Jon's Story

My Father-in-law lost his battle with cancer on Saturday, December 13, 2014.

Grandpa with Jonathan in 2008

There is a giant hole in each of our hearts. We will always miss Grandpa and are so thankful for the memories we have of him.

Jon believed in God and his one regret, if you can call it that, is that he didn't tell more people that Jesus is coming soon. In the three weeks I was with my in-laws before Jon died, he was able to share this story with many of his friends and family, either on the phone or during visits to the house.

*****

Jon was in quite a bit of pain which bothered him a lot, especially at night. One night he was struggling to get out of bed and make the few steps to the bathroom. He was tired of being in pain and worried about his wife, Helen. Jon felt a hand on his shoulder and knew immediately that it was Jesus by the long, flowing sleeve he felt on his back. 

"I've got you covered," Jesus said. 

"What about Helen? What will she do when I'm gone?" Jon asked.

"Don't worry, I'm taking care of her," Jesus told him.

Jon felt comforted and returned to bed. Later he woke up and again felt Jesus' hand on him. This time he heard, "The days ahead will be difficult, but I've got you covered. I am coming soon!"

*****

Soon Jesus will come! Soon we'll be together with Jon again, and this time he won't have cancer! We're looking forward to that!

Baby Malcolm Update {Day 6}

Happy Monday! I know, I'm weird. Weekends are great but I'm one of those people who don't hate Mondays. It's good to get back to the routine of the week. We had a nice weekend with church activities and birthday celebrations, including a trip to the apple orchard that I'll be sharing with you soon.

But today I wanted to share an update on Baby Malcolm, my nephew, my brother and my BFF's son. He was born on September 25 and yesterday (October 5) was the first time his mommy got to hold him! I first wrote about him here, in case you missed that.

It seems every day the updates we got on Malcolm were big steps in the right direction. Oxygen turned down, different kind of ventilator, off a certain medicine, this or that tube out, one less IV in his tiny body.  Malcolm still has a way to go. He's still on oxygen, still in the NICU, still in needs our prayers.

Thank you so much for praying for Malcolm. It has meant so much to our family!

Breathe {Day 1}

I'm afraid this post is more ashes than beauty. And even though it's Day 1, it's still kind of a preface. Kind of setting the stage.

For with all of the coming up-to-date happenings, life-in-our-world updates, pretty signs and cute house stuff I plan to blog about during these 31 Days of Blogging posts, this is happening too.

This precious little sweetheart is my nephew, Malcolm. He's the second son of my brother and sister-in-law (who has been my best friend for 20 years).

Baby Malcolm was born at 36 weeks and isn't breathing on his own. The first few days of his life were very rocky and very scary.

In my worry and prayer over baby Malcolm, I've felt impressed to praise. Instead of feeling helpless, fearful and discouraged, praise helps us realize how much bigger and more powerful our God is when compared to our problems.

This verse has especially spoken to me.

Malcolm is struggling to breathe. It's been three days since his last crisis and he isn't out of the woods yet, but I know Who gives him breath. 

Please remember baby Malcolm and his family in your prayers.

Breathe, baby, breathe!

Can I Get a Witness?

I remembered that I forgot. Don't you just love that phrase? As poor as the grammar may be, it's a true statement. I didn't just remember, I remembered again. Right?

Whatever. The point is that I mentioned in this post that there was quite the story about this picture. I didn't want to share it right away because my husband wanted to use the story at church a couple times as an illustration. He's done now, and if you heard the the story already, be sure to read the part below that my husband doesn't tell. Yup, I'm going to tell on him!

Here goes.

We were traveling from Missouri to Iowa about six weeks ago. It's about six hours total with the first four hours on Hwy 19, a winding two-lane country road. We were driving along, minding our business when we spied a police car sitting on the edge of the road watching traffic. You know how they do it. The minute we saw him, we knew it was too late to slow down, and sure enough, he pulled into traffic behind us and we were nabbed. 

My husband was driving, by the way. 

We didn't even get all sweaty-palmed, racy-hearted. We knew it was pointless. Gary started looking for a safe place to pull over and I started looking for the registration. 

Funny how we drove from Iowa to California last summer and from California to Missouri right before Christmas. I drove from Northern to Southern California a couple times alone and a couple times with Gary, and we never once got pulled over. We were in California with Iowa plates for four months with a major police trap on the highway that we passed by multiple times a week in California, and we never once got pulled over.

But now on a two-lane country road, Gary's not speeding that much, and we're certainly not being dangerous to anyone else... But here we are on the side of the road with flashing lights behind us. 

Mr. Policeman strolls over to the window. Gary rolls it down. Mr. Policeman starts with the typical question, "Do you know how fast you were going?"

Why do they ask that, anyway? Yeah, no, I wasn't really paying attention cuz the road was open and I know I was within a 10 mph of the speed limit. AND I'm sure you'll be telling me exactly how fast YOU caught me going, so go ahead.

Gary was really calm. Just told him he wasn't paying attention, just was excited to be going on our trip. 

"Where are you headed?" 

"We're heading to Iowa."

"Is that where you're from?"

"Well, we were, but we're not now." Now Mr. Policeman has questions in his eyes. He asks for Gary's license and the car's registration, which, thankfully, are up-to-date and had been easy to find in the car. He glances at them, then asks Gary to come back to his cruiser because he has a few questions for him.

What?!

Gary goes, leaving me and the boys parked on the side of the road, wondering what in the world is going on.

Time passes. 

The boys get restless.

We talk about police cars and what's happening and why Daddy got pulled over and why there were lights but no siren, why the police man was wearing guns, etc. etc. 

The boys say they need to pee. Uh-oh!

It's been about 15 minutes. Finally we see Gary getting out of the police car and head back to our SUV. 

He's smiling!

He gets in the car, puts on his seat belt, signals and pulls onto the road. He's still smiling, but not talking.

"So?! What happened? What took so long? Did you get a ticket?" I'm so curious!

"Sweetie, we talked about Jesus!" Gary was still in awe. "This doesn't just happen. The stuff we talked about wasn't just coincidence! This doesn't just happen!"

I finally got the story. Apparently the officer asked Gary where we were coming from and where we were going. Gary told him more than he bargained for, including his testimony of how God has continued to provide for us, the evangelism training in California, and going to Iowa to speak at our home church. The police man told him his brief history, including how he was in training to be a minister at one point! They shared experiences about how God has lead in each of their lives.

Then Mr. Policeman gives Gary back his license and registration. There's no ticket. "Word of advice," he says, "When in doubt, slow down!" They laugh together. 

Then the officer says, "You're the second minister I've talked to today. The first guy wanted to pray for me and I'd like to pass that on. Will you pray with me?"

Yes, you read that right. The police officer prayed for my husband and Gary prayed for him. 

You can't make this stuff up!

*****

Now here's the thing. I've been married to Gary for almost seven years. I've been with him in the car when he was pulled over about four times. Yeah, he's working on it, but Sweetheart, you need to slow down, kay? The other times he's been pulled over that I've witnessed Gary has been defensive. Almost rude. Annoyed at being caught. Taking it out on the policeman when he (Gary) was the one at fault.

Isn't that how it usually is? We want to blame the authority when we're the ones breaking the law. Yeah, sometimes the law is silly and there's no reason why you can't safely drive 70 in a 55 mph zone. But that's not the point! It's the law! Just slow down!

This time, instead of being defensive and seeking to blame someone else, Gary took the responsibility and admitted he hadn't been paying attention. He was humble.

And it opened doors! Not only that, it showed me how much my man has changed. I pointed this out to Gary and he was quick to attribute it to the power of God's love in your heart. Focusing on God's love, what Jesus has done for you and daily giving your heart and your life and your will to Him changes you. 

I know it's true. Do you?

Plans

Source: knittybitties.blogspot.com via Shane on Pinterest

During summers through college I worked at summer camp. I loved it. My best friends were there, we were outside a lot. We made enough money with our school-matched scholarships that it was worthwhile. I never felt so close to God as by the river after an intense summer at camp. This camp was in Yosemite National Park in California about halfway between my home in southern California and my school in northern California.

Sorry Chrystal and Amy, it's the best I could do!

Our camp directors were awesome and lots of us are still friends in real life or at least on Facebook. I'm the one in the striped shirt standing on that platform tied to a tree. Ropes Course Director, 1998.

Eventually it was time to grow up and move on. In 1999 I got a job teaching Kindergarten in Las Vegas at our church school. I went back to college in the summers to earn my Master's Degree. No more summer camp.

I was single and usually ok with that, unless my heart was freshly broken. I knew the strong and fun kind of man I wanted to marry, someone who loved God and America and children and travel, someone who was handy and secure and who would laugh at my silliness. Definitely NOT someone from the midwest and NOT a PASTOR!!!

Source: 2-bad-0.blogspot.com via Stephane on Pinterest

In 2003, I think it was, I visited a friend who was working at an academy in Ohio. Well, she had worked there the year previous and was now getting a master's in Indiana. Anyway, I wasn't that impressed with Indiana, but my friend took me on a roadtrip to Ohio to see the school where she had worked. I fell. in. love. with Ohio. It was so pretty and slow and family centered. 

Fast forward a few more years. I met and married my sweetheart. He was an engineer (whew!) but he was born in Wisconsin, considered Nebraska home and was living in Iowa. I moved to Iowa with him the day after our wedding in 2006. 

We lived in Iowa for 6 years and welcomed each of our three boys into the family. Then last spring my husband felt strongly that he should quit his job as an engineer and go through training as a Bible worker which would lead to a career as a pastor. Never say never.

We put our little house on the market and moved out in July. We traveled to California for Gary's training. We spent four months there, hearing how well Gary was doing, what a natural he was, and how surely he would get a call as a Bible worker or maybe even as a lay pastor! But nothing happened. Calls wouldn't get returned. Ideas fell through. He wasn't hired at all.

We came to Missouri to spend a week or two at Gary's parent's home for Christmas. There was an offer on the table for a lay pastor position that we had heard about the day we left the school in California. 

We waited over three weeks. The job fell through. 

We knew we wanted to go with Adventist Frontier Missions to Scotland. We both felt sure of that. But while filling out applications for the long-term (it's still 18-24 months away) we knew we needed some way to pay the bills in the short term.

We prayed. A lot.

After two months and our savings completely drained, Gary felt impressed to check a different website in search of a job. He created an account so he could see a wider spectrum of available positions. Nothing really sparked his interest, but he saved four of the options and asked me to look at them. He never does that.

I glanced through the list and noted with a chuckle, "I know the principal of that school in Ohio! He's my camp director! Small world!" Gary asked me to contact him and because that principal is my old camp director from the late 90s, I did. I sent him a note on Facebook, of course, because that was the only way I could. I mentioned that we were between AFCOE (the school in CA) and AFM (missions) and needed a short-term job to fill in the gaps.

He wrote back: Call me.

It's been a couple weeks and we're still working out details, but Gary is going to be an assistant boy's dean at Mt. Vernon Academy in Ohio. Where my friend taught in 2002. Where I visited in 2003. Where I first fell in love with the midwest. Where my old camp director from California is now the principal!

Now get this. Pastor Dan is super excited that Gary was trained at AFCOE and that we're going to Scotland as missionaries. See, his vision is to train the students in friendship evangelism (which is what Gary learned about at AFCOE) and send the students overseas for a hands-on experience! That means the same students that Gary teaches in Ohio will come stay with us in Scotland! 

God had put the idea in Pastor Dan's heart before he knew our situation.

You know what else is cool? We'll be starting in March. Talk about God's timing! We'll be there through next school year as well and be ready for the three-month missionary training the following summer. 

We're so excited! Aren't you?

Lift Up the Trumpet {Wordless Wednesday}

Pomp and Circumstance

Gary and his classmates have completed their training at AFCOE! The ceremony was last Friday night. I wanted to share the pictures with you, but need to keep the chatting short. Enjoy!

The stage at Sacramento Central SDA Church.

We even managed to grab a family photo! 

These are my friends, Mayra and Melissa, whose husbands also went through the program. I'm so thankful they were here during this session. Their friendship has been so important to me! Between the three of us we have 8 children, ages 1-12. It's noisy and busy when we get together!

Thanks for sharing Gary's graduation with me!

Inspiration Files: God's Promises Edition

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." -Psalm 46:10

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. -Jeremiah 29:11

What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. -Matthew 10:29

The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. -Psalm 23:1-3

The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. -Isaiah 58:11

LORD, don't hold back your tender mercies from me. Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me. -Psalm 40:11

 The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. -Lamentations 3:22