We always wait until after Thanksgiving to get out the Christmas tree (we used two trees as decoration at the church for our wedding-we have one, my parents have the other) and start playing the Christmas music.  Once it’s on though, it’s ON.  At no other time of the year do I make sure we play music as much as in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I’m not sure how the songs relating to snow will go over when it’s 90 degrees outside, but for now we’ll enjoy them with all the cold weather.  I really like the Christmas albums we play over and over.

Here’s the list of albums:
City On a Hill: It’s Christmas Time-Various Artists
Elvis’ Christmas Album-Elvis Presley
Everything Glorious-Travis Cottrell
Hear Those Bells-Russ Lee
Home for Christmas-Amy Grant
How Many Kings-downhere
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker-performed by Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
This Night-Hope’s Call
A Very Veggie Christmas-Veggie Tales (I have actually owned this since it came out like 10 years ago)

I like that these albums have come into my life at different times and each one is special for one reason or another.

These are specific songs I particularly like:
Baby Boy-Russ Lee–I have boys, enough said.
Give Me This Night-Hope’s Call–such a beautiful song. I’ve come to identify with Mary a lot more since having children of my own.
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring-from Amy Grant’s Home for Christmas–my bridesmaids walked down the aisle to this song at our wedding
How Many Kings-downhere
Gift Carol-downhere
O Holy Night
Silent Night-I often sang this to Samuel leading up to his first Christmas
I’m just a big fan of the old carols/Christmas hymns in general.

So that’s a little peek into our world a Christmas. It’s a beautiful, glorious time of the year!

We’ve been told that we need to be beyond flexible, we need to be fluid to be on the mission field.  That’s a lot to digest for a girl who likes to plan.  We have already seen a lot of change since we became missionary appointees with HCJB Global a year and a half ago (has it really been that long?!).  And we know that our lives will experience plenty of change in the years to come.  We met with the regional director of the Asia-Pacific region fairly soon after we came on board with the mission.  During that meeting we were told that the office might be relocating from Singapore to another location, but at that time everything was really up in the air.  Since then that regional director felt led to come back to the US to take a different position with HCJB Global and we had a new regional director come on as of October 1.  He was already serving in the region and transitioned to the new position.  When he came on his first priority was to make a decision about the office.  The decision-the office will no longer be located in Singapore. So, we will be moving somewhere else.
Currently three locations are being considered-in Southeast Asia.  The rest of the team will all be in the new city by August 2011, so our goal is to move not long after they all do-late August/early September.  As I said a few weeks ago, God’s timing is perfect. Had we hit our original goal we would have moved just in time for this decision to be made and would have ended up in Singapore for less than a year.  What we need to raise will be decreased by possibly up to 25%.  Until we know where the office will be we won’t know exactly what our new support schedule will look like.
At this time we don’t plan to make another trip to Asia before we move, so the adventure factor has been upped and we’ll be moving to a third world country with two small children sight unseen.  We know that God has already gone ahead of us to wherever we will be living and He will be with us wherever we go and in whatever we do.

When asked what he’s thankful for at the end of the day Samuel usually responds with things like giraffes, elephants, meerkats, fire trucks, train cars, ambulances, etc.  Can you tell he’s a boy and he likes the zoo? (:  Sometimes he throws in Mama and/or Baba or something random in the room that happens to catch his eye. He also likes to add in “people of Asia” because it’s something we pray for a lot. Any which way, we’re trying to teach him to count his blessings, something we can all do more of.  We always have a lot to be thankful for.  Below is a list, one for every day of November through Thanksgiving, that I’m thankful for:
1. God.
2. The salvation God so lovingly extended to me.
3. That I am never alone because of my relationship with my Father in heaven.
4. My dear husband Toffer, my one true love.
5. Samuel-my sweet, sensitive, energetic, amazing first born son
6. Benjamin-my super cute second born son who has just started calling me “Mama”
7. My parents-who loved me, raised me, and taught me that loving the Lord and following Him should always be number one.
8. My one and only brother (who I have great admiration for) and his wonderful family
9. My grandparents-I look forward to seeing all of them in heaven again.
10. All of Toffer’s family
11. Friends near and far
12. The opportunity to live overseas and declare God’s love in Asia (when we finally get there!)
13. Living in a country where it’s legal to meet with other Christians, own a Bible and Christian resources, pray, and worship the God I love as I please.
14. All of the stretching and growing God has done in my life this year
15. Our church-New Vision Baptist
16. All of the things God has called me to or allowed in my life that have shaped me and made me into the person I am today.
17. The beach-I know all of God’s creation is beautiful and majestic, I’m just partial to the parts of it where sand and ocean meet.
18. The desire God is giving me for a simpler life, especially when it comes to things
19. The legacy of faith I have in my family-generations before me have loved their God with all their hearts and I am so blessed to be part of that.
20. Pictures-We have literally thousands. I’m so grateful to have so many moments captured.
21. Clothes and shoes for our whole family in correct sizes
22. Having two vehicles for our household
23. Conveniences of life-things like grocery stores that have items like butchered meat so I don’t have to chop the head of the chicken myself and a washing machine so I don’t have to hand-wash dirty diapers.
24. Having a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in-we have more than we even want (something we’re working on) and feel overwhelmed at times with God’s generosity
25. On a day that is all about the food–that I have never once in my life come close to having to wonder what it’s like to actually, truly be hungry. And that God has given us opportunities to help those who do know what it’s like to truly be hungry.

I feel like there’s an expectation for our family to somehow have things more together, more figured out than others.  That we don’t struggle or have hard days or make mistakes.  Somehow being missionaries makes us larger-than-life, super spiritual, more sanctified than other people.  We’re not.  We feel like God has plans for everyone to follow Him in big ways and we’ve just chosen to follow the path He’s laid out for us.  We have disagreements, we have bad days, our kids aren’t perfect (though they are super cute!), we don’t (gasp!) always have quiet times every day.  We are not perfect people, we have never claimed to be perfect, nor will we claim to be perfect.  We will claim to be justified by the grace of God and that He is continually sanctifying us, showing us areas we need to give to Him so He can work on them. And I won’t ever say that we always willingly give things to God as we should.  We’re human and God will ALWAYS have to work in our hearts and lives.  If we begin to claim any different, we have no business sharing God with others because we clearly have come to a point we believe we are God.

I gave my life to Christ at the age of six, so God has been working on me a LONG time.  I don’t have life all together (just take a look at my house right now!), I don’t always say and do the right thing (I’m sorry if you’ve been at the receiving end of me saying/doing something wrong), and I’m not good at everything (though I have found that I can make a mean snickerdoodle), but I know who I am and I know WHOSE I am.  First and foremost I’m a daughter of the King, second (as is engraved in my and Toffer’s wedding rings) I am wife to my dear husband who I am fully convinced God intended for me to marry, and third, I have two boys who I am blessed  to have call me “Mama” and I pray daily for the other children God gives to our family.  Everything in me that is good, lovely, pure, and holy is by the grace and strength of God. I am weak, but He is strong.  I will never be perfect in this life and know that I will stumble and struggle at times no matter how close my relationship with God is.  My desire is to honestly and earnestly seek the One who saved me and follow the path He’s laid out before me.

Thank God for internet!  I know, I know, plenty of bad stuff is out there on the internet, but it’s also a really great thing if used properly.  Thanks to the marvel of the internet we are able to keep up with our team on the other side of the world and 14 time zones away without having to wait for snail mail or oddly timed phone calls.  We got an e-mail with some documents from HCJB Global with directions that all the missionaries needed to read them, sign and send them back.  I asked if we also needed to sign them. Our regional director said yes as if this is all happening. My response? This better all happen! We have no plan b.  And that’s an exciting and slightly scary thing to say-THERE IS NOT PLAN B.  If our plan a of moving overseas to serve God with HCJB Global doesn’t pan out, we have no other plan. Sure, we can stay in Murfreesboro and continue on in our lives, but for us that isn’t really an option. It’s not what we know God designed us to do.  So, we’re all in-100%.   If this doesn’t work out, God better have a plan because we sure don’t.

We had hoped that we would be moving to Singapore about this time, but earlier in the spring we knew that wouldn’t happen, that it wasn’t God’s timing.  Our original goals with HCJB Global were to be 100% funded by August and we’re at 40%.  It’s disappointing because not reaching a goal feels like failure, but when pursuing God’s work and God’s call, failure does not exist.  We only fail if we give up, if we give in the to the temptation to do what our flesh tells us to do instead of what God tells us to do.  God is continually revealing things to us and some things are possibly in the works that make God’s timing make a lot more sense than it did even a couple months ago.  We have known all along that things will happen in God’s timing and followed what He called us to do in the meantime.  Some of those things have left us confused and frustrated, some of those things have left us elated and exhilarated.  No matter how we FEEL, we know that God is present. He is real.  Sometimes we don’t feel like He is there, but following God isn’t about how what we feel, it’s about truth.  The truth is that’s God’s timing is perfect and His word says that He is always with us, He will never leave us, forsake us, or desert us.  While we are so anxious to be in Asia and serving God there, we know God has purpose for us being here and that in His perfect timing we will be there, serving Him, and laughing at ourselves for ever questioning His timing and ways.

I was just looking at some pictures we had taken while we were at the beach in August.  The photographer took some of just Toffer and I.  Several of them are just the two of us looking at each other laughing. I love that after almost seven years of marriage we look at each other with incredible amounts of love and that we laugh together like we do. It’s one of the reasons I love my dear husband-he makes me laugh! Some people say that at seven years you starting getting a little antsy and you get an itch to look for something else.  I keep feeling like we’re barely started on this beautiful and amazing journey of marriage.  My parents have been married almost forty years. I love that they also still look at each other with incredible amounts of love and that they still laugh together, too.  I have this incredible legacy of faith and love and marriage in my family that I am ever so thankful for it.  The older I get the more thankful I become for the previous generations and the examples they set in loving God, loving their families, and loving their country. I pray that I can be the woman God wants me to be so that some day my boys will say “my parents have been married almost forty years and they still look at each other with love and they still laugh together.”

Since Benjamin was born life seems to be on warp speed. Between trying to figure out life with two boys under two years of age (which changes next week with Samuel’s second birthday) and Toffer’s very hectic work schedule, the website has been put on the back burner a lot. I had tried to get something new up every week to ten days and I think it’s probably been a month since I wrote something last.  We both have things we want to write about and as soon as I don’t have a toddler saying “tinkle potty” and a teething infant chewing on my arm I’ll get to it. Toffer will get around to it when his life is slightly hectic (which means it could be a while). God is good and faithful and we’re so thankful for the life He’s blessed us with, even in the crazy moments.

We had the opportunity to spend the week before last at the beach. Oh, the wonderful, glorious beach!  We are definitely beach people.  We have two favorite options for vacations-Chattanooga, TN if we’re getting away for just a few days (I went to college there and it’s a city we thoroughly enjoy) and the beach if we’re going a little ways. In our minds, there really aren’t other options. We’re not big city vacation people or mountain vacation people. We’re beach vacation people. So, we were thrilled to introduce our boys to the beach and prayed they’d like it because most of their childhood vacations will likely be beach-related (ski vacations are tough when the closest skiing is thousands of miles away). The jury’s still out with Benjamin. He was rather non-committal in his feelings for the beach. Though he’s rather non-committal about feelings on anything except being hungry, wanting a clean diaper, and wanting to be held.  Samuel, on the other hand, was in love! And, oh, it made our hearts happy! Our little boy charged right to the water on the first day and couldn’t get enough. I wonder how much joy it brings our Creator to see us fall in love with His creation when it brings us such great joy to just introduce our children to part of it.  It was great to spend a week fully entrenched in the part of God’s creation that is the beach and we are so thankful He created it for us to enjoy.

That question is by far the most common question we get from people about our plan to move to Asia to be missionaries. And there’s a very simply answer-as soon as support comes in. HCJB Global requires missionaries to have commitments for 100% of everything on their support schedules.  It’s much easier to raise support here at home than to raise it from the field. So, we have to wait to move until the support comes in. Right now we have a hair under 2/3 of our outgoing expenses covered and a little over 38% of our regular, ongoing support pledged, most of which people are already fulfilling.

Other Questions About Support:

What happens if you reach 100% of your outgoing support?
We still have to wait until 100% of our regular support comes in. The outgoing expenses gets us to Asia, the regular support keeps us there.

What happens to funds over and above your needs?
If the funds are sent to the mission with our account number on them, they stay in our account.  HCJB Global is more than happy to have surplus in their missionaries’ accounts.  And in fact, last we knew about half of the HCJB Global missionaries had surplus funds in their accounts.  Those funds can help in case of an emergency (it’s not cheap to fly back to the States, especially at the last minute) or for ministry expenses, education funds, etc.

Who supports your ministry with HCJB Global? 
The current breakdown is 3 churches and 38 individuals/families.

How can I/we support your ministry with HCJB Global?
To the left is all the contact information for HCJB Global.  There’s a link that you can pledge support online using a card or you can mail a check or money order to HCJB Global. Please make sure to include our account number, 110549, on anything you send.  You can also use the included pledge card and envelope if you receive our newsletters. If you don’t receive our newsletter and would like to, just send us a message on the “Contact Us” section with your name and address and we’ll add you to our list.