights which gave us an opportunity to connect on deeper levels without the interruptions of little people. (not that our little people are interruptions!)

In these moments I experienced a sense of 'space' that I had been longing for since becoming a mother of two. I experienced God working within that space and in every square inch of me.

It was a wonderful and a strong reminder that in these hectic times slowing down and creating 'space' cultivates a deeper relationship with God and with others. When I slow down I find that I am a healthier and happier wife, mommy, friend and servant of God.

Refreshing.

Here are a few pics of Kelli with the Muffin Heads.
One of the things that Kelli made-up is the 'Muffin March' - a fun way to get the Muffins to march up the stairs to bed, out the door, in the car, wherever. The 'Muffin March' is definitely here to stay!

Kelli is awesome. (one of her favorite words!)

We love her and are thankful for slice of time that she was able to spend with our family and our church community in Colorado.

Thank you Kelli-O!

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

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.