God Has the Power to Heal

Today has been one of those days where we needed prayers from morning until night.  I started feeling "off" this morning and just kind of felt that this could be one of those spiritual attack kind of days.  I knew that a big reason I felt that way was because of my plan to dig deeper into the gospel today with the kids.  Satan doesn't want the kids to hear or understand the gospel so that they can choose to become a part of God's family.  How our VBS works is that we teach in one station and then the children rotate through.  So by the end of the morning, we had presented the gospel four different times.  There were quite a few children who met with helpers to learn more.  Some were serious about wanting to learn more about becoming a child of God, some were asking if their animals would go to heaven and some asked deep questions such as wondering about the reality of heaven and God, why God created the devil, why doesn't God rescue people from hell, etc.  Only the Lord knows how many children were added to His family, but I am so excited to see how many seeds were planted.  I was also excited as Anne was able to be one of the counselors....this was her first time she had had to share the gospel with others.  We pray that the seeds that were planted will be watered by Jesus and that He will continue to work in the hearts and lives of the children.

This brings me to the other major prayer request of the day.  This afternoon, while I was at the bank getting our debit card situation straightened out, Anne was babysitting the children.  I'm not sure if we will ever know the full details, but what we do know is that this....

met Jonathan's eye.  The doctor at the ER said he had a scratched cornea and that it should heal on its own.  He is on an antibiotic to help prevent an infection setting in.  We praise the Lord that it wasn't any worse and that He protected Jonathan's eye.  Jonathan's eye is red and sore, and his vision in that eye is a bit blurry making it difficult for him to get around very well (he ends up closing both of his eyes) so we pray that in a few days he will be doing much better.  The drops the doctor put in his eyes to allow him to see what was going on caused Jonathan's eye to turn green....for which Jonathan was quite excited about. 

These pictures were taken right after we left the ER and before he got to see what his green eye looked like so he doesn't look too thrilled here.  I don't know if you can tell or not, but the part that is the brightest in his left eye is where the scratch actually is located.  The orange around his eyes is from the drops they used to deaden his eye. 

Thank you so much for continuing to cover us in prayer.  Can you guess what our lessons are about in VBS tomorrow?  God has the power to heal!!

Thankful for God's Protection and Provision

This week we are teaching the children about God's power.  I think it is so cool that as we are preparing the lessons to teach, that God is teaching us about His power in our personal lives.  Since we have been sharing about our goal to raise finances to send the kids to a Christian school next year, we have been receiving donations, some from people who hadn't even read about our situation but were simply following the leading God was placing in their hearts.   As a result of these donations, our payments for the kids' tuition are going to be made much easier!  Praise the Lord!

Two of my helpers enjoying some of the props we have outside our classroom.

.... after the first day of VBS.

We are also grateful for the Lord's protection!  I didn't figure that a phone call from our bank after hours was a good thing, and it especially isn't good if they say they are from the fraud department.  Apparently someone thought they needed to use our debit card to do some shopping.  We are so thankful that the bank quickly caught on to the suspicious activity and stopped the payments from going through that could have caused quite a bit of trouble had they gone through.

Thank you for continuing to pray for our family!

How God Has Answered Your Prayers

This past weekend was our garage sale.  Even though the heat index was 106 or so, we praise the Lord for His provision in allowing almost all of our big items to sell!  For those who not have not yet heard, God allowed us to raise enough money to cover the enrollment expenses for the upcoming school year.  We received word yesterday, that the school is willing to work with us and our payment proposal for the year as well.  As a result, the plan right now is to send ALL the children back to school for the 2015-2016 school year!  Now that the Lord has made a way for all the children to attend, we are trusting that He will provide for us the funds necessary to make the payments.  We are definitely stepping out in a huge leap of faith, but know that God is leading us in this direction. 

Thank you for praying for my friend who had some suspicious test results.  After further testing this week, she was given the news that all was clear!  Praise the Lord!

I found out yesterday that my time of babysitting may soon be coming to a close.  There is a chance that next week could be the last week of babysitting as her mother may not have any more work until school starts up again.  I pray that the Lord will provide for this family as she is a single mother.  Although this job hasn't been a big paying job for me, I am so thankful for how the Lord stretched the dollars for us by helping us find some good deals for school supplies.  As a result, most of the school supplies have been able to be purchased. 

Our garden appears to be growing well, and we were able to pick and enjoy some tomatoes and a cucumber yesterday.  The kids are so excited about being able to eat something that we have grown....somehow it even tastes better. :)  However, we are not the only ones who seem to be enjoying the crops....we are competing with Peter Rabbit! :)

Please continue to pray for Anne as she finishes out camp this week.  We all look forward to her coming home on Friday.  On Sunday, we are going to our church to get our room ready for the week of Vacation Bible School.  I am so excited to see how the room and hall will look once we get it all decorated.  Please pray for the hearts of the children who attend this week, that they will be responsive to the Lord's leading in  their lives.  Please pray for me and my helpers (Anne is one of them) as we have a time to teach the children.  We pray that we will be tools that the Lord can use in their lives to bring them closer to Him.

Today Jaydon turned 23 months.  We took several pictures while he was playing today, but here are a couple of my favorites:

Our prayer for this precious boy is that he will see his need to have a personal relationship with Jesus at a young age!


In closing, without giving details I would like to ask you to pray for Skeeter as he has an important meeting tomorrow evening. 

Thank you for joining with our family in prayer!

Rough summer

At the end of the school year, people would keep asking me if we had any big plans for this summer.  At the time, our calendar was pretty open, but I had a hunch God would be filling up those empty spots, I just didn't know how.  By the end of May I would find out. :)  We "happened" to be at our church office when they received a phone call that someone in the church was needing a babysitter for their daughter and wondered if they knew of anyone that might be interested in this position.  After getting off of the phone, we were approached with the opportunity and given phone numbers to make contact with the mother.  Everything went well, and we have been seeing what it would be like to have triplets this summer as the girl is in the same grade as Adia and Jonathan.  Overall it has gone really well!

We received the results from the kids' testing results, and praise the Lord Adia's results were the exact opposite of what they were last year!  The curriculum and school setting as well as getting the help she needed were what she needed to get her over the learning "slump" from last year.  Anne and Jonathan also did really well on their tests!!

After school finished, Anne and I started a Bible study together (Lies Young Women Believe). This has been an absolutely AMAZING Bible study!!  In church our pastor has been talking about Spiritual warfare and the two have come together so much that I knew we were getting ready to embark on a journey, one that could be very painful and likely filled with attacks from the enemy.  Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the journey to begin!  Part of this journey has included some deep soul cleaning, which has at times been very difficult.

One of the frustrating things that happened was when Skeeter's email account was hacked. As a result, we started receiving all kinds of "junk" and sinful emails.  So Skeeter changed the passwords and we put on our computers, tablets and cells phones a filter to help prevent that from happening again.

At the end of June, our vacuum cleaner died.  So I went to get another one.  Not even a month later, that one died....back to the store I went.  We finally got one that so far appears to be working and not breaking.  After we got that situation resolved our fridge died.  Uggh!  We were so thankful that it was discovered before a bunch of food was wasted as we were getting ready to stock it for our camping trip.  God provided us with not only a fridge that was on sale, but one that was able to receive an additional discount due to scratches, and one that qualified for a free ice maker.  We were also able to use a coupon for additional savings.

At the end of June, the kids and I traveled to say "good bye" to a very dear friend who had been like a grandma to me!  I have so many fond memories of this Godly lady and the role she played in my life.  Although she will be missed, I am so thankful that she is no longer in pain and that one day we will see her again!  I am also thankful for the safety the Lord gave us as we traveled and that overall the children traveled well!

While we were getting ready to load up our vehicles for our camping trip, at the beginning of July, Anne suddenly was in a terrible amount of pain.  Unfortunately, the clinic was closed so it was off to the ER to see if we could find out what was wrong.  Thankfully, it was something "simple" that could be taken care of with an antibiotic.   Even though we were a day late in getting to go on our camp out, which was to be our vacation, we knew that for some reason, God didn't want us to leave yet.  So the next morning, we were off!  Thankfully, God gave us wonderful weather while we were there for two days.  We also thank the Lord for His protection while we were out there! One of the things our family enjoys doing, is riding/driving our four wheeler.  While out there, while I was driving with the kids, it all of a sudden died.  It was kind of embarrassing to break down in front of other campers, but it was also nice that it wasn't far from our camping spot and we had all kinds of people rush to see if they could help me while Jonathan ran back to get Skeeter.

At the end of last school year, we had to let the school know if it was our intentions to send the children there for the following school year.  We said yes, and applied for a scholarship.  We praise the Lord for His provision of a scholarship as well as a multiple child discount.  However, now we are wondering how in the world we are going to pay for the next year's tuition.  School starts next month!!  We had planned to save Skeeter's overtime to put towards school, but unfortunately, he is no longer getting overtime and fears that not too far in the future the plant may require workers to take time off.  So between having to replace appliances and pay for unexpected medical as well as dental bills, we are left wondering what God is wanting us to do for this school year?  Are we to go back to homeschooling?  The kids had adjusted and had been doing so well in school!  Isn't that what God wanted us to do?  We are definitely in a place where we will have to trust God to work in a way that can only be explained as being Him!!  I have contacted the school to see if we can work out a special payment plan and will see what they say.  Ultimately it is all in God's hands and we just pray for clear answers as it will soon be time to start school!

One of the ways God encouraged us this summer was when I went to buy flowers.  The nursery I usually go to, had closed already so I went to another one.  Once there, with four of the children, the lady felt sorry for me and all the mouths we had to feed and said that I could take as many vegetable plants as I wanted for free!  I tried not to take advantage of the situation, but was able to get some tomato, cucumber, squash and cantaloupe plants.  Will see how much of a green thumb I end up having this summer!  I am thankful though for God's generosity in this way!

We are having a garage sale this weekend, to not only clean some things out, but to hopefully help earn a bit of money to put towards school.

Anne will be leaving for camp next week, so we pray that will be a great time of spiritual growth for her.

The week after she returns, we are going to be working at our church's VBS.

Thank you for praying with us as we seek clear guidance from the Lord as to the next steps He wants our family to take, especially in the area of schooling our children.

One final prayer request....today I received a call from a friend who had had some tests done.  Due to some irregular results, they are having to do some more testing next week.  I'm sure she would appreciate prayers that all results would come back clear.