Aunt Becky and Uncle Fred Birthday Presents

Thanks for the presents!!!! For those of you watching the video the skirt actually plays music from "Swan Lake" when Abby dances around :) David and the frog is priceless, too.

happy birthday abby

Our sweet daughter Abigail turns five today! She is the special joy of our life and is growing up (fast) into a wonderful girl. Happy birthday Abby, and we pray for God’s fullest blessings in every part of who you are growing up to be.

what does it mean to love without hypocrisy?

What does it mean to love without hypocrisy?

(click on the pic to make it bigger...)

We are here in Boston, have a house, a neighborhood and even now a new office building for our ministry. But I am still trying to find my place – my location on the map of this organization. I think I need to rediscover a little more of what it means to love.

Obedience alone is not enough. Following the call out of trust even isn’t enough. Staying the call out of perseverance is not the way. Love is what is required. With all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul.

I can’t make a love like this, but I can posture my heart and life to receive it and be a conduit. I can receive the graceful love of my heavenly Father, every day learning a little more what it looks like to be a true son. I can extend loving ways and behaviors to those around me – assume and presume less, withhold judgments, and truly believe the best. ‘There is no victory without hearts of purity.’

People are ultimately the best objects of love. We can love things, ideas, callings/vocations/jobs, places, etc. But that love will always really be one-sided. When you love people, that love takes on life, sows seeds, breaks chains, changes the world.

Let love be without hypocrisy.

I don't want to be an actress

The other night as we were putting Abby and David to sleep, Abby was just being so loud and dramatic. She was singing at the top of her lungs, dancing, jumping, and making HUGE body gestures. She was being so crazy, I almost couldn't take it anymore :)

I said to her, "Abby, you are totally going to be an actress when you grow up." She looked at me and said, " Well, Mom, I don't want to act like anything - I just want to be what God made me to be."

Oh...the wisdom from the faith of a child. For some reason, all of her craziness didn't seem to bother me anymore because that's who Abby is...A beautiful creation from a loving God.

Inflation at a lemonade stand

Just 2 nights ago we met up with friends from Kentucky here in Boston. We were just walking back to our car after getting some ice cream. As we were walking there was a 10 year old boy selling lemonade on the sidewalk. Well...I have a weakness for little children and their lemonade stands...I just can not walk by it without having a guilty conscience. Yes, it is a weakness.

So I pulled out a dollar and told him that we wanted two lemonades. And he responded, "Well, that will be another dollar..."

ANOTHER DOLLAR. He didn't even have lemons in his instant lemonade, and they were small cups!

I guess the higher prices in Boston even go as far as a little kids lemonade stand... has our economy gotten THAT bad? No, I don't think so. I just ran into a very business savvy 10 year old :)

Well...he ended up giving me "2 for the price of one"
Maybe next time I won't feel as guilty walking by without buying?

PROBABLY NOT :)

BACK UP and RUNNING...

Sorry, everyone, for the long delay on any updates. We are now back up and running. I plan on updating at least once a week now...so check back often.

Well...where to start?

Ministry
We have had a VERY busy summer here in Boston, and Lord has been so good to us and our ministry. Over the past 3 months we have seen over 1600 people give their lives to Jesus here in the Boston area..."the fields are white..." I can not express in words how humbling it is to be able to see peoples lives change from despair to hope and from depression to LIFE.

We are about to send out our newsletter. In it I have written a story about one woman I talked to and how the love and power of Jesus has changed her life...please read it when you get it.

I have put up a picture of the team Matt and I led as we went out to the Boston area to share about Jesus.

Family
We are beginning to settle in to our new home now. There are soooooo many things in this area that are so different, but we are all adjusting and blessed to be able to live in an area of the US that impacts the entire world.

Abby is beginning to learn to read. She is just so beautiful. David wants to do everything that Abby does, but he is also SUCH a boy. He has taken on jumping on everything. I might even try to post a video of him.

So...just a little note to let you know we are still here and things are going well but very fast and very busy.

We're Here and David's Birthday

We have made it to Boston and we are settling in. Thank you to all of you who came to help us load the truck in PA. We will miss you. We have moved in to one side of a duplex. It is very nice. It has higher ceilings compared to our other homes and all wood floors...I never noticed how loud my children were until we moved into this place :) Needless to say...we really like it here, and we are so blessed to be working with people who impact the world for Jesus. Most of the Boston team are in the UK right now...feel free to check out their blog.

http://encountertour2009.blogspot.com/



On Saturday, in the mist of moving in, we celebrated David's second birthday. We have a tradition of decorating the house with balloons and streamers after the kids go to bed the night before, and Sarah will make a "themed" cake. Then we wake the kids up with birthday music and dance to music in the morning. Because Abby is older now, I think she was waaaaaaaaay more excited about David's birthday than he was, because she knows what happens. She tried waking us up at six to go down stairs to celebrate. The theme this year was Thomas Trains, because David loves trains. Here's a picture of the cake. Yes...for those of you that know me and know I am not very "domestic", I do sometimes surprise myself :)


We had a wonderful time and David is so cute and so much fun. He brings so much joy and excitement to our home. We love you David xoxoxoxoxoxo

It’s time to move!

We’re packing up! We’ll be loading our moving truck on Friday and driving to Boston this weekend to begin our new adventure serving on staff with YWAM Boston. Things are happening fast!

We’ve had a great time visiting with a lot of you these past couple of months and have visited some wonderful churches. Thank you for all of your support as we venture out into the ‘unknown’ – knowing that the God revealed and known to us through Jesus Christ is guiding and providing.

Abby and David are doing well and growing up fast. Abby graduates from pre-school this Thursday and David turns two on May 30. He’s a handful!

Places to check out:

www.ywamboston.org – the official website of the ministry we will be working with. You can read more about the work they have been doing, what we will be doing in Boston, and donate online!

www.encountertour2009.blogspot.com. A few weeks ago Matt spent the week in Boston helping the DTS Team put the final touches on YWAM Boston’s first original stage production, Encounter. It uses music, dance, multimedia and drama to tell the Gospel story. It’s very cool and very powerful, and it’s the type of thing we are most excited to work with in the years to come. They are currently on a 6 week tour in the United Kingdom. You can follow their adventures at this site.

Generacion Josue 2009

Here is a highlight video of the youth camp/outreach we were a part of in Peru.

maundy thursday communion

we had communion together today at the pittsburgh base. it's not something that we do very often (hard enough to get everyone in the same country at the same time, let alone the same room), and it was special enough just to be together Remembering as we descend to Good Friday and rise to Easter.

We took a few moments in the midst of it all to let God speak, and of course He did. Or at least He did to me. Two things really....1. I felt a great sense of joy to be in the room with Jesus and the other 30 or so people. We weren't much to look at on the outside (especially since we were in the middle of spring cleaning day), but on the inside I saw a very special group, willing to lay down their lives in usually unglamorous settings that require dedication and faithfulness. And I thought how great it was that there were at least 30 people (and a lot more in the world) willing to work as missionaries to spread the Easter message to people who've never celebrated it.

2. God told me i was not crazy:). Sometimes i can feel crazy trying to be faithful to a call that is culturally not normal. We've been in transition now for a long while, our GPS is set on Boston, but we are not there yet. And there have been days of discouragement. But God reminded me that we are not crazy for following the call of a good God, and that it is an honor to serve Him. And my difficulties are very minor in comparison to that of others, and especially of what Jesus suffered. It is worth it...it is not cliche to say 'He is worthy.'

matt

we're moving to Boston!

Some of you already know, but in case you haven't heard, we're moving again!

We'll be moving sometime in May to work on staff with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Boston. They have a great base there that focuses on Creative Arts in Worship as a vehicle for discipleship training and evangelism. They reach out locally in Boston and also are focused on taking teams to the nations.

We're really excited to become part of their community, and are amazed at the opportunity before us. Boston is a wonderful and historical city, but is also very much in need of a fresh presentation of the Gospel. It is one of the least churched areas of the country - some say as low as 5%. It is also an entry point for many first generation immigrants, as well as being home to 250,000 college and university (Harvard, MIT, Boston Univ, etc) students each year - 42,000 of these being international. So it is a great place to reach out and influence the world, but also to train missionaries and then take them out to the world.

Most importantly, we can feel the gentle but confident hand of our heavenly Father guiding us each step of the way. We want to do this because the call of God is good - and this is where He is calling us. He is faithful and totally good, and we can look backward and see that He has been preparing us for this for a long time.

Would you consider joining our monthly support team? You can check it all out at www.ywamboston.org, and even donate online to help us make the move.

Trip to Wilmore

Here are some pics of our trip back "home" to Wilmore. We had a great time. We stayed with Jonathon and Anna Marie, Isaac, and Kayla. It was sooooo much fun. We loved seeing everyone.

outreach highlight video

hey everyone...here is the official YWAM Pittsburgh highlight video of our outreach trip to Brazil and Peru. Have fun!

Everly

Well...here is one story of many from our trip. On the very left of this picture is a young man named Everly. Everly was part of the group of 20 boys that Ken, Anita and I talked to in the poor, sandy neighborhood in Lima. Here is his story.... Everly's story with Jesus started a few years ago when his mother died in his arms. When this happened, he told God he would never forgive him for this. Well, also in his life Everly's grandma was very abusive towards him and his father was a working criminal. About 2 weeks before we came to his neighborhood he was visited by a person who was part of a "Spiritus" religion. Everly felt do depressed and hopeless he said he was willing to listen to anything. Then our group came... Everly said he was so confused that when we came and Ken spoke to him about Jesus, his confusion went away and God touched his heart. Everly then came to our "Joshua Generation" camp. During this time, Everly sat through a teaching on forgiveness and some consequences in our lives from unforgiveness. This teaching changed Everly, he asked God to forgive him from turning from him when his mother died. After that, he began to work through forgiving the family members that hurt him. He called his father, and they have started a new relationship together.
Everly's life has been completely transformed because of the love of Jesus.

So...when we open our mouths to preach the gospel, we release the glory of God. The Glory of God is now made evident in Everly's life.