Pray for Kenya!

I received this email from my friend Shana who has done some mission work in Kenya, but the content is from one of her friends- either way, lets pray for Kenya!

As most of you have seen in the news, Kenya has been a scene of war this past month. The leader of the mission trip i went on 2 summers ago, Loise, sent me this email. Please take some time to pray for these gentle, loving people. They were so welcoming of us when we went to serve and i can't imagine how their lives have changed with this violence. Pray that the Lord will have a healing hand over their country. Grace and peace,

JANUARY 25th 2008 DAY OF PRAYER FOR KENYA

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I will hear from heaven, I will hear and I will come and HEAL THEIR LAND." God, 2 Chronicles 7:14

On January 25th 2008 , we are asking Every Kenyan, Every Friend of Kenyans, Everywhere to take time to make a concerted prayer for Kenya . We want EVERY Kenyan and Every Friend of Kenyans in EVERY CONTINENT on the face of the earth to be praying together on this one day on behalf of our country.

What to pray for: -

PEACE, PEACE, PEACE -

Whatever else you feel in your heart to pray for concerning Kenya

'Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me show love; when there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.'

St Francis 1915

Pictures from Portland

So I know I'm a little behind, but I wanted to share some of our pics from our time in Portland! We spent the first part of our trip staying in the "Knakal Studio"...well okay, we converted the Den to John and I's room. Since I didn't have to work I spent my days with Sarah. I loved getting to do everyday things with the kids and Sarah like taking them to school and running errands. John and I also got to see good friends, like the Oranen's, Shana and Greg, Brooke, The Baileys, everyone at Building Champions, The Halvorsen's and the lots of Riverwest friends. We went to the Building Champions Christmas Party which was very fun and very emotional! (sad knowing that I won't be a part of everyday life with those amazing people). John played in Jaime and Dave's wedding which was beautiful!
Around Christmas we stayed at John's parents house with his other sister Stephanie and her boyfriend Mo. She lives in San Francisco so it was great to see them!
The last part of our trip we all went to Sunriver in Central Oregon - which is where the real snow is! It was relaxing and enjoyable- playing with the kids, baking, reading, trips to Goody's ( the candy store) and sledding were all great memories!

This is Johns sister and brother in law- I can't say enough about them - so I'll just say that we love and miss them soooo much!

Sarah and I

Papa ( Johns dad) playing with Hudson and Hailey

The Knakals- before the snowball fight! :)

The In-laws (Greg and I) with our party hats on

Delicious!

The kids chose a dinosaur theme for John's birthday party- so fun!

Yes...Uncle John and the boys are ALWAYS wrestling! That's what uncles are for, right?

Christmas Day:


I mean, how can you not just love that astronaut...

It snowed on Christmas day! This is at John's parents house

Who remembers this from their childhood...I do! I do! One of the kids got this for Christmas!



The Army guy! ( the boys are very into dressing up in different "guy" costumes- army guy, fire guy, football guy, etc)

Where did Uncle John go?

So that is some of our family! We miss them so much and had a blast spending 3 weeks with everyone! I wish I had pics of everything we did: sledding, reading together, going to Hannah's bball games, eating, lots of laughing- we just have a perfect time with them!!!

Lots of Thoughts

So, I must apologize for my disappearance from "blog world". I was out of town for nearly an entire month over Christmas! Now that I have been back I have thought about blogging several times as there has been a lot to share but I never knew where to start...so I'm just starting.

Tomorrow is Olivia's birthday. I have been thinking about her a lot lately, for lots of silly reasons and for a couple real ones. A handsome black guy was my checker at a store a couple days ago and that just made me laugh a little inside because Olivia was always attracted to black guys and he was a cute one so naturally I thought of her, right... The same day a lady named Olivia was my checker at another store- whats with the checkers? I had a total nurse question, and Olivia was always game for any medical questions! There were more but I can't remember, not more checker, just more reasons why I thought of her! I have also been praying about discipling a girl and that is what Olivia did for me....so I just wish I could call her and ask questions, learn more from her. Since Liv and I didn't live in the same town for the past 6 or so years the reality of her not being here has hit a little slower. I didn't see her everyday so that has not been the hard part. Its been the time I need to call her, when I need her encouragment or her advice, when I want to tell her that I am praying for her and that I was thinking about her. I remember last year for her birthday we flew to Phoenix and spent the weekend with her, it was the big 30 so we had to celebrate with her! We were in a mode of making everything count with her because we knew she might not be here that much longer. I am so glad we made those moments and memories but I still didn't think it would really ever come, I didn't think her time would really come so soon.
I have to continually remind myself that she is with God, Jesus Christ...worshipping. I can't imagine, and selfishly I think " how can she be enjoying that more that going through life with us?" And then the truth that I know kicks in, "are you kidding?" I am so selfish and I promote my own desires most of the time.

For the wicked^(E) boasts of the desires of his soul
Psalm 10:3

I read Psalm 10 a couple days ago and this just stuck out to me. When I first read it I immediately thought of literally wicked people, and then as I read " boast of the desires of his soul", I thought " i do that". It just hit me that I am wicked. Why would I be selfish in my marriage, why would I want to rob Liv of her time in eternity with our God in exchange for this insane life on earth, why do I do these things? Then on Sunday Matt talked about how we are innately sinful, its just in us. I don't just do sinful things, I am sinful. I sort of knew this but not really, and I really never let it sink in like it did this weekend!
As I continued to read and pray on Sunday I realized that by me not believing that I am just plain sinful, I continue to believe lies that somehow I can't go before the Lord, I can't pray, I can't...until I clean myself up and start spending time with Him everyday and start being a perfect wife and start...
Those things are not true, if that was the case I really could never go to Him and if I thought I could it would be because I thought I had it together. Which really I have nothing together and I won't ever have it together. The reason I can go to Him and be a daughter of our great King is because he sent His son, by Jesus dying on the cross I have been given grace. Just like I inherited sin and death from Adam, I have inherited grace & redemption by having a relationship with our God who' s son took my sins to death on a cross. The power and freedom that flow from that truth is so amazing.
I am so thankful that through that I have freedom that stirs my desire for spending time with our Lord and time in His word, it stirs me to live how he has called me to live regardless of those people or things around me!

Finally...pictures!

Finally, here are the pics from the Christmas Sweater party! I have been taking lots of pics of our time in Oregon. We are now in Sunriver, where there is a couple of feet of snow on the ground. We have had so much fun so far sledding, making snow ice cream and watching movies by the fire...I hope to post more about that when we get back to Texas!
We miss all you Texans!

Josh Drew and John had a cupcake eating contest!

Love the womens turtleneck Adam!
The bowman's!
And the winners of the night...Nat Drew and my husband!

Christmas Sweaters...need I say more?

Well John won the ugly Christmas Sweater contest at our home group on Monday! I will post pics as soon as I get them!!! I haven't even seen it myself, looking forward to it!

Make it a great day everyone!

Loving our new neighbors

Sunday I baked Zucchini Bread all afternoon, 8 baby loaves! I wrapped them, tied red ribbon and a green note on them and then John and I bundled up to deliver all the treats to our neighbors! I think it is the highlight of the season for me! It was cold, the house smelled like delicious bread, I had it in a cute basket(I love baskets)...and I absolutely loved watching peoples reactions as we met them and gave them a very unexpected gift! It was so interesting because mostly people were shocked at first , that a neighbor would do this, and then they were very grateful! I loved every minute of it! I am going to make it a Christmas tradition! I'm sure it will be even more fun when we do it with kids! NO..we are not pregnant- I know how all of you are! ;-)
I am headed to Portland today! I will be gone until January 1st and I am so looking forward to hanging out with my in laws..most of you are probably thinking I am joking but I really do love all my inlaws ( parents and siblings) so I am very excited!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas; I pray that you find time to think about our God and the most amazing gift He has given us, Jesus!

Zucchini Bread Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350
3 eggs 1/4 t baking powder
1 C oil 1 t baking soda
2 C sugar 3 t cinnamon
2 C grated zucchini 1 t salt
3 C flour 1 t vanilla

Beat eggs, add flour & next ingredients and mix.
Pour into 2 greased loaf pans- bake for 1 hour. ( check with toothpick, you want a very thin coating on the toothpick so the bread isn't too dry)

Enjoy- you really can't mess this one up!

Pictures for your enjoyment

This is our week in pictures...( ok, and a few words)


John thinks it is dumb to take pictures of ourselves,clearly, he is humoring me! ( but he is right it never goes well..check out the double chin)

Emily Rozell and I at the Denton Wasaill Festival on The Square, last Thursday! I did have a silly face but then I just started laughing! We had a great time!

There is a better pic of them on their blog, The Rozell's.


This is for the Knakal's- they had a Fire Truck for kids to tour...OR for adults to be silly!



John and his new toy- a lead blower/vac. We bought this yesterday because John raked 6 huge bags of leaves on Friday and on Saturday you couldn't even tell! :( .We have SOOOO many leaves. According to the box of this new toy we could just blow all the leaves in a pile and suck them up...well he ended up having to rake most of them up AND now he is sick....hmm was that a well spent $100? Just kidding, it really did help save time!

Lastly , when John came back from lunch he said it smelled in the house...yes, it is what it may actually NOT look like anymore. I left a sweet potato in the oven, YIKES! I couldn't even break it! It was so light weight but hard as a rock!
I hope everyone has a great week!