2008 in Review...

2008 has ended in a much different way than we would have expected when it began!  We certainly had a full and exciting year.  We tried, rather unsuccessfully, despite our best efforts to sell our house from January through May.  Did we really keep the house clean for 4 months, write contracts on 2 different houses and pack over 1/2 of the contents of our house in boxes?  It seems like another lifetime...

 

We were blessed to spend 10 weeks caring for 2 precious little tiny babies that are now living happily with their forever families.  We love to see pictures of them as they grow. 

 

We enjoyed a fabulous trip to Disney World with Janny, Nan & Pop.  The 4 of us had a mini-vacation tacked on to B's business trip to Atlanta. 

 

We traveled further away from home than we have ever gone before with our first mission trip to Sells, Arizona.  We hope to go back again soon to visit our new friends at First Papago Baptist, the nursing home and the rec center.

 

From social workers to real estate agents to construction contractors, we have had more people walk through our front door that we had previously never met before than I can ever remember. 

 

After the year we have had in 2008, we don't even attempt to imagine what 2009 holds.  B starts his new job -officially- tomorrow.  His working from home will be a big change for the whole family.   W is looking forward to throwing the football during Dad's lunch hour. 

 

School will start back on Monday for W.  He is half way through 2nd Grade and the highlight for now is learning to write in cursive. 

 

K will enjoy her last months before Kindergarten officially starts in August.  She will join her brother at the Y this month for Homeschool PE 2 days a week. 

 

Above all, as the daily routine of our life continues, we all want the overall tone of our life to reflect the love of God to those who are poor - both spiritually and materially.  We lean on and live by the Word of God alone and trust in it to teach us, comfort us and sustain us. 

 

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Romans 12

Place Your Life Before God

 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

 4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

 6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

 9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

 11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

 14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

 17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

 20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.