Tuesday, January 6, 2015

In addition to New Year's blessings

  I decided to share some photos, since I can get on the internet right now.  These are special ones for us.

This is Grandma Bibiana when she came to visit.  Obviously Savanah loves her!!
 The kiddo loves to go in the car, anywhere!
 
 She was playing very nice while I was in the other room.  Don called and said come and see what she did.  I was a bit apprehensive, but when I saw this, I laughed.  She made supper, with her blocks and the pans she took out of the cupboard.  Each section of the cupcake pan had a block in it.  Silverware placed just so.  She was SO proud of herself.
 
 This was her social worker.  Savanah was a bit shy with her, but did warm up.
 And the psychologist...he had a phone so he won her heart. She was saying praise the Lord and it made him smile!
 Our girls, Vero and Abbie for Christmas.  They were heading out for Abbie's Christmas program.
  Obviously Abbie, ready to go and do her speaking part in the program.
Savanah had to show off her dress that our friend Carolyn had brought for her almost a year ago.  She loves to twirl and show how high it can go, too.

 Abbie wanted a doll house so bad.  She said, "Grandma, I'll give you all my money to help get it, PLEASE?"  I had told her sorry, but didn't think we could.  She was really happy with it when she got it.
 
 Savanah got her kitchen dishes and pots and pans, aside from other things.  But she sure does love them.  And she is very precise how to set things up, as you can see with the "silverware". 
 
 Then Grandpa dug down to get to the pipes that were plugged.  This was just the start, but he had help doing it.  She loves to be in the center of anything going on.
 
 
 So there were some of the good times we had.  I thought we should share some of the happy times since I had shared the hard times with you!!

We pray you are having a blessed new year and that the Lord is the center of it all!

Blessing and Happy New Year

Greetings in this New Year for the Lord!!

Wow, maybe we are glad 2014 is over and we can head into a New Year of better things.  We have had a lot of "situations" this last year and are praying this new year will bring much better circumstances.  God has been faithful through all of the problems we have had and we praise Him totally!!!  One of our good friends has labeled our house, "Job's House".   It sure seemed that way for a long time.  But we are now praying we are on the up side of things.

A small recap of some of the situations.... our internet went down...we purchased "sticks" for the internet from 2 (yup two) different cell phone companies.  They each work for a few minutes, but not enough to actually do any work on the internet.  I have had a horrible time doing MFI work, Embassy forwarding work, and just general communications.  Then our trucks needed new license plates....well, that amount of money staggered us.  We finally sent someone in to get them...the interenet between the office here and in Port has had major problems...so we still don't have the plates, but they are applied for anyway.  And our residency papers were due.  Don't have the funds for that yet, but will shortly.  After we sent all of the needed paperwork for Savanah's adoption to Port, we got a phone call.  The doctor here spelled her name wrong and the government wouldn't accept the papers.  So we have to wait until January 11th for him to return and redo them.  We had a team scheduled for the dorm, (not for us, but for another mission), but we didn't have the funds to get the gas for the stove.  The Lord used several ways to get that accomplished.  The first night this team was here was our next problem.  They asked Don to come and make sure they were doing the generator there the right way.  So, when power went off, they started it.  Then came running over...something was wrong.  Well, it blew out our inverter system over there and our floor fans, too.  But this team was SO VERY gracious.  They said don't worry, we'll make due.  When we thought we were about done with "things"... our toilets backed up.  We couldn't figure that out.  We knew the tanks were not full and that the rains had quit, so it wasn't a saturation issue.  After a week and a half, we finally were able to dig up the pipe...here close to the house.  Took a whole day to find out Savanah had put a whole roll of toilet paper and a chap stick tube down the toilet and flushed.  She was SO proud...she said, "Yes, I did it!!".  She simply didn't realize how bad it was.

But the blessings came in amongst all the other things.  God supplied what we needed in so many ways.  One of our MFI pilots offered to order what we needed for the internet.  We couldn't get on to do it here.  That is on the way.  God provided a way to get gas for the dorm.  And when Don checked out all things electrical at the dorm, he found it was not the dorm, but the connection to the generator that was the problem.  One wire had not been tightened enough and came loose and caused all the problems.  A simple fix, but we'll have to replace the blown out things now.  We know God will find a way to do that, too. 

An added real blessing was our piano player from English church came this morning and said he wanted to check HIS internet connection here to see if it would help us.  WOW...it works wonderful and he left it for the day so we could use it until he is done with work!!  THANK YOU ENOCH!!

This last Sunday the team here did special music, a skit, and the preaching at English Church.  What a blessing and uplift they have been!!  The pastor preached on many different verses, but all referring to trusting in God ALONE for things.  It SO fit with what we were going through.  We DO trust in Him alone.  And He has come through for us constantly!!  We don't know the reasons for all of this to happen, but we do know the ONE who can get us through it!!  And we may be living in Job's house, but we also know we have the same God that Job had and that He is faithful and is there for us always!!!  We will continue to praise and glorify Him in all ways and in all things!!!

And now in this New Year, we know God will guide and direct us in all ways.  It's back to doing
our calling here now that the holidays are over and all the hype is over.  We were blessed to have 2 different people give us the traditional "pumpkin soup" for New Year's.  What a blessing!!! And what a GREAT start to the new year!!  Pray with us on all the above, but also pray that God's direction will be very clear as we enter into the new year for HIM!

We are praying you are in that place where God can richly bless and keep you, too!!  Until next time... keep your eyes, ears and hearts centered on Jesus.  And follow where He leads you!!   Blessings beyond measure to you all!!!   May your New Year be blessed and focused on the Lord!