in reverence of Grace

A week of eating around the world

2012-02-03T01:26:00.000-08:00

Since we have moved here, we have been challenged to eat so many new foods from around the world and they have been so delicious! We have particularly started eating a lot of Thai food and I have learned to make a few of those dishes. I love that you can really get food from any culture around here because there are people from every culture here! It's so exciting to drive around and pass so many different countries' home cookin' :) So, for the past week or so, I decided to try all new recipes with each recipe from a different country. I got a cookbook from the library called "Around the World in 350 Recipes" and looked through each country/region to find recipes for a our week. I told Josh at the beginning that we needed to have a vote at the end to see which was the best. Here is what I made and where it is made...

Pork Chow Mein- China

Rice Omelettes- Japan

Chicken Jalfrezi- India

Jambalaya- Creole

Tortilla Stack- Mexico (had to have one dish that I already had most ingredients for and would pretty much know how to make :) )

And the winner was....

JAMBALAYA!!!! Yum!! This dish was sooo good! I got the idea for this from the cookbook, but was looking for a slow cooker recipe so jumped online to find one. Delicious! It is a definite make again soon :) All of the recipes were really great, it was hard to choose. I have a long list of other recipes to make from this book and from others I've looked at, or had in restaurants since being here. A lot of the ones I want to try are Indian foods. mmm. There are also a few from Europe and Middle Eastern countries that I would like to try.

Here's the Jambalaya recipe:

Slow-Cooker Jambalaya

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 2-inch slices
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon Cajun or Creole spice mix
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pound extralarge shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 3/4 cups long-grain rice
Parsley, optional

Preparation

Combine chicken, sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, tomatoes, garlic, chicken broth, spice mix, thyme and oregano in a large (5-quart) slow cooker. Cook on low for 5 hours.
Add shrimp and rice; raise heat to high and cook for 30 minutes more. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, if desired.

YUM!!!!!

Hunter singing the "Cheeky Monkey" song

2012-01-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Hunter talking and singing an Australian song that we sing at Story Time at the Library. Hunter LOVES this song, but didn't quite put on the show he normally does when singing it. Thought it might be fun to post one of the new songs we have learned :) Enjoy!!

Oh, and by the way, the word 'cheeky' is also a new word for us. We can't quite figure out what it means because everyone that we ask what it means says that it is a 'good mischievous'. Hmmm..that just hasn't made since to us. How can you be mischievous AND good? :) So, here is what Urban Dictionary tells me it means...

"it is a word used to describe someone who does something or says something sort of disrespectful and sometimes rude, but says it in a cunning way"

It also says that it could mean 'sassy' which really made me laugh. Anyways..here's the video!

Hunter's 2 Year Pictures

2012-01-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd post some of Hunter's 2 year pictures that Josh took...I know, I know, it has been almost 4 months since his birthday, but I guess it's better late than never to get these posted on here!! :) We went down to the Sydney Harbour by the Opera House and Harbour Bridge to get some shots for these. He wasn't really in the mood to get his picture taken when he could be watching boats, looking at the water, and playing ball, but here are a few of the good/hilarious ones that we did get! Enjoy!

Our little cheeseball :)

One of my favorites!

SO funny

New Year Goals!

2012-01-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! I have just been reading my sister's blog and was challenged to think through what my goals for the next year should be. Last year she made small goals for each month of the year to make it more measurable and do-able. I thought this was a great idea and so I'm going to do it! (Hopefully...I'm usually really terrible at things like this!) I have just felt all over the place with my ideas and things that I want to do around here that I think this may be helpful to get my focus on HOW to get all of these things accomplished. I'm already feeling all scatterbrained trying to think of which thing I want to pick for the first month...I want them all to happen now! :) Clearly that's not going to happen, so let me figure out an outline to process my thoughts a bit! ...

January: Decorate and organize my home! This has already begun, so hopefully it will be attainable! And each Tuesday this month I have a craft day with some ladies, so this will help this succeed too!

February: Each week explore a new area of Sydney- find a fun place to visit or just a fun park to go to.

March: Get discipleship materials re-organized and updated

April: Read for fun more often- I want to say to finally apply the desire I have to read before bed each night, but I think saying every night is too big of a goal and I will get disappointed...so, as many nights as possible is the goal :)

May: If I haven't already, start doing the One Thousand Gifts Thankfulness Challenge and begin recording and taking note of things to be thankful for each day

June: Also, if I haven't already, organize my resources for activities with Hunter and get a plan of some sort set up to reference each week.

July: Again, if I haven't already, make a meal planning list so that I have 8 or so weeks of meals planned out and can just cycle through the weeks.

August: Make a family organization binder that helps to find different things needed, weekly plans, emergency numbers, lists of dreams and plans, goals, etc...

September: A month to focus on loving and blessing my husband

October: A month to focus on loving and blessing Hunter

November: A month to focus on loving and blessing friends and family

December: Actually do all the days in our Activity Advent Calendar that I made this year.

Well, those are just off the top of my head ideas...and not super thought through, so I'm sure there are so many things missed. I also want to get back into being faithful at working out and finding out what works with the little time I have. I want to choose joy and thankfulness. I want to work on my meditation of scripture and see God work through that. I want to not be lazy, but find ways to use my time wisely. I want to finish sorting through the videos I have uploaded of us and making them into something. I want to stay updated on my blog and organizing our pictures. Well, I guess I should try to put some of those on the months now that my mind has got rolling. You get the point, I have a lot of things I want to do and my mind is a bit messy with it all, wanting to do it all right now! Ultimately, I want to love Jesus, grow in Godliness, love and serve my family well by pointing them to the source of True Love, I want to care and love friends and family better and grow to be a better disciple maker- pouring my life into the women God has entrusted me. I want to be content in where God has us and thankful each day.- a gentle, peaceful woman of God who loves God and others well. Ok, I guess I could keep going, but there you have it. We will see how I go with the measurable things :) Feel free to keep me accountable please!!! Happy 2012!!

Activity Advent Calendar

2011-12-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

As I posted in my last post, we did an Activity Advent Calendar this year which was a lot of fun and helpful to make me intentional with Hunter to talk about Christmas, to do things to celebrate throughout the month before, and to serve others. I got the idea from a few different blogs about doing activities instead of candies and then also saw a few other blogs about doing different things to serve others each day. I couldn't decide which to do, so we just combined them together! I wanted to post the things for each day so I could remember next year and wouldn't have to put another one together :) We just made a paper chain and tore one off each day to read what activity it had on it for the day. Not super pretty, but easy and he had fun making it!

December..

1. Bake Christmas cookies

2.Drink hot chocolate with marshmallows together

3. Make handmade ornaments

4. Make paper snowflakes

5. Tape a coin to the ride on car at the shopping centre for another kid to find and have a ride

6. Wrap presents together

7. Mail holiday cards

8. Take someone's trolley back for them at the shopping centre

9. Do something nice for Dad

10. Family holiday movie night

11. Build a snowman (obviously we can't do this for real here, so we did a craft!)

12. Pick up trash outside

13. Bring a coffee to a friend at work

14. Leave a holiday treat for someone (mailman, neighbor, friend, etc.)

15. Drive to see Christmas lights

16. Make a gingerbread house

17. Send a note to a friend

18. Stop to say hello to those you walk past and ask them how their day is going

19. Run down a hill (adapted from the idea to 'go sledding'...again, can't do that one!)

20. Unwrap a present and talk about being thankful

21. Make popcorn garland to hang in the house

22. Sing Christmas carols together

23. Donate clothes/other items

24. Go see the big Christmas tree in the city

25. Tell family how much/why you love them AND read the Christmas story together

It was a fun-filled month! We didn't do all of them, but hopefully we will next year and hopefully it was a time to have fun together, learn about Christmas, and serve others with random acts of kindness. We spent a lot of time reading and talking about who Jesus is, playing with his little manger and Jesus, and also made a nativity out of play-dough, which might replace one of these next year. We also did a candy cane craft and talked about the meaning of it and the Gospel in it. So, these will probably both replace a few days next year! Such a fun and meaningful month!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was an interesting Christmas being away from home for the first time and not being with our family. I have been pretty home sick the last few days and wishing we could be celebrating and hugging our family and friends. We are really thankful for the things we did get to do this Christmas that so much helped that homesickness and made it an enjoyable Christmas for us!

We spent Christmas Eve day baking and having some friends over to play games, eat goodies, and drink some homemade eggnog (which was delicious!!) Then we celebrated Christmas the three of us that night. We decided to begin some of our own traditions this year since we are away. A few of those traditions were to make fun finger foods and dips on Christmas Eve just as we always did at my dads. YUM! We also decided to open one gift earlier in the week (not sure if this will be a tradition but it probably will be. :) ) The only reason that this tradition came about was that Josh and I can never wait all the way until Christmas to give each other our gifts- we are always too excited to give them to each other and have never actually been able to make it to Christmas. So, since we were opening presents from each other, we let Hunter open one too! We will see if that one sticks! We also decided to have an Activity Advent Calendar where we did fun Christmas activities and things to serve others throughout the month (which I am posting next so that I can remember the different things for next year!). Then we decided a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve would be a fun tradition. Lastly, reading the Christmas story as a family before gifts is one we adopted from Josh's family. So, we went on the trying to make traditions adventure this year and it was a lot of fun. I'm sure some more fun and creative ones will come with each year. We started small :)

On Christmas Day we headed out to the Brown's house to celebrate with them and Tami's parents who have been visiting. We are soo incredibly thankful that we got to spend Christmas with them and this helped a lot with being sad about being away from home. God has blessed us so richly and we are thankful for the people He has put in our lives that encourage us and love us.

As I studied and reflected on the story of Jesus being born this year, I was amazed at how glorious and beautiful his birth was and at the same time was able to really put myself in the shoes of Mary, trying to understand how amazed she must have been that the Savior had come into the world and they were holding Him in their arms. What a humble, powerful, and mighty God we serve. I am so thankful that He chose to extend grace to a people who are constantly disobeying and turning their backs on Him. Praise God that He sent Jesus into the world to save the world and bring us into relationship with Him. Astounded by His love and grace.

So..here are some pictures of the things we did to celebrate!

Our little tree!

The Activity Advent Calendar with each activity written on the link of the chain.

Making Christmas cookies!! This was such a huge hit with Hunter. He probably sat there for a few hours cutting the cookies and decorating them and playing with the leftover ball of dough like it was play-dough. We will definitely be doing this more throughout the year with other cookie cutters!

They turned out beautifully!

Christmas Eve!

He was pretty excited about this new baseball glove from Grandpa!

New cricket set!

And this was the ultimate hit of gifts this year for Hunter: a car that completely comes apart that he can fix and put back together with his drill. He seriously has not put this down for 2 days now and is surprisingly incredibly good at putting the pieces on, the screws in, and drilling it all together. He can do it all by himself! I'm so impressed! I guess he is just like his dad :)

This is pavlova- a traditional Australian dessert. I gave it a go making it for the first time. It is a tricky dessert to get right as it cracks, etc. but it was delicious (even the Aussies said so!)! I was so excited! And look at all that fruit! YUM!!

Merry Christmas!

Happy birthday to Jesus!

Summer!

2011-12-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

Summer is here! (Even though the weather has not proved that to be true!) It has been pretty rainy here. We've been told it is colder and rainier than many have ever seen it. But, it is officially summertime! School is out for the summer and it's almost Christmas! It is a weird transition to think about it being Christmastime but getting warmer instead of snowy and freezing. Just thought I'd post a few pictures from lately! Enjoy!

First time swimming at the beach! It was a really fun day!

Playing baseball at the park!

Winding up for the pitch!

K is for.....

KITE!!! Hunter absolutely loved flying this kite we made and giggled the whole time! So fun!

Having a race outside with his cars :)

A fun game we played with the letters on his alphabet mat and then we did some more car racing using the mat as our road! Another thing we will definitely be doing again!

Our first Christmas party with the staff here. Hunter loved being able to go swimming during the party with the kids!

Another Christmas party with Hunter and I's play group. The kids are having a race here. It was a fun opportunity to meet the husbands and families of these ladies.

Making some Christmas cards with cookie cutters and paint! It is so fun being able to explain holidays and what their true meaning is this year. We have had fun doing a lot of things about Thanksgiving and Christmas, talking about being thankful and Jesus. It amazes me as we begin to see fruit in Hunter's life and character building. God blows our minds as we watch the work He does in us and how He designed us to grow and learn. This is an extremely fun stage right now.

Summer has started out really busy and will be a good one I think :) We will be doing a few fun things including going down to Ulladulla (a few hours south of Sydney on the coast) with some friends for a holiday which we are really excited about and celebrating Christmas out at the Brown's house. It should be a good summer!

First Aussie Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! This year was a different Thanksgiving for us since it is was first Thanksgiving away from home- actually our first holiday away from home. I was nervous about how home sick we might be without our typical celebrations with our family. It was hard being away from home and family but God blessed us with an incredible weekend with our friends here. We planned a great weekend with the Browns to celebrate Thanksgiving together and to invite our Australian friends to come along and learn all about celebrating Thanksgiving. So, on Friday (people work still since it's not a holiday here, so didn't do it on the exact day!) we spent the day cooking up all the typical Thanksgiving dishes and headed out to the Browns for dinner with another American couple. Then on Saturday we cooked everything up another time to celebrate with some of our Australian friends! We made sure to include everything typical of Thanksgiving- the food of course, played a game of American football, watched a football movie (because there wasn't any on the tv like usual!), laid around and relaxed, ate some more, played some more football and other games, talked about and wrote down the things we are thankful for, decorated the Christmas tree at our house, ate some more, etc. It was a wonderful weekend! We are so blessed that we were able to spend our first Thanksgiving away like this. We are thankful for the people God has put into our lives. Hunter and I also did a lot of crafts and games throughout the week to learn about being thankful and celebrating Thanksgiving. I learned this year how much I really love Thanksgiving and dedicating so much time to thinking and talking about what we are thankful for. Something I need to practice more diligently throughout the year! Here are some pictures from our festivities and week!!!

Hunter and I made these cute turkeys one day- he thought it was fun to make it run around like a turkey :)

Hunter's Thankful Tree- he helped me glue the pieces and then told me things he was thankful for to write on the tree. This one might become a tradition!

Thanksgiving dinner with some wonderful friends!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Journal Entry: It might be long, but it's how we are really going here...

2011-11-22T01:22:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went away for a retreat with God to spend time reflecting and to get extended time with God. I thought writing bits and pieces of my journal from the time away may be helpful to get a picture of how we are going here and what we are learning. So, it may be long, but here goes :)...

Lord, I am ecstatic to be getting such extended time with you! Time to praise you. To look at what you are doing, to process through life and Your faithfulness, be away, to be in Your Word. As I think back over the past four months of being here, I take a deep breath and realize just how much has happened in our lives and how much blessing You have poured out on us just in four months. They have been hard and good, challenging and encouraging all at the same time. I don't think I've taken the time to process or to praise You for what you have been doing.

Thinking back, the first month or two was a whirlwind while we searched to find and furnish a home. During that time we struggled to be content and I'm realizing how easy it is to be discontent- always wanting to be in the next phase saying "once this happens then...". What a terrible disservice I do to myself in not being thankful for the present all the while telling Hunter 20 times a day to be thankful. (Well, honestly, most things I tell him each day are things I need to be saying to myself- "be thankful, be patient, be loving, be kind and considerate of others, be gentle, etc. etc. etc...") God, would you work on this within me? So, after the home was found it really has only been around 2.5 months that we have begun ministry and life here- WOA- wake-up call- it seems like it has been ages longer. That is not long at all- what reason do we have to be discontent or impatient? What a short period of time we have been here and already we have seen God do so much!

A few things He has done and to be thankful for:

-Our home- the location, size, people living near us, shops/transport/uni are so close

-Luke and Kate- growing and deepening relationships with them. They have been so incredibly welcoming, gracious, and caring toward us and we are so blessed to really connect well with them- to have friends!

-Bible Study- the refreshment of my week each week being in the Word, learning culture, and reaching unbelievers there.

-Play Group- One specific mum who has been so welcoming. This group of families to potentially get to know, influence with the Gospel, and share our lives with, not to mention tons of kids that are almost exactly Hunter's age for him to play with!

-Sasha!!! Holy cow, such a huge blessing to see someone come to Christ so soon after being here and to be building a friendship with her and see her grow!

-Investigative Bible Discussion started at Dunmore Lane College on campus after it has been something Luke has been praying for for so long and God bringing 8 people to it that told Josh they were seeking! HUGE! What an encouragement to a discouraged husband.

-Olivia, Ribka, and Ribka to invest in and already seeing so much growth that God has done so quickly since meeting them

-Luci and Laura- friendships to pursue

-Evangelism and outreach being talked about and challenged on campus. Josh being able to be a part of this and being able to speak on it at Tuesday's meetings. Seen growth in this area in many people and hearts being opened to it.

-Josh and Luke praying each morning- challenging one another and being a team to work with together.

-So many conferences giving us the ability to get to know people better and build relationships, and also getting to see some different places in Australia because of it!

-Hunter's growth and seeing fruit in his life- began memorizing scripture and knowing Bible stories, seeing character and fruit in his life emerge. Seeing God's little creation and being astounded with the growth process.

-Time as a family

-Learning and trying to figure out that it's okay to struggle and how to be thankful for and through hard times- especially when it is someone you love and want to fix their struggles.

-The Browns help, support, love, care, friendship, and encouragement in everything.

-Finding a church with young families that is really close to our home

God, I know there are so many things I am missing, these are just a few and the obvious things to thank you for- but I am blown away by how long this list became when really it is a quite general list. You are doing so much more than I can see or know or than I acknowledge. And it has only been a few short, hectic months. I can only imagine what You are going to do. As I think back on the main lessons You taught us in getting here and in the past 2 years of prep to come, I can see why they were so incredibly essential for us to learn, even though they have been so hard to learn. I know we are so much stronger in You because of it all. Learning about patience, thankfulness, PRAYER, perseverance, Your timing and plans, etc. Priceless lessons that we need to cling to in Your Word now. You are so good and faithful!

While there are so many praises, there have been hardships for sure. Hardships that I feel have at times overtaken us but as I look at the praises I just wrote, I'm ashamed that they have and desire to cultivate a thankful heart.

Some major struggles have been:

-Missing home- community, ministry, friends, being challenged constantly, our church, etc.

-Josh's struggle to find faithful men to meet with and invest his life in

-Funding- a huge loss in donors leaving us in the deficit- such a huge discouragement after all God did to get us over 100% when we left home.

-Not having the things we once had that fulfilled us- hobbies, etc.

-Figuring out life and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of things that took so much longer to do than I was used to.

-Not knowing how to encourage and care for Josh in the hard times

-Having to re-learn so many lessons we have already had to learn that have been hard

God, once again, this is not a total list, but a general list, but how can I not praise You for all the work You are doing and teaching us? It's been so hard to process and so hard to get my mind and heart focused on the reality of just how much blessing You have poured out on us in just a few short months. Not to mention all that you did before moving here- I am astounded by all You have taught us and done and I am blown away with how quick I am to forget these things. As I look back, I see how much You sustained us, grew us, and filled us by Your Word and Truth. And all of these things are things we so desperately need right now- thank You for the process and struggle of getting here. Wow, we struggled and were in pain as we waited, but this was for our good. May we know that now as we wait and pray, and may be trust in Your unfailing love. I praise You, O Lord, for Your steadfast love endures forever. Great is Your faithfulness! Amen.

.......To come soon, I'll share a bit more about looking ahead and the things we are praying specifically. So, that's a long update that is still quite general :) Thanks for reading, praying, and supporting us so diligently!

You've Got Mail!!!

2011-11-16T03:09:00.000-08:00

Just had to post my excitement for the package we got in the mail last week! We got an amazing surprise package filled with things we miss from home. We have incredible friends and are so blessed!! Thank you, Kunkles, for being so good to us! We love you all so much and you made our days today. Can't wait for it to be YOU at our doorstep too!!! :) We immediately changed our dinner menu to chili because of the chili beans and chili powder which we are yet to find the same kind we are used to since being here. aww. It was a joyous dinner. And a night of feeling so loved by our amazing friends :) That's all- just had to share the joy!!!

So much goodness! Clothes for H, some missed foods, some STICK deodorant for Josh, :)

YUM!!

Springtime!!

2011-11-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right, it's Spring in November- weird, huh? The weather is getting warmer here which has been really fun and we have been busy here. The school year is about to end in the next few weeks and then it will be the summer holiday. It is really weird to think about celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas here without our families and in 90 degree weather and all the way across the world. Anyways, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures of what we have been up to lately.

Hunter has changed SOO much in the past month since his birthday. It is seriously crazy the big leap he has made. He is talking so much and has such a little personality. I need to start writing down or blogging the hilarious things he says so that we can remember them better. He has also started showing interest in the potty, so we have kind of started potty training a bit which he thinks is super cool :) He is really into baseball, rugby, and football lately- playing catch, etc. Also talking about our different family members and friends- saying their names, talking about driving in the car to see them, etc. Unfortunately we can't drive to many of those people's houses. He has also just surprised me with just how smart he is lately. He knows most of his colors and some letters of the alphabet. He can count to 3/4 and loves the number 2. I guess he knows how old he is :) He likes looking for and counting things in twos- food, shoes, hands, etc. He is beginning to be able to do complex things and problem solve to figure things out. It just blows my mind how God created us and to watch Him at work in Hunter's life. Oh yeah! Speaking of that- Hunter has also memorized his first Bible verse, Romans 3:23 and it is sooo cute :) He also loves loves loves to read his Bible and would read about Abraham, David and Goliath, and Jonah all day- his favorites :)

So, anyways, back to those pictures of what we have been up to!!...

He loves to ride his bike. Check out his new hat- our true Aussie boy :)

I went to the Sydney Markets this weekend with my friend, Kate and got to see so many beautiful flowers. I thought I'd show some pictures of some native Australian flowers- they are amazing and so different from anything I've ever seen.

Later that day we went to this wonderful, hidden treasure to play! It was an amazing park with a massive slide, a wading pool, and a big park area all right next to the water which had so many boats out on it and was just glistening beautifully! It was such a fun day!

Last weekend we went up to the Blue Mountains and got to see the Three Sisters which is the rock formation behind us. Gorgeous!!

And for some everyday pictures of Hunter... We talked about David and Goliath, so Hunter was on a hunt for the best rock that David could have used. Notice the sunglasses, a new favorite, especially to wear them like Dad does :)

Here's him acting like Goliath..."roooarr!" haha. So mean :)

We made a carpark (parking garage) out of two cereal boxes and five toilet paper rolls which has been a big hit!

Just figured out that we can take pictures on my camera while it faces us so that we can see ourselves in the screen- this was waaayyy too exciting for H :)

Posing just like Dad :)

Yes, he still loves to sing and play the guitar. His songs are becoming more creative. They used to just be "car, car, caaaaarrrrr, car". Now they are "dada, keys, car, gooo!, car, car, car, dada!" and things like that.

Our strong climber :)

Happy Spring or Fall depending on where you are!

Check out what God's been up to!

2011-10-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd put a link to our latest newsletter on here- God is doing some exciting things here! Check it out! :

Coulson's October Update

"But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. " 2 Timothy 4:17

Hunter's 2nd Birthday Party!!

2011-10-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Hunter's 2nd birthday! Our little boy is growing up soo fast- so much faster lately than it seemed before. :) He just seems to have taken a HUGE leap in growth and maturity lately. He is talking all the time and is just so hilarious. He has started doing so many new things and is so much more capable of doing so many things than even just a few weeks ago. He is just a joy to be around. Right now, everything- and I mean everything! is about cars and trucks. I think he could and probably does drive cars around the house literally all day. And if he doesn't have a car in hand, then no worries, he will find a way to act like he is driving a car whether it is driving his food around or acting like anything round is a steering wheel (really anything- every time we do the laundry, he closes the door and then acts like he is a racecar driver with sounds and all :) ). So, since he is so car obsessed, we decided to have a car themed birthday party for him! A group of our new friends came over and celebrated with us, which was so much fun and such a blessing to us. We were going to have it at a park, but it rained a ton that day so we ended up in our little apartment which worked just fine too! Here are some pictures from his party!

Couldn't get him to stop making silly faces :)

Such a sweet boy!

I had a blast making this racetrack cake and Hunter was soooo excited about it when he saw it!

My wonderful friend, Sasha :)

Some of the ladies chatting- not a great picture, but thought you could see some pictures of a few of our new friends! From the left: Ribka, Luci, Olivia, Kate, Tami, Sasha

A few of the guys. From the left: Josh, Scott, Sly, and Luke

Hunter had a ton of fun opening soo many presents and was really overwhelmed after the first few because he just wanted to play with his new toys!

The BIG surprise gift from Grandpa and Grandma Accurso. He has really wanted a bike and was THRILLED (as you can see in his ear to ear grin!) when Josh brought it out. We have been on many rides this past week! Thanks Grandpa, Grandma, and Frankie!

He loves blowing out candles, so was so excited when he got to do this :) Oh, and side note about his hilarious outfit change...the shirt and hat were gifts that he received and was put over his t-shirt, making him looking quite stylist..haha...he looks a bit ridiculous :) They are his first gear for our rugby team, the West Tigers!

Steeling Mom's cake when she wasn't looking...very sneaky :)

There were also some fun surprises leading up to his birthday party...

Present from Grandma and Grandpa Veenschoten in the mail!! He LOVES his new choo choo! Thanks G and G and boys :)

And a present from Grandpa and Grandma Coulson! He finally has some legos to play with again and is loving it! Thanks G and G and Jacob!

On Thursdays Hunter and I go to a play group with a group of Mums and kids around his age. It was one of the other boys birthdays that day and she remembered that it was Hunter's in a couple of days, so she threw them a party together. This was so incredibly sweet and such a fun surprise! It made us feel very loved :) It was fun celebrating with our new friends at play group!

And last but not least....today when I got out of the shower I could hear Josh getting Hunter all excited telling him that we should make his crib into a big boy bed. Hunter runs into the room and is yelling "tools!!" at me. Woa. Surprise to me. But, we decided to just go for it since he was so excited and he is a big 2 year old :) So far so good. He has done great staying in his bed so far! What a big boy!

Helping Dad take a part his bed with tools

First thing he did when the rail was off was pretend to sleep and snore :) He was soooo excited!

Happy birthday to our sweet boy!! We love you and are so proud of the little boy you are becoming!

I did it! I actually made things from Pinterest!

2011-09-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

It's true- I finally made some of the things that I have found on Pinterest! If you don't know what Pinterest is, you definitely need to go check it out! It's amazing! It has been so refreshing and fun to get crafty the last few days, so I just thought I'd share some of the things I made. I seem to be good at making recipes I find, doing kid activity ideas, etc. but the crafty things seem to get put off because of time. These were some quick, fun, and easy projects!! And also didn't require too many things to make them...my craft supplies have nearly become nonexistent since we moved, so finding thrifty projects is great! Click on the name to find out how to make them!

Rainbow Rice!!! A fun sensory bin for Hunter which he has wanted to play with everyday since we made this. He also enjoyed helping me make it!

Endless hours of fun :)

Sorry for the awkward picture...the one with my face in it turned out funny. haha! I made this scarf out of an old t-shirt!!!! Yep, that's right, a t-shirt! This is the one I am most excited about!!!! I want to make one in every color!

These candles didn't turn out quite how I wanted, but were still fun and pretty when lit! The one on the left was the pinterest idea, the one on the right I just made out of some scraps from the first one and needs a little something in the bottom still :) They made great gifts!

This wasn't a Pinterest find, just Hunter and I being creative one day because he wanted to play basketball. Why not use a tunnel for a hoop? Again, learning to be thrifty with what we have and has been heaps of fun! :)

Hooray for being crafty!!!

Day at Wildlife Sydney!!

2011-09-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Wildlife Sydney, which is one of the zoos here in Sydney!! I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from our day seeing some of the amazing Australian animals!

Petting a kangaroo!!! Hunter was so excited to do this and kept asking to go back and pet them more, more, more!

Riding the wombat (no worries everyone, it isn't a real one!) He thought that this was just hilarious :)

A koala eating :)

It was a really fun day seeing so many different animals and learning about them. When we bought the tickets to go, we got a great deal if we also went to the Sydney Aquarium, so next week we are going there! I will post some pictures after next week's visit as well. It's fun to be able to do some fun things while the students are on a two week break!

Hunter lately and pictures from weekends away!

2011-09-15T21:06:00.001-07:00

First of all, I am terrible at naming my posts...definitely not creative. oh well! I suppose that's not the important part! Just thought I'd post a few pictures from lately of Hunter and a couple of where we have gone the past few weekends. Before the pictures come, I just have to share a story that made my heart melt and tears come to my eyes. Yesterday Hunter and I went to a play group (which I was extremely excited to be invited to and was able to talk to some other mums and Hunter was able to play with kids his age! So thankful for the mums and kids we meet at the park!). While we were there, Hunter was pushing around a lawn mower and one of the kids kept stealing it from him. The kids mother kept going over and telling him he couldn't steal toys and he needed to find something else to play with. After a few times of this, Hunter came over to me and told me he wanted to give the mower to this little boy. This was without me prompting him that he needed to give the little boy a turn. He dragged the mower over to the little boy and offered it to him. I was blown away with how thoughtful this was and how he was putting others before himself. This was a proud mum moment for me!! Anyways, by no means is he perfect, but I was so proud of him and my heart just melted when he did that. Ok, moving on....just had to share that! :)

Hunter has really started to love painting, so we have been doing this a lot!

....and cutting with scissors...which I wish you could hear him say because it is soo cute. I think it is my favorite word he says right now. He LOVES scissors and asks for them all the time. Super focused right here :)

I made him some "boxes" (old milk cartons) with fun things for each day of the week to play with during his independent playtime in his room. Not a great picture, but he was really excited the first day I brought them out!

One of our letter B activites that week..and one that we have had to do everyday since because he would play with water all day everyday!

Of course it started to get crazy...spraying himself...

Then naturally Josh saw what was happening and had to get involved :)...

Gotcha!

Otherwise, Hunter has just been growing up sooo incredibly fast lately. I can't believe how old he is getting. In just a few short weeks it will be his 2nd birthday!! Crazy! He is a joy to be around and we are so thankful for him and how God is growing him to be a sweet little boy.

A couple weekends ago we went to Canberra, the capital city of Australia, for some training and got to do some site seeing while we were there too! This is the view down the main road with the Parliament Building at the end. The picture is on my phone, so you can't really tell, but it is beautiful and amazing how they designed this city! The history is actually really interesting, you should research it! :)

We visited both the Parliament Building (above) and Australia's War Memorial (Below) which was also just incredible! It was a very enjoyable day! Canberra is really beautiful and reminds me of home a lot. 'Sigh'

Then this past weekend we went to Richmond which is at the bottom of the Blue Mountains for a conference with other staff from around the country. This place was beautiful and a great weekend away!

The weather is getting much warmer here, so it was nice to get time outside while we were away! We are very excited to welcome Spring weather...while I know most of you are probably very excited to welcome Fall weather. Bring on the summer weather and clothes!! :) I'm really excited for summer here because I've heard that the city just livens up and there are endless amounts of things to do. Yes please!

A few things to be praying.

2011-09-14T03:45:00.001-07:00

There are a few passages of scripture that I have started praying for us, the people we are investing in, the uni, Australia, etc :) I have been really encouraged and excited about what God is doing among the women that I am meeting with and other women that God has placed in my life. In the midst of the encouragement, we have also realized so much lately about just how tough of soil it is for the Gospel here. Before coming we were told that Australia was one of the most secular countries in the world, and we are beginning to see how this may be true. Over the past few weeks we have had many conversations with many different people about people they have been investing in who have lost a passion for Christ, discipleship, and/or outreach after years of pouring their lives into them. Our hearts have ached as we have heard so many of these stories. It seems that it is so much harder for believers to stand firm in the Lord here- that the temptations of the world are pushing in on everyone so hard. I'm realizing even more why we need a firm foundation in Christ so that we are not blown away to the right and to the left by the world. So, this is where the first verses I'm praying have come from. Over the past weekend we were away at a conference near the mountains. We spent some good time studying Psalm 1 and it just really hit me that I needed to be memorizing, meditating, and praying these verses that talk about what it looks like to delight in the Lord and be grounded in Him who allows us to bear fruit and be strong in the midst of struggle. Please be praying these verses for the people here and that God would help us to equip and pray for this to be true in their lives and in our own.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields fruit in its season

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregations of the righteous;

for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish."

I have also been praying Ezekial 36:26:

"And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Please continue to pray for faithful, available, and teachable men and women to invest our lives in. Thanks so much for your prayers!! They are powerful and effective!

Thankful for our home

2011-09-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

I have been overwhelmed with thankfulness lately for the home that God has given us. We are really beginning to make this home and that is really exciting. I am mostly thankful for the location in where we live. It is such an incredibly huge blessing to live in a place that is: a 10 minute walk to the center of campus, a 15-20 minute walk to the shopping centre and train station, bus stops right outside our apartment, right next to a couple of great parks and huge fields- so much space to run and play unlike most areas in the city, in such a beautiful and home-y type place, etc. It amazes me how unsettled I was about our place when we got accepted to live here and how disappointed I was that it wasn't one of the other places we had looked at. God always has such better plans than I do- I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for the area that He is making home to us. So, since I am so excited and thankful for it, I thought I'd take you on a walk through the area we live in!...

Allow Hunter to be your tour guide :)

Take a walk down the path that leads from the carpark to our apartment building..isn't it beautiful?! It is so refreshing to walk this path each day!

Take a stop at the garage for all the apartments in our building...we have a sort of "cage" for our car inside :) Hunter enjoys unlocking all the doors on the way to the car.

Next we will go in to our apartment building! There is our home!

Just kidding! This is just an outdoor tour for now, so we will just walk around to our great and really huge outdoor area- the patio :) Hey, at least it is a bit longer than the typical one for an apartment in the states! Have to have room to hang all the clothes on the line and still have some space for the little one to play!

Next, Hunter will take you to the road our building is on. Of course he will point out all of the buses stopping to pick people up and will try to flag them down :)

Just down the street (90 meters to be exact!) is this great park!!

Another view of the area around the park. There is a soccer field with a path around it that people are constantly walking, biking, or playing around. There is also work out equipment such as a stationary bike, etc. around the path, which is hilarious, but amazing to have an outdoor, free work out place!

Take a walk just up the street a little further and you will end up at the Uni!!! It is also really pretty. I love that there are always students around playing sports or studying in this huge field/pond area. Hunter also loves playing around here!

Another view of the campus. This is "the hub" which is like the student union area. This is where we meet most students.

Hope you enjoyed a tour of some of the area we live in that we are extremely thankful for! God has really blessed us with this convenient and great location that is slowly becoming home.

Hunter Update

2011-08-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post some pictures of Hunter lately for everyone and have been so busy and keep forgetting to do that! Sorry! So, what has Hunter been up to lately? He is becoming more and more hilarious everyday. He really makes me laugh most of the day, which is great :) Some of his new favorite things include:

-Singing songs- He is becoming quite the little musician! He loves to play his air guitar and sing along. His favorite songs to sing lately are VeggieTales Theme Song, Cebu! (veggie tales song), The Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know it, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and a few songs that he has made up which are sooo funny. One that he made up is called 'Car'. The lyrics are as follows..."Car! Car! Caaaaaaaaaar! CarcarcarcarCAARRRRRR!" Very creative :) While he sings he usually dances, does the motions, jumps around, claps, or plays his guitar. He also likes to use hangers as pretend guitars. We should really look around for a cheap kids guitar for him, he would just go crazy with one! I am working on posting some video of him singing....hopefully that will come soon!

-Playing outside and walking to the parks that are around our new apartment. Not only is going to the park exciting these days, the walk is very exciting as well. He likes to stop at our mailbox to check inside, stop at every bench along the way to sit and pretend we are eating a snack at the picnic table, and talk about the buses we seeing constantly passing by along the way (while he waves at the bus drivers, which he thinks is really great to do :) So cute!) He loves all the trains and buses all around.

-Coloring- He has been so excited about coloring, stickers, markers, scissors, glue, or any craft possible. He just LOVES markers and coloring. We have started having a letter of the week, so we have been coloring lots of letters lately.

-Beds- He has an awkward obsession with beds. He just thinks it is hilarious to get into his crib or into our bed and act like he is sleeping or play, etc. I'm not sure why it is so great, but we get asked over and over again to put him in his bed throughout the day.

-Talking all the time- He really never stops :) His favorite things to talk about are keys, cars, tools, quarters (which don't exist here!), Leah (one of the Brown girls), markers, his Bible, and of course songs, etc...etc..etc...so talkative!

-Helping Mom and Dad- He loves to do what we are doing. His favorites are sweeping, vacuuming, and putting clothes in the washing machine or on the line to dry...oh and of course anything Josh is doing that requires a tool!

He really has done quite well with the transition. It started off a little rough for him, but he seems to be adjusting well. Something really funny that he does with learning the culture/language is that he argues with us about what certain words to use. For example, 'diapers' are called 'nappies' here. If you ask him if it is called a nappie, he will say, "diaper!" and would go back and forth with you for a while :) He learns fast though...he was asking for a biscuit (which are what cookies are called) today for a snack.

OK, I feel like he is doing so much these days, so sorry that is long, but I will stop there. Enjoy the pictures!

Playing by the pond at the Uni. He loves this pond and always tries to get in to swim!

Waving at the buses :)

At the park near our house

He thinks its great to sit in our entertainment centre!

Driving the truck on moving day!

Of course, playing in the dirt

Washing the cars and playing in water and bubbles.

I will post more update on ministry, life, etc. soon!

First week on campus- answered prayers!

2011-08-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd send a quick update on how the first week at the Uni went for us. It was a really fun and encouraging week- and also challenging and stretching. But so good! As I said in my last post, it was the first week that students have been back on campus since we have arrived. It was so refreshing and exciting to finally begin what we came to do! The booth on campus went great. Josh, Hunter, and I all went in to the Uni for the first day on Monday and then Josh and I took turns throughout the rest of the week. It was interesting to note the differences between the response we got and the interest people had in spirituality from how it has been in the past at UNI. In short, we are excited about how God has answered prayers and provided some men and women for us to follow up with this coming week who have expressed interest in the Bible, etc. How could we have ever doubted that God would send us all this way and then not provide people to invest in? Although that seems like an obvious promise to claim as we came here, it has been easy to doubt over the past weeks as we have gotten to know people and talked with people on campus. As we stood there trying to connect with people, we saw the lack of spiritual interest and apathy of people. But praise God for always providing abundantly and being in control! Please be in prayer this week for the people we are meeting with. We are already beginning to see how God has and will continue to impact the nations through Australia. This week I will meet with women from Australia, Indonesia, and China. I can't wait to get to know these women and am praying for transformation in their lives. Please be in prayer for them and for the men Josh will meet with. Praise the Lord for His desire to make His name known in all the nations!!! Please also pray as we move into our apartment this week and begin getting settled into everyday life. I will update soon after we have moved in with some pictures. Thanks for your prayers!!

Let the semester begin!

2011-07-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

In a few days we will have been in Sydney for a whole month! Woa! Time has flown as we have worked to get things done and prepared to make this home. So here's a quick update and a few prayer requests for the week.

Well, we are very close to being able to say that we have a home to live in! We got offered an apartment, but haven't signed the lease yet. Whew. The long adventure of finding a place is over! We are thrilled with what God has provided for us and how He has done it. That story will be for another blog post once we have officially signed a lease and can show you the place :) But for now, I will leave you with a challenge for who can guess the street that our place is on....I will give you a hint: we have lived on this road before, just in another country :)

Last Friday, our boss took us around the Uni (University) and gave us a tour. This was wonderful to finally see the campus and hear the things that he has been praying for the students and promises he has been claiming. It's great to know how to pray along with him. It was great to get to spend more time with him too and get to know him better. We are so excited to get to know him and his wife (who are close in age to us) and to build a friendship with them. We are blessed to have them leading us- they have been EXTREMELY welcoming to us and have made us feel loved and at home. We also got to spend some time with them and some of their friends last night which was another blessing. Building community and having friendships that encourage us and build us up has been one huge prayer request in coming. We were sooo blessed to have such incredible fellowship in Cedar Falls, so spending time with all of them encouraged us- that God is providing and will continue to do that and make this home in that way. I'm so thankful for the time we had with people our age.

But my main reason for an update today is to ask you to pray for this week. This week starts the second semester at the Uni. Students are coming back! Yahoo! This will be the first time we get to meet them and we are so excited. During the first week back, it is Diversity Week where people from different organizations, etc. have booths on campus and people can talk to or sign up with one if interested. Kind of like Freshman Orientations in the states. This is one main way they meet students since so many of them don't live on campus. Please pray for us this week as we seek to meet students. Pray that God would put students in our path that are hungry to hear the Gospel and desire to learn more about Jesus. Since it is second semester, there are few students that are new and interested. We are trusting that God has people in mind that He wants to use us to reach for His Kindgom. I will post later this week with how the week has gone and hopefully to tell you that we officially have a home! Thank you for your prayers!

A day in the city and other recent happenings...

2011-07-18T03:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy last few days around here! Saturday was spent searching for a place to live. We drove around to different house inspections to try to find a place. We did end up applying for one of them and are waiting to hear back to see if we got it. There were two people who applied before us, so we will see what God has in store! It is MUCH more complicated trying to get a place to live here than we have ever experienced, so it has been a tiring process. We are excited to land on a place and get settled. Praying for God to land the right place, price, and area of the city to turn up. We have found the areas we really want to be in and have been searching lots. God DID however provide a car for us which is what we did the rest of Saturday!! We bought our car which has been really nice so that we can get ourselves around to get everything done that we need to do. (and by the way, driving on the other side of the car/road is easier than expected in some ways, but completely scares me in other ways!!! Watch out for the Coulsons- or just me, Josh is doing great and is able to drive confidently...but I may be another story :)) We had a bit of a cultural experience on Saturday as well. We stopped to see some of our new friends a few different times and we were offered tea each time. Each time we were late to whatever was next on the agenda because of time spent talking with them. Time is slow here- no one is in a rush, they just want to enjoy your company. I LOVED this about our day on Saturday and the culture in general. Whether you are coming over or just dropping something by, expect to take an hour or two or more to have tea and biscuits (cookies) and a nice talk. This is very different than the fast paced life of people that I am used to and it is great, especially as we are trying to get to know people. We have been blessed by the hospitality of everyone!

Sunday we road the train downtown to do some site seeing around the city for the first time! This was a ton of fun and really made us feel like we are in Australia! We looked around some shops of Australian homemade things- but really things from all around the world which had some incredibly amazing things from different cultures. Then we went down to see the Darling Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. So beautiful. The Bridge is my favorite. Next we hopped onto a ferry and road over to Manly Beach which was also so beautiful! We walked around most of the day and ended the day by getting an Australian favorite, fish and chips (fries). It was a great day with the Brown family and so fun to be tourists for a day :) Hunter as well had a very fun time as you will see in the pictures to follow...enjoy! :)

Waiting and excited to get on the "CHOO CHOO!!" train. Hunter loves the trains!

An aboriginal man playing the didgeridoo- amazing talent!

It was a rainy day, but we still enjoyed it! And it brought beautiful rainbows!

Aww the bridge just captivates me :)

Uncle Scottie took Hunter down to play in the water- Hunter's first trip to the ocean. He loved the waves and kept saying "water! water! water!"

This is just a snapshot of most of Hunter's days- playing with his new best friends Jonah and Leah. He has had a blast with them in this tent and tunnel!

And lastly, if you don't believe that we really have made it yet, then here is some more proof- some kangaroos in the wild! They are amazing to watch hop around! We saw a lot of them at the National Staff Conference last weekend in Canberra.

So much to say and so many pictures to share, but hope that gives you a snapshot of what we have been up to the last few days!

Welcome to Australia!

2011-07-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

We made it! We arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning after about 22 hours of flying. I have been putting off posting anything because I am overwhelmed with what to say :) The flights went more smoothly than we could ever ask- praise the Lord for providing in this way for us! Hunter slept 14 hours throughout the journey and we got some sleep as well. No delays. No lost bags. Happy baby. It went great! And because of having a young child, everyone kept telling us to go to the front of lines- to get on the planes first, to not have to wait in the LONG customs line, etc. This was so nice- I was liking Australia already :) The people are just soo nice and helpful and great!

Scott and Tami picked us up from the airport along with our 11 bags that were everything we brought- unbelievable that we fit them all in their van! A few first impressions were how culturally diverse it was. Even at the airport I barely saw any white Australians- it was incredible! I love it! The drive to the Brown's house was a fun one because we got to pass through the city and see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House right off the bat. That day we walked around the shopping centre and were just amazed at just HOW MUCH we have to learn. Between different words used, accents, currency, driving on the other side of the road and car, measuring things in kilos, etc. etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on with how much there is to learn. It can seem overwhelming. It is also overwhelming to think about setting up a new house and all the things you have to start over buying- spices, dishes, etc. But very exciting too.

So far we have set up a bank account, tax info, looked into phones and cars, and today we went around looking at some of the houses we saw for rent! That was really exciting! It was great to drive around the city and see the uni (university) that we will be working on. The Browns have graciously given us so much since we have been here. It is exciting to think about making this home as they have and settling in. We also got to meet our boss here and will get to meet some others we will be working alongside tonight! Oh and how could I forget? We also got to go driving around- that was crazy!! Phew...kinda scary! That's going to take lots of practice and concentration!

Hunter has been sick since we got here which has been a little rough. We took him to the doctor yesterday and he had an ear infection, so hopefully now that he has some meds he can get cleared up and back to our joyful little guy! Going to the doctor was different too. We didn't make an appointment, just showed up. They were so layed back and helpful. Not rushed and impatient as is the usual experience at the doctor in the states. That was refreshing. The doctor he saw was Indian and was so helpful as we didn't know how to answer many questions such as, "How much does he weigh? " (uhh...he's 25 lbs..but who knows how many kilos!), or "What has his temperature been?" (uhh...celsius...hmm...?!?). Again, so much to learn.

OK! Well, there are a few first experiences. It is wonderful to be here and I can't wait to keep updating you on what God does and how He helps us with this transition. Thanks for all your love!

Tickets Booked: July 1st!!!!!

2011-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

I don't really have time to write, but thought I should probably post that God has finally seen fit for us to buy our tickets for Australia!! We leave July 1st!!!!!!!!!! Woa! That is not very many days, so I need to get back to packing, etc. Thanks everyone for all of your prayers and support in this process. God has truly taught us so much and challenged us more than we could have ever imagined. I will write an entire update and tell of God's amazing faithfulness sometime...but probably not until we are moved!

Happy Daddy's Day!!

2011-06-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet, Hunter LOVES his daddy! And he SHOULD love him as much as he does- what a blessed little boy to have the daddy that he has. Let me tell you a few reasons why Hunter is thankful for Josh....(or the reasons that I think he should be thankful for him!)...

-First and foremost, he is an amazing example of Christ to Hunter. His love for the Lord grows every day and his heart to share this with Hunter and I also grows. He does any amazing job leading our family in this way- sharing the Word with us, praying with and for us, and walking alongside us to be obedient followers. Whew, so thankful for his leadership!

-He is the most FUN and goofy dad. Most days this is what my boys spend their time doing together. There is no one who can make Hunter laugh like his daddy does.

-He consistently trains him and loves him

-He always focuses on what is best for Hunter and what will most draw him to the Lord, instead of what is easy/what Hunter may want.

-He plays with him and always finds creative, fun things to do with him. He's never afraid to have fun and stop what he's doing to spend time with him.

..and there are many, many more. Here are some that Hunter would say (I...woops! I mean Hunter :).. made this book for Josh for his father's day gift. If you click on the pictures you can read what it says and see it better!)....

I also made a few other board books recently. The other ones were "My Family", "My Friends", and "Prayer for the Nations". They were super fun projects and I'm excited to be able to use these books with pictures of our family, friends, and missionaries as we move across the globe. The books can be bought here if you are interested in making some of your own (this isn't the same kit I have, but looks similar!)

Happy Father's Day!!!

Horsey Rides...

2011-06-14T18:56:00.001-07:00

Dad giving Hunter a horsey ride...

Hunter giving Dad a horsey ride....he thought this was the most hilarious idea that he has ever come up with! He giggled uncontrollably the entire time :)

Just had to share!

A busy week...

2011-06-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

This week we had a busy week with family in Knoxville and Des Moines. It was a ton of fun being able to spend time with both of our families and with some friends too! What a refreshing week! We hung out, ran through the sprinkler, went to the zoo, and played lots. Here are some pictures from the week...

Grandkids with Grandma Van

Hunter working on the cars with his cousins

He is the biggest goof :) Putting on a show for everyone..

Fun in the sprinkler for the first time!

At the Blank Park Zoo. Hunter's first trip to the zoo and he loved it!

With his uncles and cousin Will

He had so much fun feeding the animals. I didn't think he would want to but it didn't scare him a bit! He had his hands out feeding all of them!

On the train at the zoo. The train was probably his favorite part of the whole day! He was saying "choo choo" all the way to the car when we left :)

Lastly, a snapshot of one of Hunter's most recent things he likes to do...hahaha....He loves to put his animals to bed, feed them, and I found him one day reading to them :) SO hilarious and so sweet.

Reflecting back on three years ago today...

2011-05-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today I married the most amazing man in the world!! I was reflecting back on the past few years today and was thinking through all of the things we have been through together over these past 3 years. It has been a lot!! It amazes me how I truly love Josh more with every day and with every thing we go through together. God has faithfully grown up a love in me for Josh that I could have never come up with on my own. How incredible! I am so thankful for a husband that leads our family to the Lord so well, speaks Truth/stands on Truth always- even when I don't want to hear it but definitely need it, humbly desires and pursues growth, always recognizes what God is doing in our lives and points it out to me, constantly balances out my anxiousness, impulsiveness, and impatience with reason, truth, and perspective. What a wonderful blessing God has given me in Josh! I'm thankful for how God has brought us through getting married, the process of beginning full-time ministry and fundraising, being pregnant, having a baby and beginning to learn how to be parents, all the way through our decision and preparations to move to Australia. Whew. There's been a lot in the past 3 years and I'm so thankful to have Josh as the man leading me through it all. Thank you babe for your wisdom, love for Jesus, and willingness to lead out of the power of the Lord leading you. You are great and I'm so blessed to be your wife! I love you! Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Goodbyes sure are tough...

2011-05-22T11:58:00.001-07:00

We have had to say good-bye to a few of our closest friends lately because we won't get to see them again before we leave for Down Under. I never would have imagined how hard it would be. But I see now why they teach us about saying good good-byes at our trainings. It is not easy to say good-bye well- it is much more tempting to act like it's not happening and not deal with how hard it really is. At our MTI training in November they taught us how to bless people in leaving and how to say good-bye well. During that time, I realized that it will be harder to say good-bye than I thought it might be, but I never imagined just how hard it would be. It is not hard for me to say good-bye to stuff, places, or anything like that, but thinking about not being a part of this amazing community that God has placed us in is really hard. We have been EXTREMELY blessed to be a part of this community in Cedar Falls for the last 6 years of our lives. We have grown so close to so many families, students, and friends who have challenged us, walked alongside us, and loved us so well. We could have never imagined what it looked like to have people like this surrounding us. What a sad, hard thing it is to now imagine not having this group of people surrounding us each day. Lets just say, I have been crying a lot lately as it becomes more of a reality that we really are leaving these wonderful people that God has blessed us with. And in the midst of it, I realize even more how great these friends are, because even though it is so difficult to say good-bye, they are the ones who are the most excited to send us out and are the most diligently praying and supporting us. God is showing me lately how blessed we are and is showing me how to be secure in Him only. So, needless to say, the tears are flowing as we come closer to leaving, but at the same time, God is getting us so excited about what He has prepared and is showing me that He is worth the sacrifice of being here, where we are comfortable. We are SO excited to get to Australia, meet the people, and begin the learning process of being in one of the most culturally diverse places in the world- learning not only Australian culture, 300+ country's cultures as well. How exciting! What an emotional roller coaster of joy and sadness.

Truth Tuesday

2011-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

"but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14 (Jesus speaking)

"The main reward of the Kingdom, the reward above all others and in all others, is that in the Kingdom we will behold the glory of God and enjoy that glory with the very pleasure of God. One of the great frustrations of this life is that even when we are granted a glimpse of the glory of God, our capacities for pleasure are so small that we groan at the incongruity between the revelation of Heaven and the response of the heart. Therefore the great hope of all the holiest people is not only that they might see the glory of God, but that they might somehow be given a new strength to savor it with infinite satisfaction-not the partial delights of this world, but, if possible, with the very infinite delight of God himself." John Piper, The Pleasures of God, p.311

How we long for the day to be rid of our sin and be able to perfectly find all joy and pleasure in worshipping God, without the distractions of ourselves and the world! This was so refreshing to read today- that someday I will stop failing to consistently find all joy in Him and stop sinning, and I will be infinitely glad in Him!

THE black eye

2011-05-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Hunter got a nasty black eye after getting so dizzy on a merry-go-round at the park that he tried to take a step, only to fall right back onto the merry-go-round and land right on his eye. Ouch! He is a pretty tough guy and handled it pretty well :) I think I was more sad as the next few days I had to watch it swell closed, change colors, etc. Poor guy.

He never ceases to be silly...seriously, this kid is hilarious! I love it!

Truth Tuesday

2011-05-03T11:21:00.001-07:00

"Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, 'Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God...Because of Your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears."

2 Samuel 7:18-19, 21-22

Last month one of the girls I have been discipling and I did something called "Thirty Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God" (which was incredible! I would definitely recommend it in order to set your heart on who God is and praise and worship Him because of it!) These verses were one of the verses accompanying one of the last names of God for the month and it really hit home for what we are going through right now. GOD alone has brought us to where we are and it was no big thing in His eyes. He has been in control in order to show His greatness and power to all who hear. May God be made glorified and known for all He has been doing to prepare the way for our departure and to provide abundantly. Excited to continue to praise Him for what He will continue to do! To God be all the glory!

Easter with the Fevers!

2011-04-27T19:20:00.001-07:00

My sister and her family came to visit us for Easter this year and it was a blast!! It was such a blessing to be able to spend good, quality time with them. We laughed a lot and just got to hang out together. It was long overdue and much needed time with them. I'm so thankful for this past weekend! Here are some pictures from the when we went to the park on Easter. Stephanie also has a lot of good ones from the rest of the time on her flickr page.

Going down the slide Hunter style- always backwards!

Go Thad!

Hunter wasn't super stable while running down the ramp. ;)

Cousin love..Hunter loves Will!!

So much fun!

Meditating on this passage this Easter...

2011-04-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 53

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
²For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. ¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

72% Funded: Story of God's faithfulness, sovereignty, and will to hopefully send us to Australia soon!!!

2011-04-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

We are 72% funded!!!!!!! WOW!! God is so good! We are absolutely blown away at how God has been providing the way to Australia lately. Just a few days ago, we were at 64% and just a few days ago, God brought us to where we are today! What a huge jump. Well, here is the story of how God sovereignly worked this out...incredible!

A few weeks ago, with a huge amount of nervousness, Josh asked a friend of his to consider giving $500-$1000/month. Whew. That was a big ask. Asking and praying big is not easy...but listen to how God answered. This friend called Josh back on Thursday afternoon and told him that he wasn't going to respond to his message because he was going to say no and he felt bad. But the day before he called, his boss brought him into his office and said that he would like to give him a $500/month living stipend. As he went home, he thought, "I don't need this extra money. Wait, Josh asked me for this amount a few weeks ago. I know God wants me to give this to the Coulsons." So he calls Josh up and says he wants to give $500/month! WOA! Isn't that just amazing how God had that all worked out? God is sooo incredibly in control of everything. Not only that, but we were praying that God would get us to 70% by that Friday and He abundantly said yes just the day before! It amazes me how God even moves in our hearts to show us what we should pray so that He can answer and get all the glory for doing it.

That same night, one of our donors decided to increase, along with another few who decided to give...bringing us to the 72%. I always thought that when we reached 70% it would be monumental because it seems that whenever people hit that, they are gone in no time. We are blown away at God's goodness and are thinking that He just might send us to Australia soon. This has caused us to start getting more things packed up and preparing so that when He does provide, we are ready! Meanwhile, we are basking in His goodness and sovereignty over all situations, and are praying for more answers like this :) We are so overwhelmed with thankfulness for everyone who is partnering with us in the advancement of the Gospel and is sacrificially giving for His name's sake. To God be ALL the glory and may no one even think for one minute that the Coulsons are doing great or doing anything- GOD is great and working mightily! Praise Him!

Hunter 18 Months!!!

2011-04-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

A year and a half!! What a big boy!!! This past month has been so much fun with Hunter. He is just turning into such a bundle of fun, joy, and laughter- he seriously makes me laugh almost all day. He has quite the humorous personality. Change seems to be the key word to this past month. He is really changing into being a little boy and is looking more like a little boy than a baby. He is talking all the time. I think he repeats at least one word in each of the sentences I say, excluding the first letter of most words. :) So, since he is talking so much, I won't make a list of what he says- it would never be complete! Some things that he is enjoying lately are...

-Being outside!!!!!! This is where we spend most of our days- it is so refreshing and wonderful to be outside again.

-Going to the park- I think about 75 times each day Hunter asks to go to the park. There is a park right across the street from our house, so he sees it out of the windows and says "Park! Park! Park!" all the time. He is beginning to get more brave at the park. He is climbing around, "running" up the ramps to get to the slides, and going down the slides by himself on his stomach feet first, which he thinks is really great :)

-Digging in the dirt- anywhere and everywhere he goes, he has an eye for dirt to dig in. He is all boy!

-Trucks are still the hot item to play with and to watch for outside of the windows. He likes to stand on his riding car to look out the windows so that he can watch for trucks that drive by. Ga Cruck (garbage trucks) are his favorite right now because they come by our house many times a day

-Balls are of course still a favorite too- the new favorite thing to do is play ping pong against the wall in his playroom.

-Thumbs up!- this is the new favorite thing that now accompanies high fives and pound its....although his thumb doesn't actually come up :) He just makes a fist and punches the air- very funny!

-Facial expressions- his favorites are "silly face" (sticking out his tongue), "happy/laughing face" (a hilarious fake laugh), "surprised face", and "crying face" (wa wa wa with hands on his eyes).

-Singing songs- he has started to sing along to songs. His favorite is "Yes, Lord" because he can do the actions really well. He also likes to sing "Rubber Ducky" and "Wheels on the Bus"

-Tools- always "fixing things" with dad. His drill is his favorite and he is actually really good at getting it right on the screw and "drilling"

-Lastly, this month marked the beginning of his LOVE for playing on his own- Mr. Independent :)

Well, I think I could think all day of the funny things he is doing right now, but I'll just move on to the pictures :) They will do a better job explaining anyways!...

Just like Dad...

PARK!!! PARK! PARK!!!!

Cheesy! Hey everyone, are you looking at me?!?!

With growing adventure, comes lots of falls and many bruises...he has a constant bump on his forehead. Poor guy.

Cousin time! We have been able to see these boys and his cousin, Will a lot this month!

Homemade highways with tape on the kitchen floor! We were racing his cars while the Nascar race was on!

This is his typical window perch to look for trucks...or drill the window :)

His car is usually broken...

His "surprised face" while eating pasta!

The sock is his "sock puppet" which he loves to play pretend with...but it is actually so that he doesn't suck his thumb because it was getting really dry and we didn't want it to crack and bleed. We thought he would hate it, but it turned into his new best friend for a few weeks!

Happy Spring!!!!

Prevailing Prayer

2011-03-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

"He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." And he said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation." And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:1-13

I have been studying Luke 11 which first has the Lord's Prayer in it and then goes on to further talk about prayer. The other day, I read a sermon by John Piper on Luke 11 and was so incredibly encouraged. The entire thing was extremely encouraging, as well as another sermon he had on Luke 11, but here is an excerpt from the part on prevailing prayer. If you want to listen to/read the whole sermon go to:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/prevailing-prayer-for-the-spirits-power

Jesus teaches us to prevail in prayer without doubting the Father's love.

By prevailing I mean hanging in there. Persevering. Persisting. Not giving up. Keeping on asking and seeking and knocking at heaven's door until the answer comes, or until God says, Stop praying.

Is This Really an Encouragement to Pray?

Now I know that the direction to prevail feels inconsistent with the direction to feel secure in the love of the Father. We are prone to ask, "If God is more caring than the best earthly father, then why would he sometimes be slow to respond to our prayer?"

But please notice: it wasn't my decision to put these two things beside each other. Jesus did it, not me. He tells the story in verses 5–8 of the man who goes to his friend's house in the middle of the night to say that a guest just arrived and there isn't enough in the house to feed him; could you please get up and lend me three loaves of bread? The man says that the door is locked, the children are asleep in his room, don't bother me now.

But his friend keeps knocking and asking until the man gets up, not because of his friendship, but because of the man's prevailing, persisting, persevering knocking. We all feel that this is a very unattractive image of the transaction of prayer.

Stressing the Importance of Prevailing Prayer

But immediately (in verse 9) Jesus says that there is a lesson to learn: "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Three things here stress the importance of prevailing, not giving up in, prayer. One is the tense of the verbs in Greek: present tense is continuous action; keep on asking, etc. The second is the fact that Jesus commands this continuous action three times (and repeats these three words in verse 10). The third thing that stresses prevailing is that the three words used get increasingly close to the answer and show a pressing in on God: Asking (as it were, for the house), seeking (until we find it), then knocking (until the door is open). Asking is the simplest and requires no movement. Seeking turns asking into an activity of pursuit. Knocking on and on at the door again and again signifies utter earnestness and perhaps even desperation.

So Jesus clearly wants us to be like this friend who kept knocking. He want us to prevail in prayer. But then he makes a sudden turn in verse 11 and shifts from the image of a grumpy friend to the image of a caring Father.

What's the Point of This Section?

So what's the point of the whole section? The point is to show us that prevailing prayer—persisting, persevering prayer—is utterly important for us. And he stamps this truth on our memories with a shocking image of friend who won't help without being bothered into helping. But then Jesus qualifies his point in verses 11–13 by saying that God is NOT like that friend. He is like the most caring Father imaginable.

So: yes, God sometimes gives us what we need only after a long season of prevailing and persisting in prayer. But, no, it is not because he is uncaring or insensitive or unable. Why then does he postpone the answer? Jesus does not tell us directly. But he does tell us indirectly.

Why Does God Sometimes Postpone Answering?

He says in verse 11 that a good father will not give his son a serpent if he asks for a fish. In other words, a good father will only give his children what is good for them. This is the only answer Jesus gives to our question in this text: when the Father in heaven gives us a slow answer—when he wills that we prevail for a season—it is because he is giving us a fish and not a serpent. He is giving us what is good for us. There is something in the prevailing—the asking and seeking and knocking—that we need, that is good for us. And he knows best.

The promise that will encourage us in prevailing prayer is simply verse 10: "Every one who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who goes on knocking it will be opened." God is not unresponsive to prevailing prayer.

May God get the glory when we come to Him with prevailing prayer because we know that HE alone is the one who is sovereignly in control of every little detail of our lives. May He delight in us coming to Him because He loves to hear our voices, He loves to humble us before Him, He loves to do good to those who love Him, and He loves to get the honor for how sweet answers are when He finally brings them. May His glory go forth into the nations because of prevailing prayer and the preaching of the Word! God is so good. Have a beautiful day and rejoice in a God who gets glory for your prayers to Him!

Hunter 17 Months!

2011-03-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hunter is 17 months old! The past month has flown by...I am having a hard time even remembering what is new with him this past month. He has done many fun things this month: stayed with Grandma Coulson for a day while Mom and Dad went skiing in Dubuque!, traveled all over for fundraising appointments, went to the John Deere Pavilion to sit in and "drive" the tractors while we were in Davenport for Thad's graduation, went swimming with his cousin Will, saw fire trucks, police cars, tractors, and gators outside of our house for various reasons, got two more teeth with a few more wanting to make an appearance (I guess that's not fun!), learned to say many new words, got to see lots of friends including the Caleb, Kari, and Corban White, Maria, and Colleen!, and got to finally go outside to play at the park across the street because it wasn't sooooo cold!!!!! He is changing everyday and becoming more of a little boy. He continues to be such a joy to be around and to make us laugh a lot! Here are some pictures...

Kari and Corban! It was really difficult to get a good shot with those squirmy boys! We were sooo extremely blessed to be able to spend time with them!

Let Your Kingdom Come...

2011-02-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

We sang the song "Let Your Kingdom Come" by Bob Kauflin this morning at church and I just really love this song. This is my heart and my deepest desire..so thought I'd share! Here is the link to listen to it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkKCb6Bmi6o&feature=related

and the lyrics...

Your glorious cause, O God, engages our hearts

May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are

We ask not for ourselves, but for Your renown

The cross has saved us so we pray

Your kingdom come

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
So that everyone might know Your Name
Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth
Till Your sovereign work on earth is done
Let Your kingdom come

Give us Your strength, O God, and courage to speak

Perform Your wondrous deeds through those who are weak

Lord use us as You want, whatever the test

By grace we’ll preach Your gospel

Till our dying breath

Let Your kingdom come

Let Your will be done
So that everyone might know Your Name
Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth
Till Your sovereign work on earth is done
Let Your kingdom come

Hunter 16 Months!!

2011-02-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

Wow wow! (as Hunter would say). I can't believe Hunter is 16 months old! That is almost a year a half. He is doing sooo many new things lately...it seems something new everyday. What a fun stage he is in! Here are a few of the newbies from this past month..so many things added to the list!:

New Words:

Es (yes)

ooosh (look)

owow (wow!)

cruck (truck)

cacto (tractor)

ye-yow (yellow)

inK (pink)- or any word that ends in a c or k, he loves to repeat!

caaa (car)

ack (yuck)

loves to repeat other words we say

New signs:

Blows kisses

Thank-you

Yes

Help

LOVES to give high fives and pound it. He has to make sure everyone in the room gets one if he gives one person one..it's hilarious!

Waves his hands in his face to say Peeyou!

New activites/other things:

Started pretend playing with characters- soooo cute! Especially with his new Buzz, his giraffe, and little people

BALLS (Doughs as he says) are his favorite ever along with cars/trucks

Animal noises- dog, monkey, bear are his favorites among some others...

Getting good at using a spoon

Loves to talk on the phone

Has really started getting into helping Dad build things and using tools

Loves playing in the snow and gets excited whenever we see snowmen when we are out of the house or if we are in the house and he sees the one we built :)

Has to be a part of cooking whenever I am cooking- he loves to sssssss (stir)

Gets super excited about playing with other kids and takes in every little thing they do

Playing with water/in the sink

Coloring

The Library is our new favorite winter spot!

I think that is a pretty good start to a list...I'm sure there are even more and a million of them that I haven't even picked up yet! He has also switched to taking one nap a day which has gone pretty well for the most part. He started not taking his naps well or would nap long in the morning and then not be tired enough for his next one, so we tried it. He is absolutely exhausted by the time lunch comes, so he is napping around noon now. And then he is really tired at night too so has been going to bed between 7 and 7:30. I have really enjoyed having him awake more! I thought it may be harder to get things done but I feel more productive somehow (? who knows why?!) I guess he is just a good little helper :) It will be nice when he starts to figure out how to extend his nap a little longer because he is usually pretty sleepy still after he wakes up from about 2 hours or so.

I think that's all on our growing big boy!! Here are some pictures!

Helping Dad build a snowman!

Hunter's absolutely favorite thing right now is going down to the basement of our house which is used for ministry. There is a pool table, ping pong table, and foosball tables. Doooughs (balls) galore! Here he is running from table to table...

Good kick!!

Forgot to mention he got his first fat lip....along with chipping one of his front teeth when falling! Ouch!

TOOLS! He loves helping Dad! (If you haven't noticed, there is a theme- DAD- he loves Daddy!)

Eating a snack...those cheeks are full!

Unsettled

2011-01-31T11:24:00.000-08:00

Unsettled. This is what we are. Unsettled.

At our training a few months ago, we talked about the "Transition Bridge." The bridge shows the different stages that you go through when you are going through a transition. Before you get on the bridge, you are settled. As you start to walk across the bridge, you are Unsettled. Keep walking and you move into Chaos. And then into Resettling. Finally, once you cross the bridge, you are in New Settled. Here is a picture someone drew of this crazy bridge (hope you don't mind me borrowing, Yormans!)...

So, right now, we are definitely in the Unsettled stage of transition. What an awkward place to be in. It's not my favorite- I didn't ever think I would be so excited to be in Chaos..but bring it on! Lets start packing! So, why are we in the Unsettled stage? For so many reasons. We are in the middle of fundraising so that we can get to Australia, but the process is slow and we have no idea when we will be leaving. This is such an unsettling feeling. Where do we belong? We don't really belong here, but we don't really belong there. We have to prioritize everything we do in order to put our focus on fundraising- which exaggerates the feeling of not belonging here. We aren't on staff at UNI anymore and we really can't commit to any other things because, well, who knows if we will actually be here to fulfill a commitment? This makes us feel so disconnected from everyone and everything that we were so intricately connected to just months ago. Lonely, disconnected, and isolated are some key words to this stage, or so I'm learning.

At the same time, we aren't in Australia yet, but with everything within us, we are longing to be there. Every time we get an email from or talk to the Browns (who have already made it to Australia, Praise the Lord!!) my heart just aches to be there. As they tell us of the community that lives around them (almost every one of their neighbors is from a different country from around the world), I just explode with excitement for the things I KNOW God is going to do there! Imagine living in such a multi-cultural place with so many opportunities to impact nations who don't have access to the Gospel!!!!! My heart is in Australia. But my body is in Iowa. Oh Lord, send us quickly!! I find myself unable to focus during the day because I am daydreaming and strategizing. I am so thankful for how God has changed my heart and given me a love for the calling He has for our lives.

So, in this transition, God is teaching us patience, perseverance, and more and more about God's perfect timing and plans. We are so thankful for what He has taught us and the growth that has extended to praises to the Lord- for HE is good and His faithfulness endures forever. We are also so thankful for the supportive friends and family that have lifted us up during this time and kept us from falling off of the bridge- we surely would have if it weren't for their intercession, care, and constant directing us to the Great God we serve. Please keep praying that God would send us quickly for the glory of HIS name in all the earth!

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.'" Isaiah 55:8-11

"For the earth WILL be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Habakkuk 2:14

SNOW!!!!

2011-01-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Hunter playing in the snow, which he was SUPER excited about. We finally rounded up enough gear to keep him warm thanks to friends letting us borrow some stuff!! Thanks everyone! He really loved it but reallly didn't like that if he touched his face it got covered in cold snow...not to mention that he couldn't really walk :) He still gets excited every time we see it snowing or talk about going outside to play in it. He'll get the hang of it eventually :)

Hunter 15 Months, Christmas, etc....

2011-01-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

Well, our little baby just keeps creeping closer and closer to toddlerhood. 15 Months Old. Phew. The middle of pre-toddlerhood...what a fun stage! Hunter is walking all over the place these days and loving being able to walk! He is also signing like crazy- he is getting really good at sign language. It used to take him a loooong time to learn a word and now I can show it to him once and he starts using it. This has been a lot of fun and really helpful so that I know what he needs! He is signing "more", "all done", "please", "milk", "food/eat", "thank-you" and "up". He hasn't made much progress in the talking area since last month, but he does repeat words we say which is fun! He just doesn't usually say them on his own without us asking him to or repeating us, unless it is mama, dada, or hot- he loves to tell me when things are hot! He also LOVES pointing at body parts right now. He pretty much knows all of the main ones (excluding thigh, arm-pit, eyebrow....you know, the ones that are a bit too descriptive! :) ) His favorite ones are tummy and head. He is really into vacuums- and by really into I mean he is obsessed. He loves the vacuum. He got one from his grandparents for Christmas which has only accelerated his obsession to a whole new level. He still loves trucks, balls, opening/closing things, stirring things or acting like he's cooking. He is also starting to really love playing with other kids. Today when he walked out of church and saw his little buddy, Gabe, he got super excited and wanted to play with him. Other kids are so much fun! I'm so glad he is starting to really engage with other kids, even if he still does his own thing for the most part when playing with them. His favorite foods are still grapes, any fruit for that matter, stir-fry and is also enjoying goulash, string cheese, and any kind of cracker.

For the last few months, Hunter has been struggling with ear infections. This hasn't been super fun. He is starting to feel better and has been a huge trooper through it all. We are thankful for our chiropractor who has helped a lot. We are hoping to ignore getting tubes!

Hunter is also doing some transitioning with naps. He isn't quite ready to drop his morning nap, but I think he is getting closer to that. He is staying up longer between naps..after much trial and error as to why his naps have been so bad. Come to realize that he just wasn't tired enough to take long enough ones. This morning at church was the first time he completely skipped the morning nap and he did pretty good! I don't think he will be dropping it yet, but is getting closer to that and doing well with it!

I have been trying new activities with him (finger painting, coloring more, chalk on the chalkboard Grandma gave him, hide and seek, obstacle courses, hunting for hidden items, etc.) which has been a lot of fun. If you have any great ideas for 15 month olds, I would love to hear them! It is fun researching and finding fun things to do with him throughout the day. I love being a mommy and being able to be used to teach him and show Him to Christ. What a fun and big responsibility! Anyways...here are some pictures from the past month or so.

Just reading the NavClassics book on the stairs....haha! He loves books!

First finger painting experiment was quite an adventure and mess! He evidently thought it tasted good also...

Obstacle course! Good job Hunter!

Christmas with the Coulsons was a ton of fun! Hunter loved being with his cousins and walking all around Grandpa and Grandma's new house (which has a ton of space to wander!)

Look! These are all my presents!!

Christmas with the Accurso's was also a blast...as you can see he LOVED the vacuum and so did his cousin, Will!! Hunter and Will had some fun together also...when we were at my mom's house for Christmas, we found Hunter and Will just sitting there sharing a box of teddy grahams. So cute!

And of course, a last favorite thing to do...wrestle dad and pounce on him!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and are excited to see how God works and grows His Kingdom in 2011!

Thankful

2011-01-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving for the body of Christ tonight. There are so many people who are pouring out their hearts diligently to the Lord for our sake. My heart is giddy (can't find a word that explains this outrageously wonderful feeling!) as I feel so loved, encouraged, and cared for. Thank you to everyone who cares so much for us and supports us so much in this way. WOW. As I have been thinking, praying, and thanking God for these people in our lives, I have been drawn to the song "How Beautiful" by Twila Paris. I am so thankful for the sacrifice of the cross through the Body of Christ along with the fellowship of the body of Christ, believers who cover us with love and prayers.

How beautiful the hands that served

the wine and the bread

and the sons of the earth.

How beautiful the feet that walked

the long dusty roads

and the hills to the cross.

How beautiful

how beautiful

how beautiful is the body of Christ.

How beautiful the heart that bled

that took all my sin

and bore it instead.

How beautiful the tender eyes

that chose to forgive

and never despise.

How beautiful

how beautiful

how beautiful is the body of Christ.

And as He laid down His life

we offer this sacrifice

that we will live just as he died

willing to pay the price

willing to pay the price.

How beautiful the radiant Bride

who waits for her Groom

with His light in her eyes.

How beautiful when humble hearts give

the fruit of pure lives

so that others may live.

How beautiful

how beautiful

how beautiful is the body of Christ.

How beautiful the feet that bring

the sound of good news

and the love of the King.

How beautiful the hands that serve

the wine and the bread

and the sons of the earth.

How beautiful

how beautiful

how beautiful is the body of Christ.

MTI Training

2010-12-29T06:34:00.000-08:00

The past month has been kind of a whirlwind, but SO good. I'm mourning that they are over actually...but really looking forward to what is to come. For the three weeks after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, we were out in Palmer Lake, CO for our three week cross-cultural training for Australia. Oh boy. Where do I start to explain the wonderfulness of these three weeks? It was packed with really great training, wonderful people whom we got really close with, and lots of fun and laughter. The training was more beneficial than we could have ever imagined it would be. It was packed with so many things that we would have never thought of to prepare us to go overseas and to prepare to leave. It also had a huge emphasis on community, so right from the start we got really close with the other families, couples, and individuals that were there with us. Boy do we miss them. The impact they made on our lives is not even explainable. I'm brought to tears right now just thinking about how much I miss them and wish we were all still together. But I love knowing that there are 30+ people in the body of Christ moving around the world that we are connected with and can see what God is doing among the nations. God IS doing great things among the nations and it is really exciting! A few key things that I want to make sure to take away from the training are (note: these may not make since, but I'm writing them so that they help me to remember! You can ask if you want to understand!):

-Different isn't necessarily wrong

-Look at the intent vs. impact in relating with others

-Learning to grieve losses and solve them as you grieve- it is okay to mourn and grieve, just don't stay there, work through it.

-Keep the sabbath- it is vital to growth and renewal with the Lord

-Keep doing half-days with the Lord- also so vital!

-Transition Bridge and the stages you go through during a transition, along with the necessity of a group of supporters that help us and hold us up as we cross the bridge and go through the transition

-TWANG!!!! of expectations- say it!

-the importance of building community and being vulnerable

-Seek to understand rather than to be understood

-Don't stuff conflict- Talk it out!

-how to say good good-byes- phew, this one is a tough one and brings me to tears often. I didn't realize just how hard it is going to be to say good-bye.

-Get into other's frame of reference; get into their shoes

-be a learner

-Stop to see God's bigness!

-Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God!

OK..I know, more than a few. Here are some pictures from the weeks. There are also some in my last post as well.

The whole group!

One of Hunter's new friends :)

On a beautiful hike in Colorado Springs

One of the most amazing couples that we miss- Dustin and Megan

Hunter 14 Months and walking!!

2010-12-11T08:49:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of Hunter at 14 months! Right now we are out in Colorado for our 3 week cross-cultural training. It has been an amazing time filled with wonderful relationships being built, great training, and fun things to do on the weekends. We are so thankful to be here because of faithful people who made it possible. We have just been blown away by God's goodness and faithfulness and by the support of the body of Christ. These past few weeks have been so necessary and great for preparing us to go to Aus. These pictures of Hunter are from last weekend. We went to the Focus on the Family headquarters and they have a bunch of fun stuff for kids to do. Hunter absolutely LOVED it! We will be home next weekend and are looking forward to seeing everyone again and being home, even though it has been such a blessing being out here.

Things that Hunter is up to these days....

-He started walking!!!!!!! The most steps he has taken in a row so far is 14! Go Hunter! It is so exciting to watch him begin to do this!

-Smiling and flirting with anyone that he sees around him...especially since we got out here. He is just eating up the fact that there are people all around him all day long. He just looooves people.

-Books, cars, balls (especially ping-pong balls lately...funny)

-Opening things and closing them again (he loves taking lids off, putting something inside, and then putting a lid back on. over and over and over and over and over again.)

-Wrestling with dad and jumping on the bed in our little one room space that we have here :)

-He loves the sandbox outside! along with the slides and everything else out there..but the sandbox was something new to experience

-Putting his hands in the water in the drinking fountains..another new thing

-Putting the booster seats on the ground and climbing in and out of them...it's best when there are a lot of them sitting next to each other and he can climb from seat to seat..so exciting :)

-Otherwise, most of the same stuff is going on. He has been in the nursery for the past 2 weeks of our training, so I can't think of a whole lot else that he is doing. But the walking one is a big one!

Hunter's favorite thing was this boat! He looks like such a big boy sitting here!

Hunter does a great job signing these days...he signs "more", "all done", "up", and "please"...but when he says please, he uses the sign for "more" as you can see here :) haha very funny. We are working on "milk", the real "please", and "thank-you" right now. What a champ!

One of Hunter's most used faces..."ooooooooo!!" He is very excited and curious all the time

What a fun day!

Hunter's one year pictures and family pictures

2010-12-04T19:12:00.001-08:00

Here are just a few of Hunter's 1 year old pictures that my sister took! Sorry this is a little late, but better late than never :) She did a wonderful job! The rest of them and some of Hunter and his cousin, Will, are on my sister's photo website.

Here are some of our family pictures taken by Jennifer Boccella Photography, who also did an amazing job! Thanks for both of your willingness to take these and for your amazing talent :)

Hunter's First Birthday Party

2010-11-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Hunter's birthday party....a month late :) It was a really fun day with our close family and friends!

My friend, Laina and I had a lot of fun making Hawkeye cupcakes :)

He was SUPER excited about this cupcake! His first cake ever (really, his first dessert ever!)

BIG bite!

He opened one present and then was way more interested in playing with the toys, so all the other kids did the opening for him!

He was exhausted by the end of the night, so he snuggled up with Grandma :) Very sweet.

Hunter 13 Months

2010-11-08T10:36:00.001-08:00

Today, Hunter is 13 Months! Once again, this was a really fast month! Here is a short update on the things Hunter likes to do right now..

-Laugh whenever someone else is laughing (cutest thing ever!)

-Watch and do everything his daddy is doing

-Climb the stairs

-Play with cars, trucks, and balls

-Push anything that could possibly be pushed: chairs, boxes, trucks, books.....

-Point and say "ooo!"

-He has said a few new words (he has already said mama and dada): Nana (banana) and baba (bye-bye). He has only said them once or twice each, but I'm pretty convinced he was saying them :)

-He also has his own word that he uses a lot but we can't figure out what he is saying: Dow-oooo.....who knows? It seems to commonly mean "ball" but I've also thought he was saying "go". haha...let the interpretations begin:)

-Likes to wave bye-bye

-Always has to see if someone was watching him when he does something great, then smile or laugh, and go back to doing what he was doing or hand you the object he was playing with. He LOVES to do this and flirt/be a ham

-He loves it when Josh pushes him around on the floor and wrestles him. Sometimes he will just lay down on his back and act like he is getting pushed over so that Josh will come over and push him around..very funny!

-As always, he wants to be outside ALL DAY, which has been hard as it gets colder out. We have been going to the park, on walks, and playing in the yard whenever possible since we won't be able to soon. That is going to be a sad day for everyone :)

-He likes it when I put something on a fork for him and then he gets to put it into his mouth

-He plays with a spoon and bowl and likes to act like he is stirring some food in it

-And of course..walk around everything he could possibly pull up on

Well...amidst all the hilarious and sweet things that he is doing these days, he is a little stinker too. He thinks its great to run away from me and laugh when trying to get him dressed or change a diaper (which today he sat still for me- incredible! progress..). He is also really struggling with this time change stuff, so woke up super early the last couple of days...hopefully this won't last too long! And..he has discovered that it is fun to spit food out of your mouth instead of saying "all done". Yuck. Let's learn to say all done as quick as possible!

Here are a few pictures of him. Soon to come: Hunter's birthday party, Hunter's 1 year pictures, our family pictures, a ministry update, and what I've been learning. Whew.

Camping with Grandpa and Grandma on his birthday

He is working on his 8th tooth right now!

Post-wrestling with Dad- Dad was a little tired and decided to use Hunter as a pillow, which of course was hilarious to Hunter!

Happy Monday!

persevere, trust, be patient...

2010-10-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." James 1:2-5

Lately, God has been teaching us a lot about perseverance, trusting in Him, and patience. It has been really hard to discern His will and what He wants for our lives. We have been asking a lot of questions..."Do you really want us to go to Australia?" "If it really is your will, then why aren't the funds coming in so that we can go?" "What are you doing, God?" "God, can you just show us plainly what you have for us to do?" ....and on and on and on we go. Confused. Lack of direction. Discouraged. Lost. It has been so easy to give up on what God has called us to do right now because it is not coming easily, quickly, and in the way that we want it to.

As we have asked all of these questions in the midst of our confusion, God has replied with this:

"Rest in me. Find your joy in me. Find your satisfaction in me. Look at how I am providing for you. Open your eyes. Get a perspective that comes from Me. Pray and think big and expect me to answer in MY timing. Stop focusing on fundraising and fix your eyes on ME for I am worthy of all your praise."

Oh yeah. Right. Duh. Where in the world has my focus been? Have I been so discouraged to miss the fact that a sovereign, faithful God is working for His glory NOW? That He is providing for us daily? I have been so frantically trying to raise funds that I have forgotten to fix my eyes on the provider, instead of on what He is providing.

Another thing that God has taught me during this time as I have been reflecting is that God is building in us perseverance, trust, and patience because they will be absolutely necessary when we get to Australia. God is building character in us such as this because God wants those who will persevere when it gets tough (and it WILL in a tough spiritual culture like Australia), who will trust and be patient when we don't see any fruit in the lives of who we are working with. THIS is why God has us in this place right now. He is preparing us. His Spirit is working these things within us to grow in the character that God wants us to have- so that we might not lose heart, but be completely reliant upon Him.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:8-11

Romans 1

2010-10-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished memorizing Romans 1 and thought I needed some processing about what I learned. I also just finished reading a book called the Attributes of God by Arthur W. Pink (which I fully intended on posting a ton about after many chapters because they were so great..but, well, I guess time didn't permit it :) ). AND I just started a new book that I am really excited about called The Pleasures of God by John Piper. So...here goes some thoughts on Romans 1....

-Paul is addressing the Gospel here in many ways: how it came to be, salvation, encouraging one another with the Gospel, proclaiming it, and showing us the state of the world so that we might have a heart for the world who is under judgment of a wrathful God.

-The Old Testament is essential to understanding the Gospel, for although Christ appeared, it was through the prophetic writings that helped disclose this salvation and who He was. (v.2-4)

-Jesus was proclaimed the Son of God through His powerful resurrection from the dead (v. 4)

-v.8-15: verses I have been praying for Australia and the church

-The Gospel is necessary because God's wrath is being poured out on the world (v.16-17)

-We suppress the Truth about how great God is and choose ungodliness and foolishness. God has revealed His majesty and we choose depravity instead. We are so utterly disgusting, ugly, dirty, and unworthy of God. He offers Himself to us, His glory, and we choose to become foolish. We see a glorious God offering righteousness, hope, peace, life, and Truth, but instead we desire foolishness, depravity, deception, unrighteousness, lies, and death. We are so desperately in need of God. Thank you, God, for rescuing me and bringing me into your presence! (v.18+)

-God's wrath comes because we suppress these Truths and choose ungodliness. (v. 18-19)

-v.28-32: These sins that God gives us over to is God's judgment on our sin. The wrath of God is being revealed to the world as we set our affections on things other than God. God's response is to let us sink into the pit of our own destruction we've chosen

-v.28-32: this list is showing that every sin is rooted in preferring something over God and every sin gets worse as God takes away His restraints and allows us to continue to sink in our sin. It all starts with our abandonment of God- not acknowledging or wanting to know Him.

-The good news in the midst of this is that you don't have to keep sinking in your sin if you will embrace God!!!! (v. 17)

While although this may seem really depressing and hard to take in, this chapter has been so great to memorize and meditate on. As I have read about God's wrath for the past weeks, I have seen my sin clearly and my heart has all the more opened to people who don't know, love, and worship our great God.

Our Baby Boy is ONE!!!!!

2010-10-08T08:05:00.001-07:00

Today, our little boy turns one! One year ago today, we were in the hospital rejoicing in the new creation that God brought into the world! It's hard to remember that our energetic little boy was once struggling to breath in the NICU. God has blessed and brought him a long way in the past year!

The past year has been such a wonderful joy and blessing to our family. Hunter fills our house with so much joy, laughter, goofiness, growth, change, enjoyment..etc....etc...etc. We love our little man! For his birthday, 1. Daddy surprised him when we got in the car in the morning....He was so excited to see the world while driving! He had this inquisitive look with a finger pointing at something almost the whole way to Grandma's house!

and 2. He gets to spend the weekend camping with Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Jake! (Which hopefully deserves an exclamation mark :) It is his first time away from us for more than a few hours, so hopefully he has fun!!) Here are some pictures of lately and what he is up to these days!

He loves to do this and make the "ahhhhwaaaa" sound. He is also into clapping and he has started signing "more" when he wants more of something! And the other day he also waved "bye-bye". There are new things like this everyday!

Trucks, cars, trucks, cars, trucks, cars....he just can't get enough of them!

Very sweet :)

My best friend Kari and her family came to visit this week. Hunter and Corban were great together! They had a blast!

Popping bubbles!

I taught him to blow...but he clearly isn't getting many bubbles blown with the wand that far away from him :)...but this is how he likes to do it! Hopefully that talent will come in handy with some birthday candles!

Happy Birthday Hunter!! We love you!

Hunter 11 Months!

2010-09-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

I know I say this every single month...but wow! I can't believe he is 11 months old! It is truly crazy to think that he is almost a year old. This year has flown, but at the same time it seems like Hunter has been here forever. So, you ask, what is Hunter up to these days? He likes to...

-Crawl

-Pull up on things

-Walk around with help

-Play catch/play with balls (his favorite thing to do! Happy daddy :) )

-Play with cars

-Giggle/smile/be a ham

-Do everything other people are doing and eat what other people are eating

-Point at everything with an excited grin or inquisitive look on his face

-Wander around looking for fun things to play with such as pop bottles, milk jugs, etc.

-Read books while turning the pages as fast as he can

-Brush his teeth

-Be outside!

-Play with sticks outside

-Watch birds fly around

-Swing

-Be with his daddy- he is a BIG Daddy's boy!

and on and on I could go. He has learned so many new things in the past month and it is so exciting and fun! He has really started to interact more and play with things more (rather than just chewing on them). He babbles a lot and is just constantly on the go. He is on the move and curious about everything. We are thankful that he is doing really well at learning to obey the word "no"...with of course lots of disobedient acts in there too. He's learning though! We are really enjoying this stage and enjoy watching him explore on his own. Here are a few pictures from lately!

God is faithful, faithful in all things and at all times

2010-09-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

I have been so confused and discouraged lately. My focus has been on my circumstances instead of on Christ. Fundraising for Australia has been so slow and so discouraging. We feel like we have been doing this for a long time now and not seeing much fruit at all. It has been so easy to doubt that God's will is for us to go, but at the same time, we are confident in the direction He has given us. It is so easy in times of trial to give up, lose heart, and choose not to persevere. As I read James 1 today, I realized what I have been lacking. My heart has been so distracted by the discouragement that I chose to forget how God has asked me to find JOY in the midst of trials. To have faith and trust that He is faithful and will provide. And although things are not going the way we desire them, when I find pure joy in Him alone, that develops a steadfast heart which allows God to use my circumstances to make me perfect and complete in His sight. That is my prayer today, that although we are in a rut, we are discouraged, we lack in wisdom and hope, that we might find JOY in this time and become more complete in Christ because of this. God is faithful and WILL guide and direct our paths. My burdens are lifted today as I move my focus from raising funds to God faithfully developing us into a family that MORE glorifies Him. Although His plans are not ours, they are beautiful and perfect and best. I'm trusting in these promises today and praying for the wisdom we lack.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

Prayer: Part 2

2010-08-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

"Prayers of the upright delight God because it expresses the affections of the heart which call attention to the all-sufficiency of God" (John Piper speaking on Psalm 15:8).

Part 2 of my processing about what I have been learning about prayer is going to mainly focus on preaching the Gospel, redemption, and prayer for the nations. Phew. This is a lot. Here we go...

"Prayer is one of God's means of bringing the elect to faith" (also Piper).

Ok, so, if prayer is a means for God to bring others to Himself, then how does this work if God already has foreknown, predestined, and called (Romans 8:29-30) those which He chooses to? Are our prayers actually making a difference if He has already decided who are His children? This is my next tough question that I wanted to figure out. So here is what I have learned regarding this...

-Prayer is like preaching. Just as God uses people to proclaim His Word in order to save the elect, so He also sees to it that all prayers are prayed which He has promised to respond to. This was a great illustration for me to think of how God uses the preaching of His Gospel BY HIS CHILDREN...yes, God chooses us to tell others about Him even though He has the power to just tell them all Himself and bring them to Himself. Just as He uses the preaching of the Gospel in this way, He also uses our prayers in the same way. He uses them by answering in order to bring His Gospel to the ones He has chosen and get all the glory for it.

-Prayer is the power behind the Word being preached. The triumph of the Word will not come without prayer (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2, Romans 10:13-17, Matthew 24:14). His whole plan of redemption hangs on the preaching of the Word, and the preaching of His Word hangs on our prayers!

-If we really believe that GOD is the one who makes the ultimate decision about our salvation, then why WOULDN'T we pray for the conversion of the lost? HE is in control of this and delights in answering our prayers...not only that, but has predestined our prayers so that He might answer them in order to bring His people to Himself.

-this one could be confusing. But think about it. If we believe that it is 100% our choice whether we follow after God or not, then what is the point in praying for others? There is NO point. You cannot ask God to do this if you don't believe that HE is the one who changes hearts and brings people to Himself. That just doesn't match up or make sense. God is the one who changes hearts. HE is the one who sends the Spirit to work in us to desire Him. We cannot desire Him without Him changing our heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekial 36:26).

So, I've come to realize that this is what I must be praying! That God would...

-Change their heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekial 36:26)

-Circumcise their heart so that they love Him (Deuteronomy 30:6)

-Put His Spirit in them and cause them to obey Him (Ezekail 36:27)

-Grant them repentence and a knowledge of the Truth (2 Timothy 2:25-26)

-Open their hearts so that they believe the Gospel (Acts 16:14)

These are the things that I want to begin diligently praying for friends, family, students, and the people we will meet in Australia. I must also be praying these things knowing that life is a war- that we are in a battle and NEED to pray to God out of desperation for Him to accomplish His mission and to change our hard hearts into hearts that love and adore HIM.

Ok..this is a lot, so that is all the processing I'm going to do :) I will leave you with the resources that I used to study about prayer in case you are interested in doing this as well!

The Bible!!

The Pleasures of God by John Piper

Prayer: The Work of Missions by John Piper

click here to read this sermon

Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer by John Piper

click here to read this sermon

How to Get Results Through Prayer by Jerry Bridges

...and a few other articles, books, sermons, and wise men and women!

Prayer: Part 1

2010-08-17T08:13:00.001-07:00

Recently, I have been studying prayer a lot. Prayer is something that is so vital and important, but at the same time that I have always had so many questions about. I finally decided it was about time to dig into the Word of God and figure out more about what He has to say about prayer, and get some of my specific questions answered. While many of my questions are not things we will ever figure out, I have received some insight and feel like I can pray more confidently after studying the Word on prayer. I am going to use this post to kind of process through ALL of the information I have read, studied, and discussed with others over the past few weeks. Sorry if it is forever long...but it is good stuff, I promise.

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." John 15:7 (ask and you will receive also noted in John 16:24, Matt. 7:11, Luke 11:9, John 14:-13-14, and many many more...)

This is a verse that I have had memorized for so long, but have always had so many questions about. Really, God? WHATEVER I wish? Nawww...no way. Well, knowing that God's Words are True and He is faithful, I decided I better get this one figured out...because it doesn't seem to really be whatever I wish. Here are some conclusions to this first big question:

-Our desires must be aligned with God's desires in order for our prayers to be effective. They must be centered on Kingdom desires, God glorifying desires, Gospel-spreading desires- not our natural desires (see Psalm 37:4). We must be utterly devoted to the interests of God and the plans of God and not our own in order to pray effectively. It is then that whatever I ask, God grants it to me- because it is for HIS Kingdom and HIS glory and not my own. And when we pray in this way, God gets glory and delights in answering by giving good gifts to His children. He gets glory as the One who is Good and Powerful enough to answer our prayers.

-The glory of God is the aim of prayer- this is how 'whatever' is qualified

-We know that we are praying rightly, for His glory, and His will when we are praying the Word of God and we are in the Word of God. His Words are in us. 1 John 5:14-15

So, then my next question is...How then must I pray in situations of sickness or other situations where we can't specifically know the will of God in this situation? It may be His will to heal them but it may also be more glorifying to Him if He doesn't. Each situation is different.

As I pondered this question, a very wise woman that has invested in me greatly over the past year gave me a beautiful way of thinking about these type of situations and how she prays through them...

The principle in the following example shows that God delights in giving good gifts to us but many times we must wait through the hard times to receive them. Many times we are too impatient to do this and pray accordingly. Example: Suppose a child is asking for a marshmallow in the middle of the afternoon.

"Mommy, may I please have this marshmallow?"

"Dear, if I give this to you now, you cannot have the delicious cake that I have prepared for us to eat after dinner."

Do you see? The child wants something now, but the mom knows that there is something MUCH better awaiting them that night. So the child should not eat this now; if they just wait, there will be something amazing awaiting them later. So it is with prayer. We many times ask for healing (in the situation of someone being sick) but we forget to also ask for strength for this person and that God would refine them in this situation. We must pray BOTH of these so that God may answer in the way that most glorifies HIM. This was a great realization for me. I must do my homework before coming to God in prayer- search the Word and God's character to find His will. And if I am unsure, pray to the best of my knowledge or in many ways as shown above.

This is getting very long....so I am going to continue what I have learned in parts. Part 2 will come soon!

Hunter 10 Months

2010-08-14T11:03:00.001-07:00

Hunter is 10 months old! Right now he is at the age where he changes every day and does something new every day. It is so fun! He is crawling, pulling up on things, walking with help, LOVING cheese and cars/buses/things you can stack, and has started giggling A LOT over the stories going on in his head :). He is just a little ham and always making me laugh...Here's an example of him doing this...

His new thing when he wakes up from a nap is to be at the edge of his crib next to the door so that when I walk in he is peeking at me through the cracks with a huge smile on his face. He then proceeds to giggle, look to the door, and get really excited to go down stairs so he can look for Daddy. As we walk down the stairs we bounce and giggle some more, and then when we get to the bottom of the stairs we stop and say "Where's Daddy?!" He looks around, spots him, starts kicking his legs/flailing his arms, and talking/smiling.

Hunter also has a love for birds and dogs. He loves watching the birds outside or listening to me act like a bird :) Another thing that makes him laugh. His eyes are also all for dogs...if there is one in the house, he knows it, and won't do anything but watch it.

Our hardest things of late are dealing with separation anxiety and learning how to whine because he can't have something. oh boy.

Here are a few pictures from lately....

I found these sunglasses in a bag of stuff someone gave me...hilarious!

Where am I?!

Exploring...of course with my water bottle that he finds wherever it is placed when he wakes up

Hunter's favorite yoga moves :)

He LOVES to play with his hair which can be a little gross when he is eating!

Hunter's big debut...

2010-08-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

In the last week, Hunter has started crawling (doing some sort of army crawl/looking like a spider) and also started enjoying walking around with our help. Watch out world! Here comes Hunter! I am already realizing how much life is going to change now that he is more mobile. He has been pulling up on things for a while now, so now that he is doing these two things, I think he is going to be all over the place very soon! I have finally figured out how to put videos on the computer, so here is Hunter on the move!

Hunter crawling

Hunter walking with help

Hunter 9 Months and Summer Trip #2!

2010-07-10T19:55:00.001-07:00

WOW, can you believe that our little boy is 9 months old already?! It's true! He is growing and changing a ton these days. Everyday I notice something new that he is doing. He is super close to crawling, loves to pull himself up on things, and is babbling lots. There is no sitting still for this little boy...whenever I have him on my lap he is climbing all over me and the chair/couch I am sitting in. He is also just constantly laughing and smiling. Lately, I will catch him sitting by himself laughing at nothing or at a toy or the wall or whatever is in sight. This is one of my favorite things! I love his cute giggles! He also loves clicking his tongue and gets the biggest kick out of doing this back and forth. His greatest enjoyment is doing all of these things OUTSIDE. He loves being outside! When we got home from our trip this week (at 10 PM), he woke up and starting smiling and getting excited because he heard the familiar noise of the creek running next to our house. Needless to say, he loves being outside and is very observant of his surroundings...especially his beloved creek :)

As I said, we just got back from our second summer trip to Sandusky, Ohio for a small family reunion. It was a GREAT trip and much needed time with all of the family. I was so encouraged by the time with everyone and realized even more how much I will miss my family when we leave. We went to Cedar Point Amusement Park and also spent lots of time at the water park in our hotel! Hunter LOVED the water! He also loved watching the roller coasters go by at the park. Here are a few pictures from the water park and other pictures lately. I regrettedly didn't take very many pictures on the trip, but here are a few that I did take!

First hair cut!!

Finished product..thanks Kelsie! Lookin' good!

He had fun with a magazine the other day...

Wink!

Australia!

2010-06-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally getting around to telling the big news about Australia... We are moving to Sydney, Australia (Lord willing) at the beginning of November! Here's the story...I'll try to keep it relatively brief!

Back in October, the campus directors at UNI, Scott and Tami Brown, were asked to consider moving to Australia to pioneer/rebuild the campus ministry there. They decided to go and asked us to go with them! After much prayer and consideration, we decided to go too! The ministry in Australia collapsed about 7 years ago when the missionaries stopped using the Bible to find Truth and began using the newspaper, media, etc. to teach Truth (which was an influence of the culture). At that point, the Navigators said we are not about that and this group of people left the ministry in Australia. Since then, Australia has been the number one priority for the International Navigators to send people and here are a few reasons why:

-Australia is STRATEGIC in reaching many unreached people groups in the world. They have the resources to be a great sending nation to send people to the many closed countries that are near Australia. So, not only do they have the resources to send people, they are in such close proximity to these countries that are closed to the Gospel that they have easier access to them.

-Australia itself is only 3-5% true believers in Christ. Surprise to most people, I know. We were shocked when we began learning about this. Most people think that Australia is almost the same as America, but it is very very different religiously and culturally. While we are both modernized countries that speak English, we are very different places. Most Australians are apathetic to beliefs, atheist, and agnostic. A very different climate than Cedar Falls! This country is very dark and lost.

-The campus that we will be at (Macquarie University) is 1/3 international students from SE Asia. Many of these countries that they come from such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc. are closed to the Gospel. So, 1/3 of the population of the campus, 10,000 students, are from closed countries! God is sending the nations to Australia and opening huge doors to these nations through this! What a great opportunity to reach these students who will then go back home and reach their own people.

-184 nationalities are represented at the few campuses in Sydney!

-There are 8 Navigator staff in all of Australia (collegiate, military, innercity ministries, etc.) compared to the 1,500 Navigator staff in the U.S. The laborers are few in Australia and the need for the Gospel is great. Almost all of these 8 staff work other full-time jobs because the churches are weak there and they are unable to get fully funded.

So there you have it. These are the main reasons why Australia is a priority to get people, why it is a strategic location, and why we have decided that the Lord is leading us to take this opportunity. We are so excited about this. At first, we were so surprised. We would have never expected to end up in Australia...we knew we wanted to go overseas, but God really threw us for a loop! But now after learning about how the nations can be impacted in and through Australia, we are STOKED to see what God is going to do there. We will be doing basically the same thing that we do here at UNI, but it will just look a little different. We will still be discipling men and women and developing laborers for Christ. The campus we will be at is a commuter campus, so ministry in the dorms will obviously not be our way of doing ministry as it was at UNI. We are excited about this challenge because it will not only be reaching college students, but also whole communities of people that these students live in and are a part of. We are excited to reach the city of Sydney and not just the college campus. And through this reach the world! It will be a huge challenge, but one that is not too big for our Great God and Savior! How exciting to be a part of the adventure He has planned. Ok, I could tell so much more, but I'll save it since this is an entire book....expect more sometime soon. I will keep you updated as we plan and fundraise (oh boy, we have to raise a lot to live in such a big city!). We have a lot of work ahead of us in the coming months. God is so good!

First Tooth!

2010-06-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Last week, Hunter got his first tooth! You can see it in this picture on the bottom right (if you click on the picture you can see it better!). His other bottom one is coming in now too. He has done pretty well for the most part. A little clingy when it is close to bedtime, but otherwise has done pretty well. This second one is appearing to hurt a little more than the last. Poor guy. He is a champ! So cute :)

He also loves to make noises with his tongue :)

Also, Happy Father's Day! Hunter is so blessed by his daddy and I am so thankful for him. He is a big Daddy's boy :) What an amazing man of the Lord. Hunter and I are both so lucky to be loved, lead, and taught by him. Thanks hunny for always leading Hunter and I to the Lord each day. We love you!

New best friend :)

2010-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hunter spent time with his new best friend yesterday and it was so much fun! My best friend, Kari and her son, Corban were in Iowa yesterday, so Hunter and I went to see them. It was such a blessing to get time with them and get to know little Corban some more. Corban is almost 3 months old- it is crazy how you forget what babies younger than yours are like, even though it hasn't been all that long since they were that age! It was like I had already forgotten how to handle a 3 month old baby. They change so quickly! Corban is a very, very sweet boy who looks EXACTLY like his daddy, Caleb.

We had a lot of fun living life together for a day. I truly miss my dear friend so much and it always encourages me to be with her- even if it is on a car ride where our babies are echoing each other's cries :) (Kare, we built a good memory didn't we?!) Here are some pictures from our time. I hope this can happen again sooooon!

Hunter loved Corban- he liked to touch him and pull on his sleeves :)

Sweet Corban with his wonderful Mama!

Beach baby :)

We miss you guys already Kari and Corban!

Rainy day fun and teething remedies!

2010-06-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Once upon a rainy day, (everyday lately!) Hunter did a fun little texture bag activity! I filled baggies with things that would be fun to mush around, make fun sounds, etc. I put salsa in one bag and rice in the other. He absolutely loved this! He had so much fun! I had to constantly watch him because he really liked the feel of the coldness of the salsa on his sore gums and was chewing the bag like crazy. I didn't want him to poke a hole in the bag! He chewed on the salsa bag and mushed it in his fingers, and he shook the rice bag all over the place- he loved the sound it made. This was a success! Looks like it is something I better do again :)

Speaking of sore gums........Hunter is cutting his first tooth!! Very exciting, but very sad at the same time. I feel bad for him because he is hurting :( He has done really well for the most part. He is just less smiley than usual and just not himself. I hope this tooth gets all the way here quickly! I was pureeing him some apples yesterday, so I gave him one of the slices of apple and I think it felt really good because it was cold and hard. This was the most laughter I got from him all day. What a perfect teething remedy!

Hunter 8 Months Old!

2010-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Hunter turned 8 months old! I never would have thought I'd say that :) What a big boy! He is changing so much everyday. Hunter is sitting up and babbling a lot these days. He loves to sit up and play with, hit together, and throw toys. He is really wanting to become mobile and start crawling, but just can't quite figure it out..which is very funny (but he doesn't think so!). He also enjoys eating solid foods so much! His favorite foods are sweet potatoes, oranges, and apples. I think he would really eat them all day long if I let him! One of his other favorite things is to be outside! He absolutely LOVES being outside and watching the trees blow in the wind or listening to the birds chirp. It is hilarious how he giggles at the smallest things such as these and just about anything else that happens in his day :) . We love his laughs so much. Today we were at the mall and he watched the carousel go round and round and watched the escalator go up and couldn't stop laughing. I love that he finds joy in the little things! Here are some pictures from today!

Enjoying the outdoors! About to go on our daily noon walk.

A couple days ago, Hunter got his first set of balls (baseball, football, basketball, and soccer ball). Daddy is determined to begin the sports brainwashing and training young! He has enjoyed "rolling" the ball back and forth the last few days.

Summer Trip #1: Colorado!

2010-05-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some highlights from the last few weeks that we spent in Colorado Springs, Colorado! It was a great few weeks of training, time with friends, encouragement, and Australia interviews. There were a lot of firsts for Hunter on his first long trip!

Enjoying the 15 hour car ride! He did so great!

Hunter's first time swimming!! He got to go a couple different times during the trip and loved it!

So sweet...

We spent a lot of time with the Lewickis who are on staff at Iowa State during our training week. Here is Hunter and his new friend, Benjamin playing!

At the Denver Aquarium...a first for both Hunter and I!

A day at the most beautiful park ever. It had a gorgeous view of the mountains surrounding it.

Weeeee!!!

One afternoon we took a long scenic drive from Denver to Colorado Springs. It was AMAZING! God is so beautiful...what an amazing Creator we serve!

One of our stops on the way home was to meet little Corban White, my best friend, Kari's baby! I was so excited to meet him! He was such a sweet little man :) It was so weird holding a baby this small again- I can't even remember what it was like for Hunter to be this small and it has only been a few months! Time flies!

We finally made it home on Saturday and we are so glad to be home! Only a month or so until our next big trip of the summer!

Spring Semester Update

2010-05-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

This semester was such an encouraging semester on campus...I feel like I could write forever about God's faithfulness to work in so many peoples' lives. So bear with me as I try to tell you the main things without getting too wordy and excited :)

At the beginning of the semester, Josh and I were feeling a little discouraged; feeling like students weren't catching the vision for discipleship and weren't desiring to reach out to those around them. One night we spent a good amount of time praying and asking God to move in students hearts in these areas. That night we pleaded with Him to work in huge ways on this campus. Well, He answered hugely!! I don't know why I ever could have doubted that He would. God is always faithful to answer when we ask. The following NEXT FEW DAYS God had already begun to answer this prayer. Josh and I both had multiple students come up to us and tell us that they had started discipling someone and wanted direction. They were excited about building generations of laborers for Christ! As the semester went on, we saw these relationships grow and flourish greatly. Wow. It is so exciting to be a part of God building laborers for His Kingdom.

Over the next few months, God also grew in so many students a heart for those around them. In mid-March, Mark Cahill came to Cedar Falls to talk at our church and at Navs. Through this and through much time studying God's heart for the world with students, the vision grew! People were reaching out to their friends in such a way that they couldn't keep Christ to themselves. And here's the kicker: people were coming to Christ!!!!! Students were coming out of the woodworks to share their faith- students we never would have expected were sharing each day on campus, were sitting down with their friends to share, and were praying diligently for God to use them to bring people into His Kingdom. There were 6+ students that came to Christ and are now being followed up with/discipled by students! Praise the Lord!

Among all of this excitement, we studied the book of Exodus this semester and it was so beneficial in all of our lives. I learned so much about the sovereignty of God and His goodness in all situations. It was great to study the Word in depth with the ladies in my study and to see the growth that happened in all of us.

So that is a quick (but probably still too long!) synopsis of what God has been doing this semester in the lives of students at UNI! It's been an exciting semester and we are excited to watch God continue to work to develop laborers out of UNI!

Hunter 7 Months!!

2010-05-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hunter is 7 months old this week! That is just unbelievable! He is doing really well. He successfully sits up on his own now, is eating all sorts of delicious foods, and really loves to blow bubbles and make that bbbbbbb sound :) He is taking his first long road trip tomorrow to Colorado Springs. We will be gone for 2 weeks at our EDGE training and then our Australia interviews (I don't think I've mentioned that on here yet...but that is for another blog :) ) We are very excited for our trip. It is crazy how your packing list becomes tripled when you have a baby! I better get packing! Here are some pictures of Hunter at 7 months!

Papa came to visit! Hunter reallllly loves his Papa :)

Such a big boy sitting up and playing!

Daddy's boy :)

Go Cubs Go!!

"But Dad! I don't want to be a basketball player!" We think this picture is hilarious!

I will update soon on our trip to Colorado, an update on the past school year, and more about Australia!

Happy May Day!!!

2010-05-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of my friends, Laina and Laura, and I made some really fun cupcakes and delivered them to some of our friends for May Day. Some of the baskets have candy in them, those ones were for the kids, and the others have many cupcakes which were for some college students. We chose the apple look because we thought it may give a little boost to all the studying that the college students are doing right now in preparation for finals week next week. As the saying goes.."An apple a day gets a straight A!" Well, that's not really how it goes, but I guess the real saying would work too, since so many students get sick during finals week! These apples might not quite keep the doctor away seeing as how absolutely unhealthy they are! But they were really fun to make! The stem is a tootsie roll, the leaf is laffy taffy, and there is a donut hole underneath the frosting and sprinkles in order to give it its apple like shape. The sprinkles are of course to give the apple its shiny red color :) Well, off to deliver some May Day baskets! Happy May Day!

First day at the park!

2010-04-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hunter 6 Months!

2010-04-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hunter turned 6 months old last week! Wow, time flies! He is growing so much and becoming such a sweet little boy. This month, Hunter rolled over the other way (back to front) and started sitting up! He also tries super hard to crawl all the time, but just can't quite get his little body to get going. He is going to be on the move real quickly! He has favorite toys and books that we play with everyday and LOVES to be outside! He could be outside playing all day. We are really enjoying the warmer weather. He chews on anything in sight and loves to be held to standing position and bounce. Hunter has also extended his solid foods to real food- not nasty rice cereal! He has had sweet potatoes, oranges, pineapple (which he loved- who would've thought!), and oatmeal....along with a few things that Dad sneaks in every once and awhile that I would never give him :) It is crazy how quickly babies change. I think Hunter has changed by leaps and bounds each week this month- growing better at engaging with you, grabbing things, sitting up, eating, moving around, etc. etc. etc....He just learns so many new things every week! Here are some pictures of him...

He has figured out how to destruct things...one day I walked downstairs and he had pulled his monkeys out of the holder that makes them hang and it was all on top of him! Funny boy!

Hunter loves to grab his feet, chew on his socks, etc. So cute! :)

First day wearing summer clothes! Thanks Caleb and Kari for my first cute summer outfit!

Constant droooool....

His favorite food, oranges!

He loves his exersaucer

Just hanging out with his giraffe friend :) and of course, chewing his fingers!

Have a great week!

A week without Daddy :(

2010-03-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last week, Josh was gone in Colorado for a spring break trip with some of the college students. We did many things to keep busy in hopes of the week going fast and Daddy returning quickly! We are so thankful for everyone that we got to spend time with during this week. We also did a few other fun things like Hunter's first play date with his new friend Gabe (we didn't have a picture of this though)! We missed Daddy lots!

We read lots of books! One of Hunter's favorites.

Look at me! I'm learning to sit up!

My cousin, Will came to visit me! I loved him and had so much fun! My aunt Stephanie has much better pictures of us though, click here to see how much fun we had together.

Grandma came to visit us!

We did some sewing and card making while Hunter was napping :) Here are a few of the cards we made! It was so much fun!

Hurry home Daddy!! We miss you!!!