Following Jesus
Summer Support Trip 2009 – Home!
Thank you so much for all your prayers while we were traveling! We arrived home yesterday afternoon and are busy getting unpacked and settled back in.
Our second week in Melbourne was packed full. We were blessed to meet with multiple friends for meals and swimming and fellowship.
We have some exciting news to share. We found out on our trip that we are expecting a new little one early next year! We took all the kids out to dinner last night after we got home to share the news with them, and they are all so excited!
Summer Support Trip 2009 – CC Melbourne Week 1
Thank you so much for your prayers for Carri! I praise God that she is showing slow improvement. She remains in critical condition, however. Please continue to lift her up as she will likely have a very long recovery ahead of her.
Our first week in Melbourne has been busy with meetings, visits with friends and supporters, even a radio interview! It was such a joy to sit down with Patti Spangler of WRDJ and share about what we experienced when God called us to serve at GFA and about our work at the home office. The interview will be edited for time before being broacast, but I’ll be sure to post the link when it’s ready. We pray that it will touch someone’s heart and encourage listeners to follow where God is leading them.
We have quite a bit more on our schedule before we load up the Suburban and begin our drive towards home the end of this week. Thank you for lifting us up in your prayers!
Skirts for Sewing Seeds and a Little Fabric Shopping
I managed to sneak out for a little alone time this morning to a little local quilt shop. It was so quiet, and it had such a lovely selection of fabrics. I wanted to spend all day. I came home with this really sweet Moda Dinosaur print.
I’m doing a Toddler Clothing Swap with an online friend this month. She has a 2-year-old daughter who loves dresses, dinosaurs and purple, so I matched up the dinosaur print with the purple and green dots. I’m going to turn them into a dress with matching bloomers. I’m thinking I’ll add a ruffle at the bottom, too, just to add to the girly-ness.
I also thought I’d share these two skirts that I whipped up before we left Texas for The Sewing Seeds Project. These will travel to Costa Rica this summer where I pray that they’ll be a blessing to the little girls who receive them.
You can read more about the project and how you can contribute, too, by clicking here.
Summer Support Trip 2009 – Waldo & St. Augustine
I’ve gotten a bit behind on updating the last few days. We spent a nice relaxing day at our hotel in tiny Waldo, Florida on Thursday. I drove out and picked up my baby sister, Cassie, and my three nieces, and we all hung out all the hotel pool for the afternoon (with permission from the hotel, of course).
Allie (my niece), Allen, Samantha, Kristen (my niece) and Cassie (my sister)–aren’t they a beautiful bunch?
I love this picture! I think it’s such a beautiful illustration of the pure trust that a little boy has in his daddy.
Ray spent much of his time launching Allen and Sean up out of the water so that they could do backflips.
After swimming, we all drove over to my mom’s house for dinner.
On Friday morning, we packed up the car again and headed east to St. Augustine Beach where we met with some friends for lunch and fun at Splash Park.
Saturday morning, we set off to our final destination for this trip: Melbourne, Florida. We’ll be visiting here with our home church, Calvary Chapel Melbourne, for about two weeks. It looks like it’ll be a busy time, and we’re really excited about all that we have planned!
Summer Support Trip 2009 – OHB & A Little R&R
We had a wonderful time sharing with Orange Heights Baptist Church in Orange Heights, Florida, last night. It’s been about four years since we were there last, and I think everyone enjoyed the update to what we’ve been doing. What an amazing group of believers!
Before coming here, we spent two nights at the Florida Black Bear Cabin in Wellborn. We had planned our little side trip there for some rest and relaxation, and time to just enjoy each other. When we arrived, we were amazed at what a beautiful cabin it is. The pictures on their website really don’t even do justice to how welcoming and comfortable it is. It was the perfect setting for a few days of peace and quiet. (I wish we could have stayed a week!)
We played hours of “Speed Scrabble”. Allen and Ray played badminton, and Allen worked on his badminton serve nearly the whole time we were there. We curled up inside and read books that we’d brought with us and books and magazines that were on shelves throughout the cabin. We ate yummy food, including chicken, zucchini and bread that Ray cooked on the grill our last night there.
We picked blueberries from the bushes right next to the cabin.
And, we made blueberry muffins to snack on.
We checked out some cool bugs, including some really pretty spiders and skins that had been left behind by locusts.
I gave Samantha some cross-stitch lessons, and she picked it up really quickly! She should have a completed project to show off soon.
And, Ray and Sean built a campfire so we could roast marshmallows and have s’mores.
We are definitely planning to come back here again!
Update on My Stepdad
Thanks so much for praying. Things went really well with his heart cath. They were able to put a stent in to relieve the blockage. He’ll spend tonight in the hospital and should be able to go home tomorrow!
Summer 2009 Support Trip – Biloxi, Mississippi
We had a lovely lunch today with our friends, Michael and Deborah. One of the things that I love about support trips is that it gives us the opportunity to share about GFA, and that is an amazing way to renew my own enthusiasm.
After lunch, we went for a drive down the beach and stopped for a few hours at a local carnival. We all had a great time! We haven’t been to a carnival in a long time, so I was surprised at how many rides Samantha and Allen were brave enough to ride. Of course, it helped that big brother, Sean, encouraged them and rode on the big scary ones with them, too.
This picture should give you a chuckle. Ray stopped to show Jamie the bubbles, and Jamie started punching them. Apparently he thought he was under attack!
We’ll drive out of here tomorrow morning towards Florida where we have a cabin rented for two nights of rest and relaxation. On Wednesday we’ll be in Orange Heights, Florida, speaking at Orange Heights Baptist.
Summer 2009 Support Trip: And . . We’re Off!
Ray and I are on the road today with Sean, Samantha, Allen and Jamie, headed out on our annual support trip. We serve as full-time staff missionaries with Gospel for Asia at their U. S. home office in Carrollton, Texas. GFA does not take out a percentage of donations received for administration, instead, 100% of all donations go to the area where they are designated. As staff members, we raise our own prayer and financial support. Our list of supporters includes churches, family and friends. Each year, we travel to visit with our supporters, to encourage and pray with them, and, prayerfully, to add new supporters to our team.
We’re heading into Biloxi, Mississippi tonight, where we’ll visit supporters tomorrow. Then, we’ll drive into Florida, where we’ll spend the remainder of our trip, before returning to Texas the last week of June.
As we left the Dallas area yesterday, we noticed that the fields of wheat along the sides of the road were “ripe to harvest”. It was a beautiful reminder of why God called us to serve in full-time ministry, supporting native missionaries in the field, and it was a great encouragement as we set out on this trip.
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 9:36-38
If you’d like to know more about GFA, stop in at www.gfa.org and request the free book, Revolution in World Missions. I pray that it will be a huge blessing to you!
Fun and Refreshing at the GFA Staff Retreat
We had a great time of worship, fellowship and fun at the GFA Staff Retreat this past weekend. I enjoyed being out of the city so much. It was such a blessing!
There was canoeing.
Ray, Allen, Jamie and I went out together, but we didn’t stay out long. Jamie’s wiggling made the canoe really rocky which made mama a little nervous.
There was a pinata.
Jamie was so excited about his candy–he wanted to eat it all. I got him down for a nap not too long after the pinata. I thought I’d put the candy away, and he would have forgotten about it when he woke up. Ha! The first words out of his mouth when he sat up were, “Where’s my candy?”
There were basketball, volleyball, soccer and capture the flag.
I’m pretty sure that Sean and his friends played basketball every waking moment of the weekend.
There was plenty of swimming.
And, some just hanging out at the pool. I don’t think Morgan and her friends stayed dry much after this picture was taken. There were at least a dozen kids in the pool who were determined for them to be soaked.
And, there was the excitement of launching people into the air on the Blob.
That’s my husband flying through the air! I opted for the safer choice of watching and snapping pictures.
Lessons My Dad Taught Me
My dad, William Robert “Smooth” Warren, passed away on May 3 from melanoma which had spread throughout his body over the last year. I was blessed to know that he knew Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, and went home to be with Him. I’ve been reflecting a bit since he died on the things I learned from him. His funeral was held in Palatka, Florida, this past Saturday. The church was packed with people he loved and people who loved him. It wasn’t your typical funeral gathering . . . most of those gathered wore jeans, black t-shirts and boots, and the roaring engines of Harleys announced their arrivals.
My dad taught me to never judge people by their appearance, by their past, by their situation.
He taught me that family is family, regardless. Family means forgiving, loving, accepting, looking ahead and not looking back to hold onto grudges.
He taught me to stand up for the underdog . . . and to never give up on your favorite NASCAR driver.
He taught me to be generous with what you have, even when it’s not very much.
He taught me to stand up for what you believe in and to stand up for freedom.
He taught me that when you make mistakes, you learn from them and move on.
My dad wasn’t perfect–I’m not either. It warmed my heart, though, to hear story after story at his funeral of how generous he was, of how he made people feel as if they were old friends when they had really only just met, of how he seemed totally at peace even just before the cancer finally took his life, of how much love he gave and how much he was loved. My dad and I didn’t have a traditional father-daughter relationship while I was growing up, but I’m so thankful for the time we had together after I was an adult. I think he was proud of the person that I grew up to be, and I know I am proud to say that he was my dad.
