I'm on my way!

Well, today is the day. In an hour, my family will drop me off at our church and I'll head to the airport with my team on our way to Minsk, Belarus. People have been asking me for weeks if I'm nervous. Up until Sunday, I wasn't. That's changed. Sunday at church we were 'commissioned' and prayed over. It didn't really hit me until I walked up to the front of the church that THIS IS REAL. I'm really going to Belarus. I'm really going on a mission trip. Yesterday, I was especially nervous for some reason. I had butterflies in my stomach all day. I had to remind myself of some truths...Apart from Him, I can do nothing. His grace is sufficient for me. His power is made perfect in my weakness. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Abide in Him and He will abide in me. He is in control.

If you pray, please remember my team and I next week. We will be teaching around 1,000 students business and conversational English. We will be building relationships and as the Holy Spirit moves and allows, we will share the good news of Jesus with our classes.

Below you will find the schedule for the trip and week of teaching. Please be in prayer for each part of the journey as each one will have its own share of challenges.

Please pray for the Team members and their families:
Ron Cansler, David Loudermilk, Greg White, Ellen Loudermilk, Stirling Flynn, Daniel Loudermilk, Dan Brothers, Bobby Chapman, Mary Beth Brothers, Toni Chapman, Jason Barr

Here is our schedule:
1/25/08 – Leaving Atlanta at 4:30 pm
1/26/08 – Arrive in Minsk, Belarus at 12:50 pm
1/27/08 – Worship Service with New Land Church
- Former and new students will be invited to come
- Many who do not believe in Jesus will come to this service
- Dan Brothers will lead worship
- We will begin the process of evaluating students to find out level of English for the coming week
1/28/08 – This will be the first day of English Classes (and my stamping classes)
- The first day is always a little stressful. For the teachers and the students
- This will be an important day of first impressions.
- Each teacher will have four different classes a day with the first one starting at 10 AM and the last ending at 9 PM.
1/29- 2/1 – Each day will have the same schedule with the team getting started at 6 am and going to bed around midnight.
- Thursday the teachers will be given the opportunity to share their testimony
- Friday will be an important day in that each teaching session will end with a closing session.
- The gospel will be shared at the closing session and people will be given an opportunity to respond to Jesus.
2/2/08 – Team leaves Minsk at 1:50 pm and arrives in Atlanta 11:37 pm

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

More snow!

We had more snow yesterday! It started around 10:30 in the morning and snowed most of the day. So I hopped in the shower and we ran to get some groceries (just in case we were iced in today) and hurried home to play in it. The kids had much more fun playing in the daylight this time. Instead of a snow-ball fight, this time they wanted to make snowmen.

They each started rolling the snow and it didn't take long before the first snowman was built.

Jacob didn't like the looks of dirt and leaves in the snowmen, so he used the snow off of the trampoline to build his...can you say PERFECTIONIST?!

Check it out...almost an inch and a half. By the time it quit snowing, I bet it was almost 2 inches!

Here they are working on one BIG snowman. They had been outside almost two hours at this point...

Jacob and Abbi finally went in because they were so cold. But little Caleb stuck it out and finished the snowman.

Let it snow!

WOW!! Last night we got snow! Real snow! I couldn't believe it was actually crunchy to walk on. I was thinking it would be more like slush here in Georgia, but it was real snow! The kids were so excited, to say the least. They were extremely disappointed that it didn't snow while we were in Illinois for Christmas. Well, the Lord definitely made it up to them.

Right after we got home from church, the kids bundled up and headed to the back yard for a good, old-fashioned snow-ball fight. We could hear kids all over the neighborhood out doing the same thing. Jon came out to check out the snow. He was as impressed as I was that it could REALLY snow in Georgia. We've been here over 3 years now and haven't seen anything like this.

Check out the accumulation on the deck...almost an inch.

Here's the table BEFORE the snow-ball fight...

And here's the table AFTER the snow-ball fight.

Poor Toby had fun running around for awhile, but he was ready to come in!

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without hot cocoa to warm up the kids after their fun in the snow.

Here's our backyard this morning...

And our tree in the front yard drooping from all the ice. It almost looks like it's bowing down. Made me think of this...

Psalm 96:9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Psalm 66:4 - 5 Everything on earth will worship You; they will sing Your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs. Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people!

I Love YOU!

This was taken in April 2002...so Jacob was almost 5 and the twins were about 2 1/2.

My American Girl

As you probably remember, Abbi received an American Girl doll for her birthday in November. Each American Girl doll represents a different time period in history. The doll she wanted most was Kit, who grew up during the depression. Abbi also chose Kit because she looks so much like her. Back in August, an American Girl store opened not too far from us and we finally had the chance to go yesterday! They always reveal a Doll of the Year on New Year's Day so we were there for all the hubbub. Abbi's best friend, Bethany, went with us along with her mom and sister. Here are some highlights... Here's Abbi in front of one of the 'Kit' displays. Here are Abbi and Bethany by another 'Kit' display. Bethany got the Nikki doll for Christmas. Nikki was the 2007 Doll of the Year. Notice that Bethany and Nikki have on matching shirts...so do Abbi and Kit. We had our lunch at the food court at the mall and then went back to the American Girl Bistro for dessert. They even have little chairs for the dolls to sit in...so cute! Since we only had dessert, we sat at the bar, which didn't make for great picture taking, but I did my best. Bethany's little sister, Jessica is on the left. The girls each had a root beer float while Laura and I had a chocolate milkshake...mmmmm!

And here we all are! What a fun New Year's Day!