Pastor Appreciation Day

Sunday before last was Pastor Appreciation Day, and the church family we’re a part of had prepared a few special things to honor Pastor Angel and his family. 

We have been taking the 8 oldest girls to church for a while now, and they’re finally getting over their painful shyness.  They were all a part of a skit this morning, and I couldn’t believe that they were so excited about it. I later found out that it was a silent skit, so then I knew why they were so eager. They are usually terrified to speak in front of a crowd!   The skit represented the temptations and burdens of this world and the freedom that we can find from them through Christ.

This skit was about the pastor of the church, and how so many people in the body continue to put more responsibilities on the pastor than he can handle.  Each group from the church was represented by someone who would come talk to the pastor….youth group, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, worship, etc… Each person would explain to the pastor how they were just too tired and could not handle their ministry work any more, and they proceeded to hang the burden of their work around the pastor’s neck.  After the pastor was completely loaded down, he got down on his knees and broke down before the Lord. As he was crying and praying, Jesus (played by an American doctor, Matt Kappen) came behind him and took the burdens from his shoulders one by one.  Afterward, the people representing all of the ministries came back before the Lord and confessed, kneeling down before Him. Jesus replaced each of their ministries and provided the strength they needed to continue in their work.   It was really moving, and I think it spoke to a lot of people in the church.  Please pray that hearts would be touched for service to HIM.

Hernan (one of the maestros and a good friend) represented Missions.

Gami’s Here!!!!

My mom came back with us from the US, and we’re so excited!  I’m sure I’ll have more fun pictures in the future, but here are some funny ones of jonathan so far.

He gets carsick on the drive from Quito to Shell, so we always keep large ziploc bags ready to go.  Toward the end of the trip (the curviest part!), he decided he needed to keep his bag ready at his face. He did this for 30 minutes!

 

 

Although he appears to be unhappy….this was HIS idea, and he was grinning until I took the pictures. Such the little actor.

I love Gami for this one…she taught him how to wash dishes!

Here are some random pictures of 2 of my favorite boys…..asleep.

Alaina (our nurse) just told me he has grown 4 inches in the past 5 months. THAT’S why all of his pants are high-waters….

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Thank you for all of the prayers and support!

Hear, Hear……

  Last Friday was a very important day in our household.  Jonathan got his first smiley face for good behavior in school. It was only the 2nd week of school, but STILL.  Take a look at the other kids’ rows, and you’ll see how few sad faces they have….not many.  Except for David; they’re two peas in a pod apparently.  You have to be bad MANY times in class to earn a sad face, but Jonathan has managed that every day so far.  The change in his behavior between home and school is quite perplexing to us. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

 

My Pablo

Pablo is definitely my special buddy, and he made my day today. One of my jobs is to give out new clothes and shoes as needed, so all of the kids treat me like I'm Santa Claus when they need something. I love seeing their excitement when they get something new, but nothing compares to Pablo's excitement.

I went downstairs to find him, and I told him to go tell the tia he was coming with me to get new shoes. He raced into the other room screaming, "TIA, TIA!!! Arriba!!! Mrs. Tandy!!! Zapatos!!!" He didn't stop- just ran into the room and back out- screaming the whole way. He threw down his ever present rag/hand towel/glove- whatever he’s flapping around for the day, and that’s how you know things are really serious. He flew upstairs to the 3rd floor as I tried to keep up.

We found the PERFECT shoes- velcro Spiderman with LIGHTS. The person who donated those shoes had no idea how valuable they would be! :) Pablo was ecstatic….especially about the lights. I told him to go show them off downstairs, so he stomped down the stairs and ran to anyone he could find. He figured out that if he kicks his feet in the air the lights will turn on….quite humorous to behold.

We did new clothes next, and that was equally as exciting. I never knew that new underwear could be THAT big of a deal. Wow. He kept pulling them up really high and popping the waistband. Lol…. We got him dressed in a new outfit, and he couldn’t stop rubbing his new shirt. He had his pile of new clothes bundled up against his chest, and he did NOT want to let them go. He raced downstairs immediately, and went to put them in his drawers. He wanted to throw away his old clothes, but I told him they were still ok to use. It was hilarious watching him put everything in its proper place.

The tias and teachers all made him feel so good…whistling, telling him he was handsome. The joy and pride was just oozing out of him, and it was so much fun. He definitely brightened everyone’s day today…especially mine. I love him so much.

Here are a few photos…. This is his special smile for the cameras...

Here it is again...but he was so excited he kept tilting his head back at the same time.

Just this week I was talking to someone about my old job. I was telling her about my old clients...how much I miss them and love them....how when I was with them I knew that I was doing exactly what God created me to do...and the joy that comes from being in that moment. I miss it all so much. I feel like my time with Pablo today was just a special gift from God...to remind me that He knows my heart. Thank you for Pablo, Father!

We're Alive!

I knew I hadn't posted in a long time, but I had no idea it had been 2 months! Wow. Time flies. The summer is always a blur. We've also started doing newsletters, so after I spend time working on that I feel like I've done 4 blog posts. I've yet to figure out how to get the HTML newsletter easily transferred into a blog post, but I'm working on it. I'm trying not to duplicate my blog posts with my newsletter info, so I want to get the newsletters posted on here. For now, you can sign up to receive the newsletters on the right side of the blog.

This is the only way I've figured out how to easily show our newsletter. Just click on the following links:

April, 1st Newsletter Catching up since moving here in March, 2009; focus on goals for ministry during this new phase of commitment to CdF.

May, 2nd Newsletter Beginning of summer teams, regular ministry

June & July, 3rd Newsletter Finishing summer teams, school updates, Grace's miracle

Warning: Grandparent Update

That's just a heads up to let you know that this post is for the grandparents and family at home....which means A LOT of pictures of the same thing....Jonathan. :)

I have to say that our favorite thing about the house we live in now is the front porch. We're on the 2nd floor, so it feels more private on this level. The porch is HUGE. It's also perfect, because Jonathan gets to play outside without being downstairs in the muddy jungle yard we have on the ground level. Anyway....I was realizing how much I appreciate our porch as I started to upload all of the pictures, and I realized that the majority of them were taken here.

Ha! His face looks so chubby! This one cracks us up, because it really doesn't even look like him.

Most of it actually did make it into his mouth.... First experience with shaving cream....total success :) I wasn't joking when i said pictures of the same thing....

These are backwards in order....so he slowly gets cleaner as you go down. :)

Love the hands....

We were at Ecoparque with one of the teams, and he decided to start modeling for Heidi and I. He's such a poser!

I wish you could really see his face! This was one day after he woke up from his nap. He kept falling asleep sitting up, but he was fighting it.

Ok. This should be a sufficient number of pictures for the grandparents. Love you guys!