Merry Christmas!!!

This was my Birthday present from Josh. I have been wishing that I had a CD of this for at least 5-6 years, when in actuality this does not exist in CD form. However, Josh, being the man that he is, somehow found a company in Canada that records, remixes and remasters vinals and re-records them to CDs. So now I have the very first in existance Evie, Come on ring those bells CD. And I am thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks hon!

"Here in His world turned away. Angles in heaven wonder to see the son of the Highest treated so.
No room- surely the world is blind, no room. Have you any room for Jesus? He who bore your load of sin...
Room for Jesus king of Glory, hasten now his word obey, swing your heart's door widely open: Bid him enter while you may."
(taken from one of my favorite songs of the CD)

Homework, just in case you needed some

Romans 12
Questions

By the Grace God has given you are you able to challenge others? Why would you need to be aware of the grace of God just remind people how to think?

How do you think of yourself? To highly? To Lowly? In accordance with Measure of faith God has given you? Or in accordance with how the world thinks about you? In accordance with how God's word talks about you or in accordance with the world?

How does being a living sacrifice affect you being joined to others in a body? Which is more of a sacrifice, Serving God or serving others? Why?
Different parts with different functions: What about this requires transforming your mind? How does this require sacrifice? How does this naturally affect us...if we weren't learning to transform our minds?

One body...corporately, as a region, and world wide: how does that change your natural thinking (or how SHOULD it change your natural thinking) ?
Do you behave as though you really do belong to all the others?
Name someone who behaves as though they were connected to all the others.
Think of skin, although there are many cells skin covers every area of the body, connecting from the toe to the top of the head to the finger tips, Excluding of course eyes & finger/toe nails. Skin doesn't get much credit. How many times have you heard someone say “Oh, i just hurt my elbow and my elbow skin!” ? Or “I have a zit on the skin of my forehead!”? There is something about belonging to each other that assumes that together each individual part succeeds or suffers. Do you demand to receive credit? Or do you love to bless people, suffer with people, rejoice with people and be ok with not being given credit for it doing it “in secret”?
Name some one who seem to understand being connected or “belonging to each other” in the Body.
Tell some of the things that they do.
Name some ways that you could improve in this area.
Is having compassion on some one easier when you know them more? How about constructive criticism?
What Gift do you think that you have? ( Or do you want to receive from God?) What about this gift requires renewing or transforming your mind? What about this requires some dieing (living sacrifice) from you?
“Using it according to the proportion your faith” makes me think that you have to be renewing your mind, letting God build your faith, learning how to think, in order to really be everything God has called you and gifted you to be.
(c) Mary Walker 2007, used with permission

Power in weakness.

He said to me, "my Grace is sufficient for you, Because my power is made perfect in weakness." So because of that I will boast all the more about my weakness, because He is seen so strong when it becomes obvious how weak i am on my own.
I feel ill iquiped for the work I do. Not because i don't have the trainning, but because without the Lord everything I do is vain. I am now teaching at the LFI programe 3 days a week. I have one class on mondays. It is similar to "prophetic worship class" that Terisa teaches. I call it "Singing the Psalms." Last week we looked at the Lords prayer, this week we will be singing psalm 63. This class has three purposes. For the 7 students (ok, and me too) to #1 grow deeper in their love and expression for the Lord, to #2 understand worship and prayer more, for them to not just be foggy idealistic things we do, but to be real and understandable, and to #3 give the students a better understanding of scripture.

Wednesday and Friday I teach basically all morning. there is a "Words in the Word" study, in which we are currently exploring romans 12 &13, a practical outreach and servanthood class, in which we spend time working or talking or praying for people in the church with needs, or where we work, evangelize and get aquainted with our community, and the lowly, lonely and needy. I am excited and scared about this class. It will have to be God who gives us the divine appointments: scarry cause i know im not in control, exciting cause God does a much better Job at working things out than I ever could. And im leading worship, and teaching some other classes. Terisa would be so proud of me how I have been playing the piano for others to sing out and have not been stopping the cord progression every time i mess up, but just keeping going.

Been thinking about "what does it mean to live for God's eternity?"
Been thinking about servanthood, truth in the word of God, and wide is the road to destruction, narrow the way to life.
Been thinking...how much of people who do the "Christianity thing" are not truly changed by the dividing, powerful, always active word of God.
Funny how The grace of God is this ammazing power that enables us to live the way God designed us to live.

God has Given Josh and I a couple to be friends with who share our hearts...What an amazing thing! And we each have a single friend who also share our hearts. It is increduble and so exciting!

Have you ever noticed how much of the new testiment is about being patient and loving your brothers, and loving the lowely, the poor, the obscure. It is a beautiful idealism, but can be acctually quite painful and convicting in reality. Have you ever tied together matthew 25's "sheep and goats" story with the place in John that says you dont love God who you cant see, if you don't even love your brother who you can see. Have you ever then gone to romans 15 where it says to accept others to bring praise to God, and thought about how if you say God accepts them, but you yourself don't...HOW is anyone going to believe you? Just some thoughts i have been thinking.


This is a picture I made for Pietze's wedding shower invitations....didn't end up using it, but i think its "lovely."


Kendra, my very first sister...I love you! (Note: we are pretty hot too! Good thing we have amazing husbands fight off evil people jeoulous of our good looks) haha!
Lindsey, I have been quoting you alot lately. "if you have to hold it together, when you let Go it will fall apart, but if God is holding it together it will last."

to the church in Kenosha...

Dear Family at Living Light,
Hello from Colorado. We have been here for about 5 months now, and we wanted to update you on how everything is going. And we want you to have it in writing, (just so you know for sure) that we miss you.
We have enjoyed getting to know some of the families and individuals in the church family here. There are some very lovely people here. It is especially fun for us watching the young adults grow. There are many brand new and almost brand new believers in the church. This “New Group” has so much energy and enthusiasm, and at the same time has so many hang-ups. It is fun being able to pour into these lives and to watch them grow.
The spiritual strongholds in this town seem so obvious. Some of the most common areas of struggle that it seems all of Ft Morgan deal with are apathy, loneliness, bitterness. Its the west out here, people think they have to be independent and self-reliant. Knowing these spiritual areas of battle and weakness that are so prevalent helps us not only to see what is going on around us, but also keeps us aware of the attacks that are bound to come against us. It is like training for a war, it truly is a mission field, and we are truly in training. Thanks to God for those he has put here to walk and to fight the good fight with us. We have been blessed to have people of sincere heart put here with us to war with us. Praise be to God.
Joshua has been playing on the worship team, I have been dancing in the back. These are both things that we believe God is going to use to bring break through in the church. There are many who are sincere in their love for the Lord, and now they need to learn to express themselves to him. It is our belief that as we serve him, others will be inspired to serve him as well. We have both had so many people come up to us at different times and tell us that we are such an encouragement in worship, that we are such a blessing. (And there is a little girl or two who watch me dance and copy what I do. “Blessed are the pure in heart.” “The little child shall lead them.”)
Even before Josh and I were dating, I have often thought that the drought going on in Ft. Morgan was very symbolic of its spiritual health: dry, worn out, and not able to produce much fruit. So I have prayed for rain in the natural, and for the Spirit of God to rain down. I felt that the rain would come before the Spirit, because God often speaks first though what we can see, outwardly showing whats going on inside. With this said, in the spring we had a time of prayer and Joshua and one of the pastor/elders both began praying for rain and for a move of God. It then rained almost every afternoon for 2 weeks. Josh has once again been praying for rain, and last night it rained like crazy. It was beautiful, and there were rivers rushing in every street. Together we praised the Lord for the rain. We are excited about the rain, but also, I am curious to see what God has in the works for Ft. Morgan, not just in the natural, but in the spiritual. My prayer is that God's life and his Spirit will bring healing, change, and fruit that will last. May the Spirit Rain Down.
I have been studying proverbs for the last few weeks. This is because I will be teaching a class on proverbs with the young adults this fall. I chose this because I feel that God given wisdom is so scarce in my generation. Studying this has been a huge blessing for me, because as I have meditated on different verses I have came to quite a conclusion, much different than the many times i have read it before. For the first time I am beginning to Proverbs as an inside-out book, rather than an outside-in book. For instance, if you have the fruit of the spirit called gentleness inside of you, you will give a gentle answer that will turn away wrath. It doesn't work the other way around. If you give a gentle answer to turn away wrath it will not eventually make you into a gentle person. Wisdom is works its way from deep inside you till it pours out on everyone around you. The fear of the Lord is where this all starts. Anyhow, this is just a tid-bit about me specifically. I have really enjoyed what I have been learning from and seeing in Proverbs.
We miss you, love you, think and pray for you a lot.
Joshua & MaryElizabeth

Looking for a new land

Everyone wants to go to a new land. Everyone.
There has to be more than the hoedrum of life.
Love becomes stale, hearts become hard,
The choice: to have a heart like a child, or weeds of life worries,& of heart aches.
and a friends tell friends they are repenting from backsliding,
because some how busieness cammofolged a loss of first love
and the crazy actions that come with first love kind of logic.
and you and i are left with our hearts in our hands crying out
for softness to replace bitterness,
for faith logic to replace wordly wisdom,
& for love to replace habit & systemmatic expectations.

Then Out of the blue, proverbs becomes, not a book of external expectations,but of inner realities that express themselves outwardly.
The Book of Daniel, though filled with confussing escatology, Turns up to have hidden jems, that are beautiful and insighful, enough to make you stop, because you have to read it again,
and this time, maybe you will read them out loud.

And in the midst of it all an idea comes, to take someone else to a new land.
and so with my heart in my hands, and more excitement than i have had in a while, i go on an excurssion, to turn into beauty that which has become mundain.
Candle holders-sister in law has those, Candles & Mirrors & Music-me, silk from Cambodia-Nextdoor neighbor, New dress for less than $15-walmart. Turning my ugly basment into a beautiful candlelit, India-style dinning & sleeping room for the week...Fantastic! So in a way, I took my husband on vactaion this week...For less than dinner at a restaurant costs.
(And the spiders didn't really bother us too much either...though i did have to kill one.)

Sow in Tears...Reap in Joy.
But still. Who would want a prophecy about sowing in tears. Let alone multipule prophecys and the word of the Lord to your heart. What a word.

June in conclusion

We finnally have got a contract on the house. Horrah! Also Joshua has finnally been accepted for a new job, working for the city. The other job he has had was definnately a blessing, but the schedual was not exactly fitting us. The city job has a more do-able schedual, is at least a dollar an hour more, and has great bennifits, access/ discounts for certain city things (such as a gym, swimming pool, golf course). So we are excited for that.
As far as I go everything is Good. I am still working at the coffee shop. I have been very worn out between J & P's wedding, getting sick, and picking up a few extra hours. this weekend my friend Katrina, who was supposted to be in our wedding, is in town. It is so good to see her. It is lovely to have friends who you can not see for 3 years, and still be so close when reunited. It gives me hope.
Over Jonny's wedding we got to see not only Joe and Micah, but also the whole nale family. did you know that the nales have moved, and now live about an hour 1/2 away from us. Yippi, I want to go see them. Anyhow, it was great to see all of them. on sunday Joe & micah came to the meeting. That was fun. Then we went to dinner, just the josh & i, and those 2. that night my parents, us and those 2 went to see fantastic four, get ice cream, and walk the "rainbow brige." Lovely.
June has had its fair share of difficulties. The easiest to identify, learning patience...as we waited on finding out about the city job and the house. Watching servants of God go through difficulties,waiting to see if they will chose the MostHigh-way, or to do it "my way." It is hard, because although we affect others, we can not make their choices for them. So we hang in the balance waiting to see what a test of time will reveal about the character of our fellow servants, and of ourselves. I feel encouraged though, because I see that although there are struggles, what my dear fellow servants want the most is to follow Christ.
Joshua and I remain so thankful esspecially for what Don & Carol and Tim & Carol have instilled into us. Marriage teaching like that is rare. Maybe in a few years we will start doing marriage counsiling... THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US! the best wedding present we could ever ask for!
Finnally, I am re-vamping the whole "Master's commission" school that the Church has had. That has been taking up alot of my thought and my time. I feel like God has given me understanding for some things that needed to be re-worked. The school is all about equiping people to live wholeheartedly for God. I will let ya know how it goes.
God is faithful to speak, when we listen and when we seek him. He is faithful more than we even know. He is good beyond our imagenations. Oh that we would seek him more!
~m

Nose

This is me with my new nosering and new hair color. Because you are all dying to see them i am sure.
Lots is going on, almost to much to say, For sure too much to say right now.
We should know about the house soon though.

If you knew me

If you knew me, you would know, that I need to dance. It is far more a neccesity, than an delecacy. It goes beyond something that i love. When my feet are still and my hands not moving, my heart feels slightly chained. My spirit feels as though i forgot who I was, who i serve, and how he rescues me.

Lov-ely

In the last month i have wrote 5 songs, 3 of which i have wrote in the last 2 days. I am leading worship all week at Master's Commision. (CPMC). Yesterday was lovely. It is a thing of just wanting to be raw before him...thats where worship starts. I know there are always amazing things that God is wanting to do, It is usually just a matter of us slowing down enough and submitting our will to him. I want to be someone like david in the Bible, Proclaiming the greatness of God, without forgeting the tenderness and personalness of him.

We are looking at a house. It is amazing, and an amazing deal. Plus if we buy it we will have, 30k in homeowner equity, right off the bat, get experiance in fixing household stuff, be able to learn about being landlords...and our part is big enough to grow into!....we shall see what shall happen.

Worship Leader?

Well Today I am Leading worship (for people older than 11yrs) for the first time since I was in the simo homegroup. I acctually am leading with a song i wrote...yesterday. it is based of the "trust the Lord with all your Heart, dont lean on your understanding." It is like Josh always says, usually when i write a song its really good if its simple. I guess when i am the most desperate before the Lord that is when he is the most Powerful to me.
today also we are going in to make an offer on a house. It is a lovely duplex that we think maybe God has been saving for us. We shall see. It would be lovely though, because we would be able to rent the top out and help with payments....we shall see what the will of the Lord is. I love you!!!

flower

Oh God, Bring Life to me, without You I am nothing.

I need you to bring your life pulsing through me. If you are the vine, bring life to this branch, how else can i bear fruit that will last. Pulse through me. Be my life. You have been my help. Bring Joy to your servant, for who else can bring Joy? I love you. You are my love.

Usual except...

Work is going well, Joshua and I are getting more involved in the school at the Church (MC). All is going fairly well. I just have this sense always, that Jesus is coming back soon SooN SOON! It doesn't leave me, unless only to come back stronger than before. I am seeing the vultures, and taking into account what that means. I am dared to realize that there is nothing else worth living for. And that i need to be full of the Holy Spirit and empty from fear. and counting the cost...what really does matter anyways...

waiting is worth it

We've been wanting a piano. Then...
"You can have our piano. All you have to do is get it out of our basement."
Which meant completely taking it apart.
It has been in that house for the last three owners. Makes me wonder how long God has been saving it for us... Makes me think He knows his plans, and He is bigger than our ideas.











It really is an adventure. Josh has been working on all different things to get it back together, looking good and working good. I think he could be a piano repairman! This is the life God gives...He provides for us, then we pour our lives out to him. What he gives us, we must put to use.

















So we are thinking of starting a buisness... In our Garage. What do you think? He can fix Pianos, and I will bring out the metronome and start teaching lessons.
or maybe not.

Josh is the MAN!

It isn't all mountains

Let your light shine, let your life shine.
These candles are beautiful, and represent so many things in our life.

They are: a candle Josh had before we were married, a candle from dearest Melissa, wedding candles, and a candle from joshua's mom.

This is our house...for now anyways


The honeymoon pictures are nice, but its not all mountains in this part of the country...

life

How to hold just a little life in your hands...
what does it mean to be real?
Where do the begginnings come from that change the end?
Bring new life, o God, to those around me.



Childlike faith holds life in hand, smiling the while. Not too worried about what should be or could be or has been. Scars heal through trust, ideas change in your love. Do something great in me. Bring healing to the broken, and restore the years the insects ate up.

Wednesday Morning

Well, All is well. I am working at a coffee shop, and it is going well. I spent some time with a young mother, and a young lady yesterday, and the three of us had a great time, and also were able to pray together. That was refreshing. Also, Joshua set up our music room, so that we can actually play, practice and worship together on drums and keyboard. It has been absolutly lovely to be able to practice together, and i am looking forward to times of worship together. Also Josh has been able to have more time to be able to help with stuff at the church. That is exciting!

Blame it on the eileen &linds

I loved their website, so i finnally have actuall gotten hooked on a blog site...those other sights weren't any fun, and no one reads them anyways. This is my last Blog this morning, I need to get to work, get stuff done before work and that sort of thing. I am just so excited to have found a blog site that i really like...thanks Eileen & lindse

This is our funky stove. Topped with Candles and a reminder to Pray...For the nations, for Kenosha/Racine, and for Ft morgan. i will pray.... till kindom come, till my days, my days are done, Say YOU'll come, YOU've me free, just say YOU'll come, You're with me.....(yeah, i changed the words a bit from the song)
This is our house....The Kitchen wall paper, well we don't know what they were thinking, but it looks ok now that we took the green bar doors down and put up the bead-door we got for our wedding.


A Jonny and Pietze engadgement photo

I have been helping Pietze alot with pre wedding stuff. First learning about being the bride, then learning about helping the bride. I think this has some spiritual aplications.
Helping her has made me really appreciate my bridesmaids ALOT! i aready did but now i REALLY do. Especially rach, & Trace. Ok, and Kenj, Meliss, and Linds....Ok everybody!!!!! but especially RACH and Trace...they had most of the really hard work. I miss all of you girls!
ALSO BRIANNA IS A brilliant lady....but then, you already knew that.... it is common knowlledge!
so Yes, i am having loads of fun helping my future sister in law, but it is also lots more work than i even knew!

... ... ~~Save your roses~~!FOR ME! ... ...
I love flowers...thanks honey

wonderful, + not so wonderful, thats life

It was Absoulutely wonderful getting to Re-know a childhood friend Ann, and seeing what God has done in her life since we last were in touch. God is so good and so faithful. This was definately a huge highlight in my trip, and in my 1st month in co.



.................

Then there was the Not so wonderful. Definately memorable, but not by any means a "highlight."
Good ol' green, which has been hauling back and forth to mexico with us since1991, had a flat....and that was the spare even. So we changed back to the almost-flat origional tire (the one that was almost flat so we put the spare on...yeah you get the picture).


Man, that doesn't look too good!
We drove into C. Springs, No tire shops open!! Tis sunday. Randomly we come accross a truck with a spare in the back that "looks about right." We pull over, ask them, and sure enough it fits. They find out we are missionaries...and GIVE it to us. Amazing end to an hour or so of crazyness. What a blessing to have actually found a tire for this old van.



My mom and Cheri, "flat tires on a mission trip....Well, THATS LIFE for ya"

You get the picture

more pics

SO THIS is ME, doing "STRENGTH TESTING" as we prepare to go into mexico. (And goofing off with the water bottles at our lunch rest stop...) What can i say, I think i'm pretty strong...but not Super STRONG.


The orphangage (Home) has changed so much over the last 16 years. So much of what is in this picture has changed...The Newest change is the yellow building on the right... a school building, It is amazing, and i had never seen it before. So very much has changed since the first time I came to this place...one thing is still the same. The mountains still say, "LA BIBLIA ES LA VERDAD, LE LA" meaning "The Bible is the truth, Read it."


Here we are, waiting for our first work assignment of the day.

.....

This is our almost fearless leader "Mr Duffield" better known as Hermano Bob. (I look a little bit like i might be related, yeah?) This is the project the guys did, roofing a church building for some brothers in a new part of town. The Guys (ok & some of the girls) worked really hard at this sight...in the hot sun, on the hot roof...They came home each night covered in something...dirt, tar paper, sand...NOT REALLY SURE what it was, but they came home every night covered in it.

This is my man, Sitting on top of a two story Church Building in Juarez. (Man he is good looking) I got to go to this sight one of the days, and I was able to talk with one of the Hermanas at the church. She was beautiful, and had beautiful children. She had a soft heart and was so thankful for us to be there and to be helping them with this building project. The pastor and his wife came to the building sight later on, but i didn't really talk with them much. My only regret, I was pulled away from the work sight due to an emegency that Joshua and I had to attend to. But the time i spend with the people of this body of believers was lovely.

Mexico pictures

these are pictures from mexico. It was a great oppertunity to take very art-zy pictures. This is a bridge over the rio grande. Its such a sight, beautiful and desolate at the same time.

This is a back view of some of the orphanage & land owned by the Home (orphanage). This bridge also happens to be the top of a school bus. The house in the backround is the home of different teachers and workers from the Home. Different groups I have been with have built different parts of that house. I have helped build the 2 by 4 skeleton, put sheet rock on the walls, and worked on it when it was a one story house.

These are pictures of Joshua and I hanging out at the home of Pastor Carlos, and his wife Socoro. Spending time with them is always a highlight of our time in Mexico. I was able to see their house for the first time. They have been working on this house for forteen years. I guess the Ft. Morgan crew helped them with the work a few years ago. Maybe next year we will go down there and spend a week or two finninshing the house up. They do finnaly live in it, but it still has a lot of work to be done. It is a nice house, but reminded me of how spoiled I am. Being in Mexico reminded me how much material stuff i really have. It is always good to remember that this present world in its form is passing away.
IT was SO good to see Carlos, Socoro, David and the Church there in Sarago...I have known these guys for at least 6 years. The Body here truly remind me of Romans 1:11-12

"I Long to see you so that I can share a spiritual blessing with you, So we can grow srong in the Lord, that both you and i may be encouraged by together by eachother in the Lord." Though these people have little, their faces are always filled with Joy.

Beautiful little girls dance to praise the Lord. Both of the Church families we are in touch with in the Juarez area are very excited about dance, and worship/praise dance teams.

Singing to the dark

the very bottom photo reminded me of a word i had about singing to those in the dark, after I myself made the choice to get up, out of my cell, and walk through the door to freedom. This is a word that I only remember from time to time but when i do, i always wonder about what it means, and exacty what the fruit will be...the fruit that will come from singing to those in the dark. Calling them out into the light into the garden where light and freedom are everywhere and where there is much fruit. Hmmm....

Catching up

.........Not just married...FINNALLY MARRIED!!!.............

This is us on our honeymoon. These are the rings to prove it, We are Married (im not josh'n ya either)
with the backround to prove we are in Estes Park.
This is me at Red Rocks. What an amazing place. I think it should be called, "God's Playdough place." Now that we live in CO, (isn't that weird and kinda funny?) maybe we can go there and spend some more time. We were only their a little bit caz we wanted to see "the cave of the winds" and we were running late.
Driving up Pike's Peak....AMAZING. What can i say!!!

This is the CO reception, Joshua and I with the Pastor and his wife from Life Fellowship. (Kelly and Ellen are their names.) Little did we know at the time, that now we would be here with them.
the Blakes....little did we know that they would be our land lords.....and next door neighbors. What a pleasant and crazy surprize!!! God is funny, and he is so unpredicatble.


So actually, there is really no documentation of last fall. Give me some time... I am trying to catch up!