The many faces of Spence

Summer Days!

Here is our brilliant goofy Spencer...this side of Spencer is from his father :). Be sure to click on this photo for an upclose look at the details of this goofy boy!



The lazy days of summer are passing quickly. We will begin school in just a few more weeks! Zach was pleasantly surprised that he enjoyed his break from school. He thought it was going to be terrible but with playing in the pool, and going to camp, and now VBS he says that summer wasn't so bad after all! Here are a few summer pictures.

VBS pictures

VBS

What could be more fun then being in a hot stuffy church in 110 degree weather with 54 smelly wild kids? We are having VBS this week. Our church was filled to the max last night with those 54 kids and then shocker Baron gets up and tells them all to bring a friend...hello...did you think about where you will put them all :). What is really cool is about 20 of these kids are new and unchurched. They are wild and come from some rough backgrounds.

See my teeth

Camp

Don't you just love camp? We still have a few more teens to take to camp in August but so far the kids have loved it. Last week the young teens went. One boy, age 14, I can't spell his name and even if I did you wouldn't be able to pronounce it so I'll call him V, he gave his life to Christ and the camp director told us if you can tell by tears that someone is sincere then V was very sincere and saw his need for Christ to save him. Pray that V can start coming to our church. He goes to a church that teaches that salvation is by trusting in Christ/baptism/good works. He said he understood the difference. He will at least continue to come to teen Bible study at our church. Isabela who is 15 I believe, attends our church. Her parents are devout Orthodox. She came back so excited. She was talking to me so fast this morning at church telling me, "I am so happy, I know now for sure I have Jesus in my heart, I want to live for him, I'm so happy, I want to help you at church as much as I can, I am just so happy." Since we don't have many teens at church she has never been surrounded by other Christian young people and this was so good for her.
I'll be putting pictures of all the kids that went to camp in our next prayer letter.

My Super Heros

I have 3 personal super heros...ready to rescue me from danger! From largest to smallest they are: Spiderman, Superman, and Tigerman. I know you have never heard of Tigerman but that was the only costum we had that could resemble a super hero. I like having my own super heros around, I always feel safe from danger!

Drew on his new bike.

Drew is 4!

We had a quiet family party Saturday evening for Drew. Zach had just returned from camp. He had a great time by the way. It is hard to believe that he is big enough to go to camp alone and it is hard to believe that Drew is 4! Drew is hopeing to go to Romanian kindergarten this fall. He is so shy though I am not sure how he will do! The pictures are a little out of order. Drew is waiting with his eyes closed while Baron brings his bike!

Pictures of Nate

Drew received a big bubble blower for his birthday. Nate really enjoys it too!

Drew singing

Longing for God

Something I read today and was blessed by. This is an excerpt from an online book on fasting by John Piper from the introduction:
"The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ...the more homesick you get for heaven...the more you want "all the fullness of God"...the more you want to be done with sin...the more you want the Bridegroom to come again...the more you want the church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus...the more you want a great awakening to God's realities in the cities...the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world...the more you want to see false world views yield to the force of Truth...the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed...the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.
If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: 'This much, O God, I want you.'"
This made me think: Do I really want God more than anything else? Am I willing to give up some good gifts that He has given me in order to pursue God more? Am I so caught up with things, maybe even good things that God has given me, that I have forgotten the source of where these good things have come from? I want to spend some time laying aside things in order to pursue God. I want to linger more directly in the presence of God through the revelation of his Word.

4th of July

Well, we did celebrate 4th of July here in Romania but we waited until the 5th. It is hard to believe that last 4th of July Nate was just a tiny thing and the boys were running around outside wildly with their friend Ethan in Greenville, S.C. watching a home spun firework show. We had a nice day though it is different celebrating your country's freedom while in another country. We are truly a blessed nation though far from perfect. We had a rainy morning which made for a nice cool afternoon yesterday. We really enjoyed the weather. The kids played outside and we played Taboo. I don't know who had more fun the kids or us. We miss you all but are content knowing we are right where God has us! Here are a few photos from our celebration.

Mispelling

Baron was reading my blog and pointed out my spelling mistake...it is supposed to be article. I assume you all are smart and realize that I write my post and then do no proof read what I write so I try to type slow so I don't make too many mistakes. The article will appear in the paper this Thursday. Baron will be writing one every 2 weeks. We have to pay to write the article and it was kind of expensive so we thought every other week would be what we could handle. It will appear in the tv guide part of the newspaper. This first one is about the Bible and where to find truth. We pray God uses this for His glory.
Continue to pray with us about the baby girls. We were told by a social worker last week that until we actually have our permanent residency that we can do nothing. We should receive it this fall but we are going to the police station tomorrow to see if we can find out where our paper work is. We are also planning on just going to the main social worker in Timisoara and telling her we live here and we want to help kids what does she suggest we do instead of saying what we want to do and being turned down. There is one little girl that is 2 1/2 and she is in foster care and her mom has definately signed off on her. That would be the easy one to pursue but we don't necessarily want the easy road unless that is what God wants. Her name is Bianca. We didn't get to meet her yet but her caregiver will bring her by sometime.