Time with The Reagpa! November 20, 2009

Well, Matt’s dad (Reagpa) came to visit last week. Brenda (BB) was supposed to come as well but came down with the flu the night before they were supposed to come. We were so bummed. We did get to spend some great time with Reagpa however. We went to the park for probably one of the last times this year before it gets to cold. We also went to Toy’s R Us to get a birthday present from BB and Reagpa. We got this really cool blow up gym that has little play balls in it. Annie really likes it. She continues to play with it everyday by “jumping” in through the holes. It is hilarious. We also got to go to the Children’s Museum. Every third Sunday it is free. Good idea…however it was extremely busy.

Well, Reagpa got to play with Annie and see first hand how much energy Annie really has. She is so funny, she goes non stop, getting into everything. As we discussed…just like her father did when he was 1.

 

 

Uphill Battle November 12, 2009

A word from my husband…

When viewed through a natural lens, the reality of ministry can be horribly discouraging. We, as ministers, are trying to find the boldness and love to reach students on the campus(and eventually the nations) for Christ. But we are often half-hearted people, feeling obligation where we should feel eagerness and fear where we should feel love. To make matters worse, the people to whom we minister often despise with all their hearts the very thing we are offering them to bring them life. And when you add the cultural stigma against Christianity and in favor of the privatization of faith and relativistic tolerance(”What’s true for you is true for you, so you are right to believe whatever you want”), the situation looks bleak. The phrase, “But God…”, which is so powerfully hope-giving in the scriptures, does the same thing in our situation.

I say in my discouragement, “They can’t even hear me!”, but God continues to make them respond. I cry, “I can’t love them enough!”, but God continues to use me in their lives. I groan, “Are these men even changing at all?”, but God keeps flipping switches in their hearts. We have one hope. It is not our wisdom or winsomeness or willpower. It is the unrelenting power of God in His gospel to change unchangeable hearts.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”- II Corinthians 4:7

This was a blog post that Matt put on the campus outreach website. Every week a different staff person puts a post on the blog. If you are interested in checking it out to keep up to date on campus ministry follow this link…

http://www.cominneapolis.org/blog/

Enjoy!

Fall in Minnesota November 5, 2009

Fall has been beautiful here. It got really cold and actually snowed a couple times but it has warmed up slightly and we are having a wonderful fall. Our tree in the front yard is the prettiest on the block. It covered our whole lawn when the leaves started falling. Annie and Maddux had a good time playing in the piles. 

We also had a little joined birthday party for Annie and Maddux last weekend. We had some of our neighbors and friends over to celebrate with the girls. The enjoyed a pumpkin cake that Samms mom made. The girls loved it! Here are a couple pictures from that as well. 

Our little pumpkin

Annie’s First Birthday! October 23, 2009

Well Annie turned one on October 19. We has a small party for her with family.  Nana Lisa, Reagpa and BB got to be a part of the party as well via skype. It was so fun to have them be a part of Annie’s first birthday.

We are planning on picking a verse every year to be praying for Annie. This year we picked Ezekiel 36:26, we are praying that the Lord would change Annie’s heart. We believe that every person is born sinful and that we are all in need of the Lord to change our hearts to be drawn to truth. It is hard to see Annie as a sinner, but we are seeing more and more glimpses of her need of a new heart as she begins to be selfish and disobedient. 

Please join us in praying Ezekiel 36:26- “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

On a lighter note…while Annie is yes, a sinner, she is an amazing little girl. She continues to be extremely friendly with everybody that she sees. We like to sit and look out the window where she will wave at everything that moves. She just started to sing when Matt asks her to. She sings in this really quiet, high voice. It is precious. She has started hauling my purse or Matt’s backpack around the house like she is a big girl. And she has started saying “hi”. We adore our little girl and love that she is our daughter. 

Here are some pictures from her birthday.

One of Annie’s favorite things right now is monkeys. She like to make monkey noises. So in light of that, we made monkey cupcakes for her birthday. 

Maddux thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake. She gets to celebrate her birthday on Sunday.

11 months and a visit from Nana September 24, 2009

Nana Lisa got to come visit this past week and we tried to do a few fun things while she was here visiting. We went to a museum. We stayed in the outdoor part which has huge wind chimes. Annie loves wind chimes and was so excited, however, they were so high in the tree and the wind happened to not be blowing so we didn’t exactly get to enjoy the wind chimes to the fullest. Annie did however love this classic Minneapolis Art piece of a spoon and cherry. It has so water spurting from it that she liked to look at. 

We also got to go to the zoo where Nana showed Annie how to blow dead dandilions. Notice Annie’s nice wide base! 

Then when we got back Annie showed Nana how she pulls off ALL the books from our bookshelf. I think Nana was impressed! 

This is one of the Puma outfits that Nana brought for Annie. I… I mean Annie, loves it  

We also got to go clothe shopping for Annie at this big consignment store where we found some great deals and got to go to an amazing farmers market. Overall…great visit. 

Thanks for visiting Nana!

New Shoes September 14, 2009

That’s right…I found her a pair of Puma’s. For those of you who don’t know, I have a slight obsession with Puma (even though I don’t have a lot of Puma things myself). Anyhow, I found these size 3’s on Craigslist. They are the cutest things ever! 

Annie is now beginning to walk. The last couple days she has started taking consecutive steps…her personal best is 7. She still does not walk readily but she is starting to learn! 

Annie taking a bath with Maddux. 

 

Another new thing that Annie is doing is digging through all of Matt and my clothing drawers and taking everything out. She then tries to put all of the clothing on her. 

She is continuing to become more and more hyper…steadily becoming just like her father

Trip to the zoo September 3, 2009

We got to go to the zoo with our friends on Monday this week. The weather is wonderful and since it won’t be staying that way we are trying to take advantage of the beauty and be outside as much as we can. So…all the moms got together to walk around the zoo. It was a ton of fun that we will try to continue as the weather gets cooler. 

They also had this amazing butterfly exhibit. You could walk through this dome that they had set up and thousands of butterflies were flying around. The girls loved it. One actually landed on Annie until she started swatting at it. 

Here are some pictures…

10 Months…a little late August 31, 2009

Well Annie is over 10 months old now and she is getting more fun by the day. She is standing now, pretty much as long as she wants to and is starting to take little steps. She is very close to starting to walk. She has been trying to cut her top two teeth and it seems to be taking a long time so she has been a little sore on and off. She also has been fighting off a little cold. Both Matt and I haven’t been feeling well lately and I think she has a little bug as well. She has been a lot more willing to sit in our lap which is just not like her. And she woke up last night at 2 AM having a hard time breathing because of a stuffy nose. But hopefully today was the last day of feeling a little low. 

Well, campus events start up again this week. All the freshmen move in on Wednesday, and we have a cookout this week for students that we have met. Please be praying that our leaders 1) get motivated to make connections with students and 2) are actually able to make good connections.

Sorry for the delay August 15, 2009

Well, there is no good reason for no recent posts except that I was slacking off. Sorry mostly to the Grandparents who are depending on new pictures. 

We are back in MN in what seems to be SC weather. And when you are in an old house with no air conditioning…well lets just say we are trying to “enjoy” this before the long winter comes upon us. 

Ministry is about to start up soon. The cross cultural team that went to India got back today and students will begin to trickle back onto campus. School doesn’t start for a little while still…Freshman move in day in September 1. We want to be praying that we will make good connections with students right off the bat as we help move them in. September is filled with fun events planned to try to attract students to. We actually are going to begin tail gating since the new football stadium is two blocks away. It is really cool, and will completely change the atmosphere of campus on game days. 

Along with September comes starting up our discipleship groups (Bible studies). Matt and I are both leading groups and hopefully we can get some pictures up of the students soon so that you can be praying for their growth this year. 

Annie is doing wonderfully, she is almost 10 months now and we will be posting some new 10 month pictures along with more of an update about her next. 

Until then, here are some pictures that never got posted. Some from SC and some from this past weekend in Bayfield, WI. 

Nana and Annie swinging one of many different times while we were in SC. 

Annie with The Reagpa and BB and below with her Aunt Jenni and Aunt Ali. All of our family in the South who we miss getting to be around but twice a year. 

This was a little water park in Myrtle Beach that we went to with the Williamson’s. They loved to get splashed by the water, it was really funny.

All the babies from the summer minus Lillian. Ellie Jane, Annie, Callie, and Maddux.

First sailing trip with Grandma and Grandpa. 

This is a chair that I had when I was a little girl. She likes to sit back and lounge in it. 

Ok, thats all for now. Hopefully I will post in a couple days with Annie’s 10 month pictures. 

Please be praying for the start of another new school year with all the students.

9 Months July 22, 2009

We had some family pictures taken that happened to take place on Annie’s 9 month. She got to wear this adorable smocked dress that Nana Lisa made for Aunt Ali when she was a baby. 

Well, now that Annie is 9 months she is getting into a lot more trouble. She seems to LOVE any sort of electronics, cords, phones etc. She doesn’t know what “no” means yet so we are trying to teach her. I am really only saying “no” when she is trying to get into something that is going to hurt her, then move her away. However, I am not sure that she is catching on that quickly

She also loves to pull up on everything. She likes to do “reps” of standing up and plopping back down. She does this over and over again. I think she is trying to do a little workout. 

She has also started waving at everybody and everything that she sees. She waves hello and goodbye to people with her little hand backwards.

When Annie does anything that she thinks is good she loves to clap for herself. She claps when she knocks down blocks or when she stands up. She is her number 1 fan!

Well, these are just a few things that she is doing right now. She is starting to learn how to balance without holding on to anything, but no signs of running around yet!

We head back to SBP tomorrow and back to Minneapolis the 29th.

Please pray for our time with students for the last 5 days of beach project and for safe travels home.

Fishing at the Pitt Street bridge with Dad.

Playing with the cords even though they are off limits, or maybe BECAUSE they are off limits.