Christmas

Another Christmas has just passed and God has been so good yet again. We had a wonderful time reuniting w/ family, building gingerbread houses and exchanging gifts. More importantly though, we worshiped God in the morning through prayer and thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve had an opportunity to go downtown Toronto and give warm items to the homeless as well as the Gospel. It was awesome and sad at the same time. There were so many of them and most of them wanted nothing to do with Christ, some of them didn't even want our warm socks or food we offered! There were two people who talked to us about the Gospel and seemed interested, we left them with some good tracts and New Testaments and hopefully God will work out the rest. It was just so cool to finally be out doing missions again. Even though it was freezing, dangerous and we stayed up till 1:30 am walking (very tiring on a preg. woman) i loved every minute of it!Out of everything else in this world nothing brings me more joy than sharing the Gospel, especially with the poor and downtrodden. Anyway, i'm off to go read some Joshua w/ Ry before bed.

"And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Rom 10:15

6 Month appt.

I had my 6 month midwife appt. today. it went well and pretty much routine. Baby is doing well, everything is perfect actually. Praise the LORD, it's only Him who is orchestrating everything. 6 months down...3 more to go! whoo hoo! I am getting excited. Really excited. It's also December, which means Christmas is coming and that always makes me happy. Not just for the family reunions which are awesome but the celebration of why we live and and have life eternal! The birth of our saviour! I bet it will be like Christmas in heaven everyday because that's all we'll be doing, celebrating Jesus Christ and what he did for us!this is me @ 6 months, 23 weeks.

Overwhelmed

When it rains it pours. Or so it seems in our situation right now. Our truck died last Friday, so all weekend we were stuck without a ride. If that weren't bad enough, Ryan is busy at work doing a rush job so he has to work overtime every night till 8pm or later. On top of that, Darius is sick and got an eye infection today, so im not sure how to get him to the doctors, PLUS we have no groceries! Ry's trying to fix the truck himself but because he has to be at work this week he hasn't had the time yet. I guess im just feeling overwhelmed being pregnant on top of all this and stressed. It just feels a little better to write it all out, i don't know why. Hopefully, Lord willing this will all get better soon and our truck will be fixed. I hate how we live in a society where you NEED to drive everywhere. If your car dies your stuck. Your basically forced to buy two vehicles just to get by on a daily basis. It's ridiculous.

Ultrasound pics!

Here they are: my 20wk baby!

PRAISE! THE LORD!

God in His amazing faithfulness, compassion and grace has answered my prayer and my diabetes test came back negative!! I was praying a lot for this and i even told God that if it came back negative i would say "Praise God" in front of the midwife, and i did hehe. Anyway all the glory goes to Him because its very common to get it again in a subsequent pregnancy and the midwife said that there was not even a trace of abnormality in my blood sugar levels! So i am so thankful to the Lord for this. I definitely don't deserve it, but He is so gracious. Also ill post some recent pics of the fam from our weekend in Muskoka and home.

Felt the baby kicking!

Yesterday I had my diabetes test, as awful as it was to endure the nurses there were very caring and helpful. Praise the Lord i didn't faint or throw up either :) Later on in the evening, Darius was being his usual energetic self and accidentally hit my stomach w/ his arm, not hard but enough for me to feel it. Right after, i felt the baby start kicking!! Darius must have woke him up. He/she kept kicking for about 5 minutes, we could even see it moving under my skin. Darius enjoyed feeling it too, it was such a blessed moment :)

Prayer Request:

Tomorrow morning i go for my Gestational Diabetes test. I had it with Darius so its pretty likely that I'll have it again :( I'm really hoping i don't, because that would make me high-risk and i may even have to be transferred to an obstetrician. So if you could please pray that i don't faint tomorrow after all the blood tests, and that by God's grace I don't have diabetes, that would be amazing!!! Thanks so much :)

More Muslims..

Ryan and Scott went out to two mosques last night in hopes of witnessing to some Muslims. They ended up going during their prayer time and had to stand in there and wait till they were all done. So they prayed amongst themselves, not to allah however, to YAHWEH! They met a couple of Muslims and made future appointments w/ them to meet and discuss Christianity/Islam. One man they met named Richard, was a Catholic converted to Islam. please pray that his eyes would be open to false religion and to the one true God, and that the false gospel of Catholicism hasn't completely tainted his view of Christians. They are going back to the Mosque tonight to meet w/ the Emoms. I'll update more as it happens.

Hmmm.........

So Ryan and I are officially at a cross roads (again) and are seriously praying for God's guidance and clear direction for us in the next year. We were planning on going back to Bible school next September to finish up what we started, but recently our church in Oakville has told us that they are planting a church in Brampton (where we are) next Sept.! So were really excited about that and really wanna be a part of it. It kind of throws a monkey wrench into our plans though......the options are go to school, or stay here for at least another year and help out with the church plant. We also have a baby coming in March so maybe staying until he/she is a bit older wouldn't be a bad idea. SIGH! I have no idea.......i just wish i knew what God wanted us to do. Which is why we're praying i guess. Either way it's all good, and God glorifying.

Appt. Update!

I just got back from my appt. w/ my midwife and it went well. She said that I am still measuring large probably because I am petite to begin w/ and the baby has nowhere else to go. She tried to find the heart beat too but was unsuccessful at first, she kept finding it and then it would go away. She said it was because he/she kept swimming away, and was very active! Ry's like "oh no, not another one!" lol. We eventually got it for a consistent time and it was perfect beating at 140. Praise God! I go for another ultrasound and some more tests in another couple of weeks, please pray that i dont have gestational diabetes. the appt. was an hour long, which is fantastic compared t the 5 minute ones i would of had with an obstetrician. I absolutely LOVE midwifery care. We also discussed a home birth and so now Ry and i have to decide if thats what we want.

Another cool thing that happened today, we were driving through Georgetown and noticed random people holding up signs w/ Bible verses on them. Then we seen one guy w/ signs evangelizing a group of highschool students, so we pulled over to talk to him. They were all christians part of a bunch of bible believeing churches doing a week long evangelism thing in georgetown. He gave us a cd w/ a sermon on it (it's a really solid message) and the church's contact. Halton Hills Bible chapel is the name. Anyway, it was really encouraging to see Christians taking a bold stand for the Gospel and proclaiming Christ to the world. We need to get something like that happening in Brampton.

To Live By Faith!

I just recently heard a sermon on the life of George Muller. I've never heard of him before but I'm sure glad i did! I just started reading his autobiography and it's amazing!! He was a man who is known for opening up numerous orphanages, starting a Bible Institute and was also a Lutheran minister. His life reflected constant glory to God for providing all his needs. He refused a paycheck from his congregation so that he could only depend on God for his needs and when God provided....only God alone would get the glory. And He always provided, mostly in miraculous ways. I could go on but it would take up a lot of space. So i encourage you to read up on George Muller, He will inspire and challenge you to depend on God in faith, bring glory to God through everything, pray without ceasing even for the smallest thing and daily meditate on His word. Here are some famous quotes from him:

“If honest of heart and uprightness before God were lacking or if I did not patiently wait on God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow-men to the declarations of the Word of God, I made great mistakes.”


"The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray."


"There was a day when I died, utterly died — died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends — and since then I have only to show myself approved to God."

Great Bible Memorizing Tools

I found these great tools on John's Piper's website www.desiringGOD.org . There called Foundation verses and on one side of the card it shows a simple picture, like a sun and mountain, and on the flip side is the verse "God created the heavens and the earth". The foundation ones are for children but i like it for myself hehe. They also have adult ones w/o pictures but also in a really great format that you can keep in your pocket and car. I ordered both. I really love ideas like this that encourage Scripture memorization and just getting into the Word, it's so vital! The kids one is $5 and the adult ones are $12. Worth it!

Ultrasound!

I wanted a midwife for this pregnancy but was told when i called they were booked up. Disappointed, i told them to put me on the waiting list. After booking my first appointment w/ an OB (the receptionist was very uncaring and rude by the way, just as i suspected, which is why i wanted a midwife in the first place) i felt discouraged because i had to wait so long to get checked out and find out why im measuring bigger. Then on wednesday, i was reading the Bible and the phone rang. It was the midwifery and they said a spot opened up and i was in! Praise God! I saw them the next day and it was amazing! Everything i want in a pregnancy Dr. She even let us hear the heartbeat and checked me, and she wasnt technically allowed to yet! The heartbest was perfext beating at 140, it was music to my ears. Then she checked my uterus and said i was in fact a month larger than i should be, so she scheduled an ultraosund for the next day. No more waiting for me!

I was really nervous about the u/s(ultrasound). I had everyone praying that theyre was nothing wrong, also i think everyone was praying for twins hehe. Anyway, we get there and right away, Ry, me and the u/s tech lady are all looking for two heads. When she finally says "ok, for sure there is only one" . Ry was disapointed, but i was actually kinda relieved. Then she showed us the lil baby dancing around, moving it's little arms and head. She said it is measuring a week ahead, so i'm now due a week earlier, march 15th! Bonus! We also dont know why im so big yet, i guess ill find out on monday when i get the results. Im just so thankful for a healthy baby and God's grace in my life! Oh..Darius and I both have horrible colds right now too...goodtimes!

Expecting...

That's right! God has blessed our family with a new addition! I am currently 12 weeks pregnant and my estimated due date is March 21st 2009. Everything is going well so far except that I'm measuring large for my dates, 4 weeks larger to be exact so the Doctor asked me if i had any twin history in my family! which i only do on Ryan's side so i don't think that counts. So other than possible twins, we're doing great! not that twins wouldn't be great, it would. It would just be shocking haha. I go for my next appointment on Oct. 2nd and will keep updating news as i get it.

August Already.....

The end of summer is here already and as usual has come far too quickly. But I'm excited. I know this coming year is going to bring lots of change, it has already. My brother has moved to London, my parents are in the process of moving to Muskoka and we are spending a lot of time in Oakville. There are other things that are coming up that im estatic about but cannot make public yet, so you will have to wait hehe. Im just so thankful for the Lord and his faithfulness to us as His children and His hand in our lives. I should always trust Him. You should always trust Him. Even in your darkest trial......He has a purpose in it all for you. I found this verse today and wanted to leave it with you.

"He has showed you O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" Micah 6:8

WATCH THIS VIDEO

Go to www.plow.org and click on "revival fire video"

it's amazing.

And.....we're back.

Cuba was amazing! We had such a great time! We got to see the real Cuba this time and meet some awesome people. It really opened our eyes to the oppression and poverty they endure and sparked a desire for missions there in the future...God willing. Ryan and I have been convicted and inspired in these last couple of weeks to really give up our lives for Christ. To not get caught up in the cares and concerns of this world so that we do not produce any fruit. We want to produce fruit...lots of it for the glory of God. Using this life he has given us for the kingdom and not for ourselves. So, we're going to finish our last semester of Bible college through distance learning, get really involved in our church and do some short-term trips to get us prepared for a life of ministry and missions! I am so excited!

Cuba Si

On June 21st Ryan and I leave for Santa Clara, Cuba for a weeks vacation of rest, refreshment and fun. My parents have offered to take care of Darius for us and is such a blessing for us to have this time as sort of a second honeymoon. We chose Cuba again because after long hours of research, Cuba seems to have the best beaches for a great price. Were going more up north this time to an island thats more secluded and has different tours than our honeymoon, like jungle safari jeep tours and such! so much fun! Plus we absolutely love the Cuban people. This trip will be bitter sweet though as i am not looking forward to being without my D for 8 whole days, but im sure it will be good for us. and what better gift to give your child than a good marriage :) The pic above is the actual beach at our resort......ahhh.....

Book Worm

This is Darius reading all by himself in his room yesterday. He's a book worm already....and I LOVE it!!

The Bible In 90 Days

I've recently received my new Bible in 90 Days and cannot wait to get started. I've tried doing the Bible in one year thing but the thought that it would take me an entire year was so daunting to me and I never really had enough motivation to do it. So i heard about this on Haven Today and was encouraged because it's only 12 pages a day, which is about 45 min. of reading time. I'm a pretty quick reader and thought 45 min. is a good chunk of time to spend in the Bible daily anyway. So today is day one of reading and i should be finished the Bible on August 26 God willing! So excited.....

Spring Time Hike

Here are some pics from the hike we took last Saturday at the Lime House trails.




Darius was thrilled checking out trees and rocks the whole time

Happy 2nd B-Day D!

Veggie Tales Cakes Melisa and I made (Darius' arm stealing a piece lol)

"Happy Birthday"
On Saturday we had a birthday party for Darius and it was wonderful. Good friends, good laughs and good cake lol. I can't believe how fast children grow up. I am so thankful for Darius and every year God blesses us with him.

Press

Check out an article written about our church. Click Here.

Let the little Children Come...

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matt.19:14

I've always loved this verse. It has always inspired me to have faith like a child and to be completely dependant on my Heavenly Father. I've always watched Darius as he truly trusts in me and Ryan to care for him and provide his needs, it's so amazing. Yesterday he taught me something else, and again I'm amazed at how true Jesus' words were when he said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. We have a guy around our age who lives next door and we always see him outside having a smoke, he doesn't look very friendly and he sometimes has "gangster" looking friends drop by, so we've kind of kept our distance in a frightened sort of way. I've always felt convicted to say hi to him or introduce myself but something always stops me. I somehow think that he doesn't want me to talk to him or I'll just bother him or something. Anyway, as we were leaving the house last night, he was sitting on his front porch smoking as usual and right away Darius notices him and shouts loudly "hiiii!!" and immediately i thought "oh no...how is he gonna react?" so i spied around the door to see him and he had a huge smile on his face looking at Darius. Darius probably made him feel special or cheered him up. How shameful i felt after for not saying hi to him this whole year we've lived here! I had sinful prejudices and judgments that were stopping me from loving my neighbour. Darius didn't fear his gangster friends or his rejection, he simply wanted to acknowledge he was there and greet him lovingly. wow.....i never thought i could learn so much from a 2 year old.

Mormon Madness Cont'd

well, the meeting with Elder Lee got canceled. Ryan called him on Monday and Wednesday to re-arrange the meeting and he continued to be horribly rude and insulting. I didn't even want him to come to our house anymore. He basically told Ryan that Ry is not humble enough to accept his message and when Ry asked him to meet with him and Scott instead of me, he said that God doesn't waste his time on the non-elect. He said "by the authority I have in god, i command you to make a decision right now to see me with your wife, i know who the elect of god are and i highly doubt you are one of them". Then Ryan asked if he could think about it and get back to him and said that he was looking forward to talking with him again and Elder Lee responded "im not looking forward to talk to you". So thats how it ended. Now we really know that Mormons could care less for people's lost souls. It has been discouraging but I take hope in what the Bible says about being persecuted for Christ's sake and that even though men speak all kinds of evil against you we should rejoice.

Pics from the weekend

Smoothie love
Darius out cold
Enjoying a walk

@ the Falls
Melisa and I out for some Sushi

Mormon Madness

On Saturday night, two mormon missionaries came over to give us their "lessons" on mormonism. Ryan actually ran after them (literally) down the street a couple days prior in hopes of witnessing to them. Anyway, Elder Lee and Elder Summons arrived with a newly converted mormon named Ryan. They were pleasantly friendly and polite at first introduction but as soon as we started talking that changed drastically. As soon as Elder Lee found out we were Christians who knew our Bible and mormonism he went into insult mode. He started yelling at us saying we were asking stupid questions that were getting us nowhere, that we were blasphemers, that he could sense the spirit of satan in the room!, and that we were hypocrites. Of course we were not any of these things and we even apologized to them many times if we had come across that way, but they didn't care. They just wanted to give their spiel and have us accept it as truth and then leave, but we wanted to go to God's word and dialog w/ them as Paul did on his missionary trips and they weren't having it. So they finally concluded that they wanted to meet w/ Ry and I one on one this week after we promised to read the book of Mormon.....uugghhh! So not looking forward to that.

They left on good terms (kind of) but this man was flat out rude. I couldn't believe that mormon missionaries would act like that and treat people in their own homes with such disrespect. You could tell he was afraid......afraid of going to God's word because then he would be found out, found out of his lies and deception. Please pray for these lost souls. Especially for the new mormon Ryan, he seemed to be still searching and hopefully now he's heard two sides of the Gospel and i pray that God would draw him to the truth. Ry and i are going to prepare tonight for our next meeting with Elder Lee, we need to think of a better way to talk to him without getting into heated debates. We just need to give him the Gospel i think, and tell him where we're coming from right off the bat. They are so trained and brainwashed that its seems impossible for their hearts to ever be softened.

A 2 Yr. Old's Fun!

This is what the carpet and Darius looked like after we found out that he had gotten into the diaper drawer and went to town with the creams. A disaster mess like this happens at least once a day now....goodtimes :) It was actually pretty funny.

Mosque Outreach

Ryan and Scott went to the Mosque down the street on Tuesday night to witness to some Muslims. They are always so surprisingly welcoming and open to discussion. On Tuesday they met Siad and his son and they actually went to Tim Hortons to talk about Islam and the Gospel. Ryan said it was fruitful, Siad asked a lot of questions and was confused about Jesus' atonement for our sins until Ry gave a metaphoric description of someone about to burn in a fire etc...and he said "oh now i get it!". so all in all it went really well. Which is different to say of the mormons who last time they went in their church got kicked out for being Bible thumper's lol. Anyway, if your reading this and would like to pray, pray for Siad that he would be changed by the word of God he heard and that the Father would draw him to Christ.

Words With Darius

This is a fairly recent video of some words Darius says all the time :)

Easter '08

This is a picture of Pastor Robbie giving his sermon on Easter morning. Harvest met at the Living Arts Center in Mississauga. It was such an awesome service. I love this pic cause it shows how much passion Robbie has to preach the word. If you look closely in the front row left side you can see Ryan, me, Luke and my dad (LtoR) listening intently :) To see video clips from the service or to hear the sermon click here

Great Day

Sundays are usually busy days for us, since we go to Harvest Bible Chapel in Oakville which is an hour away and then to young adults at night. But today was especially busy since we had to pick up the trailer "Big Bertha" for someone to pick her up and take her away. Yes...sadly we sold her. She served us well and is now finding a new home. Anyway, today was a great day of convicting/comforting church, great fun with friends and inspiration as we got to see, meet and hear about the Mully family. Who are a family missionary team in Kenya who are right now serving in relief aid to displaced persons who were victimized in the recent elections violence and raids. They are sponsored by Harvest and are able to feed 3,000 displaced children everyday....a hot lunch! God is so amazing!! we asked them if they need volunteers but they said right now there is too much persecution and it's far too dangerous but in the future they will and they said even us!(Ry and i). Anyway, that totally made my day! You never know what God has in store :) You can check out their website here : www.mullychildrensfamily.org

C.S Lewis Song

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary
Then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared


Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me

Am I lost or just less found,
On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me,
Is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?

`Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth
Of who I was born to become


For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath
So we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live
I was made to love
I was made to know you

Hope is coming for me

By: Brooke Fraser

The Picture of Humility

Kenya is officially in heat and now looks like this. She doesn't look very intimidating anymore haha.

Dying to Self.....

I have learned something this past week. Usually God lets me struggle with something for a while because i like to try and figure things out on my own as well as fix it on my own. So God lets me have my way since i think i am so smart ;) Then usually, i find out i really don't know anything and should have just trusted God in the first place. Anyway, he always shows up at the last minute and reveals His profound truth to me in the form of wisdom. Literally my spiritual eyes open up and the light bulb goes off in my head......it's really cool. Recently i have been struggling with wanting to fulfill my dreams, i felt like God was taking too long to make things happen so i would take control and start planning them myself, being the extremely impatient person I am. After weeks and even months of struggling God revealed to me that i am being selfish. Selfish mainly because i have a family to think about now and it's not all about me and my dreams anymore. I realized three things i need to do to stop this vicious cycle of selfishness:

1) I need to die to self - i need to stop thinking about what i want and stop grumbling if i don't get my way, It's Christ who is in me now and i need to stay focused on glorifying HIM not myself.

2) I need to trust God- i need to wait on the Lord for however long He wants to take and trust that He knows what He's doing and it's for my ultimate good whether i like it or not. Practicing patience.

3)I need to serve others- it's a command from the Lord and i will find blessing in it, also i'll be so busy serving others and caring for people other than myself that i won't have time to think about my dreams or lack there of!

So this is my revelation of the week and I'm at peace already, it feels so much better to just leave everything in God's hands, instead of constantly fighting against things that don't go your way.

First Blog

I've decided to start a blog. This being my first one i don't really have much to say. I hope this will be a good way of writing out my thoughts to whoever wants to read as well as keep everyone updated with what God is doing in our lives. yay! I'm kind of excited!