Mud, spackling, and Primer

The house is a shambles, our nerves are holding out, and the paneling is nearly gone. The walls are mudded, sanded, and part of the first coat of primer is on the walls. Hopefully by the end of the weekend the Living Room Renovation will be complete.

Here's the south wall (before)

The southwest corner (before)

and the north wall (with primer)

The bathroom renovation

The pepto bismol pink gets to stay, but the faucets are leaking and the moisture has bubbled part of the wall in the bathroom. We already painted in here and put in a new light fixture, but there is more to be done! Thank God (and I really mean that as sincerely as possible) for Butch the plumber. Not only did he do a great job, but his prices are excellent.

Bubbling wall repaired!The new faucets! (no leaking!)

New shower head - nice stream, but we miss the wand

Check out our prayer needs!

The list at the right has some updated prayer requests. We really do appreciate and covet your prayers. Here's a little list right now:

• we're really trying to figure out if we should rent or sell our house. we're fixing it up right now (translation: putting money into the house, carpet, paint, plumbers, etc) the market is really bad in ann arbor - so we don't know if it's smarter to rent or sell. please pray for wisdom.
• we're trying to figure out priorities. I'm frankly overwhelmed with the number of things that we have to do and decide. where should we store our things? should we paint or relax? should we just sit down and spend time together or should we be working on support development? there's just a lot. Amy's busy with her intensive Russian coursework (really busy) and I've been very busy at my UM job too.
• we received our new terms of call for 2008 (translation: our budget) and we have to raise quite a bit more money as a married couple and with the cost of living and inflation rates in Russia. So we're at a $1000/mo deficit right now.
• i've been working on the process and procedure to replace myself at UM. Please pray that the right person will be found for the role. I really want to leave the department in strong and capable hands.
  

Spaghetti

On Saturday night, we had a delicious pasta dinner with tomato meat sauce and a vegetarian alfredo. It was served with Farfalle (bowtie) pasta. It was topped off with an incredible cake, created by Angie and the chocolate layers were interspersed with PEANUT BUTTER frosting! The second half of the cake was vanilla frosting....

On Sunday after we spoke at New Hope in Clay City, Laura made spaghetti with meat sauce for us. It was also delicious with homemade garlic bread. Noah (our 1 year old nephew) really enjoyed trying to feed himself.

Last night, Sara whipped out her skills as a high cuisine chef and made an incredible hot italian sausage cream sauce mixed with sundried tomatoes tossed with cayenne pepper and baby shells.

I'm glad I like pasta...

New Hope

This morning Amy and I spoke at a new church! It's in Clay City, Indiana and our brother-in-law is that pastor there. It was a blessing on so many levels. We had an entire 30 minutes to share and speak with the congregation. It was so wonderful to be able to share with them about our calling to Russia and the work there. They had so many questions! Everything from average monthly income, information about alcohol and abortion, what ages kids are when they go to school, and how could they help!

It sounds like they might be planning on joining us as a supporting institution! This is exciting news as Amy and I have nearly an additional $1000 to raise monthly at this point. Our new prayer cards should be ready soon. If you're not on our mailing list and you'd like to be to receive prayer updates and newsletters comment on this post and give us your name, address, and email. We'll make sure to add you!

Flexibility - a piece of my own medicine

So, I almost always share with mission teams that, "flexibility is our friend and expectation is our enemy." It's a really good motto - especially when you're moving across the world, or taking a family of 8 to Siberia, or a group of 11 high school students.

Sometimes we work and plan and plan and work and our best efforts are thwarted by circumstances. And because of other things going on in our lives (like searching for your replacement at work, having the walls of your house stripped of wallpaper - but not yet painted, plumbers coming, and leaving town for the weekend to visit family, celebrate birthdays, speak at churches..........

....... aaaaaaaargh.

Amy and I need to learn to say no better. And with just one year in the States, it's really hard. When do you say no? To family? To work? To Mission? To relaxation? To repairing the house to sell (or rent?)

....... aaaaaaaargh. (the screaming helps)

It's late, I'm overwhelmed, and probably just overreacting. I NEVER exaggerate.

I'll instead quote some favorite song lyrics - "Days" by Ayiesha Woods

Don't you wish that every day was an easy day
And there was nothing that you couldn't do
But if every day was an easy day
You'd never be able to say that Jesus brought you through

That's the best thing about today - Jesus brought me though. So I'll be here again tomorrow and there will be a smile on my face. It does rock to be following after God who understands.

Oh - and the best news of the day... 7 happily married months.

Binge Chilling

I just read an article forwarded to me by my supervisor about Balance at Work. It was really interesting especially because it pointed out that many folks are choosing to NOT advance at work to higher level positions, because of the sacrifices required at home or in their personal lives!

Balance? It's a foreign word to most people. It's something that Amy and I are constantly striving for. We actually sat down in January and made a 5 month calendar to BLOCK off some weekends and nights to just be together and chill at home.

And we're struggling to do it. This weekend is one of the 'black x' weekends in our calendar. We've been invited to participate in at least SIX activities this weekend, and we feel like we've done a good job choosing to not do some of them... but others we are STILL doing... so much for BLACK X's...

How do we make priorities and resolve the issue when our priorities are in conflict. Amy and I are home for just one year and our priority is on our spiritual lives, our marriage, and connecting with family and friends while we're home. But we are still very involved in ministry work (Amy spends about 35 hours a week with Russian lessons and homework).

Sorry - I feel like I'm about to step up on the soap box... the point of this post is to share:

"Indeed, balancing work and life may not be as difficult as you think. I recently learned about a great concept called binge chillin'. They say that to binge chill (BC) is to do whatever you want, as long as it is not work-related, for a minimum of 24 hours-without guilt!" - from NASPA Forum

I think that Binge Chillin' is what Amy and I had planned for the Black X days -- but I'm not sure that Binge anything is really healthy for us... it's just catching us up from an unhealthy lifestyle with TOO much in it.

We need to plan times for our spouses, families, friends - ourselves, and most importantly the reflective, introspective time we all need with God.

Valentine's Day

I woke up this morning to a shock. Amy leaped in front of the stairs at the bottom of the stairway. I almost fell down. She was justified in doing so - because she was preparing breakfast in bed for me! And I had already gotten out of bed (you know, getting up and ready for work?)

She's SO wonderful. So my valentine's day started with heart shaped pancakes and sausage!

I guarantee you that I'm the world's luckiest and most blessed husband.

Miracles and praises!

Ok y'all. Last Wednesday, Amy got in the car to drive to Bible study and it didn't start. Perhaps a sign that she was supposed to stay home and do some studying and hang out around the house working on projects (you should see how much wallpaper she can remove in a few hours!)

So she tried it again and it wouldn't start. We called a tow company and they said it would be a few hours. She tried it several times - and it wouldn't start. So we got on the phone and prayed together. The car started! I'm not kidding. She tried multiple times - and it wasn't because she flooded the engine or anything like that. She wasn't even pressing on the gas!

Yes God! He rocks.

Sustanance - what we really need to keep going

I'm continuing in my study of the names of God and I'm just continually blown away at how awesome it is to experience a new aspect of God (for me). The power of another language to capture concepts that we don't have in English continues to encourage and compel me to learn more.

Today's study continues with the name, "Adonay - Lord, Master" -- I was just reminded through reading today that:

Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. (Psalm 54:4)

So often I forget when times are hard and difficult, that we don't have to go through them alone. Not only is God there to sustain us, but His people are here to be His hands and feet too.

Entropy - a physics lesson

Entropy "...is a measure of the unavailability of a system's energy to to work." This isn't a jbrake original idea. Not by any means. I last studied physics in high school more than a decade ago (yikes - nearly two decades). I heard about this concept while speaking at the men's prayer breakfast at Cornerstone in Brighton. One of the men, Richard Brown came up to me and shared this illustration.

If you have a large bowl (like the kind that your mom used to have that she always kept fruit in) and you were to drop a ping-pong ball in the bowl, where does it end up? It comes to rest in the bottom of the bowl. It finds the place of rest in the bowl - and without an external force, the ping-pong ball will stay at the bottom of the bowl.

It is the place of comfort. It is the place of rest. But we are not called to live our lives in a place of rest and a place of comfort. We are challenge to move past our personal comfort to a place where we can make an impact on the world for the good. The breath of God is needed to move the ping-pong ball beyond its comfort zone.

Breathe on me breath of God...

Names of God

I've been doing a study of the names of God - it was inspired by a conversation that I had with Tom (Robinson). He was talking about how the relationships we have in our lives change - even the names that we use to refer to people change. He used the example of Ruth Ann, his wife. When they first met, they were just work colleagues. Then they became friends. They started dating and they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Then engaged and fiances. Married, they are husband and wife. Along the way, casual friends become best friends, confidants, inseparable, united.

I started thinking and I realized that God is so complex that there isn't just a single word for Him in Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek...

I wanted to know more about how He's referred to in the original languages of the Bible.

So far, I've learned the following names of God:

• Elohim - God, Mighty Creator
• El Roi - the God who sees me
• El Shadday - God Almighty
• El Olam - Eternal God
• Yahweh Yireh - the Lord will Provide
• Yahweh - LORD
• Adonay - Lord, Master

It has already been an incredible journey for me over the past weeks. It's a LONG study and I'll be continuing to learn more as I explore His many names. It's so fascinating to see which name is chosen to describe Him in which passages in Scripture.

Right now, I'm amazed at the differences between Yahweh and Adonay. In English they both mean 'lord.' But Yahweh is the personal name that God used to describe Himself. So it's the Hebrew word that is their most personal and sacred way of referring to Him. Many Jews will not even utter the word as a sign of respect for Him. Adonay also means lord, but in the sense of master. It sets up the relationship between God and His people. He is their master and they His servants. Isn't it awesome that there is such a loving and merciful master for us to serve?

Weather

It's a boring topic - most of the time. But this winter has been bizarre...

yesterday morning I woke up to fog, green grass, and wet ground. Amy and I ran two miles on Tuesday night. It was muddy, but not really all that cold, and certainly not snow covered.

yesterday at 3:30 I was in a meeting and there was light rain thinking about sleet.

when I got out of the meeting, there was more than an inch of snow on the ground.

it took me 40 minutes to get home (usually it's about 7 minutes).

this morning, the plows were out, it was a mess and there's snow everywhere...

it's the third or fourth time this year that there's freaky snow after warm weather...

should I shovel the driveway or just wait for it to melt? (who am I kidding, Amy shoveled last time we had snow - she's so awesome!)

Archives...

I've been writing - I promise. I'm just a little behind in posting. So get ready for a LOT of posts. Starting in February, you're probably okay - here's the WHOLE month of January.

Amy's 1/2 birthday!

Tonight was a special day for Amy! It's her 28.5 birthday. We weren't able to celebrate her birthday in the traditional fashion in August, so I planned a surprise party for her! Some friends came over and we wore 1/2 birthday hats, hung a 1/2 birthday banner, gave her 1/2 presents and 1/2 cards! It was really fun.












Then we granted her 1/2 birthday wish and spent 2.5 hours ripping wallpaper off our living room walls. Yikes. Here's photos: