A new look, and a prayer request

If you followed our journey before, you've probably noticed that we have a new look! Many thanks to our friend Colin for designing our new page for us. We think it looks great and hope you like it too.

In other news, our church is undergoing a change--our beloved pastor Chip will be leaving and we'll be looking for a new pastor. Please pray for our church and our missions team as we grow and seek God's will in this new path. We want to be effective, humble servants under whatever new leader God sends our way--and Chip, we sure will miss you!

Back--safe, sound, and better

Well, we're all back in Louisville, getting back to the routine. We enjoyed showing our pictures of the trip at Bashford Manor on Sunday and reporting to our church family how the trip went.

On a personal note, the antibiotics have kicked in and are doing their job and I am much better.

All is well because God is good. :-) All the time.

And the diagnosis is...

If you've been checking, you probably noticed there weren't any picture from yesterday uploaded last night. That's because I hit a wall where my health is concerned. I started to have some drainage from my eyes on top of everything else. So I looked up what local urgent care centers were covered by my insurance and went to bed.

At 2:15 I had to wake up Joshua. I needed to go to the bathroom, but I couldn't open my eyes. He had to get me a warm washcloth so I could wash my eyes and open them. Ugh!

Anyway, I went to the urgent care center, and the doctor says:

Conjunctivitis
Sinusitis
Upper respiratory infection

So please keep praying for me! About the only thing I can do today, because of the pinkeye, is lead singing and translate. But I'm praising God that I can talk. I can't touch, but I can talk!

Right in the middle of a tornado warning!

Ack!
The sirens are blaring outside and I'm in the library (i.e. tornado shelter). Where is the rest of the team, you ask? Exploring. Watching the storm. Finding water coming into the building and calling Linda and Gary to report! What a night! I'm watching live streaming radar from a local TV website, which would be a lot more helpful if I knew where we were!

Let me tell you, Satan knows that the gospel will be preached here in the coming two days, and he's letting everything loose, in more ways than you can imagine! Please lift our team boldly before the throne of grace!

--Sara-Elizabeth

Edit @ 12:34 a.m. -- the tornado warning is over, but the strong thunderstorms continue (as does the flood downstairs!). I'm going to bed anyway. :-)

Worthy is Your Name, and so unworthy am I

One of the songs we're singing for Days 3 and 4 is "All in All." As the song leader, I have the kids sit down and tell them we're going to sing a song that's like a prayer to God. I talk them through the song and we talk about how we aren't anything without God, how we wouldn't have anything without Him, and how even the bad things in life He's allowed because He wants to teach us something good. We talk about how precious He is, more precious than the diamond ring that Joshua got me, and how we should seek Him because He is that precious, and worthy.

Speaking of precious, we have several precious children at our Wednesday/Friday afternoon club. I think it's one of my favorites. Many of the children don't have much English yet, so it's a deep reminder to me of God's calling on my life to try to speak His Name in Spanish (as best I can!) at every opportunity. And these little ones have warmed up to us and participate in the music, stories, art, and games with such sweetness. Today as I sang All in All and prayed in song "Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your Name," I saw little Aldo and Camilo doing the motions and trying to sing with me, and it was so beautiful I was struck by how unworthy I was to be there, leading these creations of the sovereign, awesome God in His praise, and yes-- I cried.

Look at their faces and see if you wouldn't too.



You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek,
You are my all in all.
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your Name.

Wednesday shots

This morning Pat fixed breakfast for all of us, and it was yummy!Then Joshua led the devotions:
Singing with gusto!
Rita falls (for real this time--she's wearing 3 bandaids now!)
The Lord is my strength! Ps. 118:14
"I know! We can jump over Jericho's walls with 40,000 kangaroos!"
"Sergeant, there aren't any kangaroos in Israel. Besides, God already gave us the plan!"

Marching around the walls, that's the plan!
Making pinwheels:
Nice job!
Holding down the tent in the pouring rain--way to go Patrick!

This was a windy place, so the kids had fun with their pinwheels!



A fun day, but we wish our second club hadn't rained out. But God knows what He's doing!

Thank you Bashford Manor!

Bashford Manor took up a collection of new or gently used children's books for us to take on our trip, to pass out to children so they could work on/keep up their English skills. As you can see, the books are popular! The kids take one each time they come, bring it back the next time (and get a sticker if they've read it), and then the last time, choose one to keep for good.

Thanks, Bashford Manor!!