Brotherly Love

I will entitle this Brotherly love even though Carrot is a girl. The first pictures are of Drew and his baby brother Nate. Then we have our dog Mac who mercilessly attacks carrot, the cat that he is snuggling with in the picture. He bites her tell and chases her and bites her ears so I couldn't help but take this photo when I peered out the window to see them napping together. They are bitter enemies at times and best buddies at other times...kind of like our sons!

Another weekend has past! Life seems to go faster and faster. Baron turned 35 last week and I will turn 34 soon! Nate is crawling now. It is time to get him some baby food. He is eating cereal but is ready to move on. Sunday went well. I had 14 kids in Sunday School! For those of you who don't know about my SS class...that is a huge crowd. For a long while it has just been my 3 boys. I think we are finally seeing some results from kids club. I had 9 kids last week and I guess they enjoyed it because they came back and brought some more. The older ones correct my Romanian from time to time (how humbling to be corrected by a child).

Pray that Baron can continue to rent a gym on Wed nights to minister to young men through soccer.

Here is our chubby Nate. He is 7 months old now and trying very hard to crawl. He does get to where he wants to go now. The boys were playing with their cars and he was on the floor and saw all those wonderful colorful cars and he kicked and screached and wiggled until he reached his destination...the matchbox cars. We have to start putting little things away now that he can move around. What a challenge this will be!

Another kids club pictures.

We had kids club today. It was the first one since before the holiday's. Attendance was down but we still had fun. Cristina is now telling the story. She is learning to tell it instead of read it. She is doing a great job. Erin draws a picture during the story with chalk. A child that was very quiet during the story receives the picture.

Prayer

I have many favorite verses but I wanted to share one passage that I have been praying lately. I read a book called, A Journey To Victorious Praying that really blessed me. One of the suggestions was to pray Scripture so I have started doing that. I have been praying this passage for my family and friends and our church family here in Romania. Ephesians 1:17-19 (Amp)

"(For I always pray to) the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation (of insight into mysteries and secrets) in the (deep and intimate) knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones). And (so that you can know and understand) what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength."

We serve a great God who is prepared to do great things in the lives of those who believe!

Today the boys went back to school...finally! Erin is here with us this year teaching them and two other children. I am so thankful. It frees me up to spend time with Nate and Drew. It also helps me have more time to practice the piano, plan some ladies crafts night at church, and to teach a health class at the Bible college this semester. It looks like she is interested in staying on another year too! What a blessing. I really am thankful for how easy our boys are to raise and discipline. They are easily entertained and are very good at entertaining themsevles. I can't complain, I am able to get a lot done even with 4 boys running around the house! Here is our Christmas Day self portrait of our family. I know that this will be in our prayer letter but I have to share this blessing. This is so specific and our God is so great. We had Changed Into His Image translated and are in the process of publishing it. Not much money had come in for this project and so we were going to have to pay at the end of this month and it looked like we would have to use the money from the sale of our car that we were setting aside for a much needed roof. We found out that this month we got in just the amount that we needed for the book. I had decided not to be upset about not getting a new roof...if God wanted to me to have water spots on my ceiling then so be it...if He wanted us to have a new roof, He would provide it. He cares about us and wants and desires to show us His love and pour out His blessings upon us if we just trust Him and believe that He is who He says he is and that He can do what He says He can do! I am trusting in Him to do many more great things in our lives this year and in the lives of our flock of believers and their families!